A Peek at Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
We continued our classroom study of Fall and the change of seasons, with a focus this week on leaves. We discussed the parts of a leaf, as well as why leaves change color in the fall. We talked about how chlorophyll is the green pigment inside of the leaf and its job is to absorb the sunlight and change that sunlight into food for the tree. We also discussed how the pigments yellow, orange, and red are inside of the leaf all along, but the chlorophyll covers it up during the spring and summer. During Preschool Lesson, Ms. Sam introduced us to a science experiment where we saw that leaves breathe! Lots of awesome facts this week! We also made beautiful leaf suncatchers that you can spy hanging up in our windows of the classroom.
What have the 4 year olds been up to in our mixed age classroom?
This child is Weaving Ribbons in our Practical Life area. Weaving is an excellent activity to work on the child’s fine motor skills.
This child is working with our Touch Tablets from our Sensorial area. These tablets consist of different types of sandpaper, ranging from less rough to roughest. The child can use their sense of touch to either pair the matching tablets or gradate them, or they can do both at once!
This child is working with the Table Top Rods with Symbols (In Order) from our Math area. The Table Top Rods are a smaller version of a familiar classroom work – the Number Rods! The child practices placing the numerals in order from 1-10, and then counts the blue and red sections of the rod, matching them to the correct numerals.
This child is working with Cards and Counters from our Math Area. We include different types of cards and counters in the classroom to keep this work interesting for the children. We’ve been working with trees and leaves for a couple weeks.
This child is working in his Handwriting Folder, a part of our Language area. Each week we study a new letter within our classroom. We not only practice the letter name and letter sound, we also practice writing our letter of the week. We write our letter in the air with our arm, on a large piece of paper, and then in our Handwriting Folders.
This child is working on coloring a World Map in our Geography area of the classroom. Each of the continents have a corresponding color within the Montessori Classroom. We’ve been focusing on North America because that is where we live, but the class favors Antarctica because of the penguins!
This child is working on Tracing and Labeling the Parts of a Tree from our Science area. The child traces the control card, and then uses the control card to assist in writing the parts of the plant. The child can also color this work to match out Parts of a Tree nomenclature cards like this child is doing!
Enrichment Spotlight – Art with Ms. Varela!
Ms. Varela introduced us to Vincent Van Gogh and his paintings of sunflowers. We have spent the past couple of art lessons creating our own paintings of sunflowers using watercolor pencils!
Peek Into Next Week!
We have completed our study of the season of Fall/Autumn with a focus on plants. Next week we will begin our Classification of Animals study which will last a few weeks. We will begin with Vertebrates and Invertebrates and Mammals.
Letter: Vv
Number: 6
Languages: Greetings & Manners in German and ASL
Important Dates:
October 26 – November 1: Usborne Book Fair
October 29: Halloween Party