This week in Aspen it was all about seasons! The Aspen class began our Seasons Lesson by learning about day and night. We discovered that our earth rotates (spins) on its axis, and as a result, we get daytime and nighttime! We were amazed when we found out that when we have day time here, there are children in other parts of the world having night time; therefore, when we are at school, children in other places are having dinner or even sleeping!! Aspen then learned that as our Earth rotates, it tilts. This tilt affects how much direct sunlight different areas receive, and as a result, we get our seasons! The more direct sunlight the Earth receives, the warmer/hotter the weather. On the other hand, the less direct sunlight, the cooler/colder the weather! Finally, we discussed the differences between the seasons in Ohio! Did you know that some places don’t have four seasons? Some places have only two! Or they have mild climate changes!

Throughout our exploration of seasons, we got to experiment with our painted globe and a flashlight! With this activity, we got to observe our key words axis, rotation, and orbit first hand. Our flashlight acted as the sun, and we helped rotate the Earth (painted globe), experiencing day/night and the changing seasons. We also got to take turns being the Earth, orbiting around the sun and rotating and tilting to represent how old we are. It sure was a fun filled week in Aspen!

In Kindergarten lesson, the kindergarten students have been learning about the continents and the concept of direction. They have been learning the names and location of each continent as well as the cardinal directions: North, South, East, and West. During Readers Workshop we discussed that reading is actually a science and as “Sound Detectives,” it is our job to find the clues and experiment putting sounds together. Sometimes, we will create groupings of sounds that make sense when they are put together, and sometimes our groups of sounds will be nonsense or silly! It is up to the Sound Detectives to use their clues! Our Readers Workshop is split into two groups: the Cardinals and the Chickadees. This week the Chickadees read the books Alphabet City and The Alphabet’s Alphabets and practiced their detective skills sounding out letters. The Cardinals also read the book The Alphabet’s Alphabet and focused on the formation of how each sound (letter) is formed. The Cardinals also began combining sounds to form words and were introduced to the concept of phonograms. In Writers Workshop both group began creating their very own book and worked on proper letter formation, becoming writers! What a busy and fun week these kindergarteners had!

Next week the Aspen thematic topic is all about Continents! The Aspen class will be introduced to the Continent Puzzle Map, The Sandpaper Globe, The Painted Globe, The Geography Envelopes, and The Continent Boxes. Aspen will learn the names and location of continents, be introduced to the terms land, water, continent and Ocean, and will begin exploring the world and culture around them with the Geography Envelopes and Continent Boxes! See you next week!

Admiring a completed activity!

Welcome back Aspen families! We hope you all had an amazing and relaxing summer vacation! The new school year is here, and the Aspen children are settling into classroom routine and have already begun exploring the classroom! This week we began our school year with the Procedural Movement Lessons (The How To’s Of A Montessori Classroom); therefore, we learned how to walk the line, how to move through the classroom, how to use indoor voices, how to carry and roll rugs, how to choose activities from the shelves, and how to take turns talking during line time. Returning children were amazing role models and helped our new classmates with all of the above and more! It was a great first week of school!

Next week we will continue with Procedural Movement Lessons and will begin learning all about seasons. We will learn why we have seasons, discuss the concept of day and night, and will learn the names and characteristics of each season.

Kindergarten students will also begin Reading and Writing workshop next week with Ms. Kelley and Ms. Tonya on Tuesday ‘s and Thursday’s. During these workshops we will focus on phonics, language rules (phonograms, blends, and more), comprehension, sentence structure, making inferences, sequencing, and the mechanics of handwriting. Each week I will include an update on concepts covered during the Reading and Writing workshop here on our classroom’s blog! The kindergarteners will also be attending a kindergarten lesson (Kindergarten Workshop) on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with Mr. John. During kindergarten lesson, our kindergarteners will explore a variety of concepts in detail and are often given follow-up (homework) to be completed at home. Please check your child’s folder and return all homework to school the following day.

See you next week!!

Learning how to transfer water with an eyedropper.

using a pushpin to punch around the outline of continents.

Working on our new Binomial Cube!

