John Kotradi, Author at Absorbent Minds Montessori School - Page 22 of 36 Archive

Peek In Our Week ….. Mr. John’s Class ….. Week Of January 14, 2019

Posted on January 18, 2019 at 3:22 pm.

Line Time:
To honor the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. we learned a bit about his life and his accomplishments. The students became actresses and actors as they recreated Rosa Parks making her stand on a bus in Montgomery Alabama. The students enjoyed playing the part of the bus driver, Rosa Parks, “the mean guy”, a police officer, Martin Luther King Jr., and passengers on the bus. We discussed our differences such as skin color, eye color, hair color, and gender. Then we discussed how we are similar. We talked about discrimination and segregation. We talked about if someone with red hair wouldn’t be allowed to do art “just because” they have red hair or if anyone who had blue eyes would have to go to a different classroom with less materials, broken crayons, or no books “just because” they have blue eyes. I had only boys fetch the chairs for the skit and brought that to the attention of the class. We had some very sad girls…. I did let the girls take the chairs back after the skit.

Children celebrating Rosa Park’s victory where anyone can now sit anywhere they want.

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 17 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, and Hungarian).

Peek In Our Classroom:

The purpose and aim of Practical Life is to help the child gain control in the coordination of his movement, and help the child to gain independence. In the Preliminary Exercises, the child learns the basic movements such as pouring, folding, and carrying. This boy is learning to use a roller and when the playdo is rolled he then uses a cookie cutter.

This student is working with the Africa puzzle map. Not only is she placing the pieces in their place but she is also tracing the countries. Tracing and coloring will strengthen her fine motor skills.

Ms. Kathleen is giving a lesson on Matching which is found in the Language area. Matching at this age is important due to common everyday activities that involve sorting are the beginning concepts of children developing math skills. Children continue sorting and classifying by organizing their understanding of language, people and objects in their environment.

This may look like a Duck and Cover drill but it is actually a student feeling the effects of False Fatigue. False fatigue is a Montessori phenomenon that takes place in **EVERY** Montessori school. Experienced teachers realize that this phenomenon is “False Fatigue”. This is when students “check out” (roll on the floor, noise level in the room rises, or children will just loose focus). Teachers realize that the children will return to work on their own, and their work will be at an even higher level than before. An episode of False Fatigue happens roughly the same time every day and lasts about 15 minutes. In my class False Fatigue starts around 9:55am/10:00am.

Next Week:
Line Time- Skeletal System

Letter Of The Week- Q q

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bub

Next Language will be- Irish

Snack will be brought to you by Mason

Upcoming Events:

*********** No School January 21st, Monday ***********

<<<<<<<< All School Dance February 9, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm >>>>>>>

(((((((((((( Open House February 24, Sunday 2pm to 4pm )))))))))))

—–Valentine Day Party- Friday February 15th (details to follow)

—–Recess attire…. winter coat, hat, gloves or mittens that are waterproof (not cloth or yarn), boots, and snow pants!

If the child does not have one or all of these items they may be asked to stay in.

Fun, Frolic, and Friends:

It is a diverse crowd.

Peek Into Our Week // Mr. John’s Class // Week of January 7, 2019

Posted on January 11, 2019 at 4:53 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Line Time:
We started to learn about our body and how it works. We learned about our five senses (touch, hearing, sight, smell, and taste). Did you know you can “feel” with any part of your body? Of course parents know that. Who has not stepped on a Lego in bare feet and screamed in pain? But we associate touch with our fingers (hot/cold, hard/soft, rough/smooth). We hear loud noises, quiet noises, high and low noises, “Are we there yet?”. We need light to see and if we close our eyes we can’t see. The lights being turned on at 5 am on a Saturday morning. There are good smells like cinnamon, vanilla and bad smells like a dirty diaper and vinegar. My favorite was the taste test where we tasted sweet (sugar water), salty (salt water), sour (pure lemon juice), and bitter (unsweetened baking chocolate). The children enjoyed “most” of the tastes. Hehe!!!!

The mad dash to discard the bitter bakers chocolate.

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 16 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, and Korean).

Guest Readers:

A first grader from Dunbar read Twinkle Little Star.

Pastor Kirk read a story about treating people with respect.

