Ms. Heather’s Classroom Guide

Ms. Heather’s Class

2021-2022

DCS Montessori Charter School

Welcome to Our Classroom

Welcome to the 2021-2022 school year. I would like to welcome back all returning DCS families and offer a warm welcome to all the new families. My name is Heather Anderson, or as the children call me, Ms. Heather. I am looking forward to an exciting year of fun and learning. This year the children and I are so lucky to have two wonderful assistants in the classroom. Ms. Annie Coon and Ms. Madeline Morgan. Meet Ms. Annie: She has a Masters in Elementary Education from Regis University and has lots of experience in the classroom as a teacher and an assistant. Her oldest son, Winton, was in our classroom for the past 3 years, and will be in lower elementary this year. Her youngest son, Ellis, will be a P3. Meet Ms. Madeline Morgan: While new to our school, you may know her mother, Ms. Holly Morgan, our librarian. Ms. Madeline is a student at University of Northern Colorado studying Elementary Education. We are beyond thrilled to have her! They are both excited to be working with your children. These two lovely ladies are the key to our classroom running smoothly each day. While you will see their beautiful smiles every day at preschool carpool, should you have questions or concerns with the classroom, your child, or need a parent teacher conference, it is school policy that those should be addressed to me. Thanks for not putting them in a tough spot. The Primary Environment

• A carefully prepared environment for your child to develop a lifelong love of learning

o A hands-on, self-directed learning experience o The environment is designed to foster your child’s independence

• Our goal is to nurture your whole child and help them build strong roots for the rest of their life

o Our goal is for them to be exposed to a variety of different things so they can build on them in elementary

• Our classroom is a three-year cycle and we look at development over 30 months

• The Montessori Method is process oriented, not product oriented o Example: Writing that is not spelled correctly or math problems that

are incorrect are perfectly acceptable. o They will have plenty of opportunities to correct them in elementary

“What the hand does, the mind remembers” – Maria Montessori

Classroom Supply List: • One-time check for classroom supplies collected by front office • A backpack of ample size to come to school daily (must be able to fit a Folder, Winter gear change of clothes, lunch for kindergarteners or extended care children). • A complete change of clothing (socks, underwear, pants and shirt). Each piece should be labeled in permanent marker with the child’s name. Please place the clothing in a gallon sized Ziploc bag and label the bag with their name in permanent marker. The clothing will be kept in their cubbies. • Kindergarteners or Extended care children ONLY – please bring one lunchbox that will keep lunches either hot or cold. These should fit inside their backpacks. There are no facilities to chill or heat up lunches. Please be mindful of that when packing lunches.

**Please bring these items with you on the first day of school. Money If you send money to school, please put it in a sealed envelope and write on the outside what the money is for, your name, and your child’s name. You can put it in your child’s folder. If you are sending it during the week, put it in your child’s backpack and let us know it is in their backpack. You can also email and let me know in advance. Morning Drop Off is between 8:10 – 8:30 AM. Drop off your child in the Primary line (even if they have an older sibling). If your child is a preschooler, your card will need to be scanned before your child gets out of the car. Please have your card ready for scanning. Your child will be let out of the car and will walk into the school. An assistant teacher will be in the lobby to assist your child if necessary. Be sure to say your goodbyes before pulling up to let your child out. Stay positive, even if your child is having a difficult time leaving you. This is natural. Let them know you will be back when school is over and you can’t wait to hear about their day. A trick is to help the child understand that YOU are not leaving them, but rather, THEY are leaving you and they can be in charge of meeting you when they are finished learning. That gives them a sense of ownership. They have control of meeting you. Please make every effort to be on time. If you come after 8:30, please stop at the office to get a late slip for your child to bring to the classroom. If your child is a Kindergartener, you may let the office know if your child is getting hot lunch that day.

You child will need to be independent when dropped off to school. There will be up to 8 Primary personnel there to help direct and even take your child to class. It is less emotional when children enter the building by themselves. You may come to the office if you need to drop something off, but otherwise, please drop your child off at carpool. If your child is crying when they come into the classroom, you can be assured that an assistant or I will help your child become interested in something in the classroom. Usually the crying stops within a few minutes of entering the room. End of Morning Pick Up starts at 11:30 AM. Please drive through the line to the second set of double doors and keep your child’s name card visible (sun visor or dashboard). As your child gets called, they will walk outside to an assistant that is loading children. Please remind your child not to run up to your car when they see it or run between cars to the other side. If you need to help your child with buckling, please pull up past the blue line. When in the carpool line, please do not get out of your car to help your child. There are many cars in the line, and it gets backed up quickly. Please remember that your child needs to enter your car on the right side for car seat purposes. We ask that you be patient during the first few weeks of drop-off and pick-up. It takes some time for everyone to understand the procedure. Within the month, things improve, and we do our best to make it a quick and efficient process. Changes in Dismissal Routine: If there are changes to your child’s dismissal routine, please put all changes in writing to me. Email on the day of may not be read until too late. Please email the day before or call the office for “day of” change of plans. Please make sure that all authorized adult information is in your child’s file in the office. We will not release your child to an adult that is not authorized. Should you need to pick up your child from school other than the normally designated time, the school policy is as follows:

