Peek At Our Week | Mr. John | Week Of December 11, 2017

Written by

 

Line Time:
We kept practicing for The Christmas Show and learned about Christmas traditions from around the world. 

 

Peek Into The Classroom:

These students are having fun with the Trimonial Cube. As you can see they just did the outer wall of this material. This is another extension that the children can create different versions of materials.

 

This picture depicts a seasoned reader reading to a younger student. My readers have to accomplish two things before mastering a book. 1) read the story fluently and 2) give details of the story.  I start out with reading the Hooked On Phonics books then the students graduate to my “Max” books. When those are mastered I introduce chapter books such as Magic Tree House, Billy B Brown and / or Jack books.

 

This student is preparing the snack to share with the class. The student that brings snack for the week prepares her snack for week. This is a Practical Life skill. The Practical Life area enhances fine motor skills, concentration, and life skills such as pouring, folding, scooping, and excuse my sophomoric humor, cutting the cheese. hehe

 

The direct purpose of the sandpaper letters is to teach the child the sounds of the alphabet by means of auditory, muscular, and visual memory. Also, memorization of letter sounds plays a part in learning the letter sounds.

 

Peek To Next Week:

We will still be focusing on the holiday season.

December 20, Wednesday:  Pajama Day/ Show and Tell (no weapons)

December 21: Winter Break Begins  :))

January 3: Winter Break Ends  :((

Students will need snowpants, winter coats, hats, gloves, and boots to go outside for recess.

A Peek At Our Week | Week of December 4th | Ms. Kate’s Class

Written by

All week long we learned about Christmas around the world! We had so much fun learning about the different traditions and celebrations in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. Together we read books from these countries, created fun holiday crafts from each of these countries, and even learned how to say Merry Christmas in different languages! I think it is so important to teach our children how other countries celebrate different things.

Pink Rhyming: One of our kindergarteners is working on the pink rhyming all by herself for the first time!!! This rhyming work is more advanced then our picture rhyming cards. The children are able to recognize the middle and ending sounds visually as well as sorting them into the different sound categories.
Dynamic Addition with the golden beads: When working on dynamic addition the child is recognizing the process of addition is simply the combining of equal or unequal quantities to form one large quantity. They are also exchanging ten of one hierarchy for one of the next.

 

One of our friends is working on our long cubing chain. The purpose of this work is to practice linear and skip counting. This material is also a preparatory activity for more advanced work in the elementary grades.
This week our children did so amazing on their kindness jar! From the first week of school till now they earned 237 puff balls that filled our entire bucket!!! Way to go! For their much deserved reward we had a special pj day full of treats and rewards!

 

This week I placed clay on our practical life shelf. It was a hit! Using clay is one way our children can use their creative imagination. I love this because it is so open ended and lets the child create anything. One of our friends created dice with the clay and used a fork to create the dots.Using clay helps build their muscles in their hands that will then help with their fine motor skills.
This week was all about Christmas around the world. In this picture the children are cutting out Christmas trees and gluing on sequins. We learned that the Christmas tree first started in Germany and was said that by having one in the house it took away the evil spirits of course some people doesn’t believe this and just go and buy a villa in spain and move there. It then became a world wide tradition. Crafts is a great way for children to grasp the idea or information in a different way. It also helps gain their fine motor skills by cutting, gluing and coloring.

Take A Peek Into Next Week:
The theme for next week is about the importance of giving to others. Together we will talk about the difference between a want vs. a need, making a helping others paper chain, making cookies for the fire fighters, creating bird feeders, and much much more!

Reminders:
Wednesday the 13th is our dress rehearsal at 6pm.

Friday the 15th is our Christmas show at 6pm!

Wednesday the 20th is pj, movie, and show and tell day!!!

Peek In Our Week / Mr. John / Week of December 4, 2017

Written by

 

Line Time:
Your children are busy little carolers practicing for the Christmas Show.  We also leaned a few fun traditions of Christmas around the world.

 

Cultural Subjects:
The Montessori classroom consists of 2 1/2 year old students to 6 year old students.  Meet our newest 5 and 6 year old students.

    

 

Peeking Into The Classroom:

This is a lunchtime scene. Every student scheduled in the morning is included with lunch. This is new this year and a great change to the schedule. Lunch is a time for socialization. Lunchtime has three main purposes which are socialization, table manners, and time management. The first two are self explanatory but time management may need an explanation. Time management includes time for socialization and eating their lunch. Also, the student has to manage eating healthy food before treats.

 

Another picture from lunch is a student opening a bag. We encourage students to be self sufficient when opening bags, bottles of water, or string cheese. If the student is unable we ask them to go to three students before a teacher. “Three before me” is what the teachers tell the students.

 

This work is a creation made from the red rods found in the sensorial area and the number rods which is found in the Math area. As you can tell the biggest rods on the bottom and the smallest towards the top to create a square based pyramid. Notice the square based pyramid that is part of the material called the geometric solids (which are three dimensional shapes) on top of this creation. The students found the relationship once again.

