A Peek at Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
What a week it has been! We had some very exciting days at the beginning of the week full of SNOW right after we finished our focus topic of winter! Thank you Mother Nature!
This week we started a new focus topic – Healthy Bodies! We discussed Healthy Habits that keep us healthy such as: eating healthy foods, drinking water, sleeping, moving our bodies, and good hygiene. We practiced washing our hands, learned why its important to brush our teeth, and talked about how soap works.
During preschool lesson, we introduced the five food groups: proteins, grains, fruits, vegetables, and dairy. We learned that proteins make us strong, grains give us energy, fruits and vegetables keep us healthy, and dairy keeps our teeth and bones strong. We also discussed what we call “Grow Foods” and “Sometimes Foods”.
Happy Birthday to our newest 5 year old!
Enrichment Spotlight – Library with Ms. Cat!
We were able to visit Ms. Cat in the library this week to talk about snow! We read The Snowy Day and then sang a special snowflake song. We love visiting with Ms. Cat!
We Don’t Talk About Bruno!
As your children work throughout the day, they often sing to themselves. And there’s only one song that we’ve heard the past few weeks… I am sure you can guess what it is! So we had an impromptu “Encanto” dance party this week! It was amazing!
Peek Into Next Week!
Focus Topic: Internal Organs and Healthy Foods
Letter of the Week: Gg
Number of the Week: 11
Important Dates: February 14: Valentine’s Day – Pajama Day & Show and Tell
Line Time: Skeletal System- This week we looked at the skeletal system and if we didn’t have a skeleton we would be one messy blob on the ground (insert a flagellant sound). We learned the skull protects our brain, the rib cage protects our lungs, and the spine keeps us sitting and standing straight. We learned technical terms for our arms, leg and our digits which is a funny name called phalanges. We brought our life sized foam puzzle into our room. His name is Elvis because we learned about the pelvis and it was a cool rhyming name.
A Message From Mr. John (Snowmageddon 2022/first round):
Did You Know (Humpty Dumpty)? The story given was that a large cannon, which the was colloquially called Humpty Dumpty, was strategically placed on a wall. A shot from a Parliamentary cannon succeeded in damaging the wall beneath Humpty Dumpty, which caused the cannon to tumble to the ground. AND… There was never any mention that Humpty Dumpty was an egg.
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 19 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili)
Know Your Languages (Kiswahili):
Enrichments (Science):
The Great Skittle Run. The color of the candy is water soluble that is why the colors run. The reason the colors do not run together is because of Carnuaba Wax (found in car wax, yuck). I ate the leftovers and it wreaked havoc on my blood sugar levels. My poor A1C.
Peek In The Classroom:
Look at her focus while working on a working in Practical life. Practical Life in Montessori is a purposeful activity, develops motor control and coordination, and develops independence, concentration, and a sense of responsibility.
Here are a group of students working on one of the science bins. In this scenario the children are learning valuable social skills such as communication, sharing, and taking turns.
The students are always excited to get new works on the shelves. As you can see Elvis is getting a lot of attention his first day.
This boy is working on the puzzle map of the continent of Asia. The Puzzle maps of the world allow the child to physically see, hold, and trace sections of the world in order to identify each continent, country, and state that is represented in the puzzles. Also, the knobs on the pieces help strengthen fine motor skills.
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Internal Organs
Letter Of The Week- R r
Rhyming Word Of The Week- but
Next Language is Welsh
Academic Enrichment aka Kindergarten: This Week’s Theme: Subtraction (without borrowing)
Handwriting: We practiced writing sentences in cursive.
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Subtraction (with borrowing)
Synonym Of The Week: NICE: kind, pleasant, delightful, good, helpful
No School: Friday, February 18th (Teacher In Service day) No School: Monday, February 20th (President’s Day)
Fun, Frolic, And Friends:
You should have seen the other guy.
A Montessori classroom consists of students from 3 years old to 6 years old. Do you notice a size difference?
I noticed something different about these two students. I asked if they were not wearing their glasses (not it). If they shaved their mustache (nope, not it either). OH! They got haircuts….
Third Eye Blind. Wasn’t that a 90’s band?
Your Kids Say The Darndest Things (Sonic The Hedgehog):
A Peek at Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
This week we discussed Hibernation, Migration, and Adaptation! We talked all about animals that need to sleep through the cold months, the animals that move south where it is warmer, and the animals that grow extra fur or feathers so that they can stay here for the winter. We learned that wood frogs almost freeze completely solid except for their hearts and lungs, arctic foxes fur can change from brown to white to help with camoflauge, and birds are not the only animals that migrate – humpback whales and caribou do too!
We also participated in our winter Wildlife Wednesday! While discussing the types of birds that adapt to our Northeast Ohio weather we determined that it would be hard for them to find food. Our solution was to feed the birds that we often see outside of our classroom windows! We hung up two bird feeders right outside our classroom and then made our own bird feeders to place in the bushes outside. We are looking forward to bird watching all winter long!
All About Those Shapes!
My favorite part of the Montessori environment is that the children direct their own learning. Our lesson plans said winter, but the students decided they needed to learn as much about shapes this week as they possibly could! We spent many line times this week talking about sides and angles, as well as looking for shapes all over the school building! We adore their excitement about the world around them!
Enrichment Spotlight – Music with Ms. Lisa!
We have been studying “Peter and the Wolf” during music class. Each character in the story is portrayed by a different instrument. We have enjoyed listening to these different instruments and acting out the story.
Peek Into Next Week!
Focus Topic: Healthy Habits and Healthy Foods
Letter of the Week: Xx
Number of the Week: Making 10
Important Dates: January 17: NO SCHOOL – MLK Jr. Day
February 14: Valentine’s Day – Pajama Day & Show and Tell
Line Time: 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.
Below is a picture after the skit where everyone can sit where they want. The thumbs up means the students approve.
A Message From Mr. John (Those Pesky Masks):
Did you know?
Roller coasters were invented to distract Americans from sin In the 1880s, hosiery businessman LaMarcus Thompson hated that Americans were tempted by hedonistic places like saloons and brothels. So he set out to straighten up one of the most immoral places he could think of: Coney Island in New York. There, he built America’s first roller coaster to give New Yorkers some good, clean fun—away from seedier pastimes.
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 18 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish)
Know Your Languages (Irish):
Enrichment (Music):
Children pretending to be ducks for Peter And The Wolf. Sorry it is blurry but it was an action shot.
Peek In The Classroom:
She is working on the material called Cards and Counters found in the math area. It consists of a set of wooden numbered cards and small red wooden circular counters. The purpose of this activity is to help children associate quantities with numbers.
This student is working on a math material called the Second Introduction To decimals. Introduction the Decimal System is a Montessori Math Early Childhood lesson. Pretty straightforward, the goal of this lesson is to introduce the numerals of the decimal system. We play a game of exchanging. When she gives me 10 units I will give her 1 ten and so on. So, in these works and exchanging with addition and multiplication the magic number is “10”
You have heard that a Montessori classroom is child run. Well, no teachers were involved in this activity. One of the most popular extension works is making the Maze with the Red Rods. The children build a winding path that uses the longest rods first and then the smallest rods to make the interior. The students have to use visual discrimination skills to decide where the rods need to be placed in order to make The Maze work. Once completed, the children may quietly take off their shoes and walk inside The Maze taking careful steps to ensure that they do not bump a Red Rod out of place. Taking turns and waiting patiently are also important parts of doing this work cooperatively with a classmate, as only one child at a time is allowed inside The Maze. It looks as if one child is running this activity and calling on the next student to walk the maze.
This boy is doing multiplication with the Color Beads. This helps with a visual quantity while doing his equations.
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Skeletal System
Letter Of The Week- Q q
Rhyming Word Of The Week- bub
Next Language is Kiswahili
Academic Enrichment aka kindergarten: We learned how to multiply with manipulatives with carry overs.
Handwriting: We practiced writing sentences in cursive.
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Multiplication Review
Synonym Of The Week: MEAN, selfish, unkind, malicious, hurtful, evil
Sight Words Of The Week: now made
Upcoming Events: *** MLK DAY January 17, 2021 *** NO SCHOOL***
***Don’t be that family that shows up and there is always one family that shows up, lol! ***
But just for the fun of it let me know if you did show up. I will not tease, honest!
Happy New Year Aspen families!!! Wow…it was so nice to be back in the classroom after holiday break this week! We all missed each other so much and were very eager to see our friends and share our stories from the last three weeks. After a much anticipated class reunion, Aspen settled back into their daily routine and classroom activity choosing challenging work!
This week our thematic topic was all about Snow! The Aspen children learned all about snow; how it is formed, why we have snow, and took a closer look at snowflake ice crystal shapes. Did you know that temperature, humidity, wind velocity, and the route a snowflake takes determines the type of ice crystals a snowflake has? Therefore, the saying that no two snowflakes are the exact same is a true statement. The Aspen children also watched a SciKids educational video about how snowflakes form. Did you also know that the ice crystals in a snowflake attach themselves to particles of dust or pollen in the atmosphere? This helps give a snowflake its shape! Soooo…when we catch snowflakes on our tongue, we are catching dust particles!! The Aspen kids thought this was interesting and disgusting!!
While we discussed snowflakes and the formation of ice crystals we also took the opportunity to talk about liquids, solids, and gases. We learned about these three states of matter and looked at the properties of each one. We discovered that the particles in a solid are tightly packed together giving it volume and a definite shape,the particles in a liquid are free to move around each other but are still attracted to each other, liquids have volume but they do not have a definite shape (they take the shape of whatever container they are in), and the particles in a gas move randomly with little to no attraction to each other, gases have no definite shape or volume. We then used this knowledge to complete an activity gluing beads to represent the particles in these states of matter.
In Kindergarten lesson the kindergarten students were introduced to multiplication with the Stamp Game and explored the process of multiplication in depth. They also reviewed handwriting skills by connecting letters to form words to create short sentences. In Reading Group we discussed the short e sound by practicing our phonics with short e words, and practiced our Comprehension skills.
Next week our topic is all about the Arctic and Antarctic ! We are going to compare and contrast these environments while learning all about the habitats (biomes), animals that live there, and their various geographical characteristics.
Book Share will be on Thursday next week!
Learning cursive with a friend!
Learning about Australia and coloring a map of the Australian territories and states.
Using a pin to pinprick the outline of a snowflake.Teaching a friend how to cut a snowflake.
Line Time: We started to learn about our body and how it works. We learned about our five senses (touch, hearing, sight, smell, and taste). Did you know you can “feel” with any part of your body? Of course parents know that. Who has not stepped on a Lego in bare feet and screamed in pain? But we associate touch with our fingers (hot/cold, hard/soft, rough/smooth). We hear loud noises, quiet noises, high iand low noises, “Are we there yet?”. We need light to see and if we close our eyes we can’t see. The lights being turned on at 5 am on a Saturday morning. There are good smells like cinnamon, vanilla and bad smells like a dirty diaper and vinegar. My favorite was the taste test where we tasted sweet (sugar water), salty (salt water), sour (pure lemon juice), and bitter (unsweetened baking chocolate). The children enjoyed “most” of the tastes. Hehe!!!!
The calm before the storm. Drinking sugar water (sweet).
Then BOOOOM! Unsweetened baking chocolate that is representing bitter!
I present to you the collage of disgust.
A Message From Mr. John:
January Birthdays: A Montessori classroom consists of students ranging in age from three years to six years. Here is our newest three and six year old students.
Did You Know?
Dolphins are known to be one of the smartest animals on the planet—possibly because they can conserve their brain power. Because they must be constantly on the lookout for predators, the marine mammals have developed a neat trick of maintaining partial consciousness even as part of their brain sleeps. Researchers have tested whether this “half sleep” negatively impacts the animals’ alertness during the day, but have found that even after five days of having their nocturnal alertness constantly tested, they’ve remained as alert and perceptive as ever. ******* Sleep With One Eye open. Clutching Your Pillow Tight. Enter light….. ******** Who knows that song?
Know Your Languages:
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 16 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic in the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian)
Academic Enrichment: (Science)
How much water can a diaper hold? One of these children found out not more than 5.5 cups and got a wet head.
Peek In The Classroom:
One of my Kindergarten students decided to write a book called “The Life Of A Frog”
Simply stated…. Reading
Girls working on a phonics worksheet and a photobomb
If it ain’t messy it ain’t fun. Using shaving cream to practice handwriting.
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- MLK/diversity
Letter Of The Week- P p
Rhyming Word Of The Week- bun
Next Language is Irish
Upcoming Events:
Pajama Day and Show and Tell Friday January 14, 2021, No weapons and girls wear shorts under nightgowns
*** MLK DAY Monday January 17, 2022 *** NO SCHOOL ***
***Don’t be that family that shows up and there is always one family that shows up, lol! ***
Academic Enrichment: Weekly Theme: We learned how to multiply w/o carry overs with manipulatives. We learned what the Multiplicand, Multiplier, and Product are.
5(multiplicand) x 3(multiplier) = 15(product)
Not straight edge but the symbol for multiplicatuion.
Handwriting: We practiced writing sentences in cursive.
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Multiplication with with carry overs
Synonym Of The Week: Sick: weak, unhealthy, ailing, infected, frail
Sight Words Of The Week: could who
Friends, Frolic, and Fun:
A few students mimicking Mr. John. Notice the offering of the hasdsha
We workem hard in Thee Buckeye Room!
