Peek In Our Week — Thee Buckeye Room — Week Of January 31, 2022

Posted on February 2, 2022 at 9:29 pm.

Buckeye Room Bulletin

Line Time:
The class went green for the week learning about recycling, conserving energy, and pollution. I explained that pollution was anything that made our environment dirty. We learned there is littering. Littering can be people throwing trash on the side of the road or dropping a candy wrapper in the woods. We now know that we need to put trash in an appropriate container. We learned that air pollution is created by factories’ smokestacks and cars exhaust, but cars are just one of the factors that produce air pollution, there are also other reasons. Water Pollution is caused by factories dumping chemicals in the water or people throwing trash in the water instead of putting it in a trash can. The 3 R’s were introduced and now we all know to reduce, reuse and recycle! We thought of ways to conserve energy. We came up with turning off lights in rooms we are not in or turning off the TV if we are not watching it. We thought of turning off the water while we are brushing our teeth or turning down the heat and wearing a sweater instead. During the kindergarten lesson a student realized the room was just as light with the lights off as it was if the lights were on. Now we do our kindergarten lesson without lights.

Did you know? (I Really Don’t Know Clouds, At All)…One of my guilty pleasures https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L1UngfqojI
A cloud can weigh more than a million pounds.

Clouds are not as light and fluffy as they appear. In fact, researchers have found that a single clouds weigh more than 1.1 million pounds. How do they know? Well, that number is calculated by taking the water density of a cloud and multiplying it by its volume. Fortunately, the cloud can still “float” at that weight because the air below it is even heavier.

A Message From Mr. John (my vocation/part 2 of a continuing series):

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 21 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)

Know Your Languages (Dutch/Flemmish):

Half Birthdays:
Summer birthdays need love too.

Enrichments (Music):

Some students escaped from the stable and we have Gallupping Girls from Peter And Wolf. Again, sorry about the blurry picture as it is an action shot.

Chinese New Year: ( (新年好) /Mandarin) | ( 恭喜发财/Cantonese)

Bring Your Parent To School:

A dad “observing”… really having fun teaching the boys about numbers.

Peek In The Classroom:

These children are taking the Albanesi test which is a test that bridges Montessori and traditional testing.

Two proud boys displaying their work with the Brown Stair and Pink Tower. This is an extension of the original aim of these two materials. The bottom line is that Montessori extension lessons help the child to have further experience with the concepts of the materials. Often times the extension activity draws the child towards a more abstracted view of the original concrete concept that was introduced.

She is working on the sound cylinders. The sound cylinders are a very fun sensorial activity. The purpose is to refine the sense of hearing and to teach vocabulary such as “loud,” “soft,” “loudest,” “louder,” etc. Traditionally the activity consists of twelve wooden cylinders, six with red tops and six with blue tops. Also, another aim is to match the sound of the cylinders.

He is working on a language work called the Pink Rhyming cards.

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Presidents Of The USA

Letter Of The Week- T t

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bed

Next Language is Polish

Academic Enrichment:
Weekly Theme: Subtraction with borrowing (dynamic)

Handwriting:
We practiced writing sentences in cursive.

Next Week:
Weekly Theme: Division without borrowing (static).

Synonym Of The Week: FAT: overweight, big, bulky, heavy, plump

Sight Words Of The Week: more these

Upcoming Events:
A few days off and other stuff.

DAYS OFF:
-No School: Friday, February 18th (Teacher In Service day)
-No School: Monday, February 20th (President’s Day)

OTHER STUFF:
-Sign up for Bring Your Parent To School, follow the link https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-bring8

-Readiness Conferences (Incoming Kindergarten Students/Incoming First Graders):
February 14 through February 25 (Details To Follow)

Akron Art Museum Field Trip: Thursday, March 10 (from 9am to 12pm) IT IS FREE! (Details To Follow)

Friends, Frolic, and Fun:

Again, it is better not to ask but look at the photobomb.

This was taken on Thursday [science day]. I love that these girls get excited about science.

