March Gumbo Limbo Newsletter

Greetings, Gumbo Limbo Families,

February was a busy month on campus and in class. Here are some of the highlights:

Parent education was well attended. It was a pleasure to share information regarding the kindergarten year (presented by Ms. Karthi and Ms. Casey) and give lessons in the Gumbo Limbo classroom.

The love and play primary event was a fun-filled morning of games, bouncy houses, crafts, and general, all-around fun. Thank you to all volunteers!

The Gumbo Limbo bake sale brought in almost $800! We are so very grateful to everyone who baked, sold, set up and cleaned up. I will place the first order for science and geography books and materials this week. We are in need of maps and other Montessori materials, which I am pricing out to get the most bang for our buck.

Friendship Day in the primary program looked like this: Each class presented to the others handmade Montessori materials. The Banyans gifted us with a lovely patterning material made with colored hearts. This material is a prereading activity with left to right orientation and following a pattern. The Kapok class presented us with a beautiful and aromatic herb garden. This science material allows us to observe and care for living things, and sensorially enjoy using sight, smell, and touch. In turn, the Gumbo Limbos presented each class with a classification material for small/medium/large. We rolled the clay, cutting and painting five different shapes to sort.

Several staff members, myself included, attended a 12-hour training on the Orton-Gillingham Reading Program by the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education. Interestingly, some of the methods (e.g., using a sand tray for letter formation) have a very Montessori feel. We will be meeting to discuss how to implement what we learned into our own programs.

This week, we start our cultural immersion study. In the Gumbo Limbo classroom we are focusing on the continent of South America. We will start simply with the puzzle map, naming each country and talking about its location on the continent. We will move on to talk about different countries, biomes, peoples, animals, plants, food, and arts. Please keep an eye out for information regarding the at-home project each child will take part in.

In March, we will move away from our study of the body and into other vertebrate and invertebrate animals. The children have enjoyed making their own body maps. Younger children enjoyed drawing in and coloring themselves. Older students drew in organs and bones, and labelled them. We continue the season study with an introduction to Spring. We also continue with land and water forms, time, and directionality.

As always, I am available by appointment should you have specific questions about your child’s progress. Simply email me at suzanne@montessorikeywest.com

Mark your calendar:
March 2-6: Literacy Week: Book Exchange
March 12 and 13: Bake Sale — Toddler
March 1215: AMS Conference, Dallas, TX
March 16-20: Spring Break — No School
March 23: Professional Day — No School

Peace,
Ms. Suzanne and Ms. Jill

February Gumbo Limbo Newsletter

Greetings, Gumbo Limbo Families,

February was a busy month on campus and in class. Here are some of the highlights:

Parent education was well attended. It was a pleasure to share information regarding the kindergarten year (presented by Ms. Karthi and Ms. Casey) and give lessons in the Gumbo Limbo classroom.

  • The love and play primary event was a fun-filled morning of games, bouncy houses, crafts, and general, all-around fun. Thank you to all volunteers!
  • The Gumbo Limbo bake sale brought in almost $800! We are so very grateful to everyone who baked, sold, set up and cleaned up. I will place the first order for science and geography books and materials this week. We are in need of maps and other Montessori materials, which I am pricing out to get the most bang for our buck.
  • Friendship Day in the primary program looked like this: Each class presented to the others handmade Montessori materials. The Banyans gifted us with a lovely patterning material made with colored hearts. This material is a prereading activity with left to right orientation and following a pattern. The Kapok class presented us with a beautiful and aromatic herb garden. This science material allows us to observe and care for living things, and sensorially enjoy using sight, smell, and touch. In turn, the Gumbo Limbos presented each class with a classification material for small/medium/large. We rolled the clay, cutting and painting five different shapes to sort.     
  • Several staff members, myself included, attended a 12-hour training on the Orton-Gillingham Reading Program by the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education. Interestingly, some of the methods (e.g., using a sand tray for letter formation) have a very Montessori feel. We will be meeting to discuss how to implement what we learned into our own programs.

This week, we start our cultural immersion study. In the Gumbo Limbo classroom we are focusing on the continent of South America. We will start simply with the puzzle map, naming each country and talking about its location on the continent. We will move on to talk about different countries, biomes, peoples, animals, plants, food, and arts. Please keep an eye out for information regarding the at-home project each child will take part in.

