This week, our Wax Museum research is in full swing. Our first and second year students read books and articles to find when their person was born, when they died, what their childhood was like, who their family members were, and what they did as teenagers. Our third through fifth year students researched home and family, school and education, community, and work and play information for their chosen person. Some students are learning to cite sources for the first time to prepare for a bibliography! Next week, be on the lookout for a blog all about our Upper Elementary dissection field trip written by the Upper Elementary students!
“A Peek at Next Week”
Next week, we will all continue researching for the Wax Museum. Lower Elementary students will continue studying the preposition, will learn about cnidarians, will build atoms on the Bohr Diagram, and will study Jupiter and Saturn. Our Upper Elementary students will continue studying ancient civilizations and early humans, will learn about viral reproduction, and some will present experiments about energy and the Earth.
REMINDERS:
NO SCHOOL – Monday, January 21, for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Tuesday, January 29 – I will be out of the classroom to observe our incoming kindergarten students. Please let Ms. Brandy or Ms. Marlee know if you need anything throughout that day.
“It is easier to build strong children, than to prepare broken men.” – Frederick Douglass
This week, our Upper Elementary students learned about the history of New Year’s Resolutions while the Lower Elementary students discussed the origins of the names of our months with Mr. Matt during Latin! The Upper Elementary students found out that the Babylonians celebrated New Year’s in mid-March and made resolutions as offerings to the gods. The Lower Elementary students discussed with Mr. Matt that January was named after Janus, the Roman god of doors, because January represents all new opportunities and possibilities.
“A Peek at Next Week”
All students will begin Wax Museum research on Monday! Next week first year students will make a family timeline, will build coins up to $1, will create a map of the farm, and will learn the parts of the stem. Second year students will be introduced to decimals, will make a family timeline, and will study leaf blades. Third year students will add and subtract time, will create a timeline, and will find the taxonomy of invertebrates. Upper Elementary students will have their dissection field trip, will add numbers in different bases, and will research ancient civilizations and early humans.
“Children become the things they love.” – Maria Montessori
How is this half of the school year already over? So far this year, we have gone to a pumpkin farm, traveled to the Cleveland Zoo, and have performed at Mulberry Gardens. We have learned about new friends and continued building friendships with our returning students. We have studied the external characteristics of vertebrates and how cells work. We’ve discussed North and South America and have cooked to celebrate our friendship. Our students are creating materials and presenting lessons. We share messages when we have concerns in the classroom. We work every day to learn more and become better. I am so excited for the rest of this school year!
This week our “Peek” was written by two of our students! These students read our previous blogs, took pictures around the room, and filled in a blog template. The students did some editing together, and with a teacher, so what you will read below is their final product. There are still some misspelled words in their final product, but in a Montessori classroom we focus on the process, instead of the end result. Dr. Montessori believed when we put all of the emphasis on the final product, we devalue everything leading up to that point. This can discourage repetition which will make mastery of a skill difficult. The purpose of the students writing the blog is to provide you with a glimpse into the room through their eyes, to provide them with practice of real world skills, and to give them a deeper understanding of the materials in the room. We hope you enjoy their work!
“A Peek at Our Week” by Anelise (3rd Grade) and Remy (2nd Grade)
Throughout the week the students are working very hard. 3, 4, and 5 have gotten their microscope license. Everyone has been listening. The second graders learned subtracting fractions with like dinominators. The first graders learned energy transformation.
REMINDERS:
Friday the 21 is Pajama Day.
“A Peek at Next Week” by Ms. Ashley
Next week, first year students will practice the Multiplication Bead Board, learn the origin of their name, study straight and curved lines, and will practice being in a food chain. Second year students will review multiples with the bead bars, will continue studying the relationship between angles, and will learn about the rock cycle. The third graders will begin finding the divisibility of numbers, will write commas in lists, and will discuss the positions of flower ovaries. The fourth years will study the divisibility of 9, will study Early Humans vocabulary, and will discuss the parts of a cell. The fifth year students will review plural possessives and will finish studying the relationships of circles.
