Aspen Room: A Peek At Our Week 02/15/21-02/19/21 All About Presidents and American History

Welcome back!! We all had a nice extended weekend with President’s Day and then a snow day! I hope everyone got to relax, have some snowy fun, and drank lots of hot cocoa.  We are back to learning  this week and are working hard in the Aspen Room.  This week we learned about President’s Day, what it means to be a president, names of our presidents, fun trivia facts about presidents, and important  American symbols.  After learning about the American flag the Aspen Room students had many questions and wanted to learn more about flags. As a result, we talked about and learned about flags from other countries in North America. Then we matched North American flags with the flag matching activity. The class also watched, What Does The President Do and Presidential Trivia by Kids Academy.

The Kindergarten students are continuing their work with geometric vocabulary and concepts with the Geometric Solids and the Geometric Cabinet during work time.  For kindergarten lesson this week, Kindergarten students traced their body, then colored, labeled, and glued the internal organs to their traced outline of their body. It was a lot of fun learning about our internal organs and great practice following directions on the organ papers.

Next week we are discussing Musical Instruments.  We will focus on instrument classifications (groups/families ) , what different  instruments sound like, and how they are used/played. The Kindergarten students will finish their internal organ projects and discuss other important systems within our bodies.

Presidential Fun! Placing the president cards in numerical order and reading fun facts about them!

 

Learning about the states with the U.S.A. puzzle map!

 

Writing to 100 on the dry erase board!

 

                              

Game Time!!!   Indoor recess fun!

 

                                     

Learning about the internal organs!

 

 


Peek In Our Week # Mr. John’s Class # Week Of February 15, 2021

Buckeye Room Bulletin

 

Line Time:
We went back in time and learned about Ancient Egypt.  We learned that the leaders or kings were called Pharaohs and when a king died they used a method to preserve them called mummification.  The pharaohs that were mummified look nothing like you see at Halloween or on cartoons.  The ancient Egyptians had a a written language called hieroglyphics which incorporated symbols such as cats, humans, and other daily objects. We also learned that the ancient Egyptians were responsible for building the Great Pyramids and The Sphinx which has the body of a lion and a head of a man. 

 

                       

 

     

 

 

Squirrels, those pesky critters?
The American Public Power Association (APPA) says that squirrels are the most frequent cause of power outages in the U.S. The APPA even developed a data tracker called “The Squirrel Index” that analyzes the patterns and timing of squirrels’ impact on electrical power systems. Turns out, the peak times of the year for squirrel attacks are from May to June and October to November.

Typically, the squirrels cause problems by tunneling, chewing through electrical insulation, or becoming a current path between electrical conductors. “Frankly, the number one threat experienced to date by the U.S. electrical grid is squirrels,” said John C. Inglis, the former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency, in 2015.

 

 

A Message From Mr. John (my sister’s emotions and Beatlemania):

 

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, Irish, Kiswahili, Irish, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish)

Know Your Languages (Polish):

 

 

Peek In The Classroom:

Two Kinders practicing their handwriting by copy writing (in cursive) the name cards of all the students in the class.

 

They are combining working with the Skeleton Puzzle and Internal Organ works.

 

She is working on the Geometric Solids. The Geometric Solids are one of many Montessori materials that challenge and shape a child’s stereognostic sense, which is their ability to perceive and understand both the form and nature of objects through touch. By working with these materials, children become aware of how shapes form the basis for everyday objects.

 

Look at the focus he has rolling his mat. The purpose of the floor mats and tables is to define the student’s workspace and to reinforce Montessori’s principle of “freedom within limits”. There is such an element of respect with having that defined workspace and it is something that the students take very seriously.

 

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Ancient Greece

Letter Of The Week- V v

Rhyming Word Of The Week- ben

Next Language is Polish

 

Academic Enrichment Weekly Theme:
The kindergartners learned about fractions this week. We learned what that a numerator is the number on the top in a fraction that shows how many parts are taken from the whole number and Denominator is the number on the bottom of a fraction that represents the total number.  We broke down fractions using circles, squares, triangles, and how many boy/girls were in the classroom.

