Our Academic Enrichment time is daily from 12:00-1:00pm. This time is specifically designed for our Kindergarten students to join together as a group to work and progress through the advanced materials and lessons in the Montessori primary curriculum. Throughout the school day in their classroom they are still working individually with their classroom teacher on these and other materials at their level.
2/2: Introduction to multiplicationcontinued
Working with 9 tray / 45 layout
Using single units, 10 bars, 100 square and 1000 cubes
Working with stamp game
Working with dot board
2/9: Introduction to fractions
Exploring fractions
Fractional insets (whole up to 1/12)
2/16: Geometric Shapes
Introduction to geometric shapes and constructive boxes
Geometric cabinet
Monday, February 16th President’s Day- NO SCHOOL
2/23: Geometric Shapes continued
Introduction to geometric shapes and constructive boxes
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.
Practice using the different synonyms of the week in a sentence together.
You can view this link to give you more information on how the math materials are used in the Montessori classroom http://www.montessorialbum.com/montessori/index.php?title=Math.
You may also google the name of the work to find more videos and information on the purpose of that material.
Themes of the Week (in addition to Montessori Work Time)
2/02: Coldacott Week
Introducing award winning books such as Make Way for Ducklings, The Snowy Day, Blueberries for Sal, The Lion and the Mouse, and other various Caldacott award winning books. The children will do different activities with each book.
Afternoon Group Lesson: Reviewing the letter of the week. Reiterating the calendar. Fun activities with Caldacott books.
2/9:Community Helpers: All about Doctors, Mail Carriers, Fire Fighters, and Police Officers
How Doctors help us and the special tools they use
Fire Fighters and Fire Safety and Stop, Drop & Roll
All about the Post Office, mail carriers
Learning our phone number and address/ How 911 is important to us
How do Police Officers protect us?
**Valentines Day Party: Friday the 13th
Afternoon Group Lesson: Reviewing the letter of the week, the calendar and fun community worker themed activities & crafts.
2/17: Community Helpers: All about Construction Workers, Soldiers, Chefs and Bakers
Learning about measurement and different tools.
Soldiers, different branches of the military, jobs they do and places they travel
Who works in a Restaurant/ Bakery?
What does a Chef/ Baker do, different types
*Monday 2/16– No School (President’s Day)
Afternoon Group Lesson: Reviewing the letter of the week, the calendar and fun community worker themed activities & crafts.
2/23: Community Helpers: Dentists, Teachers, and Veterinarians
How a Veterinarian is different from a Doctor
All about the importance of brushing, flossing and the different tools they use.
Charting what you want to be when you grow up.
Afternoon Group Lesson: Reviewing the letter of the week, the calendar and fun community worker themed activities & crafts.
Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.
2/02: Rr
2/09: Ss
2/17: Tt
2/23: Uu
Sight Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.
2/02: go
2/09: can
2/17: my
2/23: this
Things to do at Home this Month to reinforce our themes:
While reading a book have your child point to all of the letter of the week she/he can find. Have them do this with the sight words as well. Play I‐Spy using things that only start with the letter of the week/ sight words.
Write a letter to a family member or special friend. Have your child help you address the letter, stamp it and mail it.
Invent your own cake or cookie together…get creative!
Create a fire escape plan together or make a blue print of your dream house with your child!
Themes of the Week (in addition to Montessori Work time)
2/2: Transportation
What is Transportation?
Discuss trains and how they operate.
Discuss airplanes and how they fly.
Learning about busses and how they take us different places.
Discuss boats and how they are able to float on the water.
2/9: Polar Pals/ Valentine’s Day
Discussing Penguins – What they eat, where they live and more.
Learning about Polar Bears- Where they live, how they stay warm and more.
Discussing Beluga Whales- Where they live live, what they eat and more.
Discussing Seals-Where they live, how they stay warm, what they eat and more.
History of Valentine’s Day and Valentine’s activities.
*Valentine’s Party, Friday, February 13th
2/16: Presidents
Discussing Abraham Lincoln and his life.
Learning about George Washington, the father of our nation.
Learning about our current president, Barack Obama
Learning about the American Flag, and what the different parts symbolize.
Discussing the Pledge of Allegiance and what the words mean.
*Monday, February 16th President’s Day- NO SCHOOL
2/23: Dental Health
Discuss Dental Health
Learn what foods are healthy for our teeth.
Learn the parts of the tooth.
Why do we loose our baby teeth?
Learn about the job of a Dentist.
Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.
2/2: Kk
2/9: Gg
2/16: Mm
2/23:Oo
Sight Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.
2/2: Kid
2/9: Go
2/16: Me
2/23: Off
Things to do at Home this Month to reinforce our themes:
Make Valentines together with your child. Have them sign their own name to the cards.
Practice saying the Pledge of Allegiance with your child at home.
Practice teeth brushing with your child. Make a healthy snack together as a family that will promote dental health.
Practice the letter of the week with your child by playing “I Spy”. This is a great way to help them learn initial sounds. Remember to focus on the sound of the letter and not the name of the letter.
Our Academic Enrichment time is daily from 12:00-1:00pm. This time is specifically designed for our Kindergarten students to join together as a group to work and progress through the advanced materials and lessons in the Montessori primary curriculum. Throughout the school day in their classroom they are still working individually with their classroom teacher on these and other materials at their level.
2/02: Exchanging
Decimal System/Exchanging 1s, 10s, 100s and 1000s
Using single units, 10 bars, 100 squares and 1000 cubes
2/09: Introduction to Multiplication
Exploring multiplication
Operations with the golden bead material
Practice with the nine tray and multiplication tables
2/16: Introduction to Fractions
Monday 2/17– No School (President’s Day)
Exploring Fractions
Fractional Insets (whole up to 1/12)
Monday, February 16th President’s Day- NO SCHOOL
2/23: Geometric Shapes
Intro to Geometric Shapes, Constructive boxes
Geometric Cabinet
Sight Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.
2/02: first, than
2/09: other, some
2/16: more, these
2/23: would, about
Synonyms of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.
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.
Practice using the different synonyms of the week in a sentence together.
You can view this link to give you more information on how the math materials are used in the Montessori classroom http://www.montessorialbum.com/montessori/index.php?title=Math. You may also google the name of the work to find more videos and information on the purpose of that material.
As specified by RIC Publications Mr. John will be sending homework home to reinforce these lessons. Please turn homework into the orange box outside of Mr. John’s classroom. Please email him if you have any questions: jkotradi@thesmarterkids.com.
I love this time of year! The pretty lights, fun music, everyone smiling, and the children full of excitement!! Even though we were only in school for just a few short weeks the children were busy getting ready for our annual holiday program, making fun holiday crafts, and enjoying the hustle and bustle of the classroom! Throughout the month of December our class had fun learning about how children and their families celebrate Christmas from around the world! The first country we talked about was Mexico. We began by reading the story The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie de Paola, and then created our own poinsettia craft out of paint, glitter, markers, and grocery bags. For preschool lesson, Ms. Ashley had the children make Ojos de Dios, which are Christmas ornaments made with yarn. The second country we visited was Germany. The children learned that the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree originated from Germany and that the trees were decorated with candles, apples, and spiced cookies. The children them created their own tree by dipping a toilet paper roll into paint and making prints onto paper. They also used glitter, colored paint, and stickers to decorate their tree. The children also had a blast with Ms. Ashley making and decorating gingerbread cookies!
“ Joyeux Noel” is how you say Merry Christmas in French. In France, the traditional Christmas Eve meal, Le Reveillon, means “ waking up” and includes many courses of food. The children created their own Le Reveillon menu out of magazines. They cut out foods that they would like to eat on Christmas eve night, pasted them on a folded menu they created and labeled what they glued on. They turned out fantastic! The following country we had fun with was Italy. The children had a blast doing the traditional Italian art of curling paper called Quilling. They learned that the Italians created beautiful quilled ornaments to decorate their ceppos, which is a small triangular ladder. The last country was England. The children thought it was so funny that after children wrote their letters to Santa they then threw them into the fireplace hoping that they would go up the chimney so that all their wishes would come true. I then explained to them that an English tradition included caroling from house to house and that the families would come in for Wassail. The children had fun combining cranberry juice and apple juice together and sprinkling a little cinnamon on top and going from classroom to classroom singing Christmas songs!
The children really loved learning about the different traditions. They couldn’t believe how people in different countries celebrated Christmas. Throughout December our class made different holiday crafts, gingerbread houses, and playing different games from around the world. The last week before our break our theme was all about giving not receiving. The children did different acts of kindness throughout the last week. The children constructed a “lovie” for children’s hospital, wrote letters to a nursing home. Learned about donating and what it means to give. I really enjoyed seeing the children grasp the concept of giving.
I hope that everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday! See you in the new year!
Ashley’s Corner
Music class in December was filled with a lot of fun songs and dances with Ms. Lisa. She got all of the kids into the Holiday joy of what the season brings. They sang a Varity of interactive and fun Christmas songs, such asFeliz Navidad, Jingle Bells and many others. Ms.Lisa also went over the different music notes that are used when we sing our songs. Their faces were filled with joy as they sang along. I can’t wait to see what next month of music will bring.
Our scientists had a favorite experiment this month! Mr. John made Green Goo with the kids in a fun filled science experiment. The kids got to help Mr. John pour in the ingredients (glue, Borax, green dye and water) into a bowl and watched the magic happen. The were amazed by how the mixture turned into a slimy substance that they called Goo. The kids were so excited and some kind of grossed out by the slimy green goo. Each child got to take their own bag of Goo home and enjoy it with Mom and Dad. What a fun science class we had!
