Blog

Mrs. Wilson: Bread Making

Posted on by Cynthia Wilson

The week started off with the children learning a new lesson. We added color circle dots and the whole set of our weighted balls to the movement area. The weighted balls gradate from lightest to heaviest. The children place the dots along the wall and carry each ball one at a time to the matching color starting with the lightest and ending with the heaviest. Some children continue this work by stacking the balls up starting with the heaviest and ending with the lightest. They then complete the lesson by putting them back onto the shelf.

We ended our week with baking vegan pumpkin bread. Each child had a chance to add the dry ingredients into the bowl and help stir in the wet ingredients. Then a couple of friends helped carry the uncooked bread to the oven. Next week we will gather together with the other toddler class and share one loaf of the delicious bread that we made. We will share the second loaf of bread with the rest of the FWM community.

Food tasting this week was acorn squash. The children got to feel, smell, and taste the squash. Most seemed to really enjoy this delicious vegetable and had seconds or thirds.

Enjoy the photos,
Mrs. Wilson, Miss. Sara, and Miss. Heather

Mrs. Hood’s Class: Thanksgiving Prep!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

As families across the U.S. are preparing for one of the biggest holidays of the year, our children have been preparing for the Thanksgiving festivities! This week we introduced the concept of color mixing to the children. Using coffee filters in the shape of maple leaves, children discovered that when mixing red and yellow we can create orange! Children were excited to see the water moving and creating new colors! There is tremendous joy that floods a child’s spirit when they discover a transformation happening in front of them. We love color mixing because it’s a process that helps to develop a love of learning. We can’t wait to discover new colors together!

We also had a great time baking our vegan banana bread. Children learned names of ingredients and had the opportunity to touch, smell, see, measure, and mix all the ingredients. We can’t wait to share the fruit of our work with other students in the FWM community at the sharing bread event in honor of Thanksgiving next week! We can’t wait as well to share a special time with our friends in the younger toddler room for our own Toddler Thanksgiving bash! It’s going to be epic! Stay tuned!

Middle School: Week in Review

Posted on by Michelle Lamb

We missed the 8th years most of this week, but we were excited to have many of them back on Friday to deliver our community’s food donation to the Women Involved in Newtown!

In Earth Science, 6th year students have been working on their Elaborate with STEM portion of the unit, Plate Tectonics. Questions students have been tasked in researching are, “What makes the soil near a volcano special?” and, “Why does California have so many earthquakes?”  Students did a great job presenting their research to the class. In Physical Science, 7th year students have been gathering data to determine the kinetic energy (KE) a marble has based on inclination. Students built ramps with various degrees of inclination and determined the velocity of the marble, leading to their discovery of its kinetic energy (KE).  KE = 1/2MV^2.

In Humanities, 6th year students completed drafts of their empathy writing and met with peers for review. This process helps students provide positive feedback and items to consider when giving their peers feedback. Then, they had writing conferences with Mrs. Lamb to finalize their free verse pieces. Finally, they completed a vocabulary section. In 7th year Humanities, students had writing conferences with Mrs. Lamb for their folktales and are now revising those pieces. They also began to learn about the Lost Boys of Sudan in preparation for reading A Long Walk to Water. They also watched a video about the cultural shift for some of the Lost Boys who came to the US and completed some reflective writing about this. It also lead to further discussion of the positive and negative aspects of what the experience might be like for immigrants and refugees coming into the U.S. from such different cultures. They also completed a section of vocabulary.

In Math class this week, the 6th and 7th graders worked on their respective courses to finish learning Chapter 4. In class, they talked about good study habits and how to best keep organized in math class. They also discussed the importance of going over any assignments/homework questions one final time before handing in a good copy, and to bring questions to class to get support from Ms. Sutherland. In the transition course, students covered topics such as classifying number systems and geometric shapes. In the pre-transition course, students covered topics such as understanding different kinds of angles, subtracting fractions without common denominators, and solving equations with fact triangles.
Math Joke:
Why couldn’t the angle get a loan? Because its parents would have to cosine.
An extra thank you to students for making Mrs. Lamb’s birthday so special with cards and flowers!

Process Art With First Year Students

Posted on by Jen Reid

First year students created an evolving art piece throughout three consecutive Art Studio classes. This project combined a range of materials and techniques, and exposed these young artists to many different thinking processes, possibilities, and experiences. It was an open-ended, process-based project in which the making and the doing was the main focus.

We began this artistic journey by painting colorful swatches of watercolor on a 12×18 inch piece of wood. Next, we divided up the wood board with strips of tape in various directions. This created new areas for the children to paint in using tempera paint and gave children the opportunity to practice color mixing. We then added three-dimensional elements such as wood shapes, wire, pipe cleaners, corks, beads, and more. During this step of the process, the level of creativity truly accelerated! I could hear the children talking amongst themselves about what their project was evolving into: a town, a city of lights, a playground, an imaginary planet, etc. 

