Category Archive for "Classroom Corners" | Absorbent Minds Montessori School

Ms. Kate’s March 2016 Newsletter

Posted on April 12, 2016 at 3:46 pm.

March was a busy month for us. The children had fun talking about Dr. Seuss, learning about different artists, and exploring the Rainforest. We also had fun celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day.

The first week was all about Dr. Seuss. Throughout the week the children came to school dressed in crazy & mismatched socks and hats and Wacky Wednesday! The first few days we concentrated on rhyming activities; the first activity was a rhyming ball game. I placed different words onto a ball and the children had to throw the ball to one another. When a friend caught the ball they were able to pick out a word and identify another word that rhymes with it. The children loved this activity! During the second activity, I wrote out a number of sentences from The Cat In The Hat and placed note cards at the end of every other sentence. The children had to guess what word was under the note card that rhymed with the last word of the sentence. I was super impressed at how well they knew the rhyming word! Throughout that week we went down in the kitchen and cooked green eggs and ham and then had a taste test, for this we used the best cooking utensils and knives from https://www.all-knives.org. We then graphed who liked what better. For the last activity we focused on four sight words, “I, and, the, & that.” Four students came up at a time. As I was reading The Cat In The Hat my four friends had to keep a tally on the sight words that we were looking for. At the end of the book we counted up the tally marks to see which sight words were used most in the story. At the end of the week the children made a Cat In The Hat hat to celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday. It was a very fun week!

The theme for our second week was, Art Appreciation. This week we focused on different artists and their works. The children were able to create their own works from the artists they learned about. The first day we learned all about Claude Monet. We discussed landscapes and why he chose to only draw them. We also learned about oil pastels and how to blend them. The children then created their own landscape while using oil pastels. On the second day, we discussed Pablo Picasso and his different Periods. The children learned about his Blue period and how he was very sad. We also talked about his Rose period where he fell in love and became very happy and all of his paintings were a rosy hue. We then went over his angry period, where all of his paintings were a bit scary. I showed them how he would drew faces in a different way and how all of his drawing were different. The children then drew self-portraits of themselves, cut their pictures up and created their own Picasso with Ms. Ame. The next thing we learned about was Vincent Van Gough. The children learned the history behind his art, they were also able to explore his different paintings and why he painted certain paintings the way he did. The children then created their own 3D Sunflower portrait! They also had a lot of fun learning, exploring, and doing different types of art with Ms. Ame!

Then we had fun exploring the Rainforest. The children learned about the four layers of the rainforest which are The Forest Floor, The Understory Layer, The canopy Layer, and the Emergent Layer. The children learned about which animals and creatures lived in which layer. We also went over the insects and animals they would find and why they are becoming extinct. Throughout this lesson we also talked about things that we use that come from the rainforest such as wood for our furniture, fruits, coffee beans, and rubber to make rubber bands. For the preschool lesson, Ms. Ame did awesome rainforest art projects! We also had a very special leprechaun visit our room. The children had so much fun going on a shamrock hunt and finding all of his gold coins he left for them!

The last week of March we had fun learning about our five senses. The first day the children learned about hearing and how the ear works. We also listened to an awesome cd that played different environment sounds where the children had to guess what the sounds were. We then learned about touch and the children had to place their hand in the mystery bag and guess the item that they were touching. We also had fun learning about taste where the children got to taste something sweet, salty, sour, and bitter! We then played a take away game that explained all about sight, and lastly the children had to place a blindfold on while smelling different smells such as bananas, vanilla, lemon , peppermint, orange, and cinnamon. I loved seeing all the children’s facial expressions!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe spring break! See you in April!

Academic Enrichment | Kindergarten
In March we began our focused reading groups for our kindergarten students. Kindergarten students are meeting with Ms. Kate on Monday and Wednesday mornings. Students read through a classic work of literature, discuss and have activities each week. These activities have included dramatizations, creative writing and art projects. It has been a wonderful program, our students are gaining so much!

Ms. Kristen begins our afternoon academic enrichment lesson with handwriting lessons and practice. Students have been doing wonderfully!

We capped off our lessons in geometry by learning our geometric solids (Cube, sphere, cone, rectangular and triangular prisms, ovoid, ellipsoid, cylinder, square and triangular based pyramids.

The kindergartners started their section in Language. We will be learning about the parts of speech until the end of the year. We went over vowels/consonants, and nouns and verbs. A noun is a person , place, or thing. A verb is an action word or something you do. We the learned there are three articles. They are A, An, The. We learned rules when we use those articles. A hooks up with consonants, an hooks up with vowels, and the hooks up with anything.

