Weekly Theme: This week we looked at the parts of the leaf, flower, and tree. We also delved into the parts of the insect and arachnid. Did you kindergarten student sing “Head, thorax, abdomen abdomen. six legs and two antennae?” We also broke down what makes a living thing, well, a living thing.
Living things: ^Reproduce ^Grow ^Eat or take in nutrients ^Breathe or exchange gasses ^Consume water
In music class, Ms. Lisa talked about how we have a choice, so we were given the choice between two different instruments. Thank you for a fun music class!
Our Grandparents’ Day was such a blast! Our grandparents enjoyed three songs performed by our students. Two of the songs were popular songs and the third was written by our students! Our piano students each played solos in between the songs. After the music portion of our program, our students performed their play, “Give Me Back My Bones.” When our play was finished, we completed a few activities with our grandparents – “GRANDO” (our grandparent version of BINGO), a Venn Diagram about our similarities and differences, and a list of changes in pop culture between now and when our grandparents were young.
Everyone is concentrating on finding the words in “GRANDO.” Our winners had to stand and tell us the things they love to do together!This family is listing their similarities and differences as they continue to learn more about each other!One of our second year students performing “Forest Drums!”After our “Bones” performance! You can come see this play Thursday, October 31, at 8:30 am in our gym!
Lower Elementary by Ms. Marlee
Our word study shelves have several options for students to explore different elements of language. This second grader is working towards matching a set of synonym cards. This work helps strengthen language acquisition and broadens the child’s knowledge of words and how to use them in appropriate context.Here, two first grade students are working to complete the 6-chain. The students are working towards laying out all of the multiples of 6 with small, numbered tags. For every 6th bead there is a new tag that the child lays on the rug. When the work is complete the child can see the all the multiples of 6 up to 216 (its cube). This and the other bead chains prepare the child for more abstract math work in the classroom and builds their knowledge of math facts. You can click on the link to find out more about the bead chains.
Upper Elementary by Ms. Ashley
These fourth year students are finding the multiples of nine. Using the pegboard to find multiples of numbers helps students recognize common multiples and rules for divisibility.These students have worked all week preparing a geography game for their peers called “Continental Challenge.” The board has many squares for each continent, as well as, bonus and jail squares! These students even created their own dice to include all the numbers they needed and bonus points! They have inspired other students to create board games about their own interests.
REMINDERS:
Thursday, October 31, 8:30 – “Give Me Back My Bones” performance in our gym. All parents are welcome!
Friday, November 1, 8:15 – Drop off at Cuyahoga Falls Campus for our Halloween play performance.
Friday, November 1, afternoon – Student-only Halloween Party. Email to come today about these events!
This week the students learned all about apples and all the parts that make up an apple like the skin, flesh, core, seeds and stem. The students enjoyed tasting different types of apples: granny smith, red delicious, gala and honey crisp. They also discovered what the inside of an apple looks like and how apples grow. The students even had the chance to do apple stamping and make homemade applesauce.
A peek into next week: Pumpkins
Kindergarten: Parts of Animals (mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, amphibians, insects and arachnids)
The kindergarten students learned the characteristics and body parts of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish by using and working with the animal puzzles and control charts in the classroom.
A peek into next week: Parts of Plants
Reminders:
10/24 Grandparents Day
11/1 Halloween Party
Enrichment Highlight:
In music class this week the students sang Skinnamarink and played tambourines.
Work Time:
Shoe Tying: This child is learning how to care for himself while developing a sense of independence and refining his fine motor skills and coordination of movements to successfully tie a shoe.Cursive Chalkboard Writing: This child is practicing writing his first name in cursive on a chalkboard. He is developing multiple skills involving his eyes, arms, hands, memory, posture and body control.Color Box 4: This child is grading different colors from darkest to lightest, while also refining his sense of sight.Sandpaper Numbers: This child is learning the symbols for the numbers through the sense of touch and sight.
Weekly Theme: This week we looked at the five animals which are mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and birds. Refer to the professionally made chart below for the characteristics of each animal.
Handwriting: We practiced writing in cursive vowel blends of ea, ee, ei, eo, eu.
Cultural Subjects: We now can count to ten in 14 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog).
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Parts Of plants, Arachnids, and Insects
Synonym Of The Week: Cold:freezing, chilly, frigid, frozen, cool
“We must help the child to act for himself, will for himself, think for himself; this is the art of those who aspire to serve the spirit.” – Maria Montessori
Below you will see two students working to plan the treat for our Halloween Party. Our students are in charge of breaking into committees, deciding what needs created or bought, and carrying out those tasks before our party. At the Elementary level, what Montessori calls the “Second Plane of Development,” the children have a need for time to socialize and experience different social situations, without the influence of adults. During the school day, they have time for this during lunch and recess, but not as much during work time unless they are working with a friend or two. For this reason, we keep our Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and Pajama Day parties as a student-only day. We have noticed during these student-only parties, that children often socialize with students that they don’t usually work with, or attend lessons together. This is a great opportunity for younger and older students to learn about and from each other while having a great time. We can make this a success with your help of supplying what we need for our party. You can sign up to provide something here!
Lower Elementary by Ms. Marlee
Our second graders were introduced to a few measuring tools this week. Here, two friends are measuring different items in the classroom including themselves! Their lists of measured items included a shelf, the doorway, and their own heads and waists. Measurement introduces the concepts of length, height, weight, and volume. It also provides a hands-on opportunity to explore the environment in a tactile and productive way.Two second year students are helping a first year while she works with the Addition Snake Game. As our first year worked through her equations, the second years were helping her check her work and asking her how she could fix it, if needed. Strong bonds like this are formed when older students come alongside younger students in the classroom.
