Peek In Our Week | Mr. John’s Class | Week of January 29, 2018

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Cultural Subjects:
Your children can count to ten in 19 different languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, and Kiswahili).

 

Sister Love!

 

 

 

Line Time:
This week we learned about Internal Organs.  We learned the brain is the control center of your body that sends and receives.  Our lungs help us breathe, the heart pumps our blood and the stomach begins to digest our food with acid.  The small intestines digest the food and send nutrients to the rest of our body and the large intestines push through the waste that creates our bowel movements. The children were fascinated that our kidneys process the body’s water and the liver filters toxins, that’s why is important to take lots of water, even when you’re outside home, which you can do if you get a branding custom water bottle from https://customwater.com/.  The children learned where the organs are located with the help of our Living Internal Organ T-shirt.  The shirt helped the children find the organs location by velcroing the organs to the spot on the t-shirt. 

 

Internal Organ T-shirt Work:

 

 

Peek In The Classroom:

“Movement, or physical activity, is thus an essential factor in intellectual growth, which depends upon the impressions received from outside. Through movement we come in contact with external reality, and it is through these contacts that we eventually acquire even abstract ideas.”– Maria Montessori…… In the classroom gross motor movements would include movement around the room (moving tables and chairs, walking), lifting and pouring, practical life activities like window washing or table scrubbing, walking the line. We try to go outside for recess as much as possible but we have the gym in the event of inclement weather.

 

These two students are working on the Bead Chain (7) and were excited to lay the chains out and do the work.They went into the hallway so they had more space for the long chains. (These chains help children learn linear counting, skip counting and multiplication.) These two girls worked together on the seven chain, and were very proud of themselves when they finished putting out the number tags and writing down each multiple of seven.

Next week we will be surprising them with a special party for all the good behavior during the last weeks. Everything is regarding the expanding of their creativity, so there will be walls just for them to paint, lots of materials to put new things together, huge puzzles on the floor and boardgames for them to try them out, also a couple of jumpers from Jumper’s Jungle Family Fun Center, as every kid loves to jump and have fun in one of this awesome entertainment systems. Also there will be food for the day, all green and colorful with fruits and vegetables to motivate them to eat correctly and healthy as well as having fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These students are working on my Continent Box (N. America) which includes flags and pictures of landmarks from countries from that continent. These students are matching the landmarks to the countries flag. They figured the matching by themselves.

 

I ring the bell to get the students attention. Usually the ringing of the bell is to ready for line time or a transition. When the bell rings the students “stop, look, and listen”. They catch a bubble to be quiet and use safe hands then I give directions. These students are using safe hands but hammed it up for the camera and were not able to catch a bubble while laughing.

 

 

 

 

 

What’s In Store For Next Week:

Line Time For Week Of 2/05/2018: Pollution/Recycling
Letter Of The Week:  S s
Rhyming Word Of The Week:  bup
Language:  Welsh will be added

 

And Beyond:

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++++   Daddy/Daughter, Mommy/Son Dance — Saturday February 10, 2018, 2 pm to 4 pm  ++++

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An email was sent for information for the second round of Parent Observations

Follow the link below to sign up to observe in my classroom.

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-mrjohns3

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Valentine Day Party on 2/14/2018- 1:00pm to 2:30pm

Follow the link for the information.

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-mrjohns4

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Peek Into Our Week | Mr. John’s Classroom | Week Of 1/22/2018

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Cultural Subjects:
Your children can count to ten in 18 different languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, and Irish).

 

Happy Birthday:
A Montessori Classroom has a mixed age groups of children ages 2.5 to 6 years old. Here is our newest 4 year old student, our newest 6 year old student, and our newest 3 1/2 year old student.

 

 

 

 

 

Saying Good Bye:
It is always sad to say good year to a friend.  It was this boy’s last day at Absorbent Minds Montessori School complete with a pizza party!

