“An interesting piece of work, freely chosen, which has the virtue of inducing concentration rather than fatigue, adds to the child’s energies and mental capacities, and leads him to self-mastery.” -Maria Montessori
This week we had so many wonderful opportunities to see children recognizing their mastery of work. We take time every day to observe children working to see when they are ready for something new or when they may need help reviewing something. Each Friday at their conference, we also go through their work individually to see how they are progressing, but the best way to discover a child has mastered something, is when they tell us! Students take such pride in their work and when they have figured out everything they can about a material, they are so excited to ask for a new lesson! Below you will see two instances of that from this week!
Lower Elementary
This week, the first years were introduced to the number line! They have learned to measure with it and will soon be learning to add and subtract with it. These first year students were measuring how far they could jump forward, backward, and sideways!One of our third years was SO excited to learn how to divide on paper that I had to put it into the blog! After working extremely hard every day for two weeks on dividing with the pegboard, she told me she felt she had mastered it. I observed her doing some equations and helping friends, and agreed that she had. This week, she attended a review lesson with some fourth year students to learn this work! We love seeing students working towards their goals and feeling confident in sharing when they are ready for a new challenge!
Upper Elementary
Our fourth year students are finishing up their study of viruses by writing their final copy of a research paper and creating a 3D model of their virus. These students are using clay, Popsicle sticks, and hot glue to make their models. These will be displayed next week!This picture is a bit tough to see, but it is some great work! Our sixth grade student has been working with square roots and was so excited to learn how to extract a quadrinomial from a square root in the ten millions! We began our lesson using the pegboard and pegs and our student realized he could do it all in his head and on paper! After we solved the “active” portion of our equation, we checked our answer by squaring the number and subtracting it from the radicand to find our remainder!
Enrichments
These students are practicing recorder songs to try to get their black belts in “Recorder Karate” with Ms. Lisa!This first year student is completing her critique in art class. She shared how she completed her project and others offer insight into how she may improve next time or what they liked about her project!
REMINDERS:
Monday, March 2 – NO SCHOOL DAY FOR ELEMENTARY – We will hold our Student-Led Conferences. Double check your time here!
This week the class learned about the president and what he does. We learned that he makes laws and is in charge of the armed forced. The students got to complete coin rubbings and found out which presidents are on our coins.
A Peek Into Next Week: Dental health
Kindergarten:
The kindergartners went over fractions in group lesson this week. They learned the terms: Numerator- The number on the top in a fraction that shows how many parts are taken from the whole number and Denominator- The number on the bottom of a fraction that represents the whole number. The students made their own fraction book too.
A Peek Into Next Week: Time
Work Time:
This student is practicing cursive letters in the sand tray with a stylist. This work prepares the student for handwrititng and gives more guidnce and practice before writing with pencil and paper.
This student is working on the short seven bead chan. The bead chains are used for linear counting and skip counting. This is in preparation for memorizing the multiples of 7: 7,14,21,28,35,42,49.
This child is tracing our skeleton work. He is strengthening his fine motor muscles while learning about the bones in the human body. He is also gaining concentration, coordination, independence, and order through this activity.
Enrichment Highlight:
In music class, the students got to sing hello to Alley the Aligator and continued in the unit of Peter and the Wolf to learn about different instruments.
“While we may come from different places and speak in different tongues, our hearts beat as one.” – Albus Dumbledore
This week we made a lot of progress on our World’s Fair projects! Lower Elementary students have worked on parts of their display by drawing, coloring, and painting famous items and landmarks from their countries. They have also continued to finish their research. Upper Elementary students have handwritten or typed their final draft, started their cover pages, and are completing their bibliographies! Next, we will all be moving on to creating trifold boards and memorizing a speech to inform you at our Fair! We have really enjoyed seeing the students learn about different people and places around the world and seeing them appreciating the similarities and differences they have discovered! We hope to see you there!
Lower Elementary
These second year students are working on a history assignment together. They learned about the origins of the names of the days of the week. For their follow-up work, they drew pictures to represent the meaning behind each day’s name!This first year is working on her World’s Fair project! She is researching Italy. She has decided to draw and paint the Leaning Tower of Pisa! Come see her finished product on March 19!
Upper Elementary
These third and fifth year students are working with our landform models! They listened to a CD that came with our work to learn about landforms like a plateau, a canyon, and a volcano! They were able to locate different geographic features on each model and hear how they were formed. They loved this work so much that they spent three days with it!This fourth year student is typing the final draft of her World’s Fair research paper! She has researched Japan and really enjoyed learning about their customs and culture! After typing her final paper, she will create a cover page and a bibliography before moving on to her trifold board!
Enrichments
Our students have completed their collage art project! They spent weeks studying collages, making pages of paper with the colors they would need, and cutting out each individual shape from those pages. Next week, they will complete an art critique with their peers!
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.
Handwriting: We practiced writing in cursive writing sentences (sometimes silly sentences).
Cultural Subjects: We now can count to ten in 24 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).
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Telling Time to the hour
Synonym Of The Week: Good: pleasant, fine, honorable, wonderful, valuable
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.
Why do your fingers wrinkle in water? For a long time, people thought the water caused skin to swell up and get puffy. Now researchers believe wrinkly fingers could be an autonomic nervous system reaction. … Because it’s easier to pick up wet objects with wrinkly fingers. Wrinkles on your fingers may give you more grip, kind of like treads on a car tire.
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 23 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish, Serbo-Croation).
Peek In The Classroom:
King Tut and Cleopatra
This girl is helping the classroom by dusting the shelves.
She is practicing handwriting.
This boy is working on his letter sounds.