 

 

 

Fractions using students. 4/6 of students are girls. 2/6 of Kinders are boys.

 

Handwriting:
We practiced writing in cursive writing sentences (sometimes silly sentences).

 

Next Week:
Weekly Theme: Telling Time to the Hour

Synonym Of The Week: GOOD: pleasant, fine, honorable, wonderful, valuable

Sight Words Of The Week: write them

 

Upcoming Events:
Spring Break: Monday, March 29 through Monday, April 5.  Returning Tuesday, April 6

***** Progress Reports are coming soon *****  Keep an aye out for those in your email.

 

Friends, Frolic, and Fun:

This is how you eat a Reese Cup. I have no idea how he did this.

 

Oh my! Mr. John knows he is in trouble when he sees this look!

 

Buds!

 

Someone learned how to cross her eyes. Did your parents tell you if you crossed your eyes and then got hit on the back of your head your eyes would stay crossed forever?

 

Your Kids Say The Darndest Things (my dog Marty):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Peek In Our Week ^ Mr. John’s Class ^ Week of February 8, 2021

Buckeye Room Bulletin

Line Time:
Presidents Of The United States Of America (Wasn’t that a 90’s band? Gunna eat a lot of peaches!) We first learned about George Washington and how he was our first president and was the General of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln came from a poor family, freed the slaves and was president during the Civil War.  We were introduced to Franklin D. Roosevelt and how he was president during World War II and how John F. Kennedy fought for equal rights.  We then learned that Joe Biden was current president. The children were taught that the president’s wives are called the first lady and that the president lives in the white house in Washington DC, and flies on a jet called Air Force 1.  We discussed what responsibilities the President has.  The children came up with keeping us safe, keeping the world safe, and running the country. 

       

   

 

 

Did you know? (this is a bit harsh)
The “Windy City” name has nothing to do with Chicago weather but Chicago’s nickname was coined by 19th century journalists who were referring to the fact that its residents were “windbags” and “full of hot air.”

 

 

 

A Message From Mr. John (Why was I named “John”):

 

 

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, Irish, Kiswahili, Irish, Welsh)

Know Your Languages (Dutch/Flemmish):

 

 

Peek In The Classroom:

She is working on the Teen board found in the Math area. The Montessori Teen Board is a great way to introduce the concept of teens to a child. Not only children see how tens and ones are being build to make teens, but they are also physically building teens themselves. Also, it enforces the concrete concept of the relationship of quantity and symbol/numbers.

 

This work is the Sandpaper Letters found in the Language area. In the Montessori classroom, letters have both sounds and names. A presentation of the letter “c” for example, might go like this, “This is ‘c’ (hard like cat). Let’s think of things that start with this sound. Cat, color, cucumber…” As the child progresses through all of the sounds of the letters, they are then presented with the name. “The name of this letter is C, its’ sound is ‘c’.”

 

She is working on the Nine Tray which is a Math work. The aim is to give an overall view of the decimal system and the fact that in base then there may be no more than nine in any one category, for both beads and cards. Also, to combine the quantities and symbols in practice and to become familiar with their correspondence.

 

This student is proudly displaying her work with the Movable Alphabet which is a Language work. 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.

 

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Ancient Egypt

Letter Of The Week- U u

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bet

Next Language is Dutch/Flemmish

 

Academic Enrichment:
Weekly Theme: Fractions

Handwriting:
We practiced writing sentences in cursive. 

Next Week:
Weekly Theme: Telling Time (to the hour)

Synonym Of The Week: Appropriate:  Suitable, fitting, apropos, correct, proper

Sight Words Of The Week: write them

I think they were pointing at the “Best Kindergarten Teacher Ever” One boy is on the fence about my teaching abilities, hehe

 

Upcoming Events:
Day Off:
 February 15th, Monday (President’s Day)

 

Friends, Frolic, and Fun:

I asked her to smile and this is what I got.

 

Monster? Dinosaur? You decide.

 

I am not sure what they were voting on but I was a bit scared of a coup.

