This second month of enrichment classes has been enlightening as students continue to delve into Latin, Art, And Music. Each class is advancing from the fundamentals, and building on these skills by practicing with intent. This practice takes many forms in the classroom, including using text resources, painting, singing, and playing the hand-bells. Let’s take a look inside the enrichment classrooms for this month.
In Art class, students began the month by creating a trifold material which outlined the Elements of Art; line, shape, color, value, texture and form. These trifolds were referenced all month not only when critiquing works of art, but also when creating their own. This month concentrated on the Spanish artist Joan Miro, warm and cool colors, and “action drawing.” Students investigated Miro’s works while referencing their trifold of elements. Over the month, they created their own works of art inspired by Miro while using patterns and warm and cool colors to bring them to life. By exploring and critiquing an artist’s works, students become more in tune with the elements the artist used as well as more cognizant of these elements in their own works. Finally, by producing a work inspired by an artist, students explore their own creativity and broaden the horizons of their own comfortability.
In Latin students continued their study of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, and the culture that surrounds them. This month included in depth geographic explorations in effort to tie together the culture, location, and historic events that shaped ancient Greece and Rome. This information, along with the ever-expanding list of gods and goddesses, was practiced through games of bingo, crosswords, word searches, and hangman. This engaging and low stress using lgd 3033 approach makes learning this ancient history welcoming and pleasant.
In Music class, students have been dedicating to carrying and playing the hand-bells. This includes walking with the bells, putting them back in their place, and playing them correctly. Students have been practicing Jingle Bells each week toward their ultimate goal of mastery. The picture above captures one of these practices. Along with these practices, students have continued working on reading notes on the musical staff and note identification by playing “Note Tic-Tac-Toe” and other musical games. Students are not only practicing the fundamentals of note reading and identification, but also the physical actions of playing an instrument.
This month included fascinating and immersive content which has progressed each student from the general to the specific. We can’t wait to explore what the next month’s journey in Art, Latin, and Music.
The Kindergarten Students, as promised, are learning how to tell time old school! We identified what the minute hand and the hour hand are. We first learned how to tell time to the hour/O’ clock/ :00. We then learned how to tell time to the half hour/ half past/ :30. Next we looked at telling time to the quarter hour/ quarter past, :15 and of course we looked at quarter til/ :45.
These students are writing the hands on the clock and writing the time in numbers that I assigned. One student had an ” O clock” :00, half past :30, quarter past :15
This kindergarten student is practicing telling time to the quarter after/ :15.The Kindergarten Students telling time with their “hands”. Get it? Hehe
Cultural Subjects: The kindergarten students can now count to ten in 13 different languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Itlaian, Russian, Romanian, and Swedish).
A Peek Into The Next Few Weeks: Telling time to the minute
Money/Coins
Line Time Lessons: This week we swam the waters and learned about fish. We learned that fish are vertebrates, cold blooded, they have slimy, scaly skin, and some are born with jelly eggs and some are born alive. Some examples of fish were tuna, eel, and the ever popular shark. We know that all fish live in water.
Culture Subjects: We have been counting to Ten in 11 different languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, and Russian).
The Primary Montessori Classroom has students ranging in age from 2 1/2 to 6 years. Here are two of my newest five year old children.
Views To The Classroom:
This student combined five different works (knobed cylinders, knobless cylinders, pink tower, brown stairs, and the bead cabinet). She found the correlation between all five of these works. Involved purposes are visual discrimination, fine motor skills, critical thinking, O.C.C.I ( order, concentration, coordination, independence). It took her over 40 minutes to complete this work(s) and that did not include clean up/putting it away.
This student is working on an activity that is found in the Language area. It contains three part cards and focuses on the short vowel sounds. It utilizes three letter words so the child puts together the letter sounds to make a word.
The Knobbed Cylinders are found in the Sensorial area and the purpose of this material is visual discrimination of dimensions. Preparation for writing; coordination of the fingers used to hold the pencil. Refinement of voluntary movement. The child will be able to fit the cylinders with one precise movement. Preparation for mathematics.
***** Look at the look of concentration *****The aim of the Knobless Cylinders in the Sensorial area is to observe and compare the different series with each other. Getting a clearer understanding for the different dimensions and their correlation.
Take A Peek Into Next Week: Birds and the characteristics of.
Dancing Apple Seeds: We placed apple seeds in a glass full of Sprite. Apple seeds are more dense than Sprite so they originally sank to the bottom until air bubbles started to form around the seeds, which then forced the seeds to float up to the top. When the bubbles popped the seeds sank back down. This made the apple seeds look like they were dancing!
