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. Kristenalso 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.
1/30: Exchanging
Decimal System/Exchanging 1s, 10s, 100s and 1000s
Using single units, 10 bars, 100 squares and 1000 cubes
2/06: Introduction to Multiplication
Exploring multiplication
Operations with the golden bead material
Practice with the nine tray and multiplication tables
2/13: Introduction to Fractions
Exploring Fractions
Fractional Insets (whole up to 1/12)
2/20: Geometric Shapes
Monday, February 20th, President’s day – No School
Intro to Geometric Shapes, Constructive boxes
Geometric Cabinet
Sight Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.
1/30: first, than 2/06: other, some 2/13: more, these 2/20: would, about
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.
December was filled with many fun winter and Christmas activities. We started the month off with focusing on practicing our songs for the Christmas program. The students worked very hard to memorize the lyrics and to get the motions and dance moves down just right.
The students created paper plate Santa Claus. Along with a Rudolf picture by tracing the students’ hands for the antlers and feet for the face, then we added a red nose and eyes to complete the reindeer. The students also made a paper Christmas tree. We enjoyed baking and decorating sugar cookies. They loved making candles and melted snowmen ornaments to put in their gift bags to their parents. This year, we are super exited for our Christmas Party, we are planning to hire a real beard Santa!!
We all enjoyed the students’ show and tell items and they enjoyed sharing with the class. The children especially had fun wearing their pajamas to school and watching classic Christmas movies like The Grinch, Frosty, and Rudolph.
The kids did an amazing job at the Christmas program and were the cutest snowmen and women ever!
I hope everyone had a wonderful break and a Merry Christmas! See you next year!
Academic Enrichment Group Time | Kindergarten with Ms. Courtney
The kindergartners learned how to measure in inches and centimeters using a ruler and tape measure. They even had the opportunity to have special lesson from a parent who showed them how to scale down the solar system and use inches to show the distance between each planet.
Handwriting Enrichment | Kindergarten with Ms. Courtney
The kindergartners have been working very hard on completing journal prompts on their own using letter sounds and sight words.
Reading Group | Kindergarten with Ms. Faith
In December, The kindergartners finished the series of poems with a poem called, The Lobster Quadrille. A quadrille is a type of lively square dance, which we all learned how to do! While I read the poem, the kindergartners clapped a beat and danced. After a few tries they caught on, and had a blast with the square dance. They learned some new vocabulary: porpoise, shingle, and askance. During the second reading, we had a discussion that analyzed the poem. The kindergartners had to think about why the characters in the poem made certain decisions, and what they think the character should do. The students also completed an art activity where they had to draw a picture of their favorite ocean animal. At the end of every art activity, the students take turns sharing their drawings.
The next story we started is, Lion at School. This is a story of a little girl who does not enjoy going to school. She starts of to school one day late, and is not in a hurry to get there. On her way she meets a lion. This lion can talk and wants to go to school with her. They come up with a plan to tell the teacher that the lion is a friend and his name Noil. He joins her for the morning portion of school, and helps her stand up to an older student. In response to the story, the kindergartners drew a picture of where they would take a lion. After Christmas break, we will resume reading group, and finish Lion at School.
Science Enrichment by Ms. Courtney
Our students love our experiments and this month the favorite was our snow….
The students wanted to play with snow but since it hadn’t snowed yet, so we decided to make our own. We combined corn starch and white hair conditioner! Who knew Science could be so much fun!
Music Enrichment by Ms. Faith
During December, Ms. Lisa created a festive atmosphere to gear the students up for the holiday season. We sang some Christmas favorites such as, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Jingle Bells, Feliz Navidad, Jingle Bell Rock, and Deck the Halls. While we sang Jingle Bells, the student played bells to replicate the sound of the horses dashing through the snow while pulling the sleigh. The young musicians also used castanets, which are Spanish instruments that make a clicking sound, during the song Feliz Navidad. Ms. Lisa played games with the students where she would play a Christmas song and the students had to dance; once she stopped the music, students had to freeze. If they didn’t freeze, they were out. This is an enjoyable way for youngsters to learn listening skills, and to control their response time. To end the month, the class reviewed some musical terms that name the tempo of a musical piece. These terms are Allegro (fast), Adagio (slow), and Andante (medium). To reinforce the lesson, Ms. Lisa played a song called The Christmas Train, where the tempo changes from fast to medium then to slow. The students walk around in a train, and use egg shakers to make the sound of the train moving while Ms. Lisa played a triangle for the bell, and used a whistle for the train’s whistle. They had to move at the same tempo that song played. The students enjoyed walking in slow motion, then walking quickly on tiptoes. I’m sure the students are in the holiday spirit after all the great activities they participated in during music class!
