Thanksgiving Feasts are a wonderful tradition at Five Oaks Academy. While every program’s traditions vary, all of the classrooms take time to reflect on the many things that we are grateful for in our lives. Gratitude is an important part of our Grace and Courtesy curriculum at FOA. Additionally, research supports a strong link between gratitude and an individual’s happiness because it allows a person to refocus on what they have instead of what is lacking. All of us at Five Oaks are thankful for our wonderful students and parents!
It’s not happiness that brings us GRATITUDE.
It’s gratitude that brings us HAPPINESS.
-Unknown
Photo complements of Guy Adamsons Photography
Since pre-Columbian times, the Day of the Dead, also known as Día de Muertos, has been celebrated in Mexico and other Latin countries around the world. This is not a gruesome, scary, or sad ritual as the name may suggest; it is a beautiful day in which many Latin American countries happily remember their departed loved ones and celebrate their lives, much like when we go to a graveyard to leave flowers on a grave-site.
tudents learn about this special ritual and partake in the ceremonial Day of the Dead bread called pan de muerto, the traditional Mexican sweet bread that symbolizes a fraternal offering to the souls during this celebration.
Five Oaks Academy presents the second event in our 2015-16 Artisan Series: Cooking with Personal Chef Vince Bienish. You will enjoy appetizers and drinks while creating your own Asian Chicken Wrap and Signature Cocktail, The Pink Pineapple, with Chef Vince as your guide. Chef Vince is a personal chef who works with many local farms for fresh farm to table ingredients. He will share some of his extensive culinary knowledge and provide helpful cooking tips. There is no charge for this event and it is open to the public. Please join us on November 12, 2015 from 6-7 p.m. Reserve your seat on Eventbrite at http://tinyurl.com/o724ke2 by Monday, November 9.
Many of our Five Oaks Academy teachers and Administrators headed to Swansea, SC for the 15th Annual South Carolina Montessori Alliance (SCMA) Conference on October 23 and 24. SCMA is a non-profit leadership organization of individuals representing public and private schools uniting together to enhance the growth of Montessori education in South Carolina. This year’s conference offered dynamic Montessori speakers, interactive workshops and opportunities to share ideas among colleagues. The primary focus of the conference was how to implement and grow STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programs in our schools for all students, primary through adolescence. The teachers who attended the conference were inspired with many great ideas to share and implement in their classrooms. Five Oaks was pleased to be a sponsor of this year’s SCMA conference along with Lander University.
Five Oaks Academy is very proud that our own Kathleen Trewhella-Grant, FOA’s Executive Director, was asked to be a presenter at this year’s International Montessori Council Conference in Florida. She will present on “Why Happiness Matters”. It is so impressive that her class is at full capacity and registration has been closed. Conferences are such an important way to grow and expand on best practice in Montessori as well as a way that FOA leaders show their commitment to being life-long learners. The Annual Fund graciously helps support these types of continuing education opportunities for teachers and administrators.
Students in Lower Elementary look forward to the Character Museum every year. Parents, grandparents, special guests and FOA students from other levels are invited to the classroom to view the Lower Elementary students dressed as their favorite character from children’s literature. The students prepare for this event through a homework project. This project is multi-faceted and has several goals. The students choose a character and are then asked to write a letter to their teacher as if the student was that character. They must then plan a costume to wear during the Character Museum, including a list of the things they will need and a picture of what the outfit will look like. The final step is to write a dialogue in the voice of their chosen character that they will share with their guests during the Character Museum. The students perform a Character Study by examining the qualities and characteristics that make up their chosen character, gain experience in writing letters, and take on the perspective of their character by writing their dialogue in first person.
This project utilizes skills such as critical thinking, analysis of information, application of knowledge, communication, and creativity. All of these skills will be needed to prepare students for the 21st Century workforce. Additionally, the students are asked before they begin the assignment, as they are in every homework assignment, to break it down into steps and plan when they will complete each step over a week’s time. This reinforces the time management aspect of our program that we work on everyday in our classrooms that will guide students throughout their life. The Character Museum is an empowering experience as our students take ownership of their chosen character.
