If Found, Please Return To Absorbent Minds Montessori School

If Found, Please Return To Absorbent Minds Montessori School

                                                                                IMG_20150210_073142

I often reflect on my career choices that I have made throughout out my 29 years of life.  I enjoyed my 9 years(part time) at Sears in the hardware and paint department, 5 years at Sterling was a “Sterling” time(pun intended), and my stints at Ameritech and Key Bank were pretty fun. I really did find myself when I was a stay at home dad for 5 years.  The best part was getting an uninterrupted view and getting to know my two oldest children.  They were ages 2 through 8 at that time.  During this time I realized my true calling was not in the business world but working with children.  Teaching does NOT feel like a job but more of a former of recreation I get paid. By the way, feel free to visit https://conquercollege.com/, it offers an amazing educational services which teachers and students can use for free just check it out Adelphi University. I am blessed to work with your children, getting to know your children As I did with my own children, watching them grow and learn to drive at best online traffic school california.  Ahhh, life takes you through a complicated maze but I am glad I ended up where I am! Get student learning apps if you go to this site. This helps students to rapidly learn.

 20150302_090453

Alumni Visit

Noah came to read to the class and had a question and answer session afterwards.  Noah goes to Tallmadge and is in the second grade in

 IMG_20150206_082919

Line Time Lesson

February we started off studying 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. 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.

IMG_20150211_092034

The following week we learned about George Washington and how he was our first president and how Abraham Lincoln came from a poor family and freed the slaves. We were introduced to Franklin F. Roosevelt and how he was president during World War II and how John F. Kennedy fought for equal rights. We then learned that Barack Obama was current president and the first African American president. The children were taught that the president’s wives are called the first lady and that the president lives in the white house in Washington DC, and flies on a jet called Air Force 1. We discussed what responsibilities the President has. The children came up with keeping us safe, keeping the world safe and running the country. Checking the statistics Hong Kong is the most expensive place to go to school it’s relevant news for all.
We went back in time to discover some ancient cultures. First we went to ancient Egypt and learned that their kings were called Pharaohs and when the Pharaohs died they used a process called mummification to preserve their bodies. We saw that the mummies on Scooby Doo were not the same as the mummies of the ancient Egyptians. The Pharaohs were sent to the afterworld with gold, jewels and treasured personal items. The ancient Egyptians built the pyramids and the sphinx and used hieroglyphics to write stories.

IMG_20150218_123237-1        IMG_20150224_135811
We visited Mt. Olympus and met some gods and goddesses. We met Zeus the god of the sky and the heavens. He rode a winged horse called Pegasus and is you angered Zeus he would throw a lightning bolt at you. We went to the depths of the ocean and met Poseidon. Poseidon was the god of the seas. He rode a chariot pulled by horses and carried a trident. Stay on the good side of him if you want to sail safely across the ocean. Then we met Hades the god of the underworld and of the dead. He liked when people died because he thought he would be stronger with more people to rule and he had a three headed dog on a leash. We discovered there were some very interesting mythical creatures in ancient Greece, the Centaur that had the body of a horse and chest and head of a man. The Cyclopes who were giant one eyed creatures who fought for Zeus and made Zeus’s lightning bolts. Finally we learned the name of the tree headed dog of Hades. It was known as Cerberus and it guarded the gates of the underworld.

20150303_094008     IMG_20150211_091433

Cultural Subjects

The class has been counting to 10 in twenty six different 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, and Cebuano.

IMG_20150226_143435

 

Kindergarten

We started out the month introducing addition using beads. The introduction of beads shows the kindergarteners 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.
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 Kindergarteners 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, Malay, Hindi

IMG_20150226_143800   IMG_20150226_143527

Enrichment

Science
For the month of February in Science class the children learned about buoyancy and Density all experiments were done with a tank of water.The buoyancy experiments were 2 clumps of play-dough exactly the same amount placed in tank at the same time by the children, one shaped like a cup and the other a ball which one will sink? The one shaped like a ball sank and the one shaped like a cup floated because the ball has more density then the cup.The other buoyancy experiment was done with 2 oranges 1 peeled and the other unpeeled what will happen when both put into the water by the children?The unpeeled orange floated and the peeled orange sank, Why is this? because the unpeeled orange has an air pocket inside it making able to float. In the density experiment 1 lemon and 1 lime were placed in the tank at the same time by the children what will happen? the lemon floated and the lime sank because the lemon has less density. As always the children have a awesome time in class especially when he flicks water on them from the tank and the all giggle like crazy.

