Line Time: Baby Animals- Baby animals was the theme for the week. We started out by what we call human babies (younger children). We came up with the term “kid”. We then discovered a kid is a baby goat and we should call human children, well, children. We went over the easy animals such as cats/kittens, dogs/pups, but went on with ducks/ducklings, chickens/chicks, pigs/piglets, manatee/calf, geese/gosling, peacock/peachick, kangaroo/joey.
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).
Trivia Question: The answer to my trivia question of what was my football jersey number in high school was 86. This was the agent number (86) of Maxwell Smart in the TV series Get Smart. Yes, that is how I picked my jersey number.
Peek In Our Classroom:
Nap time, nah. Meditation, you bet. The television/app was asking the children to close their eyes, build a tree house, and imagine a warm sunny day with birds chirping in their mind. It was called The Tree House Meditation. And please don’t think a three year old can’t do this. It requires quiet, peacefulness, it requires you to invite the child when they are calm and well rested, but a usually rambunctious three year old can do this. I think a few children fell asleep during this meditation. I know I was dozing off.
This work is called Cards and Counters found in the math area. The red counters each represent one unit, and this emphasizes for the child the fact that each number is made up of different quantities. … Indicating the difference between odd and even numbers is one of the direct purposes of the Cards and Counters. A natural control of error occurs at the end of the activity if you have any counters left over or not enough to fulfill 10.
This scene shows two work stations working on handwriting/pre cursive excersises. Starting the students with cursive is imperative due to uninterrupted movements of the hand may make cursive letters easier for children to form, and for this reason, some Montessori primary classrooms introduce children to cursive letters first.
These two students are working on the living and non-living cards. Living things reproduce, taking energy or eat, exchange gasses or breathe, and grow.
Next Week: Line Time- Animal Groups
Letter Of The Week- I i
Rhyming Word Of The Week- bud
Next Language will be- Turkish
Snack will be brought to you by Harper G.
Upcoming Events: —Grandparents Day, Tuesday May 14—
*** Great Lakes Science Center Field Trip, Tuesday May 28 ***
Fun, Frolic, and Friends:
You shoulda seen the other guy.
I do not know what was being discussed in this special/secret meeting. I do know I was purposefully excluded since I was a boy…. I did catch as I eaves dropped on the conversation that the girl in the green was telling the rest of the girls that “it is close to the end of the year and some of us are going to other schools but we will always be friends and always be together.” Her words not mine. I kind of teared up a bit.
It is a test of wills.
Warm weather produces shorts and skirts and exposes bruised legs. A good indication of active children.
Wow!! I can’t believe we only have a few short weeks left of the school year… its flown by! This week was all about space! We had so much fun learing about our 8 planets, the moon, sun, the space shuttle, the international space station, stars and constellations, as well as astronaunts. During our week we read some AMAZING books, had fun with crafts, and also watched some really cool videos of people washing their hair, brushing their teeth, sleeping, and life in the space shuttle!! What a fun week we had!!
When working on the geometric solids the child will use the appropriate languge for each geometric solid.In the early stages, the purpose of the Binomial Cube is less focused on the complex mathematics behind the material, and rather is to provide a challenge for a child’s ability to find patterns and relationships between the blocks. Our cutie here is working on our sandpaper letters. When working on this it teaches the sounds of the alphabet by means of muscular and visual memory. When working with the Addition Snake game the child is able to memorize their addition math facts in a fun way!!The goal of this work is to turn the colorful snake into a golden snake by counting to ten! The Stamp game directly corresponds to the golden bead material which gives the child exposure to the decimal system. It is just more abstract, yet concretely demonstrates the maths process to young children. It prepares the child for pencil and paper work, and memorization of facts.
REMINDERS;
Tomorrow is book share day!!
If you haven’t turned in your permission slip yet for the field trip, they are due TOMORROW!!
Lesson: Interjection- An interjection is a part of speech that demonstrates the emotion or feeling. These words can stand alone, or be placed before or after a sentence. You’ll notice many interjections are followed by an exclamation point when excitement or strong feelings are present. When the feeling is not as strong interjections are followed by a comma and/or a period.
Senioritis or kinderitis? Actually, I just told them we were not doing the use of the grammar symbols on this day. That is why thew long faces.
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: End Of Sentence Punctuation
Sight Words of the Week: there their
Synonym of Week: BRIGHT (shiny, glowing, dazzling, lighted, vivid)
Magnetizing magnesium: We made a solution with magnesium and iron (ferrous sulfate FeSO4). When we placed a magnet underneath the particles became magnetic because the Fe2+ from the FeSO4 solution turns into metallic iron Fe on the surface of the magnesium particles, while the Mg turns into Mg2+ and ventures out into the solution.We basically ended up with magnesium shavings covered with a thin layer of iron which will stick to a magnet.
Metal contest: First we prepared a copper sulfate CuSO4 solution and a tin chloride SnCl2 solution. Then we put pieces of zinc into both vials. When we put a piece of zinc wire into the solution of copper sulfate we watched a deposit of metallic copper form on the piece of zinc. The zinc forced copper out of its salt composition. The same happened in the vial with the zinc wire and the tin chloride solution. However, we noticed that the vial with the tin wire in the copper sulfate solution reacted slower than the tin chloride solution.
Pronoun: The kindergarten students learned that a pronoun is a word that takes the place of a particular person or thing. For example the word “dog” is a noun and the words “it” “she” and “he” are pronouns that can replace the noun “dog”.
Cursive Handwriting: The students practiced writing the lowercase cursive words: cot, bag, stop, frog, bell, will.
Australia is the smallest of the seven continents. It is just one country surrounded by water. Australia is called the land “down under” because it is located under the equator. It has two big cities Sydney and Melbourne. The central part of Australia is called the “outback.” Australia produces more wool than any other country.