Art class has been so much fun learning about many new artists this month. They learned about Kandinsky and his Concentric Circles and Pablo Picasso and his portrait of Dora Maar. The kids were able to use their own amazing creativity in drawing self portraits and had a chance to use pastels and paint. Our students are really learning a lot of their creativity and how each students art is different in a wonderful way, just they are as a person. These little artists are really starting to shine!
December was filled with many fun winter and Christmas activities. We started the month off with focusing on practicing our songs for the Christmas program. The students worked very hard to memorize the lyrics and to get the motions down just right.
The kids created a winter scene by gluing red and green tissue paper on construction paper and cutting Christmas tree shapes out, then painting another piece of construction paper with blue water color, and lastly glued on the trees to complete the scene. We also made Rudolf pictures by tracing the students’ hands for the antlers and feet for the face, and then we added a red nose and eyes to complete the reindeer. The students also made a winter scene snow globe out of paper plates and sandwich bags. The kids really enjoyed making reindeer food to leave out on Christmas Eve to give the reindeers energy to fly Santa around. They also made popsicle stick Christmas tree ornaments and sock snowmen to put in their gift bags to parents for the night of the Christmas show. We all enjoyed the students’ show and tell items and they enjoyed sharing with the class.
The children especially had fun wearing their pajamas to school and watching classic Christmas movies like The Grinch, Frosty, and Rudolph. The kids did an amazing job at the Christmas program and were the cutest cowboys and cowgirls! I hope everyone has a wonderful break and a Merry Christmas! See you next year!
Kindergarten
The kindergarteners worked hard on their journals and learned how to measure in inches and centimeters using a ruler and tape measure. They have been measuring many different objects in the classroom including their teachers and recording it.
They also enjoyed the holiday season by making many holiday treats to share with their friends like rice krispy treats and sugar cookies.
Science
Our fist science experiment for December was a gross spit experiment. We crumbled an unsalted cracker on one plate and then took a second cracker and chewed it really well to get it nice and mushy. Then we had to do the gross part and spit the chewed up cracker onto the second plate. After that we put a drop or two of iodine on both crackers. We discovered that digestion begins in our mouths because the iodine only turned black with the chewed up cracker because it reacted with the starch.
The second week of December we did a floating paperclip experiment and learned about surface tension. We overfilled a cup without water spilling out and the surface tension of water was strong enough to support a paperclip! Then we put soap into the water which disrupted the order of the water molecules. The kids had many questions like how is the water keeping the paperclip from sinking? How big of a paperclip can we float? Can we float another paperclip on the water after we add the soap? How many paperclips can we float at a time?
Music (By: Ms. Faith)
During the month of December, Ms. Lisa had many fun Christmas activities for the students, she even got the best decorative tree rings from Amish Baskets. The class got to sing Christmas carols such as Away in the Manger, Jingle Bells, and Deck the Halls. Ms. Lisa played a fun game called Freeze Dance where she played Jingle Bell Rock and when the music stopped, the students had to freeze in a silly way. We also got to learn Feliz Navidad and played Castanets along with the music. The students loved singing Christmas music with our wonderful music teacher. Thank you Ms. Lisa for another great month of music class!
Art (By: Ms. Faith)
Ms. Michele prepared some great art projects for our students. The first project we learned how to use a technique called resist. To complete the project, the class got to draw different geometric shapes on a piece of paper with oil pastels and then painted over their drawings with liquid water colors. The watercolor did not cover up the drawings because of the oils in the oil pastels. Ms. Michele also introduced the young artists to Pablo Picasso who is known for the art movement Cubism. We looked at a few portraits Picasso painted and made observations on the different shapes and colors he used. The students then used different shapes cut out of construction paper to create a self-portrait. Each project came out different and unique. It’s always a joy to see the creativity Ms. Michele brings out of the students!
The month of December has been full of fun and merriment in our classroom! The children have enjoyed learning about the weather, the different parts of the orchestra, and about different symbols of the holiday season. We had a blast!
During the first week of December, we learned about weather. The children enjoyed learning about the job of a meteorologist how it is their job to scientifically predict the weather. Ms. Kim and I also have been having the children keep track of how many Sunny, Cloudy, Windy and Rainy days there have been this month. In true Ohio fashion, there were more cloudy days. I’ve also noticed that the children have been paying attention to the weather report in the mornings before school, and have been sharing what the Meteorologist has stated that the weather will be like that day!
During the second week in December, the children learned about the different parts of the orchestra. They learned that all instruments belong to a “family”, such as String, Woodwind, Brass, and Percussion. The children also enjoyed listening to sound clips of the different instruments in our parts of the orchestra work, and placing the cards in each family of instruments from the highest sounding instrument to the lowest sounding instrument. The children also enjoyed making a book of all of the instrument families as well with Ms. Kim during Pre-school Lesson.
