Dear Kathmandu Families,

Thank you all for your support this week as we settle into a new year!

I have loved getting to know your students more and am excited for what's to come. For this first month we will focus a lot on class culture and routines to build a foundation for the rest of the year. We've started going over our four school rules (Take Care of Yourself; Take Care of Each Other; Take Care of Your School; and Take Care of Our World) and deciding how we will interpret each of these rules.

We've also been brainstorming what type of classroom we want to be in. The students all said things like peaceful, nice, pretty, and calm, so I feel like we're off to a good start!

Montessori relies a lot on students developing independence, a key life skill we will focus on building all year long. Parents can help at home by encouraging students to do things for themselves as much as they are able. This article has some great ideas for how you can help here.

Beginning of year assessments update: We will begin MAP testing for kindergarten students next week. KINDER STUDENTS ONLY should bring labeled headphones to school as soon as possible. The MAP test will assess reading and math skills in an online "smart test" that increases and decreases in difficulty depending on how a student answers. (More info here if you're curious.)

A look ahead:

We'll be talking about invertebrates including pollinators (these will be a big focus this fall) as we also prepare a list of what we want to plant in our garden and talk about seeds and plants in prep for fall planting. If you can donate any compost or soil to help our rather anemic garden before we dig in, please let me know! We'll also be looking at the Earth from the inside out, and investigating what our planet is made of. Math and language lessons are given individually or in small groups, so each student will be getting lessons based on where he/she is at in the curriculum. Science and culture are the areas we explore more as a large group.

***Save the date:

October 20th we will be participating in the butterfly festival at the Pearl! Our older students will have the opportunity to do some presentations and our younger students are invited to come participate in the many educational booths at the festival. Last year a group of students attended and had a chance to tag monarch butterflies as they were released for their migration journey to Mexico. This is on a Sunday so parents will have to bring students to the festival and stay with them if they choose to participate. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Best, Ms. Erin