Blog

Drone Acquisition 2020

Posted on by Danielle Ulacco

 

Over winter break last year, I set out to add a new dimension of learning to our MakerSpace: “Aerodynamics and Coding of Quadcopter Drones.” Our students are introduced to coding concepts and programming language in their kindergarten classes here at Fraser Woods. They also gain valuable experience with a variety of tools and robots that we already have in our MakerSpace. With the addition of drones, Upper Elementary and Middle School students will learn to write programs to further bridge the gap from their digital world to the physical world. This program was designed to coincide with our Middle School STEAM program to  further reinforce STEAM skills in geometry, art, math, and science.

Learning, Programming, and Coding is one thing – but I have also been interested in the idea of competitions. When looking into hosting one or participating in one, I was met with no options within driving distance. I was shocked to learn that nothing like this exists in Connecticut.

I reached out to several professionals in the nation and heard back from a promising partner: ROAV Copters, based in Utah, Dr Gary Stewardson. Gary is an Associate Professor of Technology and Engineering Education in the School of Applied Sciences, Technology, and Education at Utah State University. Here is a preview of what he is doing. I am hoping to bring this first-of-its-kind experience to Fraser Woods, and our incredible student learners.

If you are interested in helping, volunteering, or supporting this endeavor in any way, please reach out to me!

By the numbers: “The 2019 Boeing Pilot and Technician Outlook predicts that the world will need 804,000 new civil aviation pilots and 769,000 new maintenance technicians over the next 20 years.”

Middle School: Fun Friday!

Posted on by Michelle Lamb

With the changing elements of Middle School this year, one that we haven’t highlighted yet is Fun Friday. With cohorts, it became a challenge to figure out how to run elective period that used to take place during one of the afternoon periods about once a week. Fun Friday is a time that the MS teachers designed to incorporate community among middle school students, while still remaining in cohorts, and having a fun activity unrelated to academics.

The activities planned for Fun Fridays have varied. The first week, students played Pictionary and Charades with topics that were designed uniquely for the Middle School. The second Friday, students relaxed and completed beautiful leaf rubs. The 3rd through 6th Fridays, students participated in an egg drop. The object was to design and build a vessel that could keep a raw egg intact once dropped from the roof of the school using only the materials provided in their materials bag: paper bag, plastic bag, rubber bands, pipe cleaners, empty paper towel tube, balloon, ribbon, bubble wrap, cardboard, popsicle sticks, and tape. Students designed during the first week, built during weeks two and three, and then dropped on the fourth Friday of the project.

All have looked forward to being outside together, but separately, during our Fun Friday activities. We look forward to our future Friday afternoons together!

Where Literacy Begins

Posted on by Gina Tryforos

Dear Parents,

Reading and writing can be easily taken for granted by adults who have mastered the skills. From a child’s point of view these tasks may seem insurmountable. Literacy is a complex and integrative process. Literacy involves the association of symbols with sounds, sounds with words, and words with ideas. The best part of my job is when I get to spend time in all of the classrooms here at Fraser Woods. Each and every time I am reminded of the phrase “in Montessori, we follow the child”. This week, while I visited a Primary classroom, I was fortunate to witness the wonder of one of our four-year-old children reading a book for the very first time, completely independently. He was sitting with his teacher, confident and resolute in his task. His teacher was there to listen and to guide. The quiet love and respect that exuded from the teacher was all the child needed to apply the strategies she had taught him to be able to decode the word, blend the sounds, and read the story. You could see that the child’s sense of accomplishment was truly a moment of joy for this young learner.

 

“The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, “The children are now working as if I did not exist.”

― Maria Montessori

Working Together

Posted on by Karen Sankey

We used our time well during this short week and were joyfully busy! In geometry, fourth year students continued their work with classifying plane figures according to sides and angles and fifth years learned about equivalence of regular polygons and rectangles. For our biology lesson on vital functions of plants this week, we learned about the nitrogen cycle and how nitrogen is fixed so it can be used by plants and animals. As part of this lesson, we learned about the composition of air and that nitrogen makes up 78% of the air in our atmosphere. In our geography lesson on the work of air, we learned that air rises when it is heated. The children learned to make a paper spiral and suspend it over a heat source. They were able to see that the rising heat makes the spiral spin.

We had our first Literature Circle meetings this week and the children received their first role assignments. The role assignments are: reader, vocabulary enricher, illustrator, summarizer, passage master, and character captain. The children will get a different role each week, working their way through all six. They will be completing these assignments at school this first time while they are still learning how to do this new work. We are all excited to start this process!