In March, we will move away from our study of the body and into other vertebrate and invertebrate animals. The children have enjoyed making their own body maps. Younger children enjoyed drawing in and coloring themselves. Older students drew in organs and bones, and labelled them. We continue the season study with an introduction to Spring. We also continue with land and water forms, time, and directionality.

As always, I am available by appointment should you have specific questions about your child’s progress. Simply email me at suzanne@montessorikeywest.com

Mark your calendar:

March 2-6: Literacy Week: Book Exchange 

March 12 and 13: Bake Sale — Toddler

March 1215: AMS Conference, Dallas, TX

March 16-20: Spring Break — No School

March 23: Professional Day — No School

 

Peace,

Ms. Suzanne and Ms. Jill

January Gumbo Limbo Newsletter

Joyous and Prosperous New Year, Gumbo Limbo Families,

“The development of language is part of the development of the personality, for words are the natural means of expressing thoughts and establishing understanding between people.” —Dr. Maria Montessori
Although I have been a Montessori guide for well over 10 years, I find it imperative to review and study the philosophy regularly. Because we take into account each child’s personal development, this review guides me toward meeting the needs of each individual. Over the break, I reviewed the language curriculum, which is broken down into the following subcategories: oral language, writing, reading, and grammar. Let’s take a look at oral language.

The sensitive period for language development is from birth to roughly 7 years old. In the Primary classroom, oral language begins as soon as a child enters the class; however, the child is sensitive to hearing the sound of language spoken around and to them from birth.

“Talking to a child in slow, quiet speech, using clear pronunciation, precise usage and a varied choice of words, is important from birth, for he absorbs the patterns and tonalities long before he can produce them,” Rosa Covington Packard wrote in her book, The Hidden Hinge. The importance of language spoken to a child from birth is a key Montessori concept. In the Montessori classroom, oral language activities promote social and emotional development and serve as a basis for cognitive development. Language acquisition empowers the child to function appropriately within their environment and with others. It also allows for a refinement of the senses that aids in exploration, enabling the child to communicate with precision about what they experience.

In this area, lessons include:
Expressing Needs and Feelings
Social Conversation
Sharing Experiences
Gracious and Courteous Communication
This set of lessons has the adult giving language to the child in order to empower them socially and emotionally, and encourages the child to explore his world. Prereading Listening Games (including asking a child to follow an instruction or having them close their eyes, listen to a sound and guess what it is) and Pre-reading Function of Word Games (introducing adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions through games — e.g., “Please bring me the blue pencil” or “Can you walk across the room?” and then, “Can you walk quickly across the room?” and asking, “What did you bring?” or “What did you do?”). These games also encourage language comprehension and self-confidence by giving language to further describe experiences and foster self-expression.

Other oral language lessons build vocabulary to assist in both ordering a child’s environment and fulfilling their need for movement. Each of these lessons uses oral language, usually in the form of questions, to reinforce and test language acquisition based on refinement of the senses, another Montessori curriculum area in itself. For instance, “Can you bring me the other blue tablet?” or, a favorite in the Gumbo Limbo class, “Do you remember how the sphere rolls? Can you bring me something in the classroom that is the same as the sphere?” Each also requires the child to move from one area of the classroom to another some distance away, again accommodating the need for movement.

Finally, explaining to a child or answering their questions through a transition to a new place or simply through their daily schedule fosters self-efficacy and confidence. In Endangered Minds, Dr. Jane Healy explains that this shows a child “how to think and plan ahead — to act rather than react … to express his needs, ask questions, understand and organize his world, but also to think and reason about situations far from the one at hand.” In other words, oral language assists the child in developing planning functions for thinking through problems.

Maren Schmidt offers a number of short articles on the topic of language development and acquisition in her parent newsletter. Here is the link; I hope you enjoy!

Sensitive Periods: Language Development Is Critical

We are excited to be back at school and look forward to hearing all about the children’s winter break adventures!

Dates to remember:
January 18th – Comedy Show Fundraiser and Auction
Look for an email asking for donations to the Gumbo Limbo basket featuring local specialties and services.
January 20th – No classes – Martin Luther King Day

Ms. Suzanne and Ms. Jill

December Gumbo Limbo Newsletter

Dear Gumbo Limbo families,

“We discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.”
—Dr. Maria Montessori

As we end November, Ms. Jill and I would like to express our gratitude to you, our families, for your continued support and collaboration as we take part in the observation and facilitation of each child’s natural development.