This is where the magic in valuing the process over the end product comes to life! Process-oriented art honors the individual and values critical thinking, exploration, listening, and imagination. It allows the developmental process of each individual to flourish. Throughout the making process, children begin to trust themselves and remain flexible thinkers, which in turn builds confidence in their ideas. Each child grew to be more deeply invested in their creation because of the freedom to explore the materials in their own way.

Upper Elementary: New Pond Farm

Posted on by Brian Comstock

We had a great time on Tuesday visiting New Pond Farm in Redding, CT! The students learned about animal adaptations by observing live specimens and taxidermy mounts. These included a fox, turtle, tortoise, skunk, raccoon, beaver, snake, and groundhog. After lunch the students explored the outdoors. While on a short hike they learned about the types of rocks in CT and glacial formations that carved the land. The instructor made connections to historical storms in CT that caused erosion and how they had to construct a man-made wall to slow water flow around the farm. They ended the day doing some experiments about erosion. Both lessons were a perfect connection to our class studies about animals for zoology and erosion for our water studies.

Geometry Galore

Posted on by Ashley O'Connell

Geometry was a hot topic this week!

The first years worked on a lesson illustrating the concepts of point, line, surface, and solid. They enjoyed listening to a humorous story about the concepts, which were portrayed as sound effects. The purpose of this presentation is for the children to understand the concept of a solid, which is the foundation of their future geometry learning.

In addition, the second years were hard at work putting their Montessori protractor skills to the test. Before beginning the new lesson, as a review we had fun making different types of angles with our bodies (right, acute, obtuse). Next, the children learned how to measure the angles of acute, right, and obtuse triangles on the Montessori protractor. Some children discovered that all triangles are 180 degrees! How awesome!

Last but not least, the third years continued their study of polygons. They have learned about the region, vertex, side, perimeter, angle, base, and diagonal of the polygon. The children are in the process of concretely discovering how many diagonals can be formed in each polygon with five sides through ten sides using a class favorite – the box of sticks. They had a blast working with friends creating different polygons and exploring the diagonals with rubber bands.

We will be going on a field trip on Tuesday, December 10, to Stepping Stones Museum. The bus will be arriving at 9:00 and we will be back at school around 2:00. For this trip we are allowed to take three parent volunteers. We still have room for two more! If you would like to help chaperone, please email me.

Mrs. Lopes Class: Learning About North America

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

During these past couple of weeks the children have been immersed in learning more about the continent we live on, North America. At the beginning of this week we introduced the North America puzzle map. When using this lesson, children are taught to take one country out of the puzzle at a time and match it to the control map. The control map helps the child see where each country is located in the continent as well as help the child to independently put the puzzle back together. With the introduction of the North America puzzle map many children were interested in making their own maps! We have seen such focus and concentration while the children trace the countries, color their maps according to the colors on our puzzle maps, and then correctly label the individual countries using the control map.

The children also enjoyed our first in-house field trip of the year on Wednesday. We were excited to welcome a Native American storyteller who entertained with her legendary tales, teaching life lessons. We have enjoyed learning about the continent of North America this month and hope that your child has shared information with you.

During our study of North America, we have also been discussing the importance of Thanksgiving and the feeling of gratitude. We are looking forward to our bread making and Thanksgiving ceremony next week!

Best,

Amanda & Deanna

Mrs. Carroll’s Class: A Walk Around the Sun

Posted on by Cindy Carroll

Birthday celebrations are so special in a Montessori environment. For a child, one year is a significant amount of time relative to their life. As part of the Montessori tradition, we strive to celebrate birthdays in a way that is both meaningful and educational.

Our children in the primary environment celebrate birthdays with a tradition called “a walk around the sun.” A walk around the sun can be different from school to school, but typically begins by lighting a candle representing the sun in the middle of our class circle. Labels for each month of the year are laid out around the candle. The teacher and class form a circle around the candle and the birthday child walks around the “sun” once for each year of their life, holding an Earth globe. We encourage parents to share a milestone from each year of their child’s life during their walk around the sun.

After the walk has been completed, the birthday child is invited to share photos and/or special items from their past, and share a special birthday snack with classmates. Classmates may take this time to have a special question-and-answer session with the birthday child. Students gather to ask questions and learn more about what makes that student so special.

The Montessori Birthday Walk is more than just a birthday celebration, it’s a Celebration of Life, a lesson in science, astronomy, and grace, and a community building experience for the entire class.

The children enjoyed our first in-house field trip of the year on Wednesday. We were excited to welcome a Native American storyteller who entertained with her legendary tales, teaching life lessons. We have enjoyed learning about the continent of North America this month and hope that your child has shared information with you.

Looking forward to our bread making and Thanksgiving ceremony next week!

Nvwatohiyada (Cherokee word for peace),

Cindy & Sharlene