   

 

Line Time:
This week we looked at the skeletal system and if we didn’t have a skeleton we would be one messy blob on the ground (insert a flagellant sound).  We learned the skull protects our brain, the rib cage protects our lungs, and the spine keeps us sitting and standing straight.  We learned technical terms for our arms, leg and our digits which is a funny name called phalanges. We brought our life sized foam puzzle into our room.  His name is Elvis because we learned about the pelvis and it was a cool rhyming name.

 

 

Peek In My Room:

This student is working on the United States Puzzle Map. This material’s purpose is to identify the location and shape of the individual shapes of the states. The control chart will help in the naming of the states. This student has traced the states and is labeling the name on the traced states.

 

This Kindergarten Students is drawing and labeling our skeleton work “Elvis the Pelvis”. Doing this in her Kindergarten Binder reinforces this lesson of identifying parts of the Skeletal System.

 

In the Montessori Classroom some of my older students go through a right of passage by losing teeth and they are very proud of this life event. How much does a tooth go for now a days?

 

This child has completed doing the Nine Tray. The reason for this picture is how he is putting away the material. The child in a Montessori Classroom is taught to choose a work, work with the material correctly, complete the lesson, and put away the material where he found it.

 

Upcoming Events:

Line Time For Week Of 1/29/2018:  Internal Organs
Letter Of The Week:  R r
Rhyming Word Of The Week:  but
Language:  Kiswahili will be added

##### Daddy/Daughter, Mommy/Son Dance — Saturday February 10, 2018, 2 pm to 4 pm #####

An email was sent for information for the second round of Parent Observations

Follow the link below to sign up to observe in my classroom.

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-mrjohns3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peek Into Our Week ** Mr John’s Class ** Week Of January 15, 2018

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Cultural Subjects:
Your children can count to ten in 17 different languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, and Hungarian).

 

Line Time:
We started to learn about our body and how it works.  We learned about our five senses (touch, hearing, sight, smell, and taste).  Did you know you can “feel” with any part of your body? Of course parents know that.  Who has not stepped on a Lego in bare feet and screamed in pain? But we associate touch with our fingers (hot/cold, hard/soft, rough/smooth).  We hear loud noises, quiet noises, high and low noises, “Are we there yet?”.  We need light to see and if we close our eyes we can’t see.  The lights being turned on at 5 am on a Saturday morning.   There are good smells like cinnamon, vanilla and bad smells like a dirty diaper and vinegar.  My favorite was the taste test where we tasted sweet (sugar water), salty (salt water), sour (pure lemon juice), and bitter (unsweetened baking chocolate).  The children enjoyed “most” of the tastes.  Hehe

The pictures in order from our line time taste test.  Students not sure about the taste of sour (concentrated lemon juice).  A mad dash to spit out the salt water.  Really diggin the sugar water.  And she can not get the bitter, unsweetened baking chocolate out of her mouth fast enough.

               

 

Take A Peek Into Our Room:

These students are having a fun time working with the Knobless Cylinders.  The direct purpose is to observe and compare the different series with each other (there are for boxes).  The indirect aim is getting a clearer understanding for the different dimensions (height and diameter) and their interplay.  In this case they are creating different patterns from a template.
The Montessori classroom is not your typical classroom and  it is very unique as are the students in the room.  As you can tell with the above picture (notice the tutu around the neck).  Each child progresses at their own pace and this is not what we call a cookie cutter classroom and each child is treated as an individual.
The Co-Teachers (Kathleen and Sabrina) do a lot!  Every day classroom assistants in a Montessori  classroom are integral support staff to insure that children have an authentic Montessori experience. An effective assistant supports the teacher, helps prepare and maintain the environment, observes behaviors, and models grace and courtesy.  They also preserve and protect lessons,  assist in the development of independence classroom, assist with lessons with the lead teacher to prepare and maintain an orderly, attractive, and joyful environment. They are another pair of observant, attentive eyes and ears. Classroom assistants are also crucial in modeling courteous and respectful behavior as well as contributing to the warm, supportive, and calm atmosphere that is the essence of a Montessori classroom.

