Ms. Kayser’s Class: A Month of Love

Posted on by skayser

February is a month of love and appreciation; with Valentine’s Day right around the corner and all the beautiful red and pink, heart themed works on the shelves, the children are all feeling extra special. We make sure that our classroom environment is welcoming and warm every month of the year, but this month we have been paying extra close attention to the importance of kindness and compassion. Our students have come a long way from being strangers at the beginning of the year, and the connection that they all share with one another is something that we hope they will never forget.

In our Montessori plus program this month, the children are spending time talking about friends and family and working on some exciting projects to help reinforce the idea of being a good person to everyone. When we asked our students what a friend was, their responses melted our hearts:

“We share our toys with friends.”

“We make our friends laugh so hard that they fall down.”

“We are kind to our friends and we don’t fight.”

“We love each other and take turns.”

They are already so aware of their behavior and how it affects people other than themselves. There is such a hope for humanity knowing that these beautiful souls are going to one day make an impact on our world with their kind and gentle hearts.

Lucky for us, the weather also felt like sharing a bit of love with some beautiful, sunny days! The children were so happy to get outside and spend time in the warm sun. Although the winter season is not over yet, those two days filled us with enough joy to carry us until spring!

Just a few quick reminders:

On February 13th, we will be celebrating Valentine’s Day in our classroom!

Giving and receiving Valentines is a special part of a child’s school experience and one of their favorites!  There are 23 students in our class. Please have your child sign (alone or with your help) each Valentine. Leave the envelope blank (with no specific name on it). This enables your child to distribute their valentines without having to read each classmate’s name.  If your child is able to independently read the names of the children, then they may choose to write the names on the outside of the envelopes.  Please allow time for the name writing process. It’s a lot to write for small hands! This is a great activity for them to practice writing names, so remember to use upper case only for the first letter of the name.

On February 14th, we have our parent-teacher conferences. If you did not already select a slot on the sign-up genius from the email we sent last week, please take a look and see if any of the times work for you. If there is not an available time, please don’t hesitate to email me so we can set up a time before or after school that works best for you! The children have been working so hard since we last met, and we can’t wait to sit down and share everything with you!

With love,

Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli

Ms. Kayser’s Class: Passion for Creativity

Posted on by skayser

“Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and the strength, use it to create.” 

– Maria Montessori

In the classroom every week, our children push themselves to new and exciting heights. They have no fear in trying things they have not yet done, and are gaining a beautiful confidence that continues to grow with each passing day. One of the most amazing aspects of the Montessori classroom is the freedom for the children to choose what their heart is telling them they wish to pursue. Each day there seems to be something different calling the students into action. As their teachers, we must sit back and allow them to follow these passions and provide just enough support to be sure they are successful in their exploration.

This week the children’s creativity was beyond what we could have imagined. From the moment they walked in the door, each student was driven to something that involved a high level of concentration and artistic ability. Our continent maps are what drew the most attention from the class. Each student chose which continent they wished to recreate and spent time looking at the names of the countries and even exploring our globes to see where they were on Earth in comparison to North America. Then the children set off to trace the map on another sheet of paper; even some of our youngest students wished to trace it on their own without our assistance! Once the tracing was done, the children were able to use colored pencils or paint to color in their maps. Overall, the process was an arduous task for a three or four year old child, but their ability to sit and concentrate for that long was something that told us this was truly what was calling them that day.

As a teacher, it is a heart-warming experience to sit back and watch as the creativity and curiosity of the children flow  throughout the classroom without restriction. The children learn so much more when they are able to choose and experience their passions in the moment!

Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli

Mrs. Doyle’s Class: What Exactly Is a Normalized Classroom?

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

Montessori teachers are quite familiar with the term normalization.  It is something we strive for from the moment a child first enters our classroom.  To put it simply, normalization is an inner peace achieved through the ability to focus, concentrate, and self-regulate.  The children become confident in themselves and trusting of their environment, including their teachers.  Typically, in a Montessori classroom the first half of the year is designed to help foster normalization. Then in January we begin to see the bigger picture emerge. Children are engaged in longer work cycles, have the ability to successfully and independently navigate the classroom, and are eager to learn as much as they can in their environment. Dr. Montessori believed that normalization was “the most single important result of our whole work.”  From a teacher’s point of view it is both exciting and rewarding to step back and observe, or rather feel the energy in the classroom, without the focus being on the adults present.

We look forward to sharing with you all of your child’s social, emotional and academic growth during parent/teacher conferences.  If you have not done so you can do so by clicking on the link in the email previously sent or copying and pasting the link below in your browser.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b4ca9a82da7fa7-winter1

Stay warm and have a wonderful week!

Michelle & Sonja

Mrs. Carroll’s Class: Beauty and Poetry

Posted on by Cindy Carroll

 

“We especially need imagination in science.  It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry.”-Maria Montessori

We have had fun exploring states of matter this month. While our younger children generally chose to observe and repeat activities and experiments, our kindergartners enjoyed making predictions before doing experiments and then testing their hypothesis. Thank you Mr. Brown and seventh year students for sharing your knowledge of science, conducting an experiment illustrating the phase change from liquid to gas, and helping us to bring our month of matter to a close.

