Although it was a shorter school week, it was nice to get back to our regular routine after all of the Research Morning preparations. On Wednesday, the students enjoyed decorating Valentine’s bags and sharing Valentines with each other. Thank you to the families that sent in treats and supplies for our Valentine’s celebration. Lessons resumed after our long weekend break and we visited the Eli Whitney Museum. The students learned about force and angles as they designed their own pinball machines to take home. As you can see from the pictures they each came up with a unique design concept. This experience was a good starting point as we will explore inventions for the spring Science Fair. One final “thank you” to everyone for the thoughtful cards, beautiful flowers, and Red Sox t-shirt for my birthday! I always enjoy the hand made cards from the children.
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Kindergarten Artist & Geologists!
In Art class this week, Kindergarten students were both artist and geologists! In connection to their studies of Rocks and Minerals in their classrooms this month, we explored this subject by creating a unique rock art piece using colored sand. First, we sat in a circle and looked closely at various rocks using a magnifying glass. We each shared one thing we notice in our rocks: lines, sparkles, tiny shapes, dots, textures, and more! We then discussed how all rocks are made of a mix of ingredients called minerals. Just as a batter of flour, butter, and sugar makes a cookie, a batter of minerals makes a rock! Next, students drew an outline of their rock and drew layers inside using crayon. Lastly, they filled in each layers with colored sand to represent different minerals. Next class we will be adding metallic paints to these already beautiful works of art to represent yet another layer of minerals.
Middle School: Week in Review
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- Writing dialogue for the play
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- Writing dialogue for the play
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- Plot & scene breakdown for play
It’s been a fun week as we progress in our writing of the Middle School Play! While we have had the plot figured out, adding characters with fun personalities and writing dialogue has been exciting. The biggest challenge is threading important pieces of the plot through the scenes in order to keep the play’s intended focus. Costuming and props are also being designed and decided. We can’t wait to share it with you in two weeks!
In addition to play writing, sixth year Earth Science students began their unit on earthquakes. Students used compasses and protractors to locate the epicenter of earthquakes. In seventh year Physical Science, students are discovering differences and similarities between speed and velocity. Eighth year Earth Science students were able to test their water turbines concluding their unit on natural resources.
Math classes moved along this week as well. The sixth years are continuing their geometry unit. This week, in addition to expanding their understanding of congruency, they learned about the area of polygons. This unit includes their ability to estimate and find the actual area of a polygon. The seventh years continued to work with linear functions. They have worked with slope and how to graph and write equations using the slope-intercept form. Shortly, the class will be introduced to direct variation and will learn to fit lines to data. The eighth years expanded their knowledge of exponents and their properties. They worked with powers with the same base, powers of powers, and powers of products. Included in their unit are negative exponents and rewriting solutions that necessitate changing negative exponents to positive exponents.
Next week will prove to be exciting as we transition to immersion for the week’s end! Stay tuned!
Kindergarten Builders
As Kindergarten moves on from learning coding and programming in our MakerSpace they dive deep into the realm of building. Building in the MakerSpace isn’t just stacking or connecting, it is about communicating, collaborating, and critical thinking. Every day our MakerSpace helps facilitate every day life skills in our students.
Once students are familiar with the materials and understand how to use them, their imaginations will truly be unleashed. We will then move into sketching and drafting our ideas in our heads before we move onto building: an important segway into the design thinking process.
As I watch these little engineers encourage one another throughout their work, it’s easy to notice that this space is truly magical and inspirational to each of them.
Physical Education: Lower Elementary Gymnastics!
The Lower Elementary students participated in a gymnastics unit in which they experienced transfer of body weight through floor skills. Students experienced the following apparatus: gymnastic mats for an obstacle course, a balance beam, and vaulted springboard. They also participated in pyramid building and single balances. A human pyramid is a formation of three or more people in which two or more support a tier of higher people. For practical reasons, lighter people are often positioned higher while stronger/heavier people are located closer to the base.
Students also practiced jumping off a vaulted springboard. Vaulting in gymnastics requires coordination combining running, jumping and squatting. Students practiced jumping and landing with two feet onto the mats. The jumps practiced were: straight, straddle, and tuck. Students learned that strength, flexibility, and balance they gained from gymnastics will transfer easily to every other sport they may want to pursue. The skills learned will help them achieve success in other areas.
Thoughts on Parent Conferences in a Montessori School
Here is an excerpt from Montessori Musings, a blog post written by Alex Chiu at The Montessori Children’s Academy Family of Schools and Services:
Parent/Teacher Conferences are a wonderful opportunity to learn about what a typical day at school is like for your child, develop stronger connections with your child’s teacher, and gain insights into your child’s development. By participating in these conferences, you are showing your child that you are interested in what happens at school. You also are modeling the importance of open communication, and you are building the bridge between home and school to promote your child’s success as a student.
