A Peek Into Our Week – Cherry Blossom – Week of 9/13/21

Posted on September 17, 2021 at 4:25 pm.

A Peek at Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!

This week was all about Living and Non-Living. We discussed how we determine if something is living or nonliving. All living things need food, water, and clean air. Living things will grow or change, react to their environment, and reproduce. We practiced determining if something was living or nonliving and read the best book – I am Josephine and I am a living thing!

Also, in true Cherry Blossom fashion, we learned more by singing and dancing with our friend Jack Hartmann.

More Enrichments this week! We attended our first Music Class with Miss Lisa. We tried out Taekwondo with Master Barnick. We drew a beast with Ms. Varela in Art Class and hypothesized about sinking and floating with Mr. John in Science Class!

Happy Birthday to our newest 4 year old and our newest 5 year old!

What have the 3 year olds been up to in our mixed age classroom?

This child is working with the Tonging activity from the Practical Life area. Currently, we have small acorns to tong on our tray. We will change out the items used for tonging every couple weeks to keep this tray interesting to the children in the classroom. Tonging is a wonderful activity to encourage fine motor development that the children will need for handwriting!

This child is working with our Knobbed Cylinders from the Sensorial area. The children use the pincer grasp to hold onto the knob of the Knobbed Cylinders to take them out and place them back into the appropriate space. There are 4 sets of Knobbed Cylinders which allow the child to explore different depths and widths.

This child is working with the Number Rods from the Math area. This is a child’s first introduction to quantity as they count each red section and each blue section of the rod, using one to one correspondence. They are also able to visually see that nine is larger than three.

This child is working with Picture Matching from the Language area. This type of matching activity helps develop focus in the Montessori classroom. We will change out the cards every couple weeks to keep this activity interesting to the children. They are currently matching picture to outline which makes the activity a little more challenging.

Peek into Next Week!

We will be learning about PUMPKINS! Those round, bright orange, fruits that make us so excited for the First Day of Fall which is on Wednesday! We’ll be ending our week with our field trip to Ramseyer Farms! Miss Sam and Miss Tonya are so excited to see you there!

A Peek At Our Week: September 7, 2021 – A Reason For Seasons!!

Posted on September 12, 2021 at 11:50 pm.

Written by Kelley Laney

Hello Aspen families!! It has been a very busy week for us in the Aspen Room. Your children have been so busy learning new and exciting things and have been working so hard within the classroom during the work period. We are all settling into our routines and have become comfortable navigating the classroom with many of us establishing new friendships. This week the Aspen class learned all about Seasons!! During group lesson we learned why we have seasons, the names of each season, and discussed the many characteristics of each season. As we discussed seasons we engaged in a really cool experiment with our Painted Globe and a flashlight! We pretended that our flashlight was the sun and used our globe to illustrate why we have seasons. As we explored this science experiment we also dicovered why we experience day and night. Ask your child about what they learned with this activity.

This week we also learned a few new Spanish words! We sang our days of the week song and then learned it in Spanish! At the same time, we reviewed all of the Spanish words we learned last week. Lev and Kat also taught us The Good Morning Song in Russian! The Aspen Room also got to visit the AMMS School Library and had their very first library lesson with Ms. Cat! We had so much fun learning about books and listening to stories. This week we also visited the AMMS Science Lab and had our very first science class with Mr. John! In science we learned about what scientists do, what a hypothesis is, and then participated in an experiment with vinegar, baking soda, and a balloon. It sure was a fun filled and busy week in the Aspen Room.

Next week our lessons will be the parts of the tree and their functions. We will also learn to identify different types of trees. Kindergarten students have been learning about globes, maps, hemispheres, and directions, They have also learned the terms Equator and Prime Meridan. They will continue to explore and expand upon these concepts next week. See you next week!!

Tracing the continents from the Continent Puzzle Map!

Working on, The Reason For Seasons science experiment!

Associating quantity with their corresponding symbols.

A Peek Into Our Week – Cherry Blossom – 9/6/21

Posted on September 10, 2021 at 5:56 pm.

Written by Tonya Shaw

A Peek at Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!