I have no idea what is going on.
Children come from other classrooms to visit my animals and that’s ok.
A Peek at Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
Happy New Year and Welcome Back Cherry Blossoms! We hope you had a restful, healthy winter break and a wonderful holiday season with your families.
This week we jumped right back into learning! We were quite surprised to learn that the month, year, and season changed while we were at home for winter break! We said hello to January, practiced saying 2022, and discussed what is special about the winter season.
Check out what new winter works are on our shelves!
Snowflakes!
The best part of winter weather is snow! We took some time this week to learn all about snowflakes. We learned that ice crystals form inside clouds, the ice crystals then stick together to form snowflakes! We know that snowflakes have 6 points and that it is unlikely that any two snowflakes look exactly the same!
Our New Number Blocks!
One of our amazing families donated these number blocks to our classroom. We are enjoying using them to explore putting numbers in order and seeing that they grow from small to big or big to small. We’re also using these number blocks to start an exploration with addition!
Enrichment Spotlight – Science with Mr. John!
Mr. John introduced us to absorbency this week. We saw how much water a paper towel will absorb vs. a diaper! And one of our friends found out what happens when there’s not enough absorbency for all of the water!
A Peek at Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
We continued our study of Holidays! St. Nicholas surprised us on Monday when he left some chocolates in our shoes! We loved our special dessert at lunchtime! We introduced Kwanzaa and Las Posadas this week. We talked about where in the world these holidays are celebrated, the history behind the celebrations, and symols associated with these holidays.
On the Work Shelves for December!
THE CHRISTMAS SHOW!
Your children have practiced so hard for the Christmas Show… which is TONIGHT! We are so proud of all of their hard work preparing these songs to share with you.
Peek Into Next Week!
Next week we will be discussing Christmas! We will be working on some super secret projects for our families, and enjoying our last week together before winter break with some fun days!
MONDAY 12/13 – Wear Red or Green
TUESDAY 12/14 – Crazy Sock Day
WEDNESDAY 12/15 – Hat Day (Can be holiday related but doesn’t need to be!)
THURSDAY 12/16 – Wear your Holiday Attire! Christmas sweaters, tshirts, whatever you have!
FRIDAY 12/17 – PAJAMA DAY! During the afternoon, we will be participating in holiday games, show & tell, a movie and a snack. More info to follow!
WINTER BREAK – NO SCHOOL – December 20th – January 2nd. School resumes Monday, January 3rd.
Line Time: We are practicing our lines and practicing the songs for the Christmas Show
Did You Know? According to a The Wall Street Journal article, the character Capt’n Crunch’s real name is Horatio Magellan Crunch, captains a ship called the Guppy, and was born on Crunch Island, a magical island off the coast of the Sea of Milk—with talking trees, crazy creatures and a mountain (Mt. Crunchmore) made out of Cap’n Crunch cereal. The article refers to the Captain’s bicorne as a “Napoleon Style ” hat, and claims that this has led to speculation that he may be French.
A Message From Mr. John (Your Children):
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 16 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic in the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean)
Hair Styles (Of The Rich And Famous): Some people have equated my hair with Boris Johnson’s and Steve Bannon’s hair. You decide.
At least my hair is blonde like Boris Johnson’s and not gray like Steve Bannon’s, right? RIGHT ?!?!
Peek In The Classroom:
She is working on the color beads with symbols. This reinforces the Math concept of quantity and numbers.
Our high school intern Emily presenting a lesson she created.
She made the letter A
Again, Angela creates excitement with her new works. Angela looks just as excited as the students.
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Family
Letter Of The Week- N n
Rhyming Word Of The Week-bog
No new languages until the next year
Academic Enrichment: Weekly Theme: Addition with the Golden Beads (Dynamic/Carry Overs)
Handwriting: We practiced writing in cursive three letter words
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Multiplication with the Golden Beads (Static/No Carry Overs)
Synonym Of The Week: No Synonyms
Sight Words Of The Week: No Sight Words
Half of the kinders were absent and the remaining students are confused why.
Upcoming Events: Pajama Day and Show and Tell: Friday, December 17 (Please No Weapons)
Christmas Break: Monday, December 20. Returning Monday January 3
Friends, Frolic, and Fun:
My redheads.
At times I confuse these two handsome boys.
We work em hard here at AMMS!
More handsome boys.
Your Children Say The Darndest Things (Must Be Santa):