Our Follow the Child event was beautiful. It was heartwarming and gratifying to observe each child proudly, or shyly, showing parents around their prepared environment. Some shared snack, others gave lessons on favorite materials as varied as sandpaper letters to teen beads. One child even gave a lesson on all 10 geometric solids, naming each, and then using the three-period lesson to test parents! I was so enthralled that I completely forgot to take pictures!

Thank you, also, for spending time with us for conferences. Jill and I enjoyed meeting with each family, sharing where your child is, where they are heading, and answering questions. Please know that I am available to meet whenever you have a question or would like an update. Simply email me at suzanne@keywestmontessori.com to set a time.

The Gumbo Limbos spent several days chopping onions, potatoes, carrots, garlic, and celery, as well as plucking the leaves of oregano and thyme, for the vegetarian lentil soup for Harvest Share. We talked about how each plant grows and whether we eat the roots or leaves of each. The sensorial experience was enjoyed by all as we smelled each vegetable or herb during preparation and then the soup itself as it cooked in the crockpots. Thank you to everyone for the donations of the ingredients and the loan of the slow cookers.

The kindergarteners presented the finished product to the Banyans and the Kapoks in the spirit of community and sharing. Finally, the three primary classes shared each class’s contributions as a community. Each class sang a version of “The Earth Is Our Mother” before partaking in our feast.

Several parents asked about the tools we use to chop in the classroom.
Here is a link to purchase the vegetable chopper:
https://smile.amazon.com/Vegetable-Crinkle-Cutter-French-Slicer

Children are more likely to try new foods when they are involved in the preparation. I often hear the remark, “Bobby doesn’t eat (fill in the blank)” or, “my child only eats (fill in the blank).” Most Gumbo Limbos tried the lentil soup. Here is the link for the recipe: https://ifoodreal.com/slow-cooker-vegetarian-lentil-soup/. Please note: we used fresh garlic, and the children loved the smell.

Also this month:
After reviewing the globe as a model of Earth, we made our own clay model of Earth, complete with continents. We cut it in half and flattened it to show the relationship between the globe and the continent puzzle map as well as the hemispheres. Much map work ensued.
Using Aline D. Wolf’s book I Live in the Universe, we went from our house address all the way through city, state, country, continent, and planet to the universe. The book ends with, “I wonder if there is anything bigger than the universe?” Please be sure we have your correct street address on file as we will begin learning and writing or tracing our address in class.
We read several books about gratitude and being thankful. We talked about what that feels like and named things for which we are grateful.
The kindergarteners continue to enjoy Reading Buddies with Ms. Sally and the lower elementary students.

Finally, please keep in mind during this very busy holiday season that maintaining your child’s rest and home schedule as much as possible aids in their sense of comfort, fulfills their need for order, and often prevents emotional outbursts.

“It seems to him, at this stage, a particularly vital matter that everything in his environment should be kept in its accustomed place; and that the actions of the day should be carried out in their accustomed routine.” —E.M. Standing, Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work

Dates to remember:
December 18 — Conch Train Light Tour

Peace,
Ms. Suzanne and Ms. Jill

November Gumbo Limbo Newsletter

Happy Fall Gumbo Limbo families,

It is November already! The Gumbo Limbo class has been growing and changing. Welcome to our new friends: Asa Blum, Mya Curtis and Andrew James. We are glad you are here!
Actually, all of the children, and the adults, continue to learn, grow and change in the Gumbo Limbo community each day. Should someone observe, our morning work cycle might go something like this?
By 9:00 a.m., each child is choosing their first activity, be it snack, a quiet chat with a friend, a book, or a specific material to sit and work with. For the next hour and a half or so this continues, with the children enjoying freedom of movement and choice of activity. The guide gives new lessons and the assistant aids children as needed. Then an interesting phenomenon takes place: false fatigue, that time in the morning work cycle when, to the untrained eye, it looks like chaos has broken out. Suddenly, every child is moving about, putting away work, using louder voices, and making bigger movements. An observer might be wide- eyed at this point! We know, however, that after a long period of work time, children need to resettle themselves. And we do not do much when this happens. We observe, redirect, and provide emotional support if needed. Within 10 to 15 minutes each child is again settling in with meaningful activity. It is a beautiful thing to observe Dr. Montessori’s Method in action.

