9/23 Weekly Enrichment Spotlight

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Enrichment Spotlight: Science

 

This week in science class, Mr. John mixed water, food coloring, baby oil, and salt in a bottle to teach us about density. Afterwards, we got to pretend to be in the experiment! Thanks for a fun science class Mr. John!

A Peek at Our Week | Elementary | Week of September 23

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“Through movement, children explore their world. They touch it, they move and manipulate it, they go outside and out into the world to examine the natural beauty around them.” – North American Montessori Center

Montessori believed that children need the opportunity to move during their day at school. In the primary classroom, you see this through materials like the Pink Tower or Brown Stair which require the children to take ten whole trips to and from the material to gather everything at their mat before even beginning the work! With being given more freedom to develop into and explore what it means to be an adult, movement in the Elementary classroom appears in different ways. Children cannot become independent by sitting in one place all day. They need to move, to explore, to try (and sometimes fail) before they can really grasp the importance of something. We include movement in our classroom through games at recess, building and creating in the room and at recess with power tools and hot glue, allowing many choices in work spaces, completing chores throughout our entire building, and offering the choice of a mental break with jump rope and yoga. Sign up for “Bring Your Parent to Work Time” below to observe movement in our room before working with your child!

Here, two Lower Elementary students are participating in a game of one-on-one soccer. Each child has chosen a team to represent and take turns playing offense and defense for their entire team!
Sometimes you need a physical break from a mental break! This student was pausing his work after a lot of research to do some jump roping. After jumping for as long as he could without stopping, he needed a rest!

Lower Elementary by Ms. Marlee

These third graders are continuing their exploration of different types of nouns. They are using their “Singular and Plural Noun Rule Chart” to help them classify nouns into the correct category. Language works like these help students become stronger writers and readers.
Our Lower Elementary has been reviewing their knowledge of telling time over the past two weeks. This week, the third graders had a review over telling time to the minute. These two students are working together to determine what time these clock faces are representing. Being able to tell time independently helps students regulate their time effectively and keep track of how much time they have left to complete their daily responsibilities. Both are tools that will help them smoothly transition into adulthood.

Upper Elementary by Ms. Ashley

Our fourth year students reviewed their previous Lower Elementary lessons with the Bohr Diagram and Periodic Table this week! We reviewed the subatomic particles in an atom and where to find information about each element using the Periodic Table. To continue their review, each student chose one element to research. They have found the history of their element and its many uses. Look for these projects on the bulletin board next week!
Our third year and Upper Elementary students are split into two reading groups. Students read the summaries of “Fish in a Tree” and “Jackie Robinson” to determine which group they’d like to join. Twice a week students meet, give out reading group jobs, and work through the readings together. Both books have sparked many deep discussions about discrimination this week and have allowed students to ask questions about the experiences of others, while discussing how they would behave in those situations.

Enrichments by Ms. Erica

Our students are having a lot of fun preparing for their Grandparents’ Day performance!

REMINDERS

  • For information on what your child is doing daily, please check in on Transparent Classroom!
  • Sign up for our first “Bring Your Parents to Work Time” here!

Peek In Our Week — Mr. John’s Class — Week Of September 23, 2019

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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 13 1/2 years old, SMH.

 

Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 9 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect)

 

Radio Radio:
The past six months my radio in my car has been acting up and was on it’s last leg.  It started with a big pop sound and the volume would cut out.  The only way to get it back to normal was to turn off the radio and turn off the car.  This was very tricky while on the highway.  I’d put the car in neutral, turn off the car for ten seconds, then turn the car back on, and gently put it back in gear (not sure what that was doing to my transmission).  Then it happened… my “AUX” button stopped working leaving me with commercial radio.  I was ready to pull my hair out.  Even pounding on the radio did not work.

I finally bit the proverbial bullet and purchased a new radio with everything needed to install it. As I side note everything needed to install the radio cost more than the radio itself.  One of the parents offered to install it.  I was greeted by a very active Rotty and and had a good nap in the backyard. Two hours later I had a new radio.  I plugged in my AUX cord and used my Spotify account (again). Now the journey begins.  I was able to set the time but the rest is fuzzy.  Programming, yes I used the word programming the rest of the features, yikes.  I could change the color of my display.  I had a nice red “scarlet” but my youngest changes it to pink, he said purple, we agreed on magenta.  My son pokes around and “programs” the colors to change on their own and the colors blink with the beat of the music.  If I wasn’t susceptible to seizures before I am now.  Also, I couldn’t take my eyes of the darn thing and ran a red light. I am begrudgingly waiting for that ticket to come in the mail. I have no idea what the USB port is for.  I got the blue tooth to work with playing music.  I dare not make a call on blue tooth, yet….  below is my new

JVC KD-X360BTS 1-DIN Bluetooth In-Dash Mechless AM/FM/Digital Media Car Radio

 

 

 

Peek In The Classroom:

This boy is working on the Pink Tower which the main aim is visual discrimination but if you look closely he is making a “creation” which we call an extension (of the material). The 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.

 

These students are working on a matching exercise. Matching materials 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.

 

Students are helping to make rat toys for the rats. They are using their fine motor skills as well as creating these toys with little help from teachers and using their imagination.

 

This girl has mastered her colors and the material called Color Box II. The aim for color boxes The main purpose of the Color Box is to develop a child’s visual sense of color. Primary colors (Red, Yellow and Blue) are introduced in Color Box 1, which is first presented to a child at 2.5 to 3 years of age. Color Boxes 2 add more tablets to the mix, expanding a child’s color knowledge. She also had another child observe her work.

 

This work called The Vowel Tree is a pre-reading exercise. All the vowels are written vertically on the tree trunk and there are cards with two consonants and a open spot in the middle. Then the child slides the letters down to the next vowel and say the word. They continue all the way down the tree. For the purposes of this work, they can say a word even if it’s a “nonsense” word, just for the practice of saying the vowel sounds.

 

This girl is working on a construction box (Small Hexagon). This material helps the student create and identify shapes. For example….. Six small equilateral triangles makes makes a hexagon (gray shape). She discovered that half of the hexagon is a trapezoid (green shape). Again notice the student watching her do her work.

 

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Mammals

Letter Of The Week- F f

Rhyming Word Of The Week- big

Next Language is Italian

Person bringing snack for week of 9/30/2018 is Jonathan

 

Upcoming Events:

Picture Day- Wednesday October, 16th

###### Bring Your Parent To School .  Follow the link below. ########

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Frolic, Friends, and Fun:

Our “pop star” in shades

 

He really was trying to smile. Really!

 

She was forced to take this pic, hehe.  This was the best “smile” I could get.

 

Building my animal collection! A stretching frog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Academic Enrichment — Cuyahoga Falls Campus — week of 9/23/2019

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Weekly Theme:
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

 

Handwriting:
We practiced writing  in cursive Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu

 

Cultural Subjects:
We now can count to ten in 10 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian).  We are implementing intensive learning programs.

 

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

Sight Words Of The Week: from he

Adding Romanian to the languages

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Peek at Our Week | Ms. Courtney’s Classroom | Week of September 16th

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Classroom: Feelings and Emotions

This week the students learned what they can do when they are angry, happy, sad, frustrated, excited etc. They learned different ways to manage their feelings and emotions. They also practiced how to process, identify and appropriately express their emotions in different scenarios throughout the week.

A peek into next week: Five Senses

Kindergarten: North America

 The students learned where Canada, USA and Mexico are located on a map of North America. They also became familiar with and the location of different bodies of water such as: The Hudson Bay, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean.

A peek into next week: Ohio and surrounding states

Reminders:

9/27 Bring Your Parent to Work Time

10/17 Picture Day

Enrichment Highlight:

In art class the students discussed their feelings and emotions and then drew self portraits of how they were feeling.

Work Time:

Movable Alphabet: This child is practicing blending and forming words using the different letter sounds he has mastered mat, bag, pan, zip and cup.
Dishwashing: These children are using many motor skills while also remembering the order and sequence of each action to successfully wash dishes, which naturally leads to the development of concentration.
Forty-Five Layout: These children are becoming familiar with the names and relative sizes of the categories: units, tens, hundreds and thousands. They are also discovering that if they have 6 units and add 1 more unit they will have 7 units.
Metal Insets: This child is practicing tracing a curvilinear triangle and an ellipse . He is developing multiple skills involving his eyes, arms, hands, memory, posture and body control.

 

9/20/19 Enrichment Spotlight – Music & Science

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Learning to use Rhythm  Sticks with Ms. Lisa.  We followed the rhythm  of our music.

Here go our ants marching one by one while we practice following rhythms.

Exploring the differences between  fresh water and salt water in our egg experiment!

Sink or float?  Amazed that our egg floated to the top in salt water !

Academic Enrichment *** Cuyahoga Falls Campus *** Week Of 9/16/2019

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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 L l, M m, N n, O o

 

Cultural Subjects:
We now can count to ten in 10 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian).

 

Next Week:
Weekly Theme: Ohio and surrounding states

Synonym Of The Week:  BORING: drab, dull, lifeless, mundane, monotonous

Sight Words Of The Week: are was

Adding Russian to the languages

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peek In Our Week *** Mr. John’s Class *** Week Of September 16, 2019

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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, 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 8 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese)

 

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 is not a pained look on this child’s face but actually an expression of enjoyment. He is doing one of our new Practical Life works of scrubbing apples. Children at this age like to do real work and this work accommodates this need. In doing so he learns to focus his mind for the purpose of mastering a new skill. This is the start of a child’s attachment to the many Montessori materials, which build in complexity to help build concentration. To develop fine and gross-motor skills.

 

These two girls are working on their cursive writing skills. The uninterrupted movements of the hand may make cursive letters easier for children to form, and for this reason, Montessori primary classrooms introduce children to cursive writing first.

 

These children are working on the sand tray which is a pre-cursive handwriting material. The Montessori sand tray is simply a tray filled with sand. Its purpose is to help a child learn how to trace letters and numbers on his own, while allowing for the same tactile and sensorial experience as the sandpaper letters and numerals.

 

This student is using the Trinomial Cube which is a staple work found in the sensorial area of the Montessori classroom. The blocks are color coded and are different sizes to represent the algebraic Binomial and Trinomial formulas. The purpose is not to teach math but to challenge the child to find patterns and spatial relationships. In further issues I will reveal the algebraic formula.

 

Peek Into Next Week:
Line Time- Living and Non-Living Things

Letter Of The Week- E e

Rhyming Word Of The Week- bad

Next Language is Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect

Person bringing snack for week of 9/23/2018 is Amelia

 

Upcoming Events:

Picture Day- Wednesday October, 16th

 

********New Parent Conferences.  Follow the link below. *********

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-newparent1

 

######## Bring Your Parent To School .  Follow the link below. ########

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A8A92DA6F94-bring6

 

Frolic, Friends, and Fun:

Hugs run rampant in Mr. John’s classroom and that is OK.

 

This one certainly knows what to do when a camera is pointed her way.

 

These two are sharing some “girl time” over snack.

 

Just chillin’ and posin’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Peek at Our Week | Elementary | Week of September 16

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This week we were excited to receive our new biome material for the classroom! Our class was excited to go into our backyard biome! We walked into the woods and collected samples of water, plants, animals, energy, soil, and air. We brought everything except our energy jar back into the classroom to observe throughout the week. Our energy jar is outside collecting energy to power the light bulbs inside the jar! We then introduced our “Backyard Biome Mat” which you can read about below! In a few weeks, when we begin studying continents, we will begin using our new biome maps! Look for those in a future post.

Lower Elementary by Ms. Marlee

All of our returning 2nd and 3rd graders complete the Word of the Day. This exposes them to new words and hones their developing research abilities. 1st graders are welcome to work with an older friend to learn more about using the dictionary but we also offer a list of morning work choices for our younger students. We caught sight of these siblings working together this week to define the word and log it in their Language notebooks. We love seeing strong sibling bonds like this one in our classroom.
We have a new work in our classroom! Here you can see a 3rd and 1st grader working together to label nouns on the area in which they could be found in a specific biome. Learning about biomes helps our students explore a variety of habitats and learn about the countless organisms that coexist within them. Ask your child about the outdoor biome experiment they participated in this week to find out more about their exploration of biomes.

Upper Elementary by Ms. Ashley

These fifth year students are working on classifying animals in the Animal Kingdom. They are adding photos to a table in Google Docs to represent each phylum or class in the Animal Kingdom. We will continue studying animals before we move on to the study of internal systems of mammals and humans.
Our fourth year students are working to complete a “Word of the Week.” Each week, the Upper Elementary students choose a word that they think no one will know. They illustrate a picture that can demonstrate the meaning of their word, then perform a skit while their peers guess what the definition of the word may be.

Enrichments by Ms. Erica

Each child sat patiently while Ms. Dayna outlined their profile. The students will fill their profiles in with magazine cut-outs and other pictures that they feel represent them.

REMINDERS:

  • For information on what your child is doing daily, please check in on Transparent Classroom!
  • “Bring Your Parents to Work Time” begins on October 8 and 10! Sign up here!

Take A Peek Into Our Week/ September 19,2010/Ms.Kate

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Hello, Hello!! I hope all of you are having a fantastic week like we are!! This week’s theme was all about kindness and respect. I really love both of these lessons, because all of our discussions, crafts, books, and lessons, really makes an impact on your kiddos. Kindness is a key ingredient that enhances positivity and helps children feel good about themselves…Children with a positive outlook have a greater attention spans, more willingness to learn, and better creative thinking to improve results at school!

Our new friend is working on the spindle box.The spindle boxes have important purposes of reinforcing the idea that the symbols represent certain quantities of separate objects, introducing the concept zero and it’s symbol, and reinforcing the sequence of the numerals.
The direct purpose of the sandpaper letters is to teach the child the sounds of the alphabet by means of muscular and visual memory.
One of our kindergarten students is working on the Vowel tree. This work is a tactile, and engaging way to teach and practice decoding words.

REMINDERS: Don’t forget our school field trip is tomorrow! Please make sure all lunches are bagged lunches. Also, please make sure your child is wearing appropriate shoes for the farm!

Please make sure your child leaves ALL toys at home or in the car. Thank you!!!