• Preschoolers should be picked up at the office prior to 11:15 AM. • Kindergarteners should be picked up at the office prior to 3:00PM. • Come to the office to sign them out. The office will call me to let me know you are at the school. I will send your child to the lobby. If you come after 11:15 for Preschool or 3:00 for Kindergarten, they will follow the normal dismissal routine.

Kindergarten Pick Up starts at 3:20 PM. They will be picked up at the 2nd set of doors. If you have an Elementary child and a Kindergarten or extended care Preschooler, they will all be at the 2nd set of doors. Clothes

• Please send 2 complete outfits with your child to keep at school in their cubby, even if they have been toilet independent for a while. Kindergarten can send in 1 complete outfit.

o We have several water works on the shelves and sometimes things spill

• Please label everything you send in with your child o In the winter, all of the black gloves look the same and we love for

them to stay with the correct owner 🧐 • If your child comes home with soiled clothing, plan to send in another

outfit with them the next day to replace it • Daily school clothes should be comfortable and allow for easy fastening

and unfastening. This will help your child with their independence. • If a piece of clothing goes missing, we have a lost and found area. Having

your child’s name on them assures that you will get them back. • Please make sure your Kindergartener has close-toed gym shoes or days

when they have PE. See the attached Specials Schedule. Indoor Shoes During the winter when boots are worn, we ask that you pack indoor shoes for the children to wear while inside. If they want to bring indoor shoes to wear in the classroom throughout the year, they are welcome. If they choose to do so, they will put their indoor shoes on when they arrive in the morning. The indoor shoes/slippers should have rubber soles and they child must be independent in putting them on and taking them off. The slippers/indoor shoes will stay in their cubbies throughout the year. Food Preparation Hopefully this year we will be able to have food preparation activities out for the children to learn how to slice bananas, cheese, apples and squeeze oranges. We will also be making butter and buttering bread later in the year. If/When we do these activities, we will not be sharing our prepared food with other children (as is typical in a Montessori classroom). We will be sending out times that you can volunteer to bring items to help with our food preparation. If your child has an allergy to foods, please make sure we have that information.

Laundry The class accumulates cloths each week from washing works. A laundry bag will be sent home on Friday to parents that sign up to volunteer. Please wash and dry the washcloths, but do not fold them. We will have the children fold them as an activity when they come back to school. Flowers The children will be learning how to ‘arrange’ flowers in a vase and put them around the room to enhance the beauty of the classroom. If you would like to volunteer to send in flowers, that email with sign up information will also be coming via our class parent. When it is your turn, bring in a small bouquet of flowers that the children can learn to snip and arrange. Flowers from your yard, or the grocery are fine. Please refrain from sending in the flowers with dye. When spilled, it can stain materials. Thank you! Snack is one of the activity/work choices available to the children throughout the morning. This year, each child will bring their own snack daily.

• Snack is available to the children during the morning work cycle o This allows them to learn to listen to their body and choose to eat

when they are hungry • This year we will be doing individual snacks rather than group snack • Please send in a small, healthy snack of no more than 2 items labeled with

your child’s name each day o Snack time is meant to be a short break to refuel their brain and

body during the morning work cycle, not a full meal.

Our School is Allergy Aware, Not Nut Free

Snack Ideas • Tortilla Chips • Pita Chips • Nutri-Grain Bar • Granola Bar • Fresh Fruit • Fresh Vegetables • Veggie Straws/Chips

• Applesauce • Dried Fruit • Raisins • Pre-popped Popcorn • Crackers with Cream

Cheese

Lunch If your child stays at school (either as a Kindergartener or in the Extended Care program) your child will need to bring lunch or purchase hot/cold lunch in the lunchroom. Be sure to check the menu on the lunch calendar as there are two choices offered for hot lunch each day. Your child will place their order with one of the assistant teachers first thing in the morning. Milk is also available for purchase. General Information:

• Water bottles o To minimize the amount of exposure this year, we will be using water

bottles rather than a water dispenser o Send in a labeled water bottle each morning and we will send it

home at the end of each day so it can be cleaned. • Sunscreen

o Your child should come to school with sunscreen and we will re-apply after lunch for full day children

• Please make sure that anything you send in with your child is something they can use independently.

o This is a great opportunity for some practical life work at home to learn how to open/close lunch containers and water bottles.

