Fall Semester

The 2011 fall semester has begun!

We are so excited to learn all new things! This semester we have increased our focus on reading and blending words! The children are doing very well with this so far, and we look foward to expanding on this concept.

We have also introduced the Parts of Speech such as nouns, verbs and prepostions. This concept has been very well recieved by the children. We are amazed at how quickly they've grasped it!

We introduced different types of seashells and are working with an x-ray machine that the children love!

We are excited to begin our Spanish unit! We have started with the days of the week, numbers and colors, as well as parts of the face and introductions.

We have begun a Music Time as well. Ms. Tas bought all new instruments for the children, so we will be playing them and learning what each instrument is and what it sounds like.

Of course we continue to work on the basics such as phonics, math, numbers, colors, opposites, the anatomy of different living things, space, states and capitols, continients and the calendar.

We are excited to continue our wonderful and fun journey with all of our bright and talented students!

Summer Field Trips 2011

We had our first field trip of the summer to Lakeridge Retirement Community. The children performed a fun concert for all of the retirees. We hope they had just as much fun watching it, as we did performing it!

Our second field trip was to Ramar Communications and the KMAC and KLBK news stations! The children learned a lot about the way we get our news delivered to us. They even got to be on TV!

Our third field trip was to Krispy Kreme donuts where the children learned how donuts are made! They got to take a tour of the donut production, and afterwards they got to eat the tasty treats they just learned about!

Our fourth field trip was to the Lubbock International Airport. There they learned all about airplanes and the process of getting them in the air! The children got a backstage tour of the airport and got up close and personal with an American Eagle airplane!

The children had so much fun at the Texas Tech Museum! The day began at the planitarium where the children watched a film about a cat that lives on the moon. After the film, we went into the museum to explore! We saw dinosaur bones, art exhibits, and sculptures among many other interesting things. The field trip proved to be a great educational experience as well as a fun one!



Tas Montessori School Graduation Program 2011

Our end of the year party was so much fun! We were so happy that all our parents could attend to mingle and get to know one another a little better! Additionally, the parents and family got to watch as the children put on one of the best shows we've ever had!

Throughout the months of April and May, the children committed themselves to practicing and working on a program so that they could show off all they learned throughout the year. All the children put on a concert singing various songs they've been singing during circle time to help them learn special terms and concepts.

Afterwards, some of the younger children performed a fun dance to take us into Summer! They danced to "Walking on Sunshine"

Along with some of the older children, the children who were graduating to the First Grade performed a ballroom dance that was designed to illustrate the merging of the British and Indian cultures in the 18th century. They performed a dance to the song "Salaam Aya" from the Indian movie Veer. The song illustrated the merging of the two cultures by showing the Indian monarchy and the British aristocracy ballroom dancing to a Hindi song. The children worked hard perfecting the complicated choreography and the result was an amazing performance that surpassed all of our expectations!

The graduating students got a chance to accept their diplomas from Ms. Tas in a small graduation ceremony. Each of the students who graduated have been a wonderful part of this school. They are all so smart and we are certain that they will be successful in anything they choose to do in life. We at Tas Montessori school wish them all the best of luck!



Letter from Ms. Tas

Dear Parents,
I would like to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for your continued love and support of the school.  Without your help and support, this school would not be what it is today.

We had an amazing year filled with wonderful memories.  Every day is such a joy for me when I come to school and see the smiling faces of all of your wonderful children.  It amazes me how smart each and every one of them is.  To help shape their young minds has been my privilege, and I look forward to seeing them grow in mind, body, and spirit every day.

You, as the parents, have become some of my very great friends, and it is an honor to have you as a part of my life and my school.

I would also like to thank you on behalf of my great staff.  I know that they have enjoyed working with your children just as much as I have.  My staff and the children took a lot of time to put our End of the Year Concert together, and it came together beautifully.  I hope you enjoyed watching it just as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

Your children are a blessing to teach, and I thank you for trusting us with your child's education.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask!  I would be happy to answer them.

I hope everyone has a great summer!

All my love,

Ms. Tas

June News

Summer Dress!

The sun will be out and so will we!  During the summer, we plan on having many outdoor activities in our playground such as coloring and water activities.
As such we ask that you dress your child appropriately.  We especially ask that you do not send your child to school in flip-flops.  They tend to get slippery when wet, and when the children walk it can cause them to slip and get hurt.  So please be sure to send your child in a shoe with a back.
We also ask that you be sure to put sunscreen on your child every day.  If you wish, you can send sunscreen and we will apply it for them.
During field trip days, be sure to send your child in the special field trip shirt!  We will have the order forms at the podium.

Summer is Here

Summer has begun, and with it we have begun our fun Summer Program!  We have a lot of fun and exciting activities planned this summer, and are eager to get started! 
We have a number of field trips planned, and have the schedule up on the podium.  Our first field trip is scheduled for June 14th.  We will be going to the Lakeridge Retirement Community to perform a concert!  Please be on the lookout for sign-up sheets for transportation. 
Additionally, we are ordering t-shirts to wear during our field trips that will help identify us as a group.  These are mandatory and the order forms will be placed at the podium.
On field trip days, we ask that you please pack your child a sack lunch with their name on it, and please make sure not to pack anything that requires microwaving as the places that we visit may not have microwaves!
We will have a reminder note up a couple of days before every trip in order to give you a heads up so please be on the lookout for those!  In addition to the field trips, we will continue our Montessori work.  We will be reinforcing a lot of concepts we have already learned throughout the year, and focus on reviewing the material.
We look forward to a fun and exciting summer!

Thank You!

We would like to thank all of the parents and family for coming out to our End of the School Year Concert!  It was such a great success, and we appreciate all of your support.  We would also like to thank Amy James, mother of Brookelyn James, for baking the delicious cupcakes for the party!
Additionally we would like to thank Ramiro and Yolanda Villareal, parents of Arath and Giselle, for bringing a yummy fruit and vegetable tray!

Pajama Party!

On Friday, June 20th, we will be having a Pajama Party!  Your child will be able to wear his or her pajamas to school and relax with their sleeping bags and pillows as we pop some popcorn, eat some pizza and watch movies!
If your child doesn't have a sleeping bag here, you may bring one for them.  This is a fun day, however it is not mandatory for your child to come in pajamas if he or she does not want to.  They won't miss out on the fun either way!  We look forward to seeing everyone's fun pajamas!

Schedule Change

With the arrival of summer, we will be changing our schedule a little bit.  As it will be very hot mid-morning through the afternoon, we will be taking the children outside around 9 a.m. every morning, weather permitting.
When we are outside, we will bring work outside for them to work on, in addition to coloring, and water activities. 
We will still be having lunch at 12:00 p.m. every day.

February Fun!!

Valentine’s Day Party!

It’s February, which means it’s time for Valentine’s Day!

Tas Montessori School will be having the annual Valentine’s Day Party on Monday, February 14^th.

We will be having the party for the children only, so please be sure to send 34 UN-ADDRESSED Valentine’s cards.

We wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day from Tas Montessori School!

Humpty Dumpty

   Beginning this month, we will be initiating a Reward System for the children to reward them for good behavior, and also to help them focus during key learning times throughout the day, such as Circle Time.

   We will have a wall where each child will have their very own Humpty Dumpty! If the child continues to display disruptive behavior after being told to stop, their Humpty Dumpty will get tipped slightly, and continue to tip with each subsequent disruption. After five tips, his/her Humpty Dumpty will fall off the wall.

   However, if his/her Humpty Dumpty manages to stay on the wall by the end of the week, they will be able to receive a small prize, such as a sticker, or fun pencil!

   The main focus of the Humpty Dumpty Wall is to encourage good behavior and better focus during Circle Time through a simple equalized Reward System.

   We are hopeful that this system will give the children a better incentive to engage in proper behavior in order to enhance their learning process.

   Every child is a sweet and wonderful addition to this school, and we also want to have a chance to reward them when they show us that extra amount of sweetness!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. We will be happy to answer them for you!

Weather! 

 The weather is turning cold! Please be sure to send your child with a jacket every day, and make sure that their name is on it, and everything else they bring to school!  In terms of weather delays or cancellations, please follow FISD, and be sure to watch KLBK, KMAC and FOX for news!

ABC’S

  The children have been working hard on their phonics, and have been doing a great job!

  Some of the children have begun to recognize the phonics instantly and consistently. For those children we are beginning the blending process (with the movable alphabet, and object boxes) so that they may begin to read words, and eventually transition to reading.

 Reading is one of the most important components of an education, and, we are very happy and excited with the way all of the children are progressing in this area. We  are confident that positive progress will continue throughout the Spring Semester!

Circle Time!

This month we are focusing on the life cycle of a butterfly and ant, as well as the parts of them. The children will bring home worksheets of the turtle and fish, so please reinforce the concepts in these workeheets.

  As always we will be working on phonics, numbers, shapes, colors, calendar, opposites, flags, planets, and parts of the body. Additionally we will focus on geometrical shapes heavily this month as well as continue reinforcing positive manners and hygiene!

Thank you!