 

I looked up and saw her intently staring at me so I intently stared back.

 

Your Kids say The Darndest Things (Her favorite color is, colors are):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


A Peek At Our Week: Aspen Room 01/25/21- 01/29/21 Migration, Hibernation, and Adaptation

This week it is all about animals!! The Aspen class learned all about animals, animal behavior, and what animals do in the winter. As the class researched animals we found that they would migrate to warmer climates, hibernate and sleep through the winter months, or adapt to their environment by growing thicker coats and finding warm places to call home. We then labeled and classified many animals into these categories with a fun sorting activity!  We also read the book Animals In Winter , by Henrietta Bancroft and Richard Van Gelder and watched Sci kids videos about Hibernation and Adaptation.  Did you know that there are three types of hibernation?  Some animals experience Dormancy and others engage in partial hibernation called Brumation or Torpor.  Ask your child about these terms and what they learned from our lessons and videos this week! We learned some amazing things!

After we researched the above, the class then took a look at the characteristics of animals. We observed that some have fur, feathers, or scales. That animals can be found in many habitats on all continents and their characteristics have adapted based on the environments they call home. We then matched animals with their footprints with our animal classification footprint work.

Kindergarten students explored the world of shapes by manipulating and studying two dimensional and three dimensional shapes with  in class activities that allowed them to manipulate and create their own shapes. Next week the kindergarteners will further explore shapes with the Geometric Cabinet.

Next Week it is all about groundhogs and shadows!  We will learn about Groundhog’s Day, the habitats groundhog’s call home, and behaviors of the groundhog.  We will then take a look at shadows by researching how and why they occur while experimenting with some in class science activities.

 

Matching animals to their footprints.

 

Sensorial fun with the Pink Tower and Brown Stair!

 

Labeling the South America continent map!

 

 

 

 

 


Peek In Our Week – Mr. John’s Class – Week Of January 25, 2021

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 intestines take nutrients out of our food and large intestines 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?

 

Boy modeling the Internal Organ Shirt.

 

A Message From Mr. John (is it really a pep talk?):

 

 

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 17 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean, Irish)

Know your Languages:

 

Fun Fact:
A gallon of gasoline (about 4 liters) contains about 31,000 calories.  How is this even pertinent? This was to be a rhetorical question but if anyone has a good answer please let me know… Braggin Rights!

 

Bragging rights for the correct answer of last week’s question:
Kristen S. came up with the answer of 8.96 billion paper clips are produced yearly.  Her formula was 20m x 16 x 28

 

Peek In The Classroom:

She is working on the addition strip board. The purpose teaches preschoolers and kindergartners the mathematical concept of adding numerals one through nine more abstractly and this is a great way to introduce a child to the concept of combining numbers, to make new numbers.

 

This boy is working on the introduction to decimals. The aim is pretty straightforward, the goal of this lesson is to introduce the numerals of the decimal system. The child is introduced to the Montessori color coding of the numerals and quantity of units, tens, hundreds, and thousands.

 

This girl is working on a Practical Life work of using a screwdriver and an allen wrench (hex key wrench) to tighten bolts. This will strengthen her fine motor skills and look at the focus she has working on this material.

 

This student is working on the Pink Tower and the Brown Stair which the aim to refine a child’s visual sense by discriminating differences in dimension. As a child starts taking each cube or rectangular prism (starting from the smallest) to a mat, they can feel the weight and progression of its size. She has found, all on her own, the relationship in a different way.

 

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Pollution and Recycling

Letter Of The Week- S s

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bup

Next Language is Kiswahili

 

Academic Enrichment:
Division with borrowing (dynamic). We also learned the terms of division.

12 (dividend) ÷ 4 (divisor) = 3 (quotient)

Handwriting:
We practiced writing in sentences in cursive 

Goofy Kindergarten Students

Next Week:
Weekly Theme: Geometry

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

Sight Words Of The Week: other some

 

Upcoming Events:
A few days off and other stuff.

