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Mrs. Doyle: First Stop, North America!

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

These last few weeks have been a particularly busy and exciting time with your children. We have traveled through space, explored the eight planets, discovered that the sun is a star, and rocketed back to planet Earth. We are now exploring the first of seven continents, North America.  You may hear your children call it the orange continent. This is because, on the Montessori globe and map, North America is indeed orange. We will continue to explore the animals native to our continent, map North America’s countries, examine topography, and study how a continent’s proximity to the equator impacts its climate.

The Montessori cultural studies curriculum provides children with an opportunity to explore the whole world, including the continents, countries, people, animals, terrain, music, and arts. Children use didactic Montessori materials to familiarize themselves with the needs of all humans for such things as food, housing, and clothing. This early cultural awareness helps cultivate independent, joyful citizens of our world.

On Wednesday, we were so excited to have the Botsford Fire Department return to FWM to teach us all about fire safety.  The children asked very thoughtful and intelligent questions and had a great time learning about what to do in a fire, the equipment firefighters use, and even got to spend some time on a fire truck.

Wishing everyone a week filled with peace and love!

Michelle & Maria

Mrs. Lopes: First Stop, North America!

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

These last few weeks have been a particularly busy and exciting time with your children. We have traveled through space, explored the eight planets, discovered that the sun is a star, and rocketed back to planet Earth. We are now exploring the first of seven continents, North America.  You may hear your children call it the orange continent. This is because, on the Montessori globe and map, North America is indeed orange. We will continue to explore the animals native to our continent, map North America’s countries, examine topography, and study how a continent’s proximity to the equator impacts its climate.

The Montessori cultural studies curriculum provides children with an opportunity to explore the whole world, including the continents, countries, people, animals, terrain, music, and arts. Children use didactic Montessori materials to familiarize themselves with the needs of all humans for such things as food, housing, and clothing. This early cultural awareness helps cultivate independent, joyful citizens of our world.

On Wednesday, the local fire department visited our school.  We each had the opportunity to take a tour of the fire truck, and the visiting firefighter gave a special presentation on the importance of fire safety.

Wishing everyone a week filled with peace and love!

Amanda & Hema

Ms. Marissa: First Stop, South America!

Posted on by Marissa Frisk

These last couple of months have been a busy and exciting time with your children. We have traveled through space, explored the eight planets, discovered that the sun is a star, and rocketed back to planet Earth. We are now exploring the first of seven continents, South America.  You may hear your children call it the pink continent. This is because, on the Montessori globe and map, South America is indeed pink. We will continue to explore the animals native to South America, map South America’s countries, examine topography, and study how a continent’s proximity to the equator impacts its climate.

The Montessori cultural studies curriculum provides children with an opportunity to explore the whole world, including the continents, countries, people, animals, terrain, music, and arts. Children use didactic Montessori materials to familiarize themselves with the needs of all humans for such things as food, housing, and clothing. This early cultural awareness helps cultivate independent, joyful citizens of our world.

Wishing everyone a week filled with peace and love!

Marissa & Sue

 

Mrs. Sargeant: A Peek at the Week

Posted on by Christine Sargeant

The highlight of the week was our visit with Firefighter Bill from the Botsford Rescue Squad. We were able to see the firefighters’ gear and equipment and even climb into the truck! We talked about the different colors firetrucks can be, the parts of the truck (ladder, wheels, hose, steering wheel), and the loud sound the siren makes. This was a fun experience for our toddlers and a great opportunity to begin to instill a sense of respect and admiration for the brave first responders who keep our community safe. 

As part of our pumpkin-tasting experience, we cut and scooped the seeds and pulp from a pumpkin. All of the children were invited to participate in the scooping and to use all their senses for a full experience. Every child was eager to taste the pumpkin. We tasted both roasted and canned pumpkin. While the enthusiasm in the room was buzzing as they were being served, many of their faces changed after having a taste. I really wish we had been able to capture some of their expressions! Perhaps you’d like to try again at home .. maybe even add some cinnamon. 

We have been learning the names of body parts and what each part does and singing songs such as “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes’, and  ‘Do You Know Your Body Parts?’ (You can listen below)

We’re loving our days with your children. It is truly amazing to witness their growth week to week. Thank you for entrusting us with their care!

Happy weekend! -Christine & Lizette

Exploring the Wonders of the Universe in Lower El

Posted on by Ashley O'Connell

This week, lower elementary students embarked on an incredible journey delving into Maria Montessori’s Great Lesson on the creation of the universe. What made this learning experience particularly special was the active involvement of the third-grade students, who not only absorbed the lesson themselves but also took on the role of presenters. They guided their younger peers through engaging science experiments, showing the intricate concepts behind the formation of the universe. This interaction between different age groups fosters a dynamic learning environment where knowledge is shared, curiosity flourishes, and understanding is deepened. As the older students led demonstrations, the enthusiasm and wonder on the faces of the younger learners were palpable.

On Wednesday, we had a visit from the Botsford Fire Department. We learned about fire safety and prevention, how smoke moves through a house, and all of the equipment on a fire truck!

Mrs. Hood: With My Eyes and My Hands!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

Hand-eye coordination is one of the most important parts of the learning process. It helps your child track the movements of their hands with their eyes, which is essential for decoding and reading. Because your child also uses their visual system with hand-eye coordination, it can greatly impact their writing skills and handwriting as they use their eyes to guide, direct, and control their hand movements across the page as they write letters and words.

