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What is Pickleball?

Posted on by Pam Pascarella

 

What is Pickleball?

Pickleball is a paddle sport played with a whiffle ball on a badminton-sized court and 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 Pickle’s ball was later shortened to Pickleball.

During our Elementary 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.

Tinkering, Making, Engineering

Posted on by Danielle Ulacco

Over the past year you may have noticed these three terms being used throughout my presentations, blog posts, or plain conversation. Here is a breakdown of what they mean:

Tinkering: using stuff

Making: using stuff to make stuff (that sometimes does stuff, but sometimes is just cool!)

Engineering: is using stuff to make stuff that does stuff

 

When children tinker, they are learning about the properties of materials and the capabilities of tools. They are developing their fine motor skills as well. Tinkering often leads to making something, and it is absolutely the foundation to more complex making, technology, and engineering. Learning how to manipulate tools, understand the properties of materials, and identify unique solutions to problems is at the core of all making and engineering. Helping children develop these skills through tinkering is truly the best place to start!

Mrs. Doyle’s Class: Becoming A Peace-Seeker

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

 

“The child is both a hope and a promise for mankind.”——-Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori believed strongly in the importance of guiding children to become ‘peace-seekers.’  As Montessori teachers, we deeply understand that it is not enough to just talk about peace.  We are also charged with creating an environment that is peaceful and provides opportunities for all children to both recognize and feel peace.

Some components  of peace education are inherently woven into a Montessori education.  Our studies of different continents, cultures and people begin to develop a global awareness in children of all ages. We are learning that all living creatures have an inherent value and are interconnected.

In our classroom, we also have a peace table.   The purpose of our peace table is to provide an inviting space for the children.   This can be a place to spend some quiet time or even to learn to recognize and eventually understand what emotions they are feeling. The peace table is also used to help facilitate positive conflict resolution when needed. Our end goal is to help children understand not only the how but the why of peace. The children are free to spend time here, whenever they choose.  

Wishing you all a place where you can go to find and feel peace.

Michelle & Sonja

Mrs. Carroll’s Class: Sewing The Seeds of Empathy

Posted on by Cindy Carroll

 

So in the child, besides the vital impulse to create himself, and to become perfect, there must yet another purpose, a duty to fulfill in harmony, something he has to do in the service of a united whole. ~ Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind

 

Maria Montessori believed that children are the key to peace and empathy among humanity. This important belief is a foundation in our Montessori classrooms beginning with practical life lessons and continuing throughout childhood and beyond. I’d like to share how a “simple” lesson can provide the mechanism from which children in the classroom learn, practice and express their empathy and love for their community.

Flower arranging work has a more important indirect aim than simply admiring nature’s work of art.  It is an opportunity for little hands to contribute to the beautification of the environment.  It is a tender moment when a young heart lays down a symbol of friendship, love and peace on a table for someone else to enjoy. It is a brief yet integral step outside of oneself and one’s own needs. -The CHILD centered Blog

Flower arranging is only one of many classrooms works and activities sewing the seeds of compassion and empathy in your children.  Please remember compassion in your homes help your children do the same.

Have a peaceful week,

Cindy & Sharleen

 

Spring has Sprung!

Posted on by Stephanie Thomas

The children returned to their normal routines with excitement this week!

Thanks to the milder weather, the children have enjoyed an abundance of outdoor play in the beautiful spring air.

Along with time on the field and playground, the children have been exploring new works in our environment. Our “Loud/Quiet Eggs” have been a big hit as the children love to shake twelve different plastic eggs and sort the loud eggs (filled with rice) from the quiet eggs (empty).