Upper Elementary by Ms. Ashley
These fourth year students are creating a new encyclopedia of animals for our classroom. They noticed the one that we often use does not have all of the animals they are interested in, so they are solving our problem! Each day they have added research into their notebook that is organized by class of animal!Last Friday, we asked students to journal about things they wished the teachers knew. Some included things we could improve, some included things they personally need help with, and some included information about themselves that they felt we would like to know. All of our third through sixth graders asked for help with learning how to get along and communicate better. This week, Ms. Brandy and I sat down with them to get more information, talk about our different personalities, and discuss the process of making calmer, better decisions. Over the next few weeks, we will take time each day to focus on a habit within ourselves that we can improve to help get along and communicate better!
Enrichments with help from Ms. Breanna!
This week in dance class, we did some warm up exercises and stretches before working on our combinations.
REMINDERS:
Monday, October 21 – Elementary Performance at Mulberry Gardens (staff drivers)
Tuesday, October 22 – Grandparents’ Day
Thursday, October 31 – 8:30 am – Halloween Play for Parents! Please join us in the gym for two performances!
Friday, November 1 – Halloween Play at Falls Campus – ALL ELEMENTARY drop off at Falls Campus by 8:15 – Staff to transport back to Tallmadge Campus
Friday, November 1 – Student-Only Halloween Party.
Students may bring a costume with them when they are dropped off at the Cuyahoga Falls Campus (no blood, gore, or weapons please).
We will begin our party after lunch – please have your child pack their regular lunch as our party will only have a small treat.
Students have planned some games to play and to bake their treat together. We will finish our party
Students will still need their reading logs for Friday morning.
In art, we got to make pumpkins using crayons and watercolors! Ms. Dana has been teaching us to use texture in our artwork every week. Thank you for such a fun art class, we can’t wait for next week!
These past two weeks, we read the Mo Willems’ book We Are in a Book. In this book the characters figure out they are in a book. They decide that it would be fun to make the readers say words. This amuses them a lot, and they continue to make the reader say words. Gerald finds out that the book is going to end and this makes him sad, so he and Piggie ask to be read again.
After I read aloud to the students, we had discussions about the book, they drew scenes from the story, wrote about what they were wondering during the story, and wrote about how the characters felt in the story. For the last reading, we made puppets and the students acted out the story with their puppets while I read.
These students are drawing a scene from the book.The kindergartners made puppets to act out the story.
A Peek Into the Next Two Weeks
-The students will listen to the Mo Willems’ book I Am Invited to a Party!
-The students will participate in group discussions.
-The students will complete comprehension activities.
Line Time: Amphibians- This week we looked at the Amphibian. We talked about how the Amphibians are vertebrates, cold blooded (the body temperature changes to the temperature that surrounds the amphibian), their skin is soft and moist, and they are born from jelly eggs. Some examples of Amphibians are toads, frogs, and salamanders. We learned that the term amphibian means of two worlds. Amphibians are born in the water but live their life on land. Who can forget the famous Kermit The Frog?
Weird Scenes Inside The Goldmine: This past weekend my family and I went to visit my favorite daughter (as she says “my only daughter”) at BGSU. I learned/saw a few things…
*The most revered road trip food across the board are Slim Jims. I prefer Slim Jims, cheddar or pizza flavored Combos, and a Coke and Dr, Pepper mix (1:1 ratio) with lots of crushed not cubed ice.
*The funniest saying on the electronic sign “Camp in Ohio State Parks NOT in the left lane” Future rant.
*Don’t detail your car before a road trip! Even though there were 3 adults and a teen it still ended up looking like something out of Animal House.
*Do NOT let a 13 year old boy take off his shoes in the car, HEINOUS!
*My princess may never move back home especially when she is on my cell plan with unlimited data and with my credit card in her pocket :((
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 12 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian).
Peek In The Classroom:
This boy is working on a matching activity found in the language area. The purpose of this materials is to improve concentration, train visual memory, increase short term memory, increase attention to detail, improve the ability to find similarities and differences in objects, help to classify objects that are grouped by similar traits, and improve vocabulary.
Ms. Tonya is working with the Opposite Cards with this student. The aim for this material is introducing the child to opposites not only increases vocabulary, but it is a fun activity that forces the child to use higher order thinking skills thereby building his/her intelligence. Using picture cards that illustrate opposites gives the child a visual understanding of the words introduced. I love the excitement of this child as she finds the “match”.
She is working on the introductory work in the Math area called the Number Rods. The Number Rods purpose is to learn to count to ten and understand the value of each number. To learn the names “one” to “ten” and to associate the names with the quantities. As you notice the “quantities” is represented by the length of each rod. As a side note do you remember some Sensorial works that help with visual discrepancies? See how it starts to all come together?
The next step after the aforementioned Number Rods is the Number Rods with Symbols (actual numbers). After the child is comfortable associating the number rods with a quantity, Montessori classrooms use the Number Cards to introduce a symbol. This is an example of the concrete correlation of numbers and quantity.
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Fish
Letter Of The Week- I i
Rhyming Word Of The Week- bin
Next Language is Swedish
Person bringing snack for week of 10/21/2019 is Harper G
Upcoming Events: Halloween Party: Friday, November 1, 11 am (pizza lunch provided)… details to follow via email
Grandparents Day- Tuesday, Novemeber 5
BOX TOPS BOX TOPS BOX TOPS Mr. John wants pizza! Due 10/25/2019
Friends, Frolic, and Fun:
Fashion fashion fashion…. All day I thought she was a unicorn until I took the picture then she informed me it is a party hat.
For picture day we have plaid, plaid, plaid, plaid, argyle, and bow tie and suspenders.
Fanciness with big bows and sparkley dress on picture day.