Courtney’s Class Overview – September 2014

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Themes of the week
(in addition to Montessori Work Time)

8/26 and 9/2: Ground Rules

  • Learning to greet others.
  • Learning to have conservations.
  • Learning to speak to others.
  • Learning to listen to others.
  • Learning to respond to others.
  • Learning to say please and thank you to others.
  • Learning to observe others.
  • Learning to respectfully interrupt.
  • Learning from others.
  • Learning to open door for someone else.
  • Learning to recognize situations in which to help others.
  • Passing in front of another respectfully.
  • Learning how to say excuse me.

9/8: Community Helpers

  • The students will learn about police officers, fire fighters, mail carriers, soldiers, bakers, farmers, doctors, and teachers throughout the week. They will not only learn about these community helpers; they will also be able to explain in detail why each one is very important to our lives.

9/15: My Family

  • The students will illustrate a picture of their family.
  • The students will have a discussion on the importance of families to each of us and the students will be able to identify one reason why their family is important to them.
  • Create a family tree together (Due Friday September 12th)

9/22: Feelings/Emotions

  • The students learn how to identify, handle, and understand the things they may feel and how to act about them.

Letters of the week

9/8: Aa
9/15: Bb
9/22: Cc

Sight word of the week

9/8: the
9/15: of
9/22: an

Things to do at home this month to reinforce our themes:

  • Try to find objects that begin with the letter of the week wherever you go with your child.
  • Encourage grace and courtesy when you see your child displaying it to another or you.
  • Talk about the importance of 911 and when you should call and practice dialing it.
  • Practice dialing your telephone number with your child.
  • Start a family tradition by setting a night a week aside for a family movie or game night.
  • If your child displays an emotion they are unfamiliar with talk about it and how to handle it together.

Mr. John’s Classroom Overview – September 2014

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Themes of the Week
(in addition to Montessori Work time)

8/25‐9/05 Ground Rules / Introduction of Materials

  • Ringing of the bell, circle walk, line time
  • Process of working with a materials, rolling mats, carrying trays & work areas
  • Respecting teachers, classmates and the materials
  • Daily demonstration of materials from all areas of the classroom

9/08: Healthy Habits

  • The importance of washing hands, bathing, brushing teeth (eliminate germs, prevent cavities)
  • The importance of sleep. Why we need sleep & sleep cycle
  • The importance of exercise (walking, running, swimming, etc)
  • The importance of eating well (“grow foods”)
  • Preschool lesson– Friendship

9/15: Food Groups

  • Eating Healthy, Moderation
  • Focus on the different food groups, sorting foods belonging in each
  • Servings and examples of each
  • Preschool lesson‐Apples

9/22: Living / Non Living

  • Living things (grow, reproduce, obtain and use energy, exchange gases) adapt to their environment
  • Non Living things, examples
  • Categorization of Living and Non Living
  • Preschool Lesson– Family

09/29: Mammals

  • Introduction to mammals, examples of mammals
  • All mammals have hair, warm blooded, eat mother’s milk
  • All mammals are vertebrates (spine), lungs to breathe, born alive
  • Bats are the ONLY mammal that can fly
  • Preschool Lesson– The season of Autumn/Fall

Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.

8/25: Aa
9/01: Bb
9/08: Cc
9/15: Dd
9/22: Ee
9/29: Ff

Rhyming Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

8/25: BAT, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, sat
9/01: BAN, can, dan, fan, man, pan, tan
9/08: BAP, map, cap, gap, lap, nap, sap
9/15: BAG, sag, jag, lag, nag, tag, rag wag
9/22: BAD, dad, fad, had, lad, mad, sad
9/29: BIG, dig, fig, jig, pig, rig, wig

Things to do at Home this Month to reinforce our themes:

  • Make a collage with pictures and objects that start with the letters of the week.
  • While eating together, categorize your meal into food groups with your child.
  • Follow this link to find a worksheet to complete together for living and non living things. (Circle the living things and color together)
  • Read a book about your child’s favorite mammal together!

Kristen’s Class Overview – September 2014

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Themes of the Week
(in addition to Individual Montessori Work time)

08/25: Grace and Courtesy / Ground Rules

  • Learning Control of Movement-Rolling A Rug, Carrying A Tray, and Carrying A Chair.
  • Learning Grace And Courtesy- How to Introduce Yourself, How To Say Please And Thank You, How To Interrupt Another.
  • Learning classroom rules.
  • Discussing what it means to be kind to others and what are “kind words”.
  • Making a “Kind Words Chain” in pre-school lesson.

9/1: Grace And Courtesy/Ground Rules

  • Reading the book, “The Bear That Was Chicken” and discussing with the children how they felt before coming to school and how they feel now about school.
  • Lessons on saying “Excuse Me”, “I’m Sorry”, and “Thank You”.
  • Singing songs and playing game to review what we’ve learned about classroom rules and manners.
  • Having the children write our classroom rules and display them in the classroom.
  • Read the book “There’s A Bird On Your Head”. Discuss how to speak to someone when we’re frustrated.

9/8: All About Me

  • “ Who’s Baby Picture Is This?” guessing game. (Be sure to send in a baby picture of your child with them this week.)
  • Discussing what makes each of us special: hair color, eye color, likes and dislikes, our birthdays, our names, our emotions, etc.
  • Graphing our differences such as hair and eye color.
  • Practicing saying our full names.
  • Learning our birth dates.

9/15 All About Apples

  • Read the story “Little Bear’s Star”- Story about an apple.
  • Sorting apples by size and color.
  • Learning the fractions of one whole and one half using an apple.
  • Taste testing different color apples and making a graph, as a class, of our favorites.
  • Learning the Apple Life Cycle.

9/22 All About Fall

  • Discuss differences between Summer and Fall.
  • Go on a nature walk outside to find leaves.
  • Painting with leaves.
  • Learning the parts of the leaf.
  • Learning Robert Frost poem about Fall.

Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.

8/25: Aa
9/1: Cc
9/8: Rr
9/15: Tt
9/25: Review Of All Four Letters

Sight Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

8/25: at
9/1: cat
9/8: rat
9/15: tap
9/25: Review All Four Sight Words

Things to do at Home this Month to reinforce our themes:

  • While reading a book have your child point to all of the letter of the week she/he can find. Have them do this with the sight words as well. Play I-Spy using things that only start with the letter of the week.
  • Go on a walk as a family. As Fall comes, point out the differences you see in nature, now that the weather is changing.
  • While reading to your child, point out the sight words they are learning this month.
  • Find a fun apple recipe to try as a family. Let your child practicing measuring the ingredients, assemble the ingredients, etc. Discuss with your child the other things that can be made with apples

Kate’s Class Overview – September 2014

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Themes of the Week
(in addition to Montessori Work time)

8/26‐
09/06 Rules of the Classroom/Respect

  • We respect each other
  • We try our best/we learn from our mistakes
  • We are a team/we celebrate each other’s success
  • Tour of the classroom and introductions of materials
  • Using the words “please, thank you, excuse me, I’m sorry.” Write a class poem to emphasize the use of polite words.
  • Create a kindness quilt to help students think about and how to show acts of kindness.

Preschool Lesson: Craft and Activities to reinforce the Letter A sound. ASL sign for A.Role modeling and practicing classroom rules and safety

9/09: Friendship

  • Work on social skills/ how to develop friendship
  • What are good qualities in a friend?
  • How do friends build community?
  • Create together a class web of friendship words

Preschool Lesson (afternoon): Craft and activities to reinforce the letter B sound. ASL sign for B. Learning about friendship and kindness

9/16: All About Me!

  • Our similarities and differences
  • I’m special because…
  • Our Birthdays
  • Identifying our emotions
  • Starting on Monday Ms. Kate will be sending home a paper bag with each of your children. Please have your child decorate their bag and fill it with three of their favorite things. Please bring back on Friday.

Preschool Lesson (afternoon): Craft and activities to reinforce the letter C. ASL sign for C. What is a family, learning about our families

9/23: Family

  • What is a family
  • Graphing our families/ family celebrations
  • Create a family tree together (Due Friday 9/27/13) 


Preschool Lesson: Craft and activities to reinforce the letter D. ASL sign for D. Pumpkin themed crafts and activities

Letters of the Week: Try to find objects that begin with each letter wherever you go with your child.

8/26: Aa

9/03: Bb

9/09: Cc 

9/16: Dd
9/23: Ee 


Sight Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

8/26: the

9/03: to

9/09: are 

9/16: and
9/23: we 


Things to do at Home this Month to reinforce our themes:

  • While reading a book have your child point to all of the A’s she/he can find. Have them do this with the sight word “the.” Play I‐Spy using things that only start with the letter A.
  • Make a collage with pictures and objects that start with the letter B.
  • Place words around the house and see if your child can find the word “to.” When your child has gathered all of his/her “to” 
cards count together how many cards they have found.
  • Make a kindness jar. Each day pick an act of kindness out of the jar and act on it:)
  • You and your child write a special letter to a friend.