This month we focused on:
●Continuing to learn the geometric solids: cube, sphere, cone, triangular prism, rectangular prism, triangle-base pyramid, square-base pyramid, ovoid, ellipsoid, and cylinder. We are recognizing these three-dimensional shapes in objects around the room and outdoors.
●Mixing primary colors to make secondary colors. The children enjoyed using red and yellow clay to make orange. This is a great fine motor exercise, as the clay is pinched and pulled to mix the colors.
●Celebrating all things fall! Books, life cycle pumpkin sequencing work in the Language area, scooping pumpkins in Practical Life, pin-punching and gluing leaves and leaf rubbing in Art, counting apples in Math, learning parts of a plant in Science, and studying seasons in Geography.

Worth repeating: We appreciate the effort families make to be on time each morning. Consistency and peace during transition times aids your child’s sense of well-being. Many families have taken the time to develop a little routine around saying goodbye in the morning. Thank you for trusting us to comfort and assist your child on those days when goodbyes are more challenging for them.

Please let us know via email or phone when your child will be absent. Each child is an important member of our community and is missed when not here. At group time, the children enjoy letting us know who is not present, and often ask why out of concern.

Below are a few upcoming events to mark on your calendars. Please read the school newsletter and e-mails to stay up to date on all activities in our community. November is a particularly busy month!

November 1: Celebrate Fall on Campus. The Primary classes will come together to celebrate Fall with pumpkin painting and other activities on the playground. Please arrive by 8:30 a.m. and drop off to the classroom while the playground is prepared. No costumes or face paint, please.

November 2: Follow the Child. This is a special opportunity for your child to share their Prepared Environment as they present lessons to you! This event is only for parents/guardians and child; please, no siblings allowed. Please remember: Be present with and follow your child!! Lessons are given either silently or very quietly. Focus is required, so please plan to socialize with other adults before or after this event. No photos or video, please. We will take pictures as appropriate. Sign up through SchoolCues.

November 11: Parent/Guide Conferences. Please sign up through SchoolCues for a 20-minute conference to discuss your child’s experience and growth. Be sure to review the conference report sent home by the 8th prior to attending.

Ms. Suzanne and Ms. Jill

October Gumbo Limbo Newsletter

Hello Gumbo Limbo families,

It has been a lovely start to the new school year. Thank you for your warm welcomes and open hearts. This is our first newsletter of the year. Newsletters are a great way to communicate what is happening inside our classroom and in our community.

Please know that if you would like to check in about your child’s well-being and progress, I am available by appointment after dismissal. The best way to contact me is via email at suzanne@montessorikeywest.com to set up a date. Thank you to those families who have already reached out. Additionally, we will have scheduled conferences in November. Look for a sign-up link via email in mid-October.

Returning and new Gumbo Limbo students are settling into the new school year with enthusiasm and curiosity. Jill and I, as the new assistant and guide, are enjoying getting to know each child. Returning children are exhibiting care and respect as they assist new students in feeling comfortable and independent in our Prepared Environment. The work cycle is peaceful and active. Dr. Montessori calls this transition “the normalization process,” and Gumbo Limbo is well on its way.

To aid the children in this process of confidence and peacefulness we spent August and September focusing on Grace and Courtesy. This curriculum area includes how to be in the classroom and in community. Some guidelines include:
Using walking feet and a quiet voice in the classroom
Choosing materials that the child has had a lesson on
Using a rug or table to do the work/exploration with the material
Restoring the material to working order and putting it back in its place
Cleaning up after oneself
Taking care of bathroom and clothing needs independently
Learning to express needs and wants verbally and with respect, and accepting the same from others

Group time etiquette is practiced daily as we share group snack and have short lessons on the geometric solids, colors, living and nonliving, the globe as a model of our Earth, or continents. The children are consistently able to sit quietly, raise hands to take turns sharing, and take part in answering questions and exploring new concepts.

The work cycles, three hours in the morning and an hour in the afternoon, are blocks of time when the child is free to explore materials that they have had lessons on, ask for new lessons, and be guided to a new skill or level with lessons suggested by the guide. This is an important time for each child to be allowed to practice with materials, building focus, concentration, and independence. The guide observes what is happening, where each child is in each curriculum area, and plans and gives new appropriate individual lessons. As Montessori guides we follow the child— each, individual child—and honor where they are and where they are going.