For parents with children in school for the first time, we’ve gathered some information to help you prepare for your first Parent/Teacher Conference. For ‘veteran’ parents, these reminders may help you get the most out of your conferences this year.
At your conference, you can expect to learn about your child’s:
- Recent academic progress.
- Behavioral development as observed by the teacher since September.
- Social interactions and development in the classroom.
- Strengths and challenges within the classroom.
During the conference, you can help your child’s teacher learn more about your child by:
- Describing your child’s attitude towards school.
- Sharing anything that currently may be impacting your child’s academic or social progress (e.g., family illness, move to a new home, other family changes or potential stressors).
- Discussing what you see as your child’s strengths and challenges.
- Providing information about any special interests/activities your child has outside of school, so as to help your child’s teacher get to know a little more about your child.
What parents can do to prepare for and help facilitate a smooth conference:
- Bring a list of questions you may have or topics you would like to discuss, keeping in mind the time allotted for your conference. Prioritize your list.
- Ask your child if there is anything he or she would like to discuss with the teacher and share his or her comments with the teacher.
- Come prepared to listen and take notes.
- Ask to see samples of your child’s work or which Montessori materials he or she has been using.
- Ask what you can do at home to help your child with academic, social, and emotional development. Inquire if the teacher has any community references that may be helpful to your family.
- Be respectful of the time. If you have more questions than time allows for, do ask for a follow-up meeting at a later date. Communication with your child’s teacher can and should continue beyond the conference as needed.
Unlimbited
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- First Headquarters!
This year I’ve shared many 3D printing stories from around the world. This one is especially heart warming. Introducing Team Umlimbited: a self-funded project that gives children with disabilities around the world 3D printed arms and hands – completely free of charge.
Team Umlimbited is located in Swansea, UK and was created by Stephen Davies and Drew Murray. Their office is not in a typical location: a backyard garden shed. They work evenings and weekends outside of their professional careers to create elbow-driven prosthetics for kids.
Students (1st-8th) at FWM are 3D printing in their weekly classes and stories like this energizes their ideas and gives them the tenacity to take risks. I enjoyed sharing this story with my students and I remind them that sometimes an idea is all you need. If you look at the biggest companies today they all started with money in their pockets and “back/front yard” office space.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=369PX9LzUPs
Ms. Kayser’s Class: A Month of Love
February is a month of love and appreciation; with Valentine’s Day right around the corner and all the beautiful red and pink, heart themed works on the shelves, the children are all feeling extra special. We make sure that our classroom environment is welcoming and warm every month of the year, but this month we have been paying extra close attention to the importance of kindness and compassion. Our students have come a long way from being strangers at the beginning of the year, and the connection that they all share with one another is something that we hope they will never forget.
In our Montessori plus program this month, the children are spending time talking about friends and family and working on some exciting projects to help reinforce the idea of being a good person to everyone. When we asked our students what a friend was, their responses melted our hearts:
“We share our toys with friends.”
“We make our friends laugh so hard that they fall down.”
“We are kind to our friends and we don’t fight.”
“We love each other and take turns.”
They are already so aware of their behavior and how it affects people other than themselves. There is such a hope for humanity knowing that these beautiful souls are going to one day make an impact on our world with their kind and gentle hearts.
Lucky for us, the weather also felt like sharing a bit of love with some beautiful, sunny days! The children were so happy to get outside and spend time in the warm sun. Although the winter season is not over yet, those two days filled us with enough joy to carry us until spring!
Just a few quick reminders:
On February 13th, we will be celebrating Valentine’s Day in our classroom!
Giving and receiving Valentines is a special part of a child’s school experience and one of their favorites! There are 23 students in our class. Please have your child sign (alone or with your help) each Valentine. Leave the envelope blank (with no specific name on it). This enables your child to distribute their valentines without having to read each classmate’s name. If your child is able to independently read the names of the children, then they may choose to write the names on the outside of the envelopes. Please allow time for the name writing process. It’s a lot to write for small hands! This is a great activity for them to practice writing names, so remember to use upper case only for the first letter of the name.
On February 14th, we have our parent-teacher conferences. If you did not already select a slot on the sign-up genius from the email we sent last week, please take a look and see if any of the times work for you. If there is not an available time, please don’t hesitate to email me so we can set up a time before or after school that works best for you! The children have been working so hard since we last met, and we can’t wait to sit down and share everything with you!
With love,
Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli