Lesson: Capitalization- Our last official weekly lesson was on Capitalization. You children now know that the word at the beginning of the sentence it is always capitalized. When you refer to yourself with “I” the I is always capitalized. Also, any proper nouns are capitalized.
Cultural Subjects: We can now count to ten in 28 different 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).
This last week the kindergartners listened to another Mo Willems book called We Are in a Book!. In this book Piggie and Elephant (Gerald) figure out that they are in a book and readers are reading them. They start interacting with the reader and make him/ her say words. Gerald and Piggie are very entertained by the fact that they can make the reader say silly words. The kindergartners were entertained as well and thought the characters were hilarious. They were so excited that they wanted me to read the story again!
After the readings the students got to share what they thought about the book and discussed how the characters were feeling throughout the story. They wrote and drew about what they were wondering about after the first reading. For the last reading group, they made Piggie and Elephant puppets and acted out the story while I read. The students were thoroughly engaged during the readings of the Piggie and Elephant series. It was a joy to teach reading group this year and see the kindergarteners grow in their reading skills. I hope you all have a fun and safe summer!
These past two weeks have flown by!! Last week we had a blast with grandparents day! Everyone had so much fun watching science experiments by Mr. John,creating four different crafts, exploring the book fair, and spending time in our room working together!! Grandparents was also our theme for that week as well! Together we read books, lead discussions about what makes are grandparents so special to us, and had fun creating crafts for our grandparents!!!
This week is all about the farm!! Our class is so excited about our field trip on friday!! Together we have lead discussions about all of the different types of farms there are in our country!We also have been reading some great books on the different animals you would see on a farm, baby animals, and the different jobs people have if they worked on a farm.
this little cutie has been working so hard on our Nomenclature cards. When working on these she is learning how to sort, categorize, and learn the different names of the animals. she is also writing out all of the name cards, which is a great extension to this card work! When working on our continent puzzles the child is introduced to a sensorial activity related to working with the countries/continents of the world. They also stimulate an interest in the systematic study of the world and its people. The child also gains focus and concentration skills. This guy right here is reading his first Dr. Seuss book!! He has been working so hard this year on his letters, word building, and with his reading!! Way to go!!
REMINDERS:
Tomorrow is book share day!!
Friday is our fiels trip, so please be sure to wear comfortable clothing and shoes! Also, please pack a brown bag lunch!
Today I sent an email out about our last day of school so don’t forget to check those out!!!
Dinosaurs: We learned that dinosaurs roamed Earth for about 165 million years and that there were hundreds of species. Then about 65 million years ago a huge meteorite or comet hit the Earth, making dinosaurs become extinct. Some dinosaurs we studied were diplodocus, tyrannosaurus, stegosaurus, brachiosaurus and triceratops.
Work Time
Compound Words: These students are learning that when two words are used together they form a new meaning. For example, sun and flower becomes sunflower.Sand Tray Writing: This child is practicing writing his first name in cursive in the sand tray. He is developing multiple skills involving his eyes, arms, hands, memory, posture and body control.Addition: This child is using the bead bar box to discover that when you put two small numbers together you get a larger number and that this process is called addition.Trinomial cube: This child is learning how to build the trinomial cube, while also getting an introduction into algebra and preparation for the formula a3+3a2b+3a2c+6abc+b3+3ab2+3b2c+3ac2+3bc2+c3.Planets: This child is putting the planets in order starting with the one closest to the sun Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.Number Rods: This child is experiencing the qualities of each number and learning their names and what each quantity physically looks like.
Line Time: Animals Groups- This week we talked about what groups of animals are called. Here is a list of what we learned…
Pack of dogs
Muster of peacocks
Pride of lions
Gaggle of geese
Murder of crows
School of fish
Pod of dolphins
Heard of cows, horses, and elephants
CONGRESS of Baboons
Mischief of rats
Not a Flock Of Seagulls (I ran) but a colony of seagulls
Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 27 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, Farsi).
Fun Fact(s): Sheep in New Zealand- According to Statistics NZ’s agricultural production statistics, N.Z. has an estimated 29.5 million sheep. This means that the sheep-to-person ratio is actually about six sheep per person.
There are 19 billion chickens on Earth, a full 12 billion more chickens than humans.
And you thought The Planet Of The Apes could happen. Ha! Watch out for the chicken apocalypse!!!!!
