We love starting our day by centering ourselves while listening to soft, peaceful music. We spend about five minutes doing this before we start our work time every morning. The children are getting better every day at learning to be still and quiet, giving their minds a break by paying attention only to their breathing.

Often times children at different grade levels enjoy working together. Our Biology material, First Knowledge of the Five Kingdoms, provides an opportunity to do just that while allowing each child to challenge her(him)self. At the beginning level, children work with the animal identification cards. These increase in difficulty, respectively, with the plant, fungi, protoctista, and prokaryote identification cards. This week some first grade students teamed up to work with the animal cards while a third grade friend worked with the fungi cards alongside them.

After children learn a lesson in geometry, they use their hands and work with materials to solidify their understanding of the concepts they are learning about. Recently, some students learned about perpendicular and oblique lines. They followed up by using a material called the Box of Sticks to make the different types of lines. They learned to use a measuring angle – which is a right angle – to check their perpendicular lines.

First, second, and third grade students are currently learning about physical geography. Third graders are learning to identify and label the water forms of each continent, starting with North America. Second grade students are building on their lessons from last year by learning about advanced land and water forms; most recently lagoon, fjord, cove, gulf, and bay. First graders are learning about inverted land and water forms. This week they learned about capes and bays. The beginning lessons start with the children making the forms using clay and water and then they make a representation of it using construction paper.

 

We have had a fun week, full of learning! The third year students told the story of the creation of the universe to the younger students, a rite of passage for third years. They read the story and did demonstrations to illustrate scientific concepts. This is the first of Maria Montessori’s Five Great Lessons.

We completed our science lessons in preparation for hearing the story of the creation of the universe. The third year students have their speaking and demonstration parts and are excited to give this lesson to the first and second year students next week.

The children love doing group games in the classroom. One of their favorites is a pass the clap game that is done to a rhyme called “Way Down Yonder.” This is a great game that includes cooperation with each other and keeping a rhythm.

Spending time in nature is incredibly important. We are enjoying going to the outdoor classroom each week. On Monday we spent time observing nature and writing in our nature journals and then the children had time to play. They had a great time!

Preparations for the talent show are well underway. The children have shown us their acts and are working hard getting ready for their performances at Oktoberfest on October 20th. We hope you come and see them!

~Parent & Teacher Conferences are coming up!

Parent & Teacher Conferences are on Thursday, October 25^th. 

This is to a wonderful time to learn about your child’s progress; it is strongly encouraged that parents attend.  The online Parent & Teacher sign-up will be live on Monday, October 8^th – please look for more information in Monday’s School News about scheduling your Parent & Teacher Conference online.  If you are unavailable to meet with your child’s teacher on October 25^th, please email your child’s teacher directly about scheduling another day or time that week for a conference.

This year we will be spending lots of time exploring and observing the outdoors. We are learning to sketch what we see and record our observations in nature journals. We had our first nature journal time last Friday. Please don’t forget to send in bug spray!

The children have plunged into our Reader’s Workshop. They have a mini-lesson at the beginning where they learn a skill to focus on while reading. They are enjoying their lessons and reading time.

We are getting ready to hear the story of the creation of the universe, told by the third year students. To prepare, the children are participating in science demonstrations which illustrate the concepts in the story. On Tuesday Ms. Beckett gave the third set of presentations. Among the concepts illustrated were the attraction of particles and the concept of displacement. After the demonstrations, the children record their observations in science notebooks.

Elementary children love working together with their friends. Emma and Emma enjoyed some time together completing their grammar work with pronouns.

We are happy to welcome Mia, our new student, to first grade! All of the children are making her feel welcome and are helping her learn the routines.

 

The school year is off to a great start! The Upper and Lower Elementary students are thoroughly enjoying coming together during recess time, reconnecting with old friends. Recess consists of activities such as playing “make believe” in the woods, swings, participating in Gaga Ball, and enjoying all of the new playground equipment. Mr. Comstock will be taking students every other day on the field to participate in group sports.

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 of community learners!

The children are continuing to love their Writer’s Workshop lessons! They are learning about the steps involved in the writing process and applying this to their “small moment” stories. We are looking forward to watching them grow as writers.