Blog

Little Landscapers!

Posted on by Cynthia Wilson

This week we changed over from sunflowers and the color yellow to pumpkins and the color orange. When we introduced painting at the art easel in September we started with red paint then switch over to yellow. This week we added back red paint so they can visually see what happens when they mix the two colors.

On Monday the children were surprised with a large chalkboard on their playground. A big thank you to Mrs. Hood, Ms. Sara, and her husband Bill for creating this beautiful addition. When using art materials on a large vertical surface the children are strengthening their large and fine motor muscles, developing small motor control, and practicing crossing their midline, just to name some of the wonderful benefits from these activities.

The highlight of the week was so exciting for the children. We received a delivery of mulch for our playground. They all watched with amazement as the dump truck backed in to unload the mulch. When the delivery was finished the driver beeped his horn for them as he drove away. Then the children all grabbed a bucket to help carry in the mulch and were guided to where it needed to go. Some even filled the dump trucks to move the mulch. They joyfully worked together and were such big helpers. This activity will provide them with pride in their outdoor space.

On Wednesday the children tasted a granny smith apple. We cut their apple horizontally in half to make it easier for them to use the apple slicer. With assistance, they used all their strength to get the slicer through. Then they sat down to enjoy the apple. Once again the language we heard as  they ate was, “Mmmm,” and “Delicious.”

Thank you to the Hood family for the beautiful flowers!

Enjoy this week’s photos,
Mrs. Wilson and Ms. Sara

Competent Collaborators

Posted on by Karen Sankey

An observer of our Upper Elementary classroom would see most of the children collaborating on their work; this is intentional. Montessori elementary communities are designed to support this collaboration because it is recognized as a need for this age group. Elementary children crave interaction, not just in a purely social setting, but also in organized groups where they are focused on a goal with their peers. At this age, children form strong attachments to friends and want to be surrounded by their peers. For this reason, most of their work is collaborative, with the exception of when they are working on individualized skills. This is also the phase for “acquisition of culture” (Montessori). This is one reason why there is such a strong focus on learning about how people throughout history have contributed to society. The children assimilate this new knowledge about history as they are learning to contribute to their own world, classroom and beyond.

This week our fourth grade geometry work focused on proving the equivalence of a triangle and rectangle. This work starts sensorially; the children use a metal inset material to prove the equivalence of the two shapes. After using the material, we discuss the requirements for the equivalence of a triangle and rectangle; when the base of the two shapes is equal and the height of the rectangle is half that of the triangle. The fifth graders focused on inverse area formulas. They learned how to find the height when given the base and area, and how to find the base when given the height and area. In biology we continued our lessons on the circulation of plants with a discussion and demonstration about capillarity; the upward movement of liquids as a result of surface tension. In history this week, the fourth years learned about the Mesozoic Era of the Timeline of Life (250 to 65 million years ago) and the fifth years learned about the Magdalenian people (17,000 to 12,000 years ago), the last group of modern humans in the Upper Paleolithic Age. The children’s enthusiasm about our Literature Circles continues to grow. They are enjoying discussing their books and sharing their roles with the group.

Mrs. Hood’s Class: 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 reading and decoding. 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 progression order, from easiest to hardest, and from left to right. This logical structure encourages children to organize their thinking and 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, and is the way that the brain naturally processes information.

Some fun highlights from this week were the introduction of water transferring using a dropper. It’s a challenging work but children were so proud of themselves when they were able to make the dropper work and hear the sound of the water touching the silver bowl. The children named this work “Squeeze and Open” as they worked hard to coordinate their hand movement while repeating those words. 

The children also received a surprise this week! They were able to work their gross and fine motor skills while using chalk or brushes and painting with water on our new giant chalkboard.  They seem to love it so much! 

Children also enjoyed making pumpkin sun catchers and taking sunflower seeds out of a huge mammoth sunflower head, strengthening their pincer grip.  

Ms. Maria and I can’t wait to “see” you next week for our Parent- Teacher Conference through Zoom and to talk more in detail about your child’s progress. 

Enjoy the pictures,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria 

Exploring LatinX Culture through Art

Posted on by Sara Hall

The ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages includes five goal areas (the 5 C’s) upon which Spanish class is structured: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities. Coupled with proficiency guidelines, the goal, according to ACTFL, is to ensure that language learners can apply the skills measured by the standards to bring a global competence to their future and career experiences. All of our Spanish classes incorporate at least two of these goal areas each time we meet.   