Birthdays: The Montessori Classroom is a mixture of 3, 4, 5 6 year old students. Here are our May Babies.
Peek In Our Classroom:
The preparation of snack is a daily chore in the morning.
This is the proper way to carry a chair.
More puzzle map work. The teacher is giving a lesson with the continent puzzle map.
Am impromptu meditation session in the nature center.
Next Week: Line Time- Solar System
Letter Of The Week- O, o
Rhyming Word Of The Week- Bod
Next Language will be- Turkish
Snack will be brought to you by Ryan
Upcoming Events: *** Great Lakes Science Center Field Trip, Tuesday May 28 ***
***** Fire Station Field Trip, Wednesday May 22 *****
Over the last two weeks the students listened to a Mo Willems book, My New Friend is So Fun. In the story, Gerald and Snake are talking about how their best friends Piggie and Brian Bat just met and are having fun. Gerald and Snake start to worry that their best friends are having fun without them and that they will lose their best friends. They go find Piggie and Brian Bat and it ends up that they were drawing pictures of Snake and Gerald together. The two aren’t worried anymore and tell them to have fun.
The kindergarteners worked on evaluative activities after the readings to enhance their comprehension of the story. They drew pictures of scenes from the book and wrote responses from writing prompts. For our last reading they decided to read along with me, and even used proper inflection based on the punctuation.
The kindergartners are drawing a picture of Piggie and Brian Bat having best friend fun.
A Peek Into Next Week
-The students will listened to another Mo Willems book called We’re In A Book.
-The students will be making puppets to act out the story while I read.
-Next week will be the last reading group of the year.
“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.” – Malala Yousafzai
This is my final blog post for the year! The post coming the final week of school will be written by all nineteen of our students about their favorite parts of this school year!
I want to thank all of you for sharing your children with us. I look forward every morning to the laughs, the successes, the learning, and even the failures and frustrations. They teach me every day more than I could ever teach them. I wanted to share some of the most hilarious things said in our room this year along with a peek into what we’ve been working on.
This student is researching the parts of a flower. After learning the parts she will learn many interesting things like how a seed is formed, the different positions of flowers on a stem, and how to tell if a plant’s seeds are monocots or dicots. Learning all of this information helps students feel an appreciation for nature and gives an understanding about how important it is.This student has started making her own math equations using money. She has made addition, subtraction, and multiplication equations for herself. Today she added up how much money was in the entire box! It is wonderful to see students taking initiative to learn what they are interested in.These students are writing letters to someone in the grade below them to give some advice and encouragement for their next school year. Our students listed their favorite things to work on and gave tips on how to be successful in the next school year. Look for these to arrive in mid-June!These third graders are working on the final step of their human body research. They have studied the human body throughout this entire year. After drawing their bones and researching and recording information about our organs, they are creating a skin layer to finish their models. You will be able to check these out in the hallway next week!
2018-2019 Quotes
August 2018
Student: “Is slaughter a mean word?”
Me: “That depends on how you use it.”
Him: “Like Frosty the Slaughterman.”
September 2018
A student asked me to play a game with him in aftercare. I told him I did not have time because I needed to get home to get some things done. In his best Ms. Ashley voice he said, “Oh, I must get home to sit on my couch and pet my cat while I watch cat shows and think about cats.”
First grader: “How do you get money?”
Me: “I have a job…”
Her: “Yeah, but like, do you have a REAL job?”
October 2018
During a skeleton lesson, I notice a male student trying to get a better look at the skeleton by bringing the picture closer and closer to his face, but most specifically, the pelvic area. Immediately realizing what he was doing, I say, “It’s not a bone,” to which he replies, “Ohhhh, that makes sense.”
“Obi-Wan Ms. Ashley, you are our only hope.”
November 2018
Student: “Oh, I’ve heard of kilometers before!”
Me: “Have you heard the older kids using it when planning trips?”
Him: “What? No. I learned it playing ‘Pokemon Go’.”
December 2018
While watching “101 Dalmations” on Pajama Day:
Student 1: “Yuck! Why is that dog licking his owner’s eyes?”
Me: “My dog has licked my eyes before trying to wake me up.”
Him: “That’s disgusting! My dog only licks my tongue!”
Student 2: “My dog licks my tongue, too!”