DAYS OFF:
February 12th, Friday (Teacher In Service Day)
February 15th, Monday (President’s Day)

OTHER STUFF:
*Conferences for incoming Kindergarten Students (Details to follow very soon)
*February 11th (Thursday) Valentine Party (Details to follow)

 

Frolic, Friends, and Fun:

Unicorn twins

 

You see his nose? You should have seen the other guy.

 

Friends

 

I fight to the finish ’cause I eat my spinach…. look at those muscles!

 

Your Kids say The Darndest things (my new born sister pulls and eats hair):

 

 

 

 

 

 


Peek In Our Week () Mr. John’s Class () Week of February 1, 2021

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? (This sounds better than Online Dating!)
Bobbing for apple’s origins are more rooted in love and romance than tricks and treats. In fact, it began as a British courting ritual, popular among young ladies and their potential beaus. There were several variations of game: In one set of rules, each apple was assigned to a potential mate. The bobber would then attempt to bite into the apple named for the young man she desired. If it only took her one try, they were destined for romance. If she succeeded with her second attempt, he would court her but their love would fade. If it took three tries, their relationship was doomed.

 

A Message From Mr. John (the three most important things in my life, make that four):

 

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, Irish, Kiswahili, Irish)

Know Your Languages (Welsh):

 

February Birthdays:
A Primary Montessori Classroom consists of students ages 3 years to 6 years old.  Here is our newest 6 year old student. It looks like he has a loose tooth.

 

 

Peek In The Classroom:

The direct purpose of the sandpaper letters is to teach the child the sounds of the alphabet by means of muscular and visual memory. The child is encouraged to trace the symbol over and over again until the shape of the letter becomes a part of the child’s muscle memory.

 

She is working on the stamp game (addition with carry overs, dynamic). The Stamp Game is a Montessori math material used by an individual child to practice the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It is a wonderfully simple but effective learning from home option that, once presented to your child correctly, they can work on independently.

 

She is working on the Blue Rhyming material which focuses on longer phonetic sounds. Rhyming helps children learn about word families such as swing, bring, sling. Rhyming also teaches children the sound of the language. Other important skills include phonological awareness, the ability to notice and work with the sounds in language.

 

This boy is working on Cards and Counters found in the math area. The Cards and Counters bring the abstract to the concrete, allowing a child to feel the units as they count. Cards and Counters is a material that consists of 10 number cards, 1-10, and 55 round, red counters, each approximately the size of a nickel. Then he neatly places the appropriate amount of counters under the numbers. This work also introduces the concept of odd and even numbers.

 

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 Welsh

Academic Enrichment:
Weekly Theme: Geometric Solids

Handwriting:
We practiced writing sentences in cursive. 

The posse called Kindergarten.

 

Next Week:
Weekly Theme: Fractions

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

Sight Words Of The Week: would about

 

Upcoming Events:
A few days off.

DAYS OFF:
February 12th, Friday (Teacher In Service Day)
February 15th, Monday (President’s Day)

Friends, Frolic, and Fun:

Just a girl loving her daily work plan.

 

Is this the season for haircuts? Again, I noticed something different about her. Did she leave her glasses at home, no. Did she shaved her mustache, no. My questioning led to an emphatic “I got a haircut!”

 

I thought you had to be 18 years old to get a tattoo.

 

Ya shoulda seen the other guy!

 

Same girl, same day. I thought it was a black eye but false alarm for a “you should have seen the other guy”. It was just marker that reached her eye.

 

Your Kids say The Darndest Things (yummy things at lunch):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Aspen: 01/18/21- 01/22/21 Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and the Civil Rights Movement

This week the Aspen room learned about the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr, and Rosa Parks! We discussed what life was like before the Civil Rights Movement and all about those who helped to change the laws, and those who helped to create a better world striving towards liberty and justice for all.  We read the book, This Is The Dream by, Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander that allowed the class to see the unfairness and inequality while learning about steps that have been taken to change various laws, rules, and modes of thought.  The Aspen class also re-enacted the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the story of Rosa Parks during morning meeting (line time).  Children volunteered to play the different characters in order to reanact and experience what it must have felt like to be Rosa Parks.  Many of the children used words like; “that’s unfair”, “that is mean”, “that is rude”, and “Rosa was there first!”.  As a class, we discussed these feelings and what it must have been like to experience unfairness like this, and the importance of what being peaceful and kind means.