IMG_20150209_124051

Music

In Music class this month Ms Lisa brought in her keyboard and played to them the instrument sounds from Peter and the Wolf. Children had to guess which instrument was being played and what animal the instrument belonged to.Then the children played a game called The Cat and Mouse, this is a listening game of low and high sounds. The low sound represents the cat and high sound the mice. When the high sound is played the children pretend to be mice and when the low sound is played they all pretend to be the cat. We also played another listening game called the Ball Game, they begin with one ball, while listening to classical music, pass the ball around in a circle and when the music stops the child holding the ball freezes still holding the ball until the music starts again and then the game continues. As the children improve more balls are added to the game. I must say that this game is a favorite because the ask to play it every week!  Ms. Lisa does a wonderful job incorporating fun while learning Music!

Art

Our favorite project this month was called Dancing Fingers. Students learned about the artist, Monet. They dipped their fingers in many different color paints and with dancing fingers made picture creations of what ever they could imagine! Then they added white paint to their creation to add the tint. This shows light on a picture, just like they learned Monet would have done.

IMG_20150213_102351      IMG_20150213_102538

Academic Enrichment March 2015 Overview | Cuyahoga Falls

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.

3/2:       Geometric Shapes and Constructive Boxes

  • Geometric Cabinet
  • Hexagon, rectangle and blue rectangle boxes, plus amazing candy boxes in portland or
  • Creating triangles, rhombus, trapezoid, parallelogram, squares, etc

 

3/9: Parts of Speech/ Grammar

  • Vowels, consonants and their rules

 

3/16: Parts of Speech/ Grammar

  • Introduction to nouns and their rules (name of a person, place, or thing)
  • Introduction to verbs and their rules (action word or something you do)
  • Vowels, consonants and their rules
  • Using worksheets, diagramming sentences and sandpaper letters

 

3/23: Parts of Speech/ Grammar

  • Introduction to the article
  • “the” hooks up with anything
  • “a” or “an”/ “a” hooks up with only consonants, “an” hooks up with only vowels
  • Using worksheets, diagramming sentences and sandpaper letters

 

Sight Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

3/02: write, them

3/09: then, out

3/16: they, that

3/23: have, this

 

Synonyms of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

3/02: WET, damp, moist, soggy, drenched, soaked

3/09: HEALTHY, hearty, athletic, sound, strong, fit

3/16: SICK, weak, unhealthy, ailing, infected, frail

3/23: MEAN, selfish, unkind, malicious, hurtful

 

 

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.

 

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

 


Mr. John’s March 2015 Monthly Overview

Themes of the Week  (in addition to Montessori Work time)

3/02:     Ancient Rome

  • Roman culture and traditions
  • Buildings and contributions

 

3/09:       Pollution and Recycling

  • What is pollution? Air, water, noise, littering
  • What is recycling? Ways to recycle
  • Ways to save energy
  • Arbor Day/Earth Day

 

3/16: Oceans

  • Ocean Life, Whales
  • Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
  • Salt water, fresh water
  • Art Extravaganza I Friday, March 14th 6:00-8:00pm : school gym & classrooms

 

3/23: Landmarks of the USA/The state of OH-IO

  • OHIO, surrounding state, state flag, flower, bird, state seal, historical landmarks
  • Landmarks such as Statue of Liberty, Mt. Rushmore, Golden Gate Bridge, and Grand Canyon

 

Week of  3/30   SPRING/EASTER BREAK-  NO SCHOOL

  • School Resumes Tuesday, April 7th

 

Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.