We appreciate the effort families make to be on time each morning. Consistency and peace during transition times aids your child’s sense of well-being. Many families have taken the time to develop a little routine around saying goodbye in the morning. Thank you for trusting us to comfort and assist your child on those days when goodbyes are more challenging for them.

Below are a few upcoming events to mark on your calendars. Please read the school newsletter and e-mails to stay up to date on all activities in our community.

October 7 to 11: School photos—Gumbo Limbo class and individual photos will be taken on October 8. Please be on time in the morning, as the class photo will be taken promptly at 8:30 a.m. We suggest brightly colored clothing.

October 14: Professional Day—No classes.

October 16, 5:30 p.m.: Parent Education Series Part 1—We will be offering a number of selections to choose from this evening.

Finally, thank you so much for your support. Thank you to Alizee’s dad for building shelves for the front porch area. They are beautiful and functional. Also, this has been my first experience with the Amazon Wish List, and we so appreciate everyone’s generosity in supplying items such as clay, a drying rack, curtain pullbacks, extra paint, a diffuser and oils, and more. These materials and extra touches truly make our classroom more organized, accessible, and beautiful. Feel free to stop in and take a look before or after school to see for yourself.

“Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment.”
Dr. Maria Montessori

Peacefully,
Ms. Suzanne and Ms. Jill

May Gumbo Limbo Newsletter

Dear Gumbo Limbo Parents,

Thank you to all the Parents that took time out of their busy day to meet up with us and chat about your child for Parent/teacher conference. Lots of good information was shared during this time. Thanks again for attending!

Our ‘Follow the Child’ at the beginning of the month was a great hit with the students, it was great to see the children so proud of their class and their work and so eager to share with you. Thanks for attending this special time with your child.

During the month of April the Gumbo’s have been fully immersed in learning about North America. So far we have talked about the different biomes of North America, bordering bodies of water, animals of N.America, flags of N.America and some natural geographical features. Over the next month we will continue our in depth study wrapping up all our learning on our Cultural Immersion day. Cultural Immersion is when each class shares their research of the Continent they have been studying with the rest of the school and parents. Cultural Immersion is combined with our annual Art show/fundraiser (students have been working on individual art projects and also our special fundraising art piece in the class). All classrooms will be open for all families to tour the rooms and admire the children’s work.

A list of the Gumbo’s choice of animal of North America for their chosen habitat follows, we encourage you to help with your child’s creativity and have fun!
Romy: Cougar. Bentley: Scorpion. Anila: Harvester Butterfly. Carlyn: Say’s Phobe (bird) Cannon: Bearded seal. Zol: Scorpian Sloane: Jack Rabbit. Jacob: Leopard Frog
Charlie: Red winged Blackbird. Samson: Red skimmer dragonfly. Alia: Monarch Butterfly. Alizee: Monarch Butterfly. Josephine: Fishing spider. Kuzey: Bat Ray. Magno: Striped chorus frog. Bliss: Desert pupfish. Jude: Gila monster (Reptile). Samantha: Desert tortoise. Esperanza:Golden Shiner (fish). Jackson: Egret Bird. Caden: Fishing spider. In order to display the Animal research properly for Cultural Immersion we ask the projects be bought to class no later than May 23rd.

Thank you all for giving us the opportunity to be part of your child’s life for this school year. We all absorbed, learned, worked and laughed together with our Gumbo Limbo Family!

Love and Peace
Ms. Pascale and Ms. Ann

April Gumbo Limbo Newsletter

Dear Gumbo Limbo Families,

What an amazing Montessori Conference the teachers had! There were many exciting work shops and displays with great ideas throughout. Connecting with fellow teachers and hearing inspirational speeches gave inspiration to all, we certainly had an educationally enlightening time.

With Spring in the air the children have been busy bees in the classroom, working diligently and constructively with their own work. For our Unit study we will be looking more in depth at North America, the Gumbo Limbo’s choice of study for our Cultural immersion

Some students have already started their studies on North America. Each year the Primary and Elementary students choose a Continent, learn about it’s cultures, and create animal habitats, learning about the animals that live there. We combine our end of year Art show with Cultural Immersion,all of the habitats are displayed and the classrooms decorated to show things the students have learned about in their continent study. Each child will be doing an animal study in which they will choose a particular animal and their habitat within North America. Most of their creativity and work will be created at home, we encourage you to help your child with their creativity in displaying their research on their choice of animals. This is such an exciting project!