The book we read had many illustrations demonstrating kindness and peacefulness.   As we discussed this topic, the class read and thought about  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

I realize that this can be a heavy topic for the Preschool and Kindergarten room, it was kept general and light. By spreading kindness and being compassionate towards others we can change the world!

The Kindergarten students continued their exploration of Multiplication this week through work with the Skip Counting Chains, and revisited multiplication through the Stamp Game, and  The Golden Beads (Decimal System) .

Next week we will be learning about adaptation, hibernation, and migration.  We will research these topics and learn what they are and what they mean. We will classify which animals adapt, hibernate, or migrate while learning fun and interesting animal facts.  At the same time, we will also use visual discrimination skills to observe and explore animal footprints.

 

Skip counting and multiplication with the bead chains.
               

Exploring addition facts with the Addition Stripboard.

 

           

The Aspen class during line time re-enacting the story of Rosa Parks and  what lead to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

 


Peek In Our Week ** Mr. John’s Class ** Week Of January 18, 2021

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.

 

 

Working with Elvis

 

 A Message From Mr. John (My Mission Statement):

 

Did you know?
Sometimes I think about weird things like how many paper clips are produced in a year.  Really, I think of these things.  Most paper clips in the United States are made domestically by a few firms that specialize in their manufacture. These manufacturers put out roughly 20 million pounds a year of paper clips. So,  about 28 paperclips equal 1 ounce.  I was too lazy too find out how many paperclips that are produced.  Bragging rights to the people who figure this out!!!!!!

 

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 16 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean)

 

Know Your Languages:

 

 

Peek In The Classroom:

Look at his focus while working on the Red Rods. The Red Rods are introduced to children from 2.5 to 6 years of age. The direct purpose of the Red Rods is to develop the child’s visual and muscular perception of length.

 

This boy is working on the Knobless Cylinders. Notice how he found the relationship between the different colored cylinders. The purpose of these cylinders is to develop child’s fine-motor movements, concentration, hand-eye coordination, and visual perception of dimension.

 

She is working on the Memory Game. This is where we have a bunch of popsicle sticks across the room and the student is shown a number. In turn, the student must go across the room and count that number and bring it back to the mat. This is a challenge that she has to remember that number while travelling through the classroom and concentrating while the classroom “noise” (that term you learned in your Oral Communication class) is happening.

 

She is working on the 9 Tray. This material further enhances the correlation between number/symbol and quantity. She is now getting familiar with identifying the symbols in the unit, ten, hundred, thousand columns.

 

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Internal Organs

Letter Of The Week- R r

Rhyming Word Of The Week- but

Next Language is Irish

 

Academic Enrichment:
Weekly Theme:
Division without borrowing (static)

Handwriting:
We practiced writing in sentences in cursive.

And a picture of the kinder students working on their handwriting.

Next Week:
Weekly Theme: Division with borrowing (dynamic)

Synonym Of The Week: MEAN: Selfish, unkind, malicious, hurtful

Sight Words Of The Week: first, than

 

Upcoming Events:
A few days off and other stuff.

DAYS OFF:
February 12th, Friday (Teacher In Service Day)
February 15th, Monday (President’s Day)

OTHER STUFF:
February 1st, (week of) Primary Student Conferences for incoming kindergarten students and incoming 1st graders ONLY! (Details coming soon)
February 11th (Thursday) Valentine Party (details to follow)

 

Friends, Frolic, and Fun:

It is all about hair fashion

 

This guy entered his rite of passage of him losing his first tooth.

 

Again, I noticed something different about her. I asked if she wasn’t wearing her glasses, no. If she got a tattoo, no. She was quick to inform me that she got a haircut!

 

It is all about the bling, a watch and a ring.

 

I’m not sure what the damage is BUT ya shouldah seen the other guy.

 

Your Kids Say The Darndest Things (Still thinking of Christmas):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Aspen: A Peek At Our Week, Brrrr!!!! The Arctic and Antarctic Biomes! 01/11/21- 01/15/21

Brrr….it’s cold!  This week the Aspen Room took a trip to the Arctic and Antarctic.  We learned the terms North and South Pole, where these areas are located on our Earth, the climates of these areas, what kind of wildlife has adaptated to living in these enviroments and similarities and differences between the two regions. The Aspen class also researched penguins , how they have adapted to living in Antarctica, their life cycle, and how to classify different species of penguins.  Did you know….there are penguins living in warmer climates too? Did you know that some species of penguins lay two eggs?  Ask your child, he/she can tell you where penguins can be found. Your child is now a penguin expert! While discussing the Arctic we learned about the types of animals found in the most Northern areas of our Earth, how they have adapted to a frigid environment, and watched videos about Arctic wildlife.

This week the Kindergarten students continued to explore the mathematical operation of Subtraction by learning how to borrow with Dynamic Subtraction.  Next week we will be revisiting Multiplication through our Skip Counting Chains!

Up Next:

Next week the Aspen class will learn all about Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and the Civil Rights movement!  We will discuss why having a day off to honor individuals that have changed our world for the better! See you next Tuesday!

 

Working on the Life Cycle of a Penguin!

 

Classifying different species of penguins and labeling them!

 

Labeling the United States Of America puzzle map with a friend!
Creating a State Book in alphabetical order while learning the abbreivations for each state!

 

Exploring Sensorial Extensions with the Pink Tower and Brown Stair!

 

Practicing handwriting and spelling skills with the dry erase board!

Peek In Our Week ++ Mr. John’s Class ++ Week Of January 11, 2021

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.

This is a picture of sad “girls”. Since they were “girls” they were not allowed to participate or even look at the science lesson. They felt it was NOT fair. I did let them participate in science.

 

A happier picture of the students clapping that everyone can sit anywhere on the bus. This was a skit about Rosa Parks.

 

A Message From Mr. John:

 

Did you know?
One of the earliest uses, perhaps the earliest use, of “OMG” appeared in a letter to the then, member of Parliament, as The Atlantic reports. In 1917, British Navy Admiral John Arbuthnot Fisher wrote to Winston Churchill about rumors of new titles that would soon be bestowed. “I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis,” he wrote. “O.M.G. (Oh! My God!)Shower it on the Admiralty!” OMG, indeed. 

 

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 14 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Hebrew) 

 

Know Your Languages (Hungarian):

 

 

Peek In The Classroom:

She is learning the decimal system of units, tens, hundreds, and thousands. She is doing and exchange game of exchanging 10 units for 1 ten, 10 tens for 1 hundred and so on.

 

This Practical Life work is simply putting a rock in the handle and look at the rock through the magnifying glass. Notice how she added to the activity by sorting the stones?
These kindergarten students are working on their daily work plan. The work plan helps the older student accomplist daily work goals.

 

This girl is working on the Albanesi Assessment. This assessment bridges Montessori to traditional learning/assessing. This assessment is given to kindergarten students and Pre kindergarten students.

 

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Skeletal System

Letter Of The Week- Q q

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bub

Next Language is Hungarian

 

Academic Enrichment aka kindergarten:
We learned subtraction with manipulatives with borrowing (dynamic).

Handwriting:
We practiced writing sentences in cursive. 

 

 

Kindergarten students tracking and documenting (drawing) the growing roots of the plant.

 

Next Week:
Weekly Theme: Division with manipulatives/ no borrowing (static)

Synonym Of The Week: MEAN:  selfish, unkind, malicious, hurtful

 Sight Words Of The Week: now made

 

Upcoming Events:
*** MLK DAY January 18, 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:

It is all about fashion.

 

The dreaded and rare case of “Black Olive Fingers”

 

You shoulda seen the other guy.

 

A crowd gathers to see the two new aquariums.

 

Friday, 3pm, she is done.

 

Your Kids Say The Darndest Things (Flamingos):