Last week in Cherry Blossom we have been studying leaves. We talked about the parts of a leaf. There are stipules, petiole, veins , and the blade. We talked about how the leaves are green because they have chlorophyll. Leaves are the part of a plant that turns water, sunshine, and oxygen into food for the plant. We also talked about how the leaves fall off in the autumn to conserve energy. We collected leaves at recess to make leaf rubbings. We have be cutting leaves, matching different color and shape leaves, and many of the children have tracing the leave puzzle.
A peek into our work time…
The 45 layout was a popular material in our classroom this week! Using this material builds math skills focusing on matching symbols and quantities 1-9, 10-90, 100-900, 1000-9000.Some of our older students are taking on the roll of leader and are doing a great job helping others to learn and grow. They are helping others stay on track and keeping them in line in the hall. At lunch these leaders are helping to open things for others and clean up after we are finished.
We have started doing sign language during preschool lesson. Also, at the end of the day we have started doing yoga adventures. They are an active bunch and really enjoy this time to move and groove.
It is a joy getting to know your children and watching them blossom!
This week the Aspen Room explored the world of color! Did you know that Red is the first color that an infant sees? An infant will eventually see the full color spectrum by the age of five months! In the Aspen Room we learned this fascinating fact and more! Your children were able to explore the world of color by learning the names of colors in both English and Spanish (George taught us some color names in Portuguese!), we learned what Primary and Secondary colors are , experienced the meaning and the differences of Warm Colors and Cool Colors, created colorful works of art with watercolors and coffee filters, then used our knowledge to explore enrichment activities in the classroom.It was a very busy week!
Our kindergarten students learned the descriptive language of where we live, from biggest (galaxy) to smallest (street address). They also practiced their handwriting skills by writing their address and working in their new cursive binders! Next week they will explore landforms!
Next week our theme is leaves! We will discuss and explore the parts of a leaf, the function of the leaf and how it does it’s job, the classification (names and type of leaf), and why they change color in the Fall! Hello Fall!! It is finally here! Enjoy your weekend and I will see you next week!
Sorting and classifying pictures into groups. Is it considered a Warm Color or a Cool Color?Using a dropper to create works of art with a coffee filter and watercolors!
Line Time: Mammals-This past week we learned about Mammalus. Mammals are vertebrates (have a spine or backbone), warm blooded (their body temperature does not change), have hair or fur, live bearers, and eat/drink mother’s milk when young. Some mammals live in the water such as dolphins and whales. The only mammal that can fly is the bat! Cats, dogs, elephants, and rats are mammals. Oh, and people are mammals as well. “Are we not men? We are MAMMALS………. ”
If you want to play Six Degrees Of Separation for DEVO, Mark Mothersbaugh’s (front man for DEVO) brother does the confirmation classes for my church. Also, I do childcare at the church and I have cared for his niece’s children. I know useless but interesting information. Bonus trivia: Mark Mothersbaugh went to Woodridge High School.
A Message From Mr. John:
Did you know? Since football season is upon us it would be apropos to share this knowledge of the defensive term of “Blitz”. The term “Blitz” comes from the German word blitzkrieg, which means, “lightning war.” In World War II, the Germans employed this tactic which emphasized mobile forces attacking with speed and surprise.
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 10 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek).
Peek In The Classroom: This week’s pictures are all about the “extension” of Montessori works. The purpose of the extensions are to offer additional experiences that increasingly become more complex and abstract than the baseline concept. They can provoke a spark or a new enthusiasm for a Montessori material that no longer appears interesting to a child. Activities that are introduced after the initial presentation with a material, in order to encourage the child to re-visit the material and solidify the skills and/or concepts it’s designed to provide.
Instead of stacking from largest to smallest this student discovered an interesting shape to create and still utilized the concept of biggest to smallest. She called it a pink snake.
Another stacking material found in the sensorial classroom called the knobless cylinders. This is yet another stacking material but this student found the relationship (diameter) of the different colored cylinders.
The brown stair and pink tower are very popular with all age groups in the Montessori classroom. Again, basically a stacking work he made this elaborate creation.
This is the trinomial cube which is basically a 3D puzzle with a mathematical purpose that is usually put together on the color coded lid or in it’s box. This student decided to put it together on the his mat without the help of the lid or the box.
Another look at the trinomial cube shows the height of each layer of the cube. This boy discovered this all on his own!!! As you can see the first layer is the tallest while the third layer is the shortest
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Reptiles
Letter Of The Week- G g
Rhyming Word Of The Week- bid
Next Language is Japanese
Academic Enrichment aka kindergarten: Biggest to smallest where we live- We discovered we live in the vast galaxy of the Milky Way (not the candy bar), then we are still in space and live in a group of planets called The Solar System. Then the planet we live is the planet Earth. Once we touched down we found we live in the Northwestern Hemisphere and live on the continent of North America. Once we found land we live in the country of The United States Of America and live in the great state of Ohio (Go Buckeyes). We all live in Summit County but live in different cities and have different addresses and phone numbers. What a journey it was!
Handwriting: We practiced writing in cursive aa, ae, ai, ao, au
Kinder students doing the in classroom handwriting exercise.
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Landforms
Synonym Of The Week: Calm: peaceful, quiet, inactive, serene, slow
Sight Words Of The Week: you his
Upcoming Events: Picture Day- Wednesday, October 14th
Did you know there are 7,500 different kinds of Apples grown in our world? Do you know how a farmer plant trees in an apple orchard? In an apple orchard trees are grown through a process established by the Ancient Greeks called Grafting! Apple seeds are not used in an orchard. If a farmer plants an apple seed they will not know which type of apple will grow from one particular apple seed! For instance, a Red Delicious apple seed can produce an entirely different type of apple! Therefore, Grafting controls or ensures a specific type of apple is grown.
The children in the Aspen Group now know; how apples are grown, how different types of apples have different tastes, the parts of an apple, and the life cycle of an apple. We also explored the concept of fractions when we cut our apples to look inside them. Ask your child about the many activities and lessons they experienced this week.
Next week we will explore the world of color! We will review the Primary Colors and discuss the Secondary and Tertiary Colors. At the same time, the class will explore the differences between warm and cool colors as well as color names in Spanish. See you next week!
Working on the identification and classification of the parts of an apple
Line Time: Living and Non-Living- This week we talked about living and non-living things. Your children now know what makes a living thing. All living things reproduce, grow, eat or take in nutrients, breathe or exchange gases, and need water. We are all in agreement that plants, animals, trees, grass, are living things! My shoe is not a living thing nor am I at 4:30 am . My youngest son’s shoes may or may not be living. I do not get close enough to tell due to the smell and I may have seen them move on their own…. Boys that are 14 1/2 years old, SMH.
With A Little Help From Our Friends :
A Message From Mr. John:
Know Your Languages:
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.
Fun Fact: 7% of American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows.
I know 7% doesn’t sound like a lot, but that actually works out at 16.4 million American adults.
Sounds like a lot now right?
Peek In The Classroom:
Look at her focus working on pouring form a cup into a bottle using a funnel! Practical Life/Everyday Living was developed by Maria Montessori to assist in developing OCCI (order, concentration, coordination and independence). Practical Life/Everyday Living is simply activities suitable for a child that allows the ability to work with a purpose or in a purposeful way to accomplish developing skills.
This student is working on a math material called the Teen Board. The teen board introduces the number/symbols and quantity/color beads between 11 and 19. I stress the importance of the relationship between number and symbol.
She is working on The Vowel Tree found in the language area. This work utilizes word building for the pre reading student. Real words are created as well as nonsensical words.
This girl is working on the Memory Game which is a math material. The purpose of the work is to train the child’s memory by asking him to retain a numerical symbol in her mind, walk across the room, count the exact number of popsicle sticks, and return to the teacher. Children love this work because it involves movement. As you can tell the picture is a bit blurry due to it being an action shot.
This boy is practicing his cursive handwriting. There are many benefits for adopting this approach not least of which that the movements of cursive writing are more natural and easy to form.
A student reading and the same student featured with the Vowel Tree working on the Vowel Tree on her own and was her choice to work with it.
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Mammals
Letter Of The Week- F f
Rhyming Word Of The Week- big
Next Language is Greek
Academic Enrichment aka kindergarten: Since we live in the great state of Ohio I felt it was needed to become familiar with the states that surround our home state. We started with Ohio which is the Buckeye State and the abbreviation is OH. We then looked at the state to the east of us named Pennsylvania (not Transylvania) which is called the Keystone State and the abbreviation is PA. We traveled south and discovered West Virginia which is the Mountain State and the abbreviation is WV. Moving to the west we ran into Kentucky which is the Blue Grass State and the abbreviation is KY. Moving more westward is Indiana or the Hoosier State (what is a Hoosier anyway?) and the abbreviation is IN. To my chagrin I introduced the students to TSUN. I can not bring myself to even say the name…. xichigan wolverine state.
Let us end not on a low note like the last sentence in the previous paragraph and present the “official” things for the state of Ohio…
Mammal: White Tail Deer Fossil: Trilobite Tree: Buckeye Bird: Cardinal Flower: Red Carnation Drink: Tomato Juice Rock Song: Hang On Sloopy
***** Notice how most of these things refer to Buckeye Football/ being red or scarlet. Also, why does Hang On Sloopy have importance to Buckeye Football? *****
O-H-I-O…. as we sing Hang on Sloopy!
Handwriting: We practiced writing in cursive Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww
Next Week: Weekly Theme: From biggest to smallest and smallest to biggest (Milky Way to your street address).
Synonym Of The Week: Active: lively, energetic, dynamic, vigorous
Line Time:
Food Groups, This week we had fun learning about the food groups in our class. Grains and Cereals (pasta, rice, bread, cereal, crackers), Fruit (apples, grapes, kiwi, mango which is my favorite), Vegetables (cucumbers, carrots, potato, broccoli, eggplant, which is my favorite) Dairy (my favorite… milk, cheese {I love cheese/smoked gouda}, yogurt), meats (beef, pork, chicken), and proteins, fats and sugars and how many servings we should have per day.
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 5 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German)
Fun Fact: Did you know Fruit Loops are all the same flavor? No need eating one color before the others. I guess I was misled my whole life and I am bitter! Toucan Sam you disappoint me. hehe
Peek In The Classroom:
This girl is enjoying working with the Binomial Cube. This work is found in the Sensorial area and is introduced to children from around 3.5 years to 4 years old. In these early stages, the purpose of the material is less focused on the complex mathematics behind the material, and rather is to provide a challenge for a child’s ability to find patterns and relationships between the blocks.
Messes are commonplace in the Montessori classroom (which is OK) because the children learn to take responsibility and clean their own mishaps.
He is working on the Knobbless Cylinders which is a Sensorial work. The purpose of these cylinders is to develop child’s fine-motor movements, concentration, hand-eye coordination, and visual perception of dimension. The material gives the child basic language important in math.
This picture shows an older student helping a younger student. In the Montessori classroom older students enjoy working with and helping younger students which help build confidence and leadership skills for the older students.
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Living and Non-Living Things
Weekly Theme: North America- Since we live on the continent of North America I thought it would be a great idea to identify some of the larger countries (Canada, Mexico) that border the U.S.A. Also, we identified bodies of water (Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Hudson Bay, Gulf Of Mexico, and The Great Lakes {H.O.M.E.S.}) that “touch” and are in our continent. We also reviewed the Cardinal Directions of North, East, South, West (Never Eat Soggy Worms).
Handwriting: We practiced writing in cursive Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss
Next Week:n Weekly Theme: Ohio and surrounding states
Synonym Of The Week: BORING: drab, dull, lifeless, mundane, monotonous
Sight Words Of The Week: are was
Frolic, Friends, and Fun:
Goofiness happens!
One student needed glasses.
Another student needed glasses for a fashion statement!!!
The students learned that most insects do more good than bad. That bees, wasps, flies, beetles, mosquitoes and butterflies are great pollinators. Some insects eat other insects, keeping each insect group from getting too big. We also talked about how insects like ladybugs are a farmers best-friend, because they eat tiny crop eating insects called aphids. They also learned that all insects have three main body parts: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. The head has large compound eyes, the antenna (feelers), and the mouth parts. That the thorax is the middle region of the body and has the legs and wings. Then, their is the abdomen.
