Summer’s Almost Gone…That song(by The Doors) was running through my head even after Summer ended.  With all the jobs I worked time flew by way too quickly and I wish Summer lasted to the new year.  I resisted the coming of Fall or Autumn.   Although, I am not totally at fault for this resistance since we had 80 degree weather in mid October! This lead me to believe that it was ok to wear shorts heading into November.  Many students asked me if I was cold.  Yes, of course I was cold but I am from Ohio and we wear shorts in the Winter. It’s just what we do.  Well, some of us do.  As I told many students… You are smarter than Mr. John for dressing appropriately for the weather. This always brings giggles.   So, I guess I should really pack away my shorts and summer wear and unpack my sweaters, boots, and heavy coats.  Summer is truly gone.  Oh…. to have Summer last until the new year!

Line Time Lessons:

Children love animals and I enjoy teaching the children about different types of animals.  This month we started discussing mammals.  I chose mammals because we are mammals.   We learned that mammals have hair or fur, are born alive, and drink mother’s milk when first born.  We learned that mammals are warm blooded (their body temperature remains constant) and that they are vertebrates (have spines).  We learned that dolphins and whales are mammals and that the bat is the only mammal that can fly.  The children love the mice and rats!!!

Then we slithered our way into discussing reptiles.  We came to the conclusion that the snake is the most popular reptile. We learned reptiles are cold blooded, vertebrates, lay hard shelled eggs, and have dry scales.  The children enjoyed seeing our own corn snake.  The geckos were just as appreciated.

We hopped into our discussion of amphibians. We all agreed that the frog was the most popular amphibian and that amphibians are cold blooded and vertebrates.  We also learned that their skin is moist and soft and that they can live on BOTH land and water. Amphibians lay eggs but the eggs have no shell but are like jelly.   The children were encouraged to look for our Pac Man Frog and our Eastern Toads in our nature center.

  

We swam to our friends called fish.  We learned that fish are cold blooded (their body temperature changes to the temperature in their environment) and are vertebrates.  We learned that most fish have scales, gills and fins, and some fish lay eggs and some fish are liver bearers (babies are born alive). We introduced a new word, “habitat”.  This is where something lives and the fish’s habitat is the water. The children were thrilled to learn that the shark is a fish.

We then flew with the animals called birds.  Birds have feathers, are warm blooded, and are vertebrates.  All birds lay hard shelled eggs and have wings.  All birds have wings but some birds are flightless (cannot fly) such as the penguin, ostrich, and emu.

We can now count to ten in 1 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, and Hebrew).

  

Academic Enrichment | Kindergarten Students
with Mr. John

My kindergarten students learned about land forms. Ask them what the definition of a lake, island, bay, peninsula, gulf (not the game), harbor, cape, isthmus(not Christmas), straight, chain of lakes, and archipelago.

Tick. tock. tick…  (time keeps on slippin slippin slippin into the future)…..  Telling time with hands and minute hashes.       We went over telling time to the hour(o’ clock), half past(:30), and quarter after(:15), quarter til(:45), and to the minute.

We can now count to ten in 16 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, and Korean).

Reading Group |Kindergarten Students
with Ms. Kate

We have added such a wonderful program for our Kindergarten students. This program is called Junior Great Books Read- Aloud Program. This amazing program really stresses the enjoyment of literature for the children, but at the same time the children are able to develop comprehension, interpretive thin king, and oral and written language skills. Every Monday and Wednesday the kindergarten students and I meet together and read out loud a story or poem. We then have amazing group discussions, act out the story or poem, have creating writing sessions, and special art projects. For example during Halloween week the children had to brain storm and come up with a riddle. They absolutely loved creating this together. I hope you enjoy their riddle!
What Day Would It Be?

If there were vampires, witches, mummies, and ghosts.
Purple, black, orange, and green.
Playing pin the “Boo” on the ghost, and mummy wrapping.
Dressing up, tricks or treat, carving pumpkins, and class parties.
Cookies, candy corn, tootsie rolls, and air heads.
What day would it be?
How awesome was that riddle??!! Can you guess what day it is?

Enrichment Classes

Art Class
by Ms. Ame

This month Miss Michelle started out with continuing her leaf project. The students created their own leaf in the spirit of Fall. Michelle discussed warm and cool colors with the students using her color wheel. They used warm colored tiles inside their leaf and cool colored tiles on the outside, or the other way around depending on what the student had decided.

