Ms. Courtney’s May-June 2017 Newsletter

Written by

Classroom News

We started off May talking about the Solar System. The children learned the positions of the planets and their relative sizes and distances. They had a blast using 3D models of the sun and planets to put in order. We talked about how the sun is the biggest star and why it is so important. We discussed the different phases of the moon and made a classroom book of the phases during group lesson.

 

 

The second week of May we talked about dinosaurs and what their habitats were like then the children compared and ordered the size of the different dinosaurs feet. They learned different physical attributes of dinosaurs and their names. The children demonstrated an understanding of herbivores, omnivores and carnivores.

 

 

The third week of May we talked about transportation the children quickly developed an understanding that transportation means to carry things from one place to another. We named all the different methods of transportation like plane, car, boat, bike, horse, train, bus, subway, helicopter etc. The children also had a blast making their own stoplight and playing red light green light.

 

 

The children really enjoyed the last week of May when we talked about sports. The children used their gross motor skills to march, skip, gallop etc. They learned how to engage in imaginative and creative play indoors and outdoors involving their friends. We played a lot of games that involved team effort and good sportsmanship or video games that involve competition as csgo, and they could get help from mycsgoboosting.com.

 

 

The first week of June we focused on summer games, activities, and experiments the children could do at home. We also talked a lot about summer safety rules while playing outside and playing with or in water. The children also practiced A LOT and setup for the talent show.

I hope everyone has a fabulous summer and I can’t wait to see all the smiling faces in the fall!

 

Academic Enrichment Group Time | Kindergarten

In kindergarten lesson we finished our work with grammar. We went over how interjections help a sentence show more emotions, and we went over when to use a . ? ! We then reviewed when we capitalize words in a sentence. We capitalize the beginning word of a sentence, proper nouns and “I”.

 

 

Reading Group | Kindergarten
By: Ms. Faith

In May, we finished a story about Timothy Town Mouse. It’s about a country mouse, Tommy who accidentally gets delivered with produce to a house in the city. He meets Timothy and his friends who live very differently than he does. Tommy gets home sick and doesn’t feel well from eating people’s scraps that have fallen on the floor. Timothy helps Tommy go back home, but is upset that Tommy didn’t want to stay. Timothy ends up visiting Tommy in the country, and doesn’t end up liking the country either. Even though the two mice are different and prefer different ways of living, they remain friends. After the readings, the kindergartners were able to act out a scene from the story, draw pictures of where they prefer to live, in the country or the city, and discussed why it’s ok to be friends with someone who likes different things than you. This was a great lesson for them to learn as they are getting ready to go into first grade and will be meeting new friends.
The next section we read together was poems called Companions. The poems were about friendship. We read about an adventure with Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin, and a young child and his shadow. One of the kindergartners favorite activities from this section was from the poem about the boy and his shadow. The poem talked about the shadow always being there and how sometimes it was big and sometimes it was tiny. So, we went outside and looked at our shadows on the sidewalk. They moved around and saw how their shadows might change or stay the same. Then, they had to draw how they like their shadow; either big, small, or not there at all. The kindergartners grew a lot with their comprehension skills and reading skills over the school year with the reading group. They were able to read the underlined portions on their own or with little help. Thank you parents for your support with reading with your child on the weekends and helping them grow as young readers.

 

 

Science Enrichment

In science we made balloon rockets using string, straws and balloons. The children loved watching the rockets move across the string. They learned that to make an object move one way, a force has to work in the opposite direction.

 

 

 

During grandparents day the grandparents did an experiment with their grandchildren blowing a balloon up using baking soda, vinegar and a water bottle. The children and grandparents learned that there is a chemical reaction between the base {baking soda} and the acid {vinegar}. When the two ingredients mix together a gas is produced known as carbon dioxide or CO2. As the gas tries to leave the water bottle, it goes up into the balloon inflating it.

Our last science experiment of the year was unpoppable bubbles using corn syrup, water and dish soap. An unpoppable bubble is amazing because most bubbles usually burst when they come in contact with just about anything. Most bubble’s worst enemies are oil, dirt, and gravity. A “super” bubble or unpoppable bubble will bounce off of a surface if the surface is free of oil or dirt particles that would normally cause a break in the thin soap film of the bubble.

 

 

Art Enrichment
By: Ms. Faith

This past month in art was inspired by spring. Ms. Michele had the students make paper flower sculptures. The students made a circle out of a strip of paper for the middle, and then made tear drop shapes for the petals. They could use a pattern with the colors, use warm colors, or cool colors. The flowers turned out beautiful with all the different patterns and colors the students used. The next spring inspired artwork came from butterflies. The students learned about symmetry and how to paint a butterfly with symmetry since butterflies are identical on each side. Ms. Michele had them paint with watercolors. The third week we painted Vincent Van Gogh inspired flowers in a vase. The students learned about his painting technique. Vincent painted with short squiggly paint strokes because he wanted it to seem like is art was moving and alive. Ms. Michele placed vases with flowers in the middle of the table, and had the students draw on paper first, and then she showed them how to paint like Van Gough, and had them return to their seats to paint. The paintings turned out looking just like Van Gogh’s painting called Sunflowers.

