The Summer of 2016 was a busy busy busy Summer for Mr. John.  I took on a few Summer jobs to pass the time more quickly and to earn some extra cash money.  I have been working child care at the church I attend for the past few years, but that is only a few hours on a Sunday morning.  I was recommended to do home care for children who have mental disabilities. Numerous mental treatment and therapies are available online. For instance, if you visit experienceibogaine.com, you can see the discussion about ibogaine medicine for depression and addiction and iboga reviews from people who have come through Ibogaine treatment program. I was not sure how I would do with this job.  Would I like it?  Would it be too difficult?  It turns out I love it!  I love getting to know the children, their families, and pets.  These children are sweet, great, loving children.  I feel as if I am part of their family every time I work with them.  I feel working with these children has made me a better teacher and a better person.   Mid-Summer I was approached from an employee from Blossom Music Center because they needed help for The Warped Tour (Security, new PC term is Crowd Management).  I said, why not, interviewed, and got the gig.  It was a long, sweaty, hot day but it was a blast.  I was asked if I would work more shows, to which I agreed.  Again, it was a blast (even the country shows).  I thought once concerts ended I would be done, but I was contacted to work security (ooops, Crowd Management) at Blossom’s haunted house.  People always told me I was a people-person.  Also, I’ve been told I had a knack with “kids and dogs”.  With that said…. my next employment endeavor, dog walking.

“It is so quiet in here.  It is so calm.”  This is what I have been hearing from parents and current teachers about my room.  Usually it takes a good 3-4 months for my room to become normalized, but this year it is on its way to being normalized in about a month.  I credit those around me for the earlier than usual success.  Miss Kathleen and Miss Sabrina are wonderful teachers and work well with the students.  They are fun yet firm and know how to handle difficult situations well.  When I mentioned “those around me” I didn’t only mean the teachers but I want to give credit to the older students, the leaders of the room.  They are showing the newer/younger students how to work with materials and are guiding them through the classroom.

   

Line Time Lessons:

We started out the year by learning the ground rules of the classroom.  Use walking feet in the room.  Use inside voices. Keep our hands/bodies to ourselves. BE RESPECTFUL.

  

We learned about healthy habits.  Some healthy habits are washing our hands, brushing our teeth, eating healthy foods, and my favorite, getting enough sleep. Keep yourself healthy and buy prescription drugs at https://www.ukmeds.co.uk/treatments/acid-reflux/lansoprazole-15mg/ to prevent different kinds of illness. Staying healthy also means to stay out of drugs because it can cause drug addiction. If you know someone who is suffering from substance abuse visit https://aspirehealthnetwork.com/oregon/.

In the vein of healthy habits we delved into another of my favorite subjects, food.  We leaned about the different food groups, grains and cereals, fruits and vegetables, dairy (my fave), meats and proteins, and sweets. It’s very important when on rehab to know the consequences of withdrawal, learn more on http://fherehab.com/news/how-heroin-withdrawal-affects-users/.

The best place to purchase this breast cream is directly from the manufacturer where you’ll also find the best price. You can do this by simply placing an order on the official website and your order will be delivered to your doorstep in days.

  

We explored what makes a living thing, a living thing.  We all knew the rats were living and my shoe was not living but why?  Living things reproduce or have babies and humans care about their babies a lot and even get everything ready with the help of products from sites as https://top10bestpro.com.  They grow.  They eat or take in nourishment.  They breathe or exchange oxygen.  And we all agreed living things move (I’m still not sold on the locomotion thing).  The big question was… are plants living things?  We went through the list and determined plants are living things.

  

Children love animals and I enjoy teaching the children about different types of animals.  This month we started discussing mammals.  I chose mammals because we are mammals.   We learned that mammals have hair or fur, are born alive, and drink mother’s milk when first born.  We learned that mammals are warm blooded (their body temperature remains constant) and that they are vertebrates (have spines).  We learned that dolphins and whales are mammals and that the bat is the only mammal that can fly.

  

We had an University of Akron Field Student join our teaching team.  Here is Shelly working with children.

Cultural Subjects:

We can count to ten in 11  languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian).

  

Academic Enrichment (Kindergarten students | Group lesson with Mr. John)

Let’s travel around the world!  This past month we trekked around the world.  We learned where, and fun facts about the seven continents.  I made sure that out kindergartners knew “Central America” was not a continent, but part of North America.  We learned about the cardinal directions including N.E., S.E., N.W,, and NW.  My K Kids know where the Equator and Prime Meridian are, and how the divide the Earth into hemispheres.

