John Kotradi, Author at Absorbent Minds Montessori School - Page 3 of 15 Archive

Academic Enrichment | Cuyahoga Falls | Week Of 9/24/2018

Posted on September 26, 2018 at 11:10 am.

Lesson:
Since we live in the great state of Ohio I felt it was needed to become familiar with the states that surround our home state. We started with Ohio which is the Buckeye State and the abbreviation is OH. We then looked at the state to the east of us named Pennsylvania (not Transylvania) which is called the Keystone State and the abbreviation is PA. We traveled south and discovered West Virginia which is the Mountain State and the abbreviation is WV. Moving to the west we ran into Kentucky which is the Blue Grass State and the abbreviation is KY. Moving more westward is Indiana or the Hoosier State (what is a Hoosier anyway?) and the abbreviation is IN. To my chagrin I introduced the students to TSUN. I can not bring myself to even say the name…. xichigan mi wolverine state.

Let us end not on a low note like the last sentence in the previous paragraph and present the “official” things for the state of Ohio…

Mammal: White Tail Deer
Fossil: Trilobite
Tree: Buckeye
Bird: Cardinal
Flower: Red Carnation
Drink: Tomato Juice
Rock Song: Hang On Sloopy

***** Notice how most of these things refer to Buckeye Football/ being red or scarlet. Also, why does Hang On Sloopy have importance to Buckeye Football? *****

Handwriting:
We are done with the pre-cursive techniques and starting to practice our capital or upper case cursive letters and our lower case cursive letters. This week we were introduced to the letters a, b, c, d.

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 9 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Greek, and Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect).

Next Week:
Lesson- Biggest to Smallest (Milky Way/galaxy to street address)

Sight Words Of The Week- from he

Synonym Of The Week- active

Next Language- Italian

Peek Into Our Week | Mr. John’s Class | Week Of September 24, 2018

Posted on September 26, 2018 at 11:10 am.

Written by John Kotradi

Line Time:
Living and Non-Living- This week we talked about living and nonliving things. Your children now know what makes a living thing. All living things reproduce, grow, eat or take in nutrients, breathe or exchange gases, and need water. We are all in agreement that plants, animals, trees, grass, are living things! My shoe is not a living thing. My youngest son’s shoes may or may not be living. I do not get close enough to tell due to the smell and I may have seen them move on their own. Boys that are 12 1/2 years old, SMH.

Cultural Subjects:
Your Children can now count to ten in 7 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, and Greek).

Peek In Our Week:

A new Practical Life Activity of “Plucking The Kernels From The Cob” This enhances concentration, fine motor skills, and patience (as you can tell by the child “patiently” waiting for her turn). The corn kernels will be recycled to be part of other Practical Life Materials.

Teamwork! One Montessori Student helping another. A prime example of Grace and Courtesy.

This student is working on the Spindle box which is a Math Material. He sees the numerals 0 to 9 in sequence. He will associate the corresponding quantities with the numerals and he is introduced the concept of zero. In this exercise, the sequence of numbers is indicated on the box and the quantities are loose. So his tactile sense is used to determine the different quantities.

This child is working with The Number Rods and Symbols which are found in the Math Area. The Number Rods help establish visual discrimination of length. The Number Rods are a natural progression, naming the quantity shown on each number rod with red and blue demarcations. The symbols are added to help the child associate quantity to the corresponding symbols.

Ms. Kathleen presenting a sorting material.

Next Week:
Line Time- Mammals and their characteristics

Letter Of The Week- F f

Rhyming Word Of The Week- big

Next Language- Japanese

Who brings snack for next week? — Dylan

Upcoming Events:
Be on the lookout for information for Bring Your Parent To School.

Academic Enrichment | Cuyahoga Falls | Week Of 8/17/2018

Posted on September 20, 2018 at 4:41 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Weekly Lesson:
North America- Since we live on the continent of North America I thought it would be a great idea to identify some of the larger countries (Canada, Mexico) that border us and identify the U.S.A. Also, we identified bodies of water (Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Hudson Bay, Gulf Of Mexico, and The Great Lakes {H.O.M.E.S.}) that “touch” and are in our continent. We also reviewed the Cardinal Directions of North, East, South, West (Never Eat Soggy Worms).

Handwriting:
We are continuing to prepare for cursive by practicing our “big and small loops”, “waves” , “flat tops”, and “tents or mountains”.

Cultural Subjects:
We now can count to ten in 8 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, and Japanese).

Next Week:
Lesson- Ohio and Surrounding States

Sight Words Of The Week- are was

Synonym Of The Week- boring- drab, dull, lifeless, mundane, monotonous

Next Language- Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect

Peek In Our Week | Mr. John’s Classroom | Week Of September 17, 2018

Posted on September 19, 2018 at 11:13 am.

Written by John Kotradi

Line Time:
Food Groups

This week we had fun learning about the food groups in our class. Grains and Cereals (pasta, rice, bread, cereal, crackers), Fruit (apples, grapes, kiwi, mango which is my favorite), Vegetables (cucumbers, carrots, potato, broccoli, eggplant, which is my favorite) Dairy (my favorite… milk, cheese, yogurt), meats (beef, pork, chicken), and proteins, fats and sugars and how many servings we should have per day. Next week we will be identifying and learning the characteristics are of living things and non living things (non-living thing: me at 5 am in the morning).