REMINDERS:
Friday, December 21st is Pajama Day. Your child may wear pajamas to school. They may bring a pillow and blanket to enjoy the movie “The Little Princess.” Students may also bring a board game. Each child will still need a lunch and a water bottle. Your child will still need to bring in their reading log for conferences.
“The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.'” -Maria Montessori
It is a busy time of year for all of us, inside the classroom and out, but it is refreshing to see students still so hard at work. As the end of our first half of the year grows closer, we are finishing up some projects and learning new skills. Our Lower Elementary students have been studying South America and are completing research projects about the continent. The first year students have started researching Mercury and Venus and will continue researching different planets every few weeks throughout the school year, ending with a research report about a famous astronomer. Our second year students are continuing their rock study by testing and identifying rocks. Our third graders have been introduced to the compound microscope and will be testing their knowledge to earn a microscope license to use the microscope independently. Our Upper Elementary students have completed a five paragraph persuasive essay about whether or not animals should be kept in cages to end our novel study of “The One and Only Ivan.”
A Peek at Next Week
Next week, our first year students will review multiplication lessons, will be introduced to Sentence Analysis, and will discuss mechanical energy. Our second year students will subtract fractions with unlike denominators, will write a biography about their classroom mentor, and will discuss types of seeds. Our third year students will continue multiplying on the Large Bead Frame, will write a biography about their classroom mentor, and will research platyhelminthes. Our fourth year students will find the prime factors of numbers, will determine relationships between humans and apes, and will discuss the characteristics and energy of cells. Our fifth year students will create a pictograph on Excel, will define Latin and Greek affixes, and will learn about reciprocals of fractions.
REMINDERS:
Wednesday, December 12 – Christmas Show Rehearsal. Please check your email from the school office for information about drop off and the rehearsal. Make sure to take your child to the restroom BEFORE you bring them to the auditorium. Ms. Lisa will have all piano music for piano students. They will not need their books.
Friday, December 14 – Elementary Box Top Pizza Party – We will have pizza (including gluten free), veggies, and snacks to celebrate collecting the most Box Tops at our campus. We will also be wearing Christmas Sweaters! Please do not feel the need to buy a special sweater for this day, it is an optional dress up day.
Friday, December 14 – Christmas Show.
Take your child to the restroom before dropping them off.
Bring your child in their “12 Days of Christmas” costume
Bring your child’s pajamas or “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” costume in a separate LABELED bag. If you have multiple children in our classroom, please put each of their clothes in a separate bag to make things easier for us while they change. Students will change themselves for our play and for Kids Bop in the back dressing rooms.
Look for more info from me on Remind later this week and from the school office.
“We must help the child to act for himself, will for himself, think for himself.” – Maria Montessori
We enjoyed being back together this week. This week has been busy with students presenting lessons, students presenting research, students assisting in lesson presentations, and of course, Christmas Show practice! Three of our reading groups have completed the stories they have been working through so far this school year. Our “Rocket Readers” group has completed the book “Tornado” by Betsy Byars. After completing their story, they wrote a research book about tornadoes which included information about what a tornado is, how its severity is tracked, and how to stay safe when one is spotted. They shared this information with our class! The “Six Scoops” group finished reading “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” and researched the historical figures mentioned throughout the story. The “Senior Readers” group completed “The One and Only Ivan” and are writing persuasive essays about whether or not animals should be kept in cages.
“A Peek at Next Week”
Next week, we will begin new novels in our reading groups that finished their books. The second year students will be joining each other in a reading group and will be voting on the book they want to read. The third year students will join our Upper Elementary students in reading “A Fish in a Tree.” Our lower elementary students will write biographies about their peer mentor, will study sentence analysis, and will discuss light and friction. Our Upper Elementary students will study portmanteaus, interjections, density and matter, and decimals.
