Julia's Garden Newsletter?: Garden Day Re-Cap, Spring Enrollment Forms, School Picture Day, Fall Fund Drive Is Open for Giving! How YOU Can Support "Farm to Fork" and More!

Hello, Garden Greats!

In the Garden 🌷
Our fall weather continues to leave us in flux: between rain, sun, wind, wet and now, COLD, our bodies and our wardrobes are in a state of constant confusion.  Thankfully the rain held off long enough for our fantastic Garden Committee and amazing Garden Day volunteers to get those seeds in the ground last weekend.  Whew!!!  The garden looks great and we had a full house of helpers to get ‘er done.  I am grateful for this amazing community and can’t wait to share the garden’s bounty with your children this season.

Don't forget to keep checking the calendar for your Compost Care Week: this month, the Main House community reports for duty.  Thanks, friends, for helping to keep these systems flowing!

As our garden grows, Ms. Natalie is continuously forming weekly lessons at a child-sized level so our students can participate and understand the metamorphosis.  One staff conversation that came up during CD day was centered around what a gift being near these food-bearing plants is for these children.  We also shared how very few of us had the opportunity to learn first-hand where our food comes from.  The garden offers a wealth of knowledge with endless teaching opportunities built in.  We are lucky to be living in a community that understands and supports our mission that grows with each unfolding project.

Fall Fund Drive Begins! 🙌🏻
Our 2nd Annual Fall Fund Drive is open to the parent community starting today!  Donate and receive your tax exempt receipt before the end of the 2018 for a benefit to both your school and your deduction level.  We successfully achieved our goal of 100% staff participation in less than 2 weeks and raised $5,300 towards our goal of $25,000.00.  Fantastic work, staff!!  Parent community, you now have multiple ways to help us reach our goal: each ticket sale that comes through is also a contribution to the Fall Fund Drive and if you wish to become a sponsor, each donor at the $500+ level also receives 2 free tickets to the event.  If you have local business, this is a great way to increase exposure.  Every donor at the $1,000+ level receives advertising space at the event and recognition in Edible Austin’s Jan/Feb edition.  Please let Amina Garrison am@aminamichele.com know if you are interested in being a sponsor and join our growing list of awesome local businesses who are getting involved!

Another way to get involved is to donate whimsical, mismatched or antique forks and cloth napkins.  Our theme is "Farm to Fork" and every party-goer will receive a personalized fork and napkin at check-in to sample goodies from vendors.  If you know of a restaurant who would like participate in this super-fun way to try out local eats, let us know!  We have just 2 weeks left to secure food vendors in order to allow enough time to prepare for the event.

Fork and napkin donations should arrive in a bag with your child’s name on it and can be handed to Danielle, Phoebe or Carissa at pick up or drop off until we break for Thanksgiving.  This is something fun your child can help with, maybe he/she has a fork and/or napkin he wants to pick out.  Donation credits for each fork + napkin set will be placed on the name tags, giving each ticket a personal feel.  We are looking forward to making this event a total community project, take a look at our Eventbrite page and see all of the great local businesses that are already helping us make this a success! 

In the Classroom ✏️
YCC and Hay House welcome new friends this week: Emma Mery and Emile and Aldo Humpierres recently joined our IC environments.  We are so happy to have them with us!  Casa also welcomes new faces: Oliver Maniscalco, Andrés Mery and Hudson Fox all started school these past two weeks.  We are sending a great big JG welcome to each of these children as well as their families this month!

Our IC environments have been busy stabilizing routines and preparing for the change of season.  Fall celebrations inside an IC are recognized by parallel experiences in place of direct lessons.  In our glue box, we may find pictures of pumpkins to work with instead of sunshines; during Circle, you can hear our children singing a song about falling leaves to help them understand why the ground is now covered in orange and brown; language work always reflects the change of season, which helps the young child make a connection from his learning world to the outside world. 