This week was all about APPLES! We talked about the different parts of an apple and created books to work on our handwriting skills. We also learned about the life cycle of an apple from seed to harvested apple. We read many books and were so excited each time one of our friends brought an apple in their lunch. If your family takes a trip to the apple orchard soon, please send us a picture!

We also had in introduction to Geography this week. We talked about the globe and looked at the Sandpaper Globe where we discussed land and water. We’ll talk more about air, land, and water next week!

Preschool lesson included many activities this week! Miss Sam worked with us on name recognition, color mixing with primary colors, and learning to count to 10 in German! Miss Sam introduced us to another globe found in our classroom while we looked at Europe and found Germany on the map of Europe.

This child is working with our letter of the week – a! We practiced saying the name of the letter, the sound the letter makes, and some words that start with that sound.

Letter a can also be found in our Handwriting Folder! We’re practicing writing uppercase A and lowercase a. Why do we teach handwriting in cursive? Research indicates that cursive trains the brain to have better hand-eye coordination and reading efficiency.

Enrichments started this week! We attended Art Class with Ms. Varela and Science Class with Mr. John! Ms. Varela taught us about the different shapes you would find in art – lines, curved lines, dots, and circles. We studied the art of Wassily Kandinsky, looking for the different shapes and enjoying the bright colors he used. We then brought our new knowledge into our classroom and created our own art inspired by Kandinsky!

Happy Birthday to our newest 5 year old and our newest 3 year old!

Peek into Next Week!

We will continue our study of Apples, Kandinsky, and introduction of Geography. We will also discuss Living vs. Non-Living and talk a little about plants! Our field trip to Ramseyer Farm is coming up soon, information came home in your child’s folder!

Miss Tonya and her family visited the apple orchard over the weekend!

Peek In Our Week ## Mr. John’s Class/Buckeye Room ## Week Of September 6, 2021

Posted on September 10, 2021 at 2:06 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Line Time:
Healthy Habits- This week we learned how stay healthy. We learned that we need to wash our hands thoroughly and keep our whole bodies clean by taking shower, baths, washing our hair, and brushing our teeth. We now know how long to wash our hands by singing the ABC’s which is a good idea but we decided it would be too difficult to sing while brushing out teeth. Another way to keep healthy is to cover our sneezes and coughs with the inside of our elbow to trap germs from flying all over the place. Another healthy habit is to get enough sleep to rest our bodies and our minds. Exercise such as running, biking, climbing, and even walking leads to a healthy body and mind. We discovered if we eat healthy food like fruits, vegetables, protein, and limited sweets that is good for our bodies. More on that next week.

A Message From Mr. John (Whatcha saying Willis):

Fun Fact:
Pigs Don’t Sweat- If someone tells you they’re “sweating like a pig” you might want to point out to them (if you’re that sort of person) that if they were being biologically accurate, that would mean they were not sweating at all. Swine are born without sweat glands, so when they need to cool off, their only option tends to be to find a cool puddle of mud in which they can roll around.

He is in Hog Heaven, Hehe. I crack myself up!

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 6 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French) Also, I will be posing a video with the language added for that week. Oh ya, take a gander at the video below.

Know Your Languages:

Peek In The Classroom:

The short vowel sound for a is usually taught first because once children know the sound for the letter ‘a’ and a few other consonants such as m, s, t then they can start ‘reading’ and ‘spelling’ words. Teach to mastery. … This makes it less likely they will confuse short vowel sounds.

She is working on the introduction of the decimal system. The purpose is to introduce the child to the concept of the decimal system and to make the child familiar with the names and relative sizes of the categories. Also! To help the child with the difference in bulk between e.g. 6 units and 6 thousands

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. Have the child slide a wooden number two on top of a ten board, making twelve.

This boy is developing his fine motor skills by working with putting nuts on bolts. Fine motor skills are those that involve a refined use of the small muscles which control the hand, fingers and thumb. With the development of these skills, a child is able to complete important tasks such as writing, feeding oneself, buttoning and zippering.

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Food Groups

Letter Of The Week- D d

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bag

Next Language is Greek

Upcoming Events:
Nothing is on the near horizon but it is never too soon to prepare and plan my birthday party which is in May. Milkshakes and smoothies welcome in the morning.