Art Enrichment by Ms. Faith
This past month was filled with many wonderful winter and Christmas activities. In art we started a fun imaginary project called Imaginary Creatures. Ms. Michele shows the students different made up creatures such as a Pegasus, and a Griffin. These animals are made up of multiple animals combined. The students then got to pick pictures of three different animals. The young artists had to combine features of the animals and draw their new creature. After the drawings were done, the class got to color their imaginary animals and draw a habitat. Once everyone was finished, we all shared our animals and told where they lived and what the creature ate. Once we come back from Christmas break, the students will form their imaginary creature out of clay to bring it to life! Our last project of the month was a Christmas painting of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Ms. Michele showed us how to paint Rudolph step by step. The students picked which type of patterned paper they wanted, and then we got started. Ms. Michele showed us which shapes to make first, then painted the shapes in to create a rendition of the beloved Christmas character. Their paintings are hanging up in the entrance, so make sure to check out the students’ wonderful paintings!
It is the most wonderful time of the year… but I am not referring to the holiday season. I am referring to the Holiday College Football Bowl Season. The weeks preceding New Years Day you can find a College Football Bowl Game every day. No matter how small the university or how ridiculous the sponsor for the bowl game, I find pleasure in watching College Football. The College Football Bowl season is rivaled only with March Madness (My March blog may tout this is the most exciting sports season). If I’m the one playing a sport though, I use the best basketball shoes for wide feet, otherwise I start to feel pain rather quickly and have to take a break. So, as the Winter Solstice comes as well as over break, Mr. John was fully stocked up on Cheetos and root beer, and snacked on the Christmas cookies I received from families and watched a years worth of College Football in the time span of two weeks. I wanted to thank all the families for bringing your children to Absorbent Minds Montessori School and for all of the generous gifts that I received.
As always O-H…
All smiles Reading to each other
A typical day in Mr. John’s class…napping (he, he…just kidding) This was our PJ and Movie Day!
Line Time
We spent the majority of the time practicing for our Christmas program. Our little carolers performed nicely. My big carolers did a fantastic job getting our students ready for the show!
My Breakfast Club running amuck Card Sharks
We did have an alumnus, Avery who is in Kindergarten, read Madeline’s Christmas.
Cultural Subjects
We can now count to ten in 20 languages. We can count in English, Latin, Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic (with the Lebanese dialect), Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, and Kiswahili, Welsh.
Just Cuteness Friends
Academic Enrichment | Kindergarten with Mr. John
This abbreviated month found us learning a little bit about creepy crawly things. Namely Insects and Arachnids. We learned insects have 6 legs, an abdomen, a thorax, and a head in addition to two antennae. They are also invertebrates. Arachnids are also invertebrates but have a head and a cephalothorax.
We ended the year by learning how to measure things with a ruler. We learned how to measure in inches and in centimeters. The students had homework measuring things around the house. I was told this was a fun assignment.
Cultural Subjects We can now count to ten in 21 languages(We can count to ten in 19 different languages. We can count in English, Latin, Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic (with the Lebanese dialect), Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish.
Handwriting Enrichment | Kindergarten with Ms. Kristen
During the month of December, we began to work on cursive letter formation beginning with form drawing, which is a pre-cursor to cursive handwriting. We then focused on letter A-I and practiced writing simple words beginning with each letter. The Kindergarten students have also practicing answering questions in the form of a complete sentence, such as “ What is your favorite color?” and “ What do you want for Christmas?”. The children are doing so well with this and their handwriting is improving daily!
Reading Group | Kindergarten with Ms. Kate
For the month of December our friends learned all about Fantasy. We read poems by Sylvia Plath, Edward Lear, and Lewis Carroll. With each of these readings the children were able to create an art activity, do a dramatization of the reading, and also discuss their Junior great book questions they did with their parents. One of the readings we did was called The Bed book. As a class we brainstormed different types of beds they would like to have. I love that the children had to really use their imagination and talk to their classmates about what they were thinking. We then created our own Right Sort Of Bed poem! When children work on these creative writing projects, the activity provides a framework of lines and verbal cues to help children generate and organize their ideas. The children really enjoyed reading these poems.
