I can’t believe that this is our last classroom blog😢I have to say that this has been an incredible year! I am just so fortunate that I was able to watch your kiddos grow into such great, loving, and kind people. I am truly going to miss seeing their faces, watching them be silly, and seeing their amazing smiles. Also, thanks to you too for being such awesome and wonderful parents. It’s also sad to say goodbye when I’ve made some pretty incredible friends. I hope all of you have a wonderful and safe summer!
I am going to miss these two so much!!My two sweet friends sharing a book together❤Our friend is working on the sandpaper letters. The consonants are mounted on the pink wood, and the vowels are mounted on the blue wood. This work teaches the child sounds of the alphabet by means of visual and muscular memory. The child is encouraged to trace the symbol over and over again until the shape of the letter becomes part of the child’s muscle memory.The teen board associates the numbers eleven through nineteen with the symbols 11 to 19.Our kindergarten student is working so hard on his shape poem.
Flashback:
Have a wonderful summer!! Please come back and visit!!
This last week and a half has flown by! First we learned all about Reptiles and Amphbians! We learned that reptiles are cold blooded and that most lay eggs. We also learned that most reptiles leave their babies alone, except for the crocodile We also learned that amphibians are also cold blooded and have smooth, moist skin! We also had fun identifying all the types of animals we have learned about at the Akron Zoo on our field trip!
We also talked about Summer Safety during the final few days of school. We learned that 911 is the number to call in an emergency. We also talked about strangers and about the safe adults we can trust. We also talked about making sure we always wear helmets when skating, riding our scooters, or riding our bikes outside.
These two friends are working on the Story Cards! They are placing the cards in sequential order to tell a story! This material helps to prepare the child for reading!
These two girls worked so hard to complete several addition equations using the small Table Top Number Rods!We had so much fun at the Akron Zoo! Thank you to all of our parents and grandparents who chaperoned!
It has been a wonderful school year! I consider it an honor and a privilage to teach your children! As Maria Montessori said, “If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men.” Your children are truly a ray of hope and sunshine in my life!
Have a wonderful and safe Summer and we’ll see you in August!
We just wrapped up our final full week of the school year! We can’t believe it! This week the first years started a chart to share all their knowledge of the external characteristics of vertebrates and invertebrates. The second year students completed their polygon and circle studies. The third years are compiling their knowledge of the internal systems of vertebrates and have completed their “Build My Block” geometry project. The fourth years completed their study of fungi and are ready to share their Early Humans Research!
These third year students learned the history of the Roman Arch and which previous civilizations had the idea, but not the technology. These students found different structures that use a Roman Arch and researched them. It took many, many attempts, but they were finally able to build the Arch with teamwork!At the end of each year, we complete Writer’s Workshop with an Autobiography and a self-portrait. Last year our self-portraits were similar to Minecraft characters. This year, we made self-portrait dioramas with each student on a swing! Make sure to check out our different designs and backgrounds!This student is researching about an adder. Research in the Elementary classroom is a great way for students to find out information about things they are interested in, while incorporating many different areas of the classroom. While studying Biology, this student is also improving his language skills!Our second year students are finishing up many projects. This student is working on a book about flower placement and flower arrangement. She learned how flowers are arranged on a single stem and on many different plants. Her book can be used as a guide throughout her other Botany studies!Our second year students finished out their circle research this week. Last week they learned the parts of the circle and are making books to show the parts. This week, they also learned the different relationships between a line and the circumference of a circle.After studying different geographic features, our second, third, and fourth year students designed an imaginary island. Each student had to include ten geographic features around the coast of their island, five features inside, and a capital city. Our students each wrote a history of their island to explain where it is, how it was founded, and who the inhabitants are. This student also decided to make a flag for his island!
A Peek At Next Week
Next week we will present many of the projects we have been working on. Our fourth year student will share his Early Humans Research and Tools. Our second, third, and fourth year students will present their Imaginary Islands. Our first grade students will present their planet and astronomer research with the help of a kindergarten friend! We will continue to work on estimating length, geometry command cards, and fourth years will finish studying fungi!
REMINDERS:
NO SCHOOL – Monday, May 28 – Memorial Day
LAST DAY OF SCHOOL – Thursday, May 31
This is also Field Day. Please refer to your email for the schedule of events and the changes in the event of rain. Please let me know if you are attending if you haven’t already.
Friday, June 1 – Kindergarten Graduation
*****I am also still looking for a family to take Vinny the Guinea over the summer. Splashy will also need a summer home. Both animals are very easy to care for and I will provide all of the materials that you need! Please let me know ASAP if you can help our classroom!*****
Our last official weekly lesson was on Capitalization. You children now know that the word at the beginning of the sentence it is always capitalized. When you refer to yourself with “I” the I is always capitalized. Also, any proper nouns are capitalized.
Just hanging out… The 2017/2018 Kindergarten Students.
Put on your space suit and get ready to explore our solar system. We started with discussing the planets nearer the sun then 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 than Mercury 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. As a side note did you notice that some planets were named after Roman Gods and Goddesses? Some of the students made the connection.
Peek In Our Classroom:
Two girls having fun working together.She is practicing writing cursive.
These two girls are studying bones from our science bins.
This boy is working with the land form work.
He is working with the science bin found in the science area. He is comparing the plastic insect to the insects in the book.
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 Pets” by Ainsley, Maddex, and Trevor
(Ainsley) This week we researched and wrote the taxonome of all the animals in the school, including a Wolf Spiter that Ms. Courtney found. This year the 3rd graders have been learning a lot of main characteristics and internal systems of animals. We learned a lot about different and most common pets.
Annelids by Ainsley
Taxonomy of Earthworm Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Annelida Class: Oligochaeta Order: Megadrilacea Family: Lumbricidae Genus and Species: Lumbricus terrestris Fun Fact: Earthworms don’t have eyes.
Arthropods by Maddex and Trevor
Taxonomy of Painted Lady Butterfly Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Lepidoptera Family: Nymphalidae Genus and Species: Vanessa cardui Ms. Courtney will have Painted Lady Butterflies in a few weeks!Taxonomy of Wolf Spider Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Arachnida Order: Araneae Family: Lycosidae Genus and Species: Hogna aspersa Fun Fact: Wolf spiders have “book lungs.” Their lungs are made of fine “leaves.”
Mollusks by Maddex
Taxonomy of Mystery Snail Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Mollusca Class: Gastropoda Order: Caenogastropoda Family: Viviparidae Genus and Species: Bellamya chinensis Fun Fact: Male and female snails can reproduce by themselves. They reproduce asexually.
Chordates – Fish by Maddex and Trevor
Taxonomy of Tuxedo Guppy Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Actinopterygii Order: Cyprinodontiformes Family: Poecilidae Genus and Species: Poecilia retiuculata Fun Fact: Guppies have gills to filter they water so they can live in it and still get oxygen.Taxonomy of Betta Fish Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Teleostei Order: Perciformes Family: Osphronemidae Genus and Species: Betta splendens Fun Fact: Betta fish jaws are stronger than a Great White Shark.
Chordates – Reptiles by Trevor
Taxonomy of Corn Snake Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Reptilia Order: Squamata Family: Colubridae Genus and Species: Pantherophis guttatus Fun fact: Snakes swallow their prey whole
Chordates – Birds by Ainsley
Taxonomy of Chicken Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Galliformes Family: Phasianidae Genus and Species: Gallus gallus Fun Fact: Chickens don’t have teeth!
Chordates – Mammals by Ainsley
Taxonomy of Guinea Pig Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Rodentia Family: Caviidae Genus and Species: Cavia porcellus Fun Fact: Guinea pigs have tails. The tails are under their fur.
“A Peek at Next Week” by Ms. Ashley
Next week will be our final full week of school! We will have Spelling Assessments Monday and Reading Assessments throughout the week. There will be no new Spelling homework, but please continue to have your child read and record their work on their reading log. Next week Lower Elementary students will add and subtract lengths, add and subtract squares and cubes, practice budgeting, learn more about circles, and complete some research charts as a Zoology review, where we will continue to study about different pets and how to maintain them properly. Since this week we focused more on chickens, next week it will be more about rabbits; since this was a popular pet among our classmates and share how difficult finding a suitable home for your rabbit can be. We will learn that a decent sized rabbit hutch is a good start and how to find the right one. Taking care of these pets can be pretty delicate but with the help of the class mates that already owns one, we’ll cover all of their specific needs in order to help them live a long, happy, and healthy life and many other fun facts about them.
