We are very excited to welcome a new third grade friend to our class this week! All of the children are being kind and helpful and are thrilled to have a new addition to the classroom.

In Lower Elementary we place great emphasis on meaningful academic work for each individual child. During their two to three hour long work cycle,  the children are able to plan their work and then chose the order in which they would like to accomplish it. This creates a feeling of ownership and focus within the children.

The small bead frame is a current classroom favorite! It is a math material which can be used to add, multiply, and subtract. Students use this before moving to abstraction when completing math problems for most operations. Another loved math material is test tube division. This material helps clarify the analytic procedure of the operation. Here, the result is not simply to find the answer, but also to find out the hierarchical value of the beads (the dividend) given to each single unit of the divisor.

This week we started the study of life. Animals are more familiar to children than plants, and vertebrates are the most familiar animals. Throughout the year, first and second grade children will study five classes of vertebrate animals and third grade children will study five classes of plants in evolutionary order. We will learn about fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals as well as seaweed, moss, ferns, pine trees, and flowering plants.

First year students learned about the external parts of fish. We started with a little in-school field trip to the Middle School science room to observe Mr. Brown’s fish. Mr. Brown facilitated a discussion about the external parts of the fish. We will follow up next week with an introduction to classroom materials of fish.

Second year students also took a trip to the science room to learn about the body functions of fish. Mr. Brown reviewed the external parts of fish and then the children talked about what goes on internally. They will be introduced to our classroom body functions of fish materials next week.

Third year students learned about the external parts and body functions of seaweed. They were introduced to the classroom material and were thrilled to be studying botany this year! The third year students will be visiting Mr. Brown’s classroom this year to observe some of these plants more closely under a microscope.

One of my favorite parts about an Elementary Montessori classroom is that you see children constantly, collaboratively, learning with and from one another on a daily basis. There are many benefits to this work. Working with a friend teaches children patience, respect for another’s strengths and challenges, and the give and take of compromising while collaborating.

It was another productive week in Lower Elementary. The third year students learned about pronouns in grammar and the material they use to practice this skill is called a grammar box. The second graders learned about prepositions and they also use a grammar box as follow up to this work. The first year group learned about nouns. They enjoyed going on a scavenger hunt in the classroom and labeling all the nouns they could find!

This week we started preparing for our Creation Story with some science demonstrations. The purpose of these demonstrations is to illustrate concepts explored through the story of the creation of the universe. The Creation Story provides an impressionistic demonstration of the origins of life. The story is designed to impart a sense of wonder and awe, to instill respect for all that has happened, and to ignite interest in scientific investigation.

In addition, the children have been immersed in geography. The first grade group had a lesson on the puzzle maps, where they learn the continents and countries. In a Lower Elementary classroom, puzzle maps are first used as a sensorial material, but then are used repeatedly as a resource for research of countries and their capitals. The second grade group learned about the pin maps. This is an extension of the puzzle maps, but is more abstract. The children are using this material to identify countries, capitals, and flags. The aim of this material is to enhance memorization of geographical features. Last but not least, the third graders are researching countries of their choosing. Some of them were so excited, they brought their work home to work on!

Parent-teacher conferences are coming up on October 28th! Look for an email on Tuesday with a link to sign up for your conference slot. 

We are continuing to settle in to our classroom routines and have new lessons. First year students completed their lessons on the geometric solids and enjoy playing a “hide-and-seek” game with the geometry shapes. The second years were told the Love Story of the Lines: Convergent, Divergent, and Parallel. They use the box of sticks as follow up work. Lastly, the third graders enjoyed reviewing how to subtract angles on the Montessori protractor.

Our Lower Elementary classroom consists of students that love to work collaboratively and individually. One of the beauties of work cycle is that different types of work go on simultaneously. Children can be working on a variety of language, math, geometry, cultural, and spelling work. This is a supportive classroom community of learners!

Each morning we start off our day with mindful meditation. We often assume breathing is just a natural skill; everyone knows how to inhale and exhale. But breathing is more than that. Being aware of our breath not only helps us manage the difficulties of everyday life, it also helps develop compassion, empathy, and concentration. This is an exercise where children practice focusing on the present, instead of worrying about the past and uncertainties of the future. It helps us become aware of how we feel at a given moment.

Encouraging independence and self-motivation is crucial to the Montessori approach. Children at this plane of development love the satisfaction of mastering real-life skills because they come to see themselves as respected members of a community. One way we encourage this in Lower Elementary is having weekly classroom jobs. Monday mornings are especially exciting because that’s when students decide what their weekly jobs will be. Classroom jobs can help build a sense of excitement, community, and interdependence from the very start of the school year.