The Nutrition Committee would like to take advantage of our diverse family here at Montessori House.

If you have any health, interesting snack ideas for the children, we would love to hear them.  In particular, we want to explore how we can offer a more ethnically diverse snack program. Or, perhaps we can use your culinary talent or great food craft skill with all our children: would you like to sign up for a food presentation in the classroom?!?

Join the Nutrition Committee for a meeting with other Montessori House parents to share fun healthy snack ideas for our kids!  We meet this Friday November 20th, 2009, at 9 a.m. in The Montessori House school office.

This week children will receive book order forms from Scholastic. 

Order forms submitted by Monday November 23 should arrive at school before the Winter Break (December 18 is our last day).  Order forms received later will arrive later (after the break).

Be sure to make your check payable to Scholastic Books and put your name at the top of each order form.

Many parents have already made appointments for Parent-Teacher conferences next week on Thursday and Friday, November 12th and 13th.   We schedule 20-minute conferences between 8:00 a.m. and 11:20 a.m.   If you would like to schedule a discussion with your child’s teacher(s) please stop by the office during the school day or call 201-816-8343.

Reminder: No classes on the conference days  — Thursday November 12, and Friday November 13.

Also, we still have spots open for Parent Visitation on Wednesday (Nov. 4), Friday (Nov. 6) and Monday (Nov. 9) if you would like to spend 30 minutes in the classroom participating in school with the children (note Stepping Stones does not participate in Parent Visitation).  We have two 30-minute slots each morning and two 30-minute slots each afternoon on the days noted; however, we do limit the number of parents visiting to three at a time in each classroom.  If you’re interested in scheduling a classroom visit please stop by the office or call 201-816-8343.

My daughter Olivia and I certainly enjoyed last Sunday’s Fall Festival.  Great weather, great food, great fun!  Of course, we owe it all to the great parents who prepared the festival, and to all the families that participated.   Thank you.

• The Gardening Committee prepared tulip planting and pumpkin scooping.  They planted over 200 tulip bulbs.  Great fun, and thanks to Samantha S, Joy O, and Eunsoo K.
• Thanks to the parents who prepared and helped with crafts.
• We had oodles of good food.  Thanks to all the chefs (and the corn grillers).
• Square dancing really gave me a workout.  Thanks to the DJ (er, I mean the caller.)
• And thanks to everyone who helped with clean up.  Tough duty on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Finally a great big THANK YOU to the Festival Committee along with everyone else.  They want me to remind you to start thinking about how you want to participate in the Spring Festival (last year it was an International Festival, and it was splendid!).

Thanks again to everyone!

Maria

P.S. To see more pictures of Fall Festival, go to Parents, log in, and then click Photo Gallery in the left navigation bar.  You’ll find several albums, including one of Fall Festival.

A few quick reminders and updates to the school calendar for November.

• With the support of the Friends of Montessori Foundation, Lenape Lifeways will conduct cultural presentations at the school on Thursday, November 5. Thus we will suspend Parent Visitation on that day.
• Parent Visitation will be held the balance of that week November 2-4 & 6. We will extend Parent Visitation through the following Monday November 9.
• School is in session on Veteran’s Day (Wednesday, November 11).
• No classes will be in session Thursday November 12 or Friday November 13. We will schedule Parent/Teacher conferences for these two days.

An important message from Ammu and Allie:

Dear Parents,

We are very excited for our Fall Festival, which was scheduled to take place this coming Saturday at The Montessori House playground.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast predicts rain and thunderstorms for Saturday.  Because so many parents have to plan ahead for food and craft preparation, we would rather not wait and see if the weather cooperates on Saturday.

As a result, we have decided to postpone the Fall Festival to its rain date on the following day, Sunday, October 25, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

We hope this is not an inconvenience to you, and that Sunday is a fun (and sunny!) day for all of our families to celebrate the season!

Looking forward to seeing you all on Sunday,

Allie and Ammu

Interested in presenting an Art Appreciation topic at The Montessori House this school year? If so, drop by the school Monday, October 19 to see one in action (via the TV monitors) and learn how it’s done. Diana, chair of the Art Appreciation Committee, will present artist Wassily Kandinsky to all our Montessori classes on the following schedule Monday, October 19:

• South Classroom: 9:15 a.m.
• East Classroom: 9:30 a.m.
• South Classroom: 12:30 p.m.

By the way, the Guggenheim Museum currently has a wonderful Kandinsky exhibit through January 13, 2010.

On October 8, children across the globe are reading Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar to break a world record for the largest shared reading experience.  Our Montessori House children were part of this effort, called Read for the Record, and added at least 75 to the worldwide count!

After hearing the story in class today, every child at school received his or her very own copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  This lovely gift was arranged by Tracy — mother of Montessori House pupil Liliana — who works with Pearson, one of the supporters of Read for the Record through the Pearson Foundation.  So, send your thanks to Tracy, Pearson, and the Pearson Foundation.

We won’t know until the end of the day if we broke the world record.  If you’d like to participate by reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to your child tonight, you may be counted at the Read for the Record website: http://www.readfortherecord.org

Maria