Telling a story with music! Different instruments represent different characters!
Different instruments create unique sounds. We had so much fun listening and learning the names of instruments.
Learning about absorption with water, paper towels, and a diaper (contains Sodium Polyacrylate).
What will happen? The water is going to dump on her head for sure! The water poured into the container with the paper towel dumped all over Mr. John’s head! What will the water poured into the diaper do?
No water dumped on to her head! She’s completely dry!!!
Let’s try this again! Maybe if we pour lots of water into the container with the diaper it will dump onto our head! Watch out!!!!
We dumped two and a half cups of water into the container with the diaper and we still remained dry! Why???? Because of absorption! The Sodium Polyacrylate in the diaper is more absorbent than the paper towel. The diaper absorbed all of the water keeping us dry!
“And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.”
Welcome back, families! We were sad to give up our days of sleeping past 5, but so happy to see your children back at school. So far this week we have started our research for the “World’s Fair,” the Lower Elementary are studying Europe, the third years are using the microscope, and the Upper Elementary dissected a squid. Check out the two first graders below to see the new things we are researching and using in our room.
Lower Elementary
This student is researching about Canada for her World’s Fair project. She will learn about the climate, geographic features, animals, plants, history, and many more topics to complete her study of Canada. At our World’s Fair, she will be dressed like a person from Canada and will share with you what she has learned!Here a first grader is using our Peace Table. Our Peace Table is a space where students can go to refocus and calm down when they choose to. There is always a container for them to write down their feelings and thoughts without anyone reading them and another activity that we switch out. This month we have out a book of labyrinths made out of Mandalas. Students can use different pointers to find their way through each labyrinth. Solving puzzles like this requires intense focus and concentration, while boosting patience and persistence.
Upper Elementary
Yesterday at the Cleveland Aquarium, we dissected a squid! We spent time learning about the classification of animals before our dissection. During it, we were able to remove the ink pen of the squid and open its ink sac to write our names! After our dissection, we traveled through the aquarium to find invertebrates. We were able to touch stingrays and a sea urchin!
Enrichments
In art, the students are making paper collages. They each need to choose a section of a paper, redraw it with markers, and then cut out each section from paper to recreate the art as a collage.
REMINDERS:
Coming home today in Reading Logs is a paper with Ms. Lisa’s recorder policy. Please review this with your child, sign it together, and return it to school by Tuesday. There will be a folder in the piano bin (underneath where the teachers hang coats) to place it in.
NO SCHOOL – Friday, January 17, for Parent-Teacher Conferences. If you have not signed up yet, please do so below so we can be sure to prepare for your meeting. Remember, we will not have child care during the conference, so children may not attend.
Line Time: We started to learn about our body and how it works. We learned about our five senses (touch, hearing, sight, smell, and taste). Did you know you can “feel” with any part of your body? Of course parents know that. Who has not stepped on a Lego in bare feet and screamed in pain? But we associate touch with our fingers (hot/cold, hard/soft, rough/smooth). We hear loud noises, quiet noises, high and low noises, “Are we there yet?”. We need light to see and if we close our eyes we can’t see. The lights being turned on at 5 am on a Saturday morning. There are good smells like cinnamon, vanilla and bad smells like a dirty diaper and vinegar. My favorite was the taste test where we tasted sweet (sugar water), salty (salt water), sour (pure lemon juice), and bitter (unsweetened baking chocolate). The children enjoyed “most” of the tastes. Hehe!!!!
Our newest reptile (Milk Snake), Ian:
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, Hungarian, Irish).
Peek In The Classroom:
This girl is brushing up on her multiplication. She is using the manipulative called the Golden Beads. As you can see she came up with the correct answer.
She is showing off her rendition of a snowflake that was made in the art area.
This student is showing me the correct way to carry a chair.
Children begin working with the Hundred Board once they have a clear understanding of numbers 1 – 10 and 11 – 20. This is usually around three or four years of age, depending on how quickly the child has grasped the concept of counting. This material builds on the mathematical foundation created by earlier Montessori work, by extending the child’s knowledge of numbers to 100, and also helping them to understand number order. As you can tell she discovered the pattern of where any particular number goes.
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- MLK/ Diversity
Letter Of The Week- P p
Rhyming Word Of The Week- bun
Next Language is Kiswahili
Upcoming Events: Parent/Teacher Conferences: January 17, Friday 7am to 7pm. Details and sign up to follow soon.
***** NO SCHOOL: January 20, 2020/ Monday for MLK Day. ******
Friends, Frolic, and Fun:
Muscle shirt and tats.
Ya shoulda seen the other guy!
Lunch time shennanigans.
Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon spent a record 917 in the top 200 charts!
Weekly Theme: We were introduced to subtraction with manipulatives (golden beads, static/no borrowing).
K Kids doing handwriting.
Handwriting: We practiced writing in cursive writing sentences (sometimes silly sentences).
Cultural Subjects: We now can count to ten in 18 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).
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Subtraction w/ Golden Beads (Dynamic/Borrowing)
Synonym Of The Week: SKINNY: thin, lean, emaciated, scrawny, slender
Line Time: We learned a little bit about family since we are going to be spending a lot more time with family during the holiday season (be it good or be it bad).
Saying Goodbye:
We are saying good bye to this guy due to his family moving. See you later!!!!!!!! Noticed how he is doing the “O” in O-H….. I O.