Science Enrichment by Ms. Kathleen
We love Science here at AMMS! One of the favorite experiments we would like to highlight this month was Gluep/ Homemade Slime! Yes, as I’m sure you can imagine…it was a big hit!
This made by using Borax, White Elmer’s Glue (It has to be Elmer’s Brand) ,Water Food coloring.
The children watched Mr. John add the Tablespoon of glue to one cup of water then mix, then food coloring. then he added 1 teaspoon of borax with 3 more cups of water, he stirred until dissolved.Then when finished was a soft lump.
By combining Glue, Borax and Water a newly created Polymer will have characteristics of a Solid and a Liquid. A chemical reaction begins when Glue and Borax and Water are mixed to make a highly flexible Polymer. A Polymer is both a liquid and a solid.
The Children all (except a few because it is slimy to the touch) loved this experiment and were so happy to bring their own little bit home in plastic bags all provided by Mr. John.
Music Enrichment by Ms. Sabrina
This was a very busy month for our music class. The children learned many new songs and signs for the Christmas Show which they practiced during music class. Along with those songs and movements, they also learned Jinggle Bells freeze dance and Jingle Bell Rock. Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer with motions was so much fun!! Castanets were used (we love using instruments!). The children learned a lot about self control. Feliz Navidad was a song they sung, and they galloped to Deck The Halls!! Away In Manger was also heard, and it was beautiful. All the children did a wonderful job performing in the show! All of us also had such fun!!
Art Enrichment by Ms. Ame
This month in December Miss Michele mixed it up combining art and physical movement! Miss Michele introduced some new pieces of art to the class, that all had one thing in common; they were pictures of people in different positions. The students then each took a turn being a model for the class. Each student took their turn on the stool in the center of the circle. Then they got to pick a prop and make a pose with their prop. There were globes, scarves, and other classroom objects they could pick from. Once they found their prop and pose, the students had about 1 minute per student to quickly draw their friend in the center. It was a good lesson that taught the students about drawing different parts of the body in different positions. It also helped them learn to look quickly for details when they are drawing something they are looking at. This lesson helped prepare them for the next weeks lesson where each student brought in a toy or object from home. Each student brought in their own object from home and put the objects in the center of the circle. Then the students drew the objects that they saw and had so much fun! Thanks for everyone for bringing in such wonderful objects! Thanks to Miss Michele for another wonderful year and we can’t wait to see what comes next!
I love this time of year! The pretty lights, fun music, everyone smiling, and the children full of excitement!! Even though we were only in school for just a few short weeks the children were busy getting ready for our annual holiday program, making fun holiday crafts, and enjoying the hustle and bustle of the classroom! Throughout the month of December our class had fun learning about how children and their families celebrate Christmas from around the world! The first country we talked about was Mexico. We began by reading the story The Legend of thePoinsettia by Tomie de Paola, and then created our own poinsettia craft out of paint, glitter, markers, and grocery bags. For preschool lesson, Ms. Ame had the children make another Christmas craft from Mexico . The second country we visited was Germany. The children learned that the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree originated from Germany and that the trees were decorated with candles, apples, and spiced cookies. The children them created their own tree by dipping a toilet paper roll into paint and making prints onto paper. They also used glitter, colored paint, and stickers to decorate their tree. The children also created another Christmas tree by using different sized green paper and placing them in order from longest to shortest.
“ Joyeux Noel” is how you say Merry Christmas in French. In France, the traditional Christmas Eve meal, Le Reveillon, means “ waking up” and includes many courses of food. The children created their own Le Reveillon menu out of magazines. They cut out foods that they would like to eat on Christmas Eve night, pasted them on a folded menu they created and labeled what they glued on. They turned out fantastic! The following country we had fun with was Italy. The children had a blast doing the traditional Italian art of curling paper called Quilling. They learned that the Italians created beautiful quilled ornaments to decorate their ceppos, which is a small triangular ladder. The last country was England. The children thought it was so funny that after children wrote their letters to Santa they then threw them into the fireplace hoping that they would go up the chimney so that all their wishes would come true. I then explained to them that an English tradition included caroling from house to house and that the families would come in for Wassail. We also read a book about St.Lucia. The children learned that on every Christmas eve she would go out with her wreath with candles on top and deliver warm food to those who have no food on the coldest winter day. Then as a group the children constructed a crown of their own just like St. Lucia did.
