Themes of the Week (in addition to Montessori Work Time)
1/04: Whales
Facts about Whales and different types of Whales
Create a Whale Chart
How do Whale’s float? “Staying Afloat” Science experiment on density
1/11: History of Martin Luther King Jr.
How we are similar and different (hair color, eye color etc.)
Egg experiment (brown egg vs. white egg) discuss their differences on the outside– discover how they are the same on the inside.
How we treat others equally‐ using different activities and stories
Friday 1/15 NO SCHOOL | Teacher In Service Day
1/18: Polar Pals
Monday 1/18 ‐NO SCHOOL (MLK Day)
The Arctic Climate, Map of the Arctic
Exploring the worlds of the Polar Bear, Seal and Walrus.
1/25: Penguins
Facts about Penguins, why don’t they fly?
How Penguins communicate
Where Penguins live
Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.
1/04- n
1/11- 0
1/18-p
1/25- q
Rhyming Words of the Week:
1/04-car
1/11-bear
1/18-pin
1/25-mug
Things to do at Home this Month to reinforce our themes:
While reading a book have your child point to all of the letter of the week she/he can find. Have them do this with the sight words as well. Play I‐Spy using things that only start with the letter of the week/ sight words.
Go on a whale hunt! draw whales or print out whale pictures and hide them around your house. have your child count out how many whales they have found, or place them in different categories.
While reading to your child have him/her pick out the sight word “am.” Go outside in the snow, fill a spray bottle with food coloring and water. have your child spray out the letters and sight words we have been talking about all month. also your child can create an Alaska theme using seals, polar bears, walruses, and penguins.
1/11: Martin Luther King Jr./ Similarities and Differences
History of MLK, Rosa Parks.
Our similarities and differences (eyes, hair, gender and skin color)
MLK/ Rosa Parks skit
Friday 1/15 NO SCHOOL | Teacher In Service Day
1/18: Five Senses
Monday 1/18- NO SCHOOL (MLK Day)
Introduction to the Senses
Focus on each Sense throughout the week
Activities and experiments to support our knowledge of the senses
1/25: Skeletal System
Arms, Hands and Fingers
Ribs, Pelvis
Legs, Feet and Toes
Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.
1/04: Nn 1/11: Oo 1/18: Pp 1/25: Qq
Rhyming Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.
1/04: BOB, fob, gob, job, lob, mob, rob 1/11: BUG, dug, hug, jug, mug, tug 1/18: BUN, fun, nun, run, sun 1/25: BUB, cub, hub, pub, rub, sub
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.
Talk about what makes you the same and different from your child. Do you have the same hair and eye color? If not, where did they get their eye color from?
Take turns trying to write your name on a piece of paper blindfolded. Wow! We appreciate the sense of sight!
Quiz your child about the different bones of the body, see if they can point to where their Femur is or tell you what their Phalanges are.
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.
1/04: Introduction to decimals/ columns
Intro to decimals
Learning what is and says ( 1, 10, 100, 1000)
1/11: Introduction to 9 Tray/ 45 layout
Recap of decimal system
Reinforce by placement and identification of numbers within each decimal place
1/18: Composing Numbers
Working with 9 tray / 45 layout
Using single units, 10 bars, 100 square and 1000 cubes
Reinforce number placement with creation of numbers
1/25: Addition
Introduction of addition
Using single units, 10 bars, 100 squares and 1000 cubes
Sight Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.
1/04: oil, people 1/11: come, number 1/18: could, who 1/25: now, made
Synonyms of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.
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.
Practice using the different synonyms of the week in a sentence together.
You can view this link to give you more information on how the math materials are used in the Montessori classroom http://www.montessorialbum.com/montessori/index.php?title=Math. You may also google the name of the work to find more videos and information on the purpose of that material.
Mr. John will be sending homework home to reinforce these lessons. Please turn homework into the orange box outside of Mr. John’s classroom. Please email him if you have any questions: jkotradi@thesmarterkids.com.
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.
1/4: Introduction to 9 Tray/ 45 layout/composing numbers
Learning what is and says ( 1, 10, 100, 1000)
Reinforce by placement and identification of numbers within each decimal place
Reinforce number placement with creation of numbers
1/11: Introduction to addition
Working with 9 tray / 45 layout
Using single units, 10 bars, 100 square and 1000 cubes
1/18: Introduction to exchanging
Introduction of exchanging 1s, 10s, 100s and 1000s
Using single units, 10 bars, 100 squares and 1000 cubes
1/25: Introduction to multiplication
Working with 9 tray / 45 layout
Using single units, 10 bars, 100 square and 1000 cubes
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.