The second week, Miss Michelle had the students use their imagination. She introduced the students to mythological creatures and talked about how the creatures resembled a few animals mixed together. Michelle then brought out her board covered in different animals. The students each chose two animals and created their own creature.

The third and final week of Art in October was about Halloween. Miss Michelle talked about spooky art and Halloween, encouraging the students to share what scared them. The students then drew a picture depicting their fear and a self portrait of them being scared! It was quite a spooky lesson. Please keep your eyes open in the hallways as Miss Michelle will soon be hanging up the students art!

Science Class
by Ms. Kathleen

  

Music Class
by Ms. Sabrina

The children had so much fun in Music class this month. There were many smiles and laughter going around. The children learned a new song called Having Choices. They learned that they can choose to be kind. The instruments used were bells and tambourines. Our students loved using the instruments and dancing was also involved! The children then learned a song about love. The phrase ” I love you ” was frequently used. For this song the instrument used was an egg shaker. Added to that was a song about kindness. What great values for children to learn! They learned a song about sharing by passing and rolling a ball back and forth. More balls were added and the children did so well with sharing them. They also learned a song called Please and Thank You. An egg shaker was also again used and of course the magic words please and thank you. The children skipped, galloped and listened for directions, following them well. They had to wait until everyone had an instrument, and when Ms. Lisa told them to, they could pick up their instrument and play with her. This teaches the students self-control, and how to be patient. The young musicians have improved their ability to follow Ms. Lisa’s lead, and wait so patiently. Along with learning important musical terms and skills, we got to sing some old favorites like Skinamarinky Dinky Dink, and Skip to My Lou. Music class sure is fun with Ms. Lisa!

What I will learn at school this month in Mr. John’s Class…

 Themes of the Week  (in addition to Montessori Work time)

10/31:    Insects / Arachnids

• Characteristics of insects, examples of insects (invertebrates)
• Antennae, head, thorax, abdomen, six legs (some have wings)
• Characteristics of arachnids, examples of arachnids, 8 legs (invertebrates)

11/07: Dinosaurs

• Naming and Identifying Dinosaurs
• Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Pterodactyl, Brachiosaurus
• Plant eaters (herbivores), Meat eaters (carnivores)
• Where the Dinosaurs lived and how long ago they lived
• Fossils and Extinction

11/14: Thanksgiving/ Native Americans

• Mayflower, Native Americans
• When the Pilgrims came to America
• Who the Pilgrims were and why they came
• The Mayflower
• Native American shelters, nomadic, settlers

11/21: Family

• Members of a family, family traditions and holidays
• Family birthdays, vacations
• Family pets

Harvest Party 11/22/16

Wednesday-Friday NO SCHOOL

Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.

10/31: Kk
11/07: Ll
11/21: Mm

Rhyming Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

10/31: OX, box, fox, lox, pox, sox
11/07: BOT, cot, dot, got, hot, lot, not, pot, tot
11/14: BOP, cop, hop, mop, pop, top

Things to do at Home this Month to reinforce our themes:

• Look for our words of the week when reading a story, cut out pictures beginning with the letters of the week.
• Play “I Spy” with items beginning with the letter of the week, or find things around your home that begin with the letter of the week.
• Explore your neighborhood. See if you can find any fossil plant prints on rocks in your yard or neighborhood.
• Make fall crafts together to help decorate your family Thanksgiving table.
• Look through family photo albums together and talk about your family. What does each family member do for a job?  Where did you grow up?  What unique traditions does your family have?

The Summer of 2016 was a busy busy busy Summer for Mr. John.  I took on a few Summer jobs to pass the time more quickly and to earn some extra cash money.  I have been working child care at the church I attend for the past few years, but that is only a few hours on a Sunday morning.  I was recommended to do home care for children who have mental disabilities. Numerous mental treatment and therapies are available online. For instance, if you visit experienceibogaine.com, you can see the discussion about ibogaine medicine for depression and addiction and iboga reviews from people who have come through Ibogaine treatment program. I was not sure how I would do with this job.  Would I like it?  Would it be too difficult?  It turns out I love it!  I love getting to know the children, their families, and pets.  These children are sweet, great, loving children.  I feel as if I am part of their family every time I work with them.  I feel working with these children has made me a better teacher and a better person.   Mid-Summer I was approached from an employee from Blossom Music Center because they needed help for The Warped Tour (Security, new PC term is Crowd Management).  I said, why not, interviewed, and got the gig.  It was a long, sweaty, hot day but it was a blast.  I was asked if I would work more shows, to which I agreed.  Again, it was a blast (even the country shows).  I thought once concerts ended I would be done, but I was contacted to work security (ooops, Crowd Management) at Blossom’s haunted house.  People always told me I was a people-person.  Also, I’ve been told I had a knack with “kids and dogs”.  With that said…. my next employment endeavor, dog walking.