 

These students are working on the bead chains which the main purpose is linear counting and skip counting. In addition to linear counting, the bead cabinet provides a concrete representation of abstract mathematical concepts. While children at this age are not able to verbalize these concepts, they can represent them. Through the use of the bead chains, number squares and cubes, and numeral arrows, the bead cabinet concretely demonstrates: skip counting — 10, 20, 30, 40, . . . 1000, multiples, squared numbers: six 6s = 36 , cubed numbers: ten 100-squares = a thousand cube.

 

Peek Into Next Week:

Practicing for the Christmas Show and learning about Christmas around the world.

Christmas Show Attire: Red and/or white

December 13: Christmas Show Practice 6 pm to 8 pm at Cuyahoga Falls High School

December 15: Christmas Show 6:30 pm to 8 pm at Cuyahoga Falls High School (NO AFTERCARE)

December 21: Winter Break Begins  :))

January 3: Winter Break Ends  :((

 

 

Academic Enrichment | week of December 4th | Tallmadge

Written by

The kindergarten students have been working hard on learning both static and dynamic multiplication using the golden beads, stamp game, bead frame and dot board to solve problems.

Stamp Game: This child is using the stamp game to do multiplication. It works like the golden beads but instead of unit beads there are unit stamps. Instead of ten bars there are ten stamps. Instead of hundred squares there are hundred stamps. Instead of thousand cubes there are thousand stamps.
Multiplication Bead Board: This child is practicing multiplication by placing the number being multiplied on the board as many times as the multiplier indicates. This work leads to the memorization of the essential multiplication tables.
Journal: This child is using his journal time to write about riding on a flying reindeer.

A Look Into Next Week: Static and Dynamic (exchanging) Multiplication 

  • Exchanging 1s, 10s, 100s and 1000s
  • Using single units, 10 bars, 100 squares and 1000 cubes
  • Discovering that multiplication is simply repeat addition

A Peek at Our Week | Elementary | Week of December 4th

Written by

This week students have worked on many exciting lessons! First year students worked on Stamp Game Multiplication, learned about positions of a straight line, discussed the external characteristics of a protozoan and looked at the needs of humans during the Middle Ages. The second year students were excited for their first lesson with the Racks and Tubes. They also looked at life during the Middle Ages, the relationship between two angles and different types of rocks. Third year students took their microscope test, practiced multiplying with zero in the multiplier, looked at the least common multiple of three numbers, and discussed the main characteristics of platyhelminthes. Fourth year students added fractions with unlike denominators, looked at additional characteristics between primates, apes, and humans, and reviewed the five kingdoms of living things.

In the Montessori classroom, you will often see students doing chores throughout and at the end of the day. This not only helps prepare them for adulthood, but also helps them take ownership of the condition of their classroom. When students feel a personal responsibility for their classroom, they are more respectful of the materials and each other.
Second and third year students are interviewing older relatives to learn about their family history. This third year student has completed her interview and is taking her draft through the writing process. Students use a red pen or pencil to add more interesting details, then a blue pen or pencil to make punctuation and spelling changes. After all of the editing is completed, the students write a final draft.
This student is working with the Division Charts. These charts help students memorize their division facts in preparation for more challenging work and division on paper.

A Peek into Next Week

Next week Lower Elementary students will look into the origin of their names, practice sentence analysis, discuss different types of roots and seeds, and will learn about friction. Upper Elementary students will work on prime factors, discuss cells and energy, and will continue to compare primates, apes, and humans.

REMINDERS:

  • Wednesday, December 13, Christmas Show Rehearsal, from 6:00-7:00. Elementary drop off is inside of the auditorium in the front two rows on the right side if you are facing the stage (same as last year if you are a returning family). Please make sure you take your child to the bathroom BEFORE dropping them off with us.
  • Friday, December 15, Christmas Show. Students must arrive by 5:30. I will have the costumes for each student, so please be prompt so they can change in time. Please make sure you take your child to the bathroom BEFORE dropping them off with us.
Remember to dress your students for the cold weather. We will be going out until it drops below 25 degrees, including in the snow. Students should have a winter coat, a hat, gloves/mittens, and snow boots and snow pants for snowy days.

A Peek at Our Week | Ms. Courtney’s Classroom | Week of December 4th

Written by

The past week the children have been working hard to practice for the Christmas show multiple times a day. Below are this weeks adventures of Cat Baby Elf Pants!

   

Guest Readers

 

Work Time

Color Box 4: This child is grading different colors from darkest to lightest, while also refining her sense of sight.
Zipping: This child is developing her independence and concentration while also gaining finger control and dexterity to manipulate a zipper.
Linear Counting: This child is working on one of our cubed bead chains, he is identifying the names of the numbers and seeing the correspondence of the quantities with the written number on the cards. He is also discovering that 5X1=5, 5X2=10, 5X3=15 and so on.
Cursive Chalkboard Writing: This child is practicing writing cursive letters on a chalkboard. She is developing multiple skills involving her eyes, arms, hands, memory, posture and body control.
Dishwashing: This child is 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.