To end a wonderful year filled with art, Ms. Michele had a Claude Monet inspired artwork planned for the young artists. They looked at his painting called Bridge Over Pond of Water Lilies. They learned about Impressionism, which is what style Claude Monet used. Impressionism is the use of dabs or small brush strokes of unmixed colors to simulate the actual reflection of light. The students did a wonderful job of recreating the outdoor scene, and I can say I was quite “impressed”, pun intended. Thank you Ms. Michele for all of your hard work this year, and we hope you have a wonderful summer!

 

 

Music Enrichment
By: Ms. Faith

In music class during the month of May, Ms. Lisa reviewed many of the concepts that she taught throughout the year. She reviewed what staccato and legato mean, sang about having a choice for your behavior, sang about being kind, sang about telling the truth. We sang about saying please and thank you, and sang about forgiveness. We used different instruments like bells, tambourines, and maracas. Ms. Lisa taught the students a new song called Let the Sun Shine In, which brought back memories for me, because my mom sang it to me when I was their age, and while we sang the song the students learned movement with scarves. To end the last music class for the year, Ms. Lisa played the game Cat and Mouse with the group since this is always a favorite. Thank you Ms. Lisa for another great year full of music and fun!

 

Ms. Kate’s April 2017 Newsletter Article

Written by

Bonjour! Spring is finally here! I love seeing the warm sunshine and the colorful flowers in bloom! This month has been super busy getting ready for the International Festival and learning about all of the different continents and countries. The children also enjoyed our guest speakers from different backgrounds and cultures.

 

   

 

The first week I introduced the seven continents to the children by showing them our continents puzzle. We discussed the four main countries in North America, which are The United States of America, Mexico, Canada, and Greenland.  The children also learned about our flag, which consists of 13 horizontal stripes, which are red, white, and blue and represent the first colonies and states in the union. The flag also has 50 stars, which represent the 50 states in the Union. The children also learned about Christopher Columbus, the climate, and cultures of North America.

 

  

 

The second week we focused on three countries from Europe. We learned about Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. First I Introduced our map of Europe to the children. I then showed them were Italy takes place . We then talked about their flag and what each of the colors represented. Green means hope or the hills, white means faith or mountains, and red represents charity or for the bloody wars. We then colored our own flag. The next day we talked about all the different kinds of food that come from Italy. We talked about the famous pizza and the history behind it. We then had so much fun creating our own pizza out of construction paper, scissors, glue, and marker’s. We then enjoyed learning about Germany. I started out by showing the children where Germany was located in Europe. I then showed them the flag and went over what each color represents and then they were able color their own flag of Germany. The next country we talked about (which is one of my favorites) was the Netherlands. I showed them a short video on the world famous tulips and windmills. We then created our own tulip made out of different colored tissue paper.

 

   

 

The third week we went over the two countries Spain and France. I showed them where both countries were located on the map and what each of their flags looked like and what they represented. Both Ms. Ame and I showed them short clips about the Eiffel Tower, French food, and the importance of family. The children loved learning about the different traditions they celebrated, festivals they have, and the different languages that they speak. We had fun coloring an Eiffel tower, learning about snails that they eat. It was such a fun week! Throughout the week we also had fun learning about Ireland and why we celebrate St. Patrick’s day, and the meaning of the shamrock. We also lead a discussion on the country Belgium and made a beautiful windmill for our International Festival!

 

   

 

Our last week was all about Farms. We first discussed why it is extremely important that we have farmer’s. We read a short book then we lead a group discussion about all the things that they learned from our book. I loved that they really payed attention and were able to talk amongst each other about farmer’s and what they do. The next day we reviewed all about farmer’s. We then moved on to the machine’s that they would find on the farm. As a group we talked about what each machine did and how it helped the farm, animals ,and crops. Throughout the week we did different activities that talked about the different typed of farms you can find such as, crop farms, poultry farms, dairy farms, and grain farms. Ms. Ame had a blast with them talking about the different animals you would find on the farm, then the kids constructed a barn out of colored popsicle sticks, and glue. Lastly, we discussed the food we get from the different animals and farms, and where they go to. We had such a busy but fantastic month! I’m so very proud of how hard the children worked and their songs and lines!!!

 


Academic Enrichment Group Time | Kindergarten
with Mr. John

We started out the month by looking at the pronoun. We learned the pronoun takes the place of the noun and at times makes our lives a bit easier. I stressed NEVER call a person “it” because it is rude. Moving forward we discovered the adjective. The adjective describes nouns but we did not leave out the verb(what describes the verb?) an adverb of course. That is it’s main job but it can also describe adjectives and other adverbs. We closed out April with learning about the conjunction. It serves as a bridge for two separate sentences bringing together these two sentences as one.