3/02: Vv

3/09: Ww

3/16: Xx

3/23:Yy

 

Rhyming Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

3/02: BEN, den, hen, men, pen, ten, yen

3/09: BEG, keg, meg, peg, leg

3/16: BEL, gel, mel, nel, sell, well

3/23: BAC, hack, jack, lack, mack, knack

 

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.
  • Play “I Spy” with items beginning with the letter of the week, or find things around your home that begin with the letter of the week.
  • What can you recycle at home? How can you conserve excess energy?
  • Take a trip to the Cleveland Aquarium together and explore ocean life!

Ms. Kate’s March 2015 Monthly Overview

What I will learn at school this month in Ms. Kate’s Class…

Themes of the Week (in addition to Montessori Work time)

3/02: All about Dr. Seuss

  1. Making and eating green eggs and ham together with graph
  2. Reading the “Cat in the Hat” and making a craft
  3. Rhyming word activities, mystery word activities using Dr. Suess books
  4. Silly Socks coloring graph

Afternoon Group Lesson: Reiterating the letter and calendar of the week. A variety of fun crafts and activities with Dr. Seuss.

3/09: Art Appreciation

  1. Claude Monet and his use of pastels
  2. Pablo Picaso and his collages
  3. Jackson Pollack and abstract expressionism
  4. History of Mosiac Art and sculptures

Afternoon Group Lesson: Reiterating the letter and calendar of the week. Learning all about art with Ms. Ashley

3/16: Rainforest

  1. Location of Rainforest and Rainforest themed experiments, activities and crafts
  2. Layers of the Rainforest (Emergent, Canopy, Understory and Forest Floor)
  3. Animals found in the Rainforest
  4. Products that come from the Rainforest

Afternoon Group Lesson: Reiterating the letter and calendar of the week. Learning all about the rainforest, animals and crafts with Ms. Ashley.

3/23: My Five Senses

  1. Hearing with a sound match game
  2. Sight observation and memory game
  3. Touch mystery bag game
  4. Taste test
  5. My sense of smell game

Afternoon Group Lesson: Reiterating the letter and calendar of the week. Having fun with my five senses with Ms. Ashley.

3/30-4/7 SPRING/EASTER BREAK

Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child. 3/02: Vv

3/09: Ww

3/16: Xx

3/23: Yy

Sight Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

3/02: this


3/09: they


3/16: said

3/23: from

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

  1. 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.
  2. Make “Cat and the Hat” Cookies together! Follow this link: http://familycrafts.about.com/od/drseusscraftprojects/a/ CatHatCookie.htm
  3. Create a family portrait together using the material discussed in class (oil pastels, mosaic, etc)
  4. Take a walk outside or in your home. Talk about the different colors you see all around you. Then create a picture of the colors 
and patterns you saw.
  5. Is there a Jungle in your Kitchen? Follow this link http://www.animaled.com/actrain.htm to find how many items in your kitchen come from the Rainforest!

 


Ms. Courtney’s March 2015 Monthly Overview

Themes of the week for the month of March

3/2: Dr. Seuss/ Eric Carle

  • The children become familiar with the similarities in an author’s body of work.
  • The children will gain an appreciation for the word play and rhyme featured in the work of Dr. Seuss.
  • The children will identify, produce and extend patterns.

3/9: Insects

  • The children will identify animals that belong in the insect category and those that do not.
  • The children will learn there are over five million different kinds of insects in the world.
  • The children will identify the main parts of an insect.
  • The children will learn ways insects can be helpful and ways insects can be harmful.

3/16:  Plants and Flowers

  • The children will discuss the four elements needed to grow a plant. Soil, seeds, sun and water.
  • The children will observe and describe similarities and differences in the appearance and behavior of plants and flowers.
  • The children will identify major structures of plants (seeds, roots, stems, leaves).
  • The children will understand the life cycle of plants and flowers and what they need to grow.
  • The children will discover that plants provide resources for clothing, food, and oxygen.

3/23: Butterflies and Caterpillars

  • The children will discover that butterflies go through stages of growth & changes called life cycles.
  • The children will design a butterfly of their own using shapes and creativity.
  • The children will create a mobile to represent each stage of the Life Cycle of the Butterfly.

Letters of the week

3/2: Uu

3/9: Vv

3/16: Ww

3/23: Xx

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

  • Talk to your child about their favorite Eric Carle or Dr. Seuss book and why they find that book interesting.
  • Visit your local library for a Dr. Seuss or Eric Carle reading.
  • Take a walk and see how many insects you can spot.
  • Plant a flower or garden.
  • Visit the Cleveland Botanical Gardens.
  • Take a walk and see how many butterflies and caterpillars you can spot
  • Make dinner with foods that start with the letter of the week.

Academic Enrichment March 2015 Overview | Tallmadge

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.

3/2: Geometric Shapes continued

  • Introduction to geometric shapes and constructive boxes
  • Geometric cabinet
  • Hexagon, rectangle and blue rectangle boxes
  • Creating triangles, rhombus, trapezoid, parallelogram, squares, etc.

3/9: Parts of Speech/ Grammar

  • Introduction to nouns and their rules (name of a person, place, thing or idea)
  • Introduction to verbs and their rules (action word or something you do)
  • Vowels, consonants and their rules
  • Using worksheets, diagramming sentences and sandpaper letters

3/16:  Parts of Speech/ Grammar

  • Introduction to the article (a kind of adjective always used with and gives information about a noun)
  • A definite article is the word “the”
  • An indefinite article is the word “a” or “an”
  • Using worksheets, diagramming sentences and sandpaper letters

3/23: Articles

  • Rules of the articles
  • Worksheets, grammar symbols, diagramming sentences

 

Synonyms of the week

3/2: WET, damp, moist, soggy, drenched, soaked

3/9: HEALTHY, hearty, athletic, sound, strong, fit

3/16: SICK, weak, unhealthy, ailing, infected, frail

3/23: MEAN, selfish, unkind, malicious, hurtful

 

Letter / Sight Words

3/2: Uu / he

3/9: Vv / go

3/16: Ww / we

3/23: Xx / in

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.

 


Ms. Courtney’s January 2015 Newsletter

IMG_20150121_135443

Classroom

We kicked off January by talking about polar animals. The children enjoyed making fake snow out of hair conditioner and baking soda and playing in it to build snowmen, igloo’s and snowballs. The students also enjoyed waddling around the classroom like penguins.

IMG_20150129_100055 IMG_20150129_083149

The second week in January we learned all about ocean animals. We learned about things that exist in an ocean habitat like sand, small shells, smooth stones, seaweed, coral etc.

IMG_20150114_083343 IMG_20150113_134649

After having Martin Luther King Jr. Day off we talked about how he was a hero because he was brave and honest (noble). We shared who are heroes are and who we’d like to be like someday with the most popular answers being either Mom or Dad. We discussed how MLK made a speech and worked hard toward peace because back then people were treated badly if they did not have the same color skin. Each child made a picture of what their dream was and wrote about it to create a class book for the library.

IMG_20150121_101628 IMG_20150106_085835

The last week in January we took an imaginary trip to the zoo and sang all about the tigers, lions, chimpanzees, kangaroos etc. Some of our friends even invited their favorite zoo stuffed animals to school to spend the day with them during work time, line time, recess, lunch and snack.

IMG_20150106_085655 IMG_20150105_102705

Kindergarten

The kindergarteners have been working so hard on their journals. I hope you enjoyed the ones they brought home! They also started practicing writing in cursive. I can’t believe how they cruised through learning addition and multiplication with the golden beads. We have even been working on more abstract materials like the stamp game and dot board to solve our problems.

IMG_20150129_124005 IMG_20150122_103935

Science

For the first week of January we were curious to see what salt would do to ice so we froze a block of ice. Then took turns placing spoonful’s of salt onto the ice. It was interesting to watch the salt create holes in the ice. After the holes were created we took turns dripping primary food colors into the holes and the colors mixed together to form new colors.

IMG_20150115_104250 IMG_20150114_083500

We made waves in the bottle and discovered that on our planet waves happen when our earth spins on its axis and water is pulled by gravity across the geological formations of the ocean floor. When we moved the bottle we got to see the energy move through the water to make waves, just like out in the deep blue sea!

IMG_20150107_142057 IMG_20150109_141413

For science we also took two eggs one white the other brown that have not been cooked and compared their similarities and differences on the outside and took a guess as to whether they will be the same or different on the inside. We determined even though different on the outside, they were the same on the inside, just like people!

IMG_20150106_085738 IMG_20150105_135720

Milk goes great with a lot of things: cereal, cookies, cake, and pie. So we decided to mix it with a bottle of coke. The milk and coke separated when the phosphoric acid molecules attached to the molecules of the milk which increased the density and separated them from the rest of the liquid. The remaining liquids had less density than the phosphoric acid and milk molecules so they float on top.

 IMG_20150120_092311

Enrichments by Ms. Faith

Art 

For three weeks of January the students worked to create an imaginary creature with Ms. Michele. This project is always enjoyed by the students and brings more whimsy into the classroom. To start the lesson, Ms. Michele talked to the group about mythical creatures and showed some examples of artists’ renditions of the creatures. After this, each child got to pick three pictures of animals and had to choose one part of each of the animals to use in drawing a new creature. The next week, the students then got to create an armature out of foil, which is the base structure for their sculpture. Once the armature was in place, the young artists formed clay around the foil and the creatures began to come to life. After the clay animals were baked, the class got to paint their creatures. The students loved making up their own creature and letting their creativity soar. To end the month, Ms. Michele started a new series where each week she will introduce a new artist and we will complete an artwork in the style of the individual. The first artist we learned about was Claude Monet, who is very well known for the Surrealism movement. Surrealism style is soft and blurry, which some believe to be caused by Monet having poor eyesight. To recreate this style, Ms. Michele had the students use their fingertips to make dots of different colored paint all over a piece of paper. Once the colors were blended together by their fingerprints, it created a blurrier look just like Claude’s. We are all in suspense to find out who the next artist Ms. Michele will introduce us to next week!

 IMG_20150203_095907

Music 

This past month in music class, Ms. Lisa shared the story of Peter and the Wolf by Sergi Prokofiev. The story is a musical symphony that was commissioned by the Central Children’s Theatre in Moscow in 1936. Each character in the story is represented by a different instrument; the flute is used to copy the sound of the bird, the cat is represented by the slinking sound of the clarinet, the oboe plays a smooth sound that reminds the listener of the duck swimming gracefully on the water, the character of Peter’s grandfather has a bassoon which plays low and slow notes, and the hunters’ melody is loud and in a marching tempo with the woodwind instruments and timpani drums. Now the villain of the story, the wolf, has a sharp sneaky song that is played with the French horn, and last but not least, Peter, who is the hero, has the stringed instruments to play his triumphant and heroic theme. The students enjoyed the story and learning about the different instruments and their sounds. I was amazed at how well the children could recall which instrument played for the different characters each week. Peter and the Wolf is a very exciting symphony, which captivated the students’ attention and was able to expose the group to many different instruments.

IMG_20150105_131558 IMG_20150203_095813

January 2015 Newsletter

The winter months are flying by and hopefully spring will be upon us soon! This month the children have been enjoying our different themes and working hard on all of the works and our different practical life activities!

Feb-news1

For the first week the children learned about whales. I introduced a whale book to them and then we started a chart called a “KWL” which stands for “What We Know, What We Want to Know and What We Learned.” It always amazes me how much information the children already know about a particular subject and the questions they come up with during lessons. They are fantastic questions! Some of the questions the children wanted to know were, “How far can they swim? What are some of the things whales eat? How many babies can they have? How long are whales?” At the end of the week we had a discussion about everything we learned. For example, the Blue Whale is the largest whale and is as  long as a football field. And the humpback is as long as a basketball court! The children also learned about the whales’ blowholes and how they have one baby who stays with the mom for up to a year.

feb-news3

During that week the children did two science experiments. The first one was about how such a heavy animal like a whale could stay afloat. This activity reinforced how salt water is more dense than fresh and helps objects stay afloat. The second activity was all about blubber. We took two zip lock bags and filled one with lard and covered that with the second bag. The children then stuck their hand inside the bag and dipped it into ice-cold water. The children noticed that their hand never got cold. We discussed what blubber is and what it does for animals. The last day we discussed the different types of whales such as the Toothed Whale, Baleen Whale, the Blue Whale, and the Humpback.

