The Leak-proof Bag: We took a plastic bag, filled it with water and then poked a few pencils through it. The students learned that the plastic bag was made out of polyethylene molecules. They discovered that when the pencils were poked through the bag the molecules in the plastic created a seal making the bag leak-proof.
Walking Water- We placed three glasses side by side, filled the two outside glasses with water and food coloring (yellow and blue) and left the middle glass empty. Then, we twisted two paper towels placing one end in the glasses with water and the other end in the empty glass. After about 30 minutes we noticed that the water started to climb the paper towels making its way to the empty middle glass. We learned that this process is called capillary action and is also how flowers and plants move water from the ground up through their stems and into their petals and leaves.
Our friends are practicing rolling and unrolling a mat! This helps with the coordination of movement, development of muscles, and concentration.One of our returning students is showing our new friend the knobless cylinders. With this work the child is to observe and compare the different series with each other. They are also getting a clearer understanding for the different dimensions and their interplay.These sweet kiddos are working on our grasping work. The purpose of this activity is to teach the child to carefully move items from one container to another.When working with the metal insets, it teaches the children to develop their pencil grip, refine their motor skills, and learn how to draw within an outline , which is the materials control of error. This work indirectly allows the child to practice concentration and order as they work with, and master the material.
REMINDERS:
Please don’t forget to turn in your permission slips!
Line Time: Ground Rules redux…. Not really redux because we added more things such as RESPECT! and Social Responsibility. Your children are catching on very quickly which makes Ms. Kathleen, Ms. Ashlie, and Mr. John very happy people. Ms. Brandy (Owner and Founder of AMMS) observed our classroom without notice. She was pleasantly surprised how you children nicely sat on line time for over 30 minutes and how the were engaged in work throughout the morning. She said our classroom was “Peaceful and Productive.” That is saying a lot for having 17 brand new students and only being the second week of school. I just want reiterate the teachers have some part in this behavior but it is your children are the ones “catching on” This is going to be a GREAT year!
Peek In Our Week:
This Practical Life Material is stringing small beads. This helps with the child’s concentration and fine motor skills.
This Math Material is The Teen Board. The Teen Board is one of the first works introduced within the math sequence within linear counting. It also continues the concept of quantity and symbol. Notice how other children are observing the student work.
Ms. Kathleen giving a group lesson on the Color Box 2. The main purpose of the Color Box is to develop a child’s visual sense of color and helps with developing concentration.This student is working with one of our Science Bins (Insects). She finds a rubber insect (not real) and finds the matching insect in the book.
Cultural Subjects: We now can count to ten in 4 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, and Spanish).
Next Week:
Line Time- Healthy Habits
Letter Of The Week- C c
Rhyming Word Of The Week- bap
Language- We will be adding German
Who Has Snack- Katherine Dale
Upcoming Events:
**********Ramseyer Farms ***********
Ramseyer Farms onFriday, September 21, 2018. Students can take pleasure in the very things that autumn brings us! We will enjoy picking out our own pumpkins while on a guided hayride, learning all about the working farm, and having some fun with farm animals, slides and duck races!
We will depart the school by 8:20am to Ramseyer Farms and look to arrive back at the school by 1:00pm. Please know that this field trip is only possible if we have enough chaperons and volunteer drivers.
The kindergartners learned that there are seven continents (Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia). They also learned where they are located on a globe/map and a fun fact about each one. For example Australia is often referred to as “the land down under.”
Continent Map: this child is tracing and labeling all seven continents.
Cardinal Directions
The kindergartners learned that the cardinal directions (North, South, East and West) are the most commonly used form of directions. They discovered how to use a compass to find their way and learned that their are also primary inter-cardinal directions (Northeast, Southeast, Southwest and Northwest).
Cardinal Direction Race: The kindergartners labeled the playground using the cardinal directions, then had fun racing each other toward the given direction.
Cursive Handwriting
A peak into next week: Equator, Prime Meridian and Hemispheres
“Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and strength, use it to create.” -Maria Montessori
My favorite thing about the Montessori Elementary Curriculum is the amount of opportunities students are given to use their imagination to learn, create, and grow. This week we have seen students take an interest in something and run with it. We had two first year students, inspired by the nest in our room, complete a research report about wasps. Other students that were inspired by their research spent time observing the nest. Our second and third year students were responsible for reading the laws of the universe and coming up with their own science experiment to demonstrate to the class how the law works and they experiment the education technology by hand. Our fourth and fifth grade students started their first “Word of the Week” project where they chose any word that they thought others wouldn’t know and needed to come up with a creative way to show what it meant. When students have the opportunity to follow their interests and use their imagination, they often create something that exceeds our expectations and combines skills from many areas of the classroom into just one work!
