Jogging for must! charities
UPDATE: We raised over $6500.00 for must! charities, Real Food for Real Children!
Great job!
Top runners from each class, along with Korey, present a check to Becky Gray and Scott Hawley form must! charities.
Another successful Jog-A-Thon at Children’s House!
Students ran a total of 3,597 laps or 359.7 miles, to raise money for must! charities- Real Food for Real Children.
Parents, if you have not already done so, please help your child collect their donations from sponsors. If you need thank you receipts, you can download them here.
International Peace Day and Buddy Announcement!
Friday, September 20, we celebrated International Peace Day at Children's House! Each child painted a small banner and wrote what peace meant to them. We then strung them from the beams of our patio... so beautiful! 
At 11:00 all the children in the school met outside on the patio steps. We lit a candle and sang, "Light a Candle for Peace", a song written a few years ago by Shelley Murley, a Montessori teacher whom I met at a conference in New Orleans. It has become a Children’s House. favorite. We also sang "What a Wonderful World".
The next part of our ceremony was the most anticipated... the announcement of the 2013/14 Buddies!! As each pair of Buddies was announced, they took each other's hand and found a place in the playground to go sit together and get to know each other. I went around taking the most adorable Buddy pictures ever!
After about 20 minutes, the buddies went on a "trust walk", the younger buddy guiding their older buddy with their eyes closed. We met in a circle at the back of the lawn. Now we were ready for our first Buddy Team Challenge....to take our bodies and form a giant peace sign on the lawn! From there we formed a giant line and formed a tight spiral. The finale was to uncoil ourselves from the spiral and form a circle again....not an easy feat but we did it!!
We ended by holding hands in our circle singing "Peace is the World Smiling". What a wonderful celebration and an inspiring group of children!
~Korey
Jog-A-Thon Donation Presented to North County Women's Shelter
Developing Independence with Montessori
From our first Parent Education Night:
What does “independent ownership” look like? In this video, “Layers of the Earth”, a level four student gives a lesson to the level three students. What you see is an independent level four (upper elementary) Montessorian who looked at a piece of candy and saw a physical geography concept. She envisioned a lesson and made it a reality. She prepared the materials and reviewed the concepts. And then she taught it to some children. No adult asked her to do this. She used her free time to prepare. For her, this was an extremely enjoyable activity and what she most enjoyed was the understanding that this was her lesson to give. And she had been doing this for three years in the lower elementary classroom too! ~Bill
Hot Lava!
This year at Children's House, we have divided our 98 “3 to 12 year old” students into four teams. Each team consists of children in Primary (preschool and Kindergarten), Lower El and Upper El. We will be getting the teams together at least once a month for dancing, singing and team building games.
Last week we had our first team challenge... to move the primary children across the lawn using the elementary children as a bridge.
The primary children could not touch the lawn (hot lava) so they had to stand on their teammates feet and get moved along the chain.
Pictures speak a thousand words so enjoy these adorable shots. You can see the concentration and the absolute delight in their faces! By the way, after a half hour, they only got half way across the lawn, so next month we pick up where we left off! More pictures to come! ~Korey
Kindergartners Celebrate 100 Days of School
On the 100th day of school, each student brings in 100 of something...
100 corks
100 legos
100 M&Ms
100 pennies
100 stickers
100 Cheerios
100 rose petals
100 rocks
100 dimes
They had 100 items for snack, they worked on dot-to-dots that go to 100, and they read a book called “100 Ways to Celebrate 100 Days”!
Children Present Jog-A-Thon Donation to ECHO
This morning, just before students did their dress rehearsal for our winter performance, the top lap-runners presented the money to El Camino Homeless Organization representative, Terri Sherwin. Terri was amazed and thankful for the amount of money the children raised and told them they were special for helping those in need. We are so proud of our students!
Terri also explained to the children, the shelter had recently taken in some new families and they now had eleven children staying at the shelter. Many of them will probably be there for Christmas. Hopefully our donation will help in some small way. Remember, a donation to ECHO, of $5, provides three meals and a warm bed for a man, woman or child for one night.
Loaves & Fishes
Each year our Kindergartners buddy up with our Upper Elementary students and together they take a field trip to the Loaves & Fishes distribution center at the National Guard Armory, in Atascadero, where they help to sort food that is distributed to the families in need. Before the field trip, the students and teachers talk briefly about where the food comes from, who will eat the food, and why they might need it. This is just one way that we can help people in our community!
The children start out with their own special job: counting out 10 tea bags and putting them in a baggy.
They work at that for about an hour...
and then begin sorting from the BIG pile of food items which involves sorting cans of vegetables, fruit, boxes of cereal, jars of peanut butter, etc.
They work until they are “done” - tired, exhausted, bored or finished - whichever comes first!
Phases of the Moon
They scraped off the Oreo cream to mimic each moon phase and then...
...they glued each finished cookie half to a paper plate. Sally then labeled each of the phases for them.
It’s all pretty self explanatory but if you want more detailed instructions, with a lesson plan for older children, here is a link at leosciencelab.com.
Jogging for ECHO - Today at 1:30!
Our jog-a-thon fundraiser is today from 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. This year, kindergarten and elementary students will run to raise money for the El Camino Homeless Organization. In November 2010, the weather certainly did not dampen their spirits, as they ran in the soaking rain and slippery mud. Last year, jog-a-thon students ran a total of 3,375 laps! Since each lap is approximately 800 feet, more than 500 miles were pounded out that day, and the school donated more than $6,000 to a charity similar to ECHO.
ECHO was recently informed, they will have to move out of their current location by May 2012. A donation to ECHO, of $5, provides three meals and a warm bed for a man, woman or child for one night.
The Atascadero News gave us a Shout Out in Wednesday’s paper. See page A-7.