Ozzing Pumpkin: We mixed hydrogen peroxide, dish soap, food coloring, dry yeast and warm water together to get a reaction. The dry yeast sped up the decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide by releasing the oxygen molecules into the dish soap making the pumpkin oz foam.
The last two weeks the kindergartners listened to a story called, Jamaica’s Blue Marker. This is a story about a little girl who has a classmate bother her. In the end, she finds out the little boy is going to move and is upset about it. She gives him her blue marker as a going away present since he didn’t have any art supplies of his own. The students completed writing and drawing activities such as, if they were Jamaica, would they be happy or sad about giving Russell the blue marker, and they had to draw a picture of what Jmaica’s face looked like when she yelled at Russell to stop.
This kindergartner is sharing what she was wondering about after hearing the story for the first time.These students are acting out a scene from the story where Jamaica gives Russell her blue marker.At the end of the story the students evaluate how they did with different skills during the story. For this story we learned about sharing ideas. The group came up with the idea that they would work harder on sharing questions during the next story.
A peek into the next two weeks
-The students will listen to a poem about a cat who has no home.
-The students will learn what a poem is.
-The students will continue to practice choral reading.
Parts of Plants: The children learned the characteristics and parts of trees, flowers, leaves, insects and arachnids by using and working with the plant puzzles and control charts in the classroom.
This child is learning about arachnids and how they have no wings, no antennae, several pairs of simple eyes, 2 body parts, 8 limbs and a pointed mouth part for biting and poisoning its prey.This child is learning how leaves make food for plants by using sunlight, water and air (photosynthesis).
A peak into next week: Introduction to 9 Tray/ 45 layout/composing numbers
Learning what is and says ( 1, 10, 100, 1000)
Reinforce by placement and identification of numbers within each decimal place
Reinforce number placement with creation of numbers
This week we learned all about pumpkins and the different parts like: flesh, pulp, stem, seeds and rind. The children were able to explore the inside of a pumpkin by digging out the insides and touching the seeds and pulp. The children were also able to try the seeds from the pumpkin and create a venn diagram of apples and pumpkins.
Guest Readers
Classroom
Reading about bats together in the library.Binomial Cube: This child is learning how to build a binomial cube while also getting an introduction into algebra and preparation for the formula a3+3a2b+3ab2+b3.Picture to Picture Matching: This child is working on her pre-reading skills by visually discriminating between objects but in a completely abstract way.Color Box 4: This child is grading different colors from darkest to lightest, while also refining his sense of sight.Eye Dropper: This child is transferring water using an eye dropper. The purpose of this work is to not only teach him how to use an eyedropper, but prepare him for activities that require a pincer grip.Stamp Game: This child is doing static addition (a sum without exchanging) problems using the stamp game. He is practicing addition at a higher level of abstraction.
Reminders:
Parent Education Night Wednesday, October 25th at 6:30pm You can register to attend and for childcare by clicking this link
Bring Your Parent to Work Time Monday, October 23, 2017
Halloween Party Friday, October 27, 2017
A Peek into Next Week: Bats
The students will learn about the life cycle of a bat.
Weekly Theme: This week we looked at the Amphibian. We talked about how the Amphibians are vertebrates, cold blooded, their skin is soft and moist, and they are born from jelly eggs. Some examples of Amphibians are toads, frogs, and salamanders. We learned that the term amphibian means of two worlds. Amphibians are born in the water but live their life on land. The children enjoyed getting a closer look at our toads, Stiv and Darby and the Pac Man Frog, En Esch.
Cultural Subjects:
Our students can count to ten in 10 different languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian)
The Montessori classroom has ages ranging from 2 1/2 to 6 years old. Here is a picture of the tallest/oldest and shortest/youngest students in the classroom.
The puzzle maps are found in the Cultural Subject area. They are colorful materials representing the continents and The United States of America. The objective of this material is to introduce the child to a sensorial activity related to working with the countries/ continents of the world. This child is tracing and labeling each state which she is practicing handwriting and fine motor skills.
This child is working with the stringing large bead work that is found in the Practical Life area. The purpose of this work is to develope fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, patience, concentration. The main aim in the Practical Life area is O.C.C.I. (order, concentration, coordination, and independence).
This child is working on Picture to Picture Matching found in our Language area. This material has a variety of interesting pictures that he will match picture cards to the picture frame. The purpose of this material is to develope language by creating a dialogue between teacher and student about the pictures being used. This also develops visual discrimination and concentration.
This person is a field student from the University of Akron. Absorbent Minds Montessori School and The University of Akron have a relationship where field students are invited to our school to experience the Montessori classroom.
Sneak Peek Into Next Week: We will be learning about Fish, the characteristics and examples of.
