Lower Elementary: Reading Buddies, History, and Acting

Posted on by Karen Sankey

Grady and Rex returned last Tuesday to continue listening to their human friends in Lower Elementary read. All of the children have had turns reading and will continue to get the opportunity to read to Grady and Rex through the end of the year.

In our history lessons, we are learning about time. In addition to the children working on timelines of their own lives, we are learning about ways time is represented. These lessons will prepare the children for the use of timelines as well as help them to orient themselves in time. We will work with the concepts of dates, eras, and centuries. Last week we represented the year 2018 with the golden bead material. We stretched out two thousand chains, one ten bar, and eight unit beads in the hallway and counted them. The golden bead material is very familiar to the children from their beginning math work and using it to represent our year helps the children to understand the concept of how many years we have counted. These history lessons will continue over the next few weeks, ending with a study of Roman numerals.

We were all very excited to have Miss Linda, the director of our Elementary play, visit with us on Monday and Wednesday. On Monday she got to know the children and introduced the play and some of the characters. Linda returned on Wednesday and the children had the chance to audition for parts. I was fortunate to sit in on their auditions. They all did a fabulous job reading lines and singing solos in front of classmates. We are looking forward to making some casting decisions and sharing them with you as soon as possible.

 

Lower Elementary – Reading, Botany, and Baba Marta Day

Posted on by Karen Sankey

Grady and Rex were back this week to listen as the children took turns reading to them. Each child anxiously awaits his or her turn and all are enjoying this special time with the dogs.

In Montessori, when introducing new lessons in biology, we start by observing live animals and plants before using classroom materials. Third year students are studying botany this year and they learned about moss this week. We took a walk and harvested some moss and looked closely at it with a magnifying glass. After working with the moss card material, the students were able to identify some of the external parts on the real plant. We will keep the moss on our biology shelf to give all of the children the chance to get a closer look.

March 1st was Baba Marta Day. Veronica and Oliver gave a short presentation about this Bulgarian holiday and gave everyone traditional red and white yarn bracelets, called martenitzas. The white symbolizes the melting snow and the red the strong spring/summer sun. The exchange of martenitzas is in hopes of spring coming soon and is also to wish the recipients health and happiness during the year. They are removed and hung on a tree when we see a sign of spring, such as a blossoming tree. Thank you to the Antov family for sharing this wonderful tradition with us!

Lower Elementary – Moving Up Again and Poetry Sharing

Posted on by Karen Sankey

 

Our second Moving-Up Day was a great success. We enjoyed having our kindergarten friends with us for almost the entire day. It was a nice glimpse into what next year’s class will be like. Such a great group of children! Our third-year students had a great day as well, visiting the Upper Elementary for the whole day. Some have shared that they wish they could have spent the entire week!

We have started sharing poetry with each other at our Friday morning meetings. We started with a book of winter poems called “A Snowflake Fell” and now we are reading Shel Silverstein’s “A Light in the Attic.” We take turns and each person gets a chance to read a poem to the class. We are enjoying reading poetry once a week.

 

Please read the following message about ticks.

With last week’s warm temperatures, ticks that were dormant have become active. Therefore, it is essential that parents begin checking their children for ticks at the end of the day. Please read the following important information from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Check your clothing for ticks. Ticks may be carried into the house on clothing. Any ticks that are found should be removed. Tumble dry clothes in a dryer on high heat for 10 minutes to kill ticks on dry clothing after you come indoors. If the clothes are damp, additional time may be needed. If the clothes require washing first, hot water is recommended. Cold and medium temperature water will not kill ticks effectively.

Shower soon after being outdoors. Showering within two hours of coming indoors has been shown to reduce your risk of getting Lyme disease. Showering may help wash off unattached ticks and it is a good opportunity to do a tick check.

Check your body for ticks after being outdoors. Conduct a full body check upon return from potentially tick-infested areas, which even includes your back yard. Use a hand-held or full-length mirror to view all parts of your body. Check these parts of your body and your child’s body for ticks:

  • Under the arms
  • In and around the ears
  • Inside belly button
  • Back of the knees
  • In and around the hair
  • Between the legs
  • Around the waist

Lower Elementary Research Night

Posted on by Karen Sankey

Researching topics of interest is something Lower Elementary Montessori students love to do. They frequently research independently during work cycle throughout the school year.

The intentional focus of Research Night is a very special time for the children. The entire class is focused on research about one related topic. This common focus connects us as a class and presents authentic opportunities for the older, more experienced children to help the younger children who are new to research. They mentor and guide them, helping them learn about their subjects and make their posters. This year, some of the younger students chose to write papers and the older students typed for them and guided them.