Ask our Kindergarten Students about adjectives and adverbs!

Handwriting Enrichment
with Ms. Kristen

This month in handwriting, we have continued to focus on forming complete sentences. The Kindergaten students also enjoyed correcting my capitalization “mistakes” in example sentences. We continued journaling together. Our kindergarten students continue to impress me with their handwriting and creativity!

 


Reading Group | Kindergarten
with Ms. Kate

For the month of April we focused on a poem called Seashell. This poem came from Spain and is spoken by someone who has been given a seashell. We had fun talking about what happens if you hold up a huge seashell… you can hear the light sounds of the ocean. We first read the poem in English and then lead a short discussion on what they think it meant to them. We also went over any vocabulary words they weren’t sure of the meaning. Next, I read the poem in Spanish. Seashell in Spanish is “ Caracola” After the poem was read, the children then drew a picture of themselves walking on the bottom of the sea and what they think it would look like. The children then stood up and shared their drawings with one another. I can see such a difference in their confidence with standing up and sharing in front of their peers. We then had such a fun time acting out our drawings! It was such a fun poem!
Music Enrichment
by Ms. Faith

In April, Ms. Lisa focused on singing songs about our character. The students sang and did motions to songs about telling the truth, about cooperating, saying please and thank you, and about being kind. The students participated in partner dances, and even learned a new song from Africa called Roll and Rock. Ms. Lisa always incorporates gross motor movement into her lessons. She sang Have You Ever Seen a Lassy, and the students picked a movement, such as skipping, galloping, and hoping to move around during the song. Another activity Ms. Lisa had for the students was to review what Staccato and Legato mean. Staccato notes are short and jumpy, whereas Legato notes are smooth and long. The students were given a castanet and a scarf to walk around in a circle while listening to a song. When the music played Staccato notes, the students played their castanet and ran on their tiptoes. When the music played Legato notes, the students moved in slow flowing motions with their scarves. Thank you Ms. Lisa for sharing all of your instruments for us to learn!

 


Science Enrichment
by Ms. Kathleen

Our favorite science experiment from the month of April was the Tea Bag Hot Air Balloon! These are some of the questions Mr. John and the scientists asked themselves: What will happen when you set an empty, unused teabag on fire?
We had many hypothesis given by our students! Mr. John cut open the unused tea bag and dumped out the tea. Then he made the tea bag into a cylinder. Next, he put the cylinder shaped tea bag on a kitchen plate and set fire to it. As the tea bag burns, it floats up into the air. WHY? When the tea bag burns down it gets lighter and the air around the flame gets hotter. Hot air rises and once the burnt tea bag is light enough it gets carried up with the hot air. All the children giggled with delight during this experiment and asked Mr. John to do it again. This is one of our most favorite experiments of the school year!
Art Enrichment
by Ms. Faith

Ms. Michele had students finish their wooden frames that they painted one color, or monochromatic. To finish their frames, they picked out objects and painted them the complimentary color of the color they chose for their frames. Once the paint was dry, the students glued it on the frame to create an abstract piece of art.

The next week, Ms. Michele introduced Pablo Picasso to the students. Pablo Picasso is known for his Cubism art works. He wanted to draw facial features from different angles and that is why the features on his people look different. To create their own Cubism inspired art works, Ms. Michele printed out pictures of facial features for the students to cut out and glue onto faces. Some of them had two noses, an eye looking sideways, and an eye looking forward. The students let their creativity flow, and created some great Picasso style faces.

To close up the month of April, Ms. Michele reviewed the color wheel with the class. They reviewed warm and cool colors, primary colors, secondary colors, and complimentary colors. The young artists drew an owl using different shapes, and they had to use primary and secondary colors to fill in the shapes. After the owls were finished, the students drew details on their pages like a branch for the owl to sit on, or the moon in the background. We always look forward to what Ms. Michele has planned for art each month. Thank you for your hard work Ms. Michele!

Explorations of Elementary 2017 April Newsletter

Written by

Explorations of Elementary 2017 April Newsletter

We were busy preparing for the International Festival this month, but had plenty of time to work, experiment, and take care of our environment, inside and out! This month we had a student create and laminate a lesson about foxes, had a week of Earth Day activities, completed plant experiments, baked and build our Periodic Table out of cookies, and spent time in the garden!

There are many things we love about our Montessori classroom, but one of the best parts has to be when students take the initiative to create something to share their knowledge with others. A second-grade student is fascinated by foxes. She wanted to create a way to share her knowledge with others. She researched the few things she did not already know and created a fox fact card game inspired by a capitals of South America card game where students “slapped” the answer. She drew and colored each type of fox and wrote a matching fact card for the fox drawings. After double checking and correcting any spelling or grammatical errors, she laminated her work to prepare it for lessons. Finally, this student was ready to present her lesson to friends. She called students to the lesson, had them record it on their work plans, then presented her knowledge. Students are always excited to learn from each other and are respectful participants!