This week in the Aspen Room it was all about St. Patrick’s Day, rainbows, and the light spectrum!  Aspen engaged in rainbow-colored activities, crafts, and science experiments exploring the light spectrum.  During group lessons Aspen learned how rainbows are formed, why they occur, and explored stories and legends surrounding the rainbow. Then the Aspen scientists shared ideas regarding how they thought rainbows occur. Prior to the lesson, each child shared their ideas and thoughts on this subject. The class unanimously agreed and made an observation that a rainbow needed rain (source of water) and sunlight.  The class then explored this observation and discussed the concept of reflection and learned about the light spectrum.  We learned that each wavelength of light is reflected at different angles. Thus, the light spectrum is separated creating a rainbow. The Aspen children also shared stories on how they have created rainbows with a hose, bubbles, spray bottles, and sequins making new observations sparking an interest in trying to create rainbows.  Thinking about our observations, we decided to experiment creating rainbows. Therefore, we had the opportunity to experiment separating the wavelengths in the light spectrum using a prism and a flashlight! Our Practical Life area was also filled with colorful rainbow themed fun!  Ask your child about their week!

This week we also began our introduction to the International Festival and began to learn about Europe.  The Aspen children were introduced to the European flags activity, animals of Europe, and landmarks of Europe.  We also began learning the location and names of the countries we will be representing for the International Festival. If you haven’t already picked a country please make your selection this week.  If you visit Signup Genius you will find a list of available countries. Next week, we will continue our exploration of Europe.   https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-country

The Aspen kindergarteners explored vowels and consonants and engaged in lessons identifying vowels and consonants while practicing their reading skills with word lists.  The kindergarteners also practiced their handwriting skills throughout the week.

Hello Aspen families!  My apologies for the time lapse and gap between blog postings! But what better way to resume a blog post than a fun filled week of Dr. Seuss inspired fun.  It was a blast seeing all of the crazy socks, fun hats, mismatched outfits, mustaches, and occupational attire! At the same time, it was inspiring and interesting getting to hear what our students wanted to be when they grew up! We had lots of amazing aspirations and ideas to share with our classmates on Friday during line time.  The Aspen room sure has some awesome kids with amazing goals for their future. Besides, the fun mentioned above our week included a variety of fun activities promoting the importance of literacy and word play.  As a class we revisited the terms author and illustrator and discussed what those terms mean. During the work period the Aspen students were able to engage in word play with a Dr. Seuss rhyming activity where we matched pictures and words that had the same sounds, explored the vowel tree (for those students who are combining sounds), and were introduced to the pink rhyming material (for those students that have demonstrated decoding skills).  The Aspen students also engaged in a group activity where we experimented writing our own rhyming story as a class. During line time, we created a list of rhyming words and created our own short story.  There was a lot of silliness and laughter with this activity!  Check out our story posted in the hall outside our class.  The Aspen students also tried their hand at rescuing letters, counting or adding goldfish, engaged in color matching activities, and created daily Dr. Seuss themed crafts.  It was a Seussical experience in the Aspen Room this week!  Ask your child all about the fun we had.

In kindergarten the children started their introduction to the world of Geometry. The kindergarteners were presented lessons with the Geometric Cabinet where they learned the geometric terms for various shapes. They also discussed the concepts of angles, learned how to identify them (characteristics of angles), and learned their names.  The kindergarteners then applied their geometric knowledge during the work period!  They truly enjoyed finding right angles around the classroom.

During Reading Group, we took our Dr. Seuss theme and continued our fun with phonics and words by playing with different phonetic sounds.  Therefore, creating many silly words.  At the same time, we reviewed language rules while creating word lists.  After creating our lists, we then tried our hand at recalling the words from the list we created working on retaining information and comprehending what we read! We also practiced fluency skills reading simple sentences (some with sight words).

Exploring the linear sequence of numbers to one hundred!

Hello Aspen families!! I hope everyone had a relaxing long weekend that was snowfun!!  Our topic this week in Aspen was all about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.  During line time we discussed how these two individuals helped change our world for the better.  As a class the Aspen children shared their thoughts regarding inequality and how we can make the world a better place too!  Some of the ideas (thoughts) they came up with were being kind to everyone, helping people, listening to others, sharing (toys and ideas), and doing nice things for other people.  These Aspen children sure are amazing and will grow up to be amazing adults with thoughts and ideas like these!  We also read a few of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s quotes and talked about the speeches he gave and his peaceful protests.  One quote that  we discussed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was , ” Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” As a class we talked about what this quote means and the power of spreading kindness.  This quote is what sparked our discussion about making the world a better place and led to the children sharing their ideas.  Finally, we engaged in some role playing and did the Rosa Parks play.  With this activity we had children take on different roles to act out the event that sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  Ask your child about the Rosa Parks play!!