   We would like to thank all of the parents for taking the time out to buy the Solar System kits for our Solar System Project!

  The children enjoyed this project very much, and as such it was a great success!

 

  We still have a couple of Solar Systems to hang up. We should have those up by next week, along with a star to identify whose Solar System is whose so that you may get to see your child’s awesome work!

  Additionally we would like to extend a warm thank you to Myra Burgos, Rachel’s mother, who provided paints, paint brushes and glitter for the project. We were able to get the project underway a lot earlier thanks to her surprise donations! So thank you, Myra!

  We would also like to thank Lara Nelson, T.J.’s mother, for providing us with the idea and the materials for the new Solar System necklaces we are working on. This project is designed to give the children an idea of the distance between each planet as well as being a fun piece of jewelry!  Thank you, Lara!

  We would like to thank Chad Russell, Chase and Jaxson’s dad for playing guitar for all the kids! They really had so much fun with it! Thank you, Chad!

 

Ringing in the New Year!!

 A December to Remember

 Our Christmas Program was a HUGE success!!  The kids performed their Christmas themed songs we had practiced and a group performed a dance - everyone did wonderfully!!  As usual, we can't thank all the parents enough for coming to support our little learners!  Later that evening, we had our Christmas party at Lin's Restaurant.  It is always great to see our families get together and get to know one another better.  Thank you so much to those of you that attended!  To those of you that could not attend - You were missed!  Thank you all so much for an AMAZING year!

**By the way, if any of you have pictures from the Christmas program or the Christmas party (we only had a couple), please e-mail them to tasmontessori@yahoo.com and we'll make sure to get them on the blog!

Happy New Year!

   

 It’s 2011!  We had such a fantastic year in 2010 with the children filled with lots of fun and learning! We know that 2011 will be just as great.

 We wish you and your family all the best in the coming year, and look forward to sharing it with you!

We’re Out of this World!

Our intrepid little explorers have been hard at work exploring the vast world of our solar system for the past two months!

They have shown such a passionate interest in the subject of outer space, and have picked up on terms and concepts quicker that we could have ever imagined, even at times educating us!

Because of their interest in the subject, we thought we’d have some fun with it by having the children build their very own personal solar system that we will hang all over the school.

We will design and build the solar systems at school, however we do ask that you please provide the Styrofoam balls that will make up the planets.

If you could bring 10 Styrofoam balls that are the appropriate size for each of the planets including the sun and the moon by Friday January 14^th, we can get started on the fun as quick as possible!

Once we are done, we will hang them all over the school for you to see!

We have been singing the Planet Song with the children during circle time, and if you would like to sing it with them at home here are the lyrics!

The sun’s a hot star

Mercury’s hot too

Venus is the brightest one

And Earth’s home to me and you!

Mars is the red one

And Jupiter’s really wide

Saturn’s got those icy rings

Uranus spins on its side

Neptune’s really windy

And Pluto’s not a planet

Now we know our planets

And now we know them all!

MLK Holiday

  We will be off from school on Monday, January 17, 2011 for the MLK holiday .We will resume school on Tuesday.

We hope you have a great holiday!

CIRCLE TIME!

This month we are working on learning the parts of the body. Specifically we are focusing on the bones and muscles. We are also learning the parts of the turtle and fish. We are learning to count by 5’s and 10’s. We have introduced the counting chains to work with this concept.

We continue to work with the continents; and we will be introducing the animals from different continents we will also continue learning the flags of different countries.

We continue to learn our geometrical solids and constructive triangle. We are also continuing our unit of space. We will also be working more with language, focusing on movable alphabets along with the Object Box. Of course we continue to go over the calendar, months, days of the week, phonics and numbers on a daily basis.

Proper Hygiene!

  This month we are focusing on using proper hygiene in our everyday life! Practicing proper hygiene is critical for everyone, but is especially important for young children. Illness spreads among children very quickly and easily, and we must encourage them to use the proper hygienic practices to prevent that, as well as instilling a sense of cleanliness in them from a young age.

  Some of the things we are encouraging include:

·    Brushing our teeth when we wake up and before we go to bed

·    Taking a shower/bath every day

·    Making sure our clothes are neat and clean

·    Washing our hands with soap and warm water after using the bathroom and before eating

·    Covering our mouths and noses when we sneeze and/cough

·    Throwing away all of our trash (in the trashcan)

Whose Is This?

  As a reminder, we ask that you please be sure to write your child’s name on all of the personal belongings that you send with your children.

  This includes jackets, sweaters, extra clothes, backpacks, lunchboxes, sippy cups, etc. This will allow us to identify items more quickly, and reduce chances of mix ups!