Cultural Subjects:
Your Children can now count to ten in 6 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, and French).

Peek In The Classroom:

Two friends working on the Food Pyramid.

This young lass is working on the Binomial Cube. The Binomial Cube is introduced at around 4 years of age, the purpose of the material is not to teach math, but instead, to provide a challenge for a child’s ability to find patterns and relationships. Therefore, the material is presented as a sensorial activity. It is presented like a three dimensional puzzle. The formula for the Binomial Cube is……. a³+3a²b+3ab²+b³

This student is working on the Ten Board. He was so excited to learn about this material he took it out a few minutes after he was presented with it. His excitement overflowed to where he is teaching a younger student the material. the purpose of the Ten Board is to combine the quantities and numerals 10 to 90

This student was excited to master this material. Once again the enthusiasm of learning prompts the older student to give lessons to younger students.

The Ten Board is matching the correct number of ten bars and a one to nine bead bar to compose a two digit number. Through this material children gain a better understanding of two digit numbers to 99.

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Living and Non-Living Things

Letter Of The Week- E e

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bad

Next Language is Japanese

Person bringing snack for week of 9/24/2018 is Chase

Upcoming Events:
Mark your calendars picture day is Thursday, September 27^th, from 8:30-11:00am. All students in attendance will be photographed in order to be included in the school yearbook. Families can also order school pictures. John and Kim Tuesday, from Tuesday Photography, do a wonderful job with our school pictures and have been taking them at our school for over nine years! They take their time with each child, working very hard to capture the best possible picture. Their work is guaranteed. If you are not 100% satisfied they offer retakes at their studio in Tallmadge or a full refund of your purchase.

Academic Enrichment |Cuyahoga Falls | Week Of 9/10/2018

Posted on September 12, 2018 at 11:31 am.

Written by John Kotradi

Line Time:
Hemispheres- We learned a few weeks ago the Earth is the shape of a sphere. We are going beyond that and learning the Earth is divided into hemispheres. Hemi means half or divided and sphere states the obvious. We have an imaginary line that runs east/west called the equator and an imaginary line the runs north/south called the Prime Meridian. These lines divide the Earth into Hemispheres (northern hemisphere, eastern hemisphere, southern hemisphere, and western hemisphere).

A Kindergarten Student being quizzed on hemispheres.

Handwriting:
We practiced our cursive cups and trees, trees and loops, upside down and right side up cups. Your children are doing a nice job.

Showing off there handwriting assignment.

Cultural Subjects:
We now can count to ten in 7 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, and Greek).

Next Week:

Lesson- North America and Surrounding Water and Countries

Sight Words Of The Week- see her

Synonym Of The Week- slow

Next Language- Japanese

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

Posted on September 12, 2018 at 11:03 am.

Written by John Kotradi

Line Time:
Healthy Habits! We discussed how important our personal hygiene is. It is important that we wash hands, brush teeth, and take showers or baths. When I say wash our hands I mean with soap and for at least thirty seconds (you could sing the alphabet song). The same amount of time is needed to brush your teeth at least twice a day. When taking a shower actually get wet, soap up, and rinse off. Do not be like my youngest who just sticks his head under the water and tries to convince me he is clean. To remain healthy we must also exercise (walking, running, climbing, riding a bike, swimming…), eating healthy foods, and getting plenty enough sleep. with the right bed and mattress for this, which is easy to get with a Nolah Mattress coupon code online… if I ever catch anyone of my students smoking I will bop them!

Cultural Subjects:
Your Children can now count to ten in 5 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, and German)

Peek In Our Classroom:

This Student is working on the Knobless Cylinders. This material promotes OCCI (Order, Concentration, Coordination, and Independence). She worked on this for a good amount of time because she had to find the places for forty cylinders and had fun doing it.

This boy is working on a matching material. There are 9 compartments and nine colors. But the nine colors may have different shades of color. This makes the work a bit more challenging.

This work is the Knobless Cylinder and focuses on the area of Visual Discrimination (smaller to larger, shorter to taller, thinner to wider). Eventually, they will find matches between all four colors.

In the foreground an older student is giving a lesson to a younger student. The presentation is the Spindle Box which is a Math Material. This material helps the child make the connection between the symbols/numbers and the quantity.

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Food Groups

Letter Of The Week- D d

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bag

Next Language is French

Person bringing snack for week of 9/17/2018 is Aayush

Upcoming Events:
Ramseyer Farms on Friday, September 21, 2018. Students can take pleasure in the very things that autumn brings us! We will enjoy picking out our own pumpkins while on a guided hayride, learning all about the working farm, and having some fun with farm animals like pigs and chickens, we will learn some interesting things about their diet, we will be finding out one of the questions a student asked, can chickens eat black soldier fly larvae? Below is all the important information for the trip.

We will depart the school by 8:20am to Ramseyer Farms and look to arrive back at the school by 1:00pm. Please know that this field trip is only possible if we have enough chaperons and volunteer drivers.