Another popular item is the ice cream scooping work. Kinectic sand is scooped from a bowl into a plastic ice cream cone. Many children worked between 20 and 60 minutes long with this activity! Needless to say, we will be purchasing more kinetic sand for our environment. 🙂

Lower Elementary: It’s Good to Be Back

Posted on by Karen Sankey

This time of year, after March Break is over and our play preparations have begun, is so energizing for all of us! We have begun our mornings with our Upper Elementary friends. The children are immersing themselves in learning the songs for Seussical the Musical and their sweet voices can be heard singing during work cycle, in the hallway on the way to enrichment classes, during dismissal, and many times in between. We will be sending out an email this coming week with a list of props needed and what your children will need from home for their costumes. We will also be looking for parent volunteers to help with the organization of props and costumes.

We wrapped up our Writer’s Workshop unit on nonfiction and began our new unit this week. First year students will be writing fiction, second years – poetry, and third years will be writing fairy tales. We began with everyone writing a fiction story and having the opportunity to share the story with the class. We are all very excited about our new units.

Each grade level also had lessons this week in biology and geometry.

In biology, first and second year students learned about reptiles. Firsts focused on the parts of reptiles and seconds on the body functions. The first year students enjoyed holding our class pet, Rocky, and observing and discussing her body parts. Third year students learned about ferns. We took a walk into the woods to find and dig up a fern to look at with a magnifying glass. We were pleased to be able to see all of the different parts, even the tiny sori on the underside of the leaves, which make the spores.

In geometry, the firsts learned about simple closed curved regions and polygons. They enjoyed using the box of sticks to make their own polygons. The seconds wrapped up their lessons about two lines on the same plane crossed by a third line by learning about corresponding angles. The third year students used the box of sticks to learn about the differences between regular and irregular polygons. They enjoyed collaborating with each other to make a polygon design after their lesson was over.

Ms. Kayser’s Class: What’s up Doc?

Posted on by skayser

 

 

In order to get in the spirit of spring before we left for break, the children got to get down and dirty in the classroom! As a class project for the next few months, we are going to be observing carrot seeds grow first hand through the glass of an old fish tank! Along with watching the actual carrot grow underground, we are going to spend an ample amount of time learning about how  plants grow and survive.

The class worked together to fill up our fish tank and then watering the soil to make sure it was ready for the seeds. After lunch we sat down together and talked about how there are different variety of carrots and looked at four different kinds. The children’s curiosity was really sparked when they saw that all the seeds looked the same, even though they produced different variations of carrots. As a surprise, I kept the most exciting variation until last… kaleidoscope carrots! These carrots grow in four different colors: white, purple, yellow, orange and red! Of course, the children chose this packet of seeds to plant in our fish tank. This did lend itself to great scientific discussion and exploration, though! Each child got to plant a seed and hypothesize about what color carrot was going to grow. We wrote down each of our guesses on the tank to help us remember while the kindergarten students went to work on a fun project of their own!

Each kindergarten students got to write the name of one color on a piece of paper. They helped us to make copies of them and then handed out a copy to each student of the color they had chosen. The younger students got to write their initials on the paper and we all delivered them to Ms. Ulacco in the MakerSpace. This is when the magic truly happened! Ms. Ulacco was able to use the GlowForge to engrave each child a personalized wooden sign with their carrot color choice and initials.

As spring break passed, the carrots sprouted! The children came in eager to see what had happened to them over break and were delighted to see tiny green sprouts sticking out from the dirt. That day, Ms. Ulacco delivered our newly engraved signs and we stuck them into the dirt to mark each carrot. Now, we sit and wait until we can begin to see the carrots growing beneath the dirt!

All the best,

Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli

Mrs. Hood’s class: New Season, New Hope!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

 

 

 

 “Spring’s greatest joy beyond a doubt is when it brings the children out.” ~ Edgar Guest
Welcome back Dear Families:
Please enjoy these thoughts from Wildflower Ramblings:
These cold winter days are hopefully coming to a swift close, and we look forward to the days when the flowers begin to bloom – the crocus and bulbs first, and then are beautiful perennials and annual flowers.  Children love the outdoors and should be encouraged to explore all that world has to offer. Flowers, bugs, gardening, butterflies, oh the joy!
“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