 

 

 

Looking Into The Future:

Line Time For Week Of 1/22/2018:  The Skeletal System
Letter Of The Week:  Q q
Rhyming Word Of The Week:  bub
Language:  Irish will be added

^^^^^ Daddy/Daughter, Mommy/Son Dance — Saturday February 10, 2018, 2 pm to 4 pm ^^^^^

An email was sent for information for the second round of Parent Observations

Follow the link below to sign up to observe in my classroom.

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-mrjohns3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language:  Irish will be added

Peek Into The Week | Mr. John’s Classroom | Week of January 8th, 2018

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Girls Just Want To Have Fun– and so do boys…   Sometimes we just get goofy in the classroom.

           

 

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can count to ten in 15 different languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, and Korean).

Happy Birthday:
A Montessori Classroom has students ranging from 2.5 to 6 years of age.  Here are the newest 5 year old students.

 

Peeking Into The Classroom:

Doing Chores in the Montessori Classroom is a staple activity. Here you can see students emptying the trash, sweeping the floor, and wiping the table tops.  Everyday a child is given a different task to do.   Doing chores helps the child enhance focus and confidence, gives them a sense of accomplishment, gives them self-reliance and purpose, increases empathy by learning to be responsive to others’ needs, instills a work ethic, and improves a sense of belonging.

This student is working on equations with the Stamp Game. The Stamp Game is a tool for learning and reinforcing knowledge of the four maths operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It is just more abstract, yet concretely demonstrates the maths process to students that are ready for this material. This student is working on equations of multiplication, with multiple carry overs in all columns. For example 654 x 6.

This student is working on one of my Science Boxes (frogs and toads). She is reading a book on frogs and toads and has four pieces Jelly eggs, tadpole, froglet, and frog. She puts them in order to reinforce the life cycle of a frog/toad.

Here are two friends working on the sandpaper numbers. The aims of sandpaper numbers are to give the child a sensorial impression of the form of the symbol. To show the succession of numbers. To show base 10 Recognition of numerals 0-9 Preparation for writing numbers.

Upcoming Stuff:

Line Time Lesson: The 5 Senses

Letter Of The Week: P p

Rhyming Word Of The Week: bun

Reminders:
Family Trees
Recess Attire
Chinese New Year

***  NO SCHOOL Monday 1/15/2018  ***

 

 

 

Peek At Our Week ** Mr. John ** Week of December 18, 2017

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Happy Birthday:

A Montessori classroom hast students aging from 2 1/2 to 6 years of age. These are my two newest six year old students.

 

Peek In Our Week:
I just wanted to say your children did a great job at the Christmas Show!!!!  Those two songs they sung were very difficult pieces to sing.  The church I attend has an extremely accomplished music program and the Men’s, Women’s, Children’s  (age 8 to voice changing for boys) sing these songs on Christmas Eve to a packed house.  Very seasoned choristers that practice five hours a week. I wanted to do something different and the set up for this year’s show gave me that opportunity.  I felt these Carols were very beautiful songs and the students would be more than qualified to pull it off.  The soloists that did Past 3 O’ Clock did a very fine job.  My daughter, niece, and nephew were all soloists for this song at age 12, my youngest son did it at age 9. I was so impressed the two 6 year old students did so well.  I do want to thank all of the staff involved from teachers practicing with the children to the office staff securing the location to mapping out EVERYTHING that needed to be done.  Of course, I wanted to thank the parents for everything you did including taking your children to the restroom before the show.  The Absorbent Minds Montessori School Family is truly a special one.

 

Peek Into The Next Work Week:

Winter Break ENDS:  Wednesday 1/3/2018  :))

Line Time:  Reintroducing Ground Rules

Letter Of The Week:  N n

Rhyming Word Of The Week:  bob

Start bringing in the family trees.

**Students will need snowpants, winter coat, gloves or mittens, hats, and boots to be able to go out for recess.**

 

 

Peek At Our Week | Mr. John | Week Of December 11, 2017

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Line Time:
We kept practicing for The Christmas Show and learned about Christmas traditions from around the world. 

 

Peek Into The Classroom:

These students are having fun with the Trimonial Cube. As you can see they just did the outer wall of this material. This is another extension that the children can create different versions of materials.

 

This picture depicts a seasoned reader reading to a younger student. My readers have to accomplish two things before mastering a book. 1) read the story fluently and 2) give details of the story.  I start out with reading the Hooked On Phonics books then the students graduate to my “Max” books. When those are mastered I introduce chapter books such as Magic Tree House, Billy B Brown and / or Jack books.

 

This student is preparing the snack to share with the class. The student that brings snack for the week prepares her snack for week. This is a Practical Life skill. The Practical Life area enhances fine motor skills, concentration, and life skills such as pouring, folding, scooping, and excuse my sophomoric humor, cutting the cheese. hehe

 

The direct purpose of the sandpaper letters is to teach the child the sounds of the alphabet by means of auditory, muscular, and visual memory. Also, memorization of letter sounds plays a part in learning the letter sounds.

 

Peek To Next Week:

We will still be focusing on the holiday season.

December 20, Wednesday:  Pajama Day/ Show and Tell (no weapons)

December 21: Winter Break Begins  :))

January 3: Winter Break Ends  :((

Students will need snowpants, winter coats, hats, gloves, and boots to go outside for recess.

Peek In Our Week / Mr. John / Week of December 4, 2017

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Line Time:
Your children are busy little carolers practicing for the Christmas Show.  We also leaned a few fun traditions of Christmas around the world.

 

Cultural Subjects:
The Montessori classroom consists of 2 1/2 year old students to 6 year old students.  Meet our newest 5 and 6 year old students.

    

 

Peeking Into The Classroom:

This is a lunchtime scene. Every student scheduled in the morning is included with lunch. This is new this year and a great change to the schedule. Lunch is a time for socialization. Lunchtime has three main purposes which are socialization, table manners, and time management. The first two are self explanatory but time management may need an explanation. Time management includes time for socialization and eating their lunch. Also, the student has to manage eating healthy food before treats.

 

Another picture from lunch is a student opening a bag. We encourage students to be self sufficient when opening bags, bottles of water, or string cheese. If the student is unable we ask them to go to three students before a teacher. “Three before me” is what the teachers tell the students.

 

This work is a creation made from the red rods found in the sensorial area and the number rods which is found in the Math area. As you can tell the biggest rods on the bottom and the smallest towards the top to create a square based pyramid. Notice the square based pyramid that is part of the material called the geometric solids (which are three dimensional shapes) on top of this creation. The students found the relationship once again.

 

These students are working on the bead chains which the main purpose is linear counting and skip counting. In addition to linear counting, the bead cabinet provides a concrete representation of abstract mathematical concepts. While children at this age are not able to verbalize these concepts, they can represent them. Through the use of the bead chains, number squares and cubes, and numeral arrows, the bead cabinet concretely demonstrates: skip counting — 10, 20, 30, 40, . . . 1000, multiples, squared numbers: six 6s = 36 , cubed numbers: ten 100-squares = a thousand cube.

 

Peek Into Next Week:

Practicing for the Christmas Show and learning about Christmas around the world.

Christmas Show Attire: Red and/or white

December 13: Christmas Show Practice 6 pm to 8 pm at Cuyahoga Falls High School

December 15: Christmas Show 6:30 pm to 8 pm at Cuyahoga Falls High School (NO AFTERCARE)

December 21: Winter Break Begins  :))

January 3: Winter Break Ends  :((

 

 

Peek In Our The Week| Mr. John| Week Of November 27, 2017

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Line Time Lessons:
‘Tis the season for the Christmas Show practices.  We started to practice and will be practicing for the next few weeks.  My class is trying something a little different this year.  We are going in the “Way Back Machine” to Merry Old England and performing two traditional carols.  They are a bit different in melody but I know our extraordinary students will be able to pull it off.

 

Peek Into My Classroom:

We had a pair of alumni come in to visit, read, and tell our students about their experience at their new school. You’re not seeing double they are twins.

 

This student is working on one of her her assignments in her kindergarten binder. She is working on her 100 page. This where she writes from 1 to 100. Then 101 to 200 and so on. This develops her concentration, betters her handwriting, and helps her recognize patterns.

 

This student is working with money. She already knows the value of each coin and now she is counting change.  She is also familiar with “paper money”.

 

We have discussed the visual discrimination of the Pink Tower and Brown Stairs but this child has found the relationship between the two materials. Students will match the corresponding pieces of these material. This student did match the the corresponding pieces but he took it to another level and made this creation.

 

This happy boy is proud of his accomplishment with the Ten Board. The purpose of this material is to associate quantities with symbols(1 ten is 10, 2 tens is 20…). He has learned how to include “units” with the “tens” to compose numbers from 11 to 99. As you can see he has four 10’s and five units to make 45.  It looks like he discovered a pattern by composing 23, 34, 45…

 

Peek Into Next Week:
Christmas show practice and we will learn about different Christmas Traditions from around the world. 

Upcoming Events:
Christmas Show Attire: Red and/or white

December 13: Christmas Show Practice 6 pm to 8 pm at Cuyahoga Falls High School

December 15: Christmas Show 6:30 pm to 8 pm at Cuyahoga Falls High School (NO AFTERCARE)

December 21: Winter Break Begins  :))

January 3: Winter Break Ends  :((

Peek At Our Week| Mr. John| Week Of November 13, 2017

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Line Time Lessons:
 We traveled back in time and discovered some fascinating things about certain dinosaurs.  We learned that dinosaurs no longer exist and that they are extinct.  We know dinosaurs exist because scientist found their bones or fossils.  From these fossil we saw that some teeth were long and sharp to tear flesh from it’s prey which belonged to meat eaters or carnivores (T Rex).  Some teeth were flat for grinding plants, leaves, and branches and belonged to plant eaters or herbivores (Brachiosauras).

Cultural Subjects:
We can now count to ten in 13 different languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, and Hebrew).

Peeking Into My Classroom:

 

We had an alumnus come in on her day off from school. She is in the 6th grade and came in to read to our class and help with lessons. I asked why she came back to her old school and she told me she had such a great experience she wanted to come back and give back to the school. Her words not mine.
Metal Insets are a popular material found in the Language area. This work has many purposes. The main purpose is to prepare the child for handwriting and improve the fine motor skills. Also, it introduces the child to Geometry and the names of a variety of shapes.
The chalk board is found in the Language area. The main purpose, obviously, is the introduction to handwriting. I like my students using chalk because most like the feel and can erase if a mistake is made. After my classroom students may not have an opportunity to use chalk. This student is getting a lesson from our University of Akron field student.
The students are drawn to this material that are photographs of familiar objects and the become aware of the relationships between things. We discuss the associations and point out other examples in the everyday world. This increases the child’s experience and vocabulary.
The 100 board simply a board with 100 squares (10 x 10 squares), that come with 100 number tiles that fit nicely. The Hundred Board is useful for number recognition, number sequencing, counting, patterning, possibly skip counting (depending on your method) most of all it’s perfect for just reinforcing the understanding of numbers from one to one-hundred. Notice this child is not only placing the numbers in order but she is randomly finding where the tiles go. She has identified the pattern of this work.

 

Peek To Next Week:

Line Time Lesson:
 Thanksgiving and Pilgrims

Letter Of The Week:
 M m

Rhyming Word Of The Week:
bop

Upcoming Events:
11/21/17 (Tuesday): Harvest Party/Stone Soup

11/22/2017 (Wednesday): NO SCHOOL. Happy Thanksgiving

11/22-11/26/17: Thanksgiving Break

11/25/2017  Noon:  The Game!