Peek into our Week – Cherry Blossoms – week of 1/22/24

Our Focus Lesson: DINOSAURS!

This was everyone’s favorite week! We learned all about Dinosaurs! Ask your child what type of teeth meat eaters and plant eaters have, see if they can tell you the special words we call each of those dinosaurs. (Hint – carnivores and herbivores.) We learned that dinosaurs lived millions of year ago and that they are now extinct. We talked about the theories scientists have about what happened to the dinosaurs, and the class decided the best theory is that there was an asteroid that hit our planet. We ended the week learning about paleontologists, and now that is the current career plan for many of our littles!

Grandparent’s Day!

A huge thank you to all of our grandparents for visiting us on Thursday! It was such a pleasure for us teachers to meet you, we always hear so much about you from the children! We hope you enjoyed your science lesson, being introduced to our classroom space, and learning all types of concepts with your wonderful grandchildren!

The 100th Day of School is Coming!

We are so close to the 100th Day of School! We will be having a 100th Day of School Party on Monday, February 5th. Your child is invited to dress up like they are 100 years old on this day. (It’s my favorite day of the school year!) We will play games, sing songs, complete a special craft, and enjoy a special picnic lunch with our friends! AMMS will be providing the pizza, but if you would like to contribute to our lunch, you can sign up here. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4CA5A628A3F4CF8-47513235-100th

Fun in the Gym!

We added a new gym game to our repertoire – the parachute! We learned how to handle the parachute with care, how to keep our listening ears open while having fun, and played the best game ever – popcorn! We can’t wait to play more games with the parachute!

Art with Ms. Lindsey!

We had a special guest art teacher this week – Ms. Lindsey! Ms. Lindsey introduced us to the wonderful Piet Mondrian, an artist who worked with lines, shapes, and colors. We practiced creating our own Mondrian inspired artworks by pasting black lines onto paper and filling in the shapes with red, yellow, and blue crayons.

We’re Learning Big Things!

At this point in the school year, our Blossoms begin working on more challenging concepts in small groups or with partners, and they also begin to work on projects that can take a few days to complete. This is such an exciting time in the classroom, because these children just glow with pride when they accomplish new things! We are so proud of them!

Peek into Next Week!

Next week, we begin our study of the Human Body. We will spend several weeks learning all about our bodies – what they look like inside, how to keep them healthy, and the function of all of the different systems. It’s a popular unit of study!

Focus Lesson: The Skeletal System

Important Dates:

Monday, February 5 – 100th Day of School

Thursday, February 15 – Valentine’s Day Treat

Friday, February 16 – No School – Teacher Inservice Day

Monday, February 19 – No School – President’s Day


Peek into our Week – Cherry Blossoms – week of 1/15/24

Our Focus Lesson: Hibernation, Migration, and Adaptation

Brrrr this was the perfect week for our focus lesson! We spent the week learning about what animals do during the winter months. Some animals hibernate, some migrate, and some adapt. We learned what each of these terms mean, and then read about the animals that fall into each category. Ask your children what it means if an animal hibernates, migrates, or adapts. And then see if they can give you an example of an animal for each category.

Our class science experiment helped us understand blubber a little more. Blubber is just one of the ways animals can adapt to the colder temperatures of winter. We learned that some whales and seals have blubber and that it keeps the animal warm while they are in the cold waters. So what it blubber? A layer of fat underneath the animals skin that keeps them warm. We used Crisco, baggies, and ice to determine if blubber actually keeps the animal warm. When our hands were in an empty baggie, then we could feel how cold the ice was. But the baggie that had Crisco created a barrier between our hands and the ice, keeping our hands warm!

Using our senses to explore what Crisco feels like inside of the baggie.
The baggie with Crisco is keeping our hands from feeling how cold the ice is!
What a fun experiment!

Preschool Corner

Our older preschool students revisited the World Map Puzzle, reviewing the names of the continents. They also started creating their own world maps by tracing and labeling the continents. After this map, we’ll move onto the map of North America!

Kindergarten Corner

Our Kindergarteners were introduced to the concept of measuring this week. They learned what a ruler does, were introduced to inches and centimeters, and practiced measuring how tall some polar animals are. We’ll continue practicing our measuring skills over the next couple weeks.

Our Kindergarteners are also working so hard on their reading skills. They read books daily to either a teacher or a friend, but also still visit the language shelf to practice reading skills in a more hands on way. They’re practicing blends, digraphs, rhyming, and compound words!

Peek into Work Time

Practical Life continues to be an important learning area within our classroom. This area of the room grows with the child, from our youngest student to our oldest. From spooning beads to sewing snowflakes!