Academic Enrichment Overview for Cuyahoga Falls – September 2014

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Our Academic Enrichment time is daily from 12:00-1:00pm.  This time is specifically designed for our Kindergarten students to join together as a group to work and progress through the advanced materials and lessons in the Montessori primary curriculum. Throughout the school day in their classroom they are still working individually with their classroom teacher on these and other materials at their level.

8/25: Continent globe & map

  • Intro to globe & maps
  • Characteristics of globe & maps
  • Identify Continents
  • Review of three countries in each Continent and fun facts!

9/01: Directions

  • Recap of Continents/Review of three countries in each Continent and fun facts!
  • North, South, East & West
  • Work on the directions using Continent Map

9/08: Hemisphere / Equator

  • What are hemispheres? North/South/East/West hemispheres
  • What is the equator? Location of equator

9/15: Bodies of water surrounding North America

  • Review Hemispheres/ Equator
  • Hudson Bay (N)
  • Atlantic Ocean (E)
  • Gulf of Mexico (S)
  • Pacific Ocean (W)

9/22: Ohio and surrounding States

  • Ohio (location, characteristics, facts, abbreviation, flower, tree, mammal, fossil, flag)
  • Pennsylvania (nickname, abbreviation) Kentucky (nickname, abbreviation)
  • West Virginia (nickname, abbreviation) Indiana (nickname, abbreviation) Michigan (nickname, abbreviation)

Sight Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.
8/26: go, has
9/01: will, him
9/08: up, so
9/16: see, her
9/22: are, was

Synonyms of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.
8/25: FUN, amusing, entertaining, enjoyable, merry, pleasant
9/01: FAST, hurried, speedy, brisk, quick, swift,
9/08: SAD, miserable, gloomy, depressing, downtrodden, glum, unhappy
9/15: SLOW, unhurried, gradual, sluggish, stagnant, lethargic
9/22: BORING, drab, dull, lifeless, mundane, monotonous

Things to do at Home this Month:
Mr. John will be sending homework home to reinforce these lessons. Please turn homework into the orange box outside of Mr. John’s classroom. Please email him if you have any questions: jkotradi@thesmarterkids.com.

Academic Enrichment Overview for Tallmadge – September 2014

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Our Academic Enrichment time is daily from 12:00-1:00pm.  This time is specifically designed for our Kindergarten students to join together as a group to work and progress through the advanced materials and lessons in the Montessori primary curriculum.  Throughout the school day in their classroom they are still working individually with their classroom teacher on these and other materials at their level.

8/25: Continent globe & map

  • Intro to globe & maps
  • Characteristics of globe & maps
  • Identify Continents
  • Review of three countries in each Continent and fun facts!

9/01: Directions

  • Recap of Continents/Review of three countries in each Continent and fun facts!
  • North, South, East & West
  • Work on the directions using Continent Map

9/08: Hemisphere / Equator

  • What are hemispheres? North/South/East/West hemispheres
  • What is the equator? Location of equator

9/15: Bodies of water surrounding North America

  • Review Hemispheres/ Equator
  • Hudson Bay (N)
  • Atlantic Ocean (E)
  • Gulf of Mexico (S)
  • Pacific Ocean (W)

9/22: Ohio and surrounding States

  • Ohio (location, characteristics, facts, abbreviation, flower, tree, mammal, fossil, flag)
  • Pennsylvania (nickname, abbreviation) Kentucky (nickname, abbreviation)
  • West Virginia (nickname, abbreviation) Indiana (nickname, abbreviation) Michigan (nickname, abbreviation)

Sight Words of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.
8/26: go, has
9/01: will, him
9/08: up, so
9/16: see, her
9/22: are, was

Synonyms of the Week: Try to find each word in books as you read to your child.

8/25: FUN, amusing, entertaining, enjoyable, merry, pleasant
9/01: FAST, hurried, speedy, brisk, quick, swift,
9/08: SAD, miserable, gloomy, depressing, downtrodden, glum, unhappy
9/15: SLOW, unhurried, gradual, sluggish, stagnant, lethargic
9/22: BORING, drab, dull, lifeless, mundane, monotonous

Things to do at Home this Month:
Ms. Courtney will be sending homework home to reinforce these lessons. Please email her if you have any questions: cowens@thesmarterkids.com.