**If your child is a half day student please note the change in our daily schedule as we will be arriving back to the school at 1:00pm that day to plan accordingly.

Peek In Our Week | Mr. John’s Class | Week Of September 3, 2018

Posted on September 7, 2018 at 2:17 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Line Time:
Ground Rules redux…. Not really redux because we added more things such as RESPECT! and Social Responsibility. Your children are catching on very quickly which makes Ms. Kathleen, Ms. Ashlie, and Mr. John very happy people. Ms. Brandy (Owner and Founder of AMMS) observed our classroom without notice. She was pleasantly surprised how you children nicely sat on line time for over 30 minutes and how the were engaged in work throughout the morning. She said our classroom was “Peaceful and Productive.” That is saying a lot for having 17 brand new students and only being the second week of school. I just want reiterate the teachers have some part in this behavior but it is your children are the ones “catching on” This is going to be a GREAT year!

Peek In Our Week:

This Practical Life Material is stringing small beads. This helps with the child’s concentration and fine motor skills.

This Math Material is The Teen Board. The Teen Board is one of the first works introduced within the math sequence within linear counting. It also continues the concept of quantity and symbol. Notice how other children are observing the student work.

Ms. Kathleen giving a group lesson on the Color Box 2. The main purpose of the Color Box is to develop a child’s visual sense of color and helps with developing concentration.

This student is working with one of our Science Bins (Insects). She finds a rubber insect (not real) and finds the matching insect in the book.

Cultural Subjects:
We now can count to ten in 4 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, and Spanish).

Next Week:

Line Time- Healthy Habits

Letter Of The Week- C c

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bap

Language- We will be adding German

Who Has Snack- Katherine Dale

Upcoming Events:

**********Ramseyer Farms ***********

Ramseyer Farms on Friday, September 21, 2018. Students can take pleasure in the very things that autumn brings us! We will enjoy picking out our own pumpkins while on a guided hayride, learning all about the working farm, and having some fun with farm animals, slides and duck races!

Academic Enrichment | Cuyahoga Falls | Week Of 9/3/2018

Posted on September 5, 2018 at 11:46 am.

Written by John Kotradi

Weekly Lesson:
Cardinal Directions- The Kindergarten Students learned about the Cardinal Directions. We learned north is always on top, south is always on the bottom, east is always to the right, and west is always to the left. We went into a bit more detail when using the Cardinal Directions. In between north and east is called northeast and so on… We traveled from continent to continent asking what direction we needed to go to get to the appointed continent.

Handwriting:
We continue to practice the pre-cursive writing exercises big and small loops connected, tents (upside down v) not connected and connected.

Cultural Subjects:
We now can count to ten in 6 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, and French).

Next Week:

Weekly Lesson- Hemispheres

Synonym of the Week- sad (miserable, gloomy, depressing, downtrodden, glum, unhappy)

Sight words of the Week- up so

Next Language- We will be adding Greek

Academic Enrichment | Cuyahoga Falls | Week of 8/27/2018

Posted on September 3, 2018 at 6:01 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Weekly Theme:
The first week back to school we looked at the globe of the Earth. It is in a shape of a sphere. We noticed the Earth is covered mostly in water but does have land. The pieces of land are divided and called continents. There are seven continents and each have a fun fact. North America is where we live, South America has the Amazon Rain Forest, Europe has many countries, Africa has really cool animals, Asia is the biggest continent, Australia is an island and is called The Land Down Under, and Antarctica is the coldest continent and no humans live there. We went over what countries are in each continent (except for Antarctica).

Image result for continent montessori globe

Handwriting:
We are practicing our introduction to cursive exercises by writing simple symbols such as the big and small loops (look like cursive e and l) upside down and right side up cups (n and u), circles and flat tops (o and r).

Cultural Subjects:
We now can count to ten in 4 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, And Spanish).

Next Week:
Weekly Theme: Cardinal Directions (N,S,W,E)

Synonym Of The Week: FAST (hurried, speedy, brisk, quick, swift)

Sight Words Of The Week: go has

Adding German to the languages

Peek In Our Week | Mr. John’s Class | Week of August 27, 2018

Posted on September 2, 2018 at 8:13 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Line Time:

The opening week is a joy and a challenge all wrapped into one. I love the fresh start, seeing returning students, and meeting new ones. The first few weeks of the new school year during line time we go over the rules of the classroom. We go over our “Big 4” rules… 1.) Walking (No running in the classroom). Because if you run and fall into a shelf or hit your hear on the concrete floor which will win your head or the shelf? 2.) Use your listening ears. 3.) Keep your hands and body to yourself. The one I feel is most important… 4.) Be respectful. Which simply means be nice to people or treat people how you would like to be treated. We also go over how to carry, roll, and unroll a mat, put our shoes and slippers neatly on the mat (straight, together, and toes touching the wall). We pick up where we left off with the returning students with lessons and evaluate and access where the new students are.

I do have to say that the first week went very smoothly. I do need to thank Kathleen with her 5 plus years working with me and Ashlie who did a wonderful job being her first week with me for the smooth start.

Peek Into Our Week: