All you need is LOVE! Throughout February we are learning all about how to love and care for ourselves and each other! We will be focusing heavily on our peace and character education lessons this month. We will cover topics like communication, kindness, emotions, and courage as well as mindfulness through yoga and control of mind and body. The students will explore these concepts through continued use of hands on and experience based activities including the Peace Rose and the Kindness Vase. The Peace Rose is used in conflict resolution to encourage communication. A child retrieves the Peace Rose, which signifies that it is their turn to speak and the other child’s turn to listen. Then the child hands the Peace Rose to the other to give them a chance to talk. While holding the Peace Rose, the child shares how they are feeling. We do role-play activities using the peace Rose to model expressing our emotions and giving the specific language… “I felt this way when you did this” “I am sorry I won’t do that again”. This is a concrete way for the children to take turns speaking and listening and a really important reminder to use their words to communicate how they feel and how the problem can be solved. The Kindness Vase sits out on the shelf, and each time a child does a kind act for someone else then they can add a special heart into the vase. The child may choose to share something kind they did with the group during circle to show how special it and encourage classmates to do the same. The child may also choose to keep the kindness heart that they put in the vase to themselves and make it more personal for the internal gratification of the way their kind act made them feel. As the Kindness Jar fills up, it will be a visual representation of all of the kind things RMA students do for each other. The children will also be able to cut out a heart and write their name on it to hang on the kindness wall when they choose kindness. Each of these activities creates a sense within the child of loving and respecting themselves and others.
February is National Children’s Dental Hygiene month, and we will be learning all about self-care. The students will have opportunities to practice activities in the Practical Life area like brushing model teeth and learning the importance of oral hygiene brushing and fixing hair with a hairdressing station, a baby washing activity to delve deeper into the importance of bathing, the use of Montessori dressing frames to work on skills of zipping and butting and tying to practice dressing themselves, and a handwashing activity. This handwashing activity will be a traditional Montessori washing work, that follows a specific multi step process as a work choice, and it will not replace the regular handwashing at the sink during routine times. The students will also do a hands on lesson about germs for a concrete understanding of why it is so important to keep our bodies healthy and clean. In learning how to care for their bodies, the children will also learn about the different parts of the human body through different matching and labelling activities. In the science area, we will have out various 3 part cards, puzzles, and diagrams of body parts. One of the min body parts we will learn about is the heart, as a fun and realistic take on valentine’s day. We will learn the parts and the function of the heart, while also learning about the “heart” through the lens of love and kindness. We will explore the human eye, tongue, teeth, brain, skull, and the skeleton. The activities provide a very in depth and precise look at each of these body parts with very advanced and technical language. It is a really engaging way for the children to see just how many little parts work together to make up their entire bodies. We will discuss how we need to treat our bodies right to make us feel good through healthy eating, exercise, hygiene practices, and learning and strengthening our minds. We also need to make ourselves feel good by feeling our bodies and hearts and those of others with love, kindness, peacefulness, and mindfulness. The children will be empowered to treat themselves, their bodies, and others with love and appreciation!
We have been learning so much about our great big beautiful world and beyond. Starting with the Universe, our galaxy, our solar system, and our earth. The students will now be narrowing their cosmic education even further inward toward the self and the other. Love is always present at Raab Montessori Academy, but this month we will be focusing even more on the human connection. Spending the past few months better understanding our place in the universe, we are now honing in on the interpersonal connections and our place amongst other humans. We will be looking at people from around the world in culture this month through our continent binders. Each continent will have its own book of pictures of the people, places, and culture for the child to explore. This exposure to the life of people typically unseen and unknown to the children will continue to nurture their respect and appreciation for others.
Although we will have out our continent binders for all 7 continents, our specific continent exploration this month will be Asia! We will be learning about the lunar New Year, which begins on February 10th. We will also explore various animals that live in Asia like the giant panda, the red panda, the tiger, the peacock, the snow leopard, and many others. We will have out various Practical Life works for our Asia theme this month that include rice fine motor and sensory exploration, using chopsticks, traditional nesting dolls, and grinding spices with a mortar and pestle and a handheld Turkish spice grinder. We have a busy month ahead with so many wonderful things in store, and we know all of our Montessori kids will be feeling the love and spreading the love. Self-love, love for others, and a love for learning!
We will have our Valentine’s Day exchange on Wednesday, February 14th! Children may bring in 25 CANDY FREE Valentine’s to be exchanged with classmates (there is no need to label the valentines for specific children). More information will be emailed regarding the Valentine’s Day celebration!
DOUG Day will be Wednesday, February 28th and Thursday, February 29th. Each child may invite dad, uncle, grandfather, or any other important man in their life to come spend the morning at school with them. We ask that each child bring one DOUG on one of the two designated days. A signup sheet will go out for all DOUGs to pick their desired morning. We can’t wait to see all of our special DOUGs then! We also have a tentative date for a community event on Saturday March 9th, and now that we have announced our expansion plans, we are hopeful to finally get an open house/information night scheduled!
We have a special month ahead that will only continue to strengthen the character development of our Montessori kids and build up our RMA community. Our motto at RMA is that of anything you can be in this whole world, the most important thing you can be is kind. With all we teach our students, learn from our students, and the foundation we build, kindesss is the most important lesson they can take away from their time with us. Remember LOVE is all you need!
February Songs
Wash your Hands *To the tune of “Row Row Row Your Boat”
Lyrics
Wash wash wash your hands
Make them nice and clean
Wash the tops
And Wash the bottoms
Wash them in between
Brush Your Teeth
Lyrics
Brush Brush Brush Brush Brush Brush
Brush Brush Brush Brush Brush Brush
Brush Brush Brush Brush Brush Brush
your teeth up and down
your teeth round and round
your teeth from left to right
your teeth in the morning and night brush brush, Brush brush brush your teeth in the morning and night
your teeth to keep them white your teeth so your smile is white your teeth it’s so much fun
your teeth when the days begun brush brush, Brush brush brush your teeth when the days begun
your teeth just open wide
your teeth from side to side your teeth you sleepyhead
your teeth before you go to bed brush brush, Brush brush brush your teeth before you go to bed
Come with us to Asia (along with the Mr. I and Gary Q Asia playlist on Spotify)
Kindness is a Muscle
I Love My Body
Strong, Smart, Kind
Movement Songs
Hey Mr. Knickerbocker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RggVto6mmM
Hokey Pokey:
Reminders:
- February tuition is due at your earliest convenience before the end of the month. All tuition can be paid through check, or Quickbooks
- RE ENROLLMENT forms and deposits should be submitted to secure your child’s spot for the 2024-2025 school year!
- Open Enrollment share the news with any none RMA families that may be interested in becoming a part of the RMA community!
- Lunar New Year snack and lesson Friday, February 9th
- Valentine Exchange Wednesday, February 14th
- NO SCHOOL Monday, February 19th for Presidents’ Day Holiday
- DOUG Day Wednesday, February 28th and Thursday, February 29th
- Tentative community event Saturday, March 9th