The Kindergartners now can count to 10 in twenty six languages…English (that is our native language), Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic w/Lebanese dialect, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Hebrew, Swedish, Korean, Polish, Hungarian, and Tagalog, Polish, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemish, Serbo-Croatian, Cebuano, Malay, Hindi.

Ms. Ame’s Corner

In Music last month Ms. Lisa reviewed the story of Peter and the Wolf. The students continued to identify the names of the different instruments used and were able to identify which instrument sound was each character. They all enjoyed the story with the accompaniment of Ms. Michelle’s clever artwork to go along with it. One week she brought in her keyboard and the students identified the animals with their instrumental sound. They acted out each part along with the music. Ms. Lisa also demonstrated with her various instrumental sounds for the students to recognize. She also reviewed the Baby BumbleBee song, ask your student to sing it with you at home. Ms. Lisa brought her synthesizer piano another week and had the students listen and guess the different noises it could make. We also played one of the students favorite games, Cat and Mouse. This game has the students listening to different sounds to know when their animal can enter the house. The students also got a chance to play the white and black notes on the piano, what a treat!

In Science last month Mr. John had the students participate in some fun experiments that had the students using their scientific thinking skills. He started the month off with a groovy lava lamp experiment. Mixing water, food coloring and oil, Mr. John created a lava lamp! Then the students created a hypothesis about what would happen if they added an alka seltzer tablet. Ask your student what happened to the bottle. On St. Patrick’s Day Mr. John did an experiment exploring surface tension. The students came up with a hypothesis of what food coloring would do in milk,and what would happen when soap was added. Before Spring Break Mr. John did an experiment with corn startch and water. The students created a hypothesis about what would happen. The 2 mixed together created a substance that was liquid when there was no pressure,but when squeezed it turned into a solid! Check your child’s folder on Thursdays to see the directions to repeat the experience at home and to see you child’s hypothesis.

In Art last month Ms. Michelle taught the children about art from around the world. This month all of our art will be used at our International Festival. Please leave these wonderful creations on our art rack. Michelle started with India. The students colored an intricately designed elephant while taking turns having their hands cut out of clay. Using water colored with the spice turmeric, the students decorated their clay hand mimicking Hena designs. Ms. Michelle also took the kids on a trip to parts of North America and introduced them to Native American weaving. The students worked on creating their own weaving project with some help. The weaving was a little difficult for our tiny fingers, so it took a couple weeks to finish this project. Look in the hallways as Ms. Michelle will be displaying her weekly art projects along with a description.

Ms. Courtney’s March 2016 Newsletter

Posted on April 12, 2016 at 3:25 pm.

Written by Courtney Owens

Classroom

We started off the month of March talking about Dr. Seuss and Eric Carle. The children loved coming to school dressed up with their hats, silly socks, and wockets in their pockets! We enjoyed reading Green Eggs and Ham and watching the students cringe as they tried their first bite of their very own green eggs and ham.

The second week of March we learned all about insects. The children learned how to identify animals belonging in the insect category and those that do not. They learned the main parts of an insect and the preschoolers made a beautiful diagram to display in the classroom.

For the third week of March we talked about plants and flowers. The children discovered the four elements needed to grow a plant soil, seeds, sun and water. They also learned the word photosynthesis! We planted flowers to watch grow in the classroom.

The last week of March we talked about butterflies and caterpillars. Students had a blast learning about how butterflies go through stages of growth and change called a life cycle.

I hope everyone enjoyed their spring break and is ready to get back into the swing of things!

Kindergarten

The kindergartners started their grammar unit by learning their five vowels and what isn’t a vowel is a consonant. We learned a fun song to the tune of BINGO there are five letters that I know and vowel are their name O’s A,E,I,O,U A,E,I,O,U A,E,I,O,U and vowels are their name O’s. Then we looked at noun and verbs. Nouns are people, places, and things. Verbs are action words or something you can do. We also learned that there are three articles, a, an, the. We learned that “a” hooks up with consonants, “an” is very picky and only hooks up with vowels. And “the” is not picky at all and hooks up with anything!

Science

For the first week of March we made our own oobleck. Oobleck is a non-newtonian fluid; it has properties of both liquids and solids. We learned that we can slowly dip our hands into it like a liquid, but if we squeezed it it felt solid. The name oobleck comes from the Dr. Seuss book, “Bartholomew and the Oobleck.”

The second week of March we made a hoover craft using a CD, balloon and water bottle cap. The air flow created by the balloon caused a cushion of moving air between the disc and the surface of the table. This made the CD lift and reduced the friction which allowed the disc to hover freely over the table.

The last two weeks of March we talked about how in every seed there is a tiny plant and food to help it grow. Using paper towels and plastic bags we germinated bean seeds. The children learned that when a seed first starts to grow it is called germination. The kids learned that germination can be done without soil. After we germinated our bean seeds and saw the seedlings we planted them in soil.

Art

By: Ms. Faith

We continued our journey through different cultures and places this month with Ms. Michele. The students learned about India and the tradition of henna tattoos. Henna is made from a spice, turmeric, and is used to draw temporary intricate designs and patterns on the skin for celebrations and special occasions. Ms. Michele showed us a video demonstration of someone drawing a henna tattoo. The week before the students got to trace their hands into clay and cut out the shape to make a replica of their hands. After seeing the video, the students were able to use markers to draw designs and patterns on their clay hands to look like the henna tattoo in the video. After learning about this Indian tradition, the students were introduced to an American Indian tradition of weaving. Ms. Michele showed the students a video of how Navajo Indians sheer sheep and use the wool to make yarn. It then showed a lady using a loom to weave a blanket. Ms. Michele made little looms out of popsicle sticks and string for the students to weave with yarn of their choosing. I know the children will be excited to see what cultures we’ll be learning about next month leading up to our International Festival.

Music

By: Ms. Faith

To start off March, Ms. Lisa reviewed the characters and instruments of Peter and the Wolf. The students had to remember the instruments by listening to them and the got to pretend to play that specific instrument. Then, they had to remember what character the instrument represented and it’s song and got to pretend to be that character. The students enjoyed acting like the characters from the story. Ms. Lisa introduced the musical terms of staccato and legato to the class. Staccato are notes that are played short and quickly and legato are notes that are played smoothly and connected. The students got to dance to music with scarves while listening to a song that played staccato and legato notes. The group quickly picked up on what movements to use when they heard the notes being played staccato. They jumped and skipped around moving their scarves in this manner as well. When the song started playing legato, they would twirl and danced slower and moved their scarves around in a flowing motion. Another activity that Ms. Lisa shared with the students is one of their favorites, a game called Cat and Mouse. One student is the cat and the rest of the students are the mice. When Ms. Lisa plays a song on her piano using high notes, the mice have to move into the “house” to get the cheese, then when she plays the song in low notes the cat has to move into the “house” and try to tag as many mice as he/she can. When mouse is tagged, he/she becomes a mouse as well. The game continues until one mouse remains untagged. This game is a great way for the students to recognize high and low notes while having fun. We look forward to our next music lesson!

Mr. John’s March 2016 Newsletter

Posted on April 12, 2016 at 3:23 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

And I wonder…..

The chorus of a great song by that great, Chicago based, punk band Naked Raygun. Do you “wonder” about really really random stuff like me? For instance, I have asked myself the question how many tons of paper clips are produced in the world each year? To go along with that, is how many tons of staples are produced? Is it even tons? I don’t know , although I bet I could google it! My favorite daughter, (or as she would reply “I’m your only daughter”) wonders about things as well. She wonders if horses would be happy jumping in a bouncy house or where do railroad tracks begin and end. Although, she also has more profound inquiries. She wonders why the universe wasn’t created one year, one month, one day or one millisecond earlier or later than it was created. I asked my oldest son if he wonders and he just stared at me with a blank look and left the room. My youngest son wonders how much gum he can shove and chew in his mouth at one time or how long can he go without wearing socks or not taking a shower. (Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that boy’s brain! Then I realize I really don’t want to know). Then I go back wondering how many tons of BB’s are produced each year…

Line Time Lessons
Our students “wonder” too! We want to give them every opportunity to explore in the classroom and learn how they can answer all of their “wonders”.

The month started off by going back in time and studying the Ancient Romans. The Ancient Romans had similar Gods as the Ancient Greeks. The king of all Gods in Rome was Jupiter and his wife Juno who was the Goddess of Marriage and childbirth. Pluto was the God of the Underworld, Neptune was the God of the Seas, and finally we came across the God of War, Mars. Did you notice that a lot of these Gods had planets named after them?

Geometry at it’s finest!!!

(Inspecting rocks with a magnifying glass. Both wet and dry rocks)

Plug your noses we are entering the pollution zone. Pollution is TOXIC! We all agree that pollution is a bad thing. All pollution including air , water, land, and noise pollution. We learned how we could help our environment by using the 3 R’s.. Reduce, reuse, and recycle.

I spy with my little eye Friends working together

Writing rhyming words

Hold your breath (not because it stinks) but we are jumping into the ocean. The salty, deep, vast oceans. We learned about the several amazing animals that live in the ocean. We do not want to mess with a shark or get too close to a jellyfish. But clown fish are cool and the grouper has two eyes on one side of its face. We got reacquainted with the mammals of the oceans, dolphins, whales, and the orca.

(Sisters working on the 100 board) (Working with the continents)

(Bro power!)

We ended the month by learning about our own state of Ohio. The students were first taught how to spell Ohio. OH-IO ! We learned that the flag of Ohio is the only flag that is not the shape of a rectangle. The official nickname of Ohio is the Buckeye State and the Buckeye Tree is the official tree of Ohio. The white tailed deer and trilobite are the mammal and fossil of Ohio. We found a theme of the color “red/scarlet” for the rest of the official things of Ohio. The flower is the scarlet carnation, bird is the cardinal, insect is the lady bug and the official drink is tomato juice. The official rock and roll song is “Hang On Sloopy”

We had a field placement student, Lyndsey, from Stark State visit us. She said Absorbent Minds was one of the best field experiences she has had! Good luck in your studies Lyndsey!

(Lyndsey, our field placement student having fun working with our students!)

Cultural Subjects

We had a very cheeky visitor on St. Patrick’s Day. It is that same leprechaun named Shane O’Keefe that has been messing my classroom for the past several years. He flipped tables and chairs, threw materials throughout the classroom, but left chocolate eggs for the students and the teachers. Until next year Shane O’Keefe!

We now can count to 10 in twenty six languages… English (that is our native language), Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic w/Lebanese dialect, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Hebrew, Swedish, Korean, Polish, and Tagalog, Hungarian, Polish, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemish, Serbo-Croatian, Cebuano, Malay, Hindi

(2 Cents A Meal donation)

(Pastor Kirk reading to the children)

Kindergarten Lesson

We capped off our lessons in geometry by learning our geometric solids (Cube, sphere, cone, rectangular and triangular prisms, ovoid, ellipsoid, cylinder, square and triangular based pyramids.

…”Don’t know much about Geometry…” but our Kindergartners do!!!!

The kindergartners started their section in Language. We will be learning about the parts of speech until the end of the year. We went over vowels/consonants, and nouns and verbs. A noun is a person , place, or thing. A verb is an action word or something you do. We the leaerned there are three articles. They are A, An, The. We learned rules when we use those articles. A hooks up with consonants, an hooks up with vowels, and the hooks up with anything.

Music

In Music the children learned a new activity called Cat and Mouse. It sharpened their listening skills, both high and low. They also learned different sounds. The children played the keyboard, as well as learned to listen well for different sounds. They also learned movement songs.

Art

In Art the children made Henna on Hands sculpture and Weaving. Do talk to the children about these awesome classes?

Science

Magic Milk Rainbow (Surface Tension) and Bubbles in a Bottle (Density) were their Science experiments. They were so much fun!!

Swirling food coloring in milk-surface tension A closer look at a “lava lamp”

Science! If it ain’t messy, It ain’t fun!!!!

April 2016 Academic Enrichment Monthly Overview | Cuyahoga Falls Campus

Posted on April 6, 2016 at 12:00 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Our Academic Enrichment time is daily from 12:00-1:00pm. This time is specifically designed for our Kindergarten students to join together as a group to work and progress through the advanced materials and lessons in the Montessori primary curriculum. Throughout the school day in their classroom they are still working individually with their classroom teacher on these and other materials at their level.

Reading Group (Junior Great Book Program):
In March we began our focused reading groups for our kindergarten students. Kindergarten students are meeting with Ms. Kate on Monday and Wednesday mornings. Ms. Kate will keep you updated, most work will be sent home on Wednesdays and will need returned the following Monday for their next lesson.

4/04: Introduction to Pronouns

Rules of the pronouns
Worksheets, kindergarten worksheets, grammar symbols, diagramming sentences

4/11: Introduction to Adjectives

Rules of the adjectives
Worksheets, grammar symbols, diagramming sentences

4/18: Introduction to Adverbs

Rules of the adverbs
Worksheets, grammar symbols, diagramming sentences

4/25: Introduction to Conjunctions

Rules of the conjunctions
Worksheets, grammar symbols, diagramming sentences

Mr. John will be sending homework home to reinforce these lessons. Please turn homework into the BLUE box outside of Mr. John’s classroom. Please email him if you have any questions: jkotradi@thesmarterkids.com.

Ms. Courtney’s April 2016 Monthly Overview

Posted on April 6, 2016 at 11:59 am.

Written by Courtney Owens

What I will learn this month (in addition to Montessori Work Time…)

4/4: Continents & Countries | International festival

The children will learn about the geography, culture, and language of North America and South America.

4/11: Continents & Countries | International festival

The children will learn about the geography, culture, and language of Europe and Africa.

4/18: Continents & Countries | International festival

The children will learn about the geography, culture, and language of Asia and Australia.

4/25: Continents & Countries | International festival

The children will learn about the geography, culture, and language of Antarctica.

We will be practicing individual lines and songs in class in preparation for the Festival, please practice your line at home too!

*For the month of April, we will be concentrating on preparing your child for the International Festival and will resume letters and rhyming words of the week in May.

Ms. Kate’s April 2016 Monthly Overview

Posted on April 4, 2016 at 7:58 pm.

Written by Kate Case

What I will learn in class this month (in addition to Montessori Work Time…)

4/04: All About North America

Introduction to the seven continents
North America: countries, culture, climate
United States, the flag and it’s history, Christopher Columbus
South America: countries, climate, culture, landmarks, The Equator, The Andes Mountains
The Amazon/What is found in the Rainforest (animals, products we use that come from the rainforest)

Afternoon group lessons: Various fun crafts with Ms. Ame

4/11: Asia

China- Learning the different greeting, customs, and traditions. Having fun with different crafts from China, and learning about their flag
Japan-learning the different greetings, customs, and traditions. Learning about their flag and having fun with crafts from their country
India and Thailand. Learning the different, greetings, customs, and traditions. The children will have fun doing various crafts and dances from these countries.
Asia: countries, culture, climate, languages and cuisine. We will cover historical landmarks like the Great Wall of  China, and locating natural landmarks like the Himalayan Mountains on a map.

Afternoon group lessons: Variety of activities and crafts about the different countries.

4/18: Asia

Russia: Learning the different greetings, customs, and traditions. Having fun with crafts from their country
Lebanan: Learning the different greetings, customs, and traditions.
Turkey: Exploring Turkey through books and videos. Learning their different greetings, customs, and traditions.
Philippines: Exploring this beautiful place through books. Learning about their different greetings, customs, and traditions.

Afternoon group lessons: Having fun learning about the different states of the USA.

4/25: All About Australia

New Zealand : Learning about their different greetings, customs, and traditions. Aslo learning about landmarks and climate, and cuisine.
Tonga: Learning about their different greetings, customs, and traditions.
Fiji : Learning about their different greetings, customs, and traditions.
Somoe: Learning about their different greetings, customs, and traditions.

Afternoon group lessons: Flags of the world.

*For the month of April, we will be concentrating on preparing your child for the International Festival and will resume letters and rhyming words of the week in May.

Things to do at Home this Month to reinforce our themes:

While reading a book have your child point to all of the letter of the week she/he can find. Have them do this with the sight words as well. Play I‐Spy using things that only start with the letter of the week/ sight words.
As a family, come up with a food or dessert that authentic from a different country and make it together.
Pretend to go on a trip. Place chairs in the middle of the room (as your plane), bring a map! Point to a country and fly there!  Talk about the animals you would see, the weather, people and anything else you would see or experience!
We will be practicing individual lines and songs in class in preparation for the Festival, please practice your line at home too!

April 2016 Academic Enrichment Monthly Overview | Tallmadge Campus

Posted on April 4, 2016 at 7:38 pm.

Written by Courtney Owens

Reading Group (Junior Great Book Program):
In March we began our focused reading groups for our kindergarten students. Kindergarten students are meeting with Ms. Faith on Monday and Wednesday mornings. Ms. Faith will keep you updated, most work will be sent home on Wednesdays and will need returned the following Monday for their next lesson.

4/4: Continue Pronouns

Rules of the pronouns
Worksheets, grammar symbols, diagramming sentences

4/11: Introduction to Adjectives

Rules of the adjectives
Worksheets, grammar symbols, diagramming sentences

4/18: Introduction to Adverbs

Rules of the adverbs
Worksheets, grammar symbols, diagramming sentences

4/25: Introduction to Prepositions

Rules of the prepositions
Worksheets, grammar symbols, diagramming sentences

Synonyms of the week

4/4: NICE, friendly, courteous, good, pleasant, charming

4/11: SNEAKY, underhanded, dishonest, tricky, secretive, sly

4/18: BRIGHT, shiny, glowing, dazzling, lighted, vivid

4/25: DULL, dark, dreary, somber, boring, tedious

Sight Words

4/4: that

4/11: not

4/18: see

4/25: big

Things to do at home this month to reinforce our themes:

Look for our words of the week when reading a story, cut out pictures beginning with the letters of the week.
Practice using the different synonyms of the week in a sentence together.
Practice identifying different parts of speech when reading together.

Explorations of Elementary

Posted on March 4, 2016 at 9:15 pm.

Written by Kelly Andamasaris

Explorations of Elementary – February 2016

The month of February brought an exciting buzz to the classroom as students prepared to lead a conference for their parents. We call this event Student-Parent-Teacher Conferences and they are held once each year. In order to prepare for this conference students complete a form detailing what they have been working on, what they feel they have successfully learned, what they will continue working on, and their goals, this is a full classroom walkthrough given to the parents. These forms are filled out for all subject areas in our classroom (Language/Grammar/Reading, Math/Geometry, History, Biology, Geography, and Enrichment Studies – Music, Art, Latin, Physical Education). Then the forms are used as a script for students to read to their parents at the beginning of their conference. Students also practiced presenting materials from the preschool programs so they could become the “teacher” for their visiting parents and demonstrate how and what they have learned in our Montessori environment.

Student-Parent-Teacher Conferences are a wonderful way to reinforce with the children that their education is their responsibility and they must take ownership of it. This is a central theme in our classroom, as we strive to teach the children about the value of hard work and perseverance, and the joy of learning. If the children take ownership of their education and are expected to present their knowledge and understanding of concepts learned, they begin to see the results of their efforts and can truly see their accomplishments, this is one of the main reasons why we like to read them Motivational Quotes for Students every day. The results we see are greater intrinsic motivation to excel, the development of a strong work ethic, and personal awareness of strengths and weaknesses. The natural desire is to present their best work is a strong motivator in any human being, and this motivation is what propels us to work towards goals and succeed.

(Chinese Dragons made in Art Class)

Our research continued this month as children in our human body research group began tracing themselves and adding internal organs to their body outlines. They are learning the basic functions of organs and how they all work together to help our bodies work efficiently. Be on the look-out for these hanging around our hallways soon!

Our Ancient Civilization research has led us through the interesting land of the Nile, Egypt. The presentations on this civilization were fabulous! Some students created elaborate head pieces and necklaces, complete with “gold” trimmings. Others were fascinated with hieroglyphics and learned to write their name using the ancient symbols. Still other students found the way in which Egyptians kept cool and smelling nice to be interesting. In their research they discovered Egyptians would melt beeswax, flowers and essential oils together and mold in into a cone. They would wear this cone on top of their heads (which were usually shaved) and it would melt, dripping down their head and neck. The scent from the oils and flowers would radiate, and the wax kept them cool. A few other students were appreciative of the invention of paper, first made by the Egyptians out of papyrus plants. They decided to make their own papyrus paper.

Reading Groups have finished their books (Helen Keller, Robinson Crusoe, and Hatchet). They are now working on their class presentations. This will be a culminating project involving aspect of the stories they read and will be presented to the entire class.

Our Wax Museum is right around the corner and we invite everyone to come see us on Tuesday March 15th at 6:00pm. We will be representing famous Americans who contributed something positive to American History. Students wil l be dressed up as their chosen American and they will present themselves as each person visits their display. Please come support our students! They have been working very hard to prepare for this spectacular event!

Ms. Courtney’s February 2016 Newsletter

Posted on March 4, 2016 at 9:11 pm.

Written by Courtney Owens

Classroom

The First week in February we had a blast talking about all the different types of farm animals and what each farm animal provides for us. We talked about where milk comes from and what else we can get from farms like fruits, vegetables and grains.

The second week of February the children learned about all the different types of pets and how to care for them. To wrap the week up the children made Valentine’s Day boxes and had a blast at their Valentine’s Day party. I would like to thank all of the parents who made the party possible! As always it was very successful.

The third week of February the children learned how Washington was a great man, the father of our country, who led in war and peace. They discovered that Abraham Lincoln was also known as “Honest Abe”. They also talked about what they think life is like for the Obama family in the White House.

The last week of February we did a sorting activity with different objects of foods with a dental hygienist. She explained that our teeth get sad and full of tooth decay from sweets and soda and get happy and shiny and bright from brushing and eating healthy foods.

Kindergarten

We started out the month continuing with multiplication using the golden beads. The introduction of beads shows the kindergartners a solid correspondence between the written symbol and physical quantity. We also discussed what tools could be used in the classroom to help with multiplication, such as the stamp game, multiplication bead board and dot board. We even talked about dynamic multiplication with exchanges (carry overs). We introduced fractions. We learned that we can divide anything as long as it can be divided into equal parts. Even our kindergarten class can be divided! We then learned about different shapes. We knew that a triangle has three sides but we learned that a triangle with three equal sides is called an equilateral triangle, with two equal sides is an isosceles, and with no equal sides it is called a scalene triangle. Any shape with four sides is a quadrilateral. Some examples include a square, rectangle, rhombus, trapezoid, and a chevron. We learned all about agons like pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, nonagon, and decagon.

Science

Children believe that if their hands look clean, they are clean. So we decided to do an experiment on the power of germs and the importance of hand washing. We took two slices of bread and wiped our clean hands on one slice and our dirty hands on the other slice. Mold grew on both slices, but much sooner and more abundantly on the dirty slice. This experiment helped us understand that the germs became food for the mold. Although is dangerous to have a lot of mold on your house, we recommend to call an expert like mold remediation miami to get rid of the mold.

For our second experiment in the month of February we put an egg in salt water and an egg in ordinary water to see the difference. Since the salt water was denser than the ordinary water, the egg floated in the salt water.

The last week of February we did a leak proof bag experiment with colored pencils and a Ziploc bag. We learned that we could stick a bunch of pencils right through the bag of water without spraying water everywhere. This is because when we punctured the bag with the sharpened pencils, we were essentially separating polymer chains without breaking them. The long chains of molecules squeezed in tight around the surface of the pencils preventing any sort of leak.

Art Article (By Ms. Faith)

In February, the students got to participate in some great art projects with Ms. Michele. We started off the month with a piece of art inspired by Ezra Jack Keats’ book The Snowy Day. Keats started out illustrating books and then decided to write and illustrate books with African-American and other minorities being the main character. In his book The Snowy Day, a young boy, Peter decides to explore in the snow after the first snow of the season. While he is out exploring, Peter makes tracks in the snow, makes snow angels, and many other fun things. Ms. Michele then had the students draw a picture of what they would do on a snowy day. To create the snow in their drawings, the students pulled cotton balls apart to make it look like they were playing in fluffy snow. Some of the students drew pictures of themselves sledding, having a snowball fight, and building snowmen. The next week our art teacher started off a series of projects based off of different cultures to gear the students up for our annual International Festival in the spring. We learned about the Chinese New Year and watched a traditional lion and dragon dance that are part of the celebration. The young artists got to make their own Chinese dragons or lions out of paper cups and decorations like pipe cleaners, sequins, feathers and different kinds of paper. While creating their pieces of art, the children got to practice their scissor skills by cutting paper into different shapes to decorate their dragons or lions. Our next adventure with Ms. Michele will lead us to India where we will learn about the tradition of Henna tattoos and get to create our own tattoos on clay hands.

Music Article (Ms. Faith)

To start off this months music activities, Ms. Lisa wrapped up her unit on Peter and the Wolf by having the students pretend to play the instruments that were played for each character and then they got to act like the different characters. The students absolutely loved this activity! Throughout the rest of the month, Ms. Lisa reviewed each of the notes with the students and how to sing in a high and low voice. Some of the instruments we got to use where rhythm sticks, bells, and castanets. Ms. Lisa uses a lot of movement along with the instruments in her lessons, which helps the students develop their coordination and gross motor skills. The young musicians got to march in a parade to Yankee Doodle while playing the rhythm sticks, gallop while playing either bells or castanets, and got to have a scarf dance. Music class is not only a fun experience for the students, but provides cultural experiences as well as brain and muscle development. We appreciate all the thought and love that Ms. Lisa puts into each lesson.

Ms. Kristen’s February 2016 Newsletter

Posted on March 3, 2016 at 4:26 pm.

Written by Brandy Franks

The month of February was very busy in our classroom! We learned about types of transportation, all about arctic animals, our Presidents (past and present), and all about dental health! We also had fun celebrating Valentine’s Day! Thank you to all our parent volunteers and helpers, and especially Ms. Kim for making our party such a success!

During the first week of February, we discussed trains, boats, buses, and trucks and other forms of transportation. We recommend if you you’ve applied for a commercial truck insurance quote and you want to know what to expect price-wise? Click here to visit truck insurance comparison for free. The children especially enjoyed the “ Sink or Float” experiment in afternoon group time. We also discussed which forms of transportation go in land, air, and water. We also discovered that the children are very interested in boats, and had many questions about them! We discovered there many way to get from one place to another!

We learned about many different types of arctic animals during the second week of February. The children learned how many arctic animals have a layer of blubber underneath their skin and how is keeps them warm at night. They also learned the male Emperor Penguins take care of their eggs while the female Emperor Penguins go and search for food. The children also enjoyed learning about Arctic Wolves, Polar Bears, and Beluga Whales. The children especially enjoyed making a Penguin craft with Ms. Kim during afternoon group lesson.

During week three, we learned all about Presidents. We discussed the president’s job is to be the leader of our country. We also learned about the sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. We also talked about George Washington and how he was the first President of the United States. We also learned that George Washington’s picture is on the quarter and the dollar bill. Abraham Lincoln’s picture is on the five dollar bill and the penny. Some of the children also took it upon themselves to write the names of the presidents in order during work time.

