A Peek Into Reading Group

Last week we started our Junior Great Book program. We started off by going over what makes a good listener and how to have a good discussion. The kindergarteners listened to the story, Cornelius which was about a Crocodile who can do some amazing things. He tries to share his tricks with his crocodiles friends, but they do not seem to care. In the end, they start trying his tricks to and Cornelius knows things will never be the same again.

After we read the story,  the students participated in activities such as, writing what they were wondering, drawing the crocodiles trying to do the tricks, and they even got to act out a scene from the story!

These students are acting like the crocodiles in the story

 

A Peek Into Next Week

-The students will listen to the story, Big Wolf and Little Wolf.

-The students will learn the vocabulary words: approached, curious, and suspicious.

-The students will participate in discussions and comprehension activities.


Academic Enrichment ::: Cuyahoga Falls Campus ::: Week of 1/13/2020

Weekly Theme:
We were introduced to subtraction with manipulatives (golden beads,dynamic/ borrowing).

 

 

 

Handwriting:
We practiced writing in cursive writing sentences (sometimes silly sentences).

 

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

 

Next Week:
Weekly Theme: Division w/ Golden Beads (Static/No Borrowing)

Synonym Of The Week: MEAN: selfish, unkind, malicious, hurtful

Sight Words Of The Week: now made

Language Of The Week: Dutch/Flemmish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


A Peek at Our Week | Elementary | Week of January 13

“Free choice is one of the highest of all mental choices” -Maria Montessori

Parents, I wanted to write about the importance of free choice in educating your child as a whole and a few other benefits of being in a Montessori environment for an entire three year cycle, but found an article that I liked even more Increase your chances of success with in no time.(plus there are cool pictures and descriptions of materials)! Here you can read about what your child gains in a Montessori classroom and why our philosophy really makes a difference in this short article. There is also a video if you prefer that way of learning!

Lower Elementary

This first year student is working on her spelling assignment. She is doing an activity called “Michelangelo” where she tapes her paper under a table and writes her words three times each while lying down. Students love to practice spelling in creative ways!
This third year student is working on adding and subtracting time by completing word problems. Learning to add and subtract time helps our students keep track of how wisely or unwisely they are spending their days.

Upper Elementary

Our fifth year students have been researching classes of mammals. This student has chosen to research the Xenarthra group, which includes sloths, armadillos, and anteaters. These students researched topics like muscular and skeletal systems and reproduction, wrote a rough draft, completed a final draft, a visual aid, and will be presenting their project during an oral report. Head over to our Instagram to see more photos of her work!
This sixth year student has been working on “American Women in History” research. He chose to learn about Sally Ride. After researching, he wrote a five paragraph essay, created this trifold board, and will be presenting his research to his friends today!

 

Enrichments by Ms. Erica

Ms. Dayna is teaching the students about composition.

REMINDERS:

  • NO SCHOOL – Friday, January 17 – Parent-Teacher Conferences
  • NO SCHOOL – Monday, January 20 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
  • Thursday, January 23 – Cleveland Museum of Natural History – First and Second Grade

Take A Peek Into Our Week/ Ms.Kate/January 15,2020

This week was all about Ice and snow! (Lol,go figure). We read some fantastic books and watched some interesting videos about how icicles are formed, how many points a snowflake has, what a blizzard is, the different shapes a snowflake can form, fun crafts and science experiments that were all about snow and ice!!! Let’s hope we get some snow soon so our kiddos can play in it!!!

Yesterday we had parents come in for ” take your parent to work day.” If you haven’t signed up for this you need to!! Spend 30 minutes with your child as they are working in the classroom. It’s so amazing to see all that they can do!!
Our brand new friend is working on our sandpaper numbers. The purpose of the sandpaper numbers is to teach the children the symbols that represent each number, allowing them to visually identify any number from 0 to 9.
One of our Kindergarten students is working on number formation. The purpose of this work is to learn the hierarchy of the numbers in the decimal system. To associate quantity and symbol. And to learn to put numbers of larger quantity into sequence.
This little cutie here is working on our Four Season cards. When working on this work the child is learning about each season, and also how to place the cards into different categories.
When working on the teen board the child is going to learn to connect the name and symbol of that teen number.

REMINDERS :

No school January 17 and 20th!!