feb-news10

The second week sparked a lot of interest in the children. We learned about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The first activity we did was called “Being Treated Equally.” Now, before I lead any type of discussion I passed out a snack to just the boys. I then started reading the book, Happy Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King. All through the book the girls were wondering why I wasn’t giving them any snack, and a few became upset. I didn’t explain to them why I did what I did until the story was over. I then asked the girls how they felt not receiving a snack. Sophia said, “I really felt left out.” Another child yelled out, “I felt mad when you didn’t give us anything!” I then talked about how at one point in our country’s past, African Americans were not able to do the same things that white people were able to do and further explained that this is how they felt. I then shared that a man named Martin Luther King changed all of this! I loved this activity because I think it really got the children interested in who he was and how things were back then.

feb-news2

The second activity was called, “We’re all the same on the inside.” This was a simple exercise on how we can look different on the outside, yet are the same on the inside. I first showed the children a brown egg and then a white egg. I asked them to describe what they saw. I then asked what they think each egg will look like on the inside. Almost all of them said the brown egg would be brown in the inside. I then cracked open both and the children were amazed to see that both eggs looked the same. After the activity we talked about how all of us look different but we think and feel the same things on the inside! It was an awesome activity!! The next day we discussed Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement. We also listened to a song called “We Shall Overcome,” a powerful song about what Martin Luther King wanted for himself and others.

feb-news4

We also did a fun project called “I have a dream hand-prints.” The children dipped one hand in brown paint and the other in pink paint and then made prints looking like two people who are holding hands. We then placed a heart in the middle of the hand-print. Afterwards the children wrote down the dreams that they have. On the last day I showed a clip of the “I Have a Dream” speech. After the speech we discussed what was said and what he wanted in life. It was a powerful week!

feb-news9

The third week we discussed Alaska and different types of Polar animals. The first day I came in dressed in my winter coat, boots, mittens, flashlight, a protein bar, a polar bear stuffed animal, and a map. I then had the children to guess my destination. I was going to Alaska! I showed the children a map and showed them where Alaska was located. I then provided Alaska coloring pages for the children to color while I read them a book about Alaska. Throughout the week the children learned fun facts about polar bears, walruses, and seals. The children learned that a walruses’ tusk are made out of ivory and are about two to three feet long.

feb-news8

The last week was all about Penguins. The first day each child had to pick an animal name card and keep it a secret. Once everyone had a name card they were able to walk around the room and make their specific animal sound. Once the child found their partner that was making the same sound they had to stand next to each other and be silent. Once everyone found their partner, I explained to them that in order for penguins to find their partner among hundreds of other penguins they must call for each other and locate them by their sound. Throughout the week the children learned that the Emperor Penguin is the biggest penguin and is about the size of a six year old! They also learned that they form groups called Rookeries and that they only lay two eggs except for the Emperor that lays only one. We also talked about molting, why they fly, how they swim, incubation, and how the male penguin pretty much looks after the egg while the female is gone for two months hunting for food. The children loved learning about penguins! I hope everyone stays nice and warm and we will see you in February!!!

feb-news6        feb-news7

Ashley’s corner

Music

The month of January was a fun packed month with learning about different instruments through the story of Peter And The Wolf. The children had an opportunity to listen to all the instruments while connecting them to the different animals in the story. They loved hearing all the beautiful sounds put into a exciting action packed story.  The children loved hearing the entire story put together and enjoyed the happy ending.

Art

This month in Art class was based on using their imagination and making their own mystical imaginary creatures. Ms. Michelle talked a lot about a famous artist that goes by the name of Yoko D’ Holbachie. He loved to take different animals and turn them into a mythological creatures. This art project was intended for the children to dig deep and use their imagination to make their own creature. They first painted their creature, then sculpted it with clay and finally painted it. It was so neat to see their great ideas used to make such an awesome piece of art!

Science

In Science class this month, Mr. John conducted a fun experiment using a diaper! First he displayed his materials: a diaper, measuring cup with water, measuring cup without water, and paper towels. Then, he placed a paper towel in the empty measuring cup, and poured three ounces of water over top of the paper towel. He asked the children to form their hypothesis and determine if they thought the water would stay in the paper towel if he turned the measuring up upside down over his head. It poured onto Mr. John’s head!  The paper towel could not hold all of the water.