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Ancient Greece
Letter Of The Week- V v
Rhyming Word Of The Week- ben
Next Language is Cebuano
Upcoming Events: Akron Art Museum Field Trip: March 12, Thursday. Forms and emails sent.
Spring Break: Friday, March 20th returning Monday March 30th
Friends, Frolic, and Fun:
Just posing for the camera.
Time waits for no one.
Ya should ah seen the other guy.
A thumbs up day!!!
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.
Handwriting: We practiced writing in cursive writing sentences (sometimes silly sentences).
Cultural Subjects: We now can count to ten in 24 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).
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Telling Time to the hour
Synonym Of The Week: Good: pleasant, fine, honorable, wonderful, valuable
In art class, Ms. Dana taught us about a famous artist named Kadinsky. We made artwork just like him, however we got to use hearts for Valentine’s Day. Thank you for such a fun activity!
“The only way to have a friend is to be one.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
One of the toughest things about working with children in this age group is helping them navigate through interpersonal relationships. It is hard to see students not getting along and we know it can be hard to hear your child come home and be upset about an argument with a friend. At school, we do our best to help students talk through what each person is feeling, what can be done, how we can continue throughout the rest of the day respectfully, etc. Although it is tough, it is important for children to learn skills to handle conflict resolution to be prepared for the rest of their lives. I found a good article about how you can help navigate these situations at home. You can find that article here.
Lower Elementary
This student is working on the Racks and Tubes. This material allows young students to understand the process of division in a concrete way. Students build the dividend with beads in a cup, then use “skittles” to mark a divisor, and take turns sharing the beads between the divisor. Learning division in a concrete way allows students to come to abstractly dividing on paper in a much easier way that they actually understand!This first year student is working on our six square chain. This chain has all of the multiples from 6 x 1 to 6^2! Doing this work will help students recognize number patterns and memorize multiples of numbers! After he is finished counting the beads, he can write the equations for each bar or use our bead stamps to recreate his own chain.
Upper Elementary
Unfortunately, we lost our new fish, Dale, this week. One student emptied her lunch into a sandwich bag so we could use her container for a coffin. Many of the students worked together to build Dale a grave, found him a tombstone, and held a service for him where they each said what they liked about him.These fourth and fifth year students are working on their World’s Fair project. Between the four of them, we are learning about Libya, Mexico, Sudan, and New Zealand! These students were asking each other questions and offering advice on the best way to write what they learned or which resources were best.
Valentine’s Party
The children were very exited for the Bounce House Rentals we hired for this party. Local residents, businesses, churches, and schools love having these games for the kids and see them enjoy their day.
Thank you to all the parents that sent in supplies!
This week the class learned about what animals can be pets, how to take care of pets, and what is the process to get a pet. We also discussed what Valentine’s Day is and how we show each other our love with notes, cards, and candy to celebrate the holiday.
A Peek Into Next Week: Presidents
Kndergarten:
Over this week, the kindergartners have been learning about three demensional shapes by using our Geometric Solids work. These shapes are: sphere, ovoid, ellipsoid, triangualar based pyramid, rectangualar prism, triangular based prism, cylinder, cube, square based pyramid, and triangualar based prism. They played games where they had to be blindfolded and then had to gueses which shape Ms. Breanna gave them.
A Peek Into Next Week: Fractions
Work Time:
These two students are working together on the addtition strip board. This work helps to reinforce the concept of addition and to help with memorization of addition facts.
This child is practicing her name in cursive on the chalkboard. Cursive has many benefits such as helping with letter reversals.
These two kindergartners are playing a game with the geometric solids. They have to guess which shape they are holding with only using their sense of touch.
This preschooler is tracing and cutting out the leaf puzzle. She is strengthening her fine motor skills while learning about the parts of a leaf.
Valentine’s Party:
Thank you to all the parents who brought in supplies and helped at the party. We all had a great time!
This week we looked at the Geometric Solids/ three dimensional shape… cube, pryamids. prisms, cylinders, oviod, ellipsiod, cone!
Handwriting: We practiced writing in cursive writing sentences (sometimes silly sentences).
Cultural Subjects: We now can count to ten in 24 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).
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Fractions
Synonym Of The Week: Appropriate: suitable, fitting, apropos, correct, proper
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 Donald Trump 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.
February Birthdays: The Montessori classroom is comprised of 3 year old to 6 year old students. Here are our newest 4 old student.
Which do you prefer? Salad dressing (Miracle Whip) or Mayonnaise? I am in the Miracle Whip camp. In fact, my parents told me when I was growing up Miracle Whip was mayonnaise.
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 22 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish).
Peek In The Classroom:
The colored bead stair is a quintessential Montessori math material because it has so many different mathematical benefits. The youngest child in primary all the way through upper elementary learns one-to-one correspondence, connecting quantity to symbol, square roots and cubes, basic operations, and complex algebraic equations.
A lot is going on here… A student is working with the color tablet work, a student is observing him work on the color tablets. and a child is rolling the her rug. All part of a Montessori classroom scene.
Two kindergarten students working on their World Fair project (coloring their maps of the country they chose).
This child found the relationship between these two materials. The relationship of smallest to biggest for these two works. This is called an extension. Extensions are 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.
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Ancient Egypt
Letter Of The Week- U u
Rhyming Word Of The Week- bet
Next Language is Serbo-Croation
Upcoming Events: President’s Day: NO SCHOOL Monday February 17th
Akron Art Museum Field Trip: Thursday March 12th: Details to follow and permission slips to follow. Free Event/ Free Parking.
Friends, Frolic, and Fun:
You should’ve seen the other guy.
Two guys working nicely together. One having fun the other looks scared!