We took a closer look at North America (because we live there).  We identified the bodies of water that surround our continent (Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, Hudson Bay, Gulf of Mexico, and The Great Lakes (H.O.M.E.S).  We then learned many fun facts about the state of Ohio and what are Ohio’s surrounding states, their nickname, and their abbreviation.  We ended learning about all the places we live.  Our galaxy, our solar system, planet, hemisphere, continent, country, state, county, city and out street address.

Cultural Subjects:

We can count to ten in 12  languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian).

The children are having so much fun learning in Art, Science and Music!

Art:

In Art students are learning about monochromatic colors, primary colors and secondary colors. The children enjoyed painting, as well as learning about complimentary colors and making warm and cool colored mosaics.

Science:

In Science they are learning about “chemical reactions”, ” the mass in a specified volume”, ” density “, and ” the difference in the weight of two objects of the same size.”

             

Music:

Music, of course is a hit with the children! They absolutely love the songs, as well as the movement activities presented. The children loved playing with the bells, the castanets, the maracas, and the rhythm sticks among others! Please converse with your children about these amazing classes.

October 2016

What I will learn at school this month in Mr. John’s Class…

 Themes of the Week  (in addition to Montessori Work time)

10/03: Reptiles

• Introduction to reptiles, examples of reptiles
• All reptiles are cold blooded, vertebrates (spine)
• All reptiles have scales, lay eggs with hard shell

10/10: Amphibians

• Introduction to amphibians, examples of amphibians
• Amphibians are cold blooded, live on land and water
• All amphibians have soft, moist skin and are vertebrates (spine)

10/17: Fish

• Introduction to fish, examples of fish
• All fish are cold blooded, live in water, most have scales
• Fish are vertebrates, most have gills and fins

10/24: Birds

• Introduction to birds, examples of birds
• All birds have feathers and are warm blooded
• All birds are vertebrates, lay eggs with shells, have wings
• Penguins are a birds that can’t fly

Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.

10/03: Gg
10/10: Hh
10/17: Ii
10/24: Jj

Rhyming Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

10/03: BID, did, hid, kid, lid, rid,
10/10: BIT, fit, hit, kit, lit, mit, pit, sit
10/17: BIN, fin, kin, pin, sin, tin, win
10/24: BIP, dip, hip, lip, nip, rip, sip, tip

Things to do at Home this Month to reinforce our themes:

• Look for our words of the week when reading a story, cut out pictures beginning with the letters of the week.
• Play “I Spy” with items beginning with the letter of the week, or find things around your home that begin with the letter of the week.
• Go to the Zoo together, and talk about what each animal is? A Bird, A Mammal, Reptile, Amphibian, or Fish.
• Read a book together about your child’s favorite animal! Is it a Vertebrate or Invertebrate?  What are the babies called?

Mr. John’s August/September 2016 Monthly Overview

What I will learn this month in Mr. John’s Class…
(In addition to Montessori Work Time)

8/22- 9/29          Ground Rules / Introduction of Materials

• Ringing of the bell, circle walk, line time
• Process of working with a materials, rolling mats, carrying trays & work areas
• Respecting teachers, classmates and the materials
• Daily demonstration of materials from all areas of the classroom

9/05: Healthy Habits

• The importance of washing hands, bathing, brushing teeth (eliminate germs, prevent cavities)
• The importance of sleep. Why we need sleep & sleep cycle
• The importance of exercise (walking, running, swimming, etc)
• The importance of eating well (“grow foods”)

9/12: Food Groups

• Eating Healthy, Moderation
• Focus on the different food groups, sorting foods belonging in each
• Servings and examples of each

9/19: Living / Non Living

• Living things (grow, reproduce, obtain and use energy, exchange gases) adapt to their environment
• Non Living things, examples
• Categorization of Living and Non Living

9/26: Mammals

• Introduction to mammals, examples of mammals
• All mammals have hair, warm blooded, eat mother’s milk
• All mammals are vertebrates (spine), lungs to breathe, born alive
• Bats are the ONLY mammal that can fly

Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.