Next, he placed the diaper into the empty measuring cup, and poured water over top of the diaper. Did the water stay or pour out onto Mr. John’s head? It stayed! The diaper has a special chemical that absorbs and holds water.  After this demonstration it allowed Mr. John to explain to his scientists the properties of absorption.


Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mine | January 2015 Newsletter

IMG_20150109_093641                     “Weird Scenes Inside The Goldmine”

Geeez, it is really cold without hair. You may have noticed that I hadn’t had my haircut since the second week of the college football season (the loss against Virginia Tech). Since that haircut, the Buckeyes went undefeated, won the Big Ten Title, Beat Bama in the Sugar Bowl, and beat Oregon to capture The National Championship. Not that I believe in the jinx or anything but why take the chance on angering the universe? I endured many comments during this time of having flowing locks such as being called emo boy, hippy chic…? Justin Bieber, the biebs, Fabio, Ringo, Rapunzel, Shaggy, and a sheep dog.  So I went with the Joey Bosa look to the Urban Meyer look. It was all worth it!!!!  THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 42 | Oregon 20!

I want to give a warm welcome to Ms. Ame (pronounced Amy) who is our new full time assistant in Mr. John’s class. Introduce yourself and say “HI!”

We also had an alumnus, James W. read to the class.  All Alumni are welcome to read to the class when they are available, so please contact me!

IMG_20150105_084138

 

Line time lessons:

We all returned to school after a well rested, extended winter break. Due to the long break we did a refresher week covering the classroom ground rules. We went over the four basic rules of: 1) No running in the classroom. We do not run because we can get hurt or hurt someone else. 2) Use our listening ears. The students pay attention to the teachers during line time and before cleaning the room and line time. Important information is shred during line time and listening is a sign of respect and courtesy. 3) Keep our hands to ourselves. We do this to honor other student’s personal space. In addition, we do not hit, punch, push or do anything to physically hurt other students. 4) Respect others. This is basically being nice to your fellow students. Use nice words, smile instead of giving mean faces, sharing, and helping those in need.

To honor the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. we learned a bit about his life and his accomplishments. The students became actresses and actors as they recreated Rosa Parks making her stand on a bus in Montgomery Alabama. The students enjoyed playing the part of the bus driver, Rosa Parks, “the mean guy”, a police officer, Martin Luther King Jr., and passengers on the bus. We discussed our differences such as skin color, eye color, hair color, and gender. Then we discussed how we are similar. We talked about discrimination and segregation. We talked about if someone with red hair wouldn’t be allowed to do art “just because” they have red hair or if anyone who had blue eyes would have to go to a different classroom with less materials, broken crayons, or no books “just because” they have blue eyes. I had only boys fetch the chairs for the skit and brought that to the attention of the class. We had some very sad girls…. I did let the girls take the chairs back after the skit.  Ms. Kelly did a line time lesson with two eggs( 1 white and 1 brown).  she asked the children if the eggs looked the same on the outside and the children obviously said they were different.  Ms. Kelly then cracked each egg to reveal they were the same on the inside.  You all know what the lesson was trying say.

IMG_20150115_083931IMG_20150121_131749

Next we sniffed, touched, heard, saw, and even tasted things around us. We learned about our 5 senses. Our sense of touch can determine if something is cold or hot, rough or smooth, hard or soft. We also learned that we can feel on any part of our bodies. When we feel something it sends a message from your skin to your BRAIN. The sense of smell captures scents in the air, goes in our noses, and sends a message to the BRAIN. We learned the sense of sight happens with our eyes. The eye captures light, the light passes through the eye and sends a message to the BRAIN. The ear provides our sense of hearing. The ear captures sounds, the sound travels through the ear canal, hits the ear drum, the ear drum vibrates and sends a message to the BRAIN. When you lose your sense of hearing, hearing aid audiologists help and treat you to hear better. The sense of taste happens in the mouth particularly on the tongue. The taste buds on the tongue capture the taste and sends a message to the BRAIN. We did have a taste test of sweet (sugar water), salt (salt water), sour (lemon juice), and bitter, my favorite (unsweetened baking chocolate). For the baking chocolate we use most of our senses. We started out by looking at the pieces of chocolate. Then we felt the piece of chocolate and smelled the piece of chocolate. THEN….. We tasted the piece of chocolate.   If it looks like a duck, it may not be a duck. I have to admit this is one of my favorite activities on line time.

