Or She'll Turn You Into A Frog

Don't forget the Halloween Carnival tomorrow evening at the Seeds building! More details in the post below.

A group of parent volunteers is getting together tonight at 6p at the Seeds bldg to start decorating for tomorrow's festivities. Should you be minding your own business tonight when all of a sudden - BAM! - the mood to hang streamers and inflate spider balloons strikes, well, you know where to find us. 

REMINDER: Don't send your kiddos to school in their costumes tomorrow - save 'em for the party.

Can't wait to see you all at the carnival. I'm going as The World's Laziest Witch Who Used To Rock A Full Costume But Then She Had Two Small Kids So Don't Hassle Me.

-Brooke

HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL

I met with a great group of parent volunteers this afternoon who are excited to make this Sunflower's biggest and best Halloween bash ever. Check the flyer above for some of the great things we've got cooking for the party.

For the first time ever, we'll be hosting an event at the Pollen/Seeds building at 1960 S 10th St W. This will give everyone a chance to check out the new building, which is a much better event space. Big open interior! Ample parking!

Kids and grown-ups are encouraged to wear their costumes to the party. Upstairs on the main level will be carnival games suitable for all ages and (non-candy) prizes. There will also be a craft table and photo booth and "boo-tique" if you want to add any fun dress-up accessories to your costume. Downstairs, you'll find a chili buffet and snack area with kid-friendly drinks, as well as a cooler for anything adults might want to bring from home. We're also putting together a not-very-scary "haunted room."

We'd love to find a few more parent volunteers to help (wo)man the carnival games, so if you think you can pitch in for an hour or so, we'd love to hear from you. 

Hope to see you there!

-Brooke

School CLOSED Thur & Fri

Sunflower Montessori teachers are required to complete between 8 and 16 hours of additional training per year, so Sunflower's teaching staff will be using the next few days to engage in learning opportunities that will make them stronger, more prepared educators.

Katie assures me that "Professional Development Days" is NOT code for "Hanging out at the James Bar, eating tater tots and enjoying pitchers of margaritas." Although, as I'm typing that, it sounds pretty darn good, so that's where you can find ME.

Reason #287 I am not an educator.

-Brooke

Virtual Lost & Found

I talked to a mom today who mentioned she was missing a few items her girls had worn to school, which made me think about the lost and found. Typically overflowing, the lost and found really hits its stride in winter, when all the kids come in with gloves and hats and scarves, etc.

So, first and most important: LABEL EVERYTHING.  If every child comes to school wearing or carrying twelve items, (shirt, pants, undies, jacket, socks, shoes, hat, scarf, gloves), that means there are 1200+ items in motion at Sunflower Montessori every day. Kids drop things on the playground, bury 'em in the sandbox, toss 'em in the bushes, etc., etc. Speaking only of my own children, of course, they are miniature crazy people. By labeling everything, you have a 99% greater chance of seeing it again.*

Now that we're all committed to labeling, let's work on identifying the things that are already in the lost and found. I dumped out all of the lost and found bags this afternoon, sorted the items by size, and took these pictures. If you see something you recognize, it can be found in a bag inside Katie's office. Check with her to claim your items. There wasn't a name to be found on any of these items.

ACCESSORIES

HATS, SWIM TRUNKS, SWIM GOGGLES

TWO NEW, EMPTY BACKPACKS

LOVEYS

SO MANY SOCKS, Y'ALL, I CAN'T EVEN.

12 AND 18 MONTHS

24 MONTHS, 2T

3T

4T

5T AND LARGER

If you're missing something that you don't see pictured above, feel free to leave a note in the comments. Let's all take a look around our houses, cars, etc and maybe we'll find some extra items that need to be returned to school / another family. 

Hope this helps-

Brooke

* I am totally making up this statistic. 

Photo Ordering: A How-To

Parents -

I ran into a mom the other night at the Sunflower softball game (our team lost in the second game of a hard-fought double header) who mentioned she didn't really understand how to order the school photos. I always figure that if there's one person who admits to not understanding something, there must be others lurking in the shadows. So, a few notes on how to view and order school photos:

1) Go to the online gallery (http://sunflowermontessori.smugmug.com/) and click on the appropriate class. Every student should be filed under Seeds, Sunflowers, etc., with the exception of the kids who came to the Make-Up and Re-Shoot Day last Thursday. Those folks have their own gallery, which you'll see when you go to the site.

2) Browse around 'til you find a photo (or photos) you like. When you've clicked on one you're interested in purchasing, you'll see a green button in the top right corner of your screen called ADD TO CART. Click on it.

3) A drop-down menu will appear, where you should choose "THIS PHOTO"

4) From there, a menu will pop up with all kinds of sizes of prints you can purchase. SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE: On the top toolbar, you'll see three options - Prints, Merchandise and Downloads.

                            

If you click on DOWNLOADS, you can purchase a full-resolution copy of your photo file. It comes with a copyright release, so you can print and distribute your photo however you'd like forever and ever, amen. Because there's no processing or shipping fees associated with downloads, the highest percentage of money goes to Sunflower for these purchases. At $20, they are $5 cheaper than last year, 

THIS PHOTO SITE WILL BE OPEN AND ACTIVE FOR ORDERING THROUGH THE END OF OCTOBER, THEN WILL BE TAKEN DOWN. 

YOU MUST GET YOUR ORDERS IN BY THE END OF THE MONTH. 