During Hispanic Heritage Month, Lower and Upper Elementary students have been taking virtual journeys through a few Spanish-speaking countries. We used Google Earth to visit El Caminito in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina to explore the casas coloridas (colorful houses). In addition, we observed some images of Kuna women of Panama and replicated the mola designs, similar to the staple of their wardrobe. Finally, we explored the feeling of worry, where it comes from, and how we cope with it as we created our own version of Guatemalan worry dolls. Students were engaged in the process of planning and implementing lines and shapes into their casas coloridas, molas, and worry dolls, as they explored these elements of LatinX culture through connection and comparison.

The Science of Kindness

Posted on by Karen Sankey

“Let us treat them [children], therefore, with all the kindness which we would wish to help to develop in them.” -Maria Montessori

In Upper Elementary we put an intentional focus on recognizing acts of kindness. Being kind and witnessing others showing kindness creates several physiological changes in our bodies. We get a boost to our oxytocin levels – a hormone which helps us form social bonds and increases our trust in others. Our dopamine and serotonin levels also rise. These are neurotransmitters which, respectively, give us a euphoric feeling and help regulate our mood. Being kind to others also benefits us by increasing our self-esteem, empathy, and compassion. Upper El students are encouraged to record acts of kindness others extend to them or that they witness between their classmates throughout the day on Kindness Leaves. These leaves are collected throughout the week and on Friday they are read aloud to the class, recognizing the person who extended the act of kindness. The leaves will be displayed in our classroom throughout the year before they are brought home at the end of the year by the children.

In addition to individual lessons in math and spelling this week, the children participated enthusiastically in our small and large group lessons. In geometry, the fourths focused on identifying seven different types of angles and fifths learned to use a square as the measurer of a surface and worked on finding the area of rectangles. Our biology work this week was recording observations of the four experiments with roots from last week and we also learned about the upward flow of water in plants and root pressure. Our geography lesson on the Work of Air demonstrated that when hot air rises, cool air flows in. Ask your child to tell you about the experiment we did to demonstrate this concept. In language, fourth years continue their work with sentence analysis and identifying the elements in a sentence. Fifth years learned about adverbs of time, place, and manner. We enjoyed our book discussions and role sharing during Lit Circle. I was impressed with each student for remembering to complete their role sheets at home!

Middle School: Week in Review

Posted on by Michelle Lamb

It’s been a busy short week in Middle School! As a reminder, please have your child/children dress for the weather.  We will be going outside each day! 

Also, thank you for signing up for our virtual parent conferences on Thursday, 10/29 with your child’s/children’s advisor via Sign Up Genius. Students will prepare to lead a portion of the conference, so please keep this in mind when scheduling. We look forward to speaking with you!

Humanities

This week, 6th years continued their class read, Out of My Mind, having wonderful discussions about the characters and plot. They also began annotating and leading their own class book discussion. 6th year students also worked on descriptive writing this week, particularly with word choice, figurative language, and imagery. The 7th years finally finished presenting their Religions of China projects and began their unit about SubSaharan Africa. They worked on the geography of the large region by using a map to identify the countries and their capitals. We had discussions surrounding cultural perceptions of the regions and influences due to colonization. Students are beginning the memoir, A Gift From Childhood by Baba Wague Diakite. Finally, the 8th years studied Jamestown colony this week. This included information about the Virginia Colony, Powhatan Confederacy, tobacco, beginnings of socioeconomic groups, indentured servitude, and slavery in the early 1600s. All classes completed current events presentations this week.

