Mrs. Doyle’s Class: 3-2-1 Blast Off!

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

We are beginning our study of the solar system. Bringing some of the wonders of the universe to the children is exciting and one of their favorite units that we study. By nature, children are inquisitive, observant, and eager to learn about the world around them. With their concrete thinking, understanding, and desire to label and name everything they learn about, we start by introducing the components of the universe, especially our own solar system.

We begin by discussing what the children think the Solar System is. We know that as we look up at the sky during the day we can see the sun and at night time we can see the moon, stars, and some planets.

We learned about the largest star, the sun.  It is made of gas and gives us light and heat. Our sun is the center of our solar system, with planets circling around it.  The children then learned the names of the planets, in order from the sun.  We also learned fun facts about each planet and will do hands-on activities to explain revolution and rotation.

Wishing you a wonderful week!

Mrs. Doyle & Mrs. Lyga

 

 

Mrs. Carroll’s Class: Sense of Wonder

Posted on by Cindy Carroll

 

This week the children were introduced to the wonders in space. In her book, Nurturing the Spirit in Non-Sectarian Classrooms, Aileen Wolf says that ” Interesting discoveries are often made, not when we have new landscapes to look at, but when we have new eyes to look at what we see everyday. Fostering children’s sense of wonder means helping them to slow down and to linger in their observations of all that surrounds them.” And so we began with observations.

Our first activity commenced with a question to the children, “How many of you saw the sky this morning?” Several children raised their hands. We asked the children to draw what they saw. When they had finished, we took the class outside and invited them to lie on their backs and look more carefully at the sky. After they had observed carefully (and were asked many probing questions), they were asked to draw the sky again. We compared the two drawings and discussed our observations. This, our first cosmic activity shows the children how to look more carefully at the details in the sky. We have begun our exploration of the wonders in space, look out Cosmos!

~Parent & Teacher Conferences are coming up!

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

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 8th – 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 25th, please email your child’s teacher directly about scheduling another day or time that week for a conference.

 

 

Ms. Kayser’s Class: The Changing of Seasons

Posted on by skayser

 

Within the next few weeks there will be an explosion of color that marks the end of summer and the beginning of fall. As we leave the warmth of summer behind us, we are moving forward into a season of change. Now two weeks into the school year, your children have undergone their own transformation and the results are beautiful! Each day brings new confidence in each of your children that is a blessing to witness.

This week in the classroom the children have been exploring all of our apple-themed works that are on the shelves. Along with the activities that are incorporated into the different areas of the classroom, our three and four year old friends were lucky to have some hands-on experience thanks to our wonderful art teacher, Mrs. Reid. The children were able to use real apples to make prints on paper and display them outside of our classroom for all to see!

Just a reminder that next week will be our first kindergarten field trip to Blue Jay Orchards; thank you to the parents who have volunteered to come and help us on this exciting trip!

Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli

Mrs. Carroll’s Class: A Smile=Living

Posted on by Cindy Carroll

One of the early science activities in Montessori education is living and non-living. Children can often identify living things but are unable to articulate their characteristics. This week your children enjoyed learning and exploring the five characteristics of living things: they are born, they grow, they die, they move, they reproduce themselves. They also learned the characteristics of non-living things: they do not grow, they do not move themselves, they do not die, and they are always there.

The children had fun with the many living/non-living materials found on our shelves as well as labeling items in the class as living or non-living. They easily identified our fish as living, and our Pepperidge Farm goldfish snack as non-living! I am happy to say that I was given the label of living. When I questioned the child that gave me my label how he knows that I am living he replied, “Mrs. Carroll, you’re living because you can move your mouth. You smile an awful lot!”  I am living, and his comment brought yet another smile.

Have some fun at home this week identifying those things in your environment that are living, and those that are non-living.

Ms. Kayser’s Class: Thank You Blue Jay Orchards!

Posted on by skayser

 

This week in class, our kindergarten students got to go on an exciting field trip to Blue Jay Orchards! After a gloomy week, the skies opened up beautifully and presented us a perfect day to explore the orchard.

We got to ride on a tractor driven hay-ride to see the whole orchard, and even got to pick our own pumpkins from a pumpkin patch! The wonderful staff at the orchard taught us all about the varieties of apples they grow and even showed us how they make apple cider. It was such an unforgettable experience that our kindergarten really enjoyed.

In order to bring some of the excitement and fun from the orchard back into our classroom, our kindergarten students brought back a special bag of apples for the rest of our class to make into a special treat on Friday. That morning, our class gathered in the kitchen and each student got their very own apple to clean, peel, and cut into slices. Once they were finished, they put all the apples into our crockpot and added some delicious spices in order to make applesauce!