During week three of December, we learned about the different symbols of the Holidays. First, we learned about reindeer, which are also called caribou. We learned that they are mammals and that they are herbivores. The children also enjoyed making a reindeer craft with Ms. Kim. We also went over to Mr. John’s room to make Ginger bread houses with Ms. Dana and also over to Ms. Kate’s room to make reindeer food!
Enrichments:
In music class, Ms. Lisa got the students ready for the Christmas season! First, they did some review with “Penny the Pony”. Ms. Lisa used “Penny the Pony” to review the musical words for slow, medium, and fast. Then the children used egg shakers, bells, and castanets to help them sing and keep the beat to Christmas songs. We sang “He’ll Be Coming Round the Chimney”, “Jingle Bells”, “Jingle Bell Rock”, and “Deck the Halls”. Thanks to Ms. Lisa for getting us into the Christmas spirit!
In science, Mr. John did a very gooey experiment! He used water, green food coloring, glue, and borax (laundry detergent). First, he made the water green by adding the green food coloring. Then, he added the glue and borax to the water. When the borax was added, the mixture turned to goo! The borax acted like a polymer with the other ingredients. It didn’t matter if you stretched or pulled the goo apart. It always went back together.
In art, Ms. Michele continued her unit on shapes. During our first art lesson this month, the students looked at a painting to find different shapes, objects and lines. Then, we looked at another painting that only had circles, but these circles were different sizes and painted different colors. Next it was the children’s turn to create their own shape paintings. First, they used oil pastels to draw different sized shapes all over their papers. Then, the children painted their papers with watercolors. Painting over the oil pastels with the watercolors is a resist technique. The oil pastels resisted the watercolors, but the watercolors showed on the other parts of the paper.
Our next art lesson also used shapes, but we used the shapes to make self-portraits. First, we looked at the artwork of Pablo Picasso. Picasso’s paintings allow you to look at pictures and objects from different perspectives. Some of the children looked at a painting and saw musical instruments, while other children saw a face. The children were able to see these different objects because of the different shapes Picasso used. After we learned about Picasso, the children created their own self-portraits using different shapes cut out of colored construction paper. Ms. Michele had the students first cut out large circles for their faces. Then, the students used their imaginations to cut and glue down other face features.
In conclusion, I would encourage you to track weather patterns with your child at home. Play I Spy with your child to practice the letter sounds they are learning at school. Take time to listen to classical music with your child and ask them about the different instruments they hear. As Maria Montessori stated,”We teachers can only help the work going on, as servants wait upon a master.” I agree, and it is truly a pleasure to serve your children.
My class is racing along. My knee is healing to the point where I only need the blasted cane to go up and down stairs. And FINALLY have my voice back and in a few days I will get reacquainted with my old friend ..sleep. All the students are advancing nicely in academics and socially. Overall, I would brag that my class is well behaved and hardworking. We took the month of December preparing for our Christmas show. Kathleen and Dana did a fantastic job getting the students ready for the big stage by teaching the children the tunes, lyrics, and movements to the songs.
Cultural subjects:
We can count to ten in 17 different languages. We can count in English, Latin, Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic (with the Lebanese dialect), Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, and Hungarian.
Kindergarten lesson:
We went over the characteristics of the five classes of animals (mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and birds). Our white board was filled and I told my kindergarteners that most adults did not know as much as they do. We then went over the parts and characteristics of insects and arachnids. Did you know a tick is an arachnid? We pulled away from animals and we learned how to measure with rulers (both inches and centimeters).
The kindergarten class can count to ten in 19 different languages… English, Latin, Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic (with the Lebanese dialect), Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Polish, and Irish.
Music:
December was a fun filled month in music class, Ms. Lisa kicked off the holiday season will hits like jingle bells and ruldolf the red nose reindeer. The kids got to dance and ring their own bells to jingle bells. We learned how to keep the beat and listen for the speed to change in our songs by using castanets. Rainbow sparkles came to sing with us and help us learn the correct names for musical notes. Can’t wait to see what new songs and dances we will learn in the new year!
Science:
This month in science the kiddos got to make glue, this is a mixture of borax, white glue and water. Mr. John asked our young scientists what their hypothesis was for this experiment, there was a variety of very good answers! The end result was a soft lump of goop that the children were allowed to tale home! There were some very happy kiddos after this experiment. Can’t wait to see what the new year brings!
Art:
This month in art class we learned about Kandinskey and Picasso. For our project that focused on Kandinskey the children drew a variety of shapes using oil pastels and then painted over those shapes with water colors. The end result was a beautiful collage of color! For our lesson on Picasso the children made faces using various shapes and colors. Can’t wait to see what creative projects Ms. Michelle will have in the new year!