The children really loved learning about the different traditions. They couldn’t believe how people in different countries celebrated Christmas. Throughout December our class made different holiday crafts, gingerbread houses, and playing different games from around the world like the new destiny 2 trials of the nine flawless. The last week before our break our theme was all about giving not receiving. The children did different acts of kindness throughout the last week. The first activity we did was we made a chart that displayed the differences between a want vs. a need. I loved how the children really grasped this concept! We then created a kindness paper chain. Each child had to stand up and talk about how they would show kindness either to a friend, or someone in need. The children really put a lot of though into their answers. I then asked the children what activity they would like to do for someone or something, and they chose to make bird feeders for the birds. I thought it was super sweet that they wanted to give to the animals as well. Lastly, as a class we decided that we wanted to give clothes to the people in need. For the entire month of December our families have been bringing in clothes and placing them into bins. In January our class will be separating these clothes into the different age groups and heading down to Good Neighbors to donate these items. I could not be more proud of our kiddos. Thanks to Ms. Ame for her wonderful kindness club our children are really and truly understanding the meaning of kindness.
Academic Enrichment Group Time | Kindergarten with Mr. John
This abbreviated month found us learning a little bit about creepy crawly things. Namely Insects and Arachnids. We learned insects have 6 legs, an abdomen, a thorax, and a head in addition to two antennae. They are also invertebrates. Arachnids are also invertebrates but have a head and a cephalothorax.
We ended the year by learning how to measure things with a ruler. We learned how to measure in inches and in centimeters. The students had homework measuring things around the house. I was told this was a fun assignment.
Cultural Subjects
We can now count to ten in 21 languages(We can count to ten in 19 different languages. We can count in English, Latin, Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic (with the Lebanese dialect), Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish.
Handwriting Enrichment | Kindergarten with Ms. Kristen
During the month of December, we began to work on cursive letter formation beginning with form drawing, which is a pre-cursor to cursive handwriting. We then focused on letter A-I and practiced writing simple words beginning with each letter. The Kindergarten students have also practicing answering questions in the form of a complete sentence, such as “ What is your favorite color?” and “ What do you want for Christmas?”. The children are doing so well with this and their handwriting is improving daily!
Reading Group | Kindergarten with Ms. Kate
For the month of December our friends learned all about Fantasy. We read poems by Sylvia Plath, Edward Lear, and Lewis Carroll. With each of these readings the children were able to create an art activity, do a dramatization of the reading, and also discuss their Junior great book questions they did with their parents. One of the readings we did was called The Bed book. As a class we brainstormed different types of beds they would like to have. I love that the children had to really use their imagination and talk to their classmates about what they were thinking. We then created our own Right Sort Of Bed poem! When children work on these creative writing projects, the activity provides a framework of lines and verbal cues to help children generate and organize their ideas. The children really enjoyed reading these poems.
Science Enrichment by Ms. Kathleen
We love Science here at AMMS! One of the favorite experiments we would like to highlight this month was Gluep/ Homemade Slime! Yes, as I’m sure you can imagine…it was a big hit!
This made by using Borax, White Elmer’s Glue (It has to be Elmer’s Brand) ,Water Food coloring.
The children watched Mr. John add the Tablespoon of glue to one cup of water then mix, then food coloring. then he added 1 teaspoon of borax with 3 more cups of water, he stirred until dissolved.Then when finished was a soft lump.
By combining Glue, Borax and Water a newly created Polymer will have characteristics of a Solid and a Liquid. A chemical reaction begins when Glue and Borax and Water are mixed to make a highly flexible Polymer. A Polymer is both a liquid and a solid.
The Children all (except a few because it is slimy to the touch) loved this experiment and were so happy to bring their own little bit home in plastic bags all provided by Mr. John.