Some examples of work that students have done in the past are , poster boards, picture book, shoe box sized diorama, models and habitat sanctuary. The ideas are endless! The children will be choosing their animals in the near future and a list will be made available soon. If any families have any books, artifacts, clothing, etc of North America please bring them in, we will look after them really well.

Cultural Immersion Day is combined with the Art fundraiser, the children will be working on their Fundraising art piece as well as their own individual art piece. The materials that the children will be using will include mahogany nuts – if you have any in your garden, please enjoy collecting them with your child and bring them in to school. If any parents would like to come in and help the students with these projects it would be wonderful to have you,(please don’t forget this time can be used towards your parent hours) please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Important Dates:
April 6th is ‘Follow the child’ we have time slots available for this event and a signup will be available on sign up Genius. Please look out for this as this is a really special time for you and your child, it is a chance when your child can be the teacher and show you their favorite lesson or lessons.Your child can have their own special uninterrupted time with you and they are so proud to be able to show you their work! you can relax and follow your child in their learning environment.

We have our Parent /teacher conferences coming up!
I will be creating an on line sign up for Parent/Teacher conferences soon, which will be starting from the week of April 22nd.

Peace, love, and thanks-
Ms Pascale and Ms. Ann

February Gumbo Limbo Newsletter

“Children become like the things that they love”
Maria Montessori

Dear Gumbo Limbo Families,
We have had a busy few weeks in the class as the Children got back into a daily routine after our winter break. We have been enjoying studying about different land forms on our planet. We also plan to continue with different land forms by building a paper volcano model as a continuing project in the classroom.

Our focus for February’s Unit study will be our Solar System, which is an exciting subject that the children love! We will be also looking at animals and their biomes and will be exploring the concept of love, friendship and kindness, finding ways to make each other and ourselves feel cared for and loved. We plan to also introduce our Peace pledge during our morning circle times:

“I pledge allegiance to the earth and to all life on this planet, all growing things and all species of animals and all races of people. I promise to protect all life on this planet and share our resources justly, so that all people can live together in good health and in peace.”
We will be also be celebrating friendships with school-wide projects. The primary classes will be exchanging a class project crafted by the children to share with each other for our friendship appreciation day.
Our fundraiser Comedy Show and Silent auction was very well attended and was so much fun. Thank you for supporting and attending this great event with your attendance and generous contributions towards our silent auction basket – we could not have done it without you! The raised funds from this event goes directly to our scholarship fund, helping bring all Children of our community to the Montessori philosophy.
Thank you, peace and love         Ms. Pascale and Ms Ann

January Gumbo Limbo Newsletter

Dear Gumbo Limbo Families,

We hope that you are having a wonderful winter break . We deeply appreciate all the gifts and thoughtful wishes and we thank you for all of your kindness.

Although December was a short month our classroom was very productive, and hard at work. We observed the classroom “normalize”. If you are not familiar with the Montessori lingo it’s the process of “normalization” described as a phenomenon that happens when the child shows spontaneous discipline, continuous effort, happy work, social sentiment of help and sympathy for others. Children happily engaged in their own choices and happily working away.

We would like to give Bliss a very warm welcome to our class as our new Gumbo Limbo friend. Welcome to our fold!

In January our unit study will be Continents, Water ,Land and Air. We will also continue with our Winter theme. If you have any books on any winter themes or any interesting winter related topics we love to share and read at our circle times.

Annual Silent Auction Basket:
Comedy & Cocktails is on Saturday, January 26th. It is such a wonderfully fun evening featuring cocktails, food, a hysterical comedy show and a silent auction. Every classroom is creating a themed basket to auction off to raise money for our scholarship fund. Our class is creating a basket full of kitchenware and gourmet items. I will send the sign up later in a separate email to sign up for the individual items for the Gumbo’s Auction Basket.

Thank you all so much for taking the time and attending the Parent/Teacher conferences we really appreciate you coming. If there is anything you may have forgotten to ask or if you have questions please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Remember the children might take a little longer to ‘bounce back into routine after the long break. Make the first week back to school an easy one for you and your child by getting to bed early, waking up early enough so you and your child have time to eat a relaxed healthy breakfast, and decide on clothes before bedtime the night before. Give yourself enough time so you don’t have to rush yourself or your child.

Our wish for love and peace to you during this holiday season. Happy New Year and a prosperous 2019!

Love, Ms. Ann and Ms. Pascale