Blog

Spring, Is That You?

Posted on by Ashley O'Connell

After a very cold, and snowy winter, we are all thrilled to see some signs of spring this week. On Friday, we even ate lunch outside!

The importance of being outdoors is often overlooked, but is actually an essential part of the development of the whole child. Children need to learn how to work together, in unstructured settings. Being outside is a great chance for children to engage in imaginative play, learn how to share and cooperate, and learn appropriate ways to treat other people. In addition to the socialization benefits of being outdoors, it is a great way to foster children’s innate appreciate of nature. If a child grows up never walking in the woods, seeing animals in their natural habitat, digging in dirt, or playing in a stream, they may never really understand what there is to be lost. Since the future of our planet, Mother Earth, depends on our children, I think it is so important for them to learn to appreciate it.

Have a fabulous spring break!

Mrs. Lopes’s Class: Our Class Rocks!

Posted on by Amanda Lopes


“The land is where our roots are. The children must be taught to feel and live in harmony with the Earth.” -Maria Montessori

Have you ever noticed your child’s fascination with rocks found outside on the ground?  We have observed after playing outside on the playground some of the children will return to the classroom with pockets full of rocks as if they are treasures. You can imagine the children’s excitement when they learned that our new science unit for this week was the study of rocks!  We discussed the three main types of rocks – igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic, as well as how these rocks are formed on Earth. We added several new rock lessons to our environment, but the group favorite was a basket full of rocks with a magnifying glass.  The children enjoyed examining and classifying each of the rocks in this lesson.

Wishing you all a relaxing and peaceful Spring Break!  We look forward to returning to school in a new season, with the excitement and energy that comes in the last few months of the school year!

Peace and love,

Amanda & Sharlene

 

Mrs. Wilson: The Magic of Mouse Paint

Posted on by Cynthia Wilson

What happens when three white mice discover three jars of red, yellow, and blue paint? You get children witnessing the magic of color mixing.

It is one thing to read a story so they can hear the idea of color mixing, but it is another to actually see the book come to life. Mouse Paint by Ellen Walsh is about three white mice that find three jars of paint in primary colors. As the mice experiment with the paint on their bodies and the puddles of paint dripped on the floor they learn that by mixing two primary colors they get a secondary color.
The first few days the children watched while listening to the story. They then had the opportunity to mix the two colors of their choice and create their own little mouse paint. As they mixed, they chanted, “Mix and stir, stir and mix, and do a little dance.”

So if you see colored cotton balls come home, ask your child about it. See if they can tell you what colors they used to make the mouse/mice.

We also did a traveling water science experiment using paper towels and 6 cups of water. We added food coloring to the 1st, 3rd, and 5th cup, then placed one end of a paper towel into one cup and the other end to the next cup, repeating with the rest of the cups. While we waited, we started to see the red-colored water crawl up the paper towel and mix with the next. As the colored-water was being absorbed, they mixed together and our final result was a rainbow-colored paper towel.

Maybe over break, you can do some of these fun experiments together, but whatever you do have lots of fun and we will see you in two weeks.

Happy Birthday!

Mrs. Wilson and Ms. Sara

Mrs. Doyle’s Class: Fun Five Senses

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

First the education of the senses, then the education of the intellect—Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori believed there is a sensitive period for a child’s development of their 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.

This week we are beginning our study on the five senses.  What better way to teach this than to use popcorn? Popcorn is a multi-sensory snack as it incorporates all five of our senses. It might just be our most appetizing science unit yet! Did you ever notice that when you make popcorn, somehow the entire family knows about it and shows up to have some of this favorite treat?

We begin by discussing what our five senses are and how we use different body parts to learn about things in our environment. For example, our noses are for smelling, ears are for listening, eyes are for seeing, hands are for touching, and our tongue is for tasting.  We learned that sometimes we use more than one sense at a time.

Next, each child had the opportunity to handle popcorn kernels to make observations of what they see, smell, and feel.  We record all of our observations as we are going along. Finally, we use an air popper to pop some popcorn.  Now we can include our observations about hearing and tasting as well.

Wishing you all peace and love.

Michelle & Lizette

Happy March Break!

Posted on by Karen Sankey

We had a busy and fun last week before spring break while enjoying this beautiful weather. We were able to eat lunch outside twice and had our chapter book read aloud in the Zen garden one day.

At the beginning of the week, we did some small group grammar work with fourths learning about singular, plural, and possessive nouns and fifths focusing on regular and irregular verbs and verbs that show past, present, and future tense. In geometry the fourth years had their introductory lesson on area and fifth years learned three ways to find the area of a regular polygon. Our large group biology lesson on the vital functions of plants focused on defenses plants have against animals and weather. In geography we did a group experiment; creating a simple convection current by heating one end of a tub of room temperature water and cooling the other. We added red food dye to the hot end and blue to the cold end and watched as the blue dye dove down and crept along the bottom of the tub toward the hot and the red floated across the surface towards the cold. Some students requested directions and brought them home to try this experiment with their families. In literature circle we decided that it was time to experience some new roles and everyone was very excited about the ones we added. The new roles are: Illustrator, Word Finder, Setting Selector, Connector,  Character Captain, and Discussion Director. Descriptions of the roles and directions for completing them are attached to the assignment on the HUB.

Finally, it was wonderful to spend part of our last day before break making sandwiches for St. Vincent DePaul Mission. Everyone was excited to give their time to help others. Thank you so much to all of you who helped by donating the items needed for this great work!

I hope you all have a wonderful two weeks with your beautiful children!

 

Middle School: Week in Review

Posted on by msutherland
We can’t believe it’s already the first week of March and only one more week before spring break. With spring weather coming, we are still asking that students are mindful of their clothing: layers for colder weather and with the warmer weather, shirts and shorts that are appropriate in length. Thank you!

