Klahanie School: October 2023 Newsletter

Klahanie School

October 2023 Newsletter

The rain flows down the river

And washes out to sea,

Evaporates into the clouds then

It rains back down on me.

The rain is watering the flowers

The rain is watering the trees

I put my arms up

and the rain waters me 

October Topics

• Phytoplankton explorations!  The resources that can inspire further learnings: https://www.us-ocb.org/zooplankton-play-a-key-and-diverse-role-in-the-ocean-carbon-cycle/

• Local Phytoplankton Expert Dr. Tag Gornall: REALTalk ~ Tag Gornall ~ Plankton | Voice Of Vashon, About – Island GreenTech, get inspired and aware!
• Nocturnal Animals/ Spiders (arachnids) Owls and Bats (mammals): looking at their life cycle, parts of their bodies, habitats and how they help the earth. 
• Emotions introduction/ creating classroom calm-down basket & story table.  Naming and exploring emotions and acting out emotions, improv theater fun introduction, “yes and…”
  • What is a fear, what is an internal alarm system.  Exploring ways we can find resiliency/bravery and soothing when faced with the emotion of Fear. Ways and people we discuss who help when experiencing fear.  Nightmares, what they are and making a plan that feels good when they happen: exploring healthy self soothing techniques. 
• Games/circle prompts and activities about our own “masks” in the world and making decorative abilities to share out our creativity and how we express who we are inside and using animals as our guides.  Sensory and Nature Games
• Indigenous Peacemakers and Stories
• Halloween celebration (costumes to school welcome, masks required 🙂 Loads of Halloween/Autumn Songs and Felt Story Board 
• Autumn Time, Pumpkins, Gourd family & Apples: life cycle, parts of the plant and sensory games, songs and food preparation and tastings. Baking and food preparation begins: Pumpkin seed and muffin baking.  Garden preparation for winter and plant cycles: Winter crops and soil care for winter preparation.Pumpkin life cycle, preparation for winter, plant dormancy in our biome: botany and zoology.
• Holiday Meal Preparations: Picking neighborhood huckleberries to make the class huckleberry apple sauce for the Thanksgiving feast. Native plants we harvest.
• Dia De Los Muertos: creating our school altar and more Latino, Latina, Latinx-Hispanic Heritage Honoring in Peacemakers and Stories
• Salmon Life Cycle and Orca Pods, habitats: check out our beloved and local nature conservation education organization, Vashon Nature Center for all your updates on local habitats, https://vashonnaturecenter.org/ 
• Friends & Neighbors: What makes a friend. How does it feel to offer friendship?  Peace practices (invitation to play, concentrate together) on how to be neighborly and available for help when asked.  Inclusion practice and name games.
• Peacemaker Introduction to: Fred Rogers & Helen Keller, Dr. Martin Luther King,  Coretta Scott King, Anne Sullivan, Delores Huerta, Chief Sealth, Kiyoshi Kuromiya to begin with. 

“Finding out that we are one of a kind could be a lonely and frightening thing without the reassurance of knowing that we belong to humankind, and that we all belong to humankind, and that all humans laugh and cry about many of the same needs; and that those needs are best met by other human beings who can love us for both our similarities and our differences.”

Mr. Rogers Greatest Relationship Building Advice Ever- Most Inspirational Speech

Mr. Fred Rogers

Some of our favorite songs we revisit are Meet New Friends and Keep the Old, Five Little Pumpkins, In the Autumn Time, Deciduous Trees/ Evergreen Trees keep their green, Listen to the Water, many name game fingerplays and fun with the class parachute. 

September 2023 Reflection and Guides to our Languages/Introductions

Congratulations to a successfully joyful beginning of our beautiful school year!   Welcome new and returning families to Klahanie School, the children are beginning to get very used to the masks, each other, the new classes, and we continue to play finger-plays, rhyming games, songs and movement during circle time as well as wonderful library books centered on self-care and emotions.  We have been laughing a lot in the group and throughout class, what a gift!  

Thank you parents who are able to view our Klahanie-School YouTube channel and are seeking to attend our Parent Gather/Connect and Helpful Tips to support your child learning independence while supporting their developmental needs.  Click here to access your Parent Curriculum/School Year Information to view prior to meeting 28th via in person (lower classroom) or via zoom, link found below. Sep 28, 2023 05:30 PM – 6:30 PM Klahanie School Welcomes to a New Year Round Montessori Antibias Multiage School Year

This is a space for parents to learn about Montessori and Antibias education approaches mixed importantly with Emotional Intelligence/Empathy development and inclusion/ trust building Circle time during our daily experiences.  The YouTube videos in our Parent Education section, share the intention foundations of Mentorship in Montessori education- multi year and age intimate class space where we nurture connection building while maintaining the integration of age and readiness for one-on-one and group lessons in Practical Life, Sensorial, Math, Language, Zoology, Botany and Cultural areas of the curriculum, during pandemic.  During these first months of school our teacher role is to assist in the children’s safety of self, environment and friendship development.  We also explain what our job as advocate-observers of Absorbent Minds and when expertise, assessment referrals needed.

Many children have begun forming very sweet friendships and you may begin talking more about play-dates with friends from school or pass with hellos out in the world.  You all have very friendly and warm children.  And thank you teachers and parents for helping model a very kind and gentle space for our school community.  

Such a community is nourished by supportive acts of kindness–one parent driving for another who is ill; one family sending a casserole when another family has a new baby; families helping teachers in time crunch before the first day of school; teachers giving extra time when it is needed and many other gestures of mutual support.  As each individual feels respected and valued by others in the community, all gradually become comfortable in the family-like atmosphere that serves as a paradigm of our wider participation in the global community.

~Nurturing the Spirit in Non-Sectarian Classrooms, by Aline D. Wolf

A topic of curriculum night conversation focuses on our daily class practice of Inclusion during play and use of the following response if asked by a friend to play and help the children form routine in this process:

“Can I play?”

“No thank you, maybe later.  I am working/playing alone right now.”  

Or if approaching an existing group (two or more) working on project or imaginative play:

“Sure, we’ll figure it out.”  

To assist the children being creative in the group activity including more if asked to join, is requested in class to assist the individual forming good foundation experiences when seeking connection.  This is a confidence builder for all involved because everyone is able to answer authentically while also being kind.  Teachers assist a younger two-half year old classmate who might want to play with the same material yet play/concentrate alone.  This is the gift of observation in class where we can help decode what is being sought after and seeking to communicate.  We also ask the children to practice listening as much as “use your words” and sometimes help brainstorm while having a heart-to-heart check-in if hurt feelings occur using Compassionate Listening and team building skill practice, all in masks.  The majority of the time the children are showing great care and imagination attached to this empathy developing response in-group work.  Our empathy lenses are heightened by the magnitude of our reliance on new parts of our senses and methods of communications, learnings and teachings of the process one on one in lessons and in small groups or also in the larger greeting outside the circle.  Your children are incredible.  

Empathy is the ability to read and grasp the emotions of another person…Children learn empathy by seeing how others react when distressed and then imitating what they see.  They learn empathy when discipline for misbehavior requires them to focus attention on the distress their behavior has caused someone else.  Children learn empathy by having their feelings understood and shared by another.

Emotional intelligence encompasses many of the foundation abilities that an individual must possess before that individual is able to successfully employ conflict resolution processes.  Developing emotional intelligence to enable a young person to learn conflict resolution is simply adding other tools to use, especially when involved in interpersonal conflicts.

~ Developing Emotional Intelligence, by Richard J. Bodine & Donna K. Crawford

Please refer to the attached incredible film that is part of our foundational work at Klahanie School, carrying forward Antibias education: 

Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years – Anti-Bias Leaders in Early Childhood Education

Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years

Reminders/Thank Yous

• No School: Monday October 9, Tuesday October 10: Indigenous Day Honoring & Observation,  Inservice Day: re-organization, deep clean, records, materials and project preparations of the prepared environment.

• Illness:  Now that we are moving into the cold season amidst pandemic living, thank you so much for keeping your children home when sick of any slight signs.  Thank you for adhering to the state guidelines for illnesses and staying home.  Please email directly if you have inquiries.   Please remember to keep up on the illness protocols.  We will call immediately for pickup if signs begin at school and have separation space while they leave immediate pickup.  Thank you for helping us all stay safe and healthy.  

• Tuesdays Teacher Lead by Deb, Austin, Toby.  Emmy is off Klahanie School campus Tuesdays, and an hour Wednesday mornings until June to co-facilitate district CES, McM, VHS DOVE/Sisterhood Project, All In Circles In Schools.  Emmy will pass messages to teachers by 7:30am, if you submit an absence email after 7:30 am, that message will not be delivered.  Thank you for help in the organization daily.

• Lice  Please get your hair combing lice kits and start preventatives: Please check our school blog under Parent Resources for the lice prevention and treatment.  Lavender, Tea Tree and Eucalyptus oils diluted with water and rubbed daily at the base of neck hairline as well as around ears and monthly use of Cetaphil are some great preventative bases combined with frequent nit checks.  Children will need to stay home until all nits are gone and treatment completed. 

• Rain Season Approaching & Rain Gear: Please practice rain gear at home and supply waste band rain pants and practice at home flipping on coats, assessing weekly if the boots/ shoes fit.  Thank you for this help, our little jingle to help remember how to flip on a coat is:
  • Tags by my toes, hands in the holes and I flip it over my head.

• Autumn Conferences: November times to choose from will be emailed to you soon.  Sign up for your optional Autumn conference to hear about what your child is interested in during inside and outside class time joyfully based on cognitive, social, emotional and physical observations.  Please note: all content that might require discussing referrals, or more specific expert assessment supports, is phoned or emailed individually during office times and not conferences.  Conferences are meant to be relaxing for parents to inquire, receive answers, and enjoy hearing about the joys happening in class for your child.
  • Conference sign-up is emailed out. Conferences are for parents only please and thank you.  

Please email klahanieschool@gmail.com the following information prior to conference:

1.  What are your hopes for your child this school year during school?  Any concerns, support needed, updates on family shifts.  We are your resource support hub. 
2. Ways you can be involved, we need help with:
   1. Substitutes in class 
   2. Playdough (keeping us with weekly supply)
   3. Specialist coordinator: helping us contact and schedule bimonthly specialists in class involved with our unit topics
   4. Cutouts and copies help for our unit topics 
   5. Fundraising Committee (vital for our annual scholarships) 
   6. Fundraising November 28th GiveBig help–
   7. Spreading the word for spots to fill, grant look out our private nonprofit school is eligible for.  

• Re-Enrollment for 2024-25 will be Posted and Open November 2023.  Starting September 2024, Klahanie School campus will facilitate one multi age Montessori Antibias class for 2.5yrs-6 yrs of aged children (all welcome).
  • Times Sept-August: Monday-Thursday 9:30am-2:30pm with Wake-UP slower breakfast-quiet time program Monday-Wednesdays 8:30-9:30 am (limit to five).  Email the school inquiries.