8/22: Aa

8/29: Bb

9/05: Cc

9/12: Dd

9/19: Ee

9/26: Ff

Rhyming Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

8/22: BAT, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, sat

8/29: BAN, can, dan, fan, man, pan, tan

9/05: BAP, map, cap, gap, lap, nap, sap

9/12: BAG, sag, jag, lag, nag, tag, rag wag

9/19: BAD, dad, fad, had, lad, mad, sad

9/26: BIG, dig, fig, jig, pig, rig, wig

Things to do at Home this Month to reinforce our themes:

• Make a collage with pictures and objects that start with the letters of the week.
• While eating together, categorize your meal into food groups with your child.
• Follow this link to find a worksheet to complete together for living and non living things. (Circle the living things and color together)http://worksheetplace.com/index.php?function=DisplaySheet&sheet=Circle-the-living-things&links=2&id=&link1=241&link2=257
• Read a book about your child’s favorite mammal together!

Line Time

The circle of life studied last week always involves food and eating to stay alive.  This is where we looked at several food chains. We looked at a 2 part food chain involving a mouse and grains.  We looked at several 3 part food chains such as snake/mouse/grains, hawk/snake/mouse, bear/big fish/small fish.  We went so far to look at some 4 part food chains Hawk/snake/mouse/grain.  We learned about being on the top of the food chain and the bottom of the food chain.  We also learned the animal that “hunts” for the food is the predator and the animal that gets eaten is the prey.

The second week of May was a great time to talk about the seasons.  We started with spring and talked about how it gets a bit warmer but we get a lot of rain and plants and flowers start to come out.   Then we talked about summer and how it is hotter because the earth tilts closer to the sun and the days are longer.  This is when plants grow tall and flowers are in full bloom.  Autumn or fall comes next and the weather gets a bit chillier.  The leaves turn beautiful colors then fall to the ground.  The final season is winter and it is the coldest season of the year.  The earth is tilted further away from the sun and the days are shorter.  We end up getting snow in the winter.

Put on your space suit and get ready to explore our solar system.  We started with discussing the planets nearer the sun them worked our way to the furthest reaches of our solar system.  Mercury is our first planet and is the closest to the sun.  Venus is the second planet.  Even though it is further away from the sun it is the hottest planet in our solar system.  The third planet is near and dear to our hearts.  It is the planet earth.  It is the only planet in our solar system that has life.  The next planet is Mars and is known as the red planet.  The next planet is the biggest planet in our solar system and has a big red storm that has been raging for centuries.  That planet is Jupiter.  Saturn is the next planet and has really cool ring around it that are pieces of rock and ice.  Uranus is next and it spins up and down instead of side to side like all the other planets.  Neptune is the last planet in our solar system.  I did not forget about Pluto.  Oh! Poor Pluto.  Pluto was once a planet but now has been demoted to a dwarf planet.

We had two alumni readers.  Sophia who is now third grader at Richardson and James who is now a fourth grader at Dunbar.

Cultural Subjects

We are holding at counting to ten in 27 different languages.

Academic Enrichment Lesson with kindergarten students

We started May by discussing the preposition.  Where oh where can we find a preposition?  Well, I told them a preposition was a “where word” NOT a “werewolf”.  The kindergarteners brushed up on their knowledge of the interjection.  The interjection adds emotion to the sentence but we did find out that if we eliminate the interjection from the sentence, the meaning of the sentence really does not change.  We learned what punctuation is used at the end of a sentence.  We use a period (.) when we are stating something.  We use a question mark (?) when we are asking a question and we use an exclamation mark (!) when we show excitement or a lot of emotion. I introduced the students to the rules of capitalization.  We learned that words at the beginning of the sentence, the word I, and proper nouns need to be capitalized.    We played “mad libs” and ended our lessons on grammar by watching Grammar Rock.  For the last week we just reflected on our year, what we learned, and our favorite parts of kindergarten class.  It was a GREAT year!

Enrichments

The children sure did enjoy Music, Science and Art classes this year! I must admit, so did I. Ms. Lisa, Mr. John and Ms. Michele’s love for the children showed in the time they put in preparing for the classes, as well as their interaction with each other. The children loved the hands on activities. I saw some activities replicated at home, safely and enthusiastically with some great parent involvement! Thank you for sharing your children with us. Have a safe and awesome Summer!

Fast Car….. 

