Rapid Change
On Monday, they paved the parking lot. We couldn't drive on it until Wednesday, but, WOW, is it ever a beautiful site! They will paint the lines on Monday, Oct. 6.
On Wednesday, a giant semi truck brought the wood chips for our play structure. They call them EWC, Engineered Wood Fiber. They are made from cedar and smell really good. The truck has special moving floors and the wood gets pushed out automatically.
The pile was huge! It did not seem like it would all fit into the play area...
...but it did! We are hoping the children will be able to play on the structure very soon.
Today was really exciting! A big crane came into the yard and hoisted up the side walls. They even had to get a ladder and trim a tree branch to make things fit together.
Just to make things even more exciting, our Upper Elementary students are away on a field trip. They are on the Tole Mour, a tall ship out of Avalon, Catalina Island. This is the first time our school has ever done this type of field trip where the students actually stay on the ship for three days. They will probably have some wonderful stories to tell their buddies and all of us! Plus, they will have lots of fun surprises when they return to school!
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.
Swing Your Partner!
Check out the students in levels 3 through 6 tearin’ up the rug! The children spontaneously break out in song as they learn to square dance! ~Sally
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
Montessori Kickball!
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
Helium Rocket Launch
Upper Elementary launched a hydrogen rocket, while other students from the school counted down.
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
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!
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.
Historical Person Day
This year, we were so proud of and entertained by this illustrious group:
FRONT ROW, left to right:
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (Ruysser), Steve Jobs (Anne), James Dean (David), John Lennon (Landon), Ole Kirk Christiansen (Houston), Dorothea Lange (Marina), Bruce Lee (Jamie)
MIDDLE ROW:
Marilyn Monroe (Olivia), Martha Graham (Sophia), Marie Curie (Vivian), Vasco da Gama (Antonio), Bill Gates (Orion), Cleopatra (Ashley), Shaka Zulu (Zachary)
BACK ROW:
Beatrix Potter (Teddy), Mother Teresa (Season), Ivan Pavlov (Paris), Thomas Edison (Brayden), Dr. Seuss (Ethan), Leonardo da Vinci (Trey), Pallas Athena (Aspen), Bethany Hamilton (Emma)