Parent-teacher conferences are fast approaching. We look forward to seeing you all and sharing your child’s journey. If you have not yet done so please take a moment to click on the link in the email previously sent or copy and paste the link below in your browser.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f45aeab2da4fb6-winter

Make it matter!

Cindy & Sharlene

Ms. Kayser’s Class: A Glimpse Into Our Afternoons

Posted on by skayser

The afternoons in our classroom have such a harmonious tune to them. We begin by cleaning up after lunch as an entire class-each student delegating jobs and helping one another to return their environment to the state of order it was prior to lunch. Once the children are finished, we get to spend time within the environment working with the materials. The children love this extra work cycle that we get because of the freedom they have to explore. There are less children and more space for the older ones in the class to fan out and concentrate deeply on new or more time consuming works.

After a work cycle, the students get to immerse themselves into their age-appropriate program. Our four year olds get to enjoy working with Ms. Alli while our kindergarten students get to enjoy Reading or Writing Workshop with me. This time for the students is something they look forward to everyday!

This month in our four year old program, the children have become scientists! They are making hypotheses and carrying out different experiments each week! These afternoons are specifically crafted to be more play-based while still academically leading the child to exciting new discoveries.

Reading and Writing Workshop is a time for the kindergarten students to really begin flourishing academically. The small group size gives the students time to work with me one on one to refine their individual assets as both readers and writers. It is beautiful to see the growth that our four kindergarten students have made from the beginning of the year. They take so much pride in their writing and reading!

Although it is important for us to spend time in the classroom working with the materials, we feel that movement is essential to the child’s development. If we are unable to go outside at the end of the day, Ms. Alli brings together the whole group to do yoga. She has been practicing with them since the beginning of the year and their control of their bodies has grown stronger and more refined with each passing day. This time is very important to the students because they are able to calm down and concentrate on within rather than what is happening around them. We typically end our yoga sessions with a two to three minute meditation practice to transition the students from yoga to the next activity.

All the best,

Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli

Mrs. Carroll’s Class: It Matters!

Posted on by Cindy Carroll

This week we continued to build on our understanding of the three states of matter: liquid, solid, and gas.  Hands on activities helped to illustrate how one state of matter can change to another: melting, freezing, or boiling. Water is the perfect example of states of matter to children because it can exists in all three different states. Our first experiment introduced a solid (ice cube) to liquid (water) change. Why the change? The children will tell you that when matter gains or loses heat it can change from one state to another, ice to water, water to ice, water to gas. In our second experiment the children not only got to find out how butter is made, but also saw a liquid turn into a solid. The children took turns shaking (agitating) cream until its fat molecules became shaken out of position and clumped together to form butter. We all enjoyed sampling the fruits of our labor spread on fresh bread.

Never underestimate your children’s interest in science and their ability to understand. In fact, ask them to illustrate how molecules in each of the three states move. I know you will all be amazed!

Make your week ‘MATTER.’

Cindy & Sharlene

Ms. Kayser’s Class: The World is at Our Fingertips

Posted on by skayser

 

Our classroom travels the world every day exploring new places and people across the globe. The children love to hear about the ways that people around the world differ from them, and find joy in the similarities that we all share.

This month in the classroom, we have been exploring the continent of Asia. Out of all the continents that we have learned about, Asia is largest! The children have gotten to learn about the different countries of Asia and the people that inhabit them, as well as all of the animals they can find throughout those countries.

Exploring the beauty of the culture is always an insightful experience for both the children and ourselves. In art this week, Mrs. Reid created a beautiful project for the children that allowed them to create their own calligraphy scrolls! The kindergartners chose a specific Chinese character to replicate and then drew a picture to symbolize their chosen character. The three and four year old friends in the classroom recreated cherry blossom trees on their scrolls. Overall, both groups got hands-on experience working with this ancient tradition, and created the most unique artwork to display throughout our school’s hallways.

Take some time to stop by our primary wing, as well as the administrative wing to look at all of your children’s hard work!

Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli

Mrs. Carroll’s Class: A Warm Place

Posted on by Cindy Carroll

The holidays are behind us now and the new year looms on the horizon as a time of hope and promise in our lives, our families, and our communities. Your children’s smiles and laughter once again warm both our classroom and our hearts. It is not uncommon to see an increase in children’s emotional, social, and academic development after returning from the break. Our classroom routines are well established and each child is discovering his/her part in our classroom community.  We slowly begin to introduce longer and more involved lessons. It truly is an exhilarating time of the school year!

Matter is everywhere! We have begun our study of the basics of solid, liquid, and gas and look forward to illustrating how matter can change from one state to another: melting, freezing, boiling, condensation, sublimation, and deposition.

Our classroom travels have taken us to the continent of Asia, the largest of the seven continents.  We look forward to exploring the various countries, customs, animals, foods, music, and literature this culturally rich continent has to offer.

Thank you again for your thoughtful and generous holiday gifts.  Ms. Sharlene and I are blessed to have such a warm, supportive classroom community.

Stay well!

Cindy and Sharlene