I am afraid I am entering a new chapter in my life.  My days of the mini van are gone and ushers in the era of the sedan.  I recently traded my life inside the Honda Odyssey for the Honda Accord.  I never realized what a difference this would make.  The sedan is FAST!  I don’t think I will know what the true gas mileage is for a few months because of my abrupt stops, jack rabbit starts, and taking corners like I am in the Grand Prix (without fear of tipping). I actually look forward getting behind the wheel of this CAR. It has an “AUX” jack so I can listen to my Spotify from my cell phone and have no qualms about blasting “Sweet Emotion” by Aerosmith with the windows down.  My niece who is 15 years old laughed hysterically when she saw me behind the wheel of something other than a mini van.  She looked over the CAR, hopped in, laughed, got out walked away laughing, stopped, turned around to take another look, doubled over and started to laugh harder.  She said she NEVER saw me drive anything besides a minivan and this will take time for her to get used to this new CAR she bought with the no credit check loans, this is must to do anytime you get a new car just to protect yourself and if you can’t afford it with cash it will make a big difference even if you are a bad credit borrower, if you check the best tumblr on the topic you’ll find great advise for this type of situations and it will help you make the best decision regarding this.

   

Fun with fractions                                                Dem Bones!

Line Time 

Jambo Bwana and What a Small world it is.  Those thoughts and music is still ringing in my ears.  As you know these were the songs we sang at the International Festival.  We learned about all the continents and some of the individual countries within the continents.  The students had fun learning about the climates, foods, clothes, and differences of how children attend school. I wanted to thank all of those who came in and talked about different countries.  This adds so much to International Festival month.  All the presentations are fun, informative, and the children and teachers enjoy it.  It never ceases to amaze me how much our students can learn in a short amount of time.  They did a fabulous job with their lines and performing the songs.  Not to mention how colorful the stage was with their costumes.  I cannot give enough thanks to the people who prepared the food!  Who didn’t gain ten pounds that night?

Kathleen having fun at a Turkish wedding

   Learning about Lebanon

 

  Learning about Nigeria

 

Learning about Turkey

  Learning about Tanzania

 

    Learning about Australia and New Zealand

 

 

 

Views from the classroom

 

Reading Is Fundamental (RIF)

Hard workers

1,2,3…………. 100 board

Cultural Subjects

My line time and the kindergarten class count to ten in 27 different languages (English, Sign Language, German, French, Greek, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Tagalog, Polish, Irish, Welsh, Hebrew, Arabic w/the Lebanese dialect, Japanese, Hungarian, Swedish, Swahili, Korean, Serbo-Croation, Hindi, Flemish/Dutch, Malay, Cebuano and Turkish!

      

Fun with African drums and shakers                    Proud of their African drums and shakers

Friendship

Multiplication

Academic Enrichment with Kindergarten Students

In the afternoon lesson with kindergartners, we continued our work with grammar.  We started by We looked at the adjective which describes nouns and pronouns, the adverb which describes the verb and usually ends in “ly”, the conjunction which connects two sentences or thoughts and acts like a bridge, and the preposition which is a “where” word not a werewolf.

Diagraming sentences

Who said adverbs were difficult?  My kindergarteners don’t think so!

Cultural Subjects

My line time and the kindergarten class count to ten in 27 different languages (English, Sign Language, German, French, Greek, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Tagalog, Polish, Irish, Welsh, Hebrew, Arabic w/the Lebanese dialect, Japanese, Hungarian, Swedish, Swahili, Korean, Serbo-Croation, Hindi, Flemish/Dutch, Malay, Cebuano and Turkish!

Themes of the Week  (in addition to Montessori Work time)

 5/02:  Food Chains

• 3 and 4 part food chains
• A food chain shows how each living thing gets food, how nutrients and energy are passed from creature to creature
• Food chains begin with plant-life, and end with animal-life. Some animals eat plants, some animals eat other animals.

5/09:   Seasons & Weather

• 4 Seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter
• Characteristics of each Season/ the first day of each Season
• Different types of clouds and their characteristics

5/16:  Solar System

• Sun, Earth, Moon, Stars
• Facts on each planet, Asteroids and the Milky Way
• Constellations, Kennedy Space Station

5/23:  Careers/Community Workers

• Different jobs in the community
• Doctors, Mail Carriers, Nurses, Accountants, etc.
• How these workers help us

 05/30:  Safety

• Summer safety, water safety
• Fire Fighters, Police Officers
• Calling 911

Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.

