Line Time Lessons: ‘Tis the season for the Christmas Show practices. We started to practice and will be practicing for the next few weeks. My class is trying something a little different this year. We are going in the “Way Back Machine” to Merry Old England and performing two traditional carols. They are a bit different in melody but I know our extraordinary students will be able to pull it off.
Peek Into My Classroom:
We had a pair of alumni come in to visit, read, and tell our students about their experience at their new school. You’re not seeing double they are twins.
This student is working on one of her her assignments in her kindergarten binder. She is working on her 100 page. This where she writes from 1 to 100. Then 101 to 200 and so on. This develops her concentration, betters her handwriting, and helps her recognize patterns.
This student is working with money. She already knows the value of each coin and now she is counting change. She is also familiar with “paper money”.
We have discussed the visual discrimination of the Pink Tower and Brown Stairs but this child has found the relationship between the two materials. Students will match the corresponding pieces of these material. This student did match the the corresponding pieces but he took it to another level and made this creation.
This happy boy is proud of his accomplishment with the Ten Board. The purpose of this material is to associate quantities with symbols(1 ten is 10, 2 tens is 20…). He has learned how to include “units” with the “tens” to compose numbers from 11 to 99. As you can see he has four 10’s and five units to make 45. It looks like he discovered a pattern by composing 23, 34, 45…
Peek Into Next Week: Christmas show practice and we will learn about different Christmas Traditions from around the world.
Upcoming Events: Christmas Show Attire: Red and/or white
December 13: Christmas Show Practice 6 pm to 8 pm at Cuyahoga Falls High School
December 15: Christmas Show 6:30 pm to 8 pm at Cuyahoga Falls High School (NO AFTERCARE)
Academic Enrichment: Weeks of November 6 to November 13, 2017
Telling Time: We ended the official Kindergarten Lessons on telling time. We learned how to tell time to the minute. I taught them a cool trick. Instead of counting all 37 marks (for 37 after) just count by fives end at 35 and count from there. Some still felt comfortable counting all the minute marks. That’s OK, they’ll get it.
Coins: After the month long lessons on telling time we broke into everyone’s favorite thing: MONEY. We learned about the different and variety of each coin (penny 1 cent, nickel 5 cents, dime 10 cents, quarter 25 cents, 50 cent piece and the dollar coins). After we identified the coin we did start to learn how to count the change.
Cultural Subjects: The kindergarten students can now count to ten in 13 different languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean, and Hungarian).
A Peek Into The Next Few Weeks: Currency(Paper money)
Parts of plants, insects, and arachnids
Line Time Lessons: We traveled back in time and discovered some fascinating things about certain dinosaurs. We learned that dinosaurs no longer exist and that they are extinct. We know dinosaurs exist because scientist found their bones or fossils. From these fossil we saw that some teeth were long and sharp to tear flesh from it’s prey which belonged to meat eaters or carnivores (T Rex). Some teeth were flat for grinding plants, leaves, and branches and belonged to plant eaters or herbivores (Brachiosauras).
Cultural Subjects: We can now count to ten in 13 different languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, and Hebrew).
Peeking Into My Classroom:
We had an alumnus come in on her day off from school. She is in the 6th grade and came in to read to our class and help with lessons. I asked why she came back to her old school and she told me she had such a great experience she wanted to come back and give back to the school. Her words not mine.Metal Insets are a popular material found in the Language area. This work has many purposes. The main purpose is to prepare the child for handwriting and improve the fine motor skills. Also, it introduces the child to Geometry and the names of a variety of shapes.The chalk board is found in the Language area. The main purpose, obviously, is the introduction to handwriting. I like my students using chalk because most like the feel and can erase if a mistake is made. After my classroom students may not have an opportunity to use chalk. This student is getting a lesson from our University of Akron field student.The students are drawn to this material that are photographs of familiar objects and the become aware of the relationships between things. We discuss the associations and point out other examples in the everyday world. This increases the child’s experience and vocabulary.The 100 board simply a board with 100 squares (10 x 10 squares), that come with 100 number tiles that fit nicely. The Hundred Board is useful for number recognition, number sequencing, counting, patterning, possibly skip counting (depending on your method) most of all it’s perfect for just reinforcing the understanding of numbers from one to one-hundred. Notice this child is not only placing the numbers in order but she is randomly finding where the tiles go. She has identified the pattern of this work.
The past two weeks in Handwriting, we have been working on answering a question of the day and writing our answer in cursive. Some of our questions have been, ” What will you be for Halloween?” and ” What did you have for lunch today?” and ” What is your middle name?”. The children are also working on spelling their answer phonetically.
Something to practice with your child at home is writing their first name in cursive! I’m so proud of how our Kindergarten student’s handwriting has come along so far this year!
Line Time Lesson: This week we creeped and crawled and learned about insects, arachnids, and invertebrates. We first looked at insects. The characteristics of an insect are they have three body parts, head, thorax, abdomen. The also have six legs and two antennae. We sang the song “Head, Thorax, Abdomen” to the tune of Head , Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. Some examples of insects were ants and crickets which can be found, enclosed not free, in the classroom. Also, the mantis, bees, butterflies, and dragonflies. Arachnids are eight legged creatures that have a head and a thorax. Some creatures that are arachnids are spiders (tarantula named Charlotte) that is in the classroom, scorpions, and the tick. Both creepy crawlers are invertebrates which means they do not have a backbone or a spine or a bony skeleton but actually have an exoskeleton. An exoskeleton is is the external skeleton that supports and protects an animal’s body. Other invertebrates are earthworms, jellyfish, and crawfish.
Cultural Subjects: We can now count to ten in 13 different languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, and Swedish).
Bees… bzzzzzz:
Pastor Kirk has several bee hives and talked about bees and brought in his equipment. The children tried on a protective mask, touched (an empty) hive with wax, and saw real live bees (in an enclosed hive).
A Peek In The Classroom:
We’re a happy family. The babies are growing, mom is doing well, and the aunties are accepting the litter. Anyone want pet rats????The old colored water with with flower experiment. As you can see we chose dark purple (which did nothing to the flower), green (which turned the flower yellow), and blue (which turned the flower blue).My kindergarten students tracked the color changes in their personal binders. We came up with possible reasons why the purple did nothing. We thought maybe too much coloring couldn’t get up the stem. The yellow maybe had more yellow in the coloring.Line Time… The aim is to increase body control and concentration. The child sits criss cross, hands to themselves, and are quiet. This is an exaggerated picture of catching a bubble (no talking), safe hands (hands to ourselves), and sitting on the line calmly. My morning line time can last up to thirty minutes and your child sit nicely for the duration of this line time. At line time I present information about days of the week, months of the year, the date, the weather, we count to ten in different languages, my weekly theme, and announcements. Also, as a bonus they get to hear my morning banter.The child needs to practice, perfect, and consolidate the body’s movements. For this reason, Dr. Montessori began using the “Walking on the Line” as a Practical Life exercise. This exercise helps the child control his body, develop balance and perfect equilibrium, as well as to strengthen the mind’s control of its body’s movements. No pushing, no cutting, and no running across to the other side of the line. We play a classical piece of music, Pachelbel’s Canon in D Minor, which is exactly five minutes (4:57). After I ring the bell and the children stop, look, and listen, they proceed to clean, and walk the line. After the music ends the children sit nicely on the line.
A Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time Lesson: Dinosaurs and the unique things of select dinos.
11/17/17 (Friday): Parent Teacher Conferences (NO SCHOOL FOR CHILDREN) Follow the link to sign up. http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-2017
Cultural Subjects: We have been counting to Ten in 11 different languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, and Romanian).
Peeking Into The Classroom:
This is an action shot of a student sorting. Inevitably, our reading books get mixed and become out of order but this student is assigned every day to put them in order. This set of books has four sets of ten and she enjoys the responsibility of doing and completing this task.
Rolling a mat develops O.C.C.I (order, concentration, coordination, independence) and development of muscles. The mat is to be rolled tightly and with even ends. Also, the purpose of the mat is to give the child his / her own personal work space while working on the floor.
The reason for this picture is not the material but how a student who is four years old is presenting and showing his peers how to use this work. Kindergarten students are not the only ones that present materials to others. All students have the potential to show others how the work with materials.
Did you ever wonder how the teachers keep track of all our students with all those materials on the shelf? The answer is a Montessori tracking program called MRX (Montessori Records Express). It tracks the individual student with the materials they are working on and mastered. It also exports that information to our progress reports and tracks attendance. We use MRX with our tablets.
This assessment this student is working on is called the Albanesi Assessment. This test is a bridge between the Montessori works and a traditional test. We give these tests to our kindergarten students and old preschool students.
Peek Into Next Week:
Next week we will learn about insects, arachnids, and invertebrates.
This week we finished up with Jamaica’s Blue Marker. I really loved these last few classes because the children were really engaged in telling me how they would feel if they were Jamaica and their friend was moving away. I always like to start the class by telling them that we are a little family and they should never be nervous to raise their hand and to say how they feel. I want them to able to speak their mind and to think on their own without being judged.At the end of each story the children have to rate on how well they shared throughout our meetings. They also have to come together and talk about what they all could do differently during our next reading. I like to write down all of their answers they give me on our white board so that they are able to copy write in their own booklets.
The past two weeks have taken us all the way to the letter Z in Handwriting! We also started answering a couple of journal questions, putting into practice what we have learned thus far. Our two journal questions so far have been “What is your favorite color?” and “What will you be for Halloween?” The goal is to have the children begin to expressively write on their own and to practice their letter formation on paper. I’m so proud of their progress so far!
I would encourage you to help your child practice their handwriting at home by phonetically spelling words on their own. Why not have them help you write the grocery list this week?
The Kindergarten Students, as promised, are learning how to tell time old school! We identified what the minute hand and the hour hand are. We first learned how to tell time to the hour/O’ clock/ :00. We then learned how to tell time to the half hour/ half past/ :30. Next we looked at telling time to the quarter hour/ quarter past, :15 and of course we looked at quarter til/ :45.
These students are writing the hands on the clock and writing the time in numbers that I assigned. One student had an ” O clock” :00, half past :30, quarter past :15
This kindergarten student is practicing telling time to the quarter after/ :15.The Kindergarten Students telling time with their “hands”. Get it? Hehe
Cultural Subjects: The kindergarten students can now count to ten in 13 different languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Itlaian, Russian, Romanian, and Swedish).
A Peek Into The Next Few Weeks: Telling time to the minute
Money/Coins
Line Time Lessons: This week we swam the waters and learned about fish. We learned that fish are vertebrates, cold blooded, they have slimy, scaly skin, and some are born with jelly eggs and some are born alive. Some examples of fish were tuna, eel, and the ever popular shark. We know that all fish live in water.
Culture Subjects: We have been counting to Ten in 11 different languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, and Russian).
The Primary Montessori Classroom has students ranging in age from 2 1/2 to 6 years. Here are two of my newest five year old children.
Views To The Classroom:
This student combined five different works (knobed cylinders, knobless cylinders, pink tower, brown stairs, and the bead cabinet). She found the correlation between all five of these works. Involved purposes are visual discrimination, fine motor skills, critical thinking, O.C.C.I ( order, concentration, coordination, independence). It took her over 40 minutes to complete this work(s) and that did not include clean up/putting it away.
This student is working on an activity that is found in the Language area. It contains three part cards and focuses on the short vowel sounds. It utilizes three letter words so the child puts together the letter sounds to make a word.
The Knobbed Cylinders are found in the Sensorial area and the purpose of this material is visual discrimination of dimensions. Preparation for writing; coordination of the fingers used to hold the pencil. Refinement of voluntary movement. The child will be able to fit the cylinders with one precise movement. Preparation for mathematics.
***** Look at the look of concentration *****The aim of the Knobless Cylinders in the Sensorial area is to observe and compare the different series with each other. Getting a clearer understanding for the different dimensions and their correlation.
Take A Peek Into Next Week: Birds and the characteristics of.
