Our Focus Lesson: Healthy Foods & The 5 Food Groups
Our class learned all about Healthy Foods this week! We talked about how healthy foods give us energy to play, learn, and grow! We also spent some time this week talking about Healthy Foods and Sometimes Foods.
We spent time discussing each of the 5 food groups as well this week. We talked about how these food groups grow and examples of each one. We took time at lunch to find the food groups that we brought to school. But the best part of the week was preparing our own snack each day! Thank you so much to the parents that donated food for snack this week!
We started the week with Dairy Foods! We ate yogurt tubes and yummy cheese cubes!Our second day was Grains! We did so well spreading butter onto slices of bread. Who doesn’t love bread and butter?Wednesday was Fruits! We practiced peeling bananas, as well as cutting bananas and apple slices. We added all of the fruits together to make fruit salad! It was our favorite snack of the week! Thursday was Vegetables! We peeled carrots. And chopped celery. And enjoyed our vegetables with hummus and ranch dressing!On the last day of the week, we learned about Proteins! We also practiced our spreading skills some more as we spread peanut butter onto crackers!
Kindergarten Lessons:
Kindergarteners learned Multiplication in Kindergarten Lesson this week. In Handwriting, they started their study on bump letters by forming the letters n and m. In Reader’s Workshop our older Blossoms practiced phonemes and isolating the middle sounds of words. And in Writer’s Workshop our authors worked on sentence structure!
Enrichment Spotlight: Science with Mr. John
There was so much giggling during this week’s science experiment! Why does a diaper hold more water than a paper towel?
Peek Into Next Week:
Focus Lesson: Healthy Habits
Bring Your Parent to Work Days: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-cblossom#/
Happy New Year Blossoms! We were very excited to be back at school this week and see our friends. Our days were full of chatting and laughing together.
Focus Lesson:
This week we reviewed our classroom routines and expected behaviors. We settled back into our classroom after our long break. We reviewed how to be respectful of others and our materials within our room. We also took some time to talk all about our winter breaks! What we did, who we saw, what our favorite parts were. We even added a fireworks science experiment to our discussion about New Year’s Eve!
We added warm water, vegetable oil, and food coloring to a jar. We talked about density and molecules! Check our how our “fireworks in a jar” exploded!
Preschool Lesson:
Ms. Sam reviewed the Geometric Cabinet with our younger Blossoms this week. They discussed polygons and quadrilaterals!
Kindergarten Lesson:
Our older Blossoms were introduced to Multiplication this week with Mr. John in Kindergarten Lesson. In Handwriting, they worked on writing words that connect using a dip connector. Reader’s Workshop and Writer’s Workshop discussed vowels, blends, and writing words and sentences!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our newest 5 year old!
Welcome to Our New Friend!
A big welcome to our new friend that joined our classroom community!
A Special Visitor!
The older sibling of one of our students joined us this week to read us a story. We loved having her with us, she was a great reader!
Peek into Work Time: Cultural
We were all about the map puzzles this week! The Montessori map cabinet is an important work in the classroom. Children use this material as an introduction to Geography. We begin with learning the names of the different continents. As a child becomes more comfortable with an individual map puzzle, we then introduce the child to the names of the countries within the continent. Children are encouraged to trace and label the countries within the continent, sneaking in more work for those fine motor skills!
We begin our Map Cabinet lessons with the Map of the Continents. This is a puzzle map in which each continent on the Painted Globe becomes an individual puzzle piece. The child learns the name of the continents and oceans, as well as where they are located, through the Three Period Lesson. This student has mastered the Australia Map Puzzle. A child has mastered a Map Puzzle when they can consistently return all the pieces to the map without help. The child is then introduced to the names of the countries or territories. Then the child can trace and label the map puzzle, creating their own map and reinforcing what they have learned!This older Kindergarten student is tracing and labeling The United States Map Puzzle. He is learning the names of a few states per day and has had lots of questions about how many hours it would take to get to different states. (We googled these answers for him!)
Peek into Next Week!
Focus Lesson: Healthy Foods
Preschool Lesson: The Food Groups
We’ll be preparing Healthy Foods in class! Sign up here! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4CA5A628A3F4CF8-5foodgroups
Important Dates:
Bring Your Parent to Work Dates! We have lots of dates still available! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-cblossom#/
Monday, January 16: No School for MLK Jr. Day
Thursday, January 26: Grandparent’s Day! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-cherry3#/
This week our Blossoms learned about Reptiles! We learned about the characteristics of this animal group, the things that make a reptile a reptile! We know that reptiles are vertebrates, they are cold blooded, they have dry, scaly skin, they hatch from soft shelled eggs, and they breathe with their lungs. The reptile we focused on this week were turtles!
We learned the life cycle of a sea turtle. Egg, hatchling, juvenile, and adult!We also used our Reptile 3 part cards to discover different types of reptiles. Did you know that there are over 8,000 different types of living reptiles in the world?Another step of our Reptile study is to trace and label a turtle. This Kindergartener has used copy writing to label her turtle, but then also used her knowledge of writing in cursive to add additional labels!This Preschool student is also tracing and labeling a turtle. This work reinforces the parts of a turtle while also strengthening fine motor skills. One of our Kindergarten students brought in a reptile book from home and read it to the class! We love the opportunities a mixed age classroom provides!
Lighting the World with Kindness!
Check out our bulletin board this month! We’re recognizing acts of kindness throughout the classroom all month long and adding lightbulbs to our reindeer’s antlers! This student overheard Ms. Sam say how beautiful his metal inset designs were so he gifted her his work!
Enrichment Spotlight!
In Art Class, we made a tree using just lines. We worked on slowing down and getting our lines close together. We then colored in between the lines we made using different colors of green. Afterwards, we’ll paint over our tree with water and create a beautiful tree painting!In Music class, we are practicing for the Christmas Show!In ASL Class, we learned how to sign “My name is”, and voted to call our class the Electric Wolves, which we can also sign!
A Peek Into Work Time!
These best friends are working with our Pattern Completion work. This is an important pre-reading work as it encourages logical connections and reasoning skills. This preschooler is working with the Moveable Alphabet to create words using seasonally themed pictures. The Moveable Alphabet is a child’s first foray into writing, transforming thoughts into words. The child’s use of the material progresses from single words, to phrases, and eventually to stories. This child also took his learning a step further by choosing to write he words he sounded out onto the dry erase board.Check out this Kindergartener’s hard work! Writing sentences in print and in cursive!
Peek Into Next Week!
We will be busy the next two weeks! We will be practicing for our Christmas Show, decorating our shirts for the Christmas Show, and creating special gifts for our families!
Important Dates!
Wednesday, December 14 – Rehearsal at Cuyahoga Falls High School 6:00 – 7:00pm. Students should arrive by 5:45pm. Not a dress rehearsal.
Friday, December 16 – Christmas Show at Cuyahoga Falls High School! Students should arrive by 5:30pm! Show begins at 6:00pm. Cherry Blossom children should wear their green shirt, black or green bottoms, and tennis shoes.
Winter Break – December 17 – January 2. School resumes on Tuesday, January 3!
This week we learned about Thanksgiving! We briefly covered the history of the day, and how Thanksgiving is a holiday that is celebrated at different times all over the world to give thanks for the harvest in the Fall. We also discussed how this is a time for us to be grateful for all that we have. We talked about what makes our hearts happy, and then told the class what we’re most grateful for. Mom, Dads, sisters, brothers, and pets were at the top of the list!
We also celebrated the holiday with some fun activities including a game of “Turkey Says”, following along with a directed drawing, and creating our own “Recipe for Cooking a Turkey.” We hope you enjoy these recipes for years to come, they truly brought us so much joy! Your children are hilarious!
Turkey says fly like a bat. Turkey says jump up and down. Turkey says be a bag. Turkey says touch your knee.
Community Helpers!
We had a surprise visit from some Community Helpers on Monday! Officer Davis and Officer Dennis from the Cuyahoga Falls Police Department came to talk to us about dog safety. We then got to meet a very special K-9 named Dan! But the best part was making the sirens and lights go off on the police car!
Thank you Officer Davis for coming to visit us! We were so excited!Thank you Officer Dennis and Dan for visiting us! We loved learning about K-9 dogs!Making the lights and sirens go off was the best part!Haha we were trying to wake up the firefighters next door!
O-H-I-O!
We wrapped up the week with Mr. John’s favorite day of the school year! We all wore our OSU colors to help the Buckeyes get ready for the Big Game this weekend!
We are Thankful for YOU!
Thank you to each of our families, from the bottom of our hearts, for all your help and support. We couldn’t do what we do each day without you. We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday full of yummy food and beautiful memories!
Peek Into Next Week:
Focus Lesson & Preschool Lesson: Reptiles and Turtles
Kindergarten Lesson: Addition with Golden Beads
Important Dates:
Friday, Dec. 2: Bring Your Parent to Work Day (all spots filled)
Our Blossoms discussed Community Helpers this week! We learned that Community Helpers are people in our community that help us or help others. We learned about firefighters, police officers, doctors, dentists, paramedics, counselors, mail carriers, teachers, and more! We learned how these people help us, what tools they use to help, and what clothing they wear in their jobs.
This child is sorting tools that community helpers would use!
We wrapped up our week of Community Helpers by helping others ourselves. We were very happy to participate in Operation Christmas Child. We discussed how there are children in other places of the world that either don’t have the things we have at home or won’t receive many items for Christmas. We learned that we can help those children through Operation Christmas Child! We packed boxes full of gifts for others and imagined all of the continents our boxes could go!
We hope these boxes we packed bring so many smiles to other children!Inside of each of these boxes are basic necessities, toys, art supplies, and a special letter from one of our Blossoms. In the letter, our students told the recieving child what country they are from, their favorite food, and what they like to do for fun!We are so thankful for our amazing parent volunteers!
Kindergarten Lesson:
Kindergarteners learned about coins with Mr. John this week. They even brought in coins from home to sort and count. In Handwriting, our Kindergarteners finished learning to write loop letters, and will be practicing writing words that contain loop letters next! Both in Reader’s Workshop and Writer’s Workshop, our Kinders learned about subjects and predicates. Our Readers learned how to find the subject within in a sentence and find the part of the sentence that tells what the subject is doing. And our Writers practiced “writing out the whole thought” in their new books, so that we can tell who and what happened within their stories!
Check out our Kindergarteners exploring different coins!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Happy Birthday to our newest 3 year old!
Brrrrr! It’s Cold Outside!
Our Ohio temperatures changed quickly this week! We will continue to play outside, weather permitting, as long as the feels like temperature is above 25 degrees. Please send your child to school with a coat, hat, gloves or mittens, and appropriate outdoor shoes each day. Hats and gloves can be kept in your child’s backpack! Thank you for your help!
All bundled up! We love to play outside, even in the cold!
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT – THE CHRISTMAS SHOW!
A Journey to the North Pole Christmas Show will be Friday, December 16! (Rehearsal will be Wednesday, December 14!) The Blossoms will be singing about Christmas Trees! Your child will need a plain, long sleeve, green shirt , black or green bottoms, and tennis shoes. PLEASE BRING YOUR CHILD’S GREEN SHIRT TO SCHOOL BY THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1. We will be decorating our shirts to look like Christmas Trees here at school and will return them to you the week of the show.
Peek Into Worktime:
This child is working with cursive booklets. We use this work to help develop fine motor skills and prepare the child for writing in cursive.This child is working with the 100 Board, it is currently his favorite work in the classroom! We use this work to reinforce counting in sequence and recognizing symbols from 1 to 100.This Kindergartener is working in her Primary Phonics Workbook. We use these workbooks as a support for the reading skills we are learning. This child is learning about “magic e” at the end of the word and how that special letter makes the vowel say its name. These three Kindergarteners are working with the Square Chains that are found in our Bead Cabinet. This work reinforces the ability to count in sequence. It also introduces the concept of counting in multiples and skip counting.
This week the Blossoms studied Mammals. We learned the characteristics of a mammal – they are vertebrates, they are warm blooded, they are covered in hair or fur, they give birth to live young, and babies drink their mother’s milk. We talked about many different mammals, but focused on three. We learned the parts of a horse, the life cycle of a human, and had a very special rabbit visitor!
We discussed all of the characteristics that make this rabbit a mammal! We were lucky enough to watch him move around and eat. Our favorite parts were watching his nose and petting his soft fur! This is Tito, the rabbit. He is the cutest visitor we have ever had!
Kindergarten Lesson:
Kindergarteners continued their study of telling time. They are now practicing telling time to the hour, the half hour, and the quarter hour. They finished learning how to write loop letters in cursive this week, and will be practicing more next week. In Reader’s Workshop, our young readers practiced rhyming and word families, and read books to Ms. Kelley! Writer’s Workshop saw the end of another writing unit, our young authors celebrated with an Author Share Day! They read their true stories to their friends, and we celebrated the details in their pictures and the words that they have written!
So proud of these young authors!
Book Share Fridays:
This school year we added Book Share Fridays to our weekly routine. At the end of each week one child is able to bring in their favorite book and their favorite stuffed animal. They tell us all about their special friend and then help Ms. Tonya read their favorite book to the class. We LOVE sharing these special stories with your child and can’t wait to keep Book Share Fridays going!
Elsa helped us read The Little Mermaid!Guess How Much I Love You is one of my favorite books too!This book had so many facts about African animals! We had to turn the book sideways to read this cool book about soccer!Ladybug Girl helped rescued dogs get adopted – what a wonderful story!
Peek Into Work Time:
This preschooler is using our Sound and Object Box to connect letter sounds to objects that begin with that sound. This work provides children a unique tactile element to their literacy work. This preschooler is working with our Number Cards and Table Top Rods, with symbols not in order. This work connects the symbols and the concrete representation of quantity plus shows the child the quantities are the same but in random order.This preschool wanted to build the number 1,444. He wrote out the number card himself and then composed the number with the Golden Bead Materials. The Golden Bead Materials are such a versatile component of the Montessori classroom as it teaches the names for quantities in each category (“unit”; “ten”; “hundred”; “thousand”), shows the relationship between one category and the next, offers the child the sensorial experience of the relative sizes of the categories (bulk), extends the sensorial experience of the different categories and the difference in bulk, for instance, between 6 units and 6 hundreds, and introduces the symbols for the quantities in the Decimal System
Peek Into Next Week!
Focus & Preschool Lesson: Community Helpers! (If you would like to stop in and tell us about your career, let Ms. Tonya or Ms. Sam know! We would love to have you!)
Kindergarten Lesson: Currency
Important Dates:
Wednesday, November 16 – Bring Your Parent to Work Day (all spots filled)
November 23-25 – No School for the Thanksgiving holiday
We learned about Trees this week in the Cherry Blossom Class! We learned about the parts of a tree and what each of those parts does for the tree. We know that the roots suck up water and nutrients like a straw, the trunk holds the tree up, the branches hold the leaves, and the leaves make food for the tree! We also know that trees start out as small seeds but can grow for years and years and get very big!
When learning the Parts of a Tree, we begin with the Tree Puzzle in our Science area. We practice the 3 Period Lesson while naming the individual puzzle pieces. The child can then use their pincer grasp to complete the puzzle, giving them a hands on experience. The next step is to complete a Parts of a Tree booklet. The children color each individual part of the tree and then label them. This work offers the opportunity for tracing the word or copy writing, furthering the growth of their fine motor skills while learning to identify the parts of the plant!As we continue to grow in our study of the Parts of a Tree, the children will then trace and label the plant on their own. This work continues to encourage the growth of their fine motor skills by tracing and writing, while continuing to enforce the parts of a tree.