5/02: Aa

5/09: Ee

5/16: Ii

5/23: Oo

Rhyming Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

5/02: BIB, dib, fib, rib,

5/09: BIC, kick, lick, nick, pick, nick, sick wick

5/16: BUD, dud, mud,

5/23: BOD, God, mod, nod, sod, Todd, rod, 

Things to do at home this month to reinforce our themes:

• Look for our sight words when reading a story, point out words you use that begin with the letter of the week. Cut out pictures beginning with the letters of the week.
• While driving your car, have your child tell you all the items they see that starts with the letter of the week.
• Take a long walk in your park or neighborhood and point out the seasonal changes to your child. Discuss what you did as a child during each season and share some old and new memories with your son or daughter.  Make special plans for each season.
• To reinforce our space theme, do some star gazing each night. Have your child pick their favorite, brightest one and share in making a special wish together!

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And I wonder…..

The chorus of a great song by that great, Chicago based, punk band Naked Raygun.  Do you “wonder” about really really random stuff like me?  For instance, I have asked myself the question how many tons of paper clips are produced in the world each year?  To go along with that, is how many tons of staples are produced?  Is it even tons? I don’t know , although I bet I could google it! My favorite daughter, (or as she would reply “I’m your only daughter”) wonders about things as well.  She wonders if horses would be happy jumping in a bouncy house or where do railroad tracks begin and end.  Although, she also has more profound inquiries.  She wonders why the universe wasn’t created one year, one month, one day or one millisecond earlier or later than it was created.  I asked my oldest son if he wonders and he just stared at me with a blank look and left the room.  My youngest son wonders how much gum he can shove and chew in his mouth at one time or how long can he go without wearing socks or not taking a shower.  (Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that boy’s brain!  Then I realize I really don’t want to know). Then I go back wondering how many tons of BB’s are produced each year…

Line Time Lessons
Our students “wonder” too!  We want to give them every opportunity to explore in the classroom and learn how they can answer all of their “wonders”.

The month started off by going back in time and studying the Ancient Romans.  The Ancient Romans had similar Gods as the Ancient Greeks.  The king of all Gods in Rome was Jupiter and his wife Juno who was the Goddess of Marriage and childbirth.  Pluto was the God of the Underworld, Neptune was the God of the Seas, and finally we came across the God of War, Mars.  Did you notice that a lot of these Gods had planets named after them?

                     

Geometry at it’s finest!!!

     

(Inspecting rocks with a magnifying glass. Both wet and dry rocks)

Plug your noses we are entering the pollution zone. Pollution is TOXIC! We all agree that pollution is a bad thing. All pollution including air , water, land, and noise pollution. We learned how we could help our environment by using the 3 R’s.. Reduce, reuse, and recycle.

     

 I spy with my little eye                        Friends working together

Writing rhyming words

Hold your breath (not because it stinks) but we are jumping into the ocean.  The salty, deep, vast oceans.  We learned about the several amazing animals that live in the ocean.  We do not want to mess with a shark or get too close to a jellyfish.  But clown fish are cool and the grouper has two eyes on one side of its face.  We got reacquainted with the mammals of the oceans, dolphins, whales, and the orca.

     

(Sisters working on the 100 board)                    (Working with the continents)

(Bro power!)

We ended the month by learning about our own state of Ohio.  The students were first taught how to spell Ohio.  OH-IO !  We learned that the flag of Ohio is the only flag that is not the shape of a rectangle.  The official nickname of Ohio is the Buckeye State and the Buckeye Tree is the official tree of Ohio.  The white tailed deer and trilobite are the mammal and fossil of Ohio.  We found a theme of the color “red/scarlet” for the rest of the official things of Ohio.  The flower is the scarlet carnation, bird is the cardinal, insect is the lady bug and the official drink is tomato juice.  The official rock and roll song is “Hang On Sloopy”

We had a field placement student, Lyndsey, from Stark State visit us.  She said Absorbent Minds was one of the best field experiences she has had!  Good luck in your studies Lyndsey!

   

 (Lyndsey, our field placement student having fun working with our students!)

Cultural Subjects

We had a very cheeky visitor on St. Patrick’s Day.  It is that same leprechaun named Shane O’Keefe that has been messing my classroom for the past several years.  He flipped tables and chairs, threw materials throughout the classroom, but left chocolate eggs for the students and the teachers.  Until next year Shane O’Keefe!