We learned all about dental health during the final week of February. When we are young, we only have twenty teeth! Later, when we become adults, we have twenty-eight-thirty two teeth! We also learned the proper way to brush our teeth and what foods are healthy for our teeth. The children also enjoyed making a craft with Ms. Kim during Preschool lesson where they made a mouth with construction paper and marshmallows for teeth! The children also enjoyed visiting an orthodontist, who taught us how to brush our teeth and why we don’t need to be scared when we go to the dentist.

Academic Enrichment Afternoon Lesson with Mr. John
We started out the month introducing addition using beads. The introduction of beads shows the kindergartners a solid correspondence between the symbol and quantity. I also showed the students what tools could be used in their own classroom to help with addition, such as the table top rods, color bead bars and addition strip board. We briefly touched upon addition with exchanges (carry over’s). We then touched briefly on multiplication. I explained multiplication is simply adding multiple times. Introduced fractions the last week of the month. We learned that we can divide anything as long as it can be divided into equal parts. Even our kindergarten class. We divided our class from girls/boys. Mr. John’s, Ms. Kate’s, and Ms. Kristen’s class, and eye color.

Multiplication Equation

We then learned about different shapes. We knew that a triangle has three sides but we learned that a triangle with three equal sides is called an equilateral triangle, with two equal sides is an isosceles, and with no equal sides it is called a scalene triangle. Any shape with four sides is a quadrilateral. Some examples include a square, rectangle, rhombus, trapezoid, and a chevron. We realized that the Greek language was very important when learning about the pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, nonagon, and decagon.

The Kindergartners now can count to 10 in twenty six languages…English (that is our native language), Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic w/Lebanese dialect, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Hebrew, Swedish, Korean, Polish, Hungarian, and Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Polish, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemish, Serbo-Croatian, Cebuano.

Ms. Kim’s Corner:

In music class this month the children sang hello to Alley the Alligator and Frieda the Frog. We reviewed the musical words for loud, soft, slow, and fast! To review the story, Peter and the Wolf, we acted out the characters in the story. Once the children heard the musical instrument, they acted like the bird, duck, cat, wolf, Grandpa, or Peter! We remembered this story very well. Next, we reviewed the whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes. The children clapped the beats of the notes first. Then Ms. Lisa had the children use rhythm sticks to practice these notes in songs like “Grandfather Clocks” and “Yankee Doodle.”

Our first science experiment this month required a can of Coca-Cola and a can of Diet Coke. The children made hypotheses on what would happen to each can of soda when dropped into a tank of water. Would they sink or float? We discovered that the regular can of Coca-Cola sank and the Diet Coke floated. Mr. John explained that the regular can of soda has real sugar which is denser, so it sinks.

Our next experiment involved Bran Flakes cereal and magnets! Mr. John mixed the Bran Flakes cereal and the water into a plastic Ziploc bag. He explained to the children that the cereal contained the metal iron. The children made hypotheses on what would happen when a magnet was rubbed over the cereal. We saw black spots when the magnet was rubbed over the cereal. These black spots were the iron. So yes we eat metal!

Our last experiment of the month was called, “Dancing Raisins”. Mr. John asked the children what they thought would happen when raisins were dropped into a glass of ginger ale. Most of the children said that the raisins would either sink or float. Well we were surprised when the raisins sank but then floated back to the top! In ginger ale, there are carbon dioxide bubbles. These bubbles grabbed onto the raisins and carried them to the bottom, but once the bubbles popped the raisins floated back to the top.

At the beginning of the month, Ms. Michele read the students the book, The Snowy Day. Then they created a snowy day picture by first gluing down cotton balls as snow. Next they drew themselves playing in the snow. As a final touch, Ms. Michele let the students sprinkle on a little glitter on their snowy pictures.

Next the students created art that would get them thinking about the International Festival. Ms. Michele had the students watch a video on the Chinese New Year. In this video there was dragons and lions dancing to celebrate the new year. Ms. Michele had the students create a lion or dragon by decorating two already glued paper cups. They got to be creative and put feathers, construction paper, pipe cleaners, crayons, markers, and eyes on these creations!

Lastly, please take time to practice with your child what they are learning here at school. Ask your child about their favorite President of the United States. Take a trip to the Zoo to visit some of the artic animal, such as the Polar Bears and Penguins, and discuss which one is their favorite and why. Practice good dental hygene with your child by practicing brushing their teeth correctly with them. Take a trip on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad together as a family.

Maria Montessori stated , “If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man’s future. For what is the use of transmitting knowledge if the individual’s total development lags behind?” I am so proud to be part of a school where we teach not only letter sounds and and numbers, but a sense of order, concentration, coordination, and independence. These qualities are the most important skills a child can learn at an early age, and I love watching your children grow closer to mastering these every day! I am so proud of all of our students hard work this past month and I consider it a privilege to be their teacher!