Sports: This week we talked about different sports like: baseball, soccer, basketball, hockey, ice skating, bike riding etc. We talked about how sports can be competitive and are a physical activity or game. The students learned that through sports the can maintain or improve their physical abilities and skills while also enjoying themselves. We also discussed how there is specific safety equipment needed for certain sports.
Work Time:
Introduction Tray: This child is being introduced to the decimal system and becoming familiar with the symbols and quantities associated with units, tens, hundreds and thousands. He is visually seeing the difference between 1 unit, 1 ten, 1 hundred and 1 thousand.Prepositions: This child is learning what a preposition is and reading them in different sentences. She is developing an understand that a preposition is a word used to link nouns, pronouns, or phrases to other words within a sentence.Stamp Game: This child is using the stamp game to do addition. It works like the golden beads but instead of unit beads there are unit stamps. Instead of ten bars there are ten stamps. Instead of hundred squares there are hundred stamps. Instead of thousand cubes there are thousand stamps.Linear Counting: This child is working on one of our cubed bead chains, she is identifying the names of the numbers and seeing the correspondence of the quantities with the written number on the cards. She is also discovering that 5X1=5, 5X2=10, 5X3=15 and so on.Solar System: This child was so excited to present his solar system. He has been creating it at home for the past month.Addition: These children are using the golden beads to discover that when you put two small numbers together you get a larger number and that this process is called addition.Movable Alphabet: This child is saying the word of the object and matching the symbol with the correct initial sound to the object.Geometric Solids: This child is developing a sense of awareness of three-dimensional shapes to objects in his environment. He is able to identify and label shapes such as sphere, ovoid, ellipsoid, cone, cylinder, cube, triangular prism, square prism, triangular based pyramid and square based pyramid.
Guest Readers:
Reminders:
LAST Bring Your Parent to Work Time | May 21st
Memorial Day | NO SCHOOL | May 28th
Last Day of School | May 31st
Kindergarten Graduation | June 1st | 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm
This week was all about community helpers. On Monday the kids took a field trip to the fire station. They had a blast learning about fire safety, seeing behind the scenes at the station, watching a firefighter put on his turnout gear, and more! It was a great field trip. We also talked about the different community helpers that we have in our neighborhood, and how they make an impact on all of us. This week we also celebrated grandparents day!! It was amazing watching the grandparents and their grandchildren interact together, it was super special.
Such a great time at grandparents day!!!The purpose of the red rods is the visual discrimination of differences in dimensions, and the muscular memory of length. This work also prepares them for mathematics.The direct purpose is to observe and compare the different series with each other. The indirect purpose is for them to get a clear understanding for the different dimensions and their interplay.While working on the addition snake game the child is to familiarize with all the possible number combinations that make up ten. They can also aquire a subconscious knowledge that no two numbers together amount to more than 18. This gives practice in getting the first basis of memorizing the essential combinations with which, when known, one can make any addition.
Our two kindergarten friends preparing for graduation!
Take A Peek Into Next Week:
Next week is all about outer space. We will have fun learning about our 8 planets, the sun, moon, and stars, the space shuttle and more!
This week, we learned All About Birds! We learned that all birds have a beak, two wings, two legs, have feathers, and are warm blooded. We also learned that not all birds fly! We also learned the french song ” Alouette” which is a song about a lark and and we also learned the Parts of The Bird.
Working on shading colors from darkest to lightest using Color Box 3!This shy little one just completed an extention of the Pink Tower and Brown Stair!Practicing recognizing initial sounds using the I Spy Basket!
Grandparents Day!
Thank you to all the wonderful grandparents who came on Thursday to spend the morning with your grandchild! It was such a wonderful morning!