We now can count to 10 in twenty six languages… English (that is our native language), Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic w/Lebanese dialect, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Hebrew, Swedish, Korean, Polish, and Tagalog, Hungarian, Polish, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemish, Serbo-Croatian, Cebuano, Malay, Hindi

(2 Cents A Meal donation)

 (Pastor Kirk reading to the children)

Kindergarten Lesson

We capped off our lessons in geometry by learning our geometric solids (Cube, sphere, cone, rectangular and triangular prisms, ovoid, ellipsoid, cylinder, square and triangular based pyramids.

…”Don’t know much about Geometry…”  but our Kindergartners do!!!!

The kindergartners started their section in Language.  We will be learning about the parts of speech until the end of the year.  We went over vowels/consonants, and nouns and verbs.  A noun is a person , place, or thing.  A verb is an action word or something you do.  We the leaerned there are three articles.  They are A, An, The.  We learned rules when we use those articles.  A hooks up with consonants, an hooks up with vowels, and the hooks up with anything.

We now can count to 10 in twenty six languages… English (that is our native language), Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic w/Lebanese dialect, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Hebrew, Swedish, Korean, Polish, and Tagalog, Hungarian, Polish, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemish, Serbo-Croatian, Cebuano, Malay, Hindi

Music

In Music the children learned a new activity called Cat and Mouse. It sharpened their listening skills, both high and low. They also learned different sounds. The children played the keyboard, as well as learned to listen well for different sounds. They also learned movement songs.

Art

In Art the children made Henna on Hands sculpture and Weaving. Do talk to the children about these awesome classes?

Science

Magic Milk Rainbow (Surface Tension) and Bubbles in a Bottle (Density) were their Science experiments. They were so much fun!!

                                                      

Swirling food coloring in milk-surface tension                                              A closer look at a “lava lamp”

Science! If it ain’t messy, It ain’t fun!!!!

Themes of the Week  (in addition to Montessori Work time)

 2/29: Ancient Rome

• Roman culture and traditions
• Buildings and contributions

3/07: Pollution and Recycling

• What is pollution? Air, water, noise, littering
• What is recycling? Ways to recycle
• Ways to save energy
• Arbor Day/Earth Day

3/14: Oceans

• Ocean life, whales
• Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
• Salt water, fresh water

3/21: Landmarks of the USA/The state of OH-IO

• OHIO, surrounding state, state flag, flower, bird, state seal, historical landmarks
• Landmarks such as Statue of Liberty, Mt. Rushmore, Golden Gate Bridge, and Grand Canyon

3/28-4/1: SPRING BREAK (school resumes Monday, 4/4)

Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.

2/29: Vv

3/07: Ww

3/14: Xx

3/21:Yy

Rhyming Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

2/29: BEN, den, hen, men, pen, ten, yen

3/07: BEG, keg, meg, peg, leg

3/14: BEL, gel, mel, nel, sell, well

3/21: BAC, hack, jack, lack, mack, knack, pack,

Things to do at Home this Month to reinforce our themes:

• Look for our words of the week when reading a story, cut out pictures beginning with the letters of the week.
• Play “I Spy” with items beginning with the letter of the week, or find things around your home that begin with the letter of the week.
• What can you recycle at home? How can you conserve excess energy?
• Take a trip to the Cleveland Aquarium together and explore ocean life!

 Themes of the Week  (in addition to Montessori Work time)

2/01: Internal Organs

• Brain, Heart, Lungs
• Large and Small Intestines
• Stomach
• Kidneys and Liver

2/08: Presidents of the United States

• George Washington
• Abe Lincoln, Franklin D Roosevelt
• John F Kennedy, Barack Obama

2/15: Ancient Egypt

• Egyptian culture and traditions
• Buildings and contributions

2/22: Ancient Greek

• Greek culture and traditions
• Buildings and contributions

Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.

2/01: Rr

2/08: Ss

2/15: Tt

2/22: Uu

Rhyming Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

2/01: BUT, cut, gut, hut, nut, jut

2/08: BUP, cup, pup,

2/15: BED, fed, led, med, ned, red, net, ted

2/22: BET, get, jet, let, met, net, set

Things to do at Home this Month to reinforce our themes:

• Look for our words of the week when reading a story, cut out pictures beginning with the letters of the week.
• Play “I Spy” with items beginning with the letter of the week, or find things around your home that begin with the letter of the week.
• Look at a United States map. See if your child can guess which state the presidents we learned about came from.
• Go to your local library and explore books about the different ancient cultures and read them together.