“It is so quiet in here.  It is so calm.”  This is what I have been hearing from parents and current teachers about my room.  Usually it takes a good 3-4 months for my room to become normalized, but this year it is on its way to being normalized in about a month.  I credit those around me for the earlier than usual success.  Miss Kathleen and Miss Sabrina are wonderful teachers and work well with the students.  They are fun yet firm and know how to handle difficult situations well.  When I mentioned “those around me” I didn’t only mean the teachers but I want to give credit to the older students, the leaders of the room.  They are showing the newer/younger students how to work with materials and are guiding them through the classroom.

   

Line Time Lessons:

We started out the year by learning the ground rules of the classroom.  Use walking feet in the room.  Use inside voices. Keep our hands/bodies to ourselves. BE RESPECTFUL.

  

We learned about healthy habits.  Some healthy habits are washing our hands, brushing our teeth, eating healthy foods, and my favorite, getting enough sleep. Keep yourself healthy and buy prescription drugs at https://www.ukmeds.co.uk/treatments/acid-reflux/lansoprazole-15mg/ to prevent different kinds of illness. Staying healthy also means to stay out of drugs because it can cause drug addiction. If you know someone who is suffering from substance abuse visit https://aspirehealthnetwork.com/oregon/.

In the vein of healthy habits we delved into another of my favorite subjects, food.  We leaned about the different food groups, grains and cereals, fruits and vegetables, dairy (my fave), meats and proteins, and sweets. It’s very important when on rehab to know the consequences of withdrawal, learn more on http://fherehab.com/news/how-heroin-withdrawal-affects-users/.

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We explored what makes a living thing, a living thing.  We all knew the rats were living and my shoe was not living but why?  Living things reproduce or have babies and humans care about their babies a lot and even get everything ready with the help of products from sites as https://top10bestpro.com.  They grow.  They eat or take in nourishment.  They breathe or exchange oxygen.  And we all agreed living things move (I’m still not sold on the locomotion thing).  The big question was… are plants living things?  We went through the list and determined plants are living things.

  

Children love animals and I enjoy teaching the children about different types of animals.  This month we started discussing mammals.  I chose mammals because we are mammals.   We learned that mammals have hair or fur, are born alive, and drink mother’s milk when first born.  We learned that mammals are warm blooded (their body temperature remains constant) and that they are vertebrates (have spines).  We learned that dolphins and whales are mammals and that the bat is the only mammal that can fly.

  

We had an University of Akron Field Student join our teaching team.  Here is Shelly working with children.

Cultural Subjects:

We can count to ten in 11  languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian).

  

Academic Enrichment (Kindergarten students | Group lesson with Mr. John)

Let’s travel around the world!  This past month we trekked around the world.  We learned where, and fun facts about the seven continents.  I made sure that out kindergartners knew “Central America” was not a continent, but part of North America.  We learned about the cardinal directions including N.E., S.E., N.W,, and NW.  My K Kids know where the Equator and Prime Meridian are, and how the divide the Earth into hemispheres.

We took a closer look at North America (because we live there).  We identified the bodies of water that surround our continent (Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, Hudson Bay, Gulf of Mexico, and The Great Lakes (H.O.M.E.S).  We then learned many fun facts about the state of Ohio and what are Ohio’s surrounding states, their nickname, and their abbreviation.  We ended learning about all the places we live.  Our galaxy, our solar system, planet, hemisphere, continent, country, state, county, city and out street address.

Cultural Subjects:

We can count to ten in 12  languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian).

The children are having so much fun learning in Art, Science and Music!

Art:

In Art students are learning about monochromatic colors, primary colors and secondary colors. The children enjoyed painting, as well as learning about complimentary colors and making warm and cool colored mosaics.

Science:

In Science they are learning about “chemical reactions”, ” the mass in a specified volume”, ” density “, and ” the difference in the weight of two objects of the same size.”

             

Music:

Music, of course is a hit with the children! They absolutely love the songs, as well as the movement activities presented. The children loved playing with the bells, the castanets, the maracas, and the rhythm sticks among others! Please converse with your children about these amazing classes.

October 2016

What I will learn at school this month in Mr. John’s Class…

 Themes of the Week  (in addition to Montessori Work time)

10/03: Reptiles

• Introduction to reptiles, examples of reptiles
• All reptiles are cold blooded, vertebrates (spine)
• All reptiles have scales, lay eggs with hard shell

10/10: Amphibians

• Introduction to amphibians, examples of amphibians
• Amphibians are cold blooded, live on land and water
• All amphibians have soft, moist skin and are vertebrates (spine)

10/17: Fish

• Introduction to fish, examples of fish
• All fish are cold blooded, live in water, most have scales
• Fish are vertebrates, most have gills and fins

10/24: Birds

• Introduction to birds, examples of birds
• All birds have feathers and are warm blooded
• All birds are vertebrates, lay eggs with shells, have wings
• Penguins are a birds that can’t fly

Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.

10/03: Gg
10/10: Hh
10/17: Ii
10/24: Jj

Rhyming Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

10/03: BID, did, hid, kid, lid, rid,
10/10: BIT, fit, hit, kit, lit, mit, pit, sit
10/17: BIN, fin, kin, pin, sin, tin, win
10/24: BIP, dip, hip, lip, nip, rip, sip, tip

Things to do at Home this Month to reinforce our themes:

• Look for our words of the week when reading a story, cut out pictures beginning with the letters of the week.
• Play “I Spy” with items beginning with the letter of the week, or find things around your home that begin with the letter of the week.
• Go to the Zoo together, and talk about what each animal is? A Bird, A Mammal, Reptile, Amphibian, or Fish.
• Read a book together about your child’s favorite animal! Is it a Vertebrate or Invertebrate?  What are the babies called?

Mr. John’s August/September 2016 Monthly Overview

What I will learn this month in Mr. John’s Class…
(In addition to Montessori Work Time)

8/22- 9/29          Ground Rules / Introduction of Materials

• Ringing of the bell, circle walk, line time
• Process of working with a materials, rolling mats, carrying trays & work areas
• Respecting teachers, classmates and the materials
• Daily demonstration of materials from all areas of the classroom

9/05: Healthy Habits

• The importance of washing hands, bathing, brushing teeth (eliminate germs, prevent cavities)
• The importance of sleep. Why we need sleep & sleep cycle
• The importance of exercise (walking, running, swimming, etc)
• The importance of eating well (“grow foods”)

9/12: Food Groups

• Eating Healthy, Moderation
• Focus on the different food groups, sorting foods belonging in each
• Servings and examples of each

9/19: Living / Non Living

• Living things (grow, reproduce, obtain and use energy, exchange gases) adapt to their environment
• Non Living things, examples
• Categorization of Living and Non Living

9/26: Mammals

• Introduction to mammals, examples of mammals
• All mammals have hair, warm blooded, eat mother’s milk
• All mammals are vertebrates (spine), lungs to breathe, born alive
• Bats are the ONLY mammal that can fly

Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.

8/22: Aa

8/29: Bb

9/05: Cc

9/12: Dd

9/19: Ee

9/26: Ff

Rhyming Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

8/22: BAT, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, sat

8/29: BAN, can, dan, fan, man, pan, tan

9/05: BAP, map, cap, gap, lap, nap, sap

9/12: BAG, sag, jag, lag, nag, tag, rag wag

9/19: BAD, dad, fad, had, lad, mad, sad

9/26: BIG, dig, fig, jig, pig, rig, wig

Things to do at Home this Month to reinforce our themes:

• Make a collage with pictures and objects that start with the letters of the week.
• While eating together, categorize your meal into food groups with your child.
• Follow this link to find a worksheet to complete together for living and non living things. (Circle the living things and color together)http://worksheetplace.com/index.php?function=DisplaySheet&sheet=Circle-the-living-things&links=2&id=&link1=241&link2=257
• Read a book about your child’s favorite mammal together!

Line Time

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 gets 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.

We had two alumni readers.  Sophia who is now third grader at Richardson and James who is now a fourth grader at Dunbar.