We were so excited to end last week with a walking field trip to Tallmadge Circle. This week we had parents visit for “Bring Your Parents to Work Time,” continued to practice our play, and enjoyed a new science experiment about decomposers. This week, Lower Elementary students worked with the Small and Large Bead Frames, measured in grams, discussed the Mesozoic Era, and worked with the Constructive Triangles. Upper Elementary students worked with multiples, homonyms, prepositions, and angle word problems.
On our walking field trip to the Tallmadge Circle, students had to practice safe walking rules by staying together, staying on the sidewalk, and being aware of their surroundings. We also discussed the purpose of crosswalks.While at the Circle, students sketched each direction around the circle. They had five minutes to sketch each direction. At school this week, the students are putting their sketches together around a circle, representing where we were sketching, drawn on a poster board. They will color these sketches, add a compass, and a map key to complete their map of the Tallmadge Circle. Look for a Remind message about when these will be available for display.These students are helping each other in reading group. This reading group came up with the rule of raising your hand if you know a word someone is struggling to read, instead of just telling them. This gives the child an opportunity to sound out a word or choose to get help. One of our favorite things to see in our environment is students coming up with solutions to problems without a teacher’s help.First and second year students are beginning to study dinosaurs. This first year student knows a lot about dinosaurs already, so she joined me to present the lesson and information to the other students. Before this lesson actually took place, we had to plan together which one of us would talk about certain things and how we thought the lesson should go. During the lesson, this student practiced her public speaking skills and gained a lot of confidence!During one of our “Mindfulness Moments” this week we tried Deep Listening. We discussed how you know someone is really listening to you, how it feels when someone takes the time to really listen, and how we can practice that with our friends and family. After our discussion, we partnered up to share something that we’ve struggled with, something we are looking forward to, or how we were feeling. Elementary students often struggle with feeling like they are not being treated fairly or not fitting in. One way parents and other friends can help is to take the time to truly listen, even if the conversation seems insignificant, and give examples of when you’ve felt that way and how you’ve handled it.These third and fourth year students had a blast measuring angles with a protractor. They taped angles onto (and under) our science table, then used dry erase markers to record their measurements. The Montessori classroom allows students to spend more time on work they are interested in, instead of only allowing a certain amount of time per subject. Although these students appear to only be working on Geometry, they are also learning to work together and delegate tasks. They spent two days on this project!
A Peek into Next Week
Next week Lower Elementary students will continue their dinosaur research, practice writing different lengths, learn about proper adjectives, and talk about surface tension. Upper Elementary students will change improper fractions to mixed fractions, work on commas as interrupters, practice note taking, and finish their review of prehistory.
REMINDERS:
10/23 Box Tops are due
10/25 All Halloween Party supplies should be dropped off by this date.
10/25 Parent Education Night Parent Education Night at 6:30pm (Tallmadge Campus) click on the link to register:
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-montessori
10/27 Halloween Play and Party – Remember to drop your child off at the Cuyahoga Falls Campus by 8:15 in regular clothing. Children will change into their Halloween costumes when we return to the Tallmadge Campus. They will need the regular set of clothing for gym this day.
This week our class explored everything about pumpkins. Together we labeled the parts of the pumpkin, talked about the life cycle of a pumpkin and then followed with an activity, and had a blast with our pumpkin investigation. With this activity the children had to use adjectives to describe the outside and inside of our pumpkin, measure how tall our pumpkin was with duplos, counted all the seeds, and then voted on the face we wanted for our pumpkin. It was such a fun week!
Our friend was very excited about tracing the frog puzzle for the very first time. When using our different animal puzzles the children are able to gain fine motor skills, learn the parts of the animal, gain focus and concentration.Syllable awareness is one component of phonological awareness. Students gain the ability to hear phonemes that comprise words and explore speech sounds as syllables.During group time we created a chart together and brainstormed everything that pumpkins can do, what pumpkins have, and what pumpkins are. I love these types of lessons because it gives the child a chance to speak their minds, gain confidence skills, and working together as a team.The children had so much fun with our investigation. During this activity the children were able to use their math skills by linear counting, discussing the different sizes, and also gaining knowledge of what an adjective is by using descriptive words for our pumpkin.This week our field student gave a lesson on pumpkins. In her lesson she made a fall discovery bottle. Every child was able to participate in placing the certain objects into the bottle. She then gave a fun lesson on the different pumpkins you can find. The children had the best time!
A Peek Into Next Week:
Next week we will be having so much fun learning about bats, spiders, and getting ready for our Halloween party!
REMINDERS:
Halloween party is next Friday starting with lunch at 1130.
