Ms. Kate  

May was such a busy month! Our class dove into water and learned about the sea and jumped into a space shuttle and flew into outer space. We also had a blast
during Grandparents Day and at our field trip to the zoo! 

The first two weeks we explored the animals of the ocean. We first started by defining mammals. I explained to them that they are warm blooded and both land
and sea mammals have hair on their bodies and give birth to their babies. The first mammals we talked about were the dolphin and whale. The children learned that dolphins can stay under water for 15 minutes, but can't breathe under water so they have to come up for air. The children learned that they live in groups of ten to twelve and that there are thirty-six different kinds of dolphins.  

During this discussion we talked about how the Killer Whale is the largest dolphin.The second mammal in the sea that we discussed were whales. The children learned that since whales breathe like us they can only stay under water for a short period of time and then they have to come up for air by using their blowhole on the top of their heads. They also learned that there are two types of whales: the Baleen and the Toothed whale. The children were interested in what whales ate and how fast they can swim. Together we looked through books and found out that whales can swim up to 30 mph and that baleen whales eat krill and toothed whales eat small fish and other small mammals.  

The last mammal of the sea we discussed was the Manatee. The children found out that manatees were first found out by fishermen who saw the long tails and thought they were looking at mermaids! The children also learned that they could weigh as much as 2000 lbs, and can swim up to 20 mph hour but usually cruise around the sea at 2 to 6 mph. Also, during that week the children made a Venn diagram about fish and mammals. The children did a great job with this activity. They knew that fish do not have lungs, but have gills instead. Mammals are warm-blooded and fish are not. That most mammals live on land, but fish have to stay in the water and both have a vertebrate. What smarties I have!!  

The last two weeks we focused on outer space. During this time we learned about the solar system, stars and constellations, galaxies, the eight planets, the sun and moon, the space shuttle, and the first man who walked on the moon. Wow, what a busy couple of weeks! We first stared out by creating a web of the solar system. Throughout our space lesson the children added the information they have learned onto the web. During our lesson, the children learned about the eight planets since the 9th planet is now a dwarf planet. They learned the order of the planets and neat little facts about each one. They loved learning about Jupiter and its famous hurricane like storm. They thought it was pretty cool that Mars is called the "red planet" due to the red dirt, dust and sky. We also learned about how there are thousands of different galaxies and how the spiral shape is the most common type. The children also learned about night and day. For this activity I had one child stand in the middle of the circle and pretend they were the sun. I then had another child pretend to be the earth. I explained to them that the Earth takes 365 days to orbit
around the sun, but as it's orbiting it is also rotating. The kids loved this activity!! During this time we talked about what stars are, the lunar eclipse, the different constellations, and about observatories. We then talked about Neil Armstrong and how if they went to the moon they would still see his footprint. Students worked on a preschool lesson project making the surface of the moon.

 Near the end of our outer space lesson the children learned about life in space, gravity, and astronauts. I showed a video of a launch and what it is like for astronauts up in space. The children loved it!!  

 Also, during this month we celebrated Grandparents Day in our classroom. The grandparents were able to come in a join us for a special line time, Science class and then a craft. it was such a special day for the children.  

Mr. John's Corner:

Line Time
We started out May with learning about the circle of life. We talked about life cycles, beginning with the frog and toad. We learned that a frog's life starts in a jelly like cluster of eggs. When the eggs hatch we have tadpoles which grow into a froglet which looks half frog, half tadpole. The froglet loses its tail and becomes an adult frog. Then the frog lays eggs and so on and so on... Next we talked about the creature that goes through complete metamorphosis, Michele's favorite animal, the butterfly. The life of a butterfly starts with eggs.



The eggs hatch and we have caterpillars or the larva stage. The caterpillars munch on leaves get fat for a long rest in their chrysalis. We found that a butterfly comes out of a chrysalis and a moth comes out of a cocoon. After a period of time in the chrysalis a butterfly emerges. The butterfly lays eggs, the eggs hatch into caterpillars, caterpillars spin a cocoon/chrysalis, a butter fly or moth emerges from the chrysalis or cocoon. We read "Gus" which is about a caterpillar who was fuzzy, ate a lot, slept in something like a sleeping bag, and came out with beautiful wings. The circle of life studied last week always involves food and eating to stay alive. This is where we looked at several food chains. We looked at a 2 part food chain involving a mouse and grains. We looked at several 3 part food chains such as snake/mouse/grains, hawk/snake/mouse, bear/big fish/small fish.



We went so far to look at some 4 part food chains Hawk/snake/mouse/grain. We learned about being on the top of the food chain and the bottom of the food chain. We also learned the animal that "hunts" for the food is the predator and the animal that get eaten is the prey. The second week of May was a great time to talk about the seasons. We started with spring and talked about how it gets a bit warmer but we get a lot of rain and plants and flowers start to come out. Then we talked about summer and how it is hotter because the earth tilts closer to the sun and the days are longer. This is when plants grow tall and flowers are in full bloom. Autumn or fall comes next and the weather gets a bit chillier. The leaves turn beautiful colors then fall to the ground. The final season is winter and it is the coldest season of the year. The earth is tilted further away from the sun and the days are shorter. We end up getting snow in the winter.



Put on your space suit and get ready to explore our solar system. We started with discussing the planets nearer the sun them worked our way to the furthest reaches of our solar system. Mercury is our first planet and is the closest to the sun. Venus is the second planet. Even though it is further away from the sun it is the hottest planet in our solar system. The third planet is near and dear to our hearts. It is the planet earth. It is the only planet in our solar system that has life. The next planet is Mars and is known as the red planet. The next planet is the biggest planet in our solar system and has a big red storm that has been raging for centuries. That planet is Jupiter.



Saturn is the next planet and has really cool ring around it that are pieces of rock and ice. Uranus is next and it spins up and down instead of side to side like all the other planets. Neptune is the last planet in our solar system. I did not forget about Pluto. Oh! Poor Pluto. Pluto was once a planet but now has been demoted to a dwarf planet. The last week I talked about being safe. I reminded the children to always stay close to their safe side adult, always look both ways before crossing the street, never talk to stranger or go near wild or unfamiliar animals. I also reminded them that police officers and firefighters are our friends. We ended the month of May by looking at some careers such as police, fire and EMT. We also looked at doctors and nurses.


I would like to thank the parents who came in to talk to the class about their careers. The students loved it! I also want to thank Bree Young for helping/doing the work for our first year project of making a banner for the Kindergarten graduating class. My vision is to carry on this tradition for many years!

The last two weeks of school I have the Kindergarten students run the line times. They are the ones that ring the bell for clean up, run the line time, excuse the students for work, and even take charge in reminding students to make good choices on the line. They are truly the leaders of the classroom and this gives them another opportunity to show off those leadership skills.



Cultural Subjects
We are holding at counting to ten in 26 different languages!

Kindergarten
The kindergarteners brushed up on their knowledge of the interjection. The interjection adds emotion to the sentence but we did find out that if we eliminate the interjection from the
sentence, the meaning of the sentence really does not change. We learned what punctuation is used at the end of a sentence. We use a period (.) when we are stating something. We use a
question mark (?) when we are asking a question and we use an exclamation mark (!) when we show excitement or a lot of emotion. I introduced the students to the rules of capitalization.
We learned that words at the beginning of the sentence, the word I, and proper nouns need to be capitalized. We played "mad libs" and ended our lessons on grammar by watching  Grammar Rock. For the last week I decided to review telling time. This is something that is involved in our daily lives and I wanted to make sure they had a good understanding of telling time when leaving Absorbent Minds Montessori School.

Ms. Sabrina's Corner:   

by Ms. Kristen

 
May has gone by so quickly! The children enjoyed working one-on-one with Ms. Brandy this
month! We're continually amazed by their passion for learning! 

We started off this month by talking about families. The children enjoyed sharing their family trees with their class and playing a baby picture guessing game. Ms. Brandy and I even brought our baby pictures in to participate in the game as well.

Ms. Brandy also showed our class how to make a bar graph by graphing how many children had moms, dads, sisters, brothers, etc.  We even graphed how many children have dogs, cats, and fish.  

The rest of the month was spent learning about the different types of animals. During the second week in May, we first learned about birds and the characteristics that make them unique, such as having feathers, wings, a beak, etc. To reinforce what they had learned, Ms. Brandy had them label the parts of the bird during morning circle time. We also read the book  "Are You My Mother?" which is about a little bird's search for its mother during preschool lesson.  

We then went on to learn about fish. We learned that fish are vertebrates, they use gills to breathe, they can only live in water, and they lay eggs  We learned about the clown fish and how it is able to live in a sea anemone without being stung. We also read the story "The Rainbow Fish" and learned that it is better to share the blessings we have with others, rather than keep it to ourselves.

We then went on the following week to learn about reptiles and amphibians. I personally was surprised when I walked in early that Tuesday morning and saw a turtle on our shelf! The children enjoyed watching the turtle and our subsequent visitors, the frog and the toad. Many thanks to Ms. Brandy's son Tyler for letting them visit our classroom! 