Peek into Next Week

Our Focus Lesson: Dinosaurs

Important Dates:

Thursday, January 25 – Grandparent’s Day

Monday, February 5 – 100th Day of School

Friday, February 16 – No School/Teacher Inservice Day


Peek into our Week – Cherry Blossoms – week of 1/8/24

Our Focus Lesson – The Mitten and Snowflakes

Welcome back to school! We have settled right back into our expectations and routines. This week we had our first Book Study of the school year. During a Book Study, we will read the same book every day of the week. This allows us to practice a learning topic more in depth, as well as learn different things about the story. We read The Mitten by Jan Brett this week! We focused on the sequence of the story and retelling the story in order. We noticed that Jan Brett will give the reader hints about what comes next in the illustrations. We also read other books by Jan Brett and were able to compare and contrast.

Cherry Blossoms also learned all about snowflakes this week! We learned that every snowflake begins as a speck of dirt or dust up in the cloud. Water droplets then surround the speck and freeze into a ball of ice. More water droplets join creating a hexagon shape, and from the hexagon shape will come 6 branches. The snowflake will collect more water droplets as it becomes to heavy for the cloud and begins the fall to the ground. The children know that if they hold their mitten out while it is snowing, that they can catch a snowflake and observe it before it melts!

Preschool Corner

This preschooler is working with the Moveable Alphabet. She is using her knowledge of letters and letter sounds to write the sounds she hears when she stretches the word out.
This preschooler is Making Tens with our Colored Bead Bars. This is a beginning addition work and she works to find what two bead bars equal 10 when added together.
The 100 Board is always a classroom favorite! This child mixed up all of the tiles from 1-40 at the bottom of the board and then worked to put the numbers in order. He chose to make this work more challenging for his brain on his own!

Kindergarten Corner

This Kindergartener read a total of 45 sentences including vowel teams and phonograms and matched them to the appropriate pictures. Talk about a challenging work!
This Kindergartener has learned some individual cursive letters and is ready to put those letters together to write cursive words. He’s doing great!

Enrichment Corner

An exciting day in Music Class – we started the story of Peter and the Wolf where we will learn all about the sounds different instruments make!
An exciting day in Science Class as well – one of our favorite experiments about absorption!

Fun with Friends!

Half of the fun as a teacher is observing what ideas the children will come up with on their own when given the space and the time to do so. This was not a lesson from the teacher, but an organized game that the children designed and implemented on their own through communication!

Peek into Next Week:

Focus Lesson: Adaptation, Migration, Hibernation

Important Dates:

January 25 – Grandparent’s Day – Register at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-45787247-cherry#/

February 2 – 100th Day of School – more info coming home soon!


A Peek At Our Week – 01/08/24 – 01/12/24 – Solids, Liquids, and Gases!

Welcome back Aspen families!! We hope that your winter break was full of fun, relaxation, and tons of family time! This week we got back into our classroom routine with lots of challenging work, winter fun, socialization with our friends, and became scientists! This week we finally received some snowy weather and the Aspen class was extremely excited! Future group lessons will involve learning about snow and why it snows! But, in order to discuss snow, we had to learn all about Matter first! Aspen learned that Matter is all around us. Matter has mass, volume, and takes up space. There are three states of matter; solids, liquids, and gases. The Aspen student learned that Solids- have a definite shape because the Molecules or atoms are packed tightly together. Solids also have a definite size. Solids will also keep their shape unless they are changed by an outside force. We learned that liquids contain Molecules or atoms that are spaced apart free to move over each other. As a result, liquids do not have a definite shape and take the shape of the container they occupy. Therefore, liquids can be poured, spilled, and move freely. Aspen then experimented with liquids by pouring water into different containers. Ask your child what they learned about liquids this week! We then took a look at gases and learned that the molecules (atoms) in a gas have no shape, size, or color! They can be held in a container or can escape into the air. Atoms in a gas are constantly moving around all over the place. Aspen had so much fun exploring Matter this week! We engaged in fun experiments, played games where we turned ourselves into the three states of matter, danced and sang to songs about matter, and colored books all about Matter! What a great start to the New Year!!!

Next week we will be learning all about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , Rosa Parks, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott! There will be NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 2024 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day! See you on Tuesday!!!

Experimenting with a liquid! Pouring water into different containers!

Challenge accomplished!!! Mastering the Bow Tying Frame!!!

Working together on Sensorial Extensions with the Knobbed Cylinder Blocks!!!

Gluing “molecules” with our solid, Liquid, gas Cultural activity!


Peek In Our Week ### Thee Buckeye Room ### Week Of January 8, 2024

The Buckeye Bulletin

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.

Did You Know?:
There is a cheese that has live wiggling maggots in it and it is called Casu Martzu. Casu Martzu is created by leaving whole pecorino cheeses outside with part of the rind removed to allow the eggs of the cheese fly to be laid in the cheese. A female can lay more than 500 eggs at one time. The eggs hatch and the larvae begin to eat through the cheese. The acid from the maggots’ digestive system breaks down the cheese’s fats, making the texture of the cheese very soft; by the time it is ready for consumption, a typical Casu Martzu will contain thousands of these maggots. Due to health concerns this cheese has been banned in the European Union.

A Message From Mr. John (Great week to start 2024):

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, Tagolog, Hebrew, Hungarian).

Know Your Languages (Hungarian):

Specials Space (Science):

I fell on the proverbial sword and spilled water on my head to point out the differences of absorption between paper towels and diapers.
Filling the cup with a diaper as she watches.
She is anticipating getting wet but the water never came.

A Lesson on Ancient Egypt:

An Upper Elementary Student visited our classroom and gave a presentation on Ancient Egypt.

January Half Birthdays:

Peek In The Classroom:

This is a prime example of an older student teaching a younger student letter sounds. This is one of the advantages of a multi aged Montessori classroom.
Ask any child in my class and they will tell you 10 is the magic number. This boy is making 10 with different combinations of beads. Ten is the base of the decimal numeral system, by far the most common system of denoting numbers in both spoken and written language. The reason for the choice of ten is assumed to be that humans have ten fingers/toes (digits).
This is one of his favorite works. He is tracing and animal then he will color it and label the parts of that animal.
Do you notice she had to distinguish different shades with some colors? Sorting different colors helps children to learn how to sequence, which indirectly prepares their little minds for Mathematics. Sorting colored buttons (or other objects) teaches children about order, colour identification, color matching, and concentration.

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Skeletal System

Letter Of The Week- Q q

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bub

Next Language is Korean

Academic Enrichment aka Kindergarten:
Weekly Themes:
Geography.. Landforms (Archipelago/Chain Of Lakes)
Math.. Review Fractions
Language.. Adverbs
Geometry.. Geometric Shapes II, Geo Cards

Next Week:
Weekly Themes:

Geography.. No School
Math.. Fraction Review
Language.. Review Adverbs and other grammar
Geometry.. Geometric Shapes II, More Geo Cards

Synonym Of The Week: SICK, weak, unhealthy, ailing, infected, frail
Sight Words Of The Week: now made

Kinders focusing on their in-class handwriting. Well, most of them, lol

Future Happenings:
-NO SCHOOL Monday January 14 for MLK Day. Don’t be that family that shows up.


Bring Your Parent To School: Mondays and Wednesdays starting November 20, 2023… follow the link to sign up, https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-45382628-buckeye#/

-Grandparents’ Day: Thursday January 25, 2024

Friends, Frolic, and Fun:

Two little peanuts. Don’t let their stature fool you. They are tough cookies.
You should have seen the other guy!
AMMS Straight Jackets
Stripes!

Your Children Say The Darndest Things (I Love My Family):


Peek into our Week – Cherry Blossoms – week of 12/18/23

Focus Lesson: Holidays

We spent our last week of 2023 together learning about the holidays! We discussed Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. We learned how families celebrate these holidays, what activities they do together, and symbols of their celebrations. We also created many adorable crafts this week!

Oh Snow!

Snow in Northeast Ohio has been so unpredictable the past few years, so we took the snowy opportunity this week to have a quick lesson about those wonderful white flakes! We took a trip outside to observe snow. We used four out of our five senses to explore and we determined that snow does not smell and does not sound like anything. We agreed that snow is cold, feels soft at first but after applying pressure it is hard! We asked the scientific question – what would happen if we brought a bucket of snow inside? The next day, we learned why we don’t eat snow off the ground – there was so much dirt left behind after it melted! We had a quick beginning lesson on the water cycle (which we’ll learn more about in the spring!) and learned that snow and rain are both water, but we’ll only see snow if it is cold enough outside. We also learned that snow is made up of ice crystals that stick together – we’ll talk more about this when we return in January!

Ms. Tonya’s Morning in Elementary!

I was able to work with some of my past students this week when I was invited to spend the morning with the Birth Classroom! I received a math lesson, a cultural lesson, and a language lesson from these amazing elementary students. They taught me the work activity and then I had to complete the work on my own. It was so neat to be on the other side of the work mat! I had such a wonderful time and can’t wait to visit again!

