Blog

Ms. Kayser’s Class: A Month of Love

Posted on by skayser

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

Mrs. Carroll’s Class: Absorbent Minds

Posted on by Cindy Carroll

 

There exists in the small child an unconscious mental state which is of a creative nature. We have called it the “Absorbent Mind.” The tiny child’s absorbent mind finds all its nutriment in its surroundings…Especially at the beginning of life. We must, therefore, make the environment as interesting and attractive as we can. -Maria Montessori

Montessori Method is based on self-motivation to learn. Children are considered to be at work during the day, but they have fun doing it. They do go beyond life skills, learning geometry, geography, phonics, and much more. Young children have the capacity to absorb, learn, and do so much. They just need a controlled, creative environment to allow them to pursue their interests.

Enjoy these images of your children at “work”!

We will be celebrating Valentines Day on Wednesday, February 13th. Giving and receiving valentines is a special part of a child’s school experience.  There are 22 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 his/her valentines without having to read each classmate’s name.  If your child is able to read the names of the children then they may write the names on the outside of the envelops, as this is a nice reading practice.  Please allow time for the name writing process.  This is a great vehicle for them to practice writing their name so remember to use upper case only for the first letter of their name.

Upper Elementary: Ancient Civilizations

Posted on by Brian Comstock

 

All of the hard work of the Upper Elementary students over the past month resulted in a fantastic research morning event! This work included gathering notes, transferring those notes to a slideshow format, making a miniature model of the civilization, and bringing a food from their culture to share with their guests. The collaborative slideshow was the most impressive piece I noticed among all of their responsibilities. This was because it was a first time for our level and it demonstrated collaboration, creativity and teamwork to put it all together. Congratulations, on a job well done!

Stepping Out of Our Comfort Zone

Posted on by Ashley O'Connell

This week we felt very fortunate to have extra hands in the classroom to help prepare for our Research Morning. For community service, the middle school students assisted our students with the construction of their poster boards.

As we mentioned the past two weeks, we have been incorporating research into our Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop lessons. Another change in research this year was that the children chose their own topics from any area of personal interest instead of being given a theme from within to choose a topic. As a result of these changes, we observed true authentic Montessori research at its finest.

The process the children followed after choosing their topic was tailored specifically to each child’s readiness. We guided students in their selection of informational texts and provided questions for them to answer to guide their research. Depending on readiness, each child elaborated to different levels on his or her answers to the questions. This led to the children naturally writing their research papers. In addition, each child designed his or her own display.

After this morning, the children were left feeling so empowered and confident. Even though the third years told us they were very nervous about their first oral presentation, they leaned into the discomfort and experienced a new level of poise and confidence. They should be so proud of themselves.

Mrs. Hood’s class: Matching, Blocks and Yummy Beets!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

 

“The child that has had plenty of experience with matching work will be ready for the added cognitive step of sorting and categorization. Sorting, categorization and classification are all skills that we use when thinking and reasoning about the things we see, hear, touch, taste and smell. They help up to heighten our awareness, focus our attention and verbalize the patterns that we notice. The ability to sort and classify exercises the brain pathways that will later be used in mathematics, science and language.” – At Home with Montessori

Matching works in the toddler environment are essential. There are many reasons why. They bring about deep concentration which is calming and deeply satisfying for the child. It provides an opportunity to master a skill and through repetition they can demonstrate a mastery of that skill. When matching cards, children demonstrates they are capable of making the connection between the real item, the model item, and the pictorial representation. It provides the child the opportunity to think and reason, which may later transfer to other activities and behaviors. The child is given the opportunity to problem solve. Questioning and asking themselves with the satisfaction of finding the result – the answer.

This week we added a new matching work the children already love, which also provides movement and language. We placed big pictures of polar bears and penguins around the environment and in a bowl we gathered the same amount of pictures but in a small scale. The purpose is for the child to choose a small picture and try to find its matching one while he or she walks around the classroom. This work was prepared for our older students but we were amazed that some of our younger ones were also successful at it! It’s incredible! When matching the pictures we talk about what we see in it. New language has been introduced through it: polar bear, cub, and fur, emperor, humboldt and chinstrap penguins.