A Peek At Our Week| Ms. Courtney’s Classroom|Week of January 6th

Classroom: Polar Animals

Over this past week, the students learned about polar animals. We learned that male Emperor Penguin take care of their baby chicks while the female penguins go to the ocean to eat. The students also learned that polar animals have a layer of blubber or fat to help keep them warm in the arctic temperatures. Multiple students wanted to research on their own about polar animals and then shared what they learned with the class!

These students are waddling like penguins with their chick eggs!

A Peek Into Next Week: Ocean Animals

Kindergarten:

This week the kindergartners learned about subtraction. They learned that it means to take away a small number from a larger number. Here are some new vocabulary words they learned: minuend– “A quantity or number from which another is to be subtracted”, subtrahand– “A quantity or number to be subtracted from another”, and difference-“The result of subtracting one number from another.”

A Peek Into Next Week: Subtraction

Reminders:

Parent/Teacher Conferences-Friday, January 17th/NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS/ MLK Day- Monday, January 20th/NO SCHOOL

Enrichment Highlight:

For science this week, we discussed how polar animals have blubber that keeps them warm in the cold weather. This was demonstrated by filling a zip lock bag with shortening to create an insulated layer between a second zip lock bag inside, and having just a single zip lock bag. We stuck both bags in ice cold water and felt the difference. You could hardly feel the cold with the insulated bag!

Work Time:

These students are creating patterns with the knobless cylinders. They are enhancing their visual discrimination while improving critical thinking, problem solving, and short-term memory.
This kindergartener is working on the ten board. He is learning to recognize the quantity and the corresponding symbol and is practicing linear counting.

 

This student is tracing the Australia map puzzle. This work combines dexterity and geography by learning about the continent and strengthening the hand muscles.
This activity is floor scrubbing. Our student is strengthening her hand and arm muscles while gaining more concentration, independence, and a sense of order.


Enrichment Fun for the week- 01/06/20

Telling a story with music!  Different instruments represent different characters!

Different instruments create unique sounds.  We had so much fun listening and learning the names of instruments.

Learning about absorption with water, paper towels, and a diaper (contains Sodium Polyacrylate).

 

What will happen? The water is going to dump on her head for sure! The water poured into the container with the paper towel dumped all over Mr. John’s head! What will the water poured into the diaper do?

No water dumped on to her head! She’s completely dry!!!

Let’s try this again! Maybe if we pour lots of water into the container with the diaper it will dump onto our head! Watch out!!!!

We dumped two and a half cups of water into the container with the diaper and we still remained dry! Why????  Because of absorption! The Sodium Polyacrylate in the diaper is more absorbent than the paper towel. The diaper absorbed all of the water keeping us dry!

 


A Peek at Our Week | Elementary | Week of January 6

“And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.”

Welcome back, families! We were sad to give up our days of sleeping past 5, but so happy to see your children back at school. So far this week we have started our research for the “World’s Fair,” the Lower Elementary are studying Europe, the third years are using the microscope, and the Upper Elementary dissected a squid. Check out the two first graders below to see the new things we are researching and using in our room.

Lower Elementary

This student is researching about Canada for her World’s Fair project. She will learn about the climate, geographic features, animals, plants, history, and many more topics to complete her study of Canada. At our World’s Fair, she will be dressed like a person from Canada and will share with you what she has learned!
Here a first grader is using our Peace Table. Our Peace Table is a space where students can go to refocus and calm down when they choose to. There is always a container for them to write down their feelings and thoughts without anyone reading them and another activity that we switch out. This month we have out a book of labyrinths made out of Mandalas. Students can use different pointers to find their way through each labyrinth. Solving puzzles like this requires intense focus and concentration, while boosting patience and persistence.

Upper Elementary

Yesterday at the Cleveland Aquarium, we dissected a squid! We spent time learning about the classification of animals before our dissection. During it, we were able to remove the ink pen of the squid and open its ink sac to write our names! After our dissection, we traveled through the aquarium to find invertebrates. We were able to touch stingrays and a sea urchin!

Enrichments

In art, the students are making paper collages. They each need to choose a section of a paper, redraw it with markers, and then cut out each section from paper to recreate the art as a collage.

REMINDERS:

  • Coming home today in Reading Logs is a paper with Ms. Lisa’s recorder policy. Please review this with your child, sign it together, and return it to school by Tuesday. There will be a folder in the piano bin (underneath where the teachers hang coats) to place it in.
  • NO SCHOOL – Friday, January 17, for Parent-Teacher Conferences. If you have not signed up yet, please do so below so we can be sure to prepare for your meeting. Remember, we will not have child care during the conference, so children may not attend.
  • NO SCHOOL – Monday, January 20 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
  • FIRST AND SECOND FIELD TRIP – Thursday, January 23

Peek In Our Week ||| Mr. John’s Classroom ||| Week Of January 6, 2019

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

 

Our newest reptile (Milk Snake), Ian:

 

 

 

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

 

 

Peek In The Classroom:

This girl is brushing up on her multiplication. She is using the manipulative called the Golden Beads. As you can see she came up with the correct answer.

 

She is showing off her rendition of a snowflake that was made in the art area.

 

This student is showing me the correct way to carry a chair.

 

Children begin working with the Hundred Board once they have a clear understanding of numbers 1 – 10 and 11 – 20. This is usually around three or four years of age, depending on how quickly the child has grasped the concept of counting. This material builds on the mathematical foundation created by earlier Montessori work, by extending the child’s knowledge of numbers to 100, and also helping them to understand number order. As you can tell she discovered the pattern of where any particular number goes.

 

 

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- MLK/ Diversity

Letter Of The Week- P p

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bun

Next Language is Kiswahili

 

Upcoming Events:
Parent/Teacher Conferences: January 17, Friday 7am to 7pm.  Details and sign up to follow soon.

 ***** NO SCHOOL: January 20, 2020/ Monday for MLK Day. ******

 

 

Friends, Frolic, and Fun:

Muscle shirt and tats.

 

Ya shoulda seen the other guy!

 

Lunch time shennanigans.

 

Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon spent a record 917 in the top 200 charts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Academic Enrichment ||| Cuyahoga Falls Campus ||| Week Of 1/6/2019

Weekly Theme:
We were introduced to subtraction with manipulatives (golden beads, static/no borrowing).

 

K Kids doing handwriting.

 

Handwriting:
We practiced writing in cursive writing sentences (sometimes silly sentences).

 

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

 

Next Week:
Weekly Theme: Subtraction w/ Golden Beads (Dynamic/Borrowing)

Synonym Of The Week: SKINNY: thin, lean, emaciated, scrawny, slender

Sight Words Of The Week: could who

Language Of The Week: Welsh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Peek In Our Week “”” Mr. John’s Class “”” Week Of December 16, 2019

Line Time:
We learned a little bit about family since we are going to be spending a lot more time with family during the holiday season (be it good or be it bad). 

 

 

Saying Goodbye:

 

We are saying good bye to this guy due to his family moving. See you later!!!!!!!! Noticed how he is doing the “O” in O-H….. I O.

 

 

 

What is your favorite Christmas song (1970 to present):
My favorites are Fairy tale of NYC by The Pogues,  2,000 Miles by Pretenders, and Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid. 

 

          

 

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

 

Saying

Peek In The Classroom:

When the student is around three or four years of age, depending on how quickly the child has grasped the concept of counting to 100, and also helping them to understand number order. They are introduced to the 100 board. This work is more of an abstract work. The child learns to place the tiles in numeric order and develops an understanding of the concept of patterns.

 

We have been following this student for about a month tracking her sensitive period with Geometry. She still has a strong interest in Geography. This interest can last a few months or a week. We will see how far she will go in this sensitive period.

 

This student is working on the 3 part cards in the language area. They focus on three letter/short vowel sounds. Three part cards are the perfect introduction to any new set of vocabulary, and can be found in more than one area of the Montessori classroom.

 

These two girls are working on the Vowel Tree. The vowel tree is a fun activity to make and play with. This is another fun way to practice short vowel, and letter sounds. They are also practicing handwriting by copy writing the words they created.

 

 

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- 5 senses

Letter Of The Week- O o

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bug

Next Language is Irish

 

Upcoming Events:
Winter Break: Off from Saturday, December 21, 2019 returning Monday, January 6, 2019

Parent/Teacher Conferences: January 17, Friday 7am to 7pm.  Details and sign up to follow soon.

 

 

Friends, Frolic, and Fun:

You should have seen the other guy.

 

Not sure why he is looking at her.

 

The Unknown Student/Brown’s Fan.