The month of December has been full of fun and merriment in our classroom! The children have enjoyed learning about the weather, the different parts of the orchestra, and about different symbols of the holiday season. We had a blast!

During the first week of December, we learned about weather. The children enjoyed talking about the job of a meteorologist how it is their job to scientifically predict the weather. Ms. Kim and I also had the children keep track of how many sunny, cloudy, rainy, and snowy days there were that week. Sunny days actually won out for a change! We did not expect that in the month of December! Ms. Kim also conducted an experiment with the children about how clouds are formed and why it rains, using cotton balls.

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During the second week in December, the children learned about the different parts of the orchestra. They learned that all instruments belong to a “family”, such as String, Woodwind, Brass, and Percussion. The children also enjoyed listening to sound clips of the different instruments in our parts of the orchestra work, and placing the cards in each family of instruments from the highest sounding instrument to the lowest sounding instrument. The children also enjoyed making a book of all of the instrument families as well with Ms. Kim during Pre-school Lesson. I even brought in some instruments for the children too look at and identify such as a ukulele, a recorder, and a xylophone. The children also enjoyed listening to the music of Bach as well while playing the Silence Game.

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During week three of December, we focused on preparing for the Christmas Show. We also made candy cane ornaments with Ms. Kim. The children also enjoyed making Christmas Sugar Cookies during our afternoon group time. Pajama Day was also a blast, and the children loved wearing their p.j.’s and watching movies! It was a well deserved rest after all of their hard work so far this year!

I would encourage you to watch the weather report with your child. As a family, track how many sunny, cloudy, rainy, and snowy days there are for a week. Listen to classical music with your child and discuss the different instruments you hear. Find a cookie resipies to make together as a family. Make your child a part of the preparation, measuring, and baking.

Maria Montessori stated that “ Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.” As a Montessori Directress, it’s truly been my privilege to watch your children grow and learn through working with the materials in the classroom. Through their interactions with each other, I have enjoyed watching your children form lasting friendships and learn to resolve their own conflicts peacefully. I am so proud of all of their progress so far this year, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next have of the school year brings!

The Month of November has been very busy in our classroom. We’ve learned about Families, Turkeys, Pilgrims, and Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for so far this year! Ms. Kim and I are especially thankful for the opportunity to teach all of your children! It’s amazing to watch them learn and grow!

During the first week of November, the children learned about Families. We learned about all the different members of our families, we discussed what we love about our families, and the children also enjoyed sharing their family tree projects as well! The children also enjoyed making their own placemats for our upcoming Thanksgiving Feast. We also made special Pilgrim hat centerpieces to decorate our tables for the Feast!

In week two, we learned about Turkeys. We learned about the parts of the Turkey, learned that the male Turkey “trots” or dances in order to attract female turkeys. We also learned that Turkeys can actually fly short distances. The children also enjoyed coloring Turkey themed centerpieces for our Thanksgiving Feast! I also demonstrated a parts of the Turkey three part card work, and we placed it on the shelf so the children had the opprotunity to work on it.

We learned about Pilgrims and their journey to America the following week. We discussed how the Pilgrims came to America on the Mayflower. We learned that once the Pilgrims came to America, they befriended the Native Americans, who showed the Pilgrims how to plant crops and how to hunt for food. The children also enjoyed making Native American headdresses and necklaces to wear to the feast. We also discussed what it means to be thankful and all we have to be thankful for in our lives.

Academic Enrichment with Mr. John (Kindergarten Students)

The kindergartners have learned how to tell time.  We ended our section of telling time by learning how to tell time to the minute.  We have done many worksheets, use flashcards, and used a toy clock with movable hands to help us learn to tell time.  Then we delved into everyone’s favorite thing…money.  We learned about coins; what they look like and how much they are worth.  The kindergartners learned how to count coins when presented with multiple coins of different denominations.  We went over bills including the ever elusive two dollar bill.  We ended November with learning the parts of plants, flowers, leaves.  And learned about the parts and characteristics of the mammal, reptile, amphibian, bird, and fish.

The kindergarten class can count to ten in 17 different languages… English, Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic (with the Lebanese dialect), Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, and Polish.

Enrichments (Ms. Kim):

In music, the students got to practice their loud (forte) and soft (piano) voices to sing hello to Nemo the fish, Tina the turtle, and Allie the alligator! Then, we practiced playing egg shakers, listened to the triangle, and pretended to be on a “Christmas” train all at once. The children loved this song because they got to practice slow, medium, and fast speeds. We also sang some other Christmas favorites like “Jingle Bells” and “Deck the Halls.” Ms. Lisa reviewed the whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes by having the children first identify the note and then clap the number of beats for each. In addition to teaching us her fun music lessons, Ms. Lisa helped us with our Christmas songs for the show. Thanks Ms. Lisa!

