Ms. Kate  

Mr. John's Corner:

Line Time Lessons
In February we started off studying Internal Organs.  We learned the brain is the control center of your body that sends and receives messages.  Our lungs help us breathe, the heart pumps our blood and the stomach begins to digest our food with acid.  The small intestines digest the food and send nutrients to the rest of our body and the large intestines push through the waste that creates our bowel movements. The children were fascinated that our kidneys process the body's water and the liver filters toxins.  The children learned where the organs are located with the help of our Living Internal Organ T-shirt.  The shirt helped the children find the organs location by velcroing the organs to the spot on the t-shirt.   

We capped off February exploring our five senses.  I originally said touch was the least important sense but quickly retracted that statement and gave examples that if we touched something hot and we didn't feel it we would get hurt even more but with touch we pull our hands away quickly.  Our noses smell and the scents we smell are interpreted by the brain.  We passed around smelling jars that had the scents of rubbing alcohol, cinnamon, lavender and pickles.  We learned that the ears hear.  Sound travels through the ear canal, hits the ear drum and the vibrations are interpreted by the brain.  We learned that light hits our eyes and passes though our pupil and the light/sights we see is interpreted by the brain.  We ended with taste. Our tongue helps us taste.  Our tongue and the roof of your mouth has thousands of taste buds that are replaced every two weeks! Learning about our senses was a lot of fun! 

The following week we learned about George Washington and how he was our first president and how Abraham Lincoln came from a poor family and freed the slaves.  We were introduced to Franklin F. Roosevelt and how he was president during World War II and how John F. Kennedy fought for equal rights.  We then learned that Barack Obama was current president and the first African American president. The children were taught that the president's wives are called the First Lady and that the president lives in the White House in Washington DC, and flies on a jet called Air Force One.  We discussed what responsibilities the President has.  The children came up with keeping us safe, keeping the world safe and running the country.  Coloring pages were used to help identify which president is on what coin.      

The class went green the next week learning about recycling, conserving energy, and pollution.  I explained that pollution was anything that made our environment dirty.  We learned about littering.  Littering can be people throwing trash on the side of the road or dropping a candy wrapper in the woods.  We now know that we need to put trash in an appropriate container.  We learned that air pollution is created by factories' smokestacks and cars exhaust.  Water Pollution is caused by factories dumping chemicals in the water or people throwing trash in the water instead of putting it in a trash can.  The 3 R's were introduced and now we all know to reduce, reuse and recycle!   

We thought of ways to conserve energy.  We came up with turning off lights in rooms we are not in or turning off the TV if we are not watching it.  We thought of turning off the water while we are brushing our teeth or turning down the heat and wearing a sweater instead.  During the kindergarten lesson a student realized the room was just as light with the lights off as it was if the lights were on.  Now we do our kindergarten lesson without lights.  

Cultural Subjects
The class has been counting to 10 in twenty five different languages, English (that is our native language), Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic w/Lebanese dialect, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Hebrew, Swedish, Korean, Polish, Hungarian, and Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Polish, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemish, Serbo-Croatian.

Kindergarten Lesson
We started out the month introducing addition using beads.  The introduction of beads shows the kindergarteners a solid correspondence between the symbol and quantity. I also showed the students what tools could be used in their own classroom to help with addition, such as the table top rods, color bead bars and addition strip board.  We briefly touched upon addition with exchanges (carry overs).  We then touched briefly on multiplication.  I explained multiplication is simply adding multiple times.  I introduced fractions the last week of the month. We learned that we can divide anything as long as it can be divided into equal parts.  Even our kindergarten class.  We divided our class from girls/boys.  Mr. John's, Ms. Kate's, and Ms. Sabrina's class, and eye color.
We then learned about different shapes.  We knew that a triangle has three sides but we learned that a triangle with three equal sides is called an equilateral triangle, with two equal sides is an isosceles, and with no equal sides it is called a scalene triangle. Any shape with four sides is a quadrilateral.  Some examples include a square, rectangle, rhombus, trapezoid, and a chevron.  We realized that the Greek language was very important when learning about the pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, nonagon, and decagon.  

The Kindergarteners now can count to 10 in twenty-six languages...English (that is our native language), Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic w/Lebanese dialect, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Hebrew, Swedish, Korean, Polish, Hungarian, Tagalog, Hebrew, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemish, Serbo-Croatian, Cebuano, Malay, and Hindi. 

