FROM UNDER OUR BIG TREE: Week 27 News & Information

Classroom Day!
To express the same idea in still another way, I think that human knowledge is essentially active.
-Jean Piaget
Who are we?  We are revolutionaries:

We believe learning happens in relationships, therefore learning collaboratively nurtures growth. One of the ways we support the development of this skill is, Morning Meeting.  This is an important time to encourage co-operative learning and practice capacity building because we:

  • check in with each other about celebrations and challenges
  • solve problems together
  • gather inspiration from stories
  • learn new vocabulary
  • share our work
  • receive feedback
  • have the opportunity to hear about the offerings for the day
The protocols for facilitating Morning Meeting at TKG include:
  • sitting or kneeling in the area of meeting
  • honouring the speaker with attention and listening
  • asking related questions

Open Flow is our time to explore, learn and collaborate more deeply. In Open Flow at TKG, we utilize many languages (words, numbers and materials, so on and so on!) of the Whole Child to:

  • Develop or hone our abilities to observe carefully and think deeply
  • Explore questions posed by peers and teachers
  • Discover new materials or methods
  • Revisit previous work to refine and rediscover
  • Decompose and compose new theories
The protocols for facilitating Open Flow at TKG include:
  • developing an explicit plan for the time
  • choosing from an “open” activity or project
  • Honouring the Bill of Rights & Safety Guidelines
  • Clean up
  • Check Ins

We will support our sprouts by discussing all of these points further in our upcoming Parent meeting.  If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact Michelle and/or Lena.

Your feedback and questions are encouraged:

CLASSROOM/CURRICULUM/PARK DAY – Michelle Goldbach-Johnson
CLASSROOM – Yvette Fenton
CURRICULUM – Lena Garcia Kaufman
SCHOOL BUSINESS – Trish Valdez
Check Out Flickr!

 
Field Trip Preparation
TKG Info

Tending the Garden

Park Day – We are heading to EL RETIRO de Torrance!  Did you know that ‘el retiro’ means a resting spot?  It is also an amazing “central park” in Madrid, Spain…don’t forget sunscreen and water and here is your MAP!

TKG Monthly Parent Meeting: Our monthly hug meeting will be this Saturday 4/13, beginning at 9.30am, at TKG.  Childcare options will be announced if available.

ECHO Parenting Meeting: The next meeting will be on Tuesday 4/16

Family Tours/Visits: will resume again this coming Wednesday

The 5 Guiding Principals at TKG
  • CONSTRUCTIVISM, as teachers and parents, we provide the trellis on which students will expand their existing knowledge
  • WHOLE CHILD, cognitive, physical and social/emotional are inseparable
  • BRAIN FUNCTION & DEVELOPMENT, students are sensory learners, we will honor each student’s unique developmental map
  • CAPACITY BUILDING, supporting the development of creative thinkers who are encouraged to solve problems
  • CO-OPERATIVE LEARNING, small groups, low ratios, mixed ages and generations
Parent Teacher Info

Parent/Teacher Corner

Teaching Focus – Cooperative Learning: While Constructivism focuses on personal experience as the foundation for learning new material, Cooperative Learning utilizes not only the student’s own experience to solidify knowledge, but also uses the experiences of others. READ MORE…

Teacher Focus – Foot Massage: A brisk foot massage in the morning can stimulate energy for the tasks ahead. In the evening, slow massage on the feet can help soothe the day’s stress. READ MORE…

For your Toolbox – “Go ahead. Throw your children around. It’s good for them, say Anthony T. DeBenedet and Lawrence J. Cohen…” READ MORE…

PT SCHEDULE, WEEK OF Apr 8…
Monday – BW/TS
Tuesday – RD
Wednesday – NL/TV
Thursday – LS/EL
Friday – ME

The Seeds (Core Standards)

We are creating intention around these standards:

READING
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.7 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.4 Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.5 Recognize common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems).

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.6 With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.

WRITING
English Language Arts Standards – Grade 1 Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.2 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.7 Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of books by a favorite author and express opinions about them).

MATH
Geometry

CCSS.Math.Content.K.G.A.2 Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size.

CCSS.Math.Content.K.G.A.3 Identify shapes as two-dimensional (lying in a plane, “flat”) or three-dimensional (“solid”).

CCSS.Math.Content.K.G.B.4 Analyze and compare two- and three-dimensional shapes, in different sizes and orientations, using informal language to describe their similarities, differences, parts (e.g., number of sides and vertices/“corners”) and other attributes (e.g., having sides of equal length).

CCSS.Math.Content.K.G.B.5 Model shapes in the world by building shapes from components (e.g., sticks and clay balls) and drawing shapes.

CCSS.Math.Content.K.G.B.6 Compose simple shapes to form larger shapes. For example, “Can you join these two triangles with full sides touching to make a rectangle?”

CCSS.Math.Content.1.G.A.1 Distinguish between defining attributes (e.g., triangles are closed and three-sided) versus non-defining attributes (e.g., color, orientation, overall size); build and draw shapes to possess defining attributes.

CCSS.Math.Content.1.G.A.2 Compose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, triangles, half-circles, and quarter-circles) or three-dimensional shapes (cubes, right rectangular prisms, right circular cones, and right circular cylinders) to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape.1

CCSS.Math.Content.1.G.A.3 Partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, fourths, and quarters, and use the phrases half of, fourth of, and quarter of. Describe the whole as two of, or four of the shares. Understand for these examples that decomposing into more equal shares creates smaller shares.

FEATURED WORKSHOP – TKG Echo Parenting Class
with Renee Dokmanovich
NEXT MEETING: April 16, 7pm @ TKG

From the TKG Office:

  • Tuition is PAST DUE
  • Fundraiser Contributions are due on May 1st. You will be receiving a balance update in the coming week.
  • Amazon/Scrip Orders: Keep ordering as some of what you spend will be credited to your Fundraiser Contribution (questions, please ask Lori)
  • April 8th: Monthly Board Meeting.  Guests are welcome to attend from 7pm to 7:30pm.  The location is tbd.
Thank you Families!  Admin Questions, please email t.valdez@knowinggarden.org.
“Hot can be cool, and cool can be hot, and each can be both. But hot or cool, man, jazz is jazz.”
― Louis Armstrong

Resource Of The Week

The Healthy Mind Platter Overview

by Dr. Dan Siegel

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently replaced its food pyramid with a needed revision, a “choose my plate” pictorial example of a dish of food groups to remind us of what a daily diet should consist of to optimize physical health. What would be the equivalent of a recommended daily diet for a healthy mind?

With an obesity epidemic rampant in the US, this change is welcome and hopefully will inspire people to be aware of how they compose their day’s food intake. Our mind, embodied in our extended neural circuitry and embedded in our connections to others and even the way we relate to our planet, is also in need of careful attention to establish and maintain mental health. Poverty, hunger, and homelessness threaten the essential needs of many throughout the world.  War and natural disasters fill many lives with fear and suffering. And even for individuals in more stable environments, modern life can be filled with an overwhelming focus on the outer world and an experience of being isolated from meaningful connections with others. Multi-tasking with its fragmented attention and the sense of becoming overwhelmed with information overload frequently fracture a sense of wholeness. In each of these conditions, the embodied and socially embedded requirements for a healthy mind are not being created in daily life throughout the world. Many are deficient in a daily regimen necessary for mental well-being.

So what would be included in The Healthy Mind Platter? READ MORE…

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