Mrs. Carroll’s Class: Savor The Season

Posted on by Cindy Carroll

 

A chill to the air, the first fire in the fireplace, the smell of pumpkin spice. It’s finally fall!

This week your children experienced autumn, not just as a date on the calendar, but as an opportunity to use our sense of smell to really savor the season. The smells of pumpkin, leaves, and spices brought smiles and evoked particular memories.

Maria Montessori believed there is a sensitive period for developing the senses. Although the senses are an integral part of our lives, children during the early years have the greatest potential to develop and retrieve them. It is precisely this idea that demonstrates the purpose of Sensorial materials in the Montessori classroom. The Sensorial materials are powerful tools, which allow children to become aware of their unconscious impressions and bring these impressions into conscious awareness. Additionally, they enable your children to create a basis of order in their mind, allowing for intelligent exploration of their environment.

Please remember to access myfwm.org and sign up for your Parent/Teacher Conference.  We look forward to sharing your child’s many accomplishments.

Ms. Kayser’s Class: Shoot for the Moon!

Posted on by skayser

One of my favorite quotes written by Norman Vincent Peale is, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” The children in our classroom are so fearless in their own individual journeys. The risks they take and challenges they overcome are motivating to witness and it is such a pleasure to be there to help them gain the self-confidence they need to continue to flourish as remarkable human beings.

This week in our classroom, your children have truly landed among the stars with our new space themed geography unit! The children have spent many days learning a new song that helps them to remember the order of the planets. If you have not heard it yet, please ask them to share it with you because it is truly a fascinating sight to see and hear!

The children are so enthusiastic about space and the exploration of the each individual planet. Each morning we start our day with our planet song and learn about a new planet from our solar system. We have gotten to read about all the planets and have learned some amazing facts! One thing that the children are so curious about is the difference in days and years on the other planets compared to Earth. We use the children’s ages to help them to get a better understanding of how long years can be on other planets. For example, one year on Jupiter is 12 years on Earth! We said that our kindergartners will be 17 years old and almost out of high school by the time a year has passed on Jupiter! Wow!

Along with our song and books, the children have new exciting works on our geography shelf that they use to explore the solar system more closely! They can make their own solar system books, and even replicate the constellations!

We hope your week was as “out of this world” as ours was!

Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli

Mrs. Carroll’s Class: Star Struck!

Posted on by Cindy Carroll

 

“A vision of the universe begins with looking up at the stars.” -Maria Montessori.

This week’s lessons have been out of this world. We continue to explore the components of our solar system and enjoyed our study of stars.  But are we looking up, down, or out?  To help the children understand that the stars are all around planet Earth, Sharlene and I placed a small clay figure, lying on its back, on North America on the classroom globe. We shared that the figure represented a child in the class looking up at the stars. We then took a similar figure and placed it at the tip of South America. We shared that the figure was a child in South America and asked if he was looking down at the stars.   Many of your children immediately recognized that both children are looking out at the stars because stars are all around the planet Earth. Bravo!

The beauty of a constellation was also introduced. Examining the patterns of  groups of stars (Orion, Cassiopeia, Big and Little Dipper) help the children to recognize them on their own when they look at the sky on a starry night.

Take some time this week to star gaze!

Cindy & Sharlene

 

 

Ms. Kayser’s Class: Hello Fall!

Posted on by skayser

September is officially behind us and we are moving on into October! Last week was the first week that the children got to experience the new fall themed works on the shelves and their reactions were priceless! It is always such an exciting time for them when the room changes for the new month ahead. All the works they have been doing suddenly change and new works take their place. This change-over gives them new opportunities to work with the same lessons, but in a new way. The children’s curiosity is instantly sparked and they are instantly absorbed in the environment.

The children have thoroughly enjoyed working with our new language materials the most. These materials allow them to work with real pumpkins and gourds. The children get to explore these beautiful materials and learn for themselves that a pumpkin is not always round and orange!

Another exciting experience that the children are enjoying is the new additions to the art shelf. We have introduced them to the color mixing work where they can see for themselves that yellow and red make orange! This experiment has transported over to our art easel as well. We have allowed the children to manipulate red and yellow paint to create unique orange paintings. Don’t be surprised if, in the next few weeks, these beautiful pieces of art start to fill your home.

We hope that the weeks ahead are filled with brightness and joy, as you and your family take advantage of all the special adventures that fall brings.

Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli

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.