Montessori Primary Handbook

Swarna Manamperi Debra Dennill

MONTESSORI PRIMARY

Dear Parents, Welcome to a new school year with the Wichita Collegiate community. Its going to be a great experience for all of us! Your Montessori Handbook is provided as a supplement to the Student and Parent Early Childhood Handbook. It contains information which pertains more specifically to our classroom. Please contact us with any questions and concerns. Close contact between home and school is so important. We look forward to working with you and your children. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow together. Please remember to view our website daily for all the up coming events taking place during our school year. www.wcsks.com.

Sincerely, Swarna Manamperi 634-0489 ext. 523 682-9324 Debra Dennill 634-0489 ext. 528 858-3771

ARRIVAL AND DISMISSAL

Morning Class Afternoon Class All-Day Class 8:15-11:15 a.m 12:15-3:15 p.m. 8:15-3:15 p.m.

We do many things to prepare for your childs classroom experience and it is sincerely appreciated when your child arrives at school on time and is picked up on time. (young children can get very apprehensive or even sad when they are always the last to be picked up). If you bring your child late, be sure we know they have arrived before you leave. Children are dismissed directly from the room. Please pick up your child promptly. A.M. parents must be here at 11:1 5 a.m. to pick up their child. P.M. and All-Day parents must be here at 3:15 to pick up their child, unless they go to Kids Club. Thank You!

DISMISSAL - SITTERS AND RELATIVES

Please notify us in writing if your child is to arrive or be dismissed to anyone other than you. We do not dismiss a child to someone with whom we are not familiar.

INJURIES/ACCIDENTS
We will try to let you know about bumps, bruises, and falls that occur at school which may require a little extra TLC. Our basic first-aid routine includes simply cleaning the area with soap and water and applying a bandage, if necessary.

FOLDERS
Each child will have their own work folder, kept in the classroom during the year. The folder provides a place to keep finished work and work in progress. Periodically, we will go through the folders with the children and they will take home any finished work, together with messages from the school. Keep in mind that in a Montessori classroom, where so much of the learning is internal and conceptual, very little may be brought home.

COMMUNICATION/CONFERENCES
Montessori newsletters are sent home in your childs backpack and posted on the Collegiate website each month. These are designed to keep you informed of our classroom activities, field trips, and any other information that we hope will be useful. Parent-teacher conferences are scheduled three times during the school year (November, February, and June). Please let us know if you have any concerns and would like to meet with us. We are available. Just ask!

FIELD TRIPS
Field Trips are scheduled regularly throughout the school year for All-Day students. Details, along with permission slips and requests for drivers and parent chaperones will be sent home before each outing. Children are transported in the school bus or in parents cars, wearing seat belts, or in car seats. State regulations require that children three yearsold or under 30 pounds must ride in car seats when transported by car.

BACKPACKS
Your child should bring a labeled backpack or tote bag to school daily. This helps to establish a good routine, to develop independence, and to develop a sense of personal responsibility. We like to encourage your childs independence and would greatly appreciate it if you would allow your child to hang up his/her own backpack in their locker before coming into the classroom.

LUNCH (all-day students)

All-day students will eat lunch at 11:00. You may enroll your student in the Sage Hot Lunch Program, or they may bring their lunch from home. If your child brings lunch, (healthy lunch and a milk) , please send it in a labeled lunchbox with a cold pack. The lunchbox will be kept refrigerated in accordance with the Kansas Health Department rules. Please do not send cookies, juice, and candy bars.

CLOTHING
Your childs clothing should be casual and washable. All items should allow for selfsufficiency in the classroom and in the bathroom. This may require practice at home before extended wear at school. Please check the weather daily and help your child dress appropriately. We do go outside almost every day. Please label shoes, jackets, hats, mittens, etc. with your childs name. And please do not send your child to school with jewelry or cartoon character clothing. We recommend that your child wear tennis shoes to school everyday. Our rock playground is very hard on leather shoes and sandaled toes! Please send a change of clothing, to be kept in a plastic bag in your childs locker.

TOYS
Please leave toys and stuffed animals at home. We do not allow them in the Montessori environment.

SPECIAL CLASSES
All children will have the opportunity to attend special enhancement classes in Physical Education, Music and Library! Mrs. Kathy Wagner is our physical education instructor. We will attend P.E. classes twice per week. Children are asked to leave a pair gym shoes at school to be used only for the physical education period, (unless they are already wearing gym shoes to school on the designated gym days.) Any inexpensive pair of tennis shoes will do fine. Children grow so quickly that it is advised that parents check shoe sizes at mid-year breaks. Children may not wear leather soled shoes, jellies, sandals or even be in stocking feet for gym class. This is for your childs safety. Velcro fastening shoes are suggested for those children who are unable to tie by themselves. Mr. Steve Elmore will be joining us again this year for his delightful music lessons. We will be having music class two times per week. Children will go to the library once a week to see Ms. Suzanne Mattix for a story time. Please check our daily schedule for special class days. It is especially important that the children wear tennis shoes on our gym days or shoes that they can change themselves quickly and easily. Please try to avoid high top tennis shoes or high lacing boots.

BIRTHDAYS
Birthday celebrations are opportunities for us to give children and their class mates concrete experiences in passing of time. Time is one of the most difficult concepts for young children to understand, but when presented in a concrete familiar way the understanding becomes much easier. Therefore we do not celebrate birthdays which confuse the young child. Please take a few minutes and help your child locate a picture of him/her as a new baby and a picture of him/her each year thereafter. Please jot down a couple of the happenings of each year. Kindly send the pictures and time line of his /her life to class on or before the birthday celebration to be shared with the other children. We observe birthdays with a special timeline celebration. You are welcome to attend and participate and to send a healthy snack for the class. (no juice, cupcakes, etc.) No sweets please! We dont allow birthdays to be discussed or birthday party invitations to be distributed at school. Thank you for your cooperation,

PARTIES Seasonal celebrations are planned and coordinated by parents. We have found that less is more for this age group. We usually schedule them at 10:30 for the a.m. class and 2:30 for the p.m. class and all-day classes. There is one parent coordinator from each of the three classes.

OBSERVATIONS/VISITS
We ask that you refrain from entering the Montessori environment after the first few days of adjustment. This allows the children to enter into their work more readily alleviating the separation anxiety that prolonged good-byes can sometimes magnify. Bid good-bye at the door, and allow your child to walk into the environment independently, greeting the teachers and shaking hands with them. Parents are welcome to visit the classroom any time after September. We all need time to adjust. Please contact us to schedule a date and time. You will receive more information about our October Visits very soon. We also ask when entering our classroom to use a quiet voice and a gentle manor, to avoid interrupting your childs inner concentration and to help set the tone in the environment.

CLASSROOM VISITATION GUIDELINES Montessori Preschool

SIT quietly in an area of the room that allows a full range of vision of activities.
Observe your childs interaction with work activities and, their peers. Also view the class as a whole. Remember that a child observing another childs work is a learning experience. Refrain from interrupting a childs work/concentration. Refrain from helping children with their work. Help set the tone in the environment using a calm, soft voice. Reserve your opinion about a childs work unless it is requested, and then use nonjudgmental comments. If you would like to discuss your observation, please call us after school or at home. Or you may choose to wait until conference time.

Most of all enjoy your observation!

SNACK
We believe that helping children develop good food habits should be an important part of our curriculum. A monthly snack calendar is sent home with our Montessori newsletter. You may also find these documents on the Collegiate website, wcsks.com. Each child will be assigned a day to provide snacks and will take home a snack basket the day before the assigned day. This is strictly voluntary-just let us know if you do not want to participate. We are including a list of suggested healthy snacks. If you are providing bananas for snack, please send half the amount. Please note our new policy of serving only water at snack time. We do not object to occasionally serving milk. Different Snack Ideas

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

cheese cubes, pineapple rings, crackers apple slices, bread and butter sandwiches carrots, celery, cheese cubes, and crackers banana, wheat crackers, cheese cubes banana bread, milk cubed cheese, apple slices, crackers oranges, crackers, cheese cubes watermelon, cantaloupe bites, and crackers mixed dried fruits, Ritz crackers, and cheese cubes

10. fruit kabob, cheese cubes, and crackers

11. strawberries, crackers, and milk 12. tossed salad, Ritz crackers, and cheese cubes 13. vanilla yogurt, crackers 14. grapes, Ritz crackers, and cheese cubes 15. cheese, crackers, bananas 16. fruits, cheese toast
*Please do not send juice, cupcakes or cookies!!! * Please do not send string cheese or gogurt!!! Thank You