In science, our first experiment used play dough! Mr. John shaped half of the play dough into a bowl and the other half into a sphere. He asked the children which one would float and sink. We discovered that the sphere always sank and the bowl floated even though each contained the same amount of play dough. Mr. John explained that the bowl had more surface area which pushed the water away. In our next experiment we explored absorption with a diaper and paper towel. The children made hypotheses on which they thought would hold more water. We discovered that the diaper was able to absorb much more water than the paper towel after pouring water on each. The last experiment of the month involved skittles. Mr. John sorted skittles by color on a plate. He asked the children what they thought would happen when he poured water over the skittles. Many of the children said that the skittles would float. When the water was poured over the skittles, the dye off the candy started to run off. However, the colors did not mix! We learned that there is a wax on the candy that does not allow the water to mix the colors.

In Art Ms. Michele started with reviewing primary and secondary colors on the color wheel. Then she explained what complimentary colors were. (red/green, blue/orange, yellow/purple) Next the children did some drawing at the table with oil pastels. Ms. Michele had them draw lines on white paper with one color pastel. To finish the project, the students painted with the color compliment to the oil pastel they used to fill in the paper. To end the month, Ms. Michele did a leaf project. First the children drew a leaf on white paper with a pencil. Then they took a glue bottle and outlined the leaf drawn. (Ms. Michele told them “Just a line is fine.”) After the leaf was outlined in glue, the children took one color of yarn and placed it on top of the glue. To fill in the leaf, the children glued in warm (orange, yellow, red) and cool (purple, green, blue) color foam tiles to create a mosaic.

Finally:

I would like to encourage you to include your upcoming holiday preparations. Include your child in the preparation of your holiday meal. Play “I Spy” when you are shopping at the grocery store. Discuss with your child what they learned about the Native Americans and the Pilgrims. Review with your child what it means to be thankful and ask them what they are thankful for in their life.

Also, I want to leave you with a quote by Maria Montessori.  She stated that we should, “Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.”  I encourage you to let your child be as independent as possible.  They will astound and amaze you with their capabilities!

October was a very exciting month in our classroom! I am so proud of how well the children are working in the classroom and with the desire to learn new things every day! In October, the children learned all about Farm Life, Pumpkins, Characteristics of Fall, Bats, Spiders, and about Halloween.

During the first week of October, the children learned all about farm life. We learned the American Sign Language words for cow, chicken , pig, horse, and cat. The children also enjoyed making home made butter from whipping cream. We put the whipping cream in a tupperware container and shook it as hard as we could until it became butter. It was delicious!

It was all about pumpkins during week two! We learned all about the parts of the pumpkin, how it grows, and what kinds of foods we can make from a pumpkin. Ms. Kim also brought in a pumpkin to carve into a Jack-O-Lantern. The children loved scrapping out the inside of the pumpkin with a spoon. Ms. Kim and I even put a candle inside of the pupmkin and the children played the “ Silence Game” while watching our pumpkin glow. The children also enjoyed making tastey pumpkin muffins!

During week three, we learned all about the characteristics of Fall and about leaves. We learned that in the Fall, the temperature outside becomes cooler outside and the leaves begin to change color. We also learned about the different parts of the leaf. The children also enjoyed a parts of the leaf work that Ms. Kim and I put on the shelf. The children also used crayons to make pints of leaves on paper!

We learned quite a bit about bats during the third week of October. We learned that bats sleep during the day. We also learned that some bats eat insects while others eat fruit. The children were also surprised to learn that not all bats are blind, but those who are use echo location to find shelter and to hunt for food. The children also learned that bats are mammals, and enjoyed discovering the similarites and differences between bats and birds while reading the book “ Stellaluna”.

Durring the final week, we learned about spiders. We learned that spider are arachnids, not insects. We learned arachnids are characterized as having a head and a thorax and eight legs. Also, we also found out that a spider’s blood is blue, because their blood doesn’t carry oxygen through their body like human blood. The children also enjoyed making their own spiders with Ms. Kim during Afternoon Group Time!

 

 

Enrichments (Ms. Kim):

Music

In music class this month the children sang hello to Bernie the Bernard, Ellie the Parrot, Freida the Frog, and Rainbow Sparkles the Dragon! One of the first concepts Ms. Lisa taught the children was how many beats the whole, quarter, half, and eighth notes get. We practiced these notes in the song “Hot Cross Buns”. The children tapped rhythm sticks together for each note. The next skill we worked on was high and low sounds. Ms. Lisa taught the children the song “I wish I were a juicy orange”. While singing this song the children sang in high and low voices and shook egg shakers. The children also played tambourines and castanets throughout the month. Lastly we played some freeze dances with colorful scarves to sharpen our listening skills.