Music Enrichment by Ms. Sabrina
This was a very busy month for our music class. The children learned many new songs and signs for the Christmas Show which they practiced during music class. Along with those songs and movements, they also learned Jingle Bells freeze dance and Jingle Bell Rock. Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer with motions was so much fun!! Castanets were used (we love using instruments!). The children learned a lot about self control. Feliz Navidad was a song they sung, and they galloped to Deck The Halls!! Away In Manger was also heard, and it was beautiful. All the children did a wonderful job performing in the show! All of us also had such fun!!
Art Enrichment by Ms. Ame
This month in December Miss Michele mixed it up combining art and physical movement! Miss Michele introduced some new pieces of art to the class, that all had one thing in common; they were pictures of people in different positions. The students then each took a turn being a model for the class. Each student took their turn on the stool in the center of the circle. Then they got to pick a prop and make a pose with their prop. There were globes, scarves, and other classroom objects they could pick from. Once they found their prop and pose, the students had about 1 minute per student to quickly draw their friend in the center. It was a good lesson that taught the students about drawing different parts of the body in different positions. It also helped them learn to look quickly for details when they are drawing something they are looking at. This lesson helped prepare them for the next weeks lesson where each student brought in a toy or object from home. Each student brought in their own object from home and put the objects in the center of the circle. Then the students drew the objects that they saw and had so much fun! Thanks for everyone for bringing in such wonderful objects! Thanks to Miss Michele for another wonderful year and we can’t wait to see what comes next!
Explorations of Elementary December 2016 Newsletter
December was a short, but exciting month. We spent much of December reviewing lessons and getting ready for the Christmas show. Most of the time in a Montessori Elementary classroom, we present lessons in small or large groups because of the need to collaborate at this age. One of the privileges we have of being a multi-age classroom is the time we can take to review things one-on-one with students to prepare them for the new lessons the New Year will bring, while other students continue their own choices of challenging work. This month students continued their independent research. Some students were researching vertebrates, while others were researching the different vertebrates and invertebrates in different time periods.
Our student studying the human body did experiments to learn about the heart and the lungs. To show how blood pumps out of the heart, we used a bucket full of water and a tennis ball with a hole cut into it. Each student filled up the ball with water and squeezed it to pump the “blood” out. We discussed the way blood enters into our heart and where the blood goes when the heart pumps it out. We looked at photos of blood cells and watched a video of how it moves through different parts of the body. These students practiced checking their pulse and tried different activities to make their hearts beat faster!
We created our own lung to demonstrate the way our diaphragm and lungs work together to circulate oxygen. In our bodies, when you inhale, your diaphragm goes down and your lungs inflate, and when you exhale, your diaphragm rises and your lungs deflate. We blew one breath into our top balloon to make our “lung.” When each student pulled on the bottom balloon, or diaphragm, the balloon would inflate, just like our lungs. When the students would release the balloon, or diaphragm, the balloon would deflate, demonstrating how we exhale.
Along with learning how our bodies work, we spent a lot of time working on our life skills. Some students baked bread for our class as part of a measuring lesson. We enjoyed watching the bread being kneaded, rising, and baking in the machine throughout the day, as well as enjoying the smell! After it was done, we all tried it together and shared with Ms. Courtney’s class. On Pajama Day, we worked together to bake Christmas cookies. We had to measure, mix, roll out the dough, cut the cookies, and wash the dishes. When the cookies were done, we made frosting to cover them with. We enjoyed the cookies and our visiting friends’ company while watching The Tale of Despereaux. The students that read the book were excited for this part of the day!
While we were working hard with independent research, group work, and studying the human body, we also had to prepare for the Christmas Show! A lot of hard (and fun) work from the students goes into putting on the Elementary portion of the show. Our students came up with a list of countries they were interested in learning about, then once we narrowed it down, each group had to research their Christmas tradition. The students then worked as a team to write their scripts, design their costumes, and make their own props. After that we had to practice, practice, practice. While the performances seem brief, the amount of teamwork and dedication from the students is something they are so proud of! Thank you to all of the families for your help practicing, putting together costumes, and attending the performance! We couldn’t do this without you!
What I will learn at school this month in Mr. John’s Class…
Themes of the Week (in addition to Montessori Work time)
1/04: Review of Ground Rules
Ringing of the bell, circle walk, line time
Process of working with a materials, rolling mats, carrying trays & work areas
Respecting teachers, classmates and the materials
Grace and Courtesy lessons
1/09: 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
No School: Friday 1/13-Teacher In Service Day
1/16: Five Senses
Monday 1/16- 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
1/23: 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
1/09: Oo
1/16: Pp
1/23: 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.
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 first year students will continue their planet research with Jupiter and Saturn. These students will also learn about the food chain of different ecosystems. First year students will add to their knowledge of external characteristics of living things by talking about poriferans and cnidarians. In Physical Science, first years will begin their energy transformation study with friction.
Second year students will begin discussing layers of the soil and fossils as part of our yearlong study of rocks and minerals. Second year students will begin their study of the main characteristics (digestive system, circulatory system, movement, etc.) of vertebrates, beginning with fish. These students will study atoms and the Periodic Table using the BOHR Diagram.
Third year students will continue researching the main characteristics of invertebrates, moving on to nematodes. Third year students will add to their taxonomy studies, by classifying the invertebrates we have already researched. We will focus this month on different types of seeds: monocot and dicot. In Physical Science, third year students will discuss energy transformations using a toaster.
Students researching the human body will focus on the digestive system and use their knowledge of the function of the lung and heart to add to their human body model.
Third and fourth year students will begin work with the microscope. They will learn all of the parts of the microscope before becoming “certified” to operate the microscope to observe slides of various living and nonliving things.
All students will learn about national holidays from January, February, and March. All student will begin a 14-Point Study of Europe. Students will work in groups to research fourteen points of study, including climate, languages, industries, geographic features, and customs of different countries in Europe.
Math and Language lessons are given to children based on individual needs, instead of age level.
Reading Groups
Our groups will all begin new stories or chapter books. One group will read Madeline. Another group will read Where the Wild Things Are. Our two groups reading chapter books will begin My Father’s Dragon and The Bridge to Terabithia.
This half of the year we will focus on a Writer’s Workshop. This month we will focus on the structure and routines of writing, editing and revising writing, planning short narratives, and partner writing. We will write a short narrative in chronological order and a short narrative that incorporates all five senses.
Spelling Rules
New spelling groups will begin this month based on assessments from December.
The spelling homework for January will be to write each word three times in cursive. Please make sure your child is writing in cursive at a table, not on the floor, to ensure they are practicing proper form.
Field Trips and Special Events
January 4: School Resumes
January 13: Teacher In-Service Day – NO SCHOOL
January 16: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – NO SCHOOL
January 17: FIELD TRIP to Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Please make sure your child arrives to school on time because we have a fossil workshop scheduled as soon as we arrive at the museum. Please pack a lunch with items that can be thrown away, in a bag that can be thrown away.
Please make sure throughout this month your child comes dressed for the weather. We will be going outside as often as possible.
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 | Ms. Faith
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.
Kindergarten Reading Group
In January, the kindergartners will be reading a Native American folktale called, Coyote Rides the Sun. After listening to the story, they will learn new vocabulary such as, deeds, falcon, haunches, and singed. They will complete two art activities in response to the folktale. The kindergartners will also write a question based off of the story to ask their fellow group members for a class discussion. There will also be a creative writing activity where the students work together to create a song about a time when they want to get up early in the morning to do something special. To end the activities, there will be a dramatization where the kindergartners will act like one of the animals from the story.
We will be ending the series at the end of the month, and will be reading a series of poems called Seasons. Each poem is about a different season. In response to the poems, the kindergartners will be drawing what they like about certain seasons. They will be lead in textual analysis with questions to make them think why the author wrote what he or she did, or what their favorite part is.
1/02: 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
1/09: Introduction to addition
Working with 9 tray / 45 layout
Using single units, 10 bars, 100 square and 1000 cubes
1/16: Introduction to exchanging
Introduction of exchanging 1s, 10s, 100s and 1000s
Using single units, 10 bars, 100 squares and 1000 cubes
1/23: Introduction to multiplication
Working with 9 tray / 45 layout
Using single units, 10 bars, 100 square and 1000 cubes
1/30: Introduction to multiplicationcontinued
Working with 9 tray / 45 layout
Using single units, 10 bars, 100 square and 1000 cubes
Working with stamp game
Working with dot board
Sight Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.
1/02: are
1/09: and
1/16: up
1/23: see
1/30: am
Synonym Words 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.
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
