In a blink of an eye this year has come to an end! The end of the school year is always filled with many emotions, looking back at all we accomplished and seeing how much each child has grown. Each year I feel humbled with so much gratitude to experience each child’s development throughout the  year.

I will miss the children moving on and up and wish them nothing but the best. Each child holds a very special place in my heart. I hope you have a wonderful summer!!!

The 100 mile club program has been used by schools all over the nation since 1993 in an effort to prevent childhood inactivity. The 100 Mile Club program improves the health and well-being of children at school through daily physical activity in a noncompetitive, supportive, and fully-inclusive environment. Children can choose to run, walk, skip, or roll 100 miles over the course of the school year.

Congratulations to our Lower Elementary students for working towards and achieving one common goal!

The year is winding down, but Lower Elementary isn’t! This week the children were engaged in History lessons. The first year children had the lesson of The Long Black Line. This lesson is meant to strike the imagination of the children and create a humbling feeling of the appearance of humans on Earth in the perspective of the vast amount of time that Earth has existed. The second year children had lessons on the Clock of Eons. These lessons introduce the sequence of events that resulted in the evolution of life on Earth, give the history of life on Earth, and introduce the interrelatedness of all organisms and the fragile balance that maintains life. Specifically, the second graders explored the Hadeon eon. The third year students had lessons on the Time Line of Life. These lessons focus on the interrelatedness of Earth to those who live on it and on the evolution of life on Earth. The third graders learned about the Paleozoic and Mesozoic era of time.

Looking ahead, spirit week and field day are the last week of school (6/6-6/10)! Check out my email for details about each day of the week!

This week we had Moving Up Day!  Third-year students spent the morning in Upper Elementary and Mrs. Doyle’s Kindergarten students spent some time with us in Lower Elementary. Next week Mrs. Lopes’ class will have a chance to visit.

Multi-age groupings are an advantage of a Montessori classroom. They give the children the opportunity to go through a cycle of being mentored, practicing mentoring, and becoming the mentor. This week our third-year students practiced being mentees and our first and second year students practiced being mentors to their Kindergarten friends. It was a joy to see students at both levels completely engaged and happy working with their future classmates. Our first and second year students did a wonderful job planning work that was enjoyable and interesting for the Kindergartners. Some children even made posters to welcome their future classmates to the class!

We had a very productive week!

The first years have been loving their lessons. They heard the “Love Story of Lines” during geometry this week, where they learned about convergent, divergent, and parallel lines. They used the box of sticks Montessori material to explore these concepts. In grammar, first years have learned about adjectives, nouns and articles.  As an extension, they were introduced to a work called the grammar dice, where the children practice the parts of speech they have learned so far this year while making up funny sentences.

The second year group enjoyed learning how to subtract fraction insets using the Montessori protractor; a concept that can be challenging for some, they grasped so quickly! I was impressed. Just like the first year group, the second graders are loving the grammar dice work to practice previously learned grammar such as: nouns, articles, adjectives, verbs, prepositions and adverbs!

Last but not least, the third years have been enjoying their hands-on geometry follow-up. They have been using the box of sticks to explore the diagonals in various polygons and now will use this material for a new unit on circles. As for language, the third year group received the first sentence analysis lesson. They are now learning to look at words not as parts of speech, but rather as how they work as parts of sentences.

A Newtown Strong Therapy Dog visited our classroom on Tuesday! Maggie is a 7 year old Golden Retriever and with so many animal lovers in the class, they were thrilled to spend some time with her. Maggie will return to class each Tuesday morning for the next several weeks.

With the weather warming up, we will be spending more time outside. If you wish, please send in bug spray with your child’s name on it. We will keep it here in school for the remainder of the year.

As a reminder, next Thursday 5/12 will be Moving Up Day for the third graders. They will spend half the day with Upper Elementary. On Wednesday 5/11 the Kindergarten class will join Lower Elementary during an hour of the morning work cycle. This will be great practice for the first and second years to practice their new mentor role. We are looking forward to it!

As we enter May, the end of the year seems right around the corner, and I can’t help but reflect on each child’s progress throughout the year. I am so pleased to see what a compassionate, kind-hearted, unique group of students we have in the classroom!