Our Toddler environment is set up in a specific way, looking to sharpen and challenge these skills while meeting your child exactly where they are developmentally. Each material is displayed in progressive order, from easiest to hardest and from left to right. This logical structure encourages children to organize their thinking and to absorb the outcome of the material at their own pace. The left-to-right orientation of the materials also assists children with preparation for reading and writing, aligning with the natural processing flow of the brain. By engaging in activities that demand hand-eye coordination, your children are actively stimulating their cognitive faculties, fostering attention, memory, and problem-solving skills.

Some of the most popular works in our environment these days, sharpening these skills, are spooning acorns, sorting leaves and pumpkins, pouring water, water transferring with a dropper, sunflower stickers, draining and spooning cranberries, cubes nesting, putting the scarecrow together, jigsaw puzzles, ring box, using a roller and a leaf stamp with the playdough and many more.

As a fun activity, the children got to enjoy the visit from the Botsford Fire Department this week. We were surprised to see the firetruck was green instead of red and learned that as we are most sensitive to greenish-yellow colors under dim conditions, these firetrucks are easier to see in low lighting. Children received a tour of the firetruck, and they even got to see me dressed like a firefighter! 🙂

For food tasting, children explored cranberries. They seemed to be in awe of the flower shape and tiny seeds that we found when we cut a small cranberry, and most of them enjoyed tasting the cranberry sauce.

Children also have been learning the names of different types of leaves and enjoy observing, finding, and of course, playing with them on the playground!

Enjoy the pictures,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Mollie

Mrs. Wilson: November Explorations and Little Firefighters!

Posted on by Cynthia Wilson

In the enchanting month of November, our pint-sized explorers will embark on a journey through the warm hues of yellow, the crunch of leaves, the charm of acorns and pinecones, and the magical world of woodland creatures. 

During our time outdoors, the children filled the air with laughter as we leaped into a pile of leaves and found simple joy as they tossed the fallen leaves up into the air and at each other. 

A highlight that lit up our week was the visit from Fireman Bill of the Botsford Fire Rescue. Mrs. Wilson transformed into a firefighter, and the kids got an up-close look inside a real firetruck. The firefighter helmets were the cherry on top – who knew a firetruck wheel could tower over our toddlers?

Food Tasting: Food tasting took a delicious turn as we introduced the little ones to pomegranate seeds. The children saw the vibrant red juice drip out from the fruit and heard the crunch of one little seed. This was a sensory experience that brought the flavors of fall to life.

Middle School: Week in Review

Posted on by msutherland

This was another exciting week for our middle school community! Students participated in a Fire Safety demonstration from the Botsford Fire Department; they continued to build cardboard furniture in STEAM class and concluded another great soccer season. We enjoyed our fun Friday Grill & Chill event and are excited to share a few leadership initiatives in the coming weeks! As a general reminder, we will have early dismissal on Tuesday, November 21st, before the Thanksgiving Break. Immersion week will commence when we return as we prepare for this year’s main-stage production.

HUMANITIES:

This week, all Middle School Humanities classes surrounded the writing of the first few scenes of our play! Characters are written, the plot is decided, and the title is even chosen—more to come in next week’s blog, as it will feature the playwriting process.

SCIENCE:

6th-year Earth Science students are working on representing their unit “Tectonic Plates” by creating stop motion videos. Students are asked to represent what tectonic plates are, what causes them to move, what the three types of plate boundaries are, and how tectonic plate movement influences our landscape. Students have the ability to choose from a variety of artistic representations to base their videos on.

7th-year Physical Science students are finishing their unit “Characteristic Properties of Matter.” Throughout the unit, students conducted several experiments and lab reports that tested unknown substances’ physical and chemical properties. Some of the experiments conducted tested electrical conductivity, malleability, density, pH, and combustibility. Our next unit will be “States of Matter.”

8th-year Life Science students have been working on their unit “Cellular Respiration.” This week, students were asked to begin the unit by first understanding the differences between respiration (breathing) and cellular respiration (obtaining energy from food). Students will be asked to break the unit into three main parts (glycolysis, Kreb’s cycle, and the electron transport chain).

MATH:

In the Pre-Transition math class, students began learning chapter 3, which covers a variety of concepts involving addition. This class is exploring how to add numbers with mixed units in real-world situations, add integers on a number line, and apply addition’s commutative and associative properties. This class can use a protractor to measure given acute and obtuse angles and add values to make complementary and supplementary pairs.
In the Transition math class, students completed chapter 3 and wrote the unit assessment on Thursday, November 9th. This class has demonstrated they understand using square roots, converting a value between decimals/fractions/percentages, and modeling terminating and repeating decimals. Students are confident with finding decimals between integer values and finding equivalent fractions.
In the Algebra math class, students continue investigating linear equations and inequalities. Students practiced rearranging formulas for specific variables, solving for ax + b = cx + d statements, and graphing absolute value inequalities on a coordinate grid. This class can graph horizontal and vertical lines and use a table of values to solve real-world problems involving linear situations.
In the Geometry math class, students were excited to explore transformations of figures and study the importance of isometries. This class can reflect points and figures over parallel and perpendicular lines. Students can perform a composite reflection of more than two movements and properly label a figure’s preimage.
Make Joke: Why can’t you trust a polynomial to stay the same? ………They have too many variables.