Mrs. Doyle: Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

 

You can find magic wherever you look. So sit back and relax, all you need is a book.  

                                                                                                                                                                    —–Dr. Seuss

Read Across America is a national event celebrated on March 2nd, the birthday of Dr. Seuss. This initiative was created by the National Education Association and implemented to encourage a love of reading in children. At FWM, we also turn that day into Pajama Day, and the children bring their favorite book to share. We hope you enjoy the pictures.

An online article from nationaldaycalendar.com has some beautiful ideas on how to motivate children to read wherever they are.

  • Keep books everywhere you spend time. Put them in the car, in every room of the house, and tuck them in backpacks and purses. Make them easily accessible.
  • Visit the library often. Knowing how to use the library and learning the benefits of a library fosters a love of reading as well as genuine respect for the services libraries provide.
  • Get caught reading. Children imitate what they see the adults around them do. Whether they see you read a magazine, newspaper, or novel, let them know reading is the cool thing to do.
  • Read to your children. No matter their age, reading aloud strengthens their vocabulary and language skills. It also opens up opportunities for discussion.
  • Have your children read to you, too. You never know what you might learn!

In our classroom, we call books treasures. Reading is an integral part of each school day. I hope that Miss Maria and I can pass on our passion for literature to your children.

Happy Reading!

Michelle & Maria

Mrs. Lopes: Oh The Places You’ll Go!

Posted on by Amanda Lopes


You can find magic wherever you look. So sit back and relax, all you need is a book.  

                                                                                                                                                                    —–Dr. Seuss

Read Across America is a national event celebrated on March 2nd, the birthday of Dr. Seuss. This initiative was created by the National Education Association and implemented to encourage a love of reading in children. At FWM, we also turn that day into Pajama Day, and the children bring their favorite book to share. We hope you enjoy the pictures.

An online article from nationaldaycalendar.com has some beautiful ideas on how to motivate children to read wherever they are.

  • Keep books everywhere you spend time. Put them in the car, in every room of the house, and tuck them in backpacks and purses. Make them easily accessible.
  • Visit the library often. Knowing how to use the library and learning the benefits of a library fosters a love of reading as well as genuine respect for the services libraries provide.
  • Get caught reading. Children imitate what they see the adults around them do. Whether they see you read a magazine, newspaper, or novel, let them know reading is the cool thing to do.
  • Read to your children. No matter their age, reading aloud strengthens their vocabulary and language skills. It also opens up opportunities for discussion.
  • Have your children read to you, too. You never know what you might learn!

In our classroom, we call books treasures. Reading is an integral part of each school day. I hope that Ms Hema and I can pass on our passion for literature to your children.

Happy Reading!

Amanda & Hema

Ms. Marissa: Oh The Places You’ll Go!

Posted on by Marissa Frisk

Read Across America is a national event celebrated on March 2nd, the birthday of Dr. Seuss. This initiative was created by the National Education Association and implemented to encourage a love of reading in children. At FWM, we also turn that day into Pajama Day, and the children bring their favorite book to share.

An online article from nationaldaycalendar.com has some beautiful ideas on how to motivate children to read wherever they are.

  • Keep books everywhere you spend time. Put them in the car, in every room of the house, and tuck them in backpacks and purses. Make them easily accessible.
  • Visit the library often. Knowing how to use the library and learning the benefits of a library fosters a love of reading as well as genuine respect for the services libraries provide.
  • Get caught reading. Children imitate what they see the adults around them do. Whether they see you read a magazine, newspaper, or novel, let them know reading is the cool thing to do.
  • Read to your children. No matter their age, reading aloud strengthens their vocabulary and language skills. It also opens up opportunities for discussion.
  • Have your children read to you, too. You never know what you might learn!

In our classroom, we call books treasures. Reading is an integral part of each school day. I hope that I can pass on our passion for literature to your children.

Happy Reading!

Mrs. Sargeant: A Peek at the Week

Posted on by Christine Sargeant

We have spent the first week of March listening to Irish music. The children have learned a bit about bagpipes, and many of them start to dance as soon as the music begins to play.  We’ve listened to the music from Riverdance and talked about Irish dancing. In some of the music, we listened for drums being played along with the bagpipes. The children have also enjoyed learning the names of other musical instruments such as flute, clarinet, French horn, trombone, and guitar. They have seen photos of people playing these instruments and enjoyed matching miniature replicas of these instruments to the photos. 

This week, we tasted asparagus: raw and cooked. Many of the children enjoyed the cooked asparagus. They noticed the difference in taste between the two, as well as the distinct crunch of the raw. 