Cultural Subjects

We are holding at counting to ten in 27 different languages.

Academic Enrichment Lesson with kindergarten students

We started May by discussing the preposition.  Where oh where can we find a preposition?  Well, I told them a preposition was a “where word” NOT a “werewolf”.  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 we just reflected on our year, what we learned, and our favorite parts of kindergarten class.  It was a GREAT year!

Enrichments

The children sure did enjoy Music, Science and Art classes this year! I must admit, so did I. Ms. Lisa, Mr. John and Ms. Michele’s love for the children showed in the time they put in preparing for the classes, as well as their interaction with each other. The children loved the hands on activities. I saw some activities replicated at home, safely and enthusiastically with some great parent involvement! Thank you for sharing your children with us. Have a safe and awesome Summer!

Fast Car….. 

I am afraid I am entering a new chapter in my life.  My days of the mini van are gone and ushers in the era of the sedan.  I recently traded my life inside the Honda Odyssey for the Honda Accord.  I never realized what a difference this would make.  The sedan is FAST!  I don’t think I will know what the true gas mileage is for a few months because of my abrupt stops, jack rabbit starts, and taking corners like I am in the Grand Prix (without fear of tipping). I actually look forward getting behind the wheel of this CAR. It has an “AUX” jack so I can listen to my Spotify from my cell phone and have no qualms about blasting “Sweet Emotion” by Aerosmith with the windows down.  My niece who is 15 years old laughed hysterically when she saw me behind the wheel of something other than a mini van.  She looked over the CAR, hopped in, laughed, got out walked away laughing, stopped, turned around to take another look, doubled over and started to laugh harder.  She said she NEVER saw me drive anything besides a minivan and this will take time for her to get used to this new CAR she bought with the no credit check loans, this is must to do anytime you get a new car just to protect yourself and if you can’t afford it with cash it will make a big difference even if you are a bad credit borrower, if you check the best tumblr on the topic you’ll find great advise for this type of situations and it will help you make the best decision regarding this.

   

Fun with fractions                                                Dem Bones!

Line Time 

Jambo Bwana and What a Small world it is.  Those thoughts and music is still ringing in my ears.  As you know these were the songs we sang at the International Festival.  We learned about all the continents and some of the individual countries within the continents.  The students had fun learning about the climates, foods, clothes, and differences of how children attend school. I wanted to thank all of those who came in and talked about different countries.  This adds so much to International Festival month.  All the presentations are fun, informative, and the children and teachers enjoy it.  It never ceases to amaze me how much our students can learn in a short amount of time.  They did a fabulous job with their lines and performing the songs.  Not to mention how colorful the stage was with their costumes.  I cannot give enough thanks to the people who prepared the food!  Who didn’t gain ten pounds that night?

Kathleen having fun at a Turkish wedding

   Learning about Lebanon

 

  Learning about Nigeria

 

Learning about Turkey

  Learning about Tanzania

 

    Learning about Australia and New Zealand

 

 

 

Views from the classroom

 

Reading Is Fundamental (RIF)

Hard workers

1,2,3…………. 100 board

Cultural Subjects

My line time and the kindergarten class count to ten in 27 different languages (English, Sign Language, German, French, Greek, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Tagalog, Polish, Irish, Welsh, Hebrew, Arabic w/the Lebanese dialect, Japanese, Hungarian, Swedish, Swahili, Korean, Serbo-Croation, Hindi, Flemish/Dutch, Malay, Cebuano and Turkish!

      

Fun with African drums and shakers                    Proud of their African drums and shakers

Friendship

Multiplication

Academic Enrichment with Kindergarten Students

In the afternoon lesson with kindergartners, we continued our work with grammar.  We started by We looked at the adjective which describes nouns and pronouns, the adverb which describes the verb and usually ends in “ly”, the conjunction which connects two sentences or thoughts and acts like a bridge, and the preposition which is a “where” word not a werewolf.

Diagraming sentences

Who said adverbs were difficult?  My kindergarteners don’t think so!

Cultural Subjects

My line time and the kindergarten class count to ten in 27 different languages (English, Sign Language, German, French, Greek, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Tagalog, Polish, Irish, Welsh, Hebrew, Arabic w/the Lebanese dialect, Japanese, Hungarian, Swedish, Swahili, Korean, Serbo-Croation, Hindi, Flemish/Dutch, Malay, Cebuano and Turkish!