A peek into next week:
Kindergarten: Vowels and Consonants
The students learned to recognize and distinguish vowels from consonants, which is an important step in the development of reading and writing skills. We talked about how all words contain at least one vowel. The students were quickly able to recognize the vowels, which is great because they will have a strong foundation for learning rules and spelling patterns for short and long vowels, final vowels, unaccented vowels, silent vowels and irregular spellings.
A peek into next week:
Reminders:
COVID-19 | NO SCHOOL | March 16th – April 3rd
***Kindergarten students are to complete all the pages sent home in the black binders, continue working in their phonics workbooks and continue to fill out their reading logs.***
Parent Resources:
Google Classroom “Absorbent Minds Primary (preschool) Students”
In art class this week we experimented with India Ink and learned how to paint self portraits.
Work Time:
South America: This child is practicing returning all the countries to the map while learning their names.Trinomial Cube: This child is learning how to put the Trinomial Cube together while also getting an introduction into algebra and preparation for the formula a3+3a2b+3a2c+6abc+b3+3ab2+3b2c+3ac2+3bc2+c3.Movable Alphabet: This child is practicing blending and forming words phonetically to create the sentence “I lic to tac pictrs. (I like to take pictures.)
Line Time: We had fun this week looking into the world of art. We went over the primary and secondary colors. We learned there are different ways to create art such as, drawing with pencils, coloring with crayons, and painting. We looked at artists such as Michael Angelo, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol.
Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 26 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish, Serbo-Croation, Cebuano, Malay, Hindi).
Mr. John’s Thoughts: You be safe out there and see you soon. Also, with the toilet paper shortages it is a good time to buy stock in toilet bidets.
Peek In Our Classroom:
She is working on the sound cylinders. This Montessori material helps a child refine his or her auditory senses in a controlled and engaging way. The material ‘isolates one difficulty’ by making the cylinders identical to each other, except for the sound they make when shaken, ultimately practicing sound discrimination.
He created what we call an extension. 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 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. AND A PHOTO BOMB
She is working on the 9 lay out. The purpose of this material 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.
Next Week: Line Time-
Letter Of The Week-
Rhyming Word Of The Week-
Next Language will be-
Upcoming Events: As it stands now: Governor’s Mandate: Off Monday March, 16 returning Monday April, 6
As it stands now: NO SCHOOL: Monday April, 13 for Easter Monday
As it stands now: International Festival Rehearsal: Wednesday, April 22nd, 6pm to 7pm
International Festival Event: Friday, April 24th, ***** EARLY DISMISSAL AT 12 NOON *****
Fun, Frolic, and Friends (Art Museum):
Kindergarten Corner:
Weekly Theme: Consonants and Vowels. We learned that there are 5 letters that are vowels (a,e,i,o,u) and the rest of the letters are called consonants.
Handwriting: We practiced writing in cursive writing sentences (sometimes silly sentences).
Cultural Subjects: We now can count to ten in 27 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish, Serbo-Croation, Cebuano, Malay, Hindi, Farsi, Turkish).
Weekly Theme: Consonants and Vowels. We learned that there are 5 letters that are vowels (a,e,i,o,u) and the rest of the letters are called consonants.
Handwriting: We practiced writing in cursive writing sentences (sometimes silly sentences).
Cultural Subjects: We now can count to ten in 27 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish, Serbo-Croation, Cebuano, Malay, Hindi, Farsi, Turkish).
The last story we read was Jamaica’s Blue Marker. This story is about a little boy who never has supplies he needs and gets in trouble. The main character, Jamaica has to share her supplies with him for art class. The little boy, Russel gets mad at Jamaica and scribbles on her paper. Later the teacher announces that Russel is moving. They throw him a going away party and Jamaica ends up giving him her blue marker so that he could use it at his new school.
The kindergartners are drawing a scene from the story.
After each reading the students participated in discussions, sharing questions, and drawing scenes from the story. We also talked about situations where someone did something mean to us and how we reacted. The group also shared who they talk to when they’re upset just like Jamaica did in the story.
A Peek Into the Next Two Weeks
– The students will learn what a poem is.
– The students will learn the vocabulary words: dainty, elegant, and silky.