Humanities

This week is Week 1 of playwriting for the MS play! This week, all students developed their characters and wrote the first three scenes. We have a goal of finishing the play before spring break and look forward to a Covid-friendly immersion experience once we return from Spring Break. More to come about the process and product in next week’s blog!
Meanwhile, 6th graders are finishing up with their class novel, The Egypt Game, and the 7th graders are finishing the memoir, Four Perfect Pebbles. 8th grade students are busy with their expert project, with several students conducting expert interviews.
Science

6th year Earth Science students are currently learning about Natural Resources. As part of this unit, students will identify what a natural resource is, where they come from, and what the differences are between renewable and nonrenewable fossil fuels. Students have just presented their research on what products are most environmentally friendly, recycled or bamboo based products.

7th year students tested their knowledge and taste buds, enjoying banana pancakes as part of our unit “Heat and Temperature.” Besides enjoying the pancakes, students were asked to reflect how energy was transferred to the skillet in addition to the heat to pancakes. Students were able to explain the transfer of heat through conduction from the skillet to the batter which speeds up the molecules within the batter to spread apart, solidifying a perfect pancake.
8th year Life Science students were able to demonstrate the 25′-30′ journey of food through the digestive system. Modeling this system required students to simulate the mechanical breakdown of food in the mouth by tearing apart small pieces of bread, accompanied by the addition of juices and beans. These items were then mixed thoroughly in a sealed bag (stomach) and poured into a nylon stocking (intestines). Despite the squeamish nature of students during this activity, they were able to identify portions of the system in which enzymes in our body assist in the breakdown and potential absorption of energy from the food we ingest before its exit.
Math
In Pre-Transition class, students concluded their study of Chapter 7. We participated in a scavenger hunt review game to go over key concepts of division properties. Students learned about dividing positive and negative numbers, using fact triangles to solve for missing values, and practicing dividing decimals without a calculator.
In Transition class, students also concluded their study of Chapter 6. We reviewed concepts such as properties of parallelograms, the Triangle sum theorem, and calculating distances between two points. This class made helpful review questions for each other and supported their peers with a team teaching activity.
In Algebra class, students are excited to continue their learning of exponent properties. This class has a successful  understanding of simplifying square roots and cube roots, calculating distance on a coordinate grid, and rewriting powers of products and quotients. This class will have the Chapter 8 Unit Test on Tuesday, March 9th.
In Geometry class, students are able to build their understanding of knowing properties for various types of triangles and regular polygons. This class can identify rotational symmetry, isosceles trapezoids vs regular trapezoids, as well as finding missing side lengths and angles in a given shape.
Math Joke: Why was the equal sign so humble?…………….He knew he wasn’t less than or greater than anyone else.

Fun with Pickleball in PE Class!

Posted on by Pam Pascarella

Students in grades 1st through 8th participated in a Pickleball unit.  What is Pickleball?  Pickleball is a paddle sport played with a whiffle ball on a badminton-sized court with a tennis-style net.  Pickleball is enjoyed by people of all ages and athletic abilities.  In some ways it’s a combination of tennis and badminton, and goes along with sports such as table tennis and racquetball.

Pickleball is played in thousands of school P.E. programs, parks and recreation centers, camps, YMCA’s and retirement communities. This sport is becoming very popular among active senior adults at community centers and is growing in popularity on high school and college campuses.  Pickleball was created during the summer of 1965 in Seattle, WA.  The original purpose of the game was to provide a sport for the entire family.  Pickles, the family dog would chase after the whiffle balls and then hide in the bushes. The founder suggests that Pickles’ ball was later shortened to Pickleball.

During our Pickleball unit, students practiced and participated in demonstrating the proper serve, forehand drive, backhand drive, and abided by rules of fair play.  Pickleball helps improve agility, balance, reaction time, and hand-eye coordination.  At the end of the unit, students participated in a singles and doubles Pickleball tournament.  For the younger grades, students had a choice to use a balloon for more success during the game.

Goodbye February – Welcome March

Posted on by Gina Tryforos

“We cannot create observers by saying ‘observe,’ but by giving them the power and the means for this observation and these means are procured through education of the senses.” ~Maria Montessori

As March begins, it seems that a new month has never been as welcome as these cold and snowy winter days are behind us now. We are all looking forward to the first crocus bulbs – “The Ice Breakers of Spring” peeping through the earth and a break to the warmer temperatures!

Children love the outdoors and should be encouraged to explore all nature has to offer them.  Flowers, bugs, gardening, butterflies, and more!  In our Montessori classrooms, activities for springtime encourage your child to explore, to probe, to discover, to learn, to create, and to respect.

Some of the lessons, activities, and works your child experiences in the classroom can be carried over to home as well.

Rainbows

Spring is a wonderful time to talk about rainbows. Spend time searching for rainbows after rainstorms, and consider getting a prism like the one in your child’s classroom to let your child explore rainbows even on sunny days. Enjoy recognizing the order of the colors.

Daily weather report

Each day during morning meeting, one of our students observes what they see outside and they give the class a daily weather report.  You might supply your child with some drawing paper in a booklet and encourage them to draw or paint the weather each day and see how it changes over time.

Study butterflies

Children are clearly fascinated by butterflies and spring is a great time to study them. You can simply read a book or two with your child.  In some of our classes, your child will observe the transformation from caterpillar to a butterfly with a live butterfly kit which will be set up in the classroom.

Create a nature table

One of the favorite works in the classroom is the nature table. At home, you can designate a space such as a small table or even a tray or basket, and allow your child to collect interesting things they find in nature. Include a magnifying glass!

There are so many children’s books about Spring.  Here is a link to a list of 25 Montessori Friendly Books for Spring!