What is your favorite Christmas song (1970 to present): My favorites are Fairy tale of NYC by The Pogues, 2,000 Miles by Pretenders, and Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid.
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, Hungarian).
Saying
Peek In The Classroom:
When the student is around three or four years of age, depending on how quickly the child has grasped the concept of counting to 100, and also helping them to understand number order. They are introduced to the 100 board. This work is more of an abstract work. The child learns to place the tiles in numeric order and develops an understanding of the concept of patterns.
We have been following this student for about a month tracking her sensitive period with Geometry. She still has a strong interest in Geography. This interest can last a few months or a week. We will see how far she will go in this sensitive period.
This student is working on the 3 part cards in the language area. They focus on three letter/short vowel sounds. Three part cards are the perfect introduction to any new set of vocabulary, and can be found in more than one area of the Montessori classroom.
These two girls are working on the Vowel Tree. The vowel tree is a fun activity to make and play with. This is another fun way to practice short vowel, and letter sounds. They are also practicing handwriting by copy writing the words they created.
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- 5 senses
Letter Of The Week- O o
Rhyming Word Of The Week- bug
Next Language is Irish
Upcoming Events: Winter Break: Off from Saturday, December 21, 2019 returning Monday, January 6, 2019
Parent/Teacher Conferences: January 17, Friday 7am to 7pm. Details and sign up to follow soon.
This week we continued talking about different traditions for Christmas and how people celebrate differently. We painted winter scenes, built creations with marshmallows and toothpicks, and made a surprise for the parents!
Kindergarten:
This week the kindergartners learned about currency. They leaned how money is used, and matched the coins and dollars to their amounts.
Reminders:
Christmas Break | NO SCHOOL | December 23, 2019 – January 6, 2020|Parent teacher conferences: January 17th
Enrichmment Highlight:
In art class, the students made pipe cleaner snow flakes by stringing the pipe cleaners with beads.
Work Time:
This student is working wtih the Geometric Solids. This work is to help the child be aware of solid geometric shapes forms around him and to refine the sense of touch.This child is practcing weaving. The aim of this work is to prepare the child for sewing and tying shoes, while also improving concentration, organization, coordination, and independence.This student is learning to write his name in cursive.
“The world is a university and everyone in it is a teacher. Make sure when you wake up in the morning, you go to school.” – T.D. Jakes
Wow, we are already at Christmas Break! For our last blog of the year 2019, I wanted to share some things I have learned from your children so far this year. I have learned that when the adults in my life do not care about dog vomit slime mold, the history of rabies, or tests you can conduct on the iron in your blood, the students all care and LOVE to know what I am learning. I have learned that you can make recess fun with just a tire, some rope, and a lot of creativity and teamwork. I have learned that you can never ask too many good questions, even if you have been on the same topic, in the same building, of the same field trip, for forty-five minutes. I have learned that when a student is struggling, a pep talk from a friend has the power to reignite a sense of confidence that seemed to be long gone. I have learned that when one of our own invites us to see one of their many talents, we never let them stop feeling like we are proud of them. I have learned when things get tough and I ask them what they are going to do about it, they are able to ask for help or come up with an idea using all of the skills we are currently working on because they really are listening.
Lower Elementary
This first year student is working on the follow-up work for his first Sentence Analysis lesson! He is writing sentences and labeling which part is the subject of the sentence and which part is the action. Later in these lessons, he will learn about direct and indirect objects in sentences and how they give more information about the subject and action!This second year student is learning about the fundamental needs of Egyptians! She learned about their tools, communication, shelter, defense, and is now writing her name in Hieroglyphics!
Upper Elementary
Here three fourth year students have asked another Upper Elementary student to help them figure out the prime factors of a few numbers they chose. This student decided it would be best for him to reintroduce the lesson to them, instead of just telling them what steps he would take. The fourth year students were very respectful and our “teaching” student was incredibly patient! The lesson was such a success!Here we have a fifth year friend explaining his work to a third year friend. This fifth year student recently had a lesson on squaring a binomial algebraically and realized he could solve a number of any size with the information he learned, not just a binomial. He chose a number with FIFTY digits! We cannot wait to see how many digits the product has!
Enrichments
Both our Upper and Lower Elementary students have been working for the past month with wire stretching! Throughout their time, they sketched what they wished to create, made a cube, created a project from their own imagination, and completed a self-reflection on the project. Check out their work near the sign-in tablet!
REMINDERS:
Christmas Break begins today! School resumes Monday, January 6
Upper Elementary Squid Dissection Field Trip – Thursday, January 9 – Please make sure to have permission slips in by the 9th!
Parent-Teacher Conferences are Friday, January 17 – Sign ups are below:
This week in science class, Mr. John taught us about density. We put one egg in salt water and one egg in fresh water. The egg in the salt water floated, and the egg in the fresh water sank! Thanks for a fun science experiment!
Weekly Theme: Currency, We learned to identify the dollar bills and coins and how much each are worth. Your child can learn even more by attending this childcare program.
MONEY MONEY MONEY Moneeeeeey
Handwriting: We practiced writing in cursive writing sentences.
Cultural Subjects: We now can count to ten in 18 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish).
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Subtraction with manipulatives (Golden Beads)
Synonym Of The Week: HEALTHY: hearty, athletic, sound, strong, fit