Our Primary environments will be celebrating fall this year by recognizing Dia De Los Muertos. Casa families are sharing their culture with our students - thank you to the Martinez- Watts and Mader families in advance!  Main House, see below for a note from Mrs. Meagan:

Cooling temperatures usher in a change of season this time of year. Fall brings new opportunities for learning about the we world live in. When choosing cool weather clothing for your child imagine how they will manage their things independently at school. Look for jackets and sweaters with large buttons or easy snaps and big, strong, zippers that don’t snag easily. Support children by setting them up for success. Take time to practice clasps on new clothes. You will be surprised by how much interest they have in figuring these little things out. Slow down with them and take time to practice the simplest daily tasks like buttoning your new rain coat. Autumn themes of leaves falling, pumpkins, acorns, spiders, and all things Halloween inspire language, culture, and expression lessons. The children were captivated by a dead Spiny Texas Lizard discovered on the playground Monday. We collected it in an observation box for further classroom study. Perfect timing for our next investigation of the five vertebrate classes! We have now moved on from fish and are absorbing everything we can about reptiles and amphibians. Keep your eyes open for more information coming soon about our Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos celebrations!

School Picture Day 📸
School Picture Day with Maggie Messer Photography is coming soon, be on the lookout for a note telling you when and how to dress your youngster for their pics in your JG tote.  This year, instead of pre-ordering, you will have the option to purchase your selections online in early November.  Plenty of time for those prints to arrive which make such great holiday gifts!  Please note if you do not plan to purchase prints your child will still be photographed on picture day.

Spring Enrollment 2019 📆
Spring Enrollment forms are due October 29th and a copy will be sent out to you in a separate email this week that you can fill out electronically.  Currently enrolled students have first right of refusal for Spring Enrollment.  Submitting your enrollment form and deposit by the due date will hold your child’s space; after October 30th we will open enrollment to our wait-listed friends.

Parent Ed 👨‍👩‍👦
For those of you who were unable to make our IC & Primary parent ed talks this month, you can now tune into our podcast, Supporting Our 21st Century Children, on multiple channels, including Stitcher!  We hope you will find this podcast to be a useful resource.

Our second fall series of the Parent-Tot Series starts Friday. This class still has space and if you haven’t had a chance to take the class yet, we encourage you to do so!  This will be our last parent ed class offering of the semester.

Admin Dates & Reminders ☑️
October 15th: Fall Fund Drive is Open!!
October 19th: Parent-Tot Series II Begins
October 28th & 29th: School Picture Day
October 29th: Spring Deposits and Enrollment forms due
November 29th: Farm to Fork Fundraiser Event at Vuka Collective

Enjoy this fall weather and these super-great shots!

Sincerely,

Katherine Parlette
Founder, Director
Julia's Garden Montessori 🌸
(512) 790-4094
juliasgarden@me.com
www.juliasgardenmontessori.com

“I did not invent a method of education.  I simply gave some little children a chance to live.” - Maria Montessori

Ms. Natalie takes her Music Lesson outside this week: less transitions makes for a smoother work period in the YCC and left plenty of time to help make new soil for the garden. New student, Emma, takes a curious look at our feathered friends.

Butterscotch enjoys a chin scratch then Ms. Natalie helps our YCC friends with a planting lesson. Later, Will and Calder work in the sand pit and Boze tries out the new bridge connecting the YCC to the Garden.

New friend, Aldo, works with stamps while Varenna gives Orion tips on bead stringing.  Senna and Vivian work on gluing fall pumpkins and Harvey does apple work, all reflective of the changing of seasons.

Stefano enjoys scrubbing work and Orion shows us the okra is ready to bake!  Varenna slices crispy fall apples to complement the Snack Time menu.

Butterscotch gets some love from a delighted Vivian. Ms. Natalie gives a lesson on planting to the Hay House while Varenna listens intently. Brothers, Aldo & Emile, find each other on the playground and have fun with bubbles on the porch together.

Ms. Natalie reads to our Early Arrival friends in Casetta, then we see double birthday celebrations of Ruairidh and Lion above last week. Not pictured, but also celebrated, was our pal Aiden who turned 6 on Friday!  Lion works on the thousand chain and despite all of the birthday fun, we see a busy classroom of academic focus in the Main House last week.
Ms. Siu Gi gives one of her last lessons to Casa before she delivers her baby next week (!) New student, Oliver, works on strengthening his pincer grasp and new pal, Hudson, works on writing while Felix watches.  Dylan selects sandpaper letters to practice during the Work Period.

Fine motor practical life work: Beau does spice grinding, Sam works on wood polishing, Hudson waters our plants and Jakson, Dylan and Beau get busy with transfer and puzzle work at the round table together.

Zahra enjoys flower arranging before helping to cook a fall favorite, butternut squash, with her friends.  New friend, Andres, and Junali, give it their seal of approval!

Outside of Casa, we are busy bees everyday! Friends work and play in the outdoor area then happily transition to the playscape area.  Go Sam, go!!