In Kindergarten lesson the children reviewed their cursive letters and writing sentences and also worked on math equations.  During reading group the children reviewed the short e sound and were introduced to the long e sound.  We then practiced reading long e words and worked on our comprehension skills.

Next week our topic will be adaptation,  migration,  and hibernation.

BOOK SHARE:   Thursday, January 27, 2022

Happy New Year Aspen families!!! Wow…it was so nice to be back in the classroom after holiday break this week!  We all missed each other so much and were very eager to see our friends and share our stories from the last three weeks. After a much anticipated class reunion, Aspen settled back into their daily routine and classroom activity choosing challenging work!

This week our thematic topic was all about Snow!   The Aspen children learned all about snow; how it is formed,  why we have snow, and took a closer look at snowflake ice crystal shapes.  Did you know that temperature,  humidity,  wind velocity, and the route a snowflake takes determines the type of ice crystals a snowflake has? Therefore, the saying  that no two snowflakes are the exact same is a true statement.  The Aspen children also watched a SciKids educational video about how snowflakes form.  Did you also know that the ice crystals in a snowflake attach themselves to particles of  dust or pollen in the atmosphere?  This helps give a snowflake its shape! Soooo…when we catch snowflakes on our tongue,  we are catching dust particles!! The Aspen kids thought this was interesting and disgusting!!

While we discussed snowflakes and the formation of ice crystals we also took the opportunity to talk about liquids, solids, and gases. We learned about these three states of matter and looked at the properties of each one.  We discovered that the particles in a solid are tightly packed together giving it volume and a definite shape,the particles in a liquid are free to move around each other but are still attracted to each other,  liquids have volume but they do not have a definite shape (they take the shape of whatever container they are in), and the particles in a gas move randomly with little to no attraction to each other, gases have no definite shape or volume.  We then used this knowledge to complete an activity gluing beads to represent the particles in these states of matter.

In Kindergarten lesson the kindergarten students were introduced to multiplication with the Stamp Game and explored the process of multiplication in depth.  They also reviewed handwriting skills by connecting letters to form words to create short sentences.   In Reading  Group we discussed the short e sound by practicing our phonics with short e words, and practiced our Comprehension skills.

Next week our topic is all about the Arctic and Antarctic !  We are going to compare and contrast these environments while learning all about the habitats (biomes), animals that live there, and their various geographical characteristics.

Book Share will be on Thursday next week!

Continue reading…

This week in Aspen we revisited our lesson on trees focusing on conifers or trees that stay green all year long!  We learned that these types of trees remain green all year and they keep their leaves through the winter. During group lesson we learned that these leaves are called needles and conifers bear cones that contain seeds.  At the same time, we also learned how to identify and name different types of conifers and evergreens. We also got to observe and touch differnt types of conifer branches that our classmates brought in for our botany tray. We then watched a very interesting Scikids video about conifers and watched another video that taught us how to determine if a tree is a Spruce, Pine, or Fir tree.  The Aspen kids were then given a mission to investigate, observe, and report to the class if they had a conifer or evergreen in their home or yard.  Many of us realized we had one in our living room to celebrate the holiday season!

This week in Aspen we were also busy practicing our songs for the upcoming AMMS Christmas Show! We practiced singing our songs, how to stand on the stage carefully , respectfully, and  practiced saying our lines (for those students that have them).  If your child has lines for the program have them practice at home as well.  This week during group lesson we will be practicing for the Christmas program.

BOOK SHARE WILL BE ON FRIDAY THIS WEEK!!!

                 

Fun with the Moveable Alphabet!  Working on beginning sounds and building words that match the objects in our phonetic object basket!