The topic of our community meeting this week was playground safety. In our community meetings we are learning to state the problem as a question. This week our question was, “How do we stay safe when playing football on the playground?” After stating the question, we brainstormed ideas, solutions, and answers. Each child was given a turn to speak without being interrupted and each idea was recorded for the class to see. After brainstorming, we discussed the ideas and the children asked clarifying questions about some of the suggestions. We then categorized the ideas into logical groupings and voted on the solutions to our problem. The children did a great job speaking and listening and showed great respect for one another during our community meeting. We’ll follow this same format each week, learning to problem solve problems that are real and matter to the members of the class.

Mrs. Doyle’s Class: More Than a Mat

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

The love of one’s environment is the secret of social evolution. -Maria Montessori

Retrieving a mat, picking it up carefully, finding the ideal space to work, and rolling it out provides an opportunity to practice gross motor skills and body consciousness. Everything that gets placed on the mat thereafter becomes the responsibility and privilege of the child working on that mat.

Montessori work mats delineate a work space as the child’s own and sets an intention to “work.”  Not only does the child know that their lesson is exclusive to them, they also have the responsibility to put their materials away when they are finished, before they roll up their mat and signal the end of their work session. This small rug actually helps to define a child’s work space and develop a child’s sense of order.

Our floors have been a sea of rugs! Your children are skillfully maneuvering themselves throughout the environment, careful not to disturb a friend’s work. We continue to be amazed at their growing control and respect for both friends and the environment.

Wishing you a peaceful week!

Michelle & Lizette

Mrs. Lopes’s Class: Welcome Fall

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

 

A chill to the air, the first fire in the fireplace, the smell of pumpkin spice. It’s finally fall!

This week your children experienced autumn, not just as a date on the calendar, but as an opportunity to use our sense of smell to really savor the season. The smells of cooking applesauce, spices, and newly fallen leaves brought smiles and created lasting memories.

Maria Montessori believed there is a sensitive period for developing the senses. Although the senses are an integral part of our lives, children during the early years have the greatest potential to develop and retrieve them. It is precisely this idea that demonstrates the purpose of Sensorial materials in the Montessori classroom. The Sensorial materials are powerful tools, which allow children to become aware of their unconscious impressions and bring these impressions into conscious awareness. Additionally, they enable your children to create a basis of order in their mind, allowing for intelligent exploration of their environment.

Wishing you a wonderful week,

Mrs. Lopes and Mrs. Sharlene

Mindfulness in the Classroom

Posted on by Ashley O'Connell

Each morning we start off our day with mindful meditation. Mindfulness meditation is something I love to do with the children because it teaches them to slow down, notice how their bodies are feeling at that exact moment, and to focus on their breathing. We often assume breathing is just a natural skill; everyone knows how to inhale and exhale. But breathing is more than that. Being aware of our breath not only helps us manage the difficulties of everyday life, it also helps develop compassion, empathy, and concentration. This is an exercise where children practice focusing on the present, instead of worrying about the past and uncertainties of the future. It helps us become aware of how we feel at a given moment.

Our Lower Elementary classroom consists of students who love to work collaboratively and individually. There are many benefits to collaborative work. Working with a friend teaches children patience, respect for another’s strengths and challenges, and the give and take while compromising during collaboration. One of the beauties of work cycle is that different types of work go on simultaneously. Children can be working on a variety of language, math, geometry, cultural, and spelling work. This is a supportive classroom community of learners!

Mrs. Hood’s Class: Fall is Here!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

Fall is here everybody! As the season changes and temperatures start to drop slowly, this week we introduced one of the most delicious seasonal fruits, the apple! There are new works in all areas of the environment that expose your children to the characteristics of this great fruit.  

Next week we will be dissecting apples together and enjoying an individual yummy snack. To be able to do this activity and still follow the COVID safety guidelines, we will ask that each child bring one big whole apple on Tuesday, October 6th.  Please place it inside a resealable bag with your child’s name on it.   

In the practical life area we added a great fundamental lesson, water transfer. To make it even more interesting we used a sea wool sponge for transferring. As basic as it sounds, this was one of the most popular activities of the week. The “magic” of watching the water disappear and get inside the sponge is fun but it’s even more fun when suddenly you squeeze the sponge and all the vanished water comes out. Children received two new vocabulary words when observing the bowls used for the transferring. They like to repeat them over and over: empty and full. At the end of the activity they were encouraged to look for spills and wipe up all the spills with a towel. 

Practical life activities present themselves as a highly logical, sequential chain of activities that indirectly lead the child to grander things. They are the most important activities for toddlers! Activities for care of the environment are both fun and great for developing order, concentration, coordination, and independence.

Other highlights of the week were the introduction to our new song, “Way Up High in the Apple Tree,” where children practiced the numbers one through five using their hands. In Spanish, children are now familiar with the terms: agua – water, vámonos -let’s go, and numbers from one to ten – uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez. 

As the weekend approaches, we encourage you to enjoy the sunshine and the beautiful weather and visit an apple farm with your little one. It will be a great experience for them during the continuation of our apple studies.

Happy weekend,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria