Klahanie School
July 2023 Newsletter
Klahanie School 2023 Class Definition of Community
We Share.
We Play Together.
We Relax Together.
We Sing Together.
We Collaborate Ideas.
We are Creative Together.
We have Fun and Listen.
There are three ways to ultimate success:
The first way is to be kind.
The second way is to be kind.
The third way is to be kind.
― Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember
Please Support Klahanie School & Spread the Word!
- We Need To Fill Spots for the 2023-2024 School Year, We Deeply Need Your Help to SPREAD THE WORD & FILL YOUR CHILD’S SPOT IF HEADING OUT! Please help us with word of mouth referrals, liking and reposting or sharing on social media of school posts.
- 6 Spots open in 3-6yr class
- 2 Spots open in 2-3yr class
- Please look for ways to help support the annual 2023 Fundraiser and sell tickets to attend and bid. We need this help!
Spread the Word! Our 2023 Auction FUNDRAISER needs your help!
July Curriculum Topics
- Thank you Intern Mentors! Our school is basking in the incredible expertise of kindness, playfulness, attention to detail, artistic-group project and curiosity and appreciation of Early Education from our McM and VHS Interns. Thank you for your mentorship and community creations Interns! The school seeks to maintain this programming into the traditional school year with some hopeful creative collaborations, fingers crossed.
- KEXP Peace Tender DJs Gabriel Teodros & Miss Ashley! @GabrielTeodros www.kexp.org Gabriel Teodros is an incredible advocate and hip hop musician, and Seattle treasure who was forced with family to evacuate their home of Egypt in the early 1980s, and built a home in Seattle. He is a Garfield High School graduate and big-time supporter. Hiphop became a healthy outlet for him and his commitment has been to featuring BIPOC activist artists as well as featuring local organizations fighting for the equity of people.
- Meaning and Practice of Resiliency and Nurturing Friendships
- Sea Animal Paper Mache Creatures
- Continued Murals and Throw painting introduction. We use murals to continue forming our class Story boards that will have symbols of our time together in animals and images. These will be in front of the garage door to appreciate.
- Please dress kids in clothes you do not care about getting stained, dirty in July.
- Favorite stuffy July (please bring things you don’t mind getting dirty and all invitation, no pressure for child or family)
- Lushootseed Is Alive Calina Lawrence Lushootseed Is Alive 2019 -Calina Lawrence might be the first person to ever record vocals on a hip hop track in the Lushootseed language – a language that was almost lost. In the 1990’s, when only 60 fluent speakers of Lushootsed were alive. Lushootseed is a Coast Salish language. It’s the language of the Duwamish and Suquamish people, as well as other nations around the Pacific Northwest. In a 2019 Sound & Vision interview, Lawrence talks to Gabriel Teodros about the power of language: https://www.kexp.org/read/2019/10/16/sound-vision-calina-lawrence-power-language/
- Jeremy Dutcher “I hope people feel a sense of celebration – and resilience.” More information on Kehkimin Wolastoqey language immersion school – the first Wolastoqey immersion and land-based school – creating a new generations of fluent Wolastoqey speakers that will help to re-connect to the language and life ways of the Wolastoqiyik, and will empower us to carry the language and ways of life forward for future generations. Kehkimin
- Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu: Kanakka Maoli Teacher and Culture Keeper, Activist Luce Fellow Spotlight: Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu | First Nations Development Institute , Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu
- Local Hummingbirds Hummingbirds – Seattle Audubon , Hummingbird Nests 101: Answers to All Your Questions – ABC
- Continued Marine Life Exploration: Naming of shells and local seaweed and water plant and animal life. We begin clear conversations about beach awareness and marine life etiquette. Salish Sea Vashon/Maury beaches, grace and courtesy behavior with beaches and marine animals–being a dear friend/Klahanie School alumni parent as well as marine biologist educator at Vashon Nature Center, Maria Metler set us up early on educating early about Salish Sea etiquette for humans, and how important our role is with local marine life. We bask in the learnings of our surrounding kelp beds, eelgrass habitats and precious estuaries we hold here on Maury and Vashon islands. As families we encourage kind relationship building with your local beaches and will encourage the children to use their hands in beach and forest cleanups all seasons.
- Serving Tea to Friends: harvesting herbs from the garden to invite and serve tea to a friend. This goes on for a long while
- Garden Food/ Salad Preparations
- Continued Healthy Relationship & Community exploration, we will explore in both classes the practice of Permission/Consent Play Practice and Coaching with friends in class to continue the sensory science learning (what happens in our bodies/brains to our fingertips) and emotions (more about what they are and what they can feel like and look, sound like).
