A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
We continued our study of the seven continents this week. We practiced a song to help us remember all of their names – see if your child can sing it for you at home! Hint – We always start with North America if they need a little reminder. 🙂
We introduced Continent Boxes this week as well. We have a box for each continent and it includes landmarks and pictures of the people, places, and animals we could see if we were to visit different countries.
We continued researching our individual African countries for the International Festival. This week we focused on the flag for our respective countries. We created a beautiful bulletin board outside of our classroom to showcase all of the different areas of Africa we are studying!
Enrichment Spotlight – Music with Ms. Lisa!
We are practicing some very special songs that we will perform at the International Festival in Music Class. But Ms. Lisa also introduced us to a fun song – John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt! We had so much fun waking up the person who was “sleeping”!
Our Field Trip to Seiberling Nature Realm is on Thursday!
We are VERY EXCITED to take this trip and look for signs of spring in nature!
Line Time: Just working on International Festival stuff. We went over the continents of North and South America. We learned about different cultures, food, and traditions about different countries in both of these continents.
She is so proud of her coloring skills and coloring each state the same colors as the Puzzle Map. Can I say “color” anymore times in this caption?
Did You Know? (No Melanoma Poisoning!): Eating veggies has plenty of health benefits, but it also has cosmetic ones, according to researchers at Leeds University and the University at St. Andrews. They found that those who consumed vegetables with high levels of red and yellow pigments had a healthy yellow glow compared to those who did not. This is due to a process called “carotenoid colorization.”
Ooopsie Daisey on the spray sunscreen.
A Message From Mr. John (Another near death experience and The Exit/Chicago):
Know Your Languages (Farsi): Nope…. Not until after the International Festival.
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 26 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, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish, Serbo-Croation, Cebuano, Malay, Hindi).
April Birthdays: A Montessori classroom prides itself on a mixed aged classroom of ages between 2 1/2 and 6. Here is our newest 5 and 6 year old students.
Scenes From The Breakfast Club (I would say 18 out of 20 families was a successful turnout. Thank you for coming!!!!!!!):
Peek In The Classroom:
She is working on the Ten Board. The purpose of the Montessori Tens Board with Beads, also called Seguin Board B or Seguin Board 2 teaches a child (3-5 yo approx.) to associate the quantities and symbols from 10 to 90. Using the Tens Boards, the child explores the number names of the tens and the sequence of numbers 11–99. ******* Notice her pattern she created *******
She is working on beginning consonant blends. Research has found that good readers know the letter sounds and know how to separate and blend the sounds in a word. The ability to hear and separate individual sounds within a word (phonemic awareness), and then to blend those sounds into a word, is basic to reading and spelling.
She is working on the First Introduction To Decimals. In the Decimal System, the children first explore the golden bead materials sensorially. They learn from concrete to abstract, combining the golden beads with the abstract color coded numerals, building their association of quantity and symbol.
Ms. Angela leading a seed planting project.
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- International Festival Stuff
Letter Of The Week- No letter of the week
Rhyming Word Of The Week- No rhyming word of the week
Next Language is Farsi (psych! not until after the International Festival)
Upcoming Events: A few days off and other stuff.
DAYS OFF: -No Aftercare: Good Friday, April 15 ** Pick up your child by 3:00pm ** -No School: Easter Monday, April 18
OTHER STUFF: International Festival (REHEARSAL): Wednesday, May 4 at 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm …
Cuyahoga Falls high School/Big Auditorium (details to follow)
International Festival (MAIN EVENT): Friday, May 6 at 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm …
Cuyahoga Falls high School/Big Auditorium (details to follow)
Academic Enrichment: Weekly Theme: Articles a, an, the. “A” goes with all the consonants. “An” is a bit pickier and she goes with only vowels. “The” is not so picky and he goes with anything.
Handwriting: We practiced writing sentences in cursive.
Next Week’s Lesson: Weekly Theme: Pronouns
Synonym Of The Week:No synonym this week
Sight Words Of The Week: No sight words this week
I am just not sure what I asked them to do for the picture.