Montessori Mornings is an event held several times a year where students invite a parent or special guest to come and experience the Montessori classroom. This event gives the students an opportunity to share the lessons they are working on in the classroom with their loved ones. It is amazing to see the pride and confidence the students exemplify as they demonstrate their lessons. Since many of the lessons involve hands-on materials that are specific to Montessori, it is an excellent way for parents and special guests to familiarize themselves with their children’s lessons and the materials.
Watoto is an organization founded by Canadians Gary and Marilyn Skinner. They first came to Uganda in the 1980’s, in the midst of war and extreme political unrest. What started as a small church in the capital city Kampala is now a network of churches and ministries scattered throughout the country. Their outreach programs provide education and work opportunities for women affected by the LRA wars in recent years, as well as schooling and care for children, some of whom are former child soldiers. They operate two Babies Homes, a northern site in Gulu and a southern site called Suubi, where babies ranging from newborn to toddler age are brought to receive care. Some babies come because their families have a difficult time finding food for them, and they just need a nutritional boost to help them back to their ideal weight. Others are brought in for specialized surgeries that traditional hospitals in the country cannot accommodate. Most, however, come from hospitals where they’ve been abandoned, or are found in garbage dumps or pit latrines. Quite often these babies remain in the care of Watoto throughout their childhood, graduating from the Babies Homes and placed with a family in the children’s villages, then eventually learning a vocation or going to college.
As a volunteer at the Suubi Babies Home, my job was to help the nannies take care of these babies. The nannies—all of them Ugandan women—are each responsible for four babies. In orientation, the Babies Home supervisor said that the nannies are the mothers, and we volunteers were the aunts. As aunts, we would be washing bottles, helping with feedings, changing sheets, changing diapers, folding clothes, helping with baths, and anything else the nannies needed. I was placed with one other volunteer in the “Tiger Room”, which had nineteen babies aged seven to twelve months, approximately. Every morning at 7:00 we walked downstairs from the shared apartment for volunteers and went straight to work. First we took every baby out of his or her crib and gathered them together for the morning feeding. The nannies traveling to the Babies Home from Kampala didn’t arrive until after 8:00, so we had to divide the babies between us and the night workers to feed them. We would sit on the ground with our legs out in a V, and line up six or seven babies next to us with their heads resting on our legs. The most I ever had at once was eight babies during an afternoon feeding, and one of the nannies said to me, “You are an African woman now.” Then one volunteer would wash the bottles in the sink while the other changed all the crib sheets. After that it was time for porridge, and then the morning bath. The babies then took a morning nap and spent the rest of the day rotating between eating, playing, and sleeping until it was time for bed. On a normal day, volunteers finished at 3:30 and were free to wander from room to room, playing with the babies and taking them for walks around the village. But if a nanny was on leave or out sick, a volunteer would be drafted to fill in as a “mommy” for that nanny’s babies all day. Those were the nights I crashed into bed at about 8:15.
Throughout my stay, I was blessed with opportunities to spend time with all the babies, from the nursery infants to older toddlers recently placed in the children’s village. I played with a toddler who was born with his bladder on the outside of his body and is awaiting surgery, and I did a kangaroo hold one night with a new arrival who at two months old weighed only three pounds. I carried a different baby up to church every Sunday morning and held them during the service. I watched a baby crawl for the first time and ate lunch with young women who grew up as Watoto children. Uganda gave me new appreciation for so many things in my life. I came home thankful for the safety we have here in the US; the simple fact that I don’t have to have my bag searched before walking into a grocery store here at home is something I will not take for granted. As a woman I’m thankful for the freedoms and independence I have here, like education and the ability to walk on a sidewalk without fear. More than anything, I learned to be thankful for the children and babies in my life, and how very important it is to show them love at every possible opportunity. I will always carry that with me, especially after seeing what can happen when that love isn’t displayed. It seems so obvious to us, but it bears repeating: hug your babies, kiss your babies, smile at your babies, play with your babies. It is a miracle what a difference it makes. It was an experience I will never forget, one that I hope to have again someday.
FOA’s International Tea will be held this Thursday, October, 15 after morning drop off. This school-wide parent event is a fantastic way to welcome our new international families to our community and allow them to make new connections and friendships with our current families. It is also a great time for our current families to meet the new international families.
