A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!

We have had a super busy week in the Cherry Blossom room!  Our focus was on clouds and rainbows, and we completed so many fun science experiments as we learned about these awesome parts of nature!

Ms. Sam introduced us to the order of the colors in a rainbow.

We used sunight and prisms to create rainbows on the wall of our classroom!  We learned that raindrops and prisms work the same way by bending the sunlight to reveal the colors!

We know that clouds are water droplets that stick together, but then how does it rain?  We saw that when the cloud gets too heavy or too full of water then the drops fall down!

We learned about the three main types of clouds that we can see in the sky.  Cirrus and Cumulus clouds generally mean good weather but Stratus clouds cover the sky like a blanket and generally bring rain.  We’ve been checking the sky all week to see what types of clouds are up there.

This experiment was definitely their favorite.  Maybe you could try it at home too!

That sneaky little leprechaun caused some mischief!

We were quite surprised to come inside from recess and find that a sneaky little leprechaun had visited our classroom!

What have the 3 year olds been up to in our mixed age classroom?

This group is all about the sensory based works!

This child is working with both the Brown Stairs and the Pink Tower to build extensions.  You’ll notice that the Brown Stairs are still built from thick to thin and the Pink Tower is still built from big to small.

This child is working with all four knobbed cylinder blocks.

This child is beginning to learn how to write individual letters with our sandpaper letters and our sand tray.

Our 3 year olds are beginning to work on writing their names!  We are focusing on the first letters at this time, and they’ve started writing that first letter on all of their papers!

Peek Into Next Week!

Focus Topic:  Spring and Seeds!

Letter of the Week: Qq & Zz

Number of the Week: 18 & 19

Important Dates:

March 24: Elementary LIVE Wax Museum – 6:00-7:00pm

March 28-April 1: NO SCHOOL – Spring Break!

April 18: NO SCHOOL – Easter Monday

May 4: International Festival Rehearsal

May 6: International Festival

A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!

A HUGE thank you to all of the families that attended our Breakfast Club this morning!  It was so nice to spend some time with families and friends before our school day began.  We enjoyed joining conversations and hope the All About Mom and Dad papers made you smile!  And a huge thank you to everyone for making my birthday special as well!  My heart is full today!

This week we talked about weather!  We learned that weather is what we see outside, and that it can change throughout the day!  We also learned that temperature is the way it feels outside.  We briefly dicussed different types of weather and will continue to do so all month long as we fill in our March weather graph.  What type of weather do you think we’ll have the most of this month?

We also talked about the water cycle this week, learning big words such as: collection, evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.  We started a science experiment in our room that can show us all of the steps of the water cycle, and we’ll keep talking about this cycle next week as we take a deeper look at clouds.

What have the 5 year olds been up to in our mixed age classroom?

This child is working with the Trinomial Cube.  She has practiced building the cube in the box and on the lid, and is now working with the pieces of the cube on the table.

This child is composing large numbers with the Golden Bead material in our classroom. We break numbers down into units, tens, hundreds, and thousands and then the child can use the bead material to build that number in a concrete way.

This child is using the moveable alphabet to write words without pictures.  We were focusing on making “at” and “in” word families with known words and nonsense words.

This child has been working with individual sandpaper letters and is now working with the sandpaper letter blends to practice connecting letters together while writing in cursive.

This child is working with our 3 part cards.  3 part cards include a control card with picture and word, a picture card, and a word card.  The child will lay out the control cards, then match the pictures cards to the control cards, and finally match the word cards.  We use 3 part cards in the Language, Geography, and Science areas of the classroom to build upon our focus lessons.

International Festival News!!!

The Cherry Blossom Class will be studying the continent of AFRICA for the International Festival.  We’ll be diving right in after Spring Break so make sure your child signs up for the country that they would like to represent by Friday, March 18th!  

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-country2

Peek Into Next Week!

Focus Topic:  Spring, Clouds, and Rainbows!

Letter of the Week: Bb

Number of the Week: 17

Important Dates:

March 24: Elementary LIVE Wax Museum – 6:00-7:00pm

March 28-April 1: NO SCHOOL – Spring Break!

April 18: NO SCHOOL – Easter Monday

May 4: International Festival Rehearsal

May 6: International Festival

A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!

“Congratulations!   Today is your day. You’re off to great places!  You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.  You have feet in your shoes.  You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

You’ll be on your way up!  You’ll be seeing great sights!  You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights! 

Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best.  Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Oh, the places you’ll go!  There is fun to be done!  There are points to be scored.  There are games to be won. 

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know.  You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. 

So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. 

And will you succeed?  Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed!)

KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

You’re off to Great Places!  Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. 

So… get on your way!

– “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!’ by Dr. Seuss

Dear Parents,

Thank you for assisting us with a fun, silly, wonderful, fantastic week with your child!  This book brings tears to our eyes as we think of all the amazing places this group of children is going to go!  We love your kiddos!

– Ms. Tonya & Ms. Sam

Peek Into Next Week!

Focus Topic:  Weather and Clouds

Letter of the Week: Ww

Number of the Week: 16

Important Dates:

March 11: Breakfast Club!

March 24: Elementary LIVE Wax Museum – 6:00-7:00pm

March 28-April 1: NO SCHOOL – Spring Break!

April 18: NO SCHOOL – Easter Monday

May 4: International Festival Rehearsal

May 6: International Festival

Bring Your Parent To Work Days: Come observe your child working within the classroom to see what their day looks like!  Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-bring7

A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!

We continued learning about Our Earth this week.  We focused on land and water forms, such as lake, island, cape, bay, gulf, and peninsula.  We also talked about what would we would see if we could cut the Earth in half.  We found out that there are different layers inside the Earth.  The inner core, the outer core, the mantle, and the crust!

We also continued our study of habitats this week, focusing on the ocean, the savannah, and the desert.  We participated in a science experiment with Ms. Sam, introducing us to the different zones of the ocean.  We were most interested in the Twilight Zone and a special animal – the Vampire Squid!  We watched a special Octonauts episode to learn even more about the Vampire Squid.

Enrichment Spotlight – ASL with Ms. Emily!

Ms. Emily was so excited to hear that we were learning about habitats!  She told us a story about forest animals, all with ASL!  Then we discussed the story we saw her tell and practiced signing with her!  It was a wonderful ASL lesson this week!

Peek Into Next Week!

Focus Topic:  Dr. Seuss!

MONDAY: Wear Crazy Socks!

TUESDAY: Wear a Hat!

WEDNESDAY: Dress Wacky!

THURSDAY: Wear Green!

FRIDAY: Dress like what you want to be when you grow up!

Letter of the Week: Ll

Number of the Week: 15

Important Dates:

March 11: Breakfast Club!

March 28-April 1: NO SCHOOL – Spring Break!

Bring Your Parent To Work Days: Come observe your child working within the classroom to see what their day looks like!  Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-bring7

A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Our week started with a Valentine’s Day celebration.  We wore our pajamas, voted for what movie we would like to watch, enjoyed and sang Encanto, and enjoyed some special treats!  A huge THANK YOU to our parents that donated supplies for our fun celebration!  We can’t wait to do this again!

Our new Focus Topic is Our Earth and we learned so many new things this week!  We introduced the globe this week, and talked about the equator, Northern Hemisphere, and Southern Hemisphere.  We also learned that our planet is made up of land, air, and water and that is what living things need!  Preschool lesson introduced us to some different habitats and we started a new book to bring home!  We can’t wait to share all we’ve learned about habitats with you!

Enrichment Spotlight – Science with Mr. John!

This week we made hypotheses about buoyancy with Mr. John and experimented with sinking and floating pop cans!

Peek Into Next Week!

Focus Topic:  Our Earth and Habitats

Letter of the Week: Ff

Number of the Week: 14

Important Dates:

February 18: NO SCHOOL – Teacher Inservice Day

February 21: NO SCHOOL – President’s Day

March 11: Breakfast Club!

March 28-April 1: NO SCHOOL – Spring Break!

Bring Your Parent To Work Days: Come observe your child working within the classroom to see what their day looks like!  Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-bring7

A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!

The Cherry Blossoms had a very busy week this week!  We excitedly learned about DINOSAURS!  We talked about different kinds of dinosaurs, learned big words such as: carnivore, herbivore, extinct, and palentologist, and matched dinosaurs to their skeletons.  One of our friends brought a dinosaur book from home and read it to us!

This week we also talked about Valentine’s Day!  We hope that you enjoyed all of our special heart crafts that were brought home!

A Special Visit from a Dental Hygienist!

Ms. Taylor from Dr. Pollock’s office came to visit us on Wednesday.  She talked to us about how to take care of our teeth by brushing for 2 minutes twice a day, flossing, and using mouthwash! And then we were able to surprise her with how much we knew about Grow Foods and Sometimes Foods.

Enrichment Spotlight – Library with Ms. Cat!

Ms. Cat taught us about hibernation and migration this week during Library.  While we loved the books and songs she shared, what we loved most was meeting her cockatiel Ginger!  Since our class loves birds SO MUCH this was a very exciting visit with Ms. Cat!

Peek Into Next Week!

Focus Topic:  Our Earth and Habitats

Letter of the Week: Dd

Number of the Week: 14

Important Dates:  February 14: Valentine’s Day – Pajama Day & Show and Tell

February 18: NO SCHOOL – Teacher Inservice Day

February 21: NO SCHOOL – President’s Day

Bring Your Parent To Work Days: Come observe your child working within the classroom to see what their day looks like!  Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-bring7

A Peek at Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!

It may have been an unexpected short week (Hello Snow!) but we still managed to pack a lot of learning into three days!

We wrapped up our study of Healthy Bodies by talking about BONES!  We talked about skeletons – ours and other animals.  We learned the names of some of our biggest bones and discussed the important work that bones do, like keeping our bodies upright and protecting our organs.

February Holidays!

We learned about two February Holidays this week – Chinese New Year and Groundhog’s Day.  We made tigers to celebrate the Year of the Tiger and learned all about shadows with Ms. Sam.  We were VERY interested in shadows, which we think may need to make a come back in the lesson plans very soon! Next up is Valentine’s Day!

Recess Fun!

Recess was super fun this week!  We practiced our kicking skills in the gym on Monday, played in the snow on Tuesday, and had fun throwing and catching on Wednesday!

A Huge Cherry Blossom Welcome to our New Student!

Stay warm! Stay safe! And enjoy all of that snow!  See you next week!

Peek Into Next Week!

Focus Topic:  DINOSAURS and Valentine’s Day!

Letter of the Week: Uu

Number of the Week: 13

Important Dates:  February 14: Valentine’s Day – Pajama Day & Show and Tell

February 18: NO SCHOOL – Teacher Inservice Day

February 21: NO SCHOOL – President’s Day

Bring Your Parent To Work Days: Come observe your child working within the classroom to see what their day looks like!  Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-bring7

A Peek at Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!

We continued our study of Healthy Bodies this week by learning about Internal Organs.  We really had a lot of fun learning about what happens inside of our bodies and the special jobs our organs do.  Ask your child about the brain, heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys, and intestines.  I am sure they would love to share what they learned with you!

We also continued our study of Food Groups during Preschool Lesson with Ms. Sam.  We put together a fun Food Groups book so we can talk all about food groups with our families at home!

Happy Half Birthday to our summer birthday!

Enrichment Spotlight – Art with Ms. Varela!

Ms. Varela introduced us to a type of art called “figure 8’s”.  We used sharpies to create our shapes, markers to color our shapes in, and then oil pastels over the markers.  We really enjoyed this project!

The Birds Found Our Feeders!

Peek Into Next Week!

Focus Topic:  Bodies: Skeleton and Muscles; Chinese New Year; Groundhog’s Day

Letter of the Week: Kk

Number of the Week: 12

Important Dates:  February 14: Valentine’s Day – Pajama Day & Show and Tell

February 18: NO SCHOOL – Teacher Inservice Day

February 21: NO SCHOOL – President’s Day

Bring Your Parent To Work Days: Come observe your child working within the classroom to see what their day looks like!  Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-bring7

A Peek at Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!

What a week it has been!  We had some very exciting days at the beginning  of the week full of SNOW right after we finished our focus topic of winter!  Thank you Mother Nature!

This week we started a new focus topic – Healthy Bodies!  We discussed Healthy Habits that keep us healthy such as: eating healthy foods, drinking water, sleeping, moving our bodies, and good hygiene.  We practiced washing our hands, learned why its important to brush our teeth, and talked about how soap works.

During preschool lesson, we introduced the five food groups: proteins, grains, fruits, vegetables, and dairy.  We learned that proteins make us strong, grains give us energy, fruits and vegetables keep us healthy, and dairy keeps our teeth and bones strong.  We also discussed what we call “Grow Foods” and “Sometimes Foods”.

Happy Birthday to our newest 5 year old!

Enrichment Spotlight – Library with Ms. Cat!

We were able to visit Ms. Cat in the library this week to talk about snow!  We read The Snowy Day and then sang a special snowflake song.  We love visiting with Ms. Cat!

We Don’t Talk About Bruno!

As your children work throughout the day, they often sing to themselves.  And there’s only one song that we’ve heard the past few weeks… I am sure you can guess what it is!  So we had an impromptu “Encanto” dance party this week!  It was amazing!

Peek Into Next Week!

Focus Topic:  Internal Organs and Healthy Foods

Letter of the Week: Gg

Number of the Week: 11

Important Dates:  February 14: Valentine’s Day – Pajama Day & Show and Tell

February 18: NO SCHOOL – Teacher Inservice Day

February 21: NO SCHOOL – President’s Day

Bring Your Parent To Work Days: Come observe your child working within the classroom to see what their day looks like!  Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-bring7

A Peek at Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!

This week we discussed Hibernation, Migration, and Adaptation!  We talked all about animals that need to sleep through the cold months, the animals that move south where it is warmer, and the animals that grow extra fur or feathers so that they can stay here for the winter.  We learned that wood frogs almost freeze completely solid except for their hearts and lungs, arctic foxes fur can change from brown to white to help with camoflauge, and birds are not the only animals that migrate – humpback whales and caribou do too!

We also participated in our winter Wildlife Wednesday!  While discussing the types of birds that adapt to our Northeast Ohio weather we determined that it would be hard for them to find food.  Our solution was to feed the birds  that we often see outside of our classroom windows!  We hung up two bird feeders right outside our classroom and then made our own bird feeders to place in the bushes outside.  We are looking forward to bird watching all winter long!

All About Those Shapes!

My favorite part of the Montessori environment is that the children direct their own learning.  Our lesson plans said winter, but the students decided they needed to learn as much about shapes this week as they possibly could!  We spent many line times this week talking about sides and angles, as well as looking for shapes all over the school building!  We adore their excitement about the world around them!

Enrichment Spotlight – Music with Ms. Lisa!

We have been studying “Peter and the Wolf” during music class.  Each character in the story is portrayed by a different instrument.  We have enjoyed listening to these different instruments and acting out the story.

Peek Into Next Week!

Focus Topic:  Healthy Habits and Healthy Foods

Letter of the Week: Xx

Number of the Week: Making 10

Important Dates:  January 17: NO SCHOOL – MLK Jr. Day

February 14: Valentine’s Day – Pajama Day & Show and Tell

February 18: NO SCHOOL – Teacher Inservice Day

February 21: NO SCHOOL – President’s Day

Bring Your Parent To Work Days: Come observe your child working within the classroom to see what their day looks like!  Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-bring7