“We give gratitude to things that came before us like the jellyfish, whose cells began one of the first types of division of labor or the earthworm for continuous digestion. We also show gratitude to the Phoenicians for the start of our alphabet or the Greeks for their democratic government. We try and help children understand that someone or something worked very hard in the past to give us what we have today.” -Chesapeake Montessori School
On Thanksgiving, my dad never made us go around the table and say what we are thankful for. I assume this was because he knew I would say something like, “I’m thankful for my Game Boy,” or “I’m thankful Zach isn’t talking right now (my brother and I REALLY loved being around each other),” but as someone that spends so much time with your children, I wanted to share the things I see each day that make me thankful. I am thankful that, although they sometimes bicker like brothers and sisters, your children are able to step aside and talk through concerns and problems with children and adults. I am thankful I get to constantly see older students helping younger students be more independent. I am thankful for the times when students are disappointed in themselves and another child takes time out of their day to go see how they can help or to give some words of encouragement. I am thankful for Community Meeting and the chance it gives me to see students solving their own problems and voicing their concerns, without needing any adult intervention or assistance. I am thankful that our students feel so comfortable in our environment that they plan and execute lessons for other students as if they spent years studying education and child development. I am thankful to spend every day showing new lessons to your children and seeing how much they can do with the information they are given, almost always surpassing my expectations.
A Peek at Next Week
Next week, first year students will use the Subtraction Snake Game, review the use of a verb, continue studying fundamental needs, further investigate the Five Kingdom Chart, and begin planet research. Second year students will continue studying geographic features, will label the parts of a seed, will bisect an angle, and will start multiplying on the Checkerboard! Third year students will research the eye, ear, and tooth, will find irregular past tense verbs, and will perfect their measuring skills with measuring cups and spoons. Fourth year students find discuss adverbials in sentences, the unit as part of a base 10 number system, and will discuss elements in our universe. Fifth year students will use the order of operations, will research mammals, will be introduced to genealogy and will write figures of speech.
“The education of even a small child, therefore, does not aim at preparing him for school, but for life.” – Maria Montessori
One of my favorite things about the Montessori Elementary Philosophy, that also might be the toughest thing to adjust to as a new Elementary student, is the amount of responsibility and freedom our students have. I envy that they have the opportunity at the age of 6 or 7 to begin learning how they learn best, how to manage their time, how to prioritize, how to ask adults or peers for help, how to work with people that aren’t your best friend and still produce a great project, how to reflect on your week of work and social interaction and find ways to improve, things to be proud of, and to set a goal for the following week. While this is a struggle for some new students more than others, they are always, always trying again the next week. Their peers are asking how their conference went and asking them what they think they could improve, or telling them they did a good job and that they noticed how hard they worked on a certain assignment. I see students asking others if they can help them plan their time or if they can explain what they have found to be successful in the past. I hear older students saying things like, “Oh, I remember that work. I had a hard time with it, too, but it gets easier when you practice.” Imagine if, at their age, you had the support system of friends, that you may have known longer than your own siblings, that are (almost) always willing to encourage and guide you when you struggle, and that never stop believing in you. Why weren’t we all educated this way! Find more useful information a level tuition centre and get educated.
“A Peek at Next Week”
Next week, first year students will subtract on the Small Bead Frame, will practice dividing syllables, will continue studying the Fundamental Needs of Humans, will begin dinosaur research, and review the external characteristics of mammals. The second year students will review Rainbow Factoring, will study past and present tense verbs, will continue studying the Fundamental Needs of Humans, and will draw angles with a protractor. Third year students will add fractions with like denominators, continue studying Fundamental Needs of Humans, will discuss singular possessives of nouns, and will discuss the main characteristics of cnidarians. Fourth year students will find common factors, will practice writing commas and quotation marks in dialogue, will continue studying area, and will classify kingdoms of living things. Fifth year students will find the divisibility rules of 11, will study garbology, will find the parts of a circle, and will research mammals.
REMINDERS:
Thursday, November 15 – Operation Christmas Child Packing – please check out the messages in Remind from Ms. Lisa to get more information
Friday, November 16 – Parent-Teacher Conferences – This is a No School Day for students and there will not be childcare available. Please send me any lessons you would like to see during our time together!
