This week we continued our work, Great Lessons, and team building. We finished our Great Lessons with The Story of Numbers which talks about the history of number systems from ancient civilizations to modern day. We began our supplemental Great Lessons by discussing The Story of Geometry and The Story of the Babylonians. Students were assessed on their Spelling skills this week and began Reading Group. Two of our reading groups are reading short stories, one group is reading “The Mouse and the Motorcycle,” and another is reading “The Secret Garden.”

To begin exploring the Solar System, students chose a planet or star they would like to represent. We made a model to represent the distance of planets from the sun using the scale 1 step = 36 million miles. The student that chose Neptune had to take 78 steps from the student representing the sun to show that Neptune is 2.8 billion miles away! After making our model, we discussed information about each planet.

Dr. Montessori believed in giving Elementary students a “Cosmic Education” where they are introduced to real specimens for a deeper understanding and to recognize the interrelationship of all living things. Montessori classrooms have pets and plants to learn from and to care for. Each day students are responsible for feeding, replacing water, and maintaining a clean habitat for our guinea pig, fish, ants, and snake. This student is replacing Kernel’s water after washing his dish. He also misted Kernel’s habitat to help him as he prepares to shed! getting the best filter water from https://www.aquaoxfilters.com/product/whole-house-water-filtration-system/ would be the best option here with no doubt.

These first-year students are working together on the 8 Bead Chain. Bead Chains are a material used in Primary, Lower Elementary, and Upper Elementary classrooms, in different ways. After gathering all of their materials and placing the arrows as they did in the Primary room, these students began recording the multiples of eight. They made it up to the equation 8 x 22 and are still working!

Students in Montessori classrooms are encouraged to follow their interests. In the Elementary classroom, this is often seen through independent research. Students are able to take the time to do independent research because these projects incorporate many skills at once. By the time this student’s shark research is completed and presented, the student will have used skills from language, grammar, biology, geography, spelling, handwriting, and public speaking.

A Peek into Next Week
Next week we will begin Spelling and Handwriting lessons. New students will begin lowercase cursive handwriting while returning students are moving on to uppercase cursive letters. We have optional Taekwondo and Dance Demos next week. Students will be studying nouns, taxonomy of vertebrates, landforms, the Pythagorean Theorem, and much more!

REMINDER: The STEM Program Meeting is Tuesday, September 12, at 5:30 p.m., in the Elementary Room. Please let us know if you are attending!

The first two weeks in a Montessori Elementary Classroom are typically spent sharing time between working and team building. As many of you have seen in your own children, the Second Plane of Development (ages 6-12) is a time of great interest in social interaction. Dr. Montessori recognized this time as a crucial period for learning how to interact with others personally and professionally, and believed this should be valued and nurtured just as much as academic development. This first week we have explored Montessori’s Great Lessons about the coming of the universe, life, humans, and language. We have reviewed some of our skills from last year, have had returning students explain new Elementary work to first year students, and have learned how to communicate as a team!

This student is working to read numbers on our Checkerboard. The Checkerboard is a Montessori Math Material that allows students to multiply up to a nine-digit multiplicand by up to a four-digit multiplier. Each square on the Checkerboard represents a certain place value. After this student is comfortable reading numbers into the hundred millions, he will beginning multiplying using our Montessori Bead Bars. The Checkerboard will allow him to practice his multiplication facts and feel confident in place value before abstractly multiplying on paper.

Montessori designed the Great Lessons to capture the imagination of the Elementary child. These lessons give a broad introduction to the concepts students will study in detail throughout their time in Elementary. We begin with the largest idea (the universe) and move into stories about the beginning of language and numbers. It is a right of passage for Upper Elementary students to take part in presenting this information to their younger peers.

 These students are demonstrating a playground conflict. Students split into three groups and shared the right and wrong way to handle different situations in the classroom, on the playground, or at home. We practiced using our Conflict Resolution Card which helps students independently work through disagreements at school by using “I-Messages” and coming up with a solution together. Using student skits and teacher modeling is a large part of introducing and reminding students of rules and routines.

 One of our team building activities was called “Perimeter Pass.” Students had to pass a ball, using only their legs, to the child on their right. Once a child passed the ball, they had to run to the end of the line to wait for their next turn. Students had to communicate to the person next to them in order to be successful. These activities build community and leadership skills that are necessary at school and at home. Our students made it completely around the gym!

A Peek into Next Week
Next week we will be finishing up our Great Lessons and learning about their supplementary lessons like “The Story of Geometry,” which discusses how the rope stretchers of Ancient Egypt used right-angled triangles to section off property around the Nile. We will be diving into new lessons and Reading Group. Students will also have their Spelling Assessment.

Reminder: There is NO SCHOOL Monday for Labor Day.

Explorations of Elementary 2017 May Newsletter

We wrapped up the year with a lot of great projects. The students have worked hard all year and continued that hard work this month to present research to each other. We worked on number lines, learned about the layers of soil and science stations in Antarctica, performed for our grandparents, and ate lunch prepared by our classmates on a budget.

Our students practiced their piano, recorder, and Latin skills in preparation for Grandparents Day! Our students that take lessons, played a few songs on the piano for all of the grandparents. All students played songs on the recorder in groups. To showcase their Latin skills, they shared information about the Solar System and Roman Numerals and performed some short skits about gods and goddesses. Students then presented classroom materials to their grandparents and explained what they work on during the day. Thank you to all the grandparents that were able to make it! The students love sharing their knowledge.

Three of our students learned about budgeting this month. They practiced keeping track of spending with an allowance and determined the difference in what things we need and what things we want. To put this skill to use, our students made a grocery list and traveled to the store to purchase supplies to make lunch for their classmates. These students planned so well that they came in over $10 under budget! The day after their trip, these students prepared macaroni and cheese, grapes, carrots, gummies, and ice cream for their classmates. All students enjoyed having a meal made by their friends.

Our first-year students have been learning about Simple Machines for the last several weeks. After learning about them and practicing with our classroom material, they prepared to build their own machine. Each student needed to draw a sketch and make a list of supplies before building their machine. They collected supplies and got to work building. When their machines were built, they made Science Experiment Cards that listed the supplies, procedures, what would be observed, the explanation, and the cleanup process. The first-year students presented these machines to the class in small groups, then had them available for practice.

While our first years were studying Simple Machines, our second, third, and fourth year students learned the geographic features of the Earth. These students put their knowledge together to create an imaginary island using at least 10 of the features they had studied. After drawing the outline of their island, students colored and labeled the features based on a theme (Elements, Universal Studios, etc.). Some of these students traced their island on graph paper and cut it apart until they had formed a rectangle. From this new rectangle, they were able to find a base and height for the area of their island. Other students answered questions about their island, its inhabitants, and its climate. One student wrote the history of her island and wrote an anthem with a friend. I hope all of you took the time to check out this great work.

Field Day was an exciting end-of-the-year adventure. We attended Ms. Courtney’s talent show, played board games, card games, group games and video games with the best gaming mouse for cs go. We were able to enjoy the weather by eating lunch outside. After lunch, we had a boys v. girls water balloon and water gun fight. We went down the water slide with Ms. Courtney’s friends! After our fun in the water, we came in to have treats and enjoy a movie.

Thank you for such a great year. Have a relaxing summer! See you in August!