Reminders

Christmas Show Rehearsal | December 13th 6 PM to 8 PM

Christmas Show | December 15th 6 PM to 8 PM | NO AFTERCARE

Pajama and Show-N-Tell Day | December 20th

Christmas Break | December 21st to January 2nd

A Look into Next Week: Christmas Program

  • The children will be practicing for the Christmas show multiple times a day.

A Peek into Cuyahoga Falls Science Class | November 2017

Written by

We enjoyed our time in Science class this month!  Check out some of what we learned!

Buoyancy– A force in a liquid pushing against an object in the liquid

When we gently squeezed the bottle the packet of ketchup sank. When we released the bottle the packet rose to the top of the bottle.

Surface Tension– A property of a liquid keeping an object from going into the liquid

When we put soap on the Q-tip and dipped it, the pepper scattered.

Students also loved our “disapearing packing peanuts” experiment! When you put the packing peanuts in water, they disappear. Why? Because the packing peanuts are made out of corn starch or potato starch. The water dissolves the starch.

What a great month exploring science with our friends!

A Peek At Handwriting | Week of November 27th

Written by

During the past couple of weeks in Handwriting, we have been working on Lower Case and the common initial strokes used to form those letters. We have been carefully working forming the lower case letters i, t, and j in cursive. Our Kindergarten students have been working hard on carefully forming each letter and I’m so proud of their progress!

A Peek into Elementary Enrichments | November 2017

Written by

This third month of enrichment classes has certainly built on the previous two months, and it can be seen in ever facet of the students’ work! The skills the students have learned from the beginning of the year are thoroughly concreted and they are building connections to much bigger ideas and goals. Let’s take a look inside the enrichment classrooms for this month.

 

In Art, students worked with water colored pencils to explore shades, tints, and value scales. Unlike water color paints, students confidently colored their canvas with these pencils, then brushed on water to thin the colors, move them around, and blend them. Watching colors blend to create new colors is always an exciting experience for the students. This approach was used for three different works of art this month; a hand drawing which accentuated warm and cool colors, an experimental painting of an ice cream cone using different saturations of a single color, and a psuedo-stained glass window that concentrated on blending colors with contrasting edges. Students also added definitions and examples to their tri-fold art booklets under value scales and tints. Through these exercises, students realized and came to fully appreciate the process of changing the tint and shade of a color, as well as how these ideas fit into their everyday life.

 

In Latin, students have been focusing on their studies of Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Poseidon, Aphrodite and other gods and goddess. Students have been doing independent literature based research on these gods or goddesses of choice. Within this research, students are discovering what role each god or goddess played in society, what elements of daily life they were likened to, and any connections or influences they have on modern English vocabulary. The students also took time out to draft hypothetical Christmas cards from their god or goddess of choice; pictured, “Have a smooth sailing Christmas- Poseidon.” This research has been escalated from the direct instruction of the previous months to a interest based approach that truly internalizes this information in the learner. By making these connections to their everyday lives, students are not only finding the value in Latin history, but also gaining research experience, widening their understanding of the foundation of English language, and solidifying their conceptualization of social normalities of the past.

 

In Music, students have been working diligently on their handbell skills and technique in preparation for the Christmas Program. Students have been practicing identifying which bell is associated with which note, reading music, and a plethora of traditional holiday songs, both with the handbells and singing. Within the Montessori method, there is a built-in emphasis on students’ ability to learn about music and express themselves through music. The physical action of listening to and playing music speaks to students of all ages. Students began by listening and observing the teacher play the music with the handbells as she modeled how to handle the bells and the correct way to play them. This is followed by the routine and reinforcement of Music class where they work toward success and enjoyment. The final step includes sharing what they have practiced for others, both in the classroom for their peers, and on the stage for a formal concert. This cycle is holistic in that students learn from their environment, work toward a goal set by themselves, and present their works to others.

This month definitely built on the previous months in all Enrichment Classes. Students have been drawing from their solidified skills and have created works that are thoughtful, intentional, and skillful. We can’t wait to explore what the next month’s journey in Art, Latin, and Music.

A Peek Into Reading Group

Written by

The last couple of weeks we read a Russian folk tale called The Three Wishes. The story was about a poor man and his white who were granted three wishes by an Imp. They did not use their wishes wisely and ended up wishing sausages to be hung from the husbands nose! In the story we learned some new vocabulary words  trudged, useless, and slumped. The kindergartners were able to act out one of the vocabulary words, and had many writing and interpretive activities.

The kindergartners are acting out trudging through the gym.
This student is sharing his drawing of what he thinks the Imp looks like from the story.
The group is writing whether they would or would not wish the sausages off the man’s nose if they were the wife.

A Peek Into the next two weeks

-The kindergartners will be reading a story called Me First.

-The kindergartners will have discussions about the concept of going first and taking turns.

-The kindergartners will learn new vocabulary words: arguing, sprinted, and trotted.