Dear Parents,

It is hard to believe that we are into our 3rd month of the school year. Not only have all of the classes been doing a tremendous amount of class work, but the extra activities both inside and outside of the class are also impressive. Most of what has been done has been reported in the weekly newsletters, and therefore, the other classes did not get a chance to hear about them.

At the pre-school, Dharmeeka talked about "Johnny Appleseed" who walked all over the country planting apple seeds. They discussed the various types of apples which can be found in the grocery store, and were able to taste Gala, Red delicious, Golden delicious, Granny Smith, Empire, and Jonathan apples. They then coated half of an apple with lime juice while leaving the other half of an apple without. The lime coated part remained white whereas the other part turned brown. This was a demonstration of how to keep cut apples fresh (Oxidation). Then they split the class into four groups, one group with a whole apple, another with half an apple, another with a third of an apple, and the last group with one quarter of an apple. This introduced a little about fractions. The one presentation covered three areas (cultural, math, and science), plus don't forget the snack.

The children at the Riverside campus have been busy trying to reach their reading goals for the Book It! program sponsored by Pizza Hut. Many of the students have already reached their goals. The kindergartners look forward to the six minute test. They really enjoy this new challenge. The campus also has those wonderful trees, with millions of leaves and fresh walnuts every morning, so the children are becoming experts at sweeping and raking leaves. They have collected several pounds of walnuts for snack and Christmas Craft Faire projects.

Anastasia's 6-9 class is also deep into the Book-It! program, along with outside gardening projects. They have taken over the responsibility of several of the planter boxes. They took a field trip to Capital Nursery and purchased some flowers and, with the assistance of the adolescent interns, have planted Pansies, Lantana, and Tulip bulbs. When we had to cut down several large branches from the eucalyptus trees, due to the wind storms, their class had a great time taking the smaller branches to the street. It took the whole class 10 minutes to move them. They found the one time it was appropriate to pick up sticks quite fun.

Anastasia's class has also spent a great deal of time with their timeline studies. These put a little perspective on how long the earth has been in existence and the development of the different species.

Anastasia's class kept abreast of the triathlon event in Kona, Hawaii, by e-mail, as Sara Burroughs' mother went to it to film Sally Edwards compete. We received several e-mails over the net, and had instant results. Upon their return to Sacramento, Sally came by and shared her experiences with the Freeport Campus. This was quite an event. We held a mini triathlon. Instead of swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles, and then running 26.2 miles all in one day, the children hopped one length of the basketball court (moving their arms like they were swimming), then scooted another length on a chair (simulating the bike ride), and then ran across the yard and back. If you add up the miles of the triathlon, it is 140.6. Wow! There was a heat for each age group and then an awards ceremony, where the winners received a book Triathlons for Kids, by Sally Edwards. Everyone received a sticker for participating. Then Sally showed the children her racing equipment and medals, answered questions, and autographed books. Sally opened the eyes of many children to the concept of triathlons and to get physically active.

We highly encourage parents to get their children involved in activities outside of school. The more experiences they can gain, the better. At this age, activities that give them some sort of physical activity is important. But it is even more important to have them involved in activities that teach them to focus. Developing coordination is great, but the ability to concentrate is more important. As they grow, their bodies change and they practically have to relearn everything, but when they learn to focus, it is easier to adjust to the changes.

Heidi's class is getting into California History, with a field trip to Sutter's Fort, and a guest speaker (Lochie Paige, the great great granddaughter of George Donner), on the Donner Party. She read a story about the Donner Party and then answered many questions. For those of you that do not know, they started with 87 and 40 survived. The State Park system has a new passport book that each of her children bought while at Stutter's Fort. The concept is to go to each of the California State Parks and get the book stamped. This is similar to the National Park books that we also have the children get when we go on our spring trips and stop at National Parks.

Heidi and Anne's classes combined on projects for Global Connection on the Internet and the Stockmarket Game sponsored by the Sacramento Bee. We had Jim Coffin of Dean Witter come in and talk to the children about the Stock Market. For the project, the two classes were combined, and split into three groups. They each had an imaginary $10,000 with which to buy stocks and follow the market. This project lasts 8 weeks, and the school with the most money at the end wins. The children have found that they can follow the market in the paper or go on the internet for instant results. After 5 weeks, they are about even and lucky to be there. The market has really gone up and down. October is usually the most volatile month.

Anne's class has also been very busy, starting with the children interning in the other classes, one morning a week. They went to the ropes course at Sac State, where they participated in many confidence building experiences including a wall climb and high beam crossing (Erin Keikoan and Tyara Sescon). They have been taking golf lessons at Bing Maloney for PE one day a week and will finish with a 9 hole round on the executive nine. For completing the course, they received a Junior Golf Card that enables them to play golf at the city courses for 40% off until age 18. They got very involved in fixing up the campus by rebuilding the gate to the street, chopping and stacking wood, installing the basketball backboard, etc. Then they are involved in the Globe project, which basically set the school up as a weather station and are uploading the information onto the Internet. They take measurements on the rainfall, cloud cover, and are conducting experiments on the quality of the Sacramento River across from the Riverside campus. They made their Secchi disk for measuring turbidity, and also measured the distance across the river using trigonometry, without getting wet. The entire class is acting as a cohesive unit, accomplishing a great deal, and are a joy to watch.

We would like to thank the parents for their support for the Heroic Journey meetings. This project with the adolescent class is getting started with parent and staff mentors. We are also getting community support for ceremonies later in the year.

Then, of course, we have been having our safety drills, both fire and earthquake. With all that and field trips, weekly class lunchens, etc., we have accomplished a great deal in just two months.

Since November is the month to give thanks, the Riverside and Pre-school campuses will participate in making the Thanksgiving Stone Soup and Indian style corn bread. Each child will need to bring in a vegetable to school by Monday, Nov. 24. Look at the weekly newsletter for more information pertaining to this subject. The children will help cook and serve the corn bread and soup. The pre-school will be dismissed at 12:00 on that day, but daycare will be provided as usual. Freeport campus will celebrate this event with a formal Thanksgiving luncheon, on the 26th. Anne's class will be responsible for the Thanksgiving luncheon, with the assistance of Heidi's students. Anastasia's class will be contributing their Stone Soup to the feast. Since this is a formal event, all children at the Freeport campus must dress in formal attire (coat and tie for boys, dress for girls) for the occasion. In preparation for this event, we will not be having the typical Wednesday luncheons on the 5th or 12th.

Our International Day alternative to Halloween at the Pre-school was a great success. In fact, the entire month of parents coming in to talk to the children and bringing snacks has been great. Parents have talked about India, Ireland, Israel, and even brought Barbie dolls from around the world. The culmination of the month was on Friday, when all of the children came to school in their international attire and they walked around the building. Then, they made a circle and each area of the world came to the center of the circle. Dharmeeka brought out a map with flags of each of the countries they had snacks from. The children not only called out the continent, but the country and identified the flag as well. Many of the parents agreed that they, themselves could not identify the flags. We really want to thank the parents for their support. So many of the outfits were very authentic. The event concluded with the children singing "It's a Small World."

At the Riverside Campus, our historical person theme and time line was also very successful. The children ranged from Julius Ceasar to Princess Diana. Each of the children stepped forward and gave their name and a brief biography, some were so shy that they only gave the name of their historical characters. However, it helped them gain a perspective of when everyone lived.

At the Freeport Campus had their historical person timeline at 1:00 PM. They ranged from Cleopatra to Neil Armstrong. However, the 9-12 class played our version of 20 questions to figure it all out. Congratulations to all of the students on their hard work studying and dressing as their person. The adolescent class put on 2 skits for everyone and dressed as these characters for the day. One play was on Annie Oakley, the other on the deaths of Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy.