IMG_0177IMG_20150127_093407

We ended the month with learning about our body. We looked at the skeletal system and if we didn’t have a skeleton we would be one messy blob on the ground. 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.

IMG_20150127_101840      IMG_20150126_145945
IMG_20150128_093723     IMG_20150107_095830

Cultural Subjects:

During line time lesson we can count to 10 in 19 different languages (English, Sign Language, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic w/Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Polish, Irish, Kiswahili, and Welsh. In kindergarten we can count in the same languages with the addition of Dutch/Flemish.

 

20150106_102638     IMG_20150128_123215-2 IMG_20150109_135908   20150105_091738

Kindergarten:

This month we started our section in Math. We learned about the unit (ones), ten, hundred, and thousand columns. The kindergartners composed numbers, were introduced to addition with and without carry overs.

 


January 2015 Newsletter

Week 19, 20 and 21

Welcome back, families and friends! New and exciting things are in the works for the New Year. The hand bells were initially introduced in Music class and have expanded into the classroom. One passionate music lover; i.e., elementary student, is assisting teaching staff in giving bell lessons and plans to expand out into directing the SmarterBell choir. Often, one can walk by the elementary classroom and hear the joyous sound of bells being explored.

20150127_101127

Final editing of the leaf/tree research has been wrapping up as Science Fair projects are ramping up. Students learned about how to make a science experiment proposal and other key steps leading up to our science fair in a two day lesson that included guides and paperwork to fill out for the initial steps. Also, students have started a beautiful quilt to auction at the up-coming Art Extravaganza. Save up your money, everyone is going to want this special classroom artifact to cherish for years to come with their child!

20150205_105348_resized

Despite all of the additional days off due to various reasons, students came back to school hungry for lessons, ready to show Mastery and diligent to work. The winter break let many ideas meld in their minds, allowing for a completeness to come to fruition for many students that were challenged by particular concepts or lessons. It has been enjoyable to see the students satisfied with their accomplishments.

20150127_111156

Week 22

To prepare for the Valentine’s Day party, most students have started their quilling projects to create their own unique cards to share with their friends. While the goal of quilling is to teach our elementary students a skill they can use to create things down the road, an underlying importance is the development of concentration and the small muscles in the hand to improve handwriting.

20150205_105307_resized

Computer skills are being learned by all. There are many applications and systems that specialize in different areas. For example, Close Look software specialize in daycare applications and childcare management software, which are large programs used to manage and run childcare centers around the world, including managing children, attendance and day care teachers. Many students have used computers at home or school, surfing the web or playing games. Most students have not used all of the features in word documents or been responsible for navigating the computer in relation to files and memory sticks. The Elementary students are going to be experts by the end of this year with all of the hard work they are doing!

This week, the students broke into two teams and had to write instructions on how to make and eat a peanut butter sandwich. Miss Beth and Sarah followed the directions to a “T” and did not have the sandwiches they dreamed of. However, this activity allowed the students to practice and develop a more keen sense of detail for writing their science proposals!

Innovating in the community:

If you’re looking for at home childcare or after school care for your little ones, we’ve got some tips and information for you! As a live-in childcare provider, an Au Pair provides a unique cultural exchange experience and offers unmatched convenience for a family seeking childcare. Don’t be limited by your daycare center or nannies anymore; from budget, skills to schedule and more – with Go Au Pair, you choose what is most important to your family.

Happy January!

2015013095093625

Also, as I am sure, your child may have let you know the visit of the worms to our classroom. A generous parent came into our classroom and worked with the students on conducting a complete experiment including collecting data and analyzing data. In the experiment, students learned about how worms communicate with each other by collecting happy worm mucus and angry worm mucus and seeing which mucus the worms were attracted to. All of the students had a blast participating with their worms and found value in the communication abilities of a worm!

2015013095094011