Practice using the different synonyms of the week in a sentence together.
You can view this link to give you more information on how the math materials are used in the Montessori classroom http://www.montessorialbum.com/montessori/index.php?title=Math
You may also google the name of the work to find more videos and information on the purpose of that material.
The children will talk about ice fishing and then do some ice fishing in the classroom.
The children will experience what it is like to be a penguin.
The children will learn about all of the different polar animals.
1/11: Ocean Animals
The children will learn about the ocean habitat.
The children will compare their length to a blue whales length.
The children will create waves in a bottle.
Friday 1/15 NO SCHOOL | Teacher In Service Day
1/18: M L King
Monday, 1/18 NO SCHOOL | MLK Day
The children will learn what a hero is.
The children will create a classroom “I Have A Dream Book”.
The children will learn that even though everyone is different on the outside, we are all the same on the inside, through an egg experiment.
1/25: Zoo Animals
Learning about different animals we find at the Zoo.
On Friday 1/29 each child is invited to bring their favorite stuffed animal. The animal should be one commonly found in a zoo. They can have snack or lunch picnic style with their stuffed animal.
The children will create zoo cookies.
Letters of the week
1/4: Mm 1/11: Nn 1/18: Oo 1/25: Pp
Things to do at home this month to reinforce our themes:
Go to the pet store.
Try and spot all the different animals outside during winter.
Have a birthday party for M L King.
Talk to your child about what his/her dream is and share yours.
Wow! I can’t believe how fast time is flying by! The children have been working really hard this month learning about the different types of clouds, weather, order of the rainbow, five food groups, healthy habits, dinosaurs, and all about the first Thanksgiving. The children also had a lot of fun creating and preparing for our annual Thanksgiving feast!
During the first week, the children learned about the different types of clouds that we see such as cumulus, stratus, cirrus, and cumulonimbus. The children were able to look out the window everyday and talk about what clouds they saw that day. It was such a great lesson because the children really enjoyed learning about what they saw! Throughout that week we discussed the different types of weather we have here in Ohio and across our nation. During line time we learned about how a tornado is formed, what happens when other states have hurricanes, and how much snow you can get in a blizzard! The children also learned how rain and snow are formed inside the clouds, that strong winds are called gusts and that light winds are called breezes. The last day we read a great book about rainbows. The children learned how a rainbow is created and the color order, ROYGBIV! Wow, we had such a busy week!
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The second week the children focused on nutrition. The first few days we read books that had to do with healthy habits. We discussed the different ways to keep our body healthy and we charted them. I then posted a food pyramid on the wall and explained what each section was about. The children then were given different food pictures and were able to post the pictures in the right section of the food pyramid. The next day we did a fun activity that taught them about how we spread germs and about hand washing. I started out by sneezing glitter into my hands and showing the children what your hand looks likes when you sneeze into it. I then shook the child’s hand that was next to mine and had them show the class what his hand looked like after he shook my hand when I didn’t wash them. That child then shook his neighbors hands and this continued throughout the circle. The children couldn’t believe how just by me not washing my hands how I passed so many germs to so many people. We then practiced washing our hands by singing the alphabet song! The last day we talked about the importance of exercise and how much our body needs everyday. I then showed them different pictures of people doing different exercises and the children had to act out the picture I showed them!
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The third week we focused on learning about The First Thanksgiving, and preparing for our Thanksgiving feast. Everyday I read a special letter to the children from a pilgrim child. In these letters the children talked about their long journey on the Mayflower, the food they ate, hardships they experienced, feelings they felt, and games they played. The children really enjoyed learning that it took 102 days for the Mayflower to get to America. They also learned that only 16 men left the ship to see if the land was safe enough for everyone to come ashore. Throughout the week the children learned about the Native Americans and the pilgrims. We discussed who Squanto was and what he did for the pilgrims. The children also made girl and boy pilgrim hats for our feast! I wanted to say thank you for all of the parents who came and helped set up for the feast and who helped with the kiddos. The children really enjoyed sitting with their family and friends!
