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This Week in Upper El

Posted on by Karen Sankey

This Week:

  • CTP5 Standardized Testing: For Upper El, this is a practice test and we do not report scores. Students will be using school iPads during testing – there is no need to send their devices for testing.
  • Nature’s Classroom cost is $383 per student this year. If your child will be attending, please send a $100 deposit by Friday, April 11.

We had a wonderfully busy week in Upper El, filled with engaging work and activities. The students tackled individual math and spelling lessons, and they also participated in group lessons in biology, geometry, grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension.

In biology, our focus was on photosynthesis. We are currently examining the release of oxygen by an aquatic plant and look forward to a sunny day next week to complete our experiment. In geometry, we continued our lessons on finding surface area, with one group concentrating on squares and the other on the lesser sectors of circles. This week in grammar, we explored different types of adverbs and the words they modify.

In art class, students worked together on the set for their upcoming musical, Finding Nemo! They also enjoyed a delightful Book Buddies session with their kindergarten friends, which is always a great way to connect and share a love for reading. It was a week full of learning, creativity, and fun!

Mrs. Sargeant: A Peek at the Week

Posted on by Christine Sargeant
Last week and this week, we celebrated some friends’ birthdays in class. We have four more friends to celebrate with this month! We love to have parents join our class as we celebrate your children. It is customary in our class for each family to bring some photos of the birthday child – typically one per year of life. It’s easiest for the children to view the photos if they’re displayed on a piece of posterboard or taped onto a piece of paper. We’d love it if you’d bring a snack to share with the class and a favorite book of your child’s for you to read to the class as they’re enjoying the special birthday snack. Be prepared to answer lots of questions about when your child was a baby. Their classmates are always curious to learn when their friends began walking, talking, jumping, etc. Thank you for taking the time to come in and share with us.
This week, we’ve been discussing different types of rocks and minerals. The children enjoyed using a magnifying glass to examine them. Orange juicing has also been a big hit- a huge thanks to Divya’s mom for purchasing the juicer for our class. Thank you to every one of you for supplying us with the food for practical life activities. The kindergarten students have been enthusiastically working on their animal research projects this week.
Looking forward to the week ahead!
Christine & Hailey

Mrs. Hood: The Magic of Color Mixing!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

This week, we continued our exploration of the colors of the rainbow, diving into the magical world of color mixing! Our focus was on the color orange, and the children were amazed to discover that combining red and yellow creates this warm, cheerful hue. At the easel, they observed this transformation firsthand, blending the colors and watching different shades of orange emerge on their paper. It was a joyful experience filled with curiosity and creativity!

To extend this learning, we tied our color studies into nutrition by recognizing fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy foods by their colors. During snack and lunchtime, the children were excited to share the colors of the rainbow they found in their food containers. This activity not only reinforces color recognition but also highlights the importance of a balanced diet. You can try this at home by encouraging your child to identify the colors on their plate and talk about the benefits of eating a variety of colorful foods!

In addition to colors, the children have been fascinated by zoo animals! We’ve talked about the difference between pets and wild animals, and some of the class favorites include the lion, elephant, zebra, cheetah, and giraffe. The children have enjoyed learning about their habitats, characteristics, and unique features.

As we soak up the last cool days before spring is in full bloom, we’ve been spending extra time outdoors exploring nature. Watching them run, jump, and observe the changing environment has been a delight, and we look forward to fully embracing the beauty of springtime in the coming weeks!

This week, our food-tasting lesson introduced the children to plantains. The children were definitely intrigued by this fruit, which looks like a banana but tastes quite different. They sampled both soft and chip-style plantains, discovering a new flavor that many of them enjoyed.

To wrap up our week, we engaged in a magical Sensorial art project using food coloring, cotton swabs, dish soap, and milk. The children watched in awe as the dish soap reacted with the fat in the milk, causing the food coloring to swirl and dance. Their expressions of wonder were priceless! To preserve this moment, we placed watercolor paper onto the surface, capturing beautiful and unique prints of their milk art.

Thank you for sharing in our adventures… we can’t wait for more fun ahead!

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Patty

Mrs. Wilson: Little Meteorologist, Ornithologist and Botanist

Posted on by Cynthia Wilson

April is a month filled with opportunities to learn about Spring! The children will explore various aspects of this season, focusing on weather, birds, and seeds. This week, we began discussing the weather. Throughout the month, I’ll be inviting a child to be the “Meteorologist of the Day.” They’ll observe the weather outside and describe what they see. Afterward, the child will visit the weather board to find and share the matching weather symbol with their peers. We’ll practice saying the phrase, “The weather is __________.”

In addition to learning about the weather, the children will also discover the backyard birds native to our area. We’ll listen to the different bird calls and work on identifying the names of various birds.

We’ve also started planting sunflower seeds! Each child filled a small starter pot with soil and carefully chose a seed to plant. These pots are now in an indoor greenhouse, where the children can check on them daily to see if any seeds have sprouted. We’re all excited to see if we can grow 12 magnificent sunflowers by the start of the next school year!

We celebrated a friend’s birthday this week with delicious cupcakes! Happy birthday to our friend!

Food Tasting: This week, the children explored asparagus. They seem to enjoy the uncooked version better than the cooked one.

Love and Light,

Cynthia and Sara

Busy Writers in Lower Elementary!

Posted on by Ashley O'Connell

Our lower elementary students have been hard at work these past few weeks, diving deep into their informational writing books! It has been wonderful to see their creativity and enthusiasm as they bring their ideas to life on paper.

Throughout this process, they have practiced brainstorming topics, crafting engaging introductions, and organizing their information into clear topics and subtopics. First, students selected topics they felt knowledgeable and passionate about, ranging from animals to space, sports, and beyond. Then, they mapped out their ideas by breaking them into subtopics, ensuring their books would be well-structured and easy to follow. They worked hard on writing strong introductions to hook their readers and provide an overview of what they would be teaching. As their books have taken shape, they’ve also been practicing revising and expanding their ideas to make their writing even stronger!

Next week, we will focus on conclusions—an important final step in tying their books together! Students will learn how to wrap up their writing in a way that leaves their readers feeling informed and satisfied. Be on the lookout in the coming weeks for their finished books, which will be sent home in Friday Folders. We can’t wait for you to see all of their hard work!

Ms. Mollie: Hello, April! 🌦☂️🌷

Posted on by Mollie Smith

Our week has been a great opportunity to view the changes in weather; the children love singing our  “What is the Weather” song to describe the weather each day. We continue to talk about what makes spring, spring! We planted some seed starts this week- flowers, of course! The children have a very keen eye for growing plants and for the new types of birds showing up at our feeder. They are very excited that we have a cardinal now.

The highlight of the week that the children enjoyed most was definitely making chocolate zucchini bread! When I asked the children if they liked zucchini, they all said, ” Ewww.” So I switched up our game plan, and we “hid” it in our bread! The children followed the baking sequence beautifully; they now know what to do with minimal help. They enjoyed each step, especially the sharing and eating!

With full hearts,

Ms. Mollie. Ms. Lizette and Ms. Anabelle

Ms. Marissa: Weekly Update

Posted on by Marissa Frisk

In a Montessori classroom, learning is often a hands-on experience that invites curiosity and fosters a sense of wonder. One of the most captivating subjects for young learners is the world of colors. A study of rainbows and the science of color mixing is an exciting way to engage children in discovering the beauty and magic of the world around them. Recently, our classroom embarked on an exploration of rainbows, primary colors, and the fascinating process of color mixing!

Once the students were familiar with the idea of a rainbow and the variety of colors it holds, we delved into the core concept of color theory—the primary colors: red, blue, and yellow. We used Montessori color materials like the color tablets to visually explore and differentiate between these hues. The tactile nature of the materials, paired with the children’s natural inclination to touch and explore, made this lesson particularly engaging.

Through sorting activities, students were able to identify and arrange primary colors, gaining an understanding that these colors cannot be created by mixing other colors. This revelation led to our next exciting step—color mixing!

With the foundational understanding of primary colors, it was time for the children to explore the art and science of mixing colors. The children were free to use red, yellow, and blue in any combination they wished to see what would happen. It’s been an exciting week!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Marissa & Sue

Mrs. Lopes: A Look at Our Week

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

We are now studying the continent of South America in our classroom. South America is pink on the Montessori map and a topic of great fascination for the children. It is a beautiful region with vibrant cultures and traditions and a wide range of climates and terrains.

South America is the fourth largest continent in our world and comprises twelve individual countries. It is connected to North America by the Isthmus of Panama. An isthmus is one of the landforms we study. Brazil is the largest country in South America, and the major languages spoken are Spanish and Portuguese.

Located in South America, the largest rainforest in the world is the Amazon Jungle. So it makes sense that we start to explore the rainforest as well. The rainforest is an ecosystem with a dense tree canopy that lets very little light through. To be considered a rainforest, there must be more than 60 inches of rain each year. Rainforests also contain over 40% of the world’s animal and plant species. There are four layers in a rainforest; each layer receives different amounts of sun, rain, and wind and is home to various species.

Another exciting update–we are incubating chicks in our classroom!  A big thank you to Kate Neugold for organizing and donating the incubator and eggs.  We have been discussing the life cycle of a chick this week and the children have been fascinated with following the development of the eggs each day.

As the weather gets warmer, now is a great time to check the extra clothes in your child’s locker to see if they should be changed from winter clothes to spring/summer clothes.

Wishing you a week filled with peace and love!

Amanda & Hema