A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
We have had such a busy week in the Cherry Blossom class! We continued our study of Africa, we took a field trip, celebrated some birthdays, wrote some books, and met a hedgehog!
This week we designed our own African necklaces.
We met an African Dwarf Hedgehog named Daisy!
Our favorite authors have begun writing books featuring animals that you can find in Africa, such as elephants, lions, and hippos! We are encouraging the children to write their own words in their books. Look for more information about this method of teaching writing soon! They’ll also include a cover that has a title, a picture, and their name as the author! After they have finished, they can sit in the reading area and read their books!
We had a wonderful time at our field trip to the Sieberling Nature Realm! We used our 5 senses to explore the hiking trail. We explored what the bark feels like on different types of trees, saw some different early spring wildflowers, and a blue heron flew right over us! Inside the Nature Realm, we got up close to a box turtle!
Happy Birthday!
A very Happy Birthday to our newest 6 year old and our newest 5 year old!
Overheard in the Classroom…
“Hey dude… how are you liking your book?”
Peek Into Next Week!
Focus Topic: Africa and Mother’s Day!
Important Dates:
May 4: International Festival Rehearsal (not a dress rehearsal)
Line Time: Just working on International Festival stuff.
Practicing our songs with Ms. Lisa (Music Teacher)
Did You Know?: It is impossible to hum while holding your nose?
It is because when you hum, you are actually exhaling, so if both your mouth and your nose is closed, the air can’t escape. So, although you can hum for a very brief few second or two, you will be forced to open your mouth and catch your breath. AND I bet you tried this!!!!! Lol
A Message From Mr. John (Parent Revenge Week Part 2):
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).
Earth Day:
Happy Earth Day. Keep our Earth clean. It is the only planet we have.
Who Really Runs This Show?: The office staff has a plethora of tasks that they complete on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis. They are always smiling and make the school run smoothly. Kudos to Kelly and Sandy.
Peek In Our Classroom:
These are my Kindergarten students setting up for lunch. They set up tables, get chairs, and put out placemats.
He is working on the Blue Triangles found in the Sensorial area. The purpose is to show the “constructive power” (or analyzing power) of the triangle by exploring all possible shapes using only two triangles. Preparation for geometry: to show that all plane figures constructed with straight lines are composed of triangles.
Ms. Angela presenting letter sounds to a preschool student.
Miss Angela helping a Kindergarten Student with a preschooler proudly photo bombing the number 9.
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- International Festival
Letter Of The Week- N/A
Rhyming Word Of The Week- N/A
Next Language is not until the International Festival
Upcoming Events: 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: Adjectives, they describe nouns and pronouns.
Handwriting: We practiced writing sentences in cursive.
Next Week’s Lesson: Weekly Theme: Adverbs (describes verbs {adjectives and other adverbs})
Synonym Of The Week: N/A
Sight Words Of The Week: N/A
My Kindergarten Students acting out an adjective.
Friends, Frolic, and Fun:
Ya Shouldah Seen The Other Guy!
Most of the time you just don’t ask. This time I did. She was seeing how long her hair was.
Did You Know? (Yellow Stop Signs, are you kidding me?): In 1922, the American Association of State Highway Officials met to determine a standard design for stop signs, and that’s where they decided on the color—yellow. Wait, what? Yes, according to Business Insider, because they thought that yellow would grab drivers’ attention. They’d also considered red, but there was no dye available at the time that wouldn’t eventually fade. By 1954, however, sign makers had access to fade-resistant porcelain enamel, and could finally start making stop signs the red color we recognize today.
A Message From Mr. John (It is a Family Affair):
FYI… My dad despised this show. For what reason I do not know.
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).
Know Your Languages (Turkish): Faked you out again. Not until after the International Festival
Room Visitors:
Lower Elementary let us use a sheep brain 🧠
We had Sonic the Hedgehog. Actually, her name is Daisy.
Peek In The Classroom:
Ms. Emily, our high school intern reads to a couple of boys. Emily’s time with us is winding down.
These students are raking turns walking in the maze. One of the most popular extension works is making the Maze with the Red Rods. Using a laminated card that shows the picture of The Maze, 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.
This girl is sewing. Sewing is a wonderful Montessori practical life activity. Not only is it great for developing skills such as fine-motor coordination and concentration, but many sewing projects have added value as “real work” projects children can complete.
These students are working together “setting a table” activity. Setting up the table for a meal is an easy job for children to accomplish. If you model how to do the job and have all the things easily accessible, children will quickly take over how to do this themselves. Some people like to use template mats to show younger children where to place things. For example, with an outline of a fork, spoon, knife, and bowl/ plate.
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 Turkish but not until after the International Festival
Academic Enrichment: Weekly Theme: Pronouns. Pronouns take the place of a noun and at times makes are lives easier. The pronouns we went over were he(boy), she(girl), it(not used for people because it is rude), we(a group of two or more we belong two), they(a group of two or more we do not belong to), you.
Handwriting: We practiced writing sentences in cursive.
Next Week’s Lesson: Weekly Theme: Adjectives (describes nouns)
Synonym Of The Week:No synonyms this week
Sight Words Of The Week: No sight words of the week
Upcoming Events: A few days off and other stuff.
DAYS OFF: -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)
Friends, Frolic, and Fun:
Who has not done this at least once in our lifetime?
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