The children also enjoyed making a ven diagram showing the similarities and differences between frogs and toads. They loved playing "detective" and finding answers in the library books on amphibians. Henri, Will, and Ivan especially had fun with this activity! 

We then went on to learn about the characteristics of mammals. We found out all mammals have hair; they are warm blooded, are vertebrates, and drink their mother's milk. One mammal we learned about was the Cheetah. Madison really wanted to know how fast a Cheetah could run. We learned a Cheetah can run 60 to 70 miles an hour!       

Another mammal that we learned about that had the children fooled as to what category it belongs to was the Duck-billed Platypus, due to its unusual features. Ivan informed us during morning line time that the Platypus is one of two mammals that lays eggs! Amazing!

To close out our school year, we talked about ways to be safe this summer. We read a couple books about "Stranger Danger" and learned to " Say No and Go".  We hope this prompted an important discussion about summer safety at home!
 
Over the summer, please continue to work with your child on their letter sounds they have learned this year. Reading is the key to more independent discovery! I know these past few weeks the children have really enjoyed reading the "Magic Tree-house" series, which are very educational, fun, and exciting! 

On a personal note, I have loved getting to know your children this year and watching them grow. Their curiosity inspires me to learn new things as well! And I know Ms. Sabrina feels the same way! Your children are truly a blessing in both of our lives! We can't wait to see what adventures next year holds! 

Enrichments:

Music Class: 

by Kathleen Souza          

We began the month of May in Art class with a printmaking project. Ms. Michele taught her students about printmaking and showed them different works of Art along with Artists who used the method of printmaking.  The children drew pictures on top of the styrofoam pad (to make a print), then painted over the print they created. After they were painted, students placed a piece of paper on top of their pad, pressed down then peeled the paper away.  This left a print of their drawing on the paper.  Students were able to repeat this process with different colored paints creating different images on their paper.  This was a fun project for our students!

The next week students created summer journals. They folded five pieces of paper in half, then stapled at the sides to make a ten page book. The front of the book was colored on with shaving cream and water color combination. The students really enjoyed working with the shaving cream!

Next, the children used oil pastels and watercolors as a medium for their project. First,they drew on paper with oil pastel crayons, then painted over drawings with water colors. This made eye catching pictures.

Our last week, children were given a white crayon and then they began to draw whatever their imaginations could create on white pieces of paper. Then they used water colors of many colors to paint over their white crayon drawings. This effect brought the white colors on white paper to life. Many children wanted to make more. This was so much fun and a great way to end our year in Art class!

Science Class 

by Dana Dawson

May was another incredible month here at Absorbent Minds! Mr. John had so many fun experiments the kids could hardly wait until Thursdays! Our first experiment was called the fire resistant water balloon. When the students entered the science lesson they saw two pre-filled balloons, one with air and the other with water. Mr. John then posed the question, "What is your hypothesis?" Isaac replied "both will pop," Emma stated "the balloons will catch on fire" and Luke replied "the flame will burn a hole in the balloon."  Mr. John then applied the flame to both balloons and the one with the water remained intact and the one filled with air popped.  Mr. John explained that the balloon with the water did not pop because the water took the heat away.

Our next experiment was called "gluep."  Mr. John asked the kids what would happen if we mixed borax, Elmer's glue and water. Anelise replied "It will get sticky." Jonah said "It will make paste!" Ethan also replied "It will make paste." Once Mr. John mixed the ingredients together it made a soft lump, the kids had a great time playing with the mixture and the texture was a big hit!

Our next experiment was called skittles candy run, the kids were so excited to walk into science and see candy! Mr. John asked the kids what they thought would happen if he placed different colored skittles on a plate and add water. Iselena replied, "they will float!" Myla said "the colors will mix together" and Noah replied "they will melt." After Mr. John separated the skittles into colors he added water. After a few minutes the colors began to run, but they didn't mix together. Mr. John explained that this was because the candy is covered with a thin layer of wax, and the wax keeps the colors from bleeding together because it is not water soluble.

Our next experiment was called corn starch: hard or soft? Mr. John mixed cornstarch and water and asked the kids what do you think will happen? Ainsley replied "It will dissolve" Aleksandar stated "it will make slime!" When Mr.  John mixed the ingredients together it looked like a liquid but felt like a solid. Mr.  John explained that this was because of the molecules lining up. It was a state of matter called suspension.



For our last experiment of the year Mr. John mixed Diet Coke with Mentos candies. The explosion was amazing! Great job Mr. John! We can't wait to come back in the Fall and see all of the wonderful experiments Mr.  John has found for us! Thanks for another great year Mr. John!