This month first year students enjoyed their science experiments! These students brought in leaves to do a leaf rubbing to label all of the parts. We then crushed the leaves in a mortar and pestle. After crushing our leaves, we added them to a glass with rubbing alcohol. In the days that followed we observed that the alcohol broke down the chlorophyll leaving us with the colors these leaves would have turned in the Fall. After about a week, our leaves were all brown.

These students also performed another Energy Transformation experiment. This time we used water and an egg beater. We started with cold water, made a hypothesis, and continued to use the egg beater until we heated the water!

Second year students continued their rock and mineral research by making rain sticks. They learned about Tibetan rain sticks and different places around the world that used rain sticks before the science was created to predict the weather. Students decorated their rain sticks with markers, ribbons, and feathers. It ended up raining the day we made them!

These students also created “Layers of the Soil” booklets and collected soil samples. In May, they will be doing an experiment to see the different layers and types of soil they have collected from around the school.

The week before Earth Day, we talked about how we can make a difference, even as Elementary children. On our first day, we discussed littering and cleaned up the yard next to the school. Students were so excited to make a difference, that they asked to continue cleaning up litter during their recess! On the second day, we talked about oil spills and how people try to help the animals that were harmed in the spill. We did an experiment with oil, water, and feathers. Each student dipped a feather in oil, then tried rinsing it off with just water, which is all many animals would have to try to clean themselves, and found this wouldn’t work. We then used dish soap to clean the feathers and talked about the steps taken to try to heal these animals. Another day we did some weeding in our garden and planted bee-friendly flowers. We also wrote pledges to take care of the Earth.

Our second, third, and fourth year students have been working with the Bohr Diagram to build elements from the Periodic Table. Students chose at least 25 elements to build and record. After a few months of practice, we decided to build our own Periodic Table out of cookies! Students had to measure and mix all of their ingredients. They cut and kept track of cookies. Students mixed and dyed frosting. After all the dishes were washed and the table was assembled, each student was responsible for labeling atomic number, chemical symbol, and atomic mass of 15-20 cookies using food dye markers. These students were so proud of their hard work and tasty cookies! Thank you to everyone that stopped by to try them!

Here’s to a marvelous May!

 

 

 

Ms. Courtney’s April 2017 Newsletter

Written by

Classroom

For most of the month of April we talked about the seven continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Australia. We learned that Africa, is where the elephants, giraffes and lions live. South America has tropical forests and one of the longest rivers in the world the Amazon River. North America is where we live. Europe and Asia are together on the map, but Australia is an island where the kangaroo and koala bear live. Last but not least Antarctica is way down below frozen and home to the penguins.

Our students worked hard learning about their country and songs to represent the continent of Asia and Australia.  What a great job they did at our International Festival! Thank you for all your support to help make this a great experience and event for our students.

The last week of April we celebrated earth day by focusing on the importance of taking care of the environment by recycling, reducing and reusing.

 

    

 

Kindergarten

In kindergarten lesson we learned more parts of speech. We learned that a pronoun (I, me, he, she, herself, you, it, that, they, each, few, many, who, whoever, whose, someone, everybody, etc.) is a word that takes the place of a noun. That an adjective describes a noun. Adverbs describe verbs. That conjunctions connect two sentences or phrases acting like a bridge.

 

Reading Group
By: Ms. Faith

In kindergarten reading group, we started of the month of April by reading poems about nature.  The first poem was about fall, and pumpkins. The students had to guess what time of the year the author was describing, and it was Halloween. The students drew a picture of the last day of October, which is Halloween. The next poem was about the wind; how strong it can be, and how calm and quiet it can be. For this poem, the students decided whether they liked when the wind was strong or gently, and drew a picture of their choice. Then I reread the poem and they acted out the wind while I read. The last poem we read together was about seashells. I read the poem aloud first in English, then in its original language, Spanish. The students had to answer questions about how they thought the author was feeling in the poem. How did the author feel about the sea? Why does the speaker only think of small fish? At the end, the group drew a map of what they would see on the bottom of the ocean.

 

 

 

The next story we read is called Feraj and the Magic Lute. It’s an Arabian folktale about a man who steals a lute because he thinks it will give him good fortune. The kindergartners had to draw how the young man in the story felt when he heard the music of the magic lute. Then, they got to act out a scene from the story. I usually read it multiple times so each student can have a turn being each character. They also created a song like the magic lute played in the story. For the last activity, the kindergartners had to decide if Feraj was happy or sad at the end of the story. They drew a picture of him, and explained their answer. We just started The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse by Beatrix Potter, and will be finishing it in May.

 

 

Science Enrichment
For the first week of April we put vinegar, dish soap and glitter in a Ziploc bag then added some baking soda and shook it really hard. We watched the Ziploc bag fill up and expand with a gas (carbon dioxide) until it exploded.