- We are going to break down moments that feel uncomfortable and find ways to empower ourselves and others around us. Exploring that no matter what age, we deserve to be heard and seen and respected and we can call for that for ourselves, and for other people-living things (environment, animals).
- We will explore age supported, what it means to love and ways we can show that to ourselves and to our families, our friends, our communities. We honor starting in our backyards for making and sustainably honoring Peace in our world and also supporting when we need specific space. We will be asking students and teachers and the community to Show What We Know by acting and discussing in homes, classrooms, play moments, what Peace and Peaceful play means to us. Exploring, what does it mean to you, to me? And having fun with the richness of exploration in games, songs and puppet pauses diving a little deeper into self care moments as well.
- In circle, we have been discussing moments when we feel “topsy-turvy” and do not know what to do with our bodies-choices, when feeling overwhelmed methods we can use to find best matches for ourselves in environments and encourage students to practice Pause and observation, sense-into their environment and choices, before moving to an action or choice. We are starting to become aware of empowerment in time we feel overwhelmed, actions we can take to ground ourselves to make insight with silence, and a chance to gather our awareness to one focus. Pause has become a great language focus and role playing practice in the classes, with wonderful impacts we are observing in both the classes. Square Breathing practice.
August 2nd and August 3rd Breakdown: School Schedule Remains the Same for both classes/ same drop off times and pick up times for those last days.
- Wednesday August 2nd 2-3yr Class Last Day: Same times, 12:30-2:30pm. School will provide popcorn/snacks and tea to enjoy–please also bring their normal snacks as that is an anchor for some. Thank you!
- Thursday August 3rd Graduation 3-6yr Class End Year Ceremony: Parents will arrive at 11am and children will greet parents to walk them to where they stand for the ceremony. We as a class will drum down to the garden for a group gratitude and two songs, walk through the graduation arbor and depart to KVI beach fun.
- ALL SCHOOL KVI AFTERNOON: Please park at KVI for beach time and walk to and from school (make it a parade:), picnic celebrations and enjoy time together! ADD A BEACH GARBAGE CLEANUP BEFORE YOU ALL LEAVE WITH YOUR CHILD, SUPPORT THE SCHOOL MODELING OF LOVE OUR ISLAND, LOVE OUR EARTH! Please note: teachers will most likely not be able to attend KVI after-school due to other commitments, we all send much love and celebrations to all!
Klahanie School has officially begun American Montessori Society Accreditation and will complete this process in 18-24 months! This is an exciting movement for the school, and is a long time coming, making the opportunities for the school become broader in community outreach and potential programming connections. Here is a description of the benefits from the AMS website, AMS School Accreditation.
Opportunities for Co-Accreditation
AMS is recognized by the National Council for Private School Accreditation, a national organization that serves as a review panel for the standards and review procedures of private-school accrediting agencies. Every school that is accredited by AMS gains automatic recognition by NCPSA.
In addition, AMS partners with more than 20 other national and regional accrediting associations, enabling you to participate in cooperative accreditation. The cooperative accreditation process is seamless and results in 2 valuable accreditations. You complete 1 self-study and host 1 onsite visit with representatives from both associations. Cooperative accreditation demonstrates compliance with both Montessori-specific standards and with school standards that apply to non-Montessori schools. You can find a listing of the accrediting agencies with which AMS partners in the AMS Accreditation Handbook, included as part of the AMS Accreditation Information Packet.
Recognition by State Policymakers
At AMS, we proactively advocate with state-level policymakers on behalf of our accredited schools. The result? AMS accreditation is increasingly recognized nationwide, granting our accredited schools significant advantages that may include:
- Recognition at the highest level of their state’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), a systemic approach to assessing, improving, and communicating the level of quality in early and school-age childcare and education programs.
- Possible exemption from state child-care licensing requirements
- Access to exclusive state funding sources available only to accredited schools.
During our school months we are able to share collective resiliency, creativity, innovation, adaptation, and great love and care to the school community, and the greater world we live in by sharing trusting space while practicing this new world. Thank you for the care you all offer teachers, school community celebrating our foundations of connection and witness to grow, to learn together as an amazing team. Mahalo for riding the river securely together. Such sweet inspirations of connection. And as we ease into the sweet late spring and summer weeks together, we will continue to build fun moments to continue practices together that will socially, emotionally assist as preparations transitioning into new environments in the autumn for some. We all transition together, preparing to close a very special school year in August and moving to opportunities here and afar. Wishing us all a joyful summer 2023 together!
Dr. Maria Montessori quotes to enjoy:
“If we are among the men of good will who yearn for peace, we must lay the foundation for peace ourselves, by working for the social world of the child.” —International Montessori Congress, 1937
“Education is the best weapon for peace.” —Education and Peace
“The teacher’s task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child.” —The Absorbent Mind
Klahanie School 