Preschool Lesson:
Our younger Blossoms not only learned about trees this week, but they also studied leaves with Ms. Sam! They learned the different parts of a leaf – blade, veins, petiole, and stipules. Children observed leaves up close to observe the parts. We also made leaf rubbings and watercolor resist leaves.
Kindergarten Lesson:
Our older Blossoms continued their plant studies in Kindergarten Lesson with Mr. John! They studied trees, leaves, and flowers! In Handwriting, children practiced connecting letters together on the baseline to write words in cursive, this was very exciting stuff! In Writer’s Workshop, our young writers continued their work of writing true stories.
Enrichment Spotlight – Science with Mr. John!
Our science experiment this week was about density. Mr. John placed blue food coloring in a bottle of water, and then added baby oil. We shook and shook and shook the bottle to mix the water and oil, but they just won’t mix! Water is heavier than oil!
Peek Into Indoor Recess!
Playing Red Light, Green Light with Aspen! We love to play Duck, Duck, Goose!
Peek Into Next Week!
Focus Lesson: Fall!
Preschool Lesson: Halloween!
Kindergarten Lesson: Telling Time
Bring Your Parent to Work Day! – https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-cblossom
Important Dates:
Friday, October 28: Trunk or Treat!
Friday, November 11: Parent/Teacher Conferences – No School for Students https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-20225
This week the Cherry Blossom Class continued their study of Animal Classification by focusing on Amphibians! We learned the characteristics of an amphibian: vertebrates, cold blooded, wet/moist skin, born from jelly eggs, live in the water and on land. We also learned the life cycle of a frog and the parts of a frog. Ask your child about the life cycle of a frog, they all know it!
This child traced and labeled the parts of an amphibian. What beautiful work!
Preschool Lesson:
Our younger Blossoms learned about the different types of amphibians this week. They studied frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and axolotyls! They talked about what makes each amphibians different and how they are the same. Ms. Sam also read Frog on a Log to the class and the children practiced their rhyming skills!
We created watercolor resist frogs this week. Aren’t they cute?
Kindergarten Lesson:
Our older Blossoms studied Animal Classification this week during Kindergarten Lesson. They learned the characteristics of a horse, turtle, frog, bird, and fish! They learned the last of the curve letters in Handwriting and will be reviewing these letters next week. Reader’s Workshop and Writer’s Workshop continued hard work!
Reading group with Ms. Kelley! These Kindergarteners are working hard on isolating ending sounds!
Enrichment Spotlight – Music with Ms. Lisa!
Practicing piano and forte by singing our favorite song, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt.
Peek Into Worktime!
This younger Prescchooler is tracing lines and then writing her own, from ladybug to ladybug. Tracing lines helps develop fine motor skills and gives children the foundation for beautiful penmanship. This Preschooler is practicing Copy Writing. Copy Writing gives the child the opportunity to copy words or sentences given to them in order to practice handwriting.This child is writing numbers from 1 to 100. Writing numbers gives children the foundation for beautiful penmanship. Montessori emphasized that writing comes first, then reading.
Peek Into Next Week!
Focus Lesson: Trees
Preschool Lesson: Leaves
Kindergarten Lesson: Parts of a Plant
Important Dates:
Wednesday, October 19: Bring Your Parent to Work Day! 1 spot left! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-cblossom1
Friday, October 28: Trunk or Treat!
Friday, November 11: Parent Teacher Conferences – No School for Students.
This week we started talking about Animal Classification! We introduced Vertebrates and Invertebrates. We learned that Vertebrates have a backbone and are classified into 5 main groups – mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and fish. We learned that Invertebrates do not have a backbone and are classified into many groups. We introduced some of the groups, but will focus on insects and arachnids this school year.
We added Vertebrate and Invertrbrate Cards to the Science area so the children could sort animals into their appropriate classifications. This Kindergartener completed some Copy Writing to share some information about Invertebrates.
Preschool Lesson:
Our younger Blossoms learned about spiders this week! They talked about the life cycle of a spider, the parts of a spider, they counted spiders, and made spider books. We were very excited to make the connection between our Invertebrate lessons and our Spider lessons! And there was a visit from a friend of Mr. John’s…
We added spiders to our Ten Frame Counting work this week. This preschooler found a spider web on the playground and was so excited to see an egg sac in the middle of it!Mr. John brought Charlotte, the Chilean rose tarantula, down to our classroom so we could observe the parts of a spider. We enjoyed getting a close up look at how the spider moved and pointing out the legs and spinnerets. We found out that Charlotte uses her venom to turn her cricket dinners into a goo like applesauce!
Kindergarten Lessons:
Mr. John introduced Kindergarteners to Land and Water Forms this week. My favorite landform is an island… somewhere warm. Ms. Tonya introduced our older Blossoms to curve cursive letters this week, practicing a, d, and g. Then they surprised Ms. Tonya by writing cursive words all week long!
In Reader’s Workshop, the children continued to be sound detectives to sound out words and reviewed color sight words. In Writer’s Workshop our young authors completed their first writing unit where they learned to be writers and learned how to make books! We wrapped up the unit by sitting in the author’s chair and reading one of our books to the group!
So proud of our young writers and how well they did sharing their books to the class!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
A huge Happy Birthday to our Ms. Sam!
Peek Into Work Time!
This young preschooler is sorting apples by color. Early experiences in sorting things into groups help young learners to better observe how things are alike and different—essential early literacy and math skills.This preschooler is using the Tens Board to compose numbers. This work helps a child to connect name, quantity, and symbol for the numbers 11-99This Kindergartener is working with the Vowel Tree. The Vowel Tree is a tactile, engaging way to teach and practice decoding words. This manipulative can be used with beginning readers to more advanced readers. Originally developed as a Montessori material, the vowel tree reinforces skills for all learners; tactile learners, auditory learners, and visual learners.
This week we studied pumpkins in preparation for our trip to Ramseyer Farms! We talked about the life cycle and parts of a pumpkin. We also tasted some more delicious treats – this time all pumpkin flavored! Using our 5 senses we determined that most pumpkin treats look brown, smell like pumpkin, sound like nothing, feel squishy, and taste delicious! Thank you again to all of our parents that donated special snacks to our class, we appreciate you!
Pumpkin Pie was definitely a thumbs up!This Pumpkin Bread was absolutely delicious!Everyone’s favorite part of the Pumpkin Roll was the cream cheese! We wrapped up our 5 senses taste testing with Pumpkin Cupcakes!
Preschool Lesson:
Our younger Blossoms also learned about pumpkins this week! We sang pumpkin songs, danced pumpkin dances, read pumpkin stories, traced pumpkin shapes, and created a special pumpkin craft that you’ll see on the bulletin board very, very soon!
Kindergarten Lessons:
Our older Blossoms discussed where they live in the world with Mr. John this week. They learned that our galaxy is called the Milky Way and promised to bring Mr. John a Milky Way candy bar! They reviewed planet, continent, country, and state. They also practiced their address and completed learning how to form swing letters in Handwriting. Kindergarteners continued to grow in both Reader’s Workshop and Writer’s Workshop! They were sound detectives and practiced reading color words and number words with Ms. Kelley, while they worked on finishing their informational books in Writer’s Workshop with Ms. Tonya. Next week, our writers will read their books to the class and bring them home!
Enrichment Spotlight – Music with Ms. Lisa!
We have settled right back into our music lessons with Ms. Lisa. We have reviewed our vocabulary words of piano, forte, adagio, and allegro. We sang some of our favorite songs and marched around the room.
Check Out Our Handwriting!
Our Handwriting area of the classroom is full of tools to help us learn how to write. This week many of our Blossoms chose to practice Handwriting with the dry erase board. You’ll notice many different stages of Handwriting in a Montessori classroom. Our younger students will begin with the letters they find in their name. Once they are comfortable with that we will introduce them to their names in cursive. Our older students work on each cursive letter individually, and finally learn how to connect cursive letters to form words!