If after reading the above, you still have technical questions/confusion/concerns, please let me know. I'd be happy to help if I can. If you have procedural questions about how/when/why school photo day was run, holler at Katie and Correy. I am but a lowly volunteer. 

-Brooke

October Curriculum Notes

This month, our Seeds will be exploring pumpkins! We will practice saying "pumpkin," will learn the sign language for pumpkin, talk about the color and texture of a pumpkin, and see if they are large or small pumpkins. 

Our new song will be “Where is Pumpkin”.  Our practical life skill will be putting on our jackets. Our special book this month will be “Brown bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” by Eric Carle and we will talk about Halloween costumes.

This month, our sprouts will be exploring leaves! They will talk about the colors of leaves, count leaves and watch the stages of a leaf to see how long it takes to get crunchy.  Our song will be “Five Little Pumpkins”. 




Our practical life activity will be raking and bagging leaves. We will be reading two fabulous fall books “The Stubborn Pumpkin” by Laura Geringer and “When the Leaf Blew In” by Steve Metzger. 

Miss Sam's Class

This month we will be studying North America focusing on where our food comes from.  We will be working on the song “Apples & Bananas” to warm up our vowel sounds for our language work.  In science we will be studying the animals of North America and learning the parts of the horse. Our practical life skill will be weaving.  A special book Miss Sam is sharing this month is Peace Rose.

Ms. Indima's Class

This month we will be studying North America. We will focus on Native American traditions.  Our new song for the month will be “Alice the Camel Has Five Humps” to warm up our math skills.  In our science curriculum we will discuss the parts of a volcano and talk about Mount St. Helens.  The new practical life skill is using a peg boards which helps develop the pincher grip muscles to assist in learning to write. Our book this month is “There Was an Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything”  

Ms. Reina's Class

This month we will be studying North America and talking about Native American cultures.  Our song this month is "Going Over the Sea" from Wee Sing.  In our science curriculum, we will be studying the parts of the fruit and our practical life skill will be apple slicing.  Our special book will be Arrow to the Sun: a Pueblo Indian Tale by Gerald Mcdermote.  

The Garden

This month, we will be studying North America. We will be talking about many different aspects of Native American cultures including languages (with help from Grandma Midge), different forms of shelter, and traditional foods from all the different regions. Some of the many songs we are working on are American folk songs “The Fox," “Froggy Went a Courtin," and various Halloween songs. In our science curriculum we have been studying different forms of matter and doing density experiments and turning liquids into gas.  Our book this month is Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar by Masaichiro and Mitsumasa Anno.  

School PIctures - Take a Look!

A few things:

1) School photos are organized by "class" at the link below. We've (hopefully) contacted all the parents of children who aren't included in these galleries, either because the children were absent that week, or so distraught in front of the camera that we thought we'd try again later, or just because we made an error on our end. If your child doesn't appear in the galleries, we'll be sure to include him/her on re-shoot day (more info on that below).

2) The number of photos of each child is in no way an indication of how awesome each child is (very!) but more a matter of how inclined each child was to sit in front of a camera on that particular day. Some kids are holding toys in their photos - if given the choice between a crying child, or a smiling child who's holding a toy, well...we'll hand a young'un a maraca every time.

3) Remember: 100% of the proceeds generated by the sale of school photos go directly to Sunflower Montessori - there's no photographer or sitting fee. At the link below, you'll be able to order prints and digital downloads directly from the site, with all funds being forwarded to the Sunflower account.

4) Photographing 150+ kiddos is a bit like herding beautiful-but-ornery cats. There's no way we were going to get through it without making a few mistakes along the way. If for any reason you're not satisfied with your child's photo (you didn't mean for her to be photographed in that outfit, you think he'd be in a better mood on another day, you didn't know he could have his picture taken with his sister, etc), please join us for:

MAKE-UP PICTURE DAY

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10th

BEGINNING 7:45AM

(so you can drop by on your way to work, if you need to)

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BASEMENT

626 S 6TH ST W

We want everyone to be as happy as possible, and it honestly will not hurt my feelings if you'd like a re-take. I'd much rather put in a little extra time for you to have a photo that makes you smile. Let Katie or Correy know you'd like to be added to Thursday's shoot day, or send me an e-mail, and we'll make sure it happens.

Now, without further disclaimers, here's the link for the School Photo Galleries:

http://sunflowermontessori.smugmug.com/

Technical questions? Concerns? Can't make it to the make-up day and you're freaking out a little? Let us know!

Hungry for Halloween

The Halloween Carnival Planning Meeting was held last night. Ideas were shared. Plans were hatched. Taquitos were eaten.

This year, we'll be launching some fun changes to the annual carnival. For starters, the carnival will be held at the new Seeds building (1960 S 10th St W). For those who've never been there, it has a huge open common area that's perfect for setting up carnival games. The party will start a little earlier this year (5:30p) to give parents with older kids time to attend the carnival AND do traditional trick-or treating. Miss Justice will be serving chili and cornbread in the kitchen. Miss Julia will be (wo)manning a photo booth. Lots of games and prizes, a craft table, and a costume parade on the stage at 6:00pm.

Look for informational flyers as the event gets closer.

A special thanks to the moms who attended the meeting last night and offered to make carnival games for the kids. If you weren't able to attend last night's meeting, but are available to help with set-up for an hour or so on the afternoon of the event, let us know.

-Brooke