Our introduction to the solar system is always an exciting lesson. One student is the sun and other students get to be the planets. To show students how far our planets are from the sun, we use the scale of one step = 36 million miles! Our friend holding Neptune had to take 78 steps away from the sun to show that it is 2.8 billion miles away! You can barely see her in this photo! The students that did not hold a star or planet had a race around the solar system towards the end of our lesson. Before we went inside, our second year students shared something they learned about each planet from their research as first graders.A second and third grade student work together on their Laws of the Universe lesson. Today, they will present their poster and experiment to the rest of the class. These students are going to teach their friends about inertia!These first, fourth, and second grade girls are working together on our volcano experiment. In the elementary classroom, students are able to complete experiments on their own using experiment cards about anatomy, water, air, matter, and many other topics. If students are interested in discovering something we don’t have written out, they are able to research an experiment or idea and write a material request if we do not have what they need. This is another opportunity for students to be creative while practicing the Scientific Method and learning to cooperate with others.These first grade girls have worked for two weeks on their wasp research! They used book and internet resources to write over a page of research. They also are making progress on a paper mache nest. To complete their report, they drew a picture of a wasp nest and added some laminated wasp specimens. They finally laminated their work and hung it near the nest so others could learn, too!Inspired by the ongoing research, this first year student is getting a closer look into the nest!
A Peek into Next Week
Next week, we will begin our Spelling Assessments. The following week, we will begin our first Spelling lesson and homework! First year students will learn about the history of clocks, the noun, fractions, and the first plants. Second year students will practice greater than and less than, feminine and masculine nouns, the intersection of two straight lines, and work with our Animal Kingdom Chart. Our third year students will solve equations with the squares and cubes of numbers, will learn about suffixes, will begin their study with congruent figures, and will study the taxonomy of vertebrates. Fourth year students will review the commutative and distributive laws of multiplication, will begin advanced grammar studies, will continue their study of Pythagorean Theorem from last year, and will study basic life processes. Fifth year students will complete the Table of Pythagoras, will continue studying Native Americans, will study energy on earth, and will begin studying advanced botany.
REMINDERS:
Our Ramseyer Farm Field Trip is Friday, September 21. Please make sure to turn in your permission slip!
Picture Day – September 26
Sign ups are ready for “Bring Your Parent to ‘Work Time’.” You can sign up here.
This past week we focused on community helpers in honor of Labor Day. The students not only learned about firefighters, police officers, doctors, nurses, dentists, teachers, veterinarians, construction workers, paramedics, farmers, mail carriers, chefs etc. They had the opportunity to meet and get to know some of them. The students and I greatly appreciate those that volunteered their time to come in and speak to us about their careers.
Police
Honda/Acura Specialist
Firefighter
Family Medicine Doctor
HR at Goodyear
School Psychologist
Pilot
Reminders:
September 21 | All School Field Trip | Ramseyer Farms
Weekly Lesson: Cardinal Directions- The Kindergarten Students learned about the Cardinal Directions. We learned north is always on top, south is always on the bottom, east is always to the right, and west is always to the left. We went into a bit more detail when using the Cardinal Directions. In between north and east is called northeast and so on… We traveled from continent to continent asking what direction we needed to go to get to the appointed continent.
Handwriting: We continue to practice the pre-cursive writing exercises big and small loops connected, tents (upside down v) not connected and connected.
Cultural Subjects: We now can count to ten in 6 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, and French).
Next Week:
Weekly Lesson- Hemispheres
Synonym of the Week- sad (miserable, gloomy, depressing, downtrodden, glum, unhappy)
Weekly Theme: The first week back to school we looked at the globe of the Earth. It is in a shape of a sphere. We noticed the Earth is covered mostly in water but does have land. The pieces of land are divided and called continents. There are seven continents and each have a fun fact. North America is where we live, South America has the Amazon Rain Forest, Europe has many countries, Africa has really cool animals, Asia is the biggest continent, Australia is an island and is called The Land Down Under, and Antarctica is the coldest continent and no humans live there. We went over what countries are in each continent (except for Antarctica).
Handwriting: We are practicing our introduction to cursive exercises by writing simple symbols such as the big and small loops (look like cursive e and l) upside down and right side up cups (n and u), circles and flat tops (o and r).
Cultural Subjects: We now can count to ten in 4 languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, And Spanish).