Just In… Ramseyer Farms on Friday, September 24, 2021. Check your child’s take home folder for the field trip permission forms and return promptly.

Academic Enrichment aka Kindergarten:
Hemispheres- The kindergarten students and I went over hemispheres, The Equator, and The Prime Meridian. Actually, the hemispheres are made by The Equator and the Prime Meridian. The North and South Hemisphere are created by The Equator and the East and West Hemisphere are created by the Prime Meridian. We delved further and identified the Northwestern, Northeastern, Southwestern, and Southeastern Hemispheres. that was not as daunting as one would expect.

Two of the Kindergarten students were absent but where are they. We don’t know.

Handwriting:
We practiced writing in cursive Jj, Kk, Ll

Next Week:
Weekly Theme: North America/Surrounding Bodies Of Water/ Canada, USA, Mexico

Synonym Of The Week: SLOW, unhurried, gradual, sluggish, stagnant, lethargic

Sight Words Of The Week: see her

Frolic, Friends, and Fun:

I am all about coupons. Thank you to the parents that left this for me. Obviously, a well seasoned parent.

Crowns and armor on her arms. I think she maybe a knight in shining armor or a princess.

Your Child says The Dardest Things:

A Peek Into Our Week – August 30, 2021

Posted on September 4, 2021 at 12:49 am.

Written by Tonya Shaw

A Peek Into the Cherry Blossom Classroom!

This week we learned all about the 5 Senses! We know that our 5 Senses are seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling. We also know that we use these 5 Senses to learn about the world around us. We spent some time learning about how different types of animals use their senses as well. Did you know that a snake uses its tongue to smell or that a katydid has “ears” on its front legs?

It was also All About Me week! The children shared their All About Me papers with their friends, and we talked about our favorite colors, favorite foods, and our favorite animals. We also talked a lot about our families!

This child is working with the Blue and Red Number Rods. This is one of the first works within the Math area of the classroom. The child uses knowledge about length previously gained by the Red Rods and then takes their learning one step further by using one to one correspondence to count the sections of the Number Rods.

This child is practicing his handwriting skills with the chalk and chalkboard. Why do we teach cursive first? Cursive writing involves a flowing, uninterrupted movement which reinforces the left to right directionality of our written language.

And a note from Mr. John….

MR. JOHN IS AWESOME!

Coming Up Next Week!

We will be learning all about Apples! As well as an introduction to primary colors and geography. Remember – NO SCHOOL on Monday for Labor Day!

A Peek At Our Week: August 30, 2021, Our Good Morning song in English and Spanish /Shaking Hands

Posted on September 3, 2021 at 8:30 pm.

Written by Kelley Laney

This week the Aspen class remains super busy practicing our daily routines while learning how to navigate the classroom environment. As we learn to navigate the classroom, we are also practicing many of the Montessori Social Relations activities. We have learned how to be respectful of our classmates and their opportunties to learn during the work period. Therefore, as a class we have been practicing not interrupting our friends while they are focusing on work and have learned how to interrupt or how to get a teachers/friends attention by placing our hand gently on their shoulder. At the same time, we learned how to shake hands when we are greeting someone. The Aspen class will now begin each morning with a hand shake upon entering the building to practice this and refine their social skills. As we have been discussing greetings and introductions, we also learned how to sing our line time Good Morning Song. Your child is currently learning this song in both English and Spanish. As a result, You may hear them singing it at home. The children call it the Buenos Dias Song when we sing it in Spanish. Besides, learning our Good Morning Song your child has also learned a few words in Spanish. The new words we learned are bookbag, shoes, bottle, and lunchbox!

Kindergarten students have been working really hard with Mr. John learning all about our continents, oceans, and the cardinal directions. They have also been reviewing some of the basics they learned last year to refine handwriting skills and ease into their kindergarten curriculum. In Reading Group the kindergarten students have been working with me to improve phonics, fluency, retention, and handwriting skills. This week we played a game called Roll it, Sound It Out! We took turns rolling a die and read words from columns in the corressponding number they rolled. I have sent home a paper for them to play this at home with your family! Have fun reading!!!

Next week we will be discussing the Seasons. We will explore the characterisitcs of each season as well as the reason for seasons. The class will also work on the days of the week by naming them and sequencing them. See you next week!

Taking a rest reading our phonetic books.

Peek In Our Week | Mr. John’s Class/Buckeye Room | Week Of August 30, 2021

Posted on September 3, 2021 at 8:28 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Line Time:
Ground Rules:
What a wonderful start to our school year! This week we learned about the ground rules in our classroom. We learned the expected behaviors for work time and were introduced to new work trays in the Practical Life area so that we can strengthen our fine motor skills. We learned how to roll and unroll a mat. The four main rules are 1) No running in the classroom. 2) Listening Ears. 3) Keep our body to our self. 4) Treat people and the room with respect. We are learning how to shake hands, look each other in the eye while shaking hands, and reply with pleasantries when I say good morning (students respond “Good morning Mr. John). What a great start to a great school year!

A Message From Mr. John:

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 5 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German)

August Birthdays:
A Montessori Classroom consists of 3 to 6 year old students. Here are our newest 4 and 5 year old students.

Fun Fact:
Flamingos bend their legs at their ankles and not their knees.

Peek In The Classroom:

Ms. Angela presenting a group lesson to new students.

This boy is working on the Teen Board which is 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. Notice how he set up the teen numbers in random order?

She is working on the Number Rods. The Number Rods also help children learn the names of numbers and their sequence and learn to correctly associate between the spoken number and its quantity. Children grow to understand that each rod represents a unique quantity and that each number is represented by a single object as a whole, separate from others.

The Knobbed Cylinders are the first lesson in the Sensorial area. The Knobbed Cylinders are a Montessori Sensorial material, designed to assist children in making distinctions in their immediate environment. This material primarily engages the senses of touch and sight. The material is comprised of 10 different cylinders with ‘knobs’ used to hold each object using the pincer grip. This is the start of the vast journey in my classroom.

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Healthy Habits

Letter Of The Week- C c

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bap

Next Language is French

Upcoming Events:
Labor Day- ****No School Monday September 6, 2021. ***** There is always one family that shows up. Who will it be this year? LOL

Academic Enrichment aka Kindergarten:

Weekly Theme:
Continents and Cardinal Directions

Handwriting:
We practiced writing in cursive Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii

Next Week:
Weekly Theme: Hemispheres, Equator, Prime Meridian

Synonym Of The Week: FAST: hurried, speedy, brisk, quick, swift

Sight Words Of The Week: up so

Frolic, Friends, and Fun:

These are the slippers without an owner. “The Case of the Homeless Slippers” continue.

Students under the table? Sometime you just don’t ask.

The difference of age and size in the Montessori Classroom (boy edition)

The difference of age and size in a Montessori Classroom (girl edition)

Your Child Says The Darndest Things:

A Peek Into Our Week – August 27, 2021

Posted on August 27, 2021 at 11:39 pm.

Written by Tonya Shaw

A Peek at Our Week

What a wonderful start to our school year! This week we learned about the ground rules in our classroom. We learned the expected behaviors for work time and were introduced to new work trays in the Practical Life area so that we can strengthen our fine motor skills. We explored Knobbed Cylinders and their dimensions, and also learned our daily routine. We love eating lunch in the multipurpose room and enjoy the playground even more!

Preschool Lesson included reading books and learning about emotions and feelings. We highly recommend the books My Many Colored Days, The Color Monster, and I’m Happy-Sad Today if you’d like to check them out from the library. See if your children can sing you “If You’re Happy and You Know It” with all of the different feelings words! We’ll be returning to these feeling words all school year long as we learn to express ourselves using our words.

These two children enjoyed having snack together on the first day of school!

A sneak peek at what work time looks like! These children are working on their fine motor skills, naming objects, and I spy some Pink Tower and Brown Stair extensions!

On the very first day of school, we were able to take a close look at a monarch butterfly, the chrysalis it emerged from, and released it outside! We were so excited to watch the butterfly fly away! We’ll explore more of the butterfly life cycle this spring!

