Peek At Our Week| Mr. John's Classroom| Week Of November 06, 2017

Line Time Lesson:
This week we creeped and crawled and learned about insects, arachnids, and invertebrates. We first looked at insects. The characteristics of an insect are they have three body parts, head, thorax, abdomen. The also have six legs and two antennae. We sang the song “Head, Thorax, Abdomen” to the tune of Head , Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. Some examples of insects were ants and crickets which can be found, enclosed not free, in the classroom. Also, the mantis, bees, butterflies, and dragonflies. Arachnids are eight legged creatures that have a head and a thorax. Some creatures that are arachnids are spiders (tarantula named Charlotte) that is in the classroom, scorpions, and the tick. Both creepy crawlers are invertebrates which means they do not have a backbone or a spine or a bony skeleton but actually have an exoskeleton. An exoskeleton is is the external skeleton that supports and protects an animal’s body. Other invertebrates are earthworms, jellyfish, and crawfish.

Cultural Subjects:
We can now count to ten in 13 different languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, and Swedish).

Bees… bzzzzzz:

Pastor Kirk has several bee hives and talked about bees and brought in his equipment. The children tried on a protective mask, touched (an empty) hive with wax, and saw real live bees (in an enclosed hive).

A Peek In The Classroom:

We’re a happy family. The babies are growing, mom is doing well, and the aunties are accepting the litter. Anyone want pet rats????

The old colored water with with flower experiment. As you can see we chose dark purple (which did nothing to the flower), green (which turned the flower yellow), and blue (which turned the flower blue).

My kindergarten students tracked the color changes in their personal binders. We came up with possible reasons why the purple did nothing. We thought maybe too much coloring couldn’t get up the stem. The yellow maybe had more yellow in the coloring.

Line Time… The aim is to increase body control and concentration. The child sits criss cross, hands to themselves, and are quiet. This is an exaggerated picture of catching a bubble (no talking), safe hands (hands to ourselves), and sitting on the line calmly. My morning line time can last up to thirty minutes and your child sit nicely for the duration of this line time. At line time I present information about days of the week, months of the year, the date, the weather, we count to ten in different languages, my weekly theme, and announcements. Also, as a bonus they get to hear my morning banter.

The child needs to practice, perfect, and consolidate the body’s movements. For this reason, Dr. Montessori began using the “Walking on the Line” as a Practical Life exercise. This exercise helps the child control his body, develop balance and perfect equilibrium, as well as to strengthen the mind’s control of its body’s movements. No pushing, no cutting, and no running across to the other side of the line. We play a classical piece of music, Pachelbel’s Canon in D Minor, which is exactly five minutes (4:57). After I ring the bell and the children stop, look, and listen, they proceed to clean, and walk the line. After the music ends the children sit nicely on the line.

A Peek Into Next Week:

Line Time Lesson:
Dinosaurs and the unique things of select dinos.

Letter Of The Week:
L l

Rhyming Word Of The Week:
bot

Upcoming Events:
11/16/17 (Thursday): Progress Reports emailed

11/17/17 (Friday): Parent Teacher Conferences (NO SCHOOL FOR CHILDREN)
Follow the link to sign up. http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b48a8a92da6f94-2017

11/21/17 (Tuesday): Harvest Party

11/22-11/26/17: Thanksgiving Break

11/25/2017 Noon: The Game!

Peek At Our Week| Mr. John’s Classroom| Week Of November 06, 2017

A Peek Into Next Week:

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