This week the Aspen Room began the first of many botany lessons, we explored the Parts Of A Tree and their functions!  We discovered that each part of a tree has a special job that helps it grow and develop.  The Aspen class also learned that trees are vital for our survival and that we depend on them for the air that we breathe. As a class we then discussed how trees depend on us for carbon dioxide and we depend on them for oxygen. Therefore, creating a symbiotic relationship.  Besides, exploring these concepts we also engaged in a few activities that allowed us to classify and identify species of trees.  While making classifications, we learned the terms deciduous and conifer. Ask your child about these terms!  On the playground we searched for examples of the parts of plants and trees for our botany tray. Did you know…. that a tree is just a really big plant???  The Aspen class discovered this and and more! Ask your child about what treasures they discovered outdoors for our botany tray.

This week our Music Enrichment class started and we had our first music class of the 2021-2022 school year with Ms. lisa. In music, Aspen learned how to sing a few songs and engaged in movement lessons practicing music line time etiquette.  We also had our first Taekwondo demo lesson! All of the children seemed to enjoy this as they practiced movement and self control.

Kindergarteners are contnuing their lessons with geography and cursive letter writing with Mr. john.  In reading group, we continued to practice fluency, sounding out words, and discussed the importance of being a letter detective by sounding out words while paying close attention to each sound! A Letter Detective doesn’t need to guess a word, they use their sound clues!  We also discovered that sometimes there are words that do not follow the phonetic rules. Therefore, we learned all about sight words, letter teams (phonograms and blends), and general word(sound) exceptions.  Each week we will look at a new word that does not follow these rules.

Next week our topic is  All About Apples!  We will learn about the Life Cycle of An Apple,  learn to classify different varieties of apples, taste test a few varieties of apples, and begin preliminary fraction work using apples.  See you next week!

Hello Aspen families!! It has been a very busy week for us in the Aspen Room. Your children have been so busy learning new and exciting things and have been working so hard within the classroom during the work period.  We are all settling into our routines and have become comfortable navigating the classroom with many of us establishing new friendships.  This week the Aspen class learned all about Seasons!!  During group lesson we learned why we have seasons, the names of each season, and discussed the many characteristics of each season.  As we discussed seasons we engaged in a really cool experiment with our Painted Globe and a flashlight!  We pretended that our flashlight was the sun and used our globe to illustrate why we have seasons.  As we explored this science experiment we also dicovered why we experience day and night.  Ask your child about what they learned with this activity.

This week we also learned a few new Spanish words!  We sang our days of the week song and then learned it in Spanish!  At the same time, we reviewed all of the Spanish words we learned last week. Lev and Kat also taught us The Good Morning Song in Russian! The Aspen Room also got to visit the AMMS School Library and had their very first library lesson with Ms. Cat!  We had so much fun learning about books and listening to stories. This week we also visited the AMMS Science Lab and had our very first science class with Mr. John!  In science we learned about what scientists do, what a hypothesis is, and then participated in an experiment with vinegar, baking soda, and a balloon.  It sure was a fun filled and busy week in the Aspen Room.

Next week our lessons will be the parts of the tree and their functions.  We will also learn to identify different types of trees.  Kindergarten students have been learning about globes, maps, hemispheres, and directions,  They have also learned the terms Equator and Prime Meridan.  They will continue to explore and expand upon these concepts next week.  See you next week!!

This week the Aspen class remains super busy practicing our daily routines while learning how to navigate the classroom environment.  As we learn to navigate the classroom,  we are also practicing many of the Montessori Social Relations activities.  We have learned how to be respectful of our classmates and their opportunties to learn during the work period.  Therefore, as a class we have been practicing not interrupting our friends while they are focusing on work and have learned how to interrupt or how to get a teachers/friends attention by placing our hand gently on their shoulder. At the same time, we learned how to shake hands when we are greeting someone. The Aspen class will now begin each morning with a hand shake upon entering the building to practice this and refine their social skills. As we have been discussing greetings and introductions, we also learned how to sing our line time Good Morning Song.  Your child is currently learning this song in both English and Spanish.  As a result, You may hear them singing it at home.  The children call it the Buenos Dias Song when we sing it in Spanish.  Besides, learning our Good Morning Song  your child has also learned a few words in Spanish. The new words we learned are bookbag, shoes, bottle, and lunchbox!

Kindergarten students have been working really hard with Mr. John learning all about our continents, oceans, and the cardinal directions. They have also been reviewing some of the basics they learned last year to refine handwriting skills and ease into their kindergarten curriculum.  In Reading Group the kindergarten students have been working with me to improve phonics, fluency, retention, and handwriting skills.  This week we played a game called Roll it, Sound It Out!  We took turns rolling a die and read words from columns in the corressponding number they rolled.  I have sent home a paper for them to play this at home with your family!  Have fun reading!!!

Next week we will be discussing the Seasons.  We will explore the characterisitcs of each season as well as the reason for seasons.  The class will also work on the days of the week by naming them and sequencing them. See you next week!

Hello and welcome to the Aspen Room!  Even though this was not a full week of school it has been one busy and amazing week in the Aspen Room.  It has been so great seeing familiar faces and the smiles of returning students and families from last year. It has been an absolute pleasure meeting all of the students and families new to the Aspen Room!  Each week Sandy and I will be sharing information, pictures, events, and news of  what has happened or what will happen in the Aspen Room.   Here is our very first 2021-2022 Aspen Room Blog!!!

This week we have been focusing on the daily/weekly routines of the classroom as well as the general How To’s of a Montessori classroom.  The children have been learning how to sit properly on the line for group lessons while being respectful of others when they are talking and sharing  their thoughts, opinions, ideas and stories.  Therefore, we all practiced raising our hands and speaking one at a time.  We sure have some respectful and kind students in the Aspen Room!  All the children modeled super respectful behavior and even raised their hands to ask questions.  We also learned how to unroll and roll our rugs when working with materials/activities on the floor and practiced how to walk around the rugs safely during the work period.

The Aspen Room children are very curious and very eager to learn.  As a result, the work period was busy with presentations showing all of our new students many of the exciting activities the classroom has to offer.  Your children were working very hard and I am sure they were super tired when you picked them up from school.  They have worked so hard in a short amount of time and are becoming familiar with both the routine and general rules of the classroom.  Returning students have been amazing showing our new friends around the room!   They have helped present materials, teach rules, and provided moral support when a new student needed a friend or had a question.  All of the Aspen Room children are amazingly excited to learn.  It is going to be a great year!

Next week, the Aspen Room will be continuing to learn Procedural Lessons and will recieve lots of new presentations during our work period. I am sure your children have shared so much with you about their work and activities throughout their day.  Unsure about an activity?  Want to know more?  Check out Transparent Classroom it has an amazing section that you can select and read all about a work.  It will explain the procedure and what the intention or skill it teaches. Of course, you can also ask us!!  We love sharing the Montessori method with students and parents.  Have a great weekend!!

This week the Aspen Room is learning all about North America.  We discussed the various land regions of North America , characteristics of these regions, learned about the Native Americans and their their way of life within the different regions, then we learned the names of the countries in North America.  As we discussed the Native Americans of the Southwest, we learned about the Pueblo, Navajo, Apache, and Zuni tribes.  As we researched we discovered that they were very resourceful and created many amazing things such as; Pueblos (apartment like structures made of adobe, bricks of clay and water, Hogans (housing structures of the Navajo), beautiful jewelry, detailed clothing garments, and pictographs (pictures that represent words) for  writtten communication.

The Aspen class then tried our hand at some of the Native American techniques of weaving making bowls and painting with sand.  While creating these works of art we discovered that they were significant to different regions of our country.  We also learned how draw a few pictographs as well.

                                                

North America Puzzle Map Tracing!!

Next Week:  We will continue with the North America art projects.  The Aspen class will also discuss weather, types of weather,  and what determines the type of weather we have.  The class will also track the weather for the week while engaging in fun activities and experiments!  The kindergarten students have been learning about money this week and will continue their exploration of money next week!

This week in the Aspen Room our topic is all about our planets, space, and our solar system!  We learned the names of the planets, fun facts about them, and where they are located within our solar system. We also discussed space related vocabulary and watched lots of fun Solar System videos from Kids Learning Tube on Youtube!  We also got to watch a video that demonstrated the sizes of planets, stars, and galaxies!  The Aspen class also worked on Solar System science experiments!  One experiment demonstrated the concept of how a planet orbits around the sun and the other experiment was How/Why craters are formed. Your child is now an expert when it comes to planets, stars, and space! They had a lot of information to share during group lessons and class discussions!  We have many amateur Astronomers  in the Aspen Room !

It also happened to be Seuss Week! The Aspen room had lots of fun exploring language, sound, and alliteration with the Dr. Seuss books. We discussed rhyming, engaged in word play rhyming our own words, and got to create fun crafts!  All the children demonstrated such creativity with their Seuss related outfits and shared their favorite Dr. Seuss books!

It’s a new month!  Using our creativity to color our March paper.

                          

Crater experiment!  Dropping different sized spheres into flour and cocoa to observe what happens based on their size and weight!

For the Week of 03/08/21:  Our topic is North America!  We will be focusing on learning about the various climates, regions, and will look at pictures about life on our continent!  The kindergarten students will begin their country research projects!

Welcome back!! We all had a nice extended weekend with President’s Day and then a snow day! I hope everyone got to relax, have some snowy fun, and drank lots of hot cocoa.  We are back to learning  this week and are working hard in the Aspen Room.  This week we learned about President’s Day, what it means to be a president, names of our presidents, fun trivia facts about presidents, and important  American symbols.  After learning about the American flag the Aspen Room students had many questions and wanted to learn more about flags. As a result, we talked about and learned about flags from other countries in North America. Then we matched North American flags with the flag matching activity. The class also watched, What Does The President Do and Presidential Trivia by Kids Academy.

The Kindergarten students are continuing their work with geometric vocabulary and concepts with the Geometric Solids and the Geometric Cabinet during work time.  For kindergarten lesson this week, Kindergarten students traced their body, then colored, labeled, and glued the internal organs to their traced outline of their body. It was a lot of fun learning about our internal organs and great practice following directions on the organ papers.

Next week we are discussing Musical Instruments.  We will focus on instrument classifications (groups/families ) , what different  instruments sound like, and how they are used/played. The Kindergarten students will finish their internal organ projects and discuss other important systems within our bodies.

                              

Game Time!!!   Indoor recess fun!

                                     

Learning about the internal organs!

This week it is all about animals!! The Aspen class learned all about animals, animal behavior, and what animals do in the winter. As the class researched animals we found that they would migrate to warmer climates, hibernate and sleep through the winter months, or adapt to their environment by growing thicker coats and finding warm places to call home. We then labeled and classified many animals into these categories with a fun sorting activity!  We also read the book Animals In Winter , by Henrietta Bancroft and Richard Van Gelder and watched Sci kids videos about Hibernation and Adaptation.  Did you know that there are three types of hibernation?  Some animals experience Dormancy and others engage in partial hibernation called Brumation or Torpor.  Ask your child about these terms and what they learned from our lessons and videos this week! We learned some amazing things!

After we researched the above, the class then took a look at the characteristics of animals. We observed that some have fur, feathers, or scales. That animals can be found in many habitats on all continents and their characteristics have adapted based on the environments they call home. We then matched animals with their footprints with our animal classification footprint work.

Kindergarten students explored the world of shapes by manipulating and studying two dimensional and three dimensional shapes with  in class activities that allowed them to manipulate and create their own shapes. Next week the kindergarteners will further explore shapes with the Geometric Cabinet.

Next Week it is all about groundhogs and shadows!  We will learn about Groundhog’s Day, the habitats groundhog’s call home, and behaviors of the groundhog.  We will then take a look at shadows by researching how and why they occur while experimenting with some in class science activities.

This week the Aspen room learned about the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr, and Rosa Parks! We discussed what life was like before the Civil Rights Movement and all about those who helped to change the laws, and those who helped to create a better world striving towards liberty and justice for all.  We read the book, This Is The Dream by, Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander that allowed the class to see the unfairness and inequality while learning about steps that have been taken to change various laws, rules, and modes of thought.  The Aspen class also re-enacted the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the story of Rosa Parks during morning meeting (line time).  Children volunteered to play the different characters in order to reanact and experience what it must have felt like to be Rosa Parks.  Many of the children used words like; “that’s unfair”, “that is mean”, “that is rude”, and “Rosa was there first!”.  As a class, we discussed these feelings and what it must have been like to experience unfairness like this, and the importance of what being peaceful and kind means.

The book we read had many illustrations demonstrating kindness and peacefulness.   As we discussed this topic, the class read and thought about  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

I realize that this can be a heavy topic for the Preschool and Kindergarten room, it was kept general and light. By spreading kindness and being compassionate towards others we can change the world!

The Kindergarten students continued their exploration of Multiplication this week through work with the Skip Counting Chains, and revisited multiplication through the Stamp Game, and  The Golden Beads (Decimal System) .

Next week we will be learning about adaptation, hibernation, and migration.  We will research these topics and learn what they are and what they mean. We will classify which animals adapt, hibernate, or migrate while learning fun and interesting animal facts.  At the same time, we will also use visual discrimination skills to observe and explore animal footprints.

               

Exploring addition facts with the Addition Stripboard.

           

The Aspen class during line time re-enacting the story of Rosa Parks and  what lead to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Brrr….it’s cold!  This week the Aspen Room took a trip to the Arctic and Antarctic.  We learned the terms North and South Pole, where these areas are located on our Earth, the climates of these areas, what kind of wildlife has adaptated to living in these enviroments and similarities and differences between the two regions. The Aspen class also researched penguins , how they have adapted to living in Antarctica, their life cycle, and how to classify different species of penguins.  Did you know….there are penguins living in warmer climates too? Did you know that some species of penguins lay two eggs?  Ask your child, he/she can tell you where penguins can be found. Your child is now a penguin expert! While discussing the Arctic we learned about the types of animals found in the most Northern areas of our Earth, how they have adapted to a frigid environment, and watched videos about Arctic wildlife.

This week the Kindergarten students continued to explore the mathematical operation of Subtraction by learning how to borrow with Dynamic Subtraction.  Next week we will be revisiting Multiplication through our Skip Counting Chains!

Up Next:

Next week the Aspen class will learn all about Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and the Civil Rights movement!  We will discuss why having a day off to honor individuals that have changed our world for the better! See you next Tuesday!