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The last week was all about dinosaurs! The first day we discussed the different dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus Rex, Briancosaurus, Stegosaurus, Apaosaurus and the Brontosaurus. We talked about their size, length, and what they ate! The next day the children learned about herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores. I explained to the children that a paleontologist can tell if the dinosaur was a meat eater or plant eater just by looking at the fossil print of their teeth. The children also loved hearing that herbivores had to eat certain rocks so that the plants could break down in their stomachs. Throughout the rest of the week we focused on fossil finding, the concept of extinction, and the time period dinosaurs came to be. Our preschool friends had so much fun finding fossils, making fossil prints in cookie dough, reading amazing stories about them, and making a variety of Dinosaur crafts!
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.
Enrichment Classes: 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.
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!
It’s been a hard day’s night. I never really understood that title or what it actually meant but it goes hand in hand with the weather we had in November. It was seventy degrees one week and twenty degrees the next. I’ll take anything over fifty degrees in November. The great thing about this is that the children were able to go outside for many recesses, a rare thing in November. Now it is the home stretch to Winter break. Ahhhh, I can feel me catching up on sleep now and recharging my batteries for the second half of the year. And The Ohio State University Buckeyes 42- ttun 13!
Line Time lesson:
At the end of the third month of school my classroom is running like a well oiled machine. Children are advancing nicely in math, reading, and their social skills. Sabrina, Kathleen, and I are pushing for more “Thank You”, Please, and You’re Welcome.” When we call a name we are expecting a “Yes, Ms. Kathleen or How can I help you Ms.Sabrina?” rather than “What? or Ya?” I want to tell the parents of the older children in the classroom… “Be Proud!” They are taking a leadership role like I’ve never seen. They are helping younger children and helping each other with more challenging work. I wanted to once again thank Sabrina and Kathleen for their hard work and dedication. They step up and just do what needs to be done without me asking.
After learning about the five major classes of animals we looked at some creepy crawlers. We studied insects and arachnids. These were the first animals that were not classified as vertebrates instead they are called invertebrates. We discovered most have an exoskeleton. We now know insects have six legs, a head, thorax, and abdomen and arachnids have eight legs. Also, we know that all bugs are insects but not all insects are bugs!!!
The class went back in time and studied dinosaurs. We learned the names of 5 dinos (T-Rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Pterodactyl, and Brachiosaurus) and if they were meat eaters (carnivores) or plant eaters (herbivores). We learned when they lived and I introduced the phrases “extinct” and “fossils” what they meant. We read “Dad is a Dinosaur”, and Dinosaurs go to School”
We then learned about Pilgrims and Thanksgiving. How the Indians helped the pilgrims with hunting, growing crops, and living off the land.
Cultural Subjects:
We can count to 16 in ten different languages. We can count in English, Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic (with the Lebanese dialect), Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, and Hungarian.
Academic Enrichment: 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.
Art:
A couple of things the children had fun learning and doing this month were reviewing past concepts, such as primary and secondary colors but this time they used different materials to recognize the colors. The children learned about lines and the variety of forms they came in – straight, curvy, zig zag etc. This lesson tied in very well with our cursive and print writing presentations! Ms. Michele also began a mosaic project with the children using paper, glue, yarn and later, little pieces of foam like material.
Music:
The children have been very busy practicing their Christmas songs in Music Class this month, with Ms. Lisa. Both children and teachers are not just working hard on the songs, but also on some cute and fun movements, which are incorporated together with their songs.
Science:
The experiments that were introduced to the children this month were: Surface Tension – A property of a liquid keeping an object from going into the liquid, Buoyancy – A force in liquid pushing against an object in the liquid, Absorption – To take something in, and Skittles/Gobstoppers Candy Run – Water Soluble Materials. They certainly did enjoy all of these age appropriate experiments with Mr. John.
The month of November sure did fly by! The past month was filled with many fun activities and learning. During the first week the class learned about different body parts. The students even learned about the lungs and heart and made their own models. We introduced our anatomy apron and the children enjoyed learning about the organs and where they belong by attaching the fabric organs to the apron!
The next week we talked about food groups. The students learned about the five main food groups; fruits, vegetables, dairy, proteins, and grains. As a group the children clipped out pictures of different types of food and sorted into the group on our classroom diagram.
The third week of November was all about Pilgrims and Indians. The class found out the Pilgrims came from England to our country for religious freedom. We read many books about what the Pilgrims experienced during their journey on the Mayflower and once they landed at Plymouth Rock.
