This week in Aspen it was all about the Seasons! Aspen learned that there are four seasons Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring! We also learned that here in Ohio we are lucky to experience all four seasons! We then discussed the characteristics of each season and our Aspen students shared their observations and talked about their favorite seasons! During Line Time, we used our Painted Globe and a flashlight to demonstrate the reason we experience four seasons in Ohio. Therefore, the Aspen students were able to visually experience the concepts of seasons, day and night, and learned some new vocabulary words ( rotation, axis, tilt, and orbit). Aspen learned we live on a planet called Earth that orbits a star called the Sun. As our Earth rotates and orbits our sun, only part of our planet experiences day and night. The part facing the sun has daytime and the part facing away from the sun has nighttime. The Aspen students had so much fun creating day and night with the flashlight and Painted Globe! We then took our experiment to the next level and discussed how the Earth rotates on its axis and experiences a tilt. We can’t feel the Earth rotating and tilting but we can feel the results of the tilt of the Earth! When Earth’s axis or our part of the world is tilted towards the sun and is receiving lots of direct sunlight, we will experience summer! Lots of sun equals lots of heat! Then something special happens, the tilt shifts the axis a bit giving us less direct sunlight leading to cooler temperatures giving us Fall!! As we experience Fall we eventually tilt receiving even less direct sunlight. Which leads to a significant drop in temperature giving us cold weather with snow and ice! Then something special happens again, as our Earth continues its orbit, it’s rotation, and the tilting of it’s axis the Earth begins to tilt towards the sun giving us more direct sunlight melting the snow and ice while warming us! As a result, we experience Spring! Then the process repeats all over with Summer, Fall,Winter, and Spring! This Repeating process lead Aspen to also discuss patterns and repetition! Aspen also learned that different parts of the world experience different seasons at different times and some do not experience four seasons like Ohio!! This allowed for us to learn two more vocabulary words (Hemisphere and Equator)! It sure was a busy and scientific week in Aspen!

Next week the Aspen students will begin their Botany classification work with the Tree Puzzle! Students will learn how to identify and name each part of a tree. At the same time, they will also learn the function of each part! See you Monday!!

The Kindergarten students continued their work with phonics in Readers’ Workshop and began illustrating books in Writers’ Workshop! In Readers Workshop the Cardinals engaged in more word play manipulating sounds to create words, discussed new Sight Words ( he, she, me, we, I , see, look, you and a). They then practiced following directions completing in class follow -up work. The Chickadees continued their work with the identification of letter sounds and then engaged in multiple in class follow-up work activities. Chickadees then used their knowledge to identify sounds and name things beginning with the corresponding sound! They also practiced writing their name and date on their follow-up work.

Reason For Seasons – Science Experiment! Using our Painted Globe to visually experience the concepts of Day and Night and the Seasons!

Visual Discrimination of color with The Color Tablets! Matching colors for Sensorial fun!

Phonics fun with The Moveable Alphabet!

Handwriting practice!

This week in Aspen we began our calendar work during our morning group lesson (Line Time). We discussed what a calendar is, how we use it, and identified The Days Of The Week, the Months Of The Year, and learned how to find the date on a calendar! All week we practiced learning the names of The Days Of The Week and worked on the order in which they appear on the calendar. Aspen even learned a special Days Of The Week song to help them remember the order and names of The Days Of The Week! Ask your child about our special Days Of The Week song! During this process our kindergarten students were learning how to write the date on their work plans while utilizing the calendar in our classroom to find days, dates, and months. The Aspen students also continued to practice their Procedural Movement Lessons and have begun to acclimate and settle into classroom routines! Aspen has been doing a great job staying in line when walking in line to the classroom or outside for recess. We have been practicing staying behind the person in front of us!

The kindergarteners received their first kindergarten lessons this week and began learning some valuable time management skills! After each kindergarten lesson the kindergarteners will be given follow-up work pertaining to their lesson. Therefore, receiving a reinforcement and an independent exploration of the concepts within their lessons. This is a new concept for many of our kindergarteners and will take practice and time learning how to accomplish academic tasks while engaging socially within the classroom.

This week Aspen also began going to their Enrichments! Aspen students got to experience Music with Ms. Lisa, Art with Ms. Varela, Science with Mr. John, and Library with Ms. Lindsey! We had so much fun in each of these classes!!

The Kindergarteners also experienced their first Readers’ and Writers’ Workshop this week! Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon the kindergarteners will receive in depth lessons where they practice their reading and writing skills while independently applying the skills they learn. The kindergarteners are divided into two groups The Cardinals and The Chickadees to allow for more individualized instruction. This week in Readers’ Workshop The Cardinals engaged in “word play” by manipulating phonetic sounds to form words. As a group we created three and four letter words and began our discussions regarding the rules of reading! Therefore, the Cardinals learned that the key to reading involves being a good “Sound Detective” , learning phonogram rules (sh, ch, th, Vowel Teams, e at the end …etc), and identifying Sight Words. The Chickadees engaged in various Phonics activities (games) and played Bingo identifying their letter sounds! The Chickadees also learned the importance of being good “Sound Detectives ” and also discussed the rules of Reading. Both groups did an awesome job and are going to have so much fun in Readers’ Workshop this year!

The Cardinals and Chickadees also engaged in pre-writing and writing activities with Ms. Tonya in Writers’ Workshop! They discussed expectations, manipulated sounds they learned, and engaged in writing activities! Our kindergarteners will become Authors and will begin writing and “publishing” their own books this year! Ms. Tonya is looking forward to an amazing year with her Writers!!

Next week our topic is Seasons! We are going to learn the names of the four seasons, identify characteristics of each season, and will engage in a very special Seasons Experiment! See you next week!

Practical Life – learning how to use scissors and cut along lines! Sometimes messes are made, but the clean up can be fun! Using a dustpan to clean paper scraps that fall on the floor! We sure have some amazing helpers in the Aspen Room!

Kindergarten follow-up work! Learning the names and locations of our Continents!

More kindergarten follow-up work! Tracing then labeling the Horse puzzle!

Fun with the Sandpaper Numbers!!

Library fun with Ms. Lindsey!!

Reading our book selections after Library time with Ms. Lindsey before afternoon Dismissal!

Welcome back Aspen families! Our school year was off to a great start this week! We were all happy to return to the classroom and our school routines! The Aspen students had so much fun reuniting with old friends and making new friends! The classroom was bustling with excitement and the learning of Procedural Movement Lessons while also learning our classroom routines. Procedural Movement Lessons are the ” How To Lessons ” in a Montessori classroom. Therefore, we have been busy learning how to sit on the line during group lessons, how to raise our hand to share our thoughts and ideas during line time, how to unroll and roll a rug, how to carry a tray, how to care for our Montessori materials, how to stay in our chair while eating lunch, and how to convey our ideas, thoughts, and needs when interacting with our classmates. We also learned our Line Time song!! Ask your child to sing it to you!! It sure was a busy but fun week in Aspen!!

Next week, our group lesson topic will be the Days Of The Week and we will begin our calendar work during Line Time lesson. Our Enrichments will also begin next week! Aspen will begin their Music, Art, Science, and Library routine!! See you next week!!!

Practical Life lessons foster the concepts of order and sequence while channeling/utilizing the child ‘s energy to perform tasks that allow the child to focus and concentrate while learning independence.

A nice pair of freshly cleaned sunglasses!! Ready for Hollywood!!

Practical Life – Scrubbing/Washing seashells.

Some of us missed our favorite activity so much over the summer! We just couldn’t wait to work with it! Hard at work solving Addition equations with The Addition Charts!

Making new friends while working alongside each other during our classroom work period!