Ms. Sabrina's Corner:   

The children are moving ahead very well in the classroom! Each and every one of them understand and are retaining the concepts taught, each at their own age level. They appear to be very interested in the subjects being discussed during circle time, both in the morning, and also in the afternoon. They are both attentive and quiet. Some of the things the children learned during circle time are about the world around them. They loved passing the Sandpaper Globe around, and feeling the rough part (land) and the smooth part (water). They learned that the lands are called continents, and the water, the oceans. The younger children were thrilled when the Continent (World) Puzzle Map was brought to the rug, as they love to observe the older children working diligently with the more difficult individual continent puzzle maps.

 
The older children, on the other hand, love sharing their knowledge!! The children now sing the Continent Song completely on their own, as a group, in circle. They all appear to be feeling very well about their abilities, and their friendships. So am I. Somehow, the children appear to know that they are doing well in both arenas.

Some of the countries we have "traveled" to are Canada, Mexico, Colombia, and Egypt. The children have especially enjoyed the Mexican Hat Dance, as well as, the Samba (and boy, can Zack sAmBa!!) Do pay attention to our bulletin board. Ms. Kristen is pinning up flags of the countries we have "traveled" to. Thanks Ms. Kristen!

The individual work time in the classroom is my most favorite time. Your children are hard workers. All of them select works that are age appropriate, and "plow" in. The role of a Montessori teacher is one of guide and observer. We work hard to build an atmosphere of calm, order and joy in the classroom and encourage the children in all their efforts, thus promoting self-confidence and discipline. With the younger students at each level, the teacher is more active, demonstrating (with the help of the older children) the use of the materials and presenting activities based on an assessment of the child's needs. Knowing when to observe and intervene is of utmost importance. 

 

 

Valentine's Day was full of love!!! All the children had a two week opportunity to make individual love cards for their classmates. We sang songs, read books, ate a picnic lunch, iced cookies, and watched the movie, "Lady and the Tramp." I give my heartfelt thanks to every single parent who contributed to the day in all the ways that you did. I was so glad to have been able to accommodate all the children's' needs for that wonderful day. Believe it or not, some wanted to work, and so work they did!! I find great joy in my work, so I am GLAD that they find joy in theirs!!

The Valentine Song (tune: " Farmer in the Dell")

A valentine for you
To cheer you when you're blue
High ho, the Derry oh
A valentine for you
I'll mail you a hug
And send you all my love
High ho, the Derry oh
A valentine for you 

 

   

Please do keep practicing the sounds of the letters, by continuously playing the I Spy game. For example, I spy something that starts with the sound j, so on and so forth. 

 

 

In grace and peace, I promise to continue to do my utmost, to guide, to teach, and to protect your children. I honor the trust put in me to do so.                   

  

 

Enrichment Programs

Ms. Dana  

February was a short but exciting month for our little scientists. For our first experiment this month we used water, q-tips, dish soap and the springs of ink pens (sounds like an episode of MacGyver!). When Mr. John asked the class to determine their hypothesis for when the q-tip was added to the water Jonah said "it will sink!" Isaac stated confidently "it will float," and Myla agreed with Jonah saying, "it will sink." Next, Students conducted their experiment and when the q-tip was added to the water the spring sank. Mr. John explained to us that this was an example of surface tension and together they discussed what surface tension means.

For our final experiment of the month the materials used were a diaper, a crumpled up ball of paper and two cups of water. Students entered the classroom not knowing what to expect! "Which item do you think will hold more water?" is the question Mr. John posed to his curious Scientists! Anelise responded "the diaper will hold the most water." Ainsley replied "the paper will hold the most water." After all the hypotheses were made, Mr. John added water to both cups and we observed that the cup containing the diaper soaked up the most water. Students discussed together with Mr. John what they had learned about absorption.  February was a fun month in Science class!  

Ms. Amy  

Ms. Lisa brought in her piano to use this month in music! Our students got to watch and listen to her play music on the piano and each student had a turn to play it themselves; which they really enjoyed! Students are first learning to play different notes on the black keys, in March we will begin learning to play notes using the white keys on the piano as well! We also learned a new song, "Cabin in the Woods" and all the movements that go along with it. This is quickly becoming one of the student's favorite songs! Ms. Lisa always has us excited for what's to come in music and we can't wait to see the fun Spring time songs she has in store for us in the next couple months!


 

Ms. Amy

Ms. Michelle always has great lessons planned for us in art and knows how to challenge our students! This month we did a variety of things we enjoyed. Our students created a still life drawing of their favorite toy!  We were so impressed at the wonderful job they did with their still life drawings. They really paid attention to the detail and captured what they liked best about their object! Ms. Michelle also had us working with paint and primary colors to create a special project for our Art Auction at the Art Extravaganza. To end our month we also worked some more with clay which our students really love! We can't wait to see what other fun projects Ms. Michelle has for us next month! Also just a reminder our Art Extravaganza is March 22nd. Come enjoy this fun event and see our great Art creations on display!