Asia is the biggest of the seven continents. It has more people living on it than all of the other continents combined. Asia has many different kinds of land such as: tundra, evergreen forest, wide grasslands, sandy deserts and tropical rain forest. The highest and lowest places on Earth are found in Asia which are Mount Everest and the Dead Sea.
Antarctica is an icy continent with no countries or people. Most people who do visit are scientist or visitors who are observing all the amazing animals and the climate. Antarctica has tall mountains that are covered by snow and ice. It also has thick sheets of ice and giant ice chunks known as icebergs.
Work Time
Blending: This child is sounding out words by slowly saying each sound in different words (m-a-t) and then saying the sounds quickly together to “read” the words (mat).Composing Quantities: This child is practicing the sequence of numbers in the decimal system units, tens, hundreds, and thousands and recognizing what different quantities look like.Addition: These children are using the golden beads to discover that when you put two small numbers together you get a larger number and that this process is called addition.Addition Snake Game: This child is learning to identify sets of 10 by changing the colored snake into a golden snake. She is learning addition facts such as 4+6, 7+3, 5=+5 all equaling 10.
This week our “Peek” was written by a few of our students! These students read our previous blogs, took pictures around the room, and filled in a blog template. The students did some editing together, and with a teacher, so what you will read below is their final product. There are still some misspelled words in their final product, but in a Montessori classroom we focus on the process, instead of the end result. Dr. Montessori believed when we put all of the emphasis on the final product, we devalue everything leading up to that point. This can discourage repetition which will make mastery of a skill difficult. The purpose of the students writing the blog is to provide you with a glimpse into the room through their eyes, to provide them with practice of real world skills, and to give them a deeper understanding of the materials in the room. We hope you enjoy their work!
“A Peek at Our Week” by the Annelise and Caiden
The first graders learned how to make an uppercase cursive n. The second graders learned imaginary island. The third graders learned all about adverbials. The forth grade learned about the Iron Age. The fithe graders learned about square roots.
They are doing research on animals. They are researching cats.This student is working on Latis Multiplication. She checked her ecwashon with the calculator.This student is working on spelling. He is also working on handwriting.This student is writing about pangolins being indangered. She learned that people should stop killing them.
Lesson: Preposition- I described as a “where word” NOT a werewolf. It identifies where or when something is.
Look at all those colors. This sentence had a noun, verb, article, pronoun, adjective, adverb, conjunction, preposition. Can you identify all the parts of grammar? My kindergarten students can!
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: Interjection
Sight Words of the Week: which what
Synonym of Week: SNEAKY (underhanded, dishonest, tricky, secretive, sly)
Line Time: We progressed with learning our songs for the International Festival and learned our lines for the show. I have to say the students ROCKED the International Festival. A big shout out to Kathleen and Ashlie for getting the students ready with he songs, lines, and craft. Also, I want to recognize Yao An for volunteering her time to teach the students to sing in Chinese.
On a sad note: This was the last International Festival my favorite and only daughter will attend. She started out as a first grader running around the auditorium handing out programs to unsuspecting adults. She did this until she became a teen and it seemed had less energy for the running of the laps. She since has attended to see the cuteness and food. For the next four springs she will be located in Bowling Green, Ohio/BGSU. Appreciate your children when they are actually children because before you know it they will be teenagers waiting to go to university.
The students patiently waiting during practice. Except, maybe, not the boy in the front row. LOL
“Concentration is the key that opens up to the child the latent treasures within him.” – Maria Montessori
An interesting story in one of Montessori’s books is about a time when she visited a school and saw a child so deep in concentration, that she did not notice a single thing around her. Dr. Montessori said they danced around the child and even picked up the child in her seat, yet she did not lose concentration. We see similar instances in our classroom when students find purposeful work. In the elementary classroom, this is often work they have chosen to complete themselves. Whether it is a research project they have independently compiled throughout the year, a math work they are working towards, or a project they are building, immense concentration happens every day in our environment.
This third year student is using our Pythagorean Theorem tray with a right-angled scalene triangle. She discovered in our lesson that the sum of the squares built on the legs is equivalent to the square of the hypotenuse.This second year student is working with our Conjunction Grammar Box to recognize the different parts of speech. Each morning to continue building upon our knowledge we find the definition for the “Word of the Day.” After recording the definition, someone volunteers a sentence using the word and we all discuss the parts of speech. Recognizing patterns of the parts of speech in a sentence leads students to more creative writing.Our fourth year students completed a lab to find acids and bases in our everyday lives! We used blue and red litmus paper to test liquids like grapefruit juice, apple cider vinegar, distilled water, and a soap solution. Before testing, we hypothesized which liquids would be acids and which would be bases. After testing, the fourth years were very close to being correct!Sometimes a laundry detergent box is the perfect seat for some morning reading!
A Peek at Next Week
Next week, our first year students will practice adding and exchanging values of coins, will be introduced to the interjection, and will review recent math concepts. Our second year students continue working to recognize parts of speech and will review math concepts. Our third year students will measure liquids by volume, will be introduced to adverbials, and will complete TerraNova Assessments. Our fourth year students will find the square of a two-digit number, will discuss the Iron Age, and will complete TerraNova Assessments. Our fifth year students will continue working with square roots and continue to research Ancient Civilizations.
REMINDERS:
Please check your email to remain up to date on our International Festival week, including information on making your African dish or dessert.
Thursday, May 9 – Elementary Gradparents’ Day
Friday, May 10 – Moms and Muffins
Week of May 13 – OPTIONAL Parent-Teacher Conferences – Sign up here
May 14 and May 15 – Final “Bring Your Parents to Work Time” – sign up here