This week in the Aspen Room we learned all about the Pilgrims, Native Americans, and the origins of Thanksgiving.  We learned all about the Pilgrim’s journey to the New World, what they found upon arriving at the coastline of Massachusetts, and how they survived (lived).  As we researched the life of a Pilgrim we discovered that they were given some much needed assistance from the Native Americans.  Living in a new unknown environment held many obstacles and without the help from a Native American Tribe called the Wampanoag the Pilgrims may not have survived or established our tradition of Thanksgiving! The Wampanoag showed the Pilgrims the best places to fish and hunt, what foods were safe to eat (berries, plants, and fruit), and a very unique and new way to plant corn ensuring a fertilized and healthy harvest.  Ask your child about this special way of planting that the Wampanoag taught the Pilgrims!  Because the Pilgrims were so grateful for the help and assistance from their Native American neighbors they held a huge feast or a “Thanksgiving” for all that they had.  The Pilgrims invited the Wampanoag to join in their celebration of Thankfulness thus establishing the tradition of Thanksgiving!  After learning all of the above information, and exploring the lives of the Pilgrims and Native Americans, we took our turn sharing what we are thankful for during group lesson.  All the children had many kind and thoughtful things to share and expressed their love and appreciation for their families, friends, and pets!  It was such a heartwarming experience listening to all the things that the Aspen children were thankful for!

It was also a very busy week in the Practical Life area as well!  This week the Aspen students explored a variety of transferring, mixing, and fine motor exercises using utensils they see family members using  during the holidays.  We learned how to measure with a measuring scoop, mix with a wire whisk, and use measuring spoons.

In Kindergarten with Mr. John the kindergarten students explored U.S currency learning all about coins (change) and dollars!  They learned how to identify a variety of coins while learning the corresponding amounts they equal.  In Reading Group we reviewed past phonograms (letter teams), practiced fluency (learned the definition of fluency), practiced comprehension skills finding information in a text, and challenged ourselves with a new phonogram!  We also reviewed our rhyme, “when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking!”

Next week our topic is Table Manners and Place Settings

BOOK SHARE WILL BE TUESDAY NEXT WEEK!!!

This week the Aspen class learned all about Living and Non-Living things!  Aspen spent the week examining the characteristics of Living and Non-Living things and then used our knowledge to make classifications.   We classified objects within our environment into these two groups. Some of the characteristics we learned about Living things are; living things grow, living things are made of cells, living things have some form of movement,  living things respond to the environment, and living things reproduce. Throughout our week we took a look at a variety of living things and got to observe some of their charicteristics.   The children observed Oreo moving and reacting to the environment around him. To our amazement Mr. John brought in Charlotte the Tarantula for us to observe and ask questions about spiders. Finally, we took a look at plants and how they fit into the classification of being living organisms.

This week in Kindergarten the children learned all about Insects and Arachnids.  They learned how to classify them and label the parts of each. Mr. John also enlisted the help of Charlotte the Tarantula to illustrate charicteristics of Arachnids! In Reading  Group, we practiced our Sound Detective skills utilizing our previous knowledge from past Reading Group lessons. Thus, reviewing the phonograms (letter teams) and sight words that we have already learned.  At the same time, we practiced the lowercase cursive letter u paying particular attention to the lines on the paper.

Next week our topics include; bats, spiders, and all things Halloween!! We will be learning some Halloween words or phrases in Spanish!

         

Charlotte stopped by the Aspen room to say hello!!

Ms. Tonya had a Spider plant that reproduced and grew baby spider plants. A young spider plant is called a spiderette or a pup! The Aspen class had the opportunity to take a look at this amazing plant up- close and observe the roots beginning to grow on the baby plant.

A better look at one of the Spiderettes!

This week in Aspen we learned all about the Skeletal System!  During group lessons we learned the names of the bones in our body and where they are located, discussed how bones help us and their functions, explored what bones are made of, practiced what we learned by working with the Skeleton  Puzzle, and learned some fun Skeletal System facts!  Do you know how many bones an adult human has?  Who has more bones an infant or an adult? Do you know where your longest and strongest bone is? What about the location of the smallest bone in your body? Your child knows the answers to these questions and more! Ask them about what they learned this week.

This week in Kindergarten they learned all about mammals, birds, reptiles,  and amphibians! They classified charicteristics of each group and learned all about the animal kingdom. The kindergarteners then practiced tracing, labeling, and naming the Zoology Puzzles! In Reading Group we continued to study the rules of our language, engaged in word play, discussed the CH phonogram, practiced the lowercase cursive letters  t and u, and practiced our Comprehension skills.

Next week our thematic topic in Aspen is Living and Non Living!

                                 

Painting a pumpkin with puffy paint and a popsicle stick!