Miss Tonya and Miss Samantha are so excited to welcome all of our new friends to the Cherry Blossom classroom!

Peek into Next Week!

We’re going to be learning all about the 5 Senses! During Preschool Lesson we will be learning All About Me! Please make sure to return your child’s All About Me papers next week, we will be sharing them with the class and hanging them up in our classroom.

A Peek At Our Week: Week of August 23 , 2021, Welcome Back!!!

Posted on August 27, 2021 at 8:16 pm.

Written by Kelley Laney

Hello and welcome to the Aspen Room! Even though this was not a full week of school it has been one busy and amazing week in the Aspen Room. It has been so great seeing familiar faces and the smiles of returning students and families from last year. It has been an absolute pleasure meeting all of the students and families new to the Aspen Room! Each week Sandy and I will be sharing information, pictures, events, and news of what has happened or what will happen in the Aspen Room. Here is our very first 2021-2022 Aspen Room Blog!!!

This week we have been focusing on the daily/weekly routines of the classroom as well as the general How To’s of a Montessori classroom. The children have been learning how to sit properly on the line for group lessons while being respectful of others when they are talking and sharing their thoughts, opinions, ideas and stories. Therefore, we all practiced raising our hands and speaking one at a time. We sure have some respectful and kind students in the Aspen Room! All the children modeled super respectful behavior and even raised their hands to ask questions. We also learned how to unroll and roll our rugs when working with materials/activities on the floor and practiced how to walk around the rugs safely during the work period.

The Aspen Room children are very curious and very eager to learn. As a result, the work period was busy with presentations showing all of our new students many of the exciting activities the classroom has to offer. Your children were working very hard and I am sure they were super tired when you picked them up from school. They have worked so hard in a short amount of time and are becoming familiar with both the routine and general rules of the classroom. Returning students have been amazing showing our new friends around the room! They have helped present materials, teach rules, and provided moral support when a new student needed a friend or had a question. All of the Aspen Room children are amazingly excited to learn. It is going to be a great year!

Next week, the Aspen Room will be continuing to learn Procedural Lessons and will recieve lots of new presentations during our work period. I am sure your children have shared so much with you about their work and activities throughout their day. Unsure about an activity? Want to know more? Check out Transparent Classroom it has an amazing section that you can select and read all about a work. It will explain the procedure and what the intention or skill it teaches. Of course, you can also ask us!! We love sharing the Montessori method with students and parents. Have a great weekend!!

Showing a new friend how to use our playdoh activitiy and the utensils.

Learning how to use the Sand Tray to trace and write sounds with the Sandpaper Letters!

Working on Phonograms with the Phonogram Tree!

Comparrison of height with the Pink Tower and The Broad Stair!

Introducing our classroom Peace Table. This table is for moments of reflection, calming the mind, or some time alone. Activities at this table will change from time to time and will promote relaxation, calming the mind, and centering oneself before returning to the classroom activities. Friends choosing to work at the Peace Table may not be interrupted or distracted thus giving them the alone time they choose or needed.

Peek In Our Week {} Mr. John’s Classroom {} Week Of May 24, 2021

Posted on May 29, 2021 at 4:29 pm.

Written by John Kotradi

Buckeye Room Bulletin

Line Time:
This week we looked at “inner space” which is simply anything under the water. We first started out by learning that there is fresh water and salt water. We then learned about high and low tides and how the moon affects tides. of course, we talked about what lurks beneath the surface of the ocean. Below is the fascinating cuttlefish.

Did you know (This is fascinating)?
Dolphins often sleep with one eye open in order to avoid being eaten by sharks. How do they manage to do this? They put one half of their brain to sleep, while the other half is still conscious and functioning. Basically, the dolphin will shut down half of its brain and the corresponding eye will also close. Why does this remind me of a Metallica song?

A Message From Mr. John (A Collector of Things, Again):

My Hair:
I will get a haircut this weekend!!! I have not had my hair this long since I got the debut album by Van Halen.

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 27 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, Polish, Serbo-Croation, Cebuano, Malay, Farsi, Turkish)

Impromptu Nature Lesson (The students witnessed our tarantula molting):