• Weather o We go outside to play if the temperature with wind chill is above 21ºF o Plan to send your child with whatever layers they need even if it is

too cold in the morning - Sometimes it warms up later o We will only be keeping the extra set of clothes in their cubby so

winter layers will go home each day Classroom Work Don’t be alarmed if your child does not come home with much paperwork. Most of the work in the primary classroom is done using the concrete Montessori materials. The work for the younger children is done through manipulation and are process oriented not product oriented. The papers they choose to keep are kept in their classroom drawers. Some of the papers may not make sense to you and may look like non-sense. If you have questions, I’m happy to explain the work and its purpose. All work will be sent home at the end of the week.

Classroom Visits This may or may not be able to happen this year, depending upon our guidelines. Look for an email if we are able to have visitors this year. In the meantime, I will be taking pictures and videos to send to you privately. If you prefer that I not document with pictures or videos, please let me know. Any visit to the school requires you to get a visitor sticker from the front office prior to coming to the classroom. Objects from the Classroom Montessori materials have many parts that are attractive to children. If you find small glass beads, small objects, pink cubes, puzzle pieces, or anything else that you don’t recognize, please check to see if it belongs to the school and return it to the classroom. Replacing tiny parts to a larger work can be expensive as some companies do not sell individual pieces to a work. Room Parent I am so excited to announce that Danielle Smith will be the lead room parent for my classroom this year. She will be communicating with all families shortly as opportunities for you to be in the classroom open up. She will also be contacting another P4 and P3 parent to assist should we need it. She will be in touch. Volunteering Each year I look for parent volunteers to help in the classroom in various ways such as reading with children, making playdough, handling our scholastic book orders, or sharing a special skill or talent that you have with the children. If you have an occupation that the children would find interesting, I would love to have you come into the classroom. Children love to learn about professions, different countries and cultures, but especially to show off their parents. Please email me if you would like to volunteer in any of these capacities. You can also look for more emails from Danielle as we create sign-ups for volunteering. Birthday Celebrations

• Birthdays are an important part of your child’s life and we love celebrating them!

• I will send home the Celebration of Life poster the Friday before your child’s birthday

• To celebrate this year: o We will celebrate together in class without birthday treats as an

additional precaution, and allow you to celebrate with your child at home.

Birthday Invitations If your child is having a birthday party, he/she is not permitted to hand out any invitations at school. Please use the MEF directory and look for mailing/email addresses. You will want to consider having your mailing information on the parent portal so your child will easily be invited to birthday parties. Kindergarten Special Schedule The Kindergarteners go to extra classes during the week, which we call “Specials”. The Special classes are Physical Education, Music, Art, and Library. The schedule is on our classroom website. You may also see the attached schedule handout that I am including in this welcome package. Library Each week your Kindergarten child will get to check out a book at our library and keep it for a week. At the beginning of the year they will leave the book in the classroom. As they learn about book care, our librarians will allow children to take the books home each week. Contact me The best way to contact me is through my email. My email is heather.anderson@dcsdk12.org. Please know that I am busy with your children and I may not be readily available should you call. I will try to return your calls and emails within 48 hours. You can always find information on our classroom website. I will include all newsletters, notes going home, classroom information, etc. on our website. It can be found at: https://dcsm-msheather.weebly.com/ Thank you for taking time to read all this information. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I look forward to a fantastic year serving your child and your family! Sincerely, Heather Anderson DCS Montessori School heather.anderson@dcsdk12.org

Ms. Heather’s Classroom Schedule

Preschool Schedule: 8:10 - 8:30 Arrive 8:30 - 8:45 Whole Class Circle Time 8:45 – 10:20 Preschool Work Cycle 10:20-10:50 Preschool Recess 10:50 - 11:15 Preschool Circle Time 11:30 - 11:45 Preschool Dismissal

Kindergarten Schedule: 8:10 - 8:30 Arrive 8:30 - 8:45 Whole Class Circle Time 8:45 - 11:30 Kindergarten Work Cycle 11:30 - 11:50 Kindergarten Morning Recess 11:50 - 12:30 Kindergarten Lunch in Classroom 12:30 - 1:45 Kindergarten Afternoon Work Cycle 1:45 - 2:15 Afternoon Recess (Mon. Wed. Thur.) 2:25 - 3:10 Specials (Mon. Wed. Thurs.) 3:10 - 3:20 End of Day Jobs/Clean-Up 3:20 - 3:45 Kindergarten and Extended Care Dismissal Kindergarten Specials Schedule Monday 2:25 - 3:10 PE Tuesday 1:35 – 2:20 Library Wednesday 2:25 - 3:10 Art Thursday 2:25 - 3:10 Music

Notes