Friends, Frolic, and Fun:
Snake feeding draws a crowd and a sore back for Mr. John, lol
A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
This week we started our focus unit on the continents. We took a deeper look into North America, South America, and Antarctica.
We also started our individual research on the African countries we are respresenting. Each child is looking through one or two books about their country and learning about the people that live there, the foods that they eat, what sport/game they like to play, animals you would find in that country, and famous landmarks.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
A huge Happy Birthday to our newest 4 year old and our two newest 5 year olds!
A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
This week we learned about Spring! We talked about what weather we would see throughout the spring, what flowers would begin popping up out of the ground, what the birds outside of our window are up to, and observed this beautiful tree outside of our building. Spring is one of my favorite seasons, so we will keep discussing all of the wonders it brings over the next couple months.
International Festival Update!
We introduced Africa this week! The Cherry Blossom class is super excited to represent several countries of Africa at the International Festival this spring! We started locating our individual countries on our Africa Map Puzzle!
What have the 4 year olds been up to in our mixed age classroom?
This child is working with our tweezing work in the Practical Life area. We have added to this work by having the children sort by color while tweezing.
In our Sensorial area, we use constructive triangles to learn more about shapes. With this box, we learn about the three different types of triangles – equilaterial, isosceles, and scalene. We also learn that we can use more than one of theses triangles to form a larger equilaterial triangle.
This child is using foam shapes with the moveable alphabet. She is isolating the beginning sound of the word, later on she will use the moveable alphabet to sound out the whole word.
This child is tracing and labeling a horse. We use this work to not only learn the different names of the parts of an animal, but also work on labeling skills and handwriting.
The chalkboards are a favorite tool in our Cherry Blossom Classroom. We use chalk to practice writing individual letters, blended letters, our names, words, numbers, and so much more! This child is choosing to write all of the letters of the alphabet!
After the children are comfortable with number recognition and quantity for 0-10, we introduce the child to the Golden Bead material. This material introduces the child to place value which we build upon as we compose numbers, and learn addition and subtraction.
SPRING BREAK IS NEXT WEEK!
Enjoy your break! We will see you back at school the week of April 4th!
Line Time: This week the students were introduced to the continents in preparation for the International Festival.
Did You Know (catnip, frostnip, Jack Frost NIPPING at your nose???): The stage before frostbite is known as “frostnip.”
Message From Mr. John (No Spring Break For Me. Heavy Sigh ): 🙁
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 26 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, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish, Serbo-Croation, Cebuano, Malay, Hindi).
Enrichments (Music):
Students learning about the keys on a keyboard.
Peek In The Classroom:
He is working on the Vowel Tree. The Vowel Tree is a tactile, engaging way to teach and practice decoding words. This manipulative can be used with beginning readers to more advanced readers. Originally developed as a Montessori material, the vowel tree reinforces skills for all learners; tactile learners, auditory learners. AND we have some vowel fatigue.
She is combining several works to help her recognize the symbol/number and the corresponding quantity.
She is working on the Continent Globe and the Continent puzzle Map. Starting with the map of the world and progressing through continents and then countries, the puzzle maps showcase the difference between land and water, and help to develop an appreciation for spatial awareness.
He is working on the Construction Boxes The aim is to show the child that by joining together different triangles, 4 sided figures are formed and to prepare the child for later work in geometry. Level of Parent Involvement: Medium during the initial presentation then low once the child has been shown and can work independently.
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Practicing International Festival
Letter Of The Week- No Letter Of The Week
Rhyming Word Of The Week- No Rhyming Word
No new language will be presented
Academic Enrichment: Handwriting: This week we practiced writing sentences in cursive.
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Articles
Synonym Of The Week: No synonym of the week.
Sight Words Of The Week: No sight words of the week.
Kindergarten students showing us what their favorite verb is.
Upcoming Events: A few days off and other stuff.
DAYS OFF: -No School: SPRING BREAK- March 28 through April 1 — Returning Monday April 4 -No School: Easter Monday, April 18
OTHER STUFF: Breakfast Club: Friday, April 8 from 7:00 am to 7:45 am …
Social Hall at school
International Festival (REHEARSAL): Wednesday, May 4 at 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm …
Cuyahoga Falls high School/Big Auditorium (details to follow)
International Festival (MAIN EVENT): Friday, May 6 at 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm …
Cuyahoga Falls high School/Big Auditorium (details to follow)
Friends, Frolic, and Fun:
BFFs
A very proud rendition of the Karate Kid.
Do you see how thrilled she is after I told her a dad joke?
I asked for a nice picture and this is what I get.
This week in the Aspen Room it was all about St. Patrick’s Day, rainbows, and the light spectrum! Aspen engaged in rainbow-colored activities, crafts, and science experiments exploring the light spectrum. During group lessons Aspen learned how rainbows are formed, why they occur, and explored stories and legends surrounding the rainbow. Then the Aspen scientists shared ideas regarding how they thought rainbows occur. Prior to the lesson, each child shared their ideas and thoughts on this subject. The class unanimously agreed and made an observation that a rainbow needed rain (source of water) and sunlight. The class then explored this observation and discussed the concept of reflection and learned about the light spectrum. We learned that each wavelength of light is reflected at different angles. Thus, the light spectrum is separated creating a rainbow. The Aspen children also shared stories on how they have created rainbows with a hose, bubbles, spray bottles, and sequins making new observations sparking an interest in trying to create rainbows. Thinking about our observations, we decided to experiment creating rainbows. Therefore, we had the opportunity to experiment separating the wavelengths in the light spectrum using a prism and a flashlight! Our Practical Life area was also filled with colorful rainbow themed fun! Ask your child about their week!
This week we also began our introduction to the International Festival and began to learn about Europe. The Aspen children were introduced to the European flags activity, animals of Europe, and landmarks of Europe. We also began learning the location and names of the countries we will be representing for the International Festival. If you haven’t already picked a country please make your selection this week. If you visit Signup Genius you will find a list of available countries. Next week, we will continue our exploration of Europe. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-country
The Aspen kindergarteners explored vowels and consonants and engaged in lessons identifying vowels and consonants while practicing their reading skills with word lists. The kindergarteners also practiced their handwriting skills throughout the week.
Exploring the world of color by color mixing to create the colors of the rainbow.Pouring rainbow gems! Taking a practical life activity and turning it into a counting and sorting work! How many gems do you count?Creating Leprechaun traps to catch that cheeky Leprechaun and our chance at getting his pot of gold!
Making paper chains to decorate our classroom.
That Cheeky Leprechaun pranked our classroom and evaded our traps! No pot of gold for us!! However, he did leave us Skittles and a St. Patrick’s Day book to enjoy!
A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
We have had a super busy week in the Cherry Blossom room! Our focus was on clouds and rainbows, and we completed so many fun science experiments as we learned about these awesome parts of nature!
Ms. Sam introduced us to the order of the colors in a rainbow.
We used sunight and prisms to create rainbows on the wall of our classroom! We learned that raindrops and prisms work the same way by bending the sunlight to reveal the colors!
We know that clouds are water droplets that stick together, but then how does it rain? We saw that when the cloud gets too heavy or too full of water then the drops fall down!
We learned about the three main types of clouds that we can see in the sky. Cirrus and Cumulus clouds generally mean good weather but Stratus clouds cover the sky like a blanket and generally bring rain. We’ve been checking the sky all week to see what types of clouds are up there.
This experiment was definitely their favorite. Maybe you could try it at home too!
That sneaky little leprechaun caused some mischief!
We were quite surprised to come inside from recess and find that a sneaky little leprechaun had visited our classroom!
What have the 3 year olds been up to in our mixed age classroom?
This group is all about the sensory based works!
This child is working with both the Brown Stairs and the Pink Tower to build extensions. You’ll notice that the Brown Stairs are still built from thick to thin and the Pink Tower is still built from big to small.
This child is working with all four knobbed cylinder blocks.
This child is beginning to learn how to write individual letters with our sandpaper letters and our sand tray.
Our 3 year olds are beginning to work on writing their names! We are focusing on the first letters at this time, and they’ve started writing that first letter on all of their papers!
Peek Into Next Week!