 

 

The second week of April we learned about surface tension! We filled a pan with water and sprinkled pepper in, then we added a drop of dish soap, we were amazed to see the pepper shoot to the side of the pan when the soap hit the water. We discovered the soap shoots to the side when soap touches the water because the soap is able to break down the surface tension of water. As the soap moves into the water, and the surface tension changes the water molecules still try to keep the surface tension going. So, the water molecules pull back away from the soap, and end up carrying the pepper along with them.

 

 

 

For the last week of April we did a traveling water experiment by taping string to the inside of one cup and placing the other side of the string freely into another cup, then we poured the water down the string to transfer it between cups. We learned that water molecules aren’t just attracted to other water molecules, but are attracted to molecules of other objects, and so they tend to stick to things such as the string in this experiment.

 

 

 

Music  Enrichment
By: Ms. Faith

In April, Ms. Lisa focused on singing songs about our character. The students sang and did motions to songs about telling the truth, about cooperating, saying please and thank you, and about being kind. The students participated in partner dances, and even learned a new song from Africa called Roll and Rock. Ms. Lisa always incorporates gross motor movement into her lessons. She sang Have You Ever Seen a Lassy, and the students picked a movement, such as skipping, galloping, and hoping to move around during the song. Another activity Ms. Lisa had for the students was to review what Staccato and Legato mean. Staccato notes are short and jumpy, whereas Legato notes are smooth and long. The students were given a castanet and a scarf to walk around in a circle while listening to a song. When the music played Staccato notes, the students played their castanet and ran on their tiptoes. When the music played Legato notes, the students moved in slow flowing motions with their scarves. Thank you Ms. Lisa for sharing all of your instruments for us to learn!

 

 

Art Enrichment
By: Ms. Faith

Ms. Michele had students finish their wooden frames that they painted one color, or monochromatic. To finish their frames, they picked out objects and painted them the complimentary color of the color they chose for their frames. Once the paint was dry, the students glued it on the frame to create an abstract piece of art. These pieces are hanging up on the bulletin board for your enjoyment! The next week, Ms. Michele introduced Pablo Picasso to the students. Pablo Picasso is known for his Cubism art works. He wanted to draw facial features from different angles and that is why the features on his people look different. To create their own Cubism inspired art works, Ms. Michele printed out pictures of facial features for the students to cut out and glue onto faces. Some of them had two noses, an eye looking sideways, and an eye looking forward. The students let their creativity flow, and created some great Picasso style faces.  To close up the month of April, Ms. Michele reviewed the color wheel with the class. They reviewed warm and cool colors, primary colors, secondary colors, and complimentary colors.  The young artists drew an owl using different shapes, and they had to use primary and secondary colors to fill in the shapes. After the owls were finished, the students drew details on their pages like a branch for the owl to sit on, or the moon in the background. We always look forward to what Ms. Michele has planned for art each month. Thank you for your hard work Ms. Michele!

 

 

Mr. John’s April 2017 Newsletter Article

Written by

Welcome Back, My Friends to the Show that never ends….

Unfortunately, The International Festival had to end that night.  This event never ceases to amaze me.  You may think it is not really a big deal having the students sing “It’s A Small World”(the stanzas) and then the chorus in a foreign language.  Big whoop that they say “hello” and “good bye” in the language that they chose to represent and recite a fun fact about that country. What is all the fuss that they learn many facts about continents, countries and learn many songs or sing a song in a different language?  Then you have to realize the students are doing this in front of 300 to 400 people AND they are 3 to 6 years of age!  OK, now I am impressed!  I am so proud of our students and what they accomplished this past month.  I also wanted to thank Sabrina and Kathleen for getting the students prepared for this monumental production (and it is a production.   Until next year…. adios, auf wiedersiehen, chao!

 

Scenes From The Classroom:

                                                    Welcoming our new arrivals to the classroom, baby rats!

 

           

Kindergarten Students visiting the Elementary classroom at our Tallmadge Campus

 

 


A student showing an instrument from The Dominican Republic

 

        Pastor Kirk explaining bee keeping

 

      

Knobless Cylinders (Sensorial)                                   Vowel Tree (Language)

 

                                                              Painting the Easter Island Man

Field Student:
We welcomed our field student Ms. Nicole from the University Of Akron.  She dug in, worked with the students, and created the craft of the Easter Island Statue for the International Festival.

  

 

 

Academic Enrichment | Kindergarten
with Mr. John

We started out the month by looking at the pronoun.  We learned the pronoun takes the place of the noun and at times makes our lives a bit easier.  I stressed NEVER call a person “it” because it is rude. Moving forward we discovered the adjective.  The adjective describes nouns but we did not leave out the verb(what describes the verb?)  an adverb of course.  That is it’s main job but it can also describe adjectives and other adverbs.  We closed out April with learning about the conjunction.  It serves as a bridge for two separate sentences bringing together these two sentences as one.

20160422_122551-1

                                                     Ask our Kindergarten Students about adjectives and adverbs!