The last week of November was a continuation of Thanksgiving and being thankful. The children shared what their families do for Thanksgiving to learn that we all have our own traditions. We focused more on why the Pilgrims and Indians ate a meal together. The students finished designing their costumes and making the center pieces for the Thanksgiving Feast. Each child shared what they were thankful for. We received responses from mom and dad, to pets, to sandwiches. The Feast was a great experience for the students to share a meal together and to have their families involved. A big thank you goes out to all the parents who made food and came in to help with the set up and clean up!
Academic Enrichment- Kindergarten Students
The first week of November the kindergarteners finished up learning how to tell time down to the minute. I would love it if they continued to wear their watches throughout the rest of the school year! We then learned all about coins and their amounts like pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollars. We even learned a little song to help remember their names and values. The kindergarteners also learned about dollar bills and their amounts. It was fun to watch them compare the dollar bills and coins and figure out different ways to make the same amount of money. The last week of November they learned how to label all the puzzles using the control charts in the classroom. The kids have been working so hard on their handwriting by journaling each day and they are fun for me to read!
Science
For our first science experiment we mixed hot water and Epsom salt together and quickly cooled it. Epsom salt is another name for the chemical magnesium sulfate. The temperature of the water determines how much magnesium sulfate it can hold. It will dissolve more when it is hotter. Cooling the solution rapidly encourages fast crystal growth, since there is less room for the dissolved salt in the cooler, denser solution.
For our second experiment we blew up a balloon using nerds and coke. The carbon dioxide contained in the nerd candy wouldn’t be enough to cause the balloon to inflate. That’s where the coke came into play. The coke contained pressurized carbon dioxide. When the nerds were dropped into the coke some carbon dioxide was able to escape from the high fructose corn syrup of the coke and because the carbon dioxide gas has nowhere to go in the bottle it rises into the balloon making it inflate.
Art
By: Ms.Breanna
Much like the weather, it has been both warm and cold in Art this month. We started the month off by learning about the colors of the color wheel and creating our own to take home. We then used warm and cool colors to create a mosaic leaf. Mosaic is a beautiful art form in which fragments of a material, foam in our case, is pieced together in order to create a design or image. Our friends were given the option to use either warm or cool colors to create their leaves, but had to use the opposite option to fill in the background. As most people know, sometimes art takes a long while to complete, and this project has definitely been one of those sometimes. We spent the entire month on this project so that we could add as much detail and contrast as possible to these gorgeous mosaics. We have thoroughly enjoyed this project, but are excited to see what Ms. Michelle has in store for us next month!
Music
By: Ms. Breanna
The holidays are quickly approaching and preparations for Christmas are underway! This is such an exciting time of year and what better way to get into the holiday spirit than through music?! We have been working very hard at learning our songs for the Christmas Program next month and Ms. Lisa has been lending us her musical expertise during music class to help us perfect our sound and rhythm. Christmas is not all about work and perfection, however, so in our extra time, we have been playing some great musical Christmas games with instruments such s the rhythm sticks and jingle bells and songs like Dashing Through the Snow, Jingle Bells, Little Drummer boy, and many more!
Students were diligently focused on completing their research projects during the first part of November. Some students were finalizing their planet pizzas with slices of information about their chosen planet, while others were further back in history during the time of the dinosaurs. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students were proud to present their first full research report, complete with maps, drawings, visual aids, a bibliography, and a creative presentation. All of the research was displayed at our Thanksgiving Feast for families to enjoy together.
A highlight of the month was our field trip to the William McKinley Presidential Library and Museum. We began our tour in the Discover World where we were able to follow up with our dinosaur research as we learned more about several dinosaurs we had researched, and one special dinosaur, the Allosaurus. In this Natural History Island we were able to create fossils and see how archaeologists dig for fossils, and we enjoyed an authentic mastodon skeleton, whose fossilized remains were discovered in the Canton area.
In geography we have been designing various types of maps. Several students have mapped out their bedroom, while others have been working on state capitols and coastal plains. A few older students were very impressed with our new Bohr Diagram. We learned the parts of an atom and how to build an atom on the board. Each student helped create hydrogen, then oxygen. The then discovered that atoms sometimes like to share electrons, so we had hydrogen and oxygen share. Every eye in the lesson grew wider when they discovered why water is sometimes referred to as H2O. Aha moments make teaching so joyous! 🙂
The experiments that were introduced to the children this month were: Surface Tension – A property of a liquid keeping an object from going into the liquid, Buoyancy – A force in liquid pushing against an object in the liquid, Absorption – To take something in, and Skittles/Gobstoppers Candy Run – Water Soluble Materials. They certainly did enjoy all of these age appropriate experiments with Mr. John.