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Cardinal Directions (N,S,W,E)
Synonym Of The Week: FAST (hurried, speedy, brisk, quick, swift)
The opening week is a joy and a challenge all wrapped into one. I love the fresh start, seeing returning students, and meeting new ones. The first few weeks of the new school year during line time we go over the rules of the classroom. We go over our “Big 4” rules… 1.) Walking (No running in the classroom). Because if you run and fall into a shelf or hit your hear on the concrete floor which will win your head or the shelf? 2.) Use your listening ears. 3.) Keep your hands and body to yourself. The one I feel is most important… 4.) Be respectful. Which simply means be nice to people or treat people how you would like to be treated. We also go over how to carry, roll, and unroll a mat, put our shoes and slippers neatly on the mat (straight, together, and toes touching the wall). We pick up where we left off with the returning students with lessons and evaluate and access where the new students are.
I do have to say that the first week went very smoothly. I do need to thank Kathleen with her 5 plus years working with me and Ashlie who did a wonderful job being her first week with me for the smooth start.
Peek Into Our Week:
This student is working with the Density Bottle. Ever hear the phrase “Oil and Water Don’t Mix”? This student will soon find out this concept.
An older friend giving a lesson to a younger/first time student.
This boy is using the Practical Life Work of stringing large beads. This enhances the child’s fine motor skills and concentration.
Gross Motor Activities are important to a child’s physical and mental development.
We teachers love listening to stories!
Line Time in the hall way.
Cultural Subjects:
We learned how to count to ten in 3 different languages (English, Sign Language, and Latin)
“Let us start with one very simple reflection: the child, unlike the adult, is not on his way to death. He is on his way to life.” – Maria Montessori
The first week of school is always one of my favorites. It is a time to welcome new friends, to catch up with old ones, and to see which children are almost as tall as me after a summer of growing. The first week, we always begin with “The Great Lessons.” These lessons were designed to give children an imaginative presentation of the beginnings of the universe, life on Earth, communication, numbers, and geometry. You can read more about “The Great Lessons” here. We also take a lot of time to build community during the first week. We play games together and have presentations from children of all ages to encourage collaboration and trust between all members of our classroom. Empowering students of all ages also enables children to feel confident in their ability to try something new before seeking help! We are so happy to have all of you back with us and are excited to learn more about our new families!
This year, the Upper Elementary students presented “The Great Lessons.” In these photos, the students are performing experiments to show what could have occurred during the Big Bang. In the first photo, our fifth grade student is showing examples of the states of matter. In the second photo, a fourth year student is showing the change in water temperature on Earth using a hot plate.During the first week, we always have time together to present some lessons that our new students could choose. Our second year students become the “experts” and explain where to find the material, how to use it, how to record your work, and any other tips they think to share. If our first year students need assistance throughout the work cycle, they ask the expert that showed the work! This helps new students feel comfortable during work time, allows the second year students to take on the responsibility of being a role model, and builds friendships!Two of our first year students completed a puzzle of our solar system. They are using the magnifying glass for a closer look!A third year student is studying sentences by finding the subject, action, and direct and indirect objects. This material (Sentence Analysis) helps students become better writers by exposing them to many different sentence formats.All of our returning second and third year students have partnered up to explore the “Laws of the Universe.” These students are discovering which particles love each other and which do not. They have mixed different science materials with water and have observed which stay combined and which separate. They have created a poster stating the law and have included their results. Each pair will present their information next Friday!This third year student is trying to keep water in this bucket to experience the law of centrifugal force. This is always a favorite experiment at the beginning of the year!Inspired by the wasp nest hanging in our classroom, these first year students have spent the first week using books and the internet to research the life cycle of wasps. They have learned the color of wasp nests, what a wasp’s day is like, and are now making their own nest!
Ask your child about the fun games we played!
“A Peek into Next Week”
Next week we will begin a more typical schedule. We will begin art, music, and gym enrichment classes! Students that did not have a reading assessment in August will complete one with me next week. We will continue some of our supplementary lessons to “The Great Lessons.” We will discuss “The Story of Geometry” and “The Story of the Babylonians” to learn about rope stretchers in Egypt and the degree symbol. We will have our first Teacher-Student Conferences Friday. Please refer to the “Meet the Teacher Review” email if you need a reminder about these conferences!
REMINDERS:
NO SCHOOL – Monday, September 3 – Labor Day
Thursday, September 6 – First Art and Music Classes
Friday, September 7 – First Gym Classes – Bring a water bottle and tennis shoes!
“Bring Your Parent to ‘Work Time'” – Learn more and sign up here.