In the movement area we also introduced oversized blocks for building and imagination. Children exercise their need for maximum effort through this work. These blocks brought a lot of giggles and fun to our group playtime!

In Practical life we introduced water transferring and we have worked a lot on how to respect our water works. Children love water and these type of works bring calmness and satisfaction while strengthening their concentration skills.

For food tasting we tried beets this week and all your children loved it so much! For language we focused on: root, stem, and leaves. Feel free to pack some beets for lunch or classroom snacks. You children devoured beets! Woo hoo!

Remember that next Wednesday, February 13th, we will celebrating friendship in our class! We can’t wait to take some fun pictures and share them with you!

Three Cheers for our Community Service Volunteers!

Posted on by Stephanie Thomas

It is always a treat when our middle school friends come and spend time with us! Our toddlers love playing, working, and connecting with their older buddies. Our kind and patient middle schoolers love being big brothers and sisters to our toddlers.

The relationships built through this amazing program are joys to watch evolve. Outside of our scheduled times together, the middle school students often find us on the playground or in the gym and ask if they can join us. How amazing are these children? When walking in the halls, they stop and kneel down to say hello and offer to help walk us to our destination.

We love our middle school friends, and are thrilled to have yet another experience of working and learning within a multi-aged group.

Ms. Kayser’s Class: Passion for Creativity

Posted on by skayser

“Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and the strength, use it to create.” 

– Maria Montessori

In the classroom every week, our children push themselves to new and exciting heights. They have no fear in trying things they have not yet done, and are gaining a beautiful confidence that continues to grow with each passing day. One of the most amazing aspects of the Montessori classroom is the freedom for the children to choose what their heart is telling them they wish to pursue. Each day there seems to be something different calling the students into action. As their teachers, we must sit back and allow them to follow these passions and provide just enough support to be sure they are successful in their exploration.

This week the children’s creativity was beyond what we could have imagined. From the moment they walked in the door, each student was driven to something that involved a high level of concentration and artistic ability. Our continent maps are what drew the most attention from the class. Each student chose which continent they wished to recreate and spent time looking at the names of the countries and even exploring our globes to see where they were on Earth in comparison to North America. Then the children set off to trace the map on another sheet of paper; even some of our youngest students wished to trace it on their own without our assistance! Once the tracing was done, the children were able to use colored pencils or paint to color in their maps. Overall, the process was an arduous task for a three or four year old child, but their ability to sit and concentrate for that long was something that told us this was truly what was calling them that day.

As a teacher, it is a heart-warming experience to sit back and watch as the creativity and curiosity of the children flow  throughout the classroom without restriction. The children learn so much more when they are able to choose and experience their passions in the moment!

Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli

Cardboard City, Cardboard, USA

Posted on by Danielle Ulacco

BON VOYAGE! Book a ticket on our latest MakerSpace tour… CARDBOARD CITY!

Our 2nd and 3rd year students have been learning how to go from 2D to 3D in the MakerSpace. It started in December where we designed 2D snowflakes on our iPads and sent them to the 3D printer. We have now gone one step further and are going from pencil and paper drawings to 4 sided buildings.

First, students decided what they individually wanted to build, for example: a clock tower, donut shop, boats, neighborhood homes, local buffet, and a church. Once they had their idea in mind, they watched their teacher draw a large rectangle, with 2 square windows and a rectangular front door on a regular piece of paper. (Insert new vocabulary here: “drawn to scale”)

Then, we placed her drawing into our laser cutter (Glowforge), scanned it, inserted cardboard and voila- her drawing was cut out on cardboard! Once the fronts of our buildings were done, we talked more about scale, measurements, and how we can take one drawing and create as many copies of it on cardboard in the Glowforge as we wanted to.

We officially started assembling our 2D creations and the amazement and gratification felt by the students brought tears to my eyes. Showing them a finished building that I had created did not hold much weight, but having their imagination come to life in their hands was truly a remarkable moment. Students stood around our Cardboard City and just enjoyed gazing and thinking of where the roads, ponds, and parks would be drawn.

Once completed, we will put our city in the front entrance of the school for all to enjoy.