Your Kids say The Darndest Things (Spicy Stuff):

Peek At Our Week – Cherry Blossom – Week of 1/24/22

Posted on January 28, 2022 at 2:11 pm.

Written by Tonya Shaw

A Peek at Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!

We continued our study of Healthy Bodies this week by learning about Internal Organs. We really had a lot of fun learning about what happens inside of our bodies and the special jobs our organs do. Ask your child about the brain, heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys, and intestines. I am sure they would love to share what they learned with you!

We also continued our study of Food Groups during Preschool Lesson with Ms. Sam. We put together a fun Food Groups book so we can talk all about food groups with our families at home!

Happy Half Birthday to our summer birthday!

Enrichment Spotlight – Art with Ms. Varela!

Ms. Varela introduced us to a type of art called “figure 8’s”. We used sharpies to create our shapes, markers to color our shapes in, and then oil pastels over the markers. We really enjoyed this project!

The Birds Found Our Feeders!

Peek Into Next Week!

Focus Topic: Bodies: Skeleton and Muscles; Chinese New Year; Groundhog’s Day

Letter of the Week: Kk

Number of the Week: 12

Important Dates: February 14: Valentine’s Day – Pajama Day & Show and Tell

February 18: NO SCHOOL – Teacher Inservice Day

February 21: NO SCHOOL – President’s Day

Bring Your Parent To Work Days: Come observe your child working within the classroom to see what their day looks like! Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-bring7

Peek In Our Week {}{}{} Thee Buckeye Room {}{}{} Week Of January 24, 2022

Posted on January 28, 2022 at 1:35 am.

Written by John Kotradi

Thee Buckeye Room Bulletin

Line Time:
This week we learned a bit about the internal organs. We started with the brain which is like the computer of the body. It tells our body how fast to breathe and how fast our heart should beat. We discovered the lungs help us breathe and puts oxygen in our blood. Our stomach digests food, the small intestine take nutrients out of our food and large intestine gets the remaining water from indigestible food and creates waste (poop)(that word produced laughter) or as I referred to a bowel movement. The kidneys process excess water and creates pee (more laughter) or urine. The liver removes toxins from the body. We found out that the largest organ of the human body is the epidermis. The liver is my fave internal organ. What is yours?

A Message From Mr. John (my vocation/part 1 of a continuing series):

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 20 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)

Know your Languages (Welsh):

Enrichments (Art):

Picture 1, how it began. Picture 2 the final result.

Australian Day (1/26):
We celebrated with “Fairy Bread” and Lamington Cake!

Fun Fact:
There is no such thing as Pear Cider. Actually, “cider” is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented apples, and only apples. Alcoholic beverages can be made from pears, but that drink is known as “Perry” (very punny). The drink was popular in England for centuries but fell out of favor during the second half of the twentieth century. That turned around in the 1990s when the drink was rebranded as pear cider.

Peek In The Classroom:

This Kindergarten student has written numbers from 1 to 1,000 in his Kindergarten binder. Let’s see how far he gets.

He is working on the 100 board. Notice how he has gone beyond putting the numbers in order and placing random numbers in the appropriate place? The Hundred Board is useful for number recognition, number sequencing, counting, patterning, possibly skip counting (depending on your method) most of all it’s perfect for just reinforcing the understanding of numbers from one to one-hundred.

A student learning where the internal organs belong.

A student transforms into Elvis the Pelvis as a crowd gathers to watch.

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Pollution and Recycling

Letter Of The Week- S s

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bup

Next Language is Dutch/Flemmish

Academic Enrichment:
Subtraction without borrowing (Static). We also learned the terms of subtraction.
9 (minuend) – 4 (subtrahend) = 5 (difference)

Handwriting:
We practiced writing in sentences in cursive

Next Week:
Weekly Theme: Subtraction with borrowing (Dynamic).

Synonym Of The Week: SKINNY: thin, lean, emaciated, scrawny, slender

Sight Words Of The Week: other same

Finally! The first time since Cristmas break all Kinder students are present.

Upcoming Events:
A few days off and other stuff.

DAYS OFF:
-No School: Friday, February 18th (Teacher In Service day)
-No School: Monday, February 20th (President’s Day)

OTHER STUFF:
-Sign up for Bring Your Parent To School, follow the link https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-bring8

-Readiness Conferences (Incoming Kindergarten Students/Incoming First Graders):
February 14 through February 25 (Details To Follow)

Akron Art Museum Field Trip: Thursday, March 10 (from 9am to 12pm) IT IS FREE! (Details To Follow)

Frolic, Friends, and Fun:

Feeding the snake attracts a large and curious crowd.

This boy boasts that he has the longest hair of all the boys.

Your Kids say The Darndest Things (Sonic):

A Peek At Our Week- Aspen- 01/17/22— Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks

Posted on January 24, 2022 at 2:57 pm.

Written by Kelley Laney

Hello Aspen families!! I hope everyone had a relaxing long weekend that was snowfun!! Our topic this week in Aspen was all about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. During line time we discussed how these two individuals helped change our world for the better. As a class the Aspen children shared their thoughts regarding inequality and how we can make the world a better place too! Some of the ideas (thoughts) they came up with were being kind to everyone, helping people, listening to others, sharing (toys and ideas), and doing nice things for other people. These Aspen children sure are amazing and will grow up to be amazing adults with thoughts and ideas like these! We also read a few of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s quotes and talked about the speeches he gave and his peaceful protests. One quote that we discussed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was , ” Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” As a class we talked about what this quote means and the power of spreading kindness. This quote is what sparked our discussion about making the world a better place and led to the children sharing their ideas. Finally, we engaged in some role playing and did the Rosa Parks play. With this activity we had children take on different roles to act out the event that sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Ask your child about the Rosa Parks play!!

In Kindergarten lesson the children reviewed their cursive letters and writing sentences and also worked on math equations. During reading group the children reviewed the short e sound and were introduced to the long e sound. We then practiced reading long e words and worked on our comprehension skills.

Next week our topic will be adaptation, migration, and hibernation.

BOOK SHARE: Thursday, January 27, 2022

Peek At Our Week – Cherry Blossom – Week of 1/17/22

Posted on January 21, 2022 at 5:32 pm.

Written by Tonya Shaw

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

February 18: NO SCHOOL – Teacher Inservice Day

February 21: NO SCHOOL – President’s Day

Bring Your Parent To Work Days: Come observe your child working within the classroom to see what their day looks like! Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-bring7

Peek In Our Week “”” Thee Buckeye Room “”” Week Of January 17, 2022

Posted on January 20, 2022 at 5:27 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Buckeye Room Bulletin

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

Sight Words Of The Week: first than

Upcoming Events:
Sign up for Bring Your Parent To School, follow the link https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-bring8

No School: Friday, February 18th (Teacher In Service day)
No School: Monday, February 20th (President’s Day)

Fun, Frolic, And Friends:

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):

Peek At Our Week – Cherry Blossom – Week of 1/10/22

Posted on January 14, 2022 at 5:46 pm.

Written by Tonya Shaw

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

February 18: NO SCHOOL – Teacher Inservice Day

February 21: NO SCHOOL – President’s Day

Bring Your Parent To Work Days: Come observe your child working within the classroom to see what their day looks like! Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-bring7

Peek In Our Week <> Thee Buckeye Room <> Week Of January 10, 2022

Posted on January 14, 2022 at 5:14 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Buckeye Room 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.

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!

Frolic, Friends, and Fun:

Fun with masks. Doesn’t it look like they are thrilled? Hopefully, this will subside.

We have some artist aspiring to be Michelangelo. Get it? Sistine Chapel/painting on his back?

Your Kids Say The Darndest Things (Bunnies):

A Peek At Our Week- Aspen- 01/03/22 – SNOW

Posted on January 10, 2022 at 2:16 am.

Written by Kelley Laney

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 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.

Peek In Our Week !!! Thee Buckeye Room !!! Week Of January 3, 2022

Posted on January 7, 2022 at 9:02 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Thee Buckeye Room Bulletin

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”

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)