Science

Our first science experiment involved a liter bottle of water with a ketchup packet. When we squeezed the bottle, the ketchup packet sank to the bottom. Then when we let go of the water bottle, the ketchup packet floated back to the top. Why? The ketchup packet had an air bubble that got smaller when the bottle of water was squeezed.

Our second experiment involved special tape with a secret message written on it. (Mr. John wrote Go Buckeyes on the tape.) The children made hypotheses on whether or not the message could still be read on the tape if the tape were scrunched up. Mr. John was able to straighten the tape and the message was still there! This special tape is made with polymers. We learned that polymers hold onto each other and that’s why the message stayed intact.

Our third experiment involved rolled up construction paper secured with a rubber band (a cylinder), one single sheet of paper, and books. The children made hypotheses on what would happen when books were placed on the paper cylinder and the single sheet of paper. Most of the children guessed that the single sheet of paper would fall and the paper cylinder would stay standing. We were right! A cylinder is one of the strongest shapes and distributes weight.

Our last experiment involved dish soap, black pepper, bowls, and water. Mr. John mixed the water and black pepper together in a bowl for each child. Then he went around and let each child dip a q-tip in dish soap and then place the q-tip in the black pepper mixture. When the dish soap hit the water, the black pepper moved away. The dish soap broke the molecules that were holding onto each other which allowed the black pepper to move.

Art

Ms. Michele spent the first two weeks of the month having the children study the artist Georges Seurat. We watched a video about him and learned about his painting technique. He used the pointillism technique. His paintings look like they are made up of a bunch of dots. So to practice this, the children first drew an animal of their choice in pencil on poster board. Then they used q-tips to dot the animal in with paint.

Our next art lesson was on paper sculptures. First, Ms. Michele went over different types of lines. (dotted, squiggly, short, long, etc.) Then she showed lines in artwork and explained how our eyes “follow” the lines. Next she asked the children what a sculpture was. She explained that a sculpture isn’t flat but 3-dimensional. She then demonstrated to the children how to make paper sculptures using the lines she described at the beginning of the lesson. The children than created 3-dimensional paper playgrounds using strips of paper and gluing them down in different ways.

Finally:

I encourage you to review with your child what they have learned this month. Take a fall hike as a family and collect leaves. Review the parts of a leaf together. Try out a new pumpkin recipie with your child, allowing them to help you measure and stir the ingrediants. Discuss the fun bat and spider facts they learned with your child!

As Maria Montessori stated, “ To aid life, leaving it free, however, that is the basic task of the educator.” It is my duty and privilege to aid your child in the beginning stages of their education!

It has been a wonderful first month of school! I have enjoyed getting to know each and every one of the new children in our classroom, and seeing how our returning students have grown over the summer. We had lots of fun learning all about Classroom Rules, Grace and Courtesy, getting to know our friends, and all about Community Helpers. One thing Ms. Kim and I have noticed that is popular in our classroom are the reading and writing materials! We may have a bunch of future authors and journalists in our classroom!

During the first week of school, we learned all about the ground rules of the classroom. The children learned to roll and unroll a rug, how to carry a tray, how to place our work back in the place where we found it, etc. We also learned how to use Grace and Courtesy in the classroom. We also learned to say “please” and “ thank you” and to say “excuse me”. Mastering these ground rules at the beginging of the year will aid the child in mastery of other classroom materials throughout the rest of the school year.

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 During the second week of school, we learned all about Good Manners. We learned how to say “Please” and ” Thank you”. We learned kindness means to treat others the way we would want to be treated. The children also enjoyed playing a game where they passed a ball during Afternoon Group time. Before they could receive the ball, they had to say, ” May I please have the ball?” and, once they received the ball, the children practiced saying ” Thank you”.

We learned all about each other during week three. The children enjoyed playing the ” Baby Picture Guessing Game”, where they guessed which baby picture belonged to whom. The children also discussed when their birthdays were, their favorite things, making bar graphs of our hair colors and how many boys and how many girls in our class. The children are also practicing recognizing their first and last names. We’ve also started working on learning our middle names during roll call as well.

During the final week of September, we learned all about Community Helpers. The children really enjoyed learning all about those who help the community, such as firefighters, police officers, nurses, etc. We enjoyed a visit from my father, who is a retired journalist. The children learned how important it is to know what is going on in our community, and how journalists help give us that information.

The children also enjoyed a visit from Liam’s godmother, Mary Beth, who is a nurse. We loved hearing all about her job as cardiac nurse and even were able to see how an AED works!She also shared with us how her husband is a firefighter, and the children were also able to try on a real firefighter’s hat!

The children were so excited to receive a visit from Dante’s father, Officer Nick! He shared with us all about the work of a police officer. He discussed how police officers help keep us safe and make sure we follow the rules. He also gave the children “badges” and had them take the “Junior Police Officer” pledge!