Merry Christmas!

We had such a wonderful time this week celebrating with our friends this week! Ms. Sam and I hope you all have a wonderful holiday with your families and that your child enjoys winter break! We’ll see you on Monday, January 8th!


Peek In Our Week ___ Thee Buckeye Room ___ Week Of December 11, 2023

The Buckeye Bulletin

Line Time:
Diligently practicing for the Christmas Show. Rockin and a Rollin

Did You Know?:
If you’ve ever seen a beaver’s teeth you’ll know that they appear pretty orange. This is because, whereas other rodents have magnesium in their tooth enamel, beavers have iron. So beavers have orange teeth for the same reason we have red blood.

A Message From Mr. John (They rocked it!):

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

Specials Spot: ASL

Know Your Languages (Korean in January)

Peek In The Classroom:

Meet our newest pet. Our milksnake named Nemo.
What’s so interesting? Oh! A Madagascar Hissing Cockroach is molting.
Look who is reading.
Two kindergarten students working in their binders doing math problems.

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Christmas Show Practice

Letter Of The Week- Taking a break to practice for the Christmas Show

Rhyming Word Of The Week- Taking a break to practice for the Christmas Show

Next Language is Korean in January

Academic Enrichment aka Kindergarten:
Weekly Themes:
Geography.. Landforms (peninsula/gulf)
Math.. Review Math Operations
Language.. Review Parts Of Speech
Geometry.. Geometric Shapes II, Geo Cards

Next Week:
Weekly Themes:

Geography.. Landforms (Isthmus/ Strait)
Math.. Review Math Operations
Language.. Review Parts of Speech
Geometry.. Geometric Shapes II, More Geo Cards

Synonym Of The Week: Not til 2024
Sight Words Of The Week: Not til 2024

Kinders practicing cursive.

Future Happenings:
Bring Your Parent To School: Mondays and Wednesdays starting November 20, 2023… follow the link to sign up, https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-45382628-buckeye#/
-Pajama Day/Show and Tell: Thursday December 21, 2023
-Christmas Break: Friday December 22, 2023 returning January 9, 2024

Friends, Frolic, and Fun:

Who is sitting in my chair?
Shorts in December in Ohio? Nope, she tricked me.
Exercise before afternoon pick up.
I ain’t afraid of no bug!

Your Children Say The Darndest Things (Her dog wanting to stay outside):


Peek into our Week – Cherry Blossoms – week of 12/11/23

Focus Lesson: The Christmas Show

We spent the majority of this week preparing for our Christmas Show! We practiced with the whole school several times, while also practicing in our classroom. We are so excited for you to see our show, we’ve worked so hard to make is wonderful for you!

What is Happening Outside?

We took a Nature Walk outside this week to see what is happening outside. We observed that there were places outside with lots of snow and places without much snow. Where the snow was on the ground, the ground felt “crunchy” to us. Where there wasn’t much snow, the ground felt “squishy” to us. We discussed why there would be snow in places that did not recieve a lot of sun, what happens to the snow when it melts, and why the ground would feel different to our feet.

Peek into our Work Time!

It was a Handwriting week in the Blossom classroom! While our work materials are designed to strengthen the fine motor skills in preparation for handwriting, we also practice our handwriting skills with a pencil, and focus on appropriate pencil grip.

This child is working on writing a straight line and practicing his pencil grip.
This child is working with what we call “precursive booklets”, where we practice strokes that we will later use when forming our cursive letters.
There are two things happening on this child’s dry erase board! You’ll see she has written a string of letters at the top, which is one of the ways children present Emergent Handwriting skills. She is also copy writing at the bottom of her board, another part of Emergent Handwriting skills!
This child is ready to write her name in cursive! She is tracing her name here, but I’m sure she’ll be writing it on her own in no time!
Where is your child in the Stages of Handwriting?

Peek into Next Week!

Thursday, December 21: Last Day of School before Winter Break! Children should wear their pajamas and bring a Show & Tell that will fit inside of their backpack! (If your child does not attend school on Thursdays, they may bring their Show & Tell on Wednesday.)

December 22 – January 7: Winter Break! See you on Monday, January 8th!


Peek into our Week – Cherry Blossoms – week of 12/4/23

Our Focus Lesson: Amphibians

We wrapped up our Animal Classification unit this week by studying amphibians. What makes an amphibian an amphibian? We learned that amphibians are vertebrates, cold blooded, hatch from jelly eggs and that they have permeable skin (which means amphibians need to stay by the water because they drink water through their skin). We also learned that amphibians will live both in the water and on land throughout their lifetime and that they go through a big change called metamorphosis. We really enjoyed our Animal Classification unit! We’ll be revisiting these animal groups all year long as we learn what they’ll do now that the weather is cold, and what they’ll do in the spring.

The Christmas Show!

Our Christmas Show is fast approaching and we are busy preparing! This coming week will be a busy week for all of us, make sure your child is getting plenty of rest to prepare. Wednesday is our Rehearsal. This is not a dress rehearsal, but we will be walking through the entire program so your child is comfortable with the transitions and what to expect. Friday is our Christmas Show! Have your child wear blues, whites, or grays, a scarf, and rubber soled shoes (no heels or boots, please). Please have your child use the restroom before you drop them off with their teachers by 5:30pm!

A Peek into Work Time!

This Kindergartener is working with the Ten Cube Chain. Cube Chains allow the child to count multiples of numbers linearly.
This child is practicing quantity with her numerals out of order. We change the cards and counters throughout the seasons to keep this work interesting to the child. Counting small presents and placing them under the tree sure is fun!
This child is working with our Numbers and Counters. Not only is she practicing counting our the correct quantity, but she is also getting an introduction to even and odd numbers by visually seeing if each counter has a “partner”.
These preschool students are ready for cursive handwriting! They all have beautiful print handwriting, and are ready for a new fine motor challenge.

Peek into Next Week!

We will be spending the next two weeks enjoying our time together and learning about the Holidays that are celebrated this time of year. We can’t believe that it is almost time for Winter Break! This school year is flying by!

Wednesday 12/13: Christmas Show Rehearsal – arrive by 5:45pm

Friday 12/15: Christmas Show – arrive by 5:30pm

12/21: Pajama Day!

12/22-1/7: Winter Break! School resumes on Monday, 1/8


Peek In Our Week !!! Thee Buckeye Room !!! Week Of December 4, 2023

The Buckeye Bulletin

Line Time:
Diligently practicing for the Christmas Show. Rockin it out!

Did You Know?:
A priest once told me there are the same number of stitches on a baseball as on a rosary. With a little research I’ve found this to be true at 108. Prove me wrong.

A Message From Mr. John (0 percent effort):

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

December Birthdays: A Montessori classroom prides itself on having a multiage class. Here are our newest 4 and 5 year old students.

Know Your Languages (Korean in January)

Peek In The Classroom:

She is working on sorting found in the sensorial area. Sorting Activities in Montessori promote children to develop visual memory, muscle memory, and hand-eye coordination. Children are also able to identify different patterns, sizes, relationships, differences, and similarities between different objects.
They completed a creation with the red rods, brown stairs, and pink tower. This is called an extension. Extensions are activities that are introduced after the initial presentation with a material, in order to encourage the child to re-visit the material and solidify the skills and/or concepts it’s designed to provide.
A group of students gather to look at continent picture boxes.
She is meticulously working on her kindergarten binder.

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Christmas Show Practice

Letter Of The Week- Taking a break to practice for the Christmas Show

Rhyming Word Of The Week- Taking a break to practice for the Christmas Show

Next Language is Korean in January

Academic Enrichment aka Kindergarten:
Weekly Themes:
Geography.. Landforms (cape/bay)
Math.. Review Math Operations
Language.. Adverbs
Geometry.. Geometric Shapes II, Geo Cards

Next Week:
Weekly Themes:

Geography.. Landforms (penninsula/gulf)
Math.. Review Math Operations
Language.. Review Parts of Speech
Geometry.. Geometric Shapes II, More Geo Cards

Synonym Of The Week: Not til 2024
Sight Words Of The Week: Not til 2024

Future Happenings:
Bring Your Parent To School: Mondays and Wednesdays starting November 20, 2023… follow the link to sign up, https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-45382628-buckeye#/
-Christmas Show:
Rehearsal- Wednesday December 13…6pm to 7pm NOT a dress rehearsal at Cuyahoga Falls High School
Christmas Show- Friday December 15
…6pm to 7:30pm at Cuyahoga Falls High School
-Pajama Day/Show and Tell: Thursday December 21, 2023
-Christmas Break: Friday December 22, 2023 returning January 9, 2024

Friends, Frolic, and Fun:

A fancy bun she made all by herself.
He is trying to get her attention and she, well……
Third Eye Blind
Sam slippers with a photo bomb and more of the third eye.

Your Children Say The Darndest Things (Rowan and his dog):

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