 

Handwriting Enrichment
-with Ms. Kristen

This month in handwriting, we have continued to focus on forming complete sentences. The Kindergaten students also enjoyed correcting my capitalization “mistakes” in example sentences. We continued journaling together. Our kindergarten students continue to impress me with their handwriting and creativity!

 

Reading Group | Kindergarten
-with Ms. Kate

For the month of April we focused on a poem called Seashell. This poem came from Spain and is spoken by someone who has been given a seashell. We had fun talking about what happens if you hold up a huge seashell… you can hear the light sounds of the ocean. We first read the poem in English and then lead a short discussion on what they think it meant to them. We also went over any vocabulary words they weren’t sure of the meaning. Next,  I read the poem in Spanish. Seashell in Spanish is “ Caracola” After the poem was read, the children then drew a picture of themselves walking on the bottom of the sea and what they think it would look like. The children then stood up and shared their drawings with one another. I can see such a difference in their confidence with standing up and sharing in front of their peers. We then had such a fun time acting out our drawings! It was such a fun poem!

 

Music Enrichment
by Ms. Faith

In April, Ms. Lisa focused on singing songs about our character. The students sang and did motions to songs about telling the truth, about cooperating, saying please and thank you, and about being kind. The students participated in partner dances, and even learned a new song from Africa called Roll and Rock. Ms. Lisa always incorporates gross motor movement into her lessons. She sang Have You Ever Seen a Lassy, and the students picked a movement, such as skipping, galloping, and hoping to move around during the song. Another activity Ms. Lisa had for the students was to review what Staccato and Legato mean. Staccato notes are short and jumpy, whereas Legato notes are smooth and long. The students were given a castanet and a scarf to walk around in a circle while listening to a song. When the music played Staccato notes, the students played their castanet and ran on their tiptoes. When the music played Legato notes, the students moved in slow flowing motions with their scarves. Thank you Ms. Lisa for sharing all of your instruments for us to learn!

 

Science Enrichment:
by Ms. Kathleen

Our favorite science experiment from the month of April was the Tea Bag Hot Air Balloon!  These are some of the questions Mr. John and the scientists asked themselves:

  • What will happen when you set an empty, unused teabag on fire?

We had many hypothesis given by our students! Mr. John cut open the unused tea bag and dumped out the tea.  Then he made the tea bag into a cylinder. Next, he put the cylinder shaped tea bag on a kitchen plate and set fire to it. As the tea bag burns, it floats up into the air. WHY?  When the tea bag burns down it gets lighter and the air around the flame gets hotter. Hot air rises and once the burnt tea bag is light enough it gets carried up with the hot air.  All the children giggled with delight during this experiment and asked Mr. John to do it again.  This is one of our most favorite experiments of the school year!

Art Enrichment
by Ms. Faith

Ms. Michele had students finish their wooden frames that they painted one color, or monochromatic. To finish their frames, they picked out objects and painted them the complimentary color of the color they chose for their frames. Once the paint was dry, the students glued it on the frame to create an abstract piece of art.

The next week, Ms. Michele introduced Pablo Picasso to the students. Pablo Picasso is known for his Cubism art works. He wanted to draw facial features from different angles and that is why the features on his people look different. To create their own Cubism inspired art works, Ms. Michele printed out pictures of facial features for the students to cut out and glue onto faces. The printed materials from David came from foamcore print. The material has a high-quality print since their company has a fully automated print production facility. Some of them had two noses, an eye looking sideways, and an eye looking forward. The students let their creativity flow, and created some great Picasso style faces.

To close up the month of April, Ms. Michele reviewed the color wheel with the class. They reviewed warm and cool colors, primary colors, secondary colors, and complimentary colors. The young artists drew an owl using different shapes, and they had to use primary and secondary colors to fill in the shapes. After the owls were finished, the students drew details on their pages like a branch for the owl to sit on, or the moon in the background. We always look forward to what Ms. Michele has planned for art each month. Thank you for your hard work Ms. Michele!

May-June 2017, Academic Enrichment | Cuyahoga Falls

Written by

Academic Enrichment Overview | Cuyahoga Falls Campus

Our Academic Enrichment time is daily from 12:00-1:00pm. This time is specifically designed for our Kindergarten students to join as a group to work and progress through the advanced materials and lessons in the Montessori primary curriculum with Mr. John. During this time Ms. Kristen also gives additional handwriting and journaling lessons. Throughout the school day in their classroom they are still working individually with their classroom teacher on these and other materials at their level. Please read through what we will be covering during this time together below.

Reading Group Overview | Ms. Kate
Junior Great Books is a foundational reading program that introduces students to a variety of literary genres, while teaching critical thinking and comprehension skills. Our Kindergarten students meet twice a week as a small reading group. During this time, they listen to a story being read to them and take turns reading the story aloud. Students pause during readings to think critically about the story, identify the different parts of the story, such as the characters and main ideas, make predictions about what might happen next, and learn new vocabulary words, using the context to understand the meaning. Each week I will email information about the current story and any assignment information for at home work.

 

05/01: Introduction to prepositions

  • Rules of the prepositions
  • Worksheets, diagramming sentences

 05/08: Introduction to interjections

  • Rules of the interjections
  • Worksheets, diagramming sentences 

 05/15: Introduction to punctuation (end of a sentence)

  • Rules of the punctuation (end of a sentence)
  • Period, question mark, exclamation mark
  • Worksheets, practicing with interjections

05/22: Introduction to capitalization

  • Rules of capitalization
  • Worksheets, practicing our capitalization

05/29: Review of the year

 

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

05/01: word, when

05/08: which, what

05/15: there, their

05/22: way, my

  

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

05/01: NICE, friendly, courteous, good, pleasant, charming

05/08: SNEAKY, underhanded, dishonest, tricky, secretive, sly

05/15: BRIGHT, shiny, glowing, dazzling, lighted, vivid

05/22: DULL, dark, dreary, somber, boring, tedious

 

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.

 

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.

 

May-June 2017 Academic Enrichment Overview | Tallmadge Campus

Written by

May/June 2017 Academic Enrichment Overview | Tallmadge Campus
Our Academic Enrichment time is daily from 12:00-1:00pm. This time is specifically designed for our Kindergarten students to join as a group to work and progress through the advanced materials and lessons in the Montessori primary curriculum with Ms. Courtney. During this time Ms. Courtney also gives additional handwriting and journaling lessons. Throughout the school day in their classroom they are still working individually with their classroom teachers on these and other materials at their level. Please read through what we will be covering during this time together below.

Reading Group Overview
Junior Great Books is a foundational reading program that introduces students to a variety of literary genres, while teaching critical thinking and comprehension skills. Our Kindergarten students meet twice a week as a small reading group. During this time, they listen to a story being read to them and take turns reading the story aloud. Students pause during readings to think critically about the story, identify the different parts of the story, such as the characters and main ideas, make predictions about what might happen next, and learn new vocabulary words, using the context to understand the meaning. Each week I will email information about the current story and any assignment information for at home work.

5/01: Introduction to prepositions

  • Rules of the prepositions
  • Worksheets, practicing with prepositions

5/08: Introduction to interjections

  • Rules of the interjections
  • Worksheets, practicing with interjections

5/15:  Introduction to punctuation (end of a Sentence)

  • Rules of the punctuation
  • Worksheets, diagramming sentences

5/22: Introduction to capitalization

  • Rules of capitalization
  • Worksheets, practicing our capitalization

5/29:  Review of the year

  • Telling time, landforms
  • Coins, paper money
  • Mathematical operations
  • Geography

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

Vowels A E I O U

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

5/01: Some

5/08:  Time

5/15: Write

5/22: People

5/29: Many

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

5/01: UNDER, below, beneath, underneath

5/08: QUICK, fast, swift, rapid, speedy, hasty

5/15: NEAT, tidy, clean, arranged, well-ordered

5/22: LOOK, see, glance, stare, gaze

5/29: FUNNY, silly, playful, crazy, foolish

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.
  • Practice identifying different parts of speech when reading together.

I will be sending homework home to reinforce these lessons. Please turn homework into Ms. Courtney. Please email me if you have any questions:  cowens@thesmarterkids.com

Explorations of Elementary May 2017 Overview

Written by

Explorations of Elementary May 2017 Overview

Research

  • Our first-year students will present their Simple Machines to the class in small group lessons. Students will be invited to repeat these lessons as a work choice. First year students will also begin studying how animals satisfy their needs and how scientists classify animals. These students will create a chart comparing external characteristics of vertebrates and invertebrates.
  • Second year students will be focusing on many physical science experiments this month. They will experiment with surface tension, fountains, and a water pressure column.
  • Third year students will focus on internal systems of birds and mammals and will compare and contrast all the internal systems of vertebrates. Third years will also learn about the Roman Arch.
  • Students researching the human body will complete their project this month and have it available for display before the end of the school year.
  • Fourth year students will finish up research on the five kingdoms by comparing and contrasting all groups. These students will study etymologies and figures of speech.
  • We will be studying the continent of Antarctica. We will discuss the scientists there, learn about its flag, and create a self-test to assess our knowledge.
  • Math and Language lessons are given to children based on individual needs, instead of age level.

Reading Groups

  • One group is reading Ramona and Beezus. A second group is reading the first book from the Ivy and Bean Another group is reading A Series of Unfortunate Events: Carnivorous Carnival. The fourth group is finishing up Maniac Magee and moving on to The Phantom Tollbooth.
  • For Writer’s Workshop this month we will continue our work with “All Abouts.” Students will be writing about partners and themselves.