Tuesday, November 20 – Ms. Courtney’s room and our room will cook and bake together to celebrate friendship and the things we are thankful for. Your child will not need a lunch this day. Please look for the sign-up list soon to help us make this possible.
This week our “Peek” was written by two of our students! These students read our previous blogs, took pictures around the room, and filled in a blog template. The students did some editing together, and with a teacher, so what you will read below is their final product. There are still some misspelled words in their final product, but in a Montessori classroom we focus on the process, instead of the end result. Dr. Montessori believed when we put all of the emphasis on the final product, we devalue everything leading up to that point. This can discourage repetition which will make mastery of a skill difficult. The purpose of the students writing the blog is to provide you with a glimpse into the room through their eyes, to provide them with practice of real world skills, and to give them a deeper understanding of the materials in the room. We hope you enjoy their work!
“A Peek at Our Week” by Ainsley (4th grade) and Andre (3rd grade)
This week we had a lot of language lessons. The first graders had a lesson on multiples. The secont graders had a detective triangle game lesson.The thierd graders had adjective suffexes. The forth graders had finding humans. The fith graders had plotting points on a graph.
REMINDERS:
11/15 – OCC Packing
11/16 Parent teacher Confrences/No School
11/21-11/23 No School
“A Peek at Next Week” by Ms. Ashley
Next week we will begin practicing for the Christmas Show (yes, already!). Please look for an email in the next two weeks to see what your student will need to wear or practice. Next week first year students will subtract with the Stamp Game, will discuss fall and winter holidays, will begin the study of the fundamental needs of humans, and will learn about different animals. Second year students will have their first Checkerboard lesson, will discuss contractions, will practice using a protractor, and will study South America. Third year students will multiply on the Large Bead Frame, will learn new capitalization rules, will use grids and coordinates in mapping, and will create animal riddles for younger students. Fourth year students will continue working with multiples, will discuss the characteristics of vertebrates, will review the area of plane figures, and will classify different objects. Fifth year students will continue to study factors, will be introduced to archaeology, will classify mammals, and will study density and matter.
“Let the teacher not lose sight of the fact that the goal sought is not an immediate one, but rather to make the spiritual being which she is educating capable of finding his way by himself.” -Maria Montessori
This week was full of exciting lessons and events. We completed lessons with taste tests, challenging math works, and continued our exploration of the history of Earth. We were thrilled to perform “Caps for Sale” for our families and all the Primary Classrooms. We decorated for the Halloween party, prepared the food, and played games together. Putting on all student performances and planning student only parties, gives children the opportunity to learn how to work and collaborate with others. This also gives them real life experience about what happens when a team or group doesn’t work well together or communicate! Thank you to all the parents that helped us sew and that provided the materials we needed for our Halloween party!
“A Peek at Next Week”
Next week our blog will be written by two students! You can look for a student written blog at the end of each month! Our first year students will be creating a noun family chart, will continue their study of the constructive triangles, and will complete their continent study of North America. Our second year students will discuss the four types of sentences (exclamatory, interrogative, imperative, and declarative), will review the Detective Triangle Game, and will finish their research of a country in North America. Our third year students will learn to measure in grams and milliliters, will discuss adjective suffixes, and will begin studying equivalence with our metal insets. Our fourth year students will change mixed fractions to improper fractions and improper fractions to mixed fractions, will review homonyms and indirect objects, and will discuss the creation of the universe. Fifth year students with begin plotting points on a graph, will review homonyms, and will study adverbials. Upper Elementary students will also take their first note taking quiz which will show them if they are taking notes effectively or not. This will give students an opportunity to learn which information is vital at lessons and prepares them for middle school and beyond! All students will begin typing lessons next week!
REMINDERS:
Book Fair next week!
Parent-Teacher Conferences – Friday, November 16 – No School Day for students. I will send out a sign-up genius for conferences in next week’s blog!