We are so grateful to Angela and Michael Huttemann for working with our children to create a gorgeous collaborative handprint masterpiece, which will be available for purchase at the gala. 

Our children also had the opportunity to work with Ms. Sarah, our art teacher, to complete another project for the gala. They each pressed their fingerprints onto a ceramic vase. Upon completion, their fingerprints will look like insects crawling on its surface. We are eager to see the finished product!

We hope you enjoy some quality time with your families over the spring break, and look forward to seeing everyone back at school on March 25th.

Warmly, Christine & Lizette

Ms. Marissa: Art & Science Intertwined

Posted on by Marissa Frisk

When we study continents, animals, and plants, we always find a way to connect to the material sensorially. In the Primary Montessori classroom, incorporating art into these other scientific areas of study helps children relate to the material on another level. We trace animals and paint them using watercolors, we create continent maps using markers, colored pencils and liquid watercolors, we use tempera paint sticks to paint the landscapes of different places we study. Last week, children used play dough of different colors to create the layers of the Earth, cut it in half, and see how a globe transforms into a flat map. In art, Ms. Sara showed us how to use watercolor pencils to replicate the beautiful inside of geodes.

But what about all these beautiful colors we use? How do THEY come to be? We have been dappling in color mixing all year – through simple, open-ended primary color mixing using a mini ice cube tray, combining ground chalk and salt to see what colors come of it, and by the natural exploration of what color our paint water turns! This week, we introduced a very careful and methodical way of color mixing – our color mixing wheel! Children very carefully apply droplets of water on the specified spots, mix each area together, and lay a paper towel over top. Before you know it – we’ve created a beautiful color wheel! You may be getting a lot of paper towels at home in your child’s folders – this is why!

Check out this sped-up demo!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Marissa & Sue

Mrs. Lopes: Amazing Africa

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

Each time we study a new continent, we first find it on the globe, then we locate the continent on the world map, and lastly, we study the individual continent using the specific continent maps. Currently, the children are learning about the continent of Africa. We learn about the geography, culture, weather, animals, and people of Africa.

We are learning lots of fun and fascinating facts about the continent of Africa.

  • Africa is the second largest continent, with 54 countries.
  • The longest river in the world, the Nile, is located in Africa.
  • Over one thousand languages are spoken by the people in Africa.
  • The Sahara, the world’s largest desert, is located here.
  • The highest mountain in Africa is Mount Kilimanjaro. It is so tall that glaciers can be found at its summit even though the mountain is near the equator.
  • Africa is the most centrally located continent in the world. Both the prime meridian and the equator cut across it.
  • The world’s tallest animal, the giraffe, and the largest land animal, the African elephant, are found in Africa.

Wishing you a week filled with peace and love.

Amanda & Hema

Mrs. Sargeant: A Peek at the Week

Posted on by Christine Sargeant

The children enjoyed the sunshine and warmer weather this week. They ended last week tasting lemons, and this week, they gave plantains a try. We discussed the differences between plantains and bananas. Plantains tend to be larger, with thicker skin. They are also a bit starchy, whereas bananas are sweeter. We had the opportunity to taste mangu, which is a Dominican dish consisting of cooked, mashed plantains. We’ll end the week trying plantain chips. 

Stay healthy, and enjoy the first weekend of March! 

Ms. Marissa: All You Need Is Love

Posted on by Marissa Frisk

While last week was a short week, it was a busy one! We had Simone and Madison’s moms in to celebrate with us by making crafts for Valentine’s Day. The children exchanged valentines, and overall, it was a very exciting week!

This past Thursday, we celebrated the 100th day of school with the kindergarteners. From the very first day of school, kindergarteners have been learning to count by 1s, 5s, and 10s to 100. They spent the afternoon going to different stations that revolved around 100. They drew pictures of what they would like when they were 100, what they would buy with $100, and what they wished they had a hundred of, made a 100 headband, and then played a game called Race to 100. They even did 100 exercises and learned how hard it was to sit quietly for 100 seconds. The highlight was bringing home a delicious 100th-day-of-school snack. As always, thank you for the behind-the-scenes help from all of our parent volunteers to make these memories possible.

Saturday, March 2nd, is National Read Across America Day. This is a day to celebrate our favorite activity—reading!!!!!!! This special day was established by the National Education Association (NEA) in 1998 to help get kids excited about reading. The day occurs each year on the birthday of children’s book author Dr. Seuss; on Tuesday, March 5th, the children can wear their pajamas to school and bring their favorite book and a stuffed animal in to share. It’s always a fun day for all.