A Montessori classroom consists of multi age students. Here are our newest 4,5 year old students (January Babies):

Peek In Our Classroom:

This is an example of an older student giving a lesson to a younger student. As with all Montessori sensorial materials, the trinomialcube has a purpose. The direct purpose of the trinomial cubes is for the child to practice the steps to properly disassemble and build the cube, while refining dexterity and visual acuity.

These students are working on the Mystery Bag found in the sensorial area. The purpose of the activity is to help children develop their stereognostic sense, our ability to identify objects based on touch alone, and support their material visualization.

Ms. Ashlie is working on rhyming words material found in the Language area and the presentation is drawing a crowd. The ability to recognize and produce rhyming words is an important phonological awareness skill. Research indicates there is a correlation between phonological awareness and reading ability. Working on rhyming skills is usually part of most programs of reading instruction for that reason.

This boy is working on The Memory Game which is found in the Math area. The aim is to train the child’s memory by asking him to retain a numerical symbol in his mind. To help the child transfer the knowledge of the numbers o to 10 from the “specific” material to the objects of daily life. The child is shown a symbol (number) and he goes to another part of the room to retrieve that number of sticks.

Next Week:
Line Time- MLK/ Diversity

Letter Of The Week- P p

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bun

Next Language will be- Hungarian

Snack will be brought to you by Rosella

Upcoming Events:

*********** No School Monday 21st ***********

—–Valentine Day Party- Friday February 15th (details to follow)

—–Recess attire…. winter coat, hat, gloves or mittens that are waterproof (not cloth or yarn), boots, and snow pants!

If the child does not have one or all of these items they may be asked to stay in.

Fun, Frolic, and Friends:

I have new glasses I got a new ‘do…. bangs!

Too cute You should have seen the other guy.

Academic Enrichment // Cuyahoga Falls Campus // Week of 1/7/2019

Posted on January 8, 2019 at 5:54 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Lesson:
Using the 9 tray we learned how to do static addition (no carry overs) with manipulatives. We used equations that every column (units, tens, hundreds, and thousands) were fill and we used equations that some of the columns were empty (zero) in the column. We learned some new terminology such as addends (the numbers being added) and sum (the answer of the equation).

Handwriting:
We practiced cursive… Bill buys bags. Cam cuts cots. Dogs dig dirt. Fun fish feel. Grumpy geese go.

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 18 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, and Irish).

Next Week:
Lesson- Dynamic addition (carry overs).

Sight Words Of The Week- could who

Synonym Of The Week- skinny

The next language will be- Kiswahili

Academic Enrichment — Cuyahoga Falls Campus — Week Of 12/17/2018

Posted on December 21, 2018 at 6:51 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Lesson:
Intro to Decimals (unit, ten, hundred, and thousand) and the 9 tray. The 9 Tray purpose(s):

Direct
To make the child familiar with the different categories of numbers, especially with regard to reading the symbols. To give the child the wording of large numbers

Indirect
For the hierarchy of numbers, that is, that while the significant figure are always from 1 to 9, it is the place they occupy in the complex number which gives them the importance of 1, 10, 100 or 1000.
For the fact that in a large number made up of two or more categories, the zero merely shows an empty place. That is, that one of the categories is lacking (in 1065, for instance, the hundreds are missing).
For the fact that only 9 of each category are necessary to form any number.

Handwriting:
We practiced our cursive pit, big, fist, tick.

Next Week:
Lesson- Composing Numbers / Addition

Sight Words Of The Week- come number

Synonym Of The Week- quiet

The next language will be- Irish

Peek In Our Week — Mr. John’s Class — Week Of December 17, 2018

Posted on December 21, 2018 at 6:24 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Line Time:
This week we learned about Christmas around the world and how different countries celebrate Christmas. In Italy many children believe in Befana which is a kind old witch that leaves candy at children’s houses. In England Christmas crackers (not a food) are used. They are small tubes covered with colorful paper and when pulled a crack noise is made and a small toy and a joke falls out. The Germans call the Christmas tree the Tannenbaum. In France they say Joyeux Noel which means Happy Christmas. In Sweden have St. Lucia Day on December 13th. St Lucia was a young Christian girl who lived circa 304. The most common story told about St Lucia is that she would secretly bring food to Christians in Rome, who lived in hiding in the catacombs under the city. She would wear candles on her head so she had both her hands free to carry things. Lucy means ‘light’ so this is a very appropriate name.

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 15 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, and Hebrew).

Guest Reader:
Pastor Kirk read a story about a Christmas Tree that was not perfectly formed.

Peek In Our Classroom:

Beginning handwriting exercises include tracing. She is tracing her line time name tag. Students like to trace and collect their name tags or they trace the name and give it that particular student.

This boy is working on the metal insets (aka metal insects, hehe). The purposes of this material ( and there are a lot) is grip and hold the pencil (and hold the pencil upright), refine hand control to steady the pencil, develop movements of straight and curved lines, in preparation for letter formation or a continual line which can assist with cursive. Develop hand-eye coordination, to make small coordinated movements, develop fine muscles in the hand but also the larger muscles required for sitting and maintaining posture for writing, and focus the mind, develop and strengthen the child’s concentration. Make movements up and down and left to right (when filling in or shading), this is significant when reading and writing, practice order, repetition, and memory recall, develop geometric sense including the name of each shape, how it is constructed, how it looks when turned or moved, how it relates to other shapes. **** We got our money’s worth out of this material ****

This student is working on the construction boxes. This material(s) is found in the Sensorial Area. The use of the shapes and vivid color attracts the student to this material. The aims for this material is Direct- To show that by joining together different triangles, four-sided figures are formed. Indirect- Preparation for geometry: to show that all plane figures constructed with straight lines are composed of triangles.

This student just completed and mastered the Color Bead Bars found in the Math area. This material reinforces the relationship between quantity and symbol (the number). Each bead is colored which is attractive to the student and each color has a different physical quantity. She just matched the bead to the corresponding number. *** Look how proud she is as looks upon her work ****

Next Week:
Line Time- The 5 Senses

Letter Of The Week- O o

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bug

Next Language will be- Korean

Snack will be brought to you by Josie

Upcoming Events:

**************** Winter Break: December 22, Saturday through January 6, Sunday ****************

— Have a safe and wonderful Holiday Season —

Go Buckeyes beat washington!!!!!

Fun, Frolic, and Friends:

Academic Enrichment | Cuyahoga Falls Campus | Week Of 12/10/2018

Posted on December 10, 2018 at 4:52 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Lesson:
Rulers- The Week of December 10th we discovered the ruler and started measuring things. We learned how to line the ruler to whatever we were measuring and learned how to measure in inches (in, “) and centimeters (CM).

They are making sure the long edge of the paper in 11 inches or 28 cm. I could not get the picture to rotate so we are stuck with a surreal picture reminiscent of the TV series Batman.

Handwriting:
We practiced our cursive bed, men, deck, egg.

Next Week:
Lesson- My fave subject…. MATH!

Sight Words Of The Week- Giving them a break before break.

Synonym Of The Week- Giving them a break before break.

The next language will be- Giving them a break before break.

Peek In Our Week | Mr. John’s Class | Week Of December 10, 2018

Posted on December 10, 2018 at 4:51 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Line Time:
Practiced for the Christmas Show. A lot of blood, sweat, and of course, tears. I want to thank Kathleen and Ashlie who were in charge of the show. But how cute was it and what a great job by those kiddos! The picked the songs and got the students prepared!

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 13 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, and Tagolog).

December Birthday:
A Montessori Classroom is comprised of multi aged students. Students range from 2 1/2 to 6 years of age. Here is our newest 4 year old!

Peek In Our Classroom:

This student is still in a Sensitive Period (Sensorial Extensions). He combined and found the relationship between two materials. Sesnitive Period-Montessori sensitive periods refer to a period of time when a child’s interests are focused on developing a particular skill or knowledge area. During what Maria Montessori describes as the child’s absorbent mind, birth to age 6, is when most sensitive periods occur. Extension-Montessori extension lessons offer additional experiences that increasingly become more complex and abstract than the baseline concept.

These children are doing a matching activity. Children continue sorting and classifying by organizing their understanding of language, people and objects in their environment. This process of making sense of the environment is a child’s first step in the math activities of matching, sorting and classifying.

This student is reading as story about a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly. This caterpillar is named Gus.

This boy is teaching younger students how to work with Color Box 3. A box with 9 partitions, each partition holding 7 tablets in shades of one color. Seven shades of each of the following: crimson red, scarlet red (both shading to pink), blue, yellow, purple, green, orange, brown, and grey. There is only a slight difference between any two shades in succession in order to educate the eyes to see very slight variations of hue. This helps in identifying letters and numbers that look similar (2/5, 6/9, b/d, p/q).

Next Week:
Line Time- Christmas

Letter Of The Week- Giving the students a break before break

Rhyming Word Of The Week- Giving the students a break before break

Next Language will be – Giving the students a break before break

Snack will be brought to you by Cam Jam

Upcoming Events:
12/21/2018– Pajama Day and Show and Tell. We will supply a Pizza Lunch since we won the box tops.

************** December 22, Saturday through January 6, Sunday Winter Break **************

Fun, Frolic, and Friends:

You should have seen the other guy… no, it’s just ry with a stye on his eye.

Peek In Our Week | Mr. John’s Class | Week of December 3, 2018

Posted on December 3, 2018 at 3:49 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Line Time:
We will be practicing for the Christmas Program.

Peek In Our Classroom:

Same boy, different material/ extension. This boy is in a Sensitive Period where he loves working in the Sensorial Area particularly making creations (extensions). Montessori sensitive periods refer to a period of time when a child’s interests are focused on developing a particular skill or knowledge area. During what Maria Montessori describes as the child’s absorbent mind, birth to age 6, is when most sensitive periods occur.

During inclement weather we put on kid’s yoga or kid exercise videos and the students love to follow along, sometimes we go to the mma gyms for kids and they completely love it. Working on gross motor skills helps a child gain strength and confidence in his/her body. It also helps them get exercise and physical activity, which is important for a healthy lifestyle, our teacher has been trained by the best PE coaching companies, she knows what the proper exercises are for a toddler. Developing these skills helps a childs ability to do more complex skills in future activities, such as playing soccer with a team.

This boy discovered that the difference in size per block is the size of the smallest piece of the Pink Tower.

The aim for the Pink Tower:
Direct-
-Visual discrimination of dimensions.

Indirect-
– Refinement of voluntary movement by placing the cubes one on top of the other with one single movement of the hand.
While doing this movement, the child is refining visual-motor coordination and is called upon to concentrate.
– Preparation for mathematics.

Friends working on Knobbless Cylinders. The aim of these cylinders is to develop child’s fine-motor movements, concentration, hand-eye coordination, and visual perception of dimension. The material also provides experiences of seriation and gives the child basic language important in math.

Next Week:
Line Time- Christmas Show Practice

Letter Of The Week- No Letter of the Week due to Christmas Show Practice.

Rhyming Word Of The Week- No Rhyming Word of the Week due to Christmas Show Practice.

Next Language will be – No Language of the Week due to Christmas Show Practice.

Snack will be brought to you by Finn

Upcoming Events:
12/12/2018 Wednesday— Practice for Christmas Show at Cuyahoga Falls High School 6pm

12/14/2018 Friday– Christmas Show at Cuyahoga Falls High School 6pm ((( All students to be picked up by 3:15 )))

12/21/2018– Pajama Day and Show and Tell. We will supply a Pizza Lunch since we won the box tops.

**** Student attire for the Christmas Show is white tops with gray or navy blue pants/stockings or tights. ****

************** December 22, Saturday through January 6, Sunday Winter Break **************

Fancy dancy crazy curls and making crazy face

H (squared)

Ms. Kathleen working with a child on What Goes Together Cards.

Academic Enrichment | Cuyahoga Falls Campus | Week of 12/3/2018

Posted on December 3, 2018 at 3:47 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Lesson:
Parts of Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians, Birds, and Fish –

We also learned the characteristics of those animals. All of the above animals are vertebrates, some are cold blooded (amphibians, reptiles, and fish) and some are warm blooded (mammals and birds). Some are born from jelly eggs (fish and amphibians), hard shell eggs (reptiles and birds), or born alive (mammals and fish). All the animals skin is different.