All day the fragrant smell of apples and cinnamon tickled our noses while we waited patiently for the applesauce to finish cooking. It took three whole hours to finish! After lunch, we were able to take turns using our mixer to make our applesauce smooth.

Finally, the wait was over! We all got to sit down in our kitchen at a community table and share the delicious snack together. It was a day that we will never forget thanks to Blue Jay Orchards and all the wonderful parent volunteers that helped make our field trip a success.

Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli

~Parent & Teacher Conferences are coming up!

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

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 8th – 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 25th, please email your child’s teacher directly about scheduling another day or time that week for a conference.

Mrs. Doyle’s Class: Loving Science!

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

Children are fascinated by nature and living things. Inspiring wonder and connecting to nature are an important part of Montessori education. Maria Montessori strongly believed that nature presented an inspiration and strong opportunity for learning. Knowing this, we introduce the children to the topics of botany and zoology on an age-appropriate level.

We first introduce the concept of living and non-living. The children loved observing and comparing Hank, our fish and a Pepperidge Farm goldfish cracker.  It was determined that Hank, like all living things, needs food and water, is born, not made, moves, “makes more” or reproduces, and eventually dies. Conversely, non-living things are not born, do not need food or water, do not move, and do not reproduce.  Next, we categorize living things into either a plant or an animal.

Although many of our science topics are introduced in a large group setting.  The materials are available on the shelves for the children to work with independently.

~Parent & Teacher Conferences are coming up!

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

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 8th – 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 25th, please email your child’s teacher directly about scheduling another day or time that week for a conference.

Ms. Kayser’s Class: It is Living and I Know Why!

Posted on by skayser

At the beginning of the year, the class was introduced to the exciting living and non-living activities in science! Each week we have introduced a new quality that distinguishes living things from non-living things. To help us remember these qualities, we learned two new songs that we sing every morning on circle. After we finish singing the songs, the children get the chance to explore the room and share some of the things in our classroom that are either living or non-living. Below are the lyrics to the “living” song. Ask your children to share it with you and sing along with them! It is to the tune of Frère Jacques.

It is living!

It is living!

I know why! I know why!

It breathes and grows and changes

It breathes and grows and changes

It’s alive! It’s alive!

Along with the living and non-living activities on the shelf, this week we introduced a new work to the children identifying the different parts of a tree. It is exciting to watch the children take what they are learning in the classroom and become engaged in insightful exploration together when we go outside for recess.  Our natural playground allows their curiosity to flourish as they get a hands-on experience with nature. In the next few weeks we will be able to take some of the beautiful foliage into our classroom and use it for art work and exploration!

On a final note, this week was very special for our kindergarten students because they got to be a part of the naming ceremony for our two new bunnies in the zen garden! They happily reported back to the class after the assembly and let their younger friends know that our two new companions will be named Grace and Charity!

 

Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli

Mrs. Doyle’s Class: Traveling Our World

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

We are beginning to introduce the geography materials to the children. Simply put, geography at this age is about sharing our world with children.  The Montessori approach to teaching geography is unique and is comprised of two components, physical geography and political geography, also known as Culture. From the beginning of the school year, we weave geography lessons and terminology into our day as we learn about our physical world.

We start by teaching that the Earth is composed of land, water, and air.  Next, we introduce the Earth by learning about globes. Moving from this three dimensional representation of the Earth, we segway into maps.

Early in our school year, we categorized the planet Earth into air, land, and water. We then sorted what we would find in each of these different components of our world. Next, we introduced the geometric solid known as a sphere to the children and compared it to the shape of the globe. We start with a sandpaper globe that helps to distinguish land and water. The colored globe comes next and we begin to teach the continent names. We make a playdough sphere and cut it into half to help them visualize the concept of a hemisphere. Simultaneously, the children are learning about land forms that introduce the concept of lake, island, bay, cape, peninsula, gulf, isthmus, strait, archipelago, and a system of lakes.  These sensory experiences help the children learn about their physical world.

After learning the continent names, we introduce the puzzle maps for each continent, starting with North America in November. We learn that there are many countries in North America. The older children will trace and paint each of the puzzle maps. We will learn about the animals, people, and climate often associated with each of the continents. Our goal is to encourage the children to appreciate the beauty and wonder found in the similarities and differences around the world.

In our classroom, we have a cultural shelf with artifacts from each continent. If anyone is ever traveling and has the opportunity to add to our treasured class collection, we would be ever so grateful.

Listen carefully and you may just hear your child singing, “Do You Know The Continents?”

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Doyle & Mrs. Lyga