In addition to their own classmates mentoring them, we are fortunate to be joined by expert eighth-year students. The relationships that are formed during this time of year between Middle School and Elementary students are incredibly special. Older students provide much needed and welcomed support, and the interactions are beneficial for both groups of students.

Our peacemaker research was inspirational and educational. The children were enthusiastic about gathering information and making their posters, papers, and presentations. The third-year students had their first public speaking experience, presenting before classmates and families. They were amazing! All of the children worked diligently and should be very proud of their work.

“The child is capable of developing and giving us tangible proof of the possibility of a better humanity. He has shown us the true process of construction of the human being. We have seen children totally change as they acquire a love for things and as their sense of order, discipline, and self-control develops within them… The child is both a hope and a promise for mankind.” -Maria Montessori

Elementary Basketball Skills and Fun Games

Posted on by Gina Tryforos

This month the Lower and Upper Elementary practiced and participated in the team sport of Basketball. The objectives are designed to develop hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness. We practiced dribbling a ball with either hand while changing pathways, direction, and speed. We worked on passing a ball to a stationary and moving target using both a bounce and chest pass. In addition, students had to catch a passed ball while they were stationary and in motion. We demonstrated the proper technique of pivoting while holding a ball and identified markings on the court. In the Upper Elementary level, we learned to differentiate roles of offensive and defensive players and understand and use simple basketball rules. We especially enjoy the games. Games we play are: Dribble Knockout, Knockout, Spot Takeaway, and Steal the Bacon.

This month, I also started incorporating Plickers Magnets. Plickers magnet assessment is a relatively new to in the Physical Education community. Plickers magnets help students gain autonomy, mastery, and purpose.  Each student now has more control over  his or her individual road to mastery of various skills. It is a tool that allows the assessment of students’ knowledge through multiple choice questions or assessing how they felt they did in class. Plickers allows students to take ownership of their learning and creates a respectful class culture around individual differences. Every student is given a number so that they remain anonymous from one another.

 

Lions and Tigers… and MAKERS! OH MY!

Posted on by Danielle Ulacco

By no surprise at all, 2nd and 3rd year students have become masters of their making. In January, students were introduced to our green screen movie making technologies. Once they learned how to capture audio and video, and change the visual behind them. Students’ imaginations led them to riding on waves, dancing and singing alongside a superstar, interviewing their favorite celebrity, catching a football pass from Tom Brady… and even more!

These Lower Elementary Students also tried out our MakeyMakey’s this month. MakeyMakey’s are circuit boards that act as a keyboard click and/or mouse click. Once powered by a USB connection to a computer, you use alligator clips to connect the circuit board to something conductive. In class, we started with play-doh and created buttons to act as our controllers for a game.

Throughout the month, we also explored the capabilities of our Bee-Bots (programmable robots) and used them to navigate across grids while using appropriate vocabulary. We practiced picking a starting block and an ending block and solved the mazes together. On our iPads, we used the Osmo applications to build tangrams and to practice our artwork. Proudly, the 2nd and 3rd year students continued constructing beyond their heights with Kēva Planks and Construction Straws.

January also allowed for more in-depth creating of stop motion animations with story lines and voice-overs (see videos below).

2018 Winter Olympic Games!

Posted on by Pam Pascarella

 

The Extended Day, Lower Elementary, and Upper Elementary participated in Winter Olympic Games stations in class. The students were questioned on their knowledge as to why there are only five rings and what the colors represented. They were also asked where they Olympics were taking place and what continent that country  was located in. The students participated in the following winter Olympic Game stations: Curling, Biathlon, Speed Skating, Ice Hockey, Skeleton/Luge, Ski Jump, and Bobsled. At the end of class the students assessed which station they liked the most. The stations they most enjoyed was the bobsled and ski jump!

Lower Elementary Reading Buddies!

Posted on by Karen Sankey

This week we began a very special relationship with Grady and Rex from Newtown Strong Therapy Dogs. They will be our reading buddies every Tuesday morning. Our new friends will visit us for one hour every week and the children will take turns reading to them. Each week a new set of children will read to the dogs.

We are all very excited about this opportunity! Reading to dogs has many benefits. It gives the children an opportunity to practice reading and allows them to gain confidence and fluency. It has many emotional and social benefits as well. Being with the dogs can be calming, reduce stress, bring comfort, and increase kindness and empathy.

This Tuesday, the children greeted Grady and Rex with joy and enthusiasm. About a third of the class got a turn reading this week. It was a truly special time and we are looking forward to their return on February 27th.