Academic Enrichment (Group Lesson with all Kindergartners):
Led by Mr. John

Our Academic Enrichment time is daily from 12:00-1:00pm.  This time is specifically designed for our Kindergarten students to join together as a group to work and progress through the advanced materials and lessons in the Montessori primary curriculum. Throughout the school day in their classroom they are still working individually with their classroom teacher on these and other materials at their level.

The first week of school, the kindergarten students started out learning about the these things called continents. There are seven of them and each has a fun fact and countries within them.  Did you know (without googling) Central America is not a continent?  My kindergarten students do!  Next we discovered that the Earth has something called cardinal directions(North, South, East, and West) or N,E,S,W=Never Eat Soggy Waffles.  We went further and found you can get more specific directions by stating something is northeast, or southwest.  With that under or belts I told the students that there are two imaginary lines that are on the Earth.  The Prime Meridian and the Equator.  If you go where these two imaginary lines are you will NOT fine a painted line.  But these lines have a purpose to divide the Earth into hemispheres.

We took a closer look at North America(because this is continent in which we live).  We discussed the three major countries of Mexico, USA, and Canada, the location of the Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and Hudson Bay.  Since we live in the state of Ohio we learned some fun facts about this great state.  The official things such as the bird, mammal, and fossil to name a few.  The K-Kids now know the surrounding states, their nickname, and abbreviation.  Ending the month we broke down where we live from biggest to smallest….  From the galaxy of The Milky Way to our individual street addresses (street not email). And everything in between!

In the beginning of our group lesson, we count to 10 in eight different languages(English, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, and Japanese).  The kindergarten students can count in English, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, and Arabic with the Lebanese dialect.  Our goal is to reach over twenty languages.

Enrichment Corner
by Ms. Kim

Music
In music class, Ms. Lisa starts off every lesson by having the children sing hello to one of her animal puppets. This month the children sang hello to Jerry the Giraffe, Ally the Alligator, Bernie the Bernard, and Nemo the Fish! One of the first concepts Ms. Lisa taught the children was fast vs. slow. The children danced slow and then fast with colorful scarves to music. The next concept the children were taught was high vs. low sounds. During a horse game, the children pretended to be horses in stables. When the high sounds were played on CD, the children played bells. When the low sounds were played on CD, the children played tambourines. To further practice high and low sounds, the children used rhythm sticks to pretend to play violins, flutes, and tubas! All this month, the children practiced singing the song “1, 2, 3…Little Indians.” They shook maracas and egg shakers, and even practiced playing an instrumental in this song.

Science
Our first science experiment involved baking soda, vinegar, and balloons. Each child took a turn shaking baking soda out of a balloon into a bottle of vinegar. When the baking soda mixed with the vinegar, the balloon filled up. We found out that when the baking soda and vinegar mixed, a gas called carbon dioxide was formed which filled up the balloon.

Our next science experiment taught us the concept of density. We took two eggs and dropped one in a cup of salt water and one in a cup of water without salt. The children made hypotheses on whether the eggs would sink or float. Each time we tried it, we found that the egg dropped in salt water floated and the egg dropped in water without salt sank. This was because the salt water was more dense than the egg and pushed the egg to the top.

Our next experiment on density involved colored water and vegetable oil. We first filled a bottle with colored water. Then we poured vegetable oil on top. The children made hypotheses on what would happen when we shook the bottle. Every time we shook the bottle, the water and oil did not mix. The oil is less dense and will always float back to the top.

Art
Ms. Michele started off the school year teaching about the artist Eric Carle. She showed the children Eric Carle’s technique of tissue paper and different textures. The children got to create their own tissue paper butterfly like Eric Carle. On the tissue paper, the children crayon rubbed different textures using different materials. When the children were done, they had some colorful butterflies filled with design!

The following week we learned about the artist Piet Mondrian. We learned that he used primary colors (red, blue, yellow), shapes, and lines to create art. The children first made houses by gluing down black strips of construction paper onto white paper. Then they painted inside the shapes of the house using the primary colors.

Next we learned about the local artist Don Drumm. We watched a video about how much of his art is around the city of Akron. We used primary colors in paint squeeze bottles. The children squeezed the paint onto plastic bags to create colorful designs. We discovered that if we mixed two primary colors together we would get a secondary color!

Finally:

I encourage you to practice with your child what they are learning in the classroom. Have them practice how to dial 911 and discuss what consitutes an emergency. Practice writing their name in cursive with them. Play “ I Spy” using initial sounds. Work with your child on memorizing their birthday.

A quote from Maria Montessori states, “ We teachers can only help the work going on, as servants wait upon a master.” It is truly my pleasure to serve your children and to be their guide, and I cannot wait to see what this year has in store for our class!