Spelling Groups

  • The first group will be working on /air/ and /are/ words, /ow/, /ou/, /oi/, and /oy/ words, homophones, and silent letters. The second and third group are working on compound words, words that end in y, and plurals. The fourth group is working on long I spellings, long o spellings, long u and /oo/ spellings, and r controlled vowels. The fifth group will work on tough short vowel sounds and challenging long vowel sounds. All groups will do a Spelling assessment at the end of May.
  • The homework for the month of May will be creating a Word Search. We will be sending home your child’s list of words and a sheet of graph paper for this search. Please assist your child by finding their words before each Monday!

Field Trips and Special Events

  • May 11: Grandparents Day 12:45-2:30
    • Students will be playing recorder and piano, performing short skits from what they’ve learned in Latin, completing a class activity, and then can end the day at the Book Fair with their grandparents!
  • May 12: Moms and Muffins
  • May 29: Memorial Day – NO SCHOOL
  • June 1: Field Day, Last Day of School (No Aftercare)
  • June 2: Kindergarten Graduation

 

 

Ms. Courtney’s May-June 2017 Monthly Overview

Written by

Ms. Courtney’s May/June 2017 Monthly Overview

What I will learn this Month in Ms. Courtney’s class:

Themes of the week | Classroom group lesson time (in addition to individual Montessori Work time)

5/01:    Solar System

  • The children will learn the positions of the Planets and their relative sizes and distances.
  • The children will discover why and how Earth is distinctive.
  • The children will learn the role of the Sun.
  • The children will learn the terms rotation, revolution, and orbit.
  • The children will be able to name the planets in the Solar System and the order they are in.

Afternoon Group Time:

  • Read a book about constellations and discuss how constellations have been used. Trace different constellations.
  • Read about astronauts, create a space helmet, and try astronaut food (freeze dried ice cream)

5/08:    Dinosaurs

  • The children will be able to identify dinosaurs by name.
  • The children will recognize the different physical attributes of dinosaurs.
  • The children will demonstrate understanding of herbivores and carnivores.
  • The children will compare and contrast dinosaurs to modern animals.
  • The children will demonstrate understanding of fossils.
  • The children will identify that museums are places in communities where artifacts can be viewed.
  • Grandparent’s Day May 10th
  • Mom’s and Muffins May 12th 7:00am-8:00am

Afternoon Group Time:

  • Read about different types of dinosaurs and make a dinosaur book.
  • Make dinosaur soap.

 

5/15:    Transportation

  • The children will become familiar with what transportation is: to carry things from one place to another.
  • The children will learn the different methods of travel.
  • The children will learn the safety rules for all methods of transportation.

Afternoon Group Time:

  • Play Red Light Green Light.
  • Read and discuss about different types of transportation, then create a traffic light craft.

 

5/22: Sports

  • The children will work on gross motor skills by marching, skipping, galloping etc.
  • The children will gain the skills needed to engage in imaginative and creative play indoors and outdoors, involving others.
  • The children will develop team work with peers.
  • Akron Zoo Field Trip May 26th

Afternoon Group Time:

  • Read and discuss about different sports and play Wall Football
  • Read and discuss what teamwork means, and participate in a hula hoop team game.

 

5/29: Welcome Summer and Camping

  • The children will learn some outside summer games and activities.
  • The children will experiment with water.
  • The children will learn about summer safety.
  • Memorial Day | NO SCHOOL May 29th
  • Last day of school / Field Day | NO Aftercare June 1st
  • Kindergarten Graduation June 2nd 6:30pm to 8:00pm
  • Progress Reports June 5th

Afternoon Group Time:

  • Sing Going on a Bear Hunt and make a binocular craft.
  • Make trail mix together and read stories under a “blanket tent”

 

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

Vowels A E I O U

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

5/01: Some

5/08:  Time

5/15: Write

5/22: People

5/29: Many

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

5/01: UNDER, below, beneath, underneath

5/08: QUICK, fast, swift, rapid, speedy, hasty

5/15: NEAT, tidy, clean, arranged, well-ordered

5/22: LOOK, see, glance, stare, gaze

5/29: FUNNY, silly, playful, crazy, foolish

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

  • Visit a local museum.
  • Take a walk and see how many different forms of transportation you can spot.
  • Go to a baseball game.
  • Look at the sky with a telescope at night.

 

Mr. John’s May-June 2017 Monthly Overview

Written by

May/June 2017 

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

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

 

5/01: 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.

 

5/08: Seasons & Weather

  • 4 Seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter
  • Characteristics of each Season
  • The first day of each Season

 

5/15: Solar System

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

 

5/22: Career Week

  • Different jobs in the community
  • Doctors, Mail Carriers, Nurses, Accountants, etc.
  • How these workers help us
  • We welcome parents, family members or friends to come in and share about their occupation with us!

 

05/29: Safety

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

 Monday, May 29th: Memorial Day | NO SCHOOL
Thursday, June 1st: FIELD DAY! 

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

5/01: Aa

5/08: Ee

5/15: Ii

5/22: Oo

 

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

5/01: BIB, dib, fib, rib,

5/08: BIC, kick, lick, nick, pick, nick, sick wick

5/15: BUD, dud, mud,

5/22: 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!