Focus Topic: Spring and Seeds!
Letter of the Week: Qq & Zz
Number of the Week: 18 & 19
Important Dates:
March 24: Elementary LIVE Wax Museum – 6:00-7:00pm
Line Time: This week we took a look at life cycles of humans, frogs/toads, and butterflies/moths. Humans have relatively boring life cycle compared to the butterfly/moth and toa d/frog. As humans we are born, we live, we die. YAWWWWN. The toad and frog start with being jelly eggs in the water. They hatch into tadpoles and eat algae, then they turn into a froglet which has a head of a frog and a tail. Then the tail falls off and an adult frog/toad lives the rest of its life on land. The butterfly/moth starts as an egg. The a caterpillar is hatched and it eats A LOT. Then a caterpillar spins its (butterfly) chrysalis/ moth spins a cocoon. Then a buttery comes out of its chrysalis and moth comes out of the cocoon. I posed the question “which came first the egg or the butterfly?” This created some heated conversation!
Did You Know? (Don’t Listen To What Your Mother Said): Although chewing gum is designed to be chewed and not swallowed, it generally isn’t harmful if swallowed. If you swallow gum, it’s true that your body can NOT digest it. But the gum doesn’t stay in your stomach. It moves relatively intact through your digestive system and is excreted in your stool. Did your mom tell you it would take seven years to digest? Mine did.
Below is the gum where the flavor lasts a whole eight seconds. I also thought it says “vapes” in action.
A Message From Mr. John (Nothing is As hopeless as it seems even though I thought I was going to die in the library parking lot.):
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 26 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, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish, Serbo-Croation, Cebuano, Malay, Hindi)
Enrichments (Science/Dancing Raisins):
One student said it looks like beer??
When I do this experiment I think of these two songs/videos….
Shaun O’Keefe (our reappearing class leprechaun):
Shaun O’Keefe causes a quite a ruckus! That cheeky leprechaun.
Views from the Shamrock Classroom:
This is a student’s rendition of St. Patrick’s Day in the classroom and it is pretty accurate.
Peek In The Classroom:
Tjhis boy is finding the relationships between two different materials (Knobless Cylinders and Knobbed Cylinders) found in the Sensorial area. This will help him recognize patterns and distinguish visual discrepancies.
She found the Teen board found in the Math area all by herself(not being told to work on it) She took it out/worked on it/ completed it/and the put it away.
He is learning how to create different shapes with triangles. he also learned the terms of Equilaterall Triangle (all sides equal) Isosceles Triangle (2 sides equal, and Scalene Triangle (no sides equal)
My newest reader generating a lot of attention.
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Preparing For The International Festival
Letter Of The Week- Y y
Rhyming Word Of The Week- bac
Next Language is No New Languages will be Introduced
Academic Enrichment: This week we learned all about vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and consonants (the rest of the letters).
Kinder student showing their favorite vowel via sign language
Handwriting: We practiced writing sentences in cursive.
Next Week’s Lesson: Weekly Theme: Nouns/Verbs
Synonym Of The Week:No synonyms this week
Sight Words Of The Week: have this
Upcoming Events: A few days off and other stuff.
DAYS OFF: -No School: SPRING BREAK- March 28 through April 1 — Returning Monday April 4 -No School: Easter Monday, April 18
OTHER STUFF: Elementary LIVE Wax Museum: Thursday, March 24 6:00 to 7:00pm …
School Campus
Breakfast Club: Friday, April 8 from 7:00 am to 7:45 am …
Social Hall at school
International Festival (REHEARSAL): Wednesday, May 4 at 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm …
Cuyahoga Falls high School/Big Auditorium (details to follow)
International Festival (MAIN EVENT): Friday, May 6 at 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm …
Cuyahoga Falls high School/Big Auditorium (details to follow)
Friends, Frolic, and Fun:
Working on the Leprechaun Trap. They are bound and determined to catch Shaun O’Keefe!
Line Time: We had fun this week looking into the world of art. We went over the primary and secondary colors. We learned there are different ways to create art such as, drawing with pencils, coloring with crayons, and painting. We looked at artists such as Michael Angelo, Pablo Picasso, Monet, and Andy Warhol.