Math

In Pre-Transition math class, students had a few days to study and prepare for the Chapter 2 Unit Test. They completed practice questions, played review games and quizzed each other on their knowledge of decimals, fractions, and percents. Students started to work through the first few lessons of Chapter 3 which discusses the addition property of opposites and adding mixed fractions together.
In Transition class, students are learning how to order and compare decimals and fractions using inequalities. Students can use the equal fraction property to rewrite fractions, use fractions to answer questions about real world situations, and identify decimals between rational numbers.
In Algebra class, students are learning about solving and checking for linear equations in the form ax+b=c, graphing solutions to a linear inequality problem on a number line and coordinate plane, as well as applying the addition and multiplication properties of equality and inequality. Students will be preparing for the Chapter 3 Unit Test next week and should allow the appropriate study time well in advance.
In Geometry class, students are learning how to draw and label major and minor arcs in a circle and semi circle, find the appropriate degree measured for an inscribed and central angle, as well as give justification for conclusions involving angles and line segments. This group of students is preparing to solve for proofs, and they have created a postulate and theorem book to keep track of all the important definitions needed to give their reasoning.
As a general reminder, students should check Google Classroom each day for posted assignments and supplementary videos to help reinforce the concepts taught in class.
Math Joke:
What is a math teacher’s favorite snake?…………A pi-thon

Science

6th year Earth Science students are currently working on creating a stop motion movie illustrating how tectonic plates shape our planet. The types of plate movements include transformation, divergent, and convergent. 7th year Physical Science students have conducted several lab activities in conjunction with their unit on States of Matter. Students determined how temperature relates to a water’s solubility level and how the speed of molecules relates to temperature. 8th year Life Science students are finishing their unit on “Structure of Life”. Students have conducted research, detailing how radio-pharmaceuticals and chemotherapy technology has advanced throughout the years in response to cancer.

Mrs. Hood’s Class: Pumpkin Guts!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

Maria Montessori believed that nothing comes into the mind except through the senses. During the early years, as children develop their senses, their attention is directed toward the environment. The purpose of the Sensorial activities is to help the child in their efforts to sort out the many varied impressions given by the senses. These activities are specifically planned to help the child develop discrimination, order, and to broaden and refine the senses. These experiences also help prepare them to be a logical, aware, and perceptive person.

As we started our pumpkin unit this week, children had the opportunity to explore the outside and inside of a pumpkin! Skin, pulp, strands, and seeds were new vocabulary words used to describe the parts of a pumpkin. We also talked about the texture, color, and temperature of the pumpkin. Cold, bumpy, and soft were adjectives we repeated over and over as well as naming the color orange.  They were so curious and amazed to find out what it was inside! Some of them expressed wonder, some of them didn’t know how to react, and some just demonstrated plain disgust. Some were so excited to explore by placing their hand all the way inside. Others touched the skin and seeds carefully and were quite skeptical. It was so interesting to observe the different responses from the children to this exercise!

Another highlight of this short week was our new pumpkin art work. Children love to draw designs on a pumpkin but the most fun part of it all was using the wet microfiber towel to erase and clean the pumpkin. It seemed that children really enjoyed seeing the pumpkin shining at the end of their work!

The favorite book this week was Itsy Bitsy Pumpkin by Sonali Fry and they really seemed to enjoy our new scarf dancing song: “Jiggle Your Scarf.” 

A big thanks to the Adler and Mooney family for the pumpkin donations!

Reminder: Parent- Teacher conferences are coming up. To maximize our 20 minutes together, we would greatly appreciate you emailing your questions to us prior to it. Please take some time to think about your questions, and send them to ahood@fraserwoods.com  by Wednesday, October 24th.

Best,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria

Mrs. Wilson: Exploring Sunflowers

Posted on by Cynthia Wilson

Wow! What a very busy week we have had. There were a lot of activities for the children to enjoy. We continued to explore a sunflower. Castle Hill Farm was so generous and donated a couple of sunflower heads to our class. Thank you to Miss Alison for picking them up for us. As we continued our sunflower exploration we talked about the parts of the sunflower and showed them how to pull the seeds out. We are using this activity as one of our outdoor lessons. By pulling the seeds the children are exercising their pincer grasp. We will have plenty of seeds to plant in the spring and to feed the birds. Another outdoor activity the children seemed to love was washing the farm animals. The children pumped soap onto a scrub brush and gave our farm animals a bath.

On Wednesday we presented a red apple for food tasting. We talked about how the apple grows on a tree and named the different parts of an apple. The children used the apple peeler to peel, slice, and core their own apples. It was hard work as they had to use their muscles to crank the handle. With lots of enthusiasm, the children waited patiently for their turn. We heard lots of “yummy”, “MMMMMMMM”, and it’s delicious! Next Wednesday we will taste a Granny Smith Apple.

Thank you to the Grant-Moore family for the beautiful flowers.

Have a beautiful weekend,
Mrs. Wilson and Ms. Sara