Mr. John’s December 2016 Newsletter Article

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…

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All smiles                                                             Reading to each other

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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!

 

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My Breakfast Club running amuck                 Card Sharks

We did have an alumnus, Avery who is in Kindergarten, read Madeline’s Christmas.

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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.

 

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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.

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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!

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