January 2019
“Ms. Ashley, I found Beethoven’s birthday, but not Ludwig’s.”
Student: “I thought you were going to get us an extra broom yesterday?”
Me: “Well, I wasn’t planning on being here today (they were calling for a lot of snow) so I didn’t go. Plus I felt like garbage last night.”
Him: “This would be a great opportunity to say, ‘You look like garbage’ if you weren’t my teacher.”
February 2019
“You’re like a hagfish because you only have a notochord!”
Student 1: “Ms. Ashley, how do you know this song?”
Me: “Well I was alive in the early 2000s when it came out.”
Student 2: “Oh right, you were born in like 1902.”
March 2019
“You mean if I go to a thrift store I could own my own dictionary? AWESOME!”
April 2019
A conversation about snails reproducing asexually and fish producing sexually turned into someone shouting, “I’m a male and I make fertilizer!”
“A Peek at Next Week”
Next week, our first year students will add and subtract lengths, will address an envelope, will study the parts of an angle, and learn about the phyla of the animal kingdom. Our second year students will continue working with the Racks and Tubes, will study circles, and will experiment with a water pressure column. The third year students will multiply using the commutative and distributive properties, will research plants, and will build a Roman Arch. The fourth year students will count in different bases, will learn about the Vikings, and will participate in a “Determining pH” lab. Our fifth years will work with square roots and continue to study the Middle Ages.
REMINDERS:
FINAL DAY OF SCHOOL – Thursday, May 30 – This is also our Laser Quest Field Trip. Look for an email about the details of that day soon.
Lesson: Punctuation at the end of sentence- We discovered the period and when using is just kind of gives a statement without much excitement or emotion. We learned more about the explanation point and when used there is excitement and emotion! Finally, we learned the question mark is at the end of a sentence when a question is asked. These children are smart, right?
Cultural Subjects: We can now count to ten in 28 different 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).
Next Week: Line Time: Capitalization
Sight Words of the Week: way my
Synonym of Week:DULL (dark, dreary, somber, boring, tedious)
What a wonderfully eventful week we had! Our grandparents joined us, we had “Moms and Muffins,” a book fair, completed a collaborative art project, and had a virtual field trip to the Dominican Republic to learn about coral reefs! Grandparents’ Day was such a blast. We had recorder songs played by different groups of students based on skill level, we had beautiful piano solos, and some amazing Latin skits! We learned so many new Latin phrases and were highly entertained by the skits written by our students to perform for their grandparents. Our students also participated in a word list challenge, an interview with their grandparents, and made a craft about all of the things they love about each other! Thank you to Ms. Lisa, Mr. Matt, and all of our wonderful grandparents!
These students participated in a collaborative art project. First, we all mixed colors of Play-Doh to get orange, green, and purple for this project. Next, each student picked what part of a creature they would like to build. Each student had their own idea of what creature they would like to build, but could not tell each other what they had in mind! At the end, our groups built some amazingly unique creatures. Here there is a mermaid-unicorn-alligator.This group made an alligator-spider-caterpillar!Working together to create new words out of the letters in “Happy Grandparents’ Day!” We had many groups come up with over 100 words!Interviewing her grandparents to learn more about their childhood!This pair is working hard!All smiles completing their challenge!These students were playing “The Wedding March!”
“A Peek at Next Week”
This week, all students will write a letter to an incoming student of their current year to send over the summer! Our first year students will discuss numerators and denominators, will review types of angles, will discuss parts of the fruit, and will study Antarctica. Our second year students will discuss the power of numbers, will study more polygons, and will talk about flower placement on a stem. Our third year students will do large mental math with our Large Bank Game, will finish discussing quotation marks, will begin learning how to find the area of a rectangle, and will study echinoderms. Our fourth year students will learn about greatest common factor, transmogrified words, and will continue studying Native Americans. Our fifth year students will cube a binomial, will learn about reflexive verbs, and will be introduced to the Middle Ages.
REMINDERS:
“Bring Your Parents to Work Time” this Tuesday and Wednesday. There are still many spots available. Sign up here.
NO SCHOOL – Monday, May 27 – Memorial Day
Thursday, May 30 – Last Day of School – Laser Quest Field Trip – Come join us! Permission slips came home in Reading Logs or Friday folders!