Who can name this album cover? Free tuition for the first to identify it….. OK, no free tuition. Kelly and Brandy just scolded me! 🙁
A student’s redition of flowers and his original drawing called “Man Playing Piano In The Woods”
Did You Know? (C is for Cookie): In a song in 2004, and later in an interview in 2017, Cookie Monster revealed that his real name is Sidney Monster. He is best known for his voracious appetite and his famous eating catchphrases, such as “Me want cookie!” Although he eats almost anything, including normally inedible objects, as his name suggests, his preferred food is cookies. Chocolate Chip Cookies are his favorite kind. Despite his voracious appetite for cookies, Cookie Monster shows awareness of healthy eating habits for young children and also enjoys fruits and eggplant.
A Message From Mr. John (My InsantPot):
Know Your Languages (Hindi):
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 26 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, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish, Serbo-Croation, Cebuano, Malay, Hindi)
Enrichments (Art Museum Field Trip):
March Birthdays: A Montessori classroom prides itself on a mixed aged classroom of ages between 2 1/2 and 6. Here is our newest 5 year old students.
Peek In The Classroom:
This material is the Movable Alphabet (cursive). The key purpose of the Moveable Alphabet is to prepare children for writing, reading, and spelling. The child’s use of the material progresses from single words, to phrases, and eventually to stories. In this way, the Moveable Alphabet teaches children how to symbolize their own thoughts, and begin to write creatively.
She is working on Color Box 2. The main purpose of the Colour Box is to develop a child’s visual sense of colour. Primary colours (Red, Yellow and Blue) are introduced in Colour Box 1, which is first presented to a child at 2.5 to 3 years of age. Colour Boxes 2 and 3 add more tablets to the mix, expanding a child’s colour knowledge.
He is working on the 45 Layout. This layout will help your child to visualize and develop an understanding of place value, order of numbers, and concentration. This work is very large and can take some time. Our children loved building this chart, and sometimes in stages. It can take time to build the concentration to complete the entire layout.
She is working g on the Trinomial Cube which is found in the Sensorial area, The direct purpose of the binomial and trinomial cubes is for the child to practice the steps to properly disassemble and build the cube, while refining dexterity and visual accuracy.
A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
A HUGE thank you to all of the families that attended our Breakfast Club this morning! It was so nice to spend some time with families and friends before our school day began. We enjoyed joining conversations and hope the All About Mom and Dad papers made you smile! And a huge thank you to everyone for making my birthday special as well! My heart is full today!
This week we talked about weather! We learned that weather is what we see outside, and that it can change throughout the day! We also learned that temperature is the way it feels outside. We briefly dicussed different types of weather and will continue to do so all month long as we fill in our March weather graph. What type of weather do you think we’ll have the most of this month?
We also talked about the water cycle this week, learning big words such as: collection, evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. We started a science experiment in our room that can show us all of the steps of the water cycle, and we’ll keep talking about this cycle next week as we take a deeper look at clouds.
What have the 5 year olds been up to in our mixed age classroom?
This child is working with the Trinomial Cube. She has practiced building the cube in the box and on the lid, and is now working with the pieces of the cube on the table.
This child is composing large numbers with the Golden Bead material in our classroom. We break numbers down into units, tens, hundreds, and thousands and then the child can use the bead material to build that number in a concrete way.
This child is using the moveable alphabet to write words without pictures. We were focusing on making “at” and “in” word families with known words and nonsense words.
This child has been working with individual sandpaper letters and is now working with the sandpaper letter blends to practice connecting letters together while writing in cursive.
This child is working with our 3 part cards. 3 part cards include a control card with picture and word, a picture card, and a word card. The child will lay out the control cards, then match the pictures cards to the control cards, and finally match the word cards. We use 3 part cards in the Language, Geography, and Science areas of the classroom to build upon our focus lessons.
International Festival News!!!
The Cherry Blossom Class will be studying the continent of AFRICA for the International Festival. We’ll be diving right in after Spring Break so make sure your child signs up for the country that they would like to represent by Friday, March 18th!
