Cuyahoga Falls School

This month was a busy month in our classroom! We have been learning a lot (myself included) and the children are working very hard!

We started off the month of March by learning about Dr. Seuss and his life. We learned that his real name was Theodore Seuss Giesel. We also learned that he became good at rhyming because he and his mother played rhyming games and made up silly words together when he was a child. We also read some of his famous stories such as “The Cat In The Hat”, “And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street”, “The Lorax”, and “The Sneeches”.  We even had fun in class making our own “Dr. Seuss” book. Ms. Kim brought in some “rhyming words” cards with different pictures on them. I then asked the children one by one to come up and find two cards with pictures of objects that rhymed. Next, the children came up with a rhyming sentence using those two words. We then turned those sentences into a book and drew pictures to illustrate the sentences. The children had so much fun making their own book!

The second week in March, we began discussing our world. Going from biggest to smallest, we discussed how we all live on the planet Earth, on the continent of North America, and how we all live in the United States. Next, we all live in Ohio, and then many of us live in Cuyahoga Falls (or in the surrounding cities), and how all of us go to Absorbent Minds Montessori School! We then learned about the continent of North America. I started the week off by introducing the North American puzzle map to the children during our morning line time. We put each country back in place one at a time and went over the names of the countries. We also discussed that English and Spanish are the main languages spoken in North America, the exceptions being Haiti, where they speak Creole, and parts of Canada, where they speak French. Also, in learning about North America, we learned about Ohio and that it is the state where we live. We learned that the Cardinal is our state bird. Ms. Kim also did a fun craft with the children where we made Cardinals out of paper plates. Next, we learned there are many people who farm or who work in factories in Ohio as well. We also learned that the Buckeye Tree is our state tree. We also found out that there is also a famous astronaut from Ohio, John Glenn! We then “traveled” to Mexico. We learned that people in Mexico speak Spanish and often eat rice and beans and beef and vegetables. We also learned that flour tortillas are often place on the table at meal times in Mexico. Students enjoyed eating tortilla chips and salsa while listening to authentic Mariachi music!  We also enjoyed reading about the ancient Aztec and Mayan peoples, who were the ancient native people of Mexico. We also learned that they built pyramids in Mexico. Students were taught a pyramid is a square based triangle.

During the third week of March, we focused on the continent of South America. We learned about the countries of Peru and Brazil. We discussed how Brazilians speak Portuguese, which is a language similar to Spanish and how they celebrate “Carnival.” This is where the Brazilian people wear brightly colored costumes and decorate beautiful, colorful parade floats. We also learned about the Amazon Rainforest and the different kinds of animals that live there, such as the tapirs, the jaguar, and the spider monkey. We also learned that the Llama lives in the Andes Mountains in Peru, and people in Peru often raise them as livestock!

I encourage you as parents to take time with your child this month and ask them about what they have learned about the countries and continents. Maybe take time and cook a traditional Mexican dish as a family. Go to the library and find books to read with your child about animals that live in the Amazon, or go to the Zoo now that the weather is becoming warmer and find animals from the continents we have learned about.

As always, it is a pleasure and a joy teaching your children! We have fun every day learning from each other in our classroom!