Our current Sports Term ends November 6. Thereafter, we will resume our normal schedule, and our pick up time will be from 3:00 to 3:15 each day. The next Sports Term starts on January 6. We have had a successful Sports Term and would appreciate feedback.

Book orders are due by Friday, November 7. The publishers (not South Land Park Montessori School!!!) guarantee that the books will be back in time for Christmas. Books make great Christmas gifts for your child. If you wish to order books, please return the completed form(s) with cash or checks made payable to each of the individual book clubs, and include each order form. It is also very important to fill out each order form completely. You would be amazed at the number of orders we get without the child's name.

Our Christmas Craft Faire will be held on Saturday, December 6, from 10:00 to 1:00 at the Freeport campus. All participants must be at the Freeport campus by 9:30 AM at the latest. Invite relatives, neighbors, and friends to join us on this great day. Please send in a couple of dollars in coins inside a little tin or box, so the children can make change. The children are excited that all the money they make on crafts will be for their own use. If you have any excess materials, beads, special paper, or even neat ideas which you can contribute toward the Craft Faire, let your child's teacher know. We hope that the pre-school parents and children will also join us on this day. This is our unit on economics for the children to learn the value of work and profit. Please encourage them to make their own crafts. Please contact Steve, a week or so in advance, if you would like your child to have a food concession.

Parent Conferences will be held Thursday and Friday, December 11th and 12th, except for Anne's class. The sign up sheet will be made available about 2 weeks before the conferences. We allow 45 minutes for each elementary conference and 20 minutes for pre-school conferences. For the two days of conferences the school is closed, however, daycare is available. There is no charge during the time of your conference. Standard charges apply to the balance of the time.

As the year progresses, we collect pictures to put in the yearbook. If you have double prints and would like to submit pictures taken at school this year, please send them in. If you want the unused pictures returned, please attach a note.

We would like to remind all parents that school starts at 8:30 AM. Children should be dropped off before 8:30 AM. With winter setting in, children are showing up later and later. Please be prompt. The concept of dropping children off with the teachers taking your child out of the car only works when all parents follow the procedure (pages 9 &10 of the Parent Handbook). If you need to walk your child in (it is with the assumption that this is not happening during the circle drop off periods), please do so by parking your car away from the traffic zone. It is for your child's safety as well as the safety of others.

Unfortunately, we have another staff change. Marie has decided to move on. However, we have already found a new French teacher. Souad Betancourt will be starting on November 10. She is from Morocco and is a native speaker of French. She is also a credentialed French Teacher. Hopefully, she will be able to jump in smoothly and create a wonderful French program.

SCHOOL FIELD TRIPS

Teacher	Day and Date	Time	Place
Anne	Friday, November 14	11:00	Rock and Mineral Show
Heidi	Friday, November 14	11:00	Rock and Mineral Show
Anastasia	Monday, November 10	9:00	Airport
Ranji	Thursday, November 13	10:00	Capital Nursery
Dharmeeka	Wednesday, November 12	10:00	Post Office

SCHOOL EVENTS and HOLIDAYS

Date	Day	Event	Comments
Nov. 7	Friday	Asia Party	Children only
Nov. 11	Tuesday	VETERAN'S DAY HOLIDAY	No Daycare
Nov. 27	Thursday	THANKSGIVING DAY HOLIDAY	No Daycare
Nov. 28	Friday	THANKSGIVING DAY HOLIDAY	No Daycare
Dec. 6	Saturday	CHRISTMAS CRAFT FAIRE	10:00 to 1:00
Dec. 11	Thursday	Parent Conferences	Daycare Available
Dec. 12	Friday	Parent Conferences	Daycare Available
Dec. 22	Monday	Christmas Vacation Starts	No Daycare
Jan. 5	Monday	Return to School

All in all, we are very proud of what has been accomplished so far this year, and how smoothly all of the classes are running. Please send in your comments. Thank You.