Explorations of Elementary 2016 September Overview
Our first few weeks of school will be spent introducing/reviewing rules, building community, and beginning work in the Elementary classroom.
Research
- Montessori’s Great Lessons – The Great Lessons were created by Maria Montessori to inspire imagination and to encourage further research into the beginning of the universe, life, humans, language and numbers.
- Laws of the Universe – All students will be introduced to the Laws of the Universe using science experiments. The experiments introduce the concepts of the states of matter, changing states of matter, particles that love each other and those that do not, gravity, centrifugal force, and inertia.
- All students will be preparing for further research by discussing how to find useful information, how to put research into your own words, using a table of contents, and using an index.
- First Years will begin studying the five kingdoms of living things and the external characteristics of fish.
- Second Years will begin classifying animals by phylum and studying the parts of the fruit.
- Third Years will begin studying characteristics of invertebrates and taxonomy of vertebrates.
- Math and Language lessons are presented by individual needs instead of grade level.
Reading Groups
- All groups will be reviewing the five elements of a story: characters, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution.
- One of our groups will begin with the fourth series of Junior Great Books, one group will be reading a different short story each week, and one group will be starting The Chocolate Touch.
Spelling Rules
- All students will review three different levels of words to determine which set of spelling rules they will begin practicing.
- Spelling homework for the month of September:
- First years: Write each word three times in print.
- Second+ years: Write each work three times in cursive.
Field Trips and Special Events
- August 22 – First Day of School
- August 29 – TKD Demo and Enrichments Begin
- September 5 – Labor Day NO SCHOOL
- September 9 – Kids Bop Demo
- September 20 – Stan Hywet Field Trip
- We will eat lunch at Stan Hywet. Please pack a labeled disposable lunch and water bottle as we will not be able to bring Tupperware, lunch boxes, refillable water bottles, back with us.
- Students should wear tennis shoes. No dresses.
- Please send a towel and change of clothes for this field trip.
- September 23 – Ice Cream Social