As the waiting for the butterflies to emerge continued this week, we learned about the life cycle of another fascinating insect: the ant! Eggs, larva, pupa and ant were some of the names they learned this week and children repeated over and over. We also introduced the anatomy of an insect using different giant insect models. Children learned that all insects have a head, a thorax and abdomen. They all have six legs and antennas which help them to feel and smell the world around them. They also learned that most insects have wings. To reinforce this lesson we learned the song: “Head, Thorax, Abdomen,” sung to the tune of “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” song.

Here are the lyrics:

Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen

Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen

Eyes, antennas, wings, 6 legs

Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen

Children also learned that spiders are not considered an insect, however they are a nice animal to observe. Happily we had some live insects visiting our classroom throughout the week and children really took the time to make sure they had all the body parts we learned this week.

By the end of the week children got the opportunity to observe two butterflies emerging from their chrysalises, stretching their wings and walking around the environment the children prepared for them.

For food tasting we explored a pretty cool vegetable that wasn’t in our rotation list, but since one of our families grew it in their garden, we had the opportunity to taste it: rhubarb. A big shout out to Ms. Eli for sharing such an interesting plant and cooking for us some rhubarb to taste. Even though it seems children were not absolutely in love with it, they tasted it and enjoyed some of its tart/sour/sweet flavor. This was my first time exploring this vegetable so I truly felt like one of the toddlers exploring this food. I gave it a thumbs up… not sure how many of the toddlers will agree with me. The good thing was that nobody spit it out so I think it passed the test.

Some of the favorite books this week were: The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle, Backyard Bugs by Jill McDonald and of course, Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi.

We hope you have a great weekend and please remember to take some time to jump in the puddles with your little ones.

Mrs. Hood and Mrs. Maria

Your children continue to observe patiently how our very hungry caterpillars fulfill  their metamorphosis process and become beautiful painted lady butterflies! They have already witnessed how these tiny caterpillars have grown, climbed up, positioned themselves upside down and how quickly they had made their chrysalis.

At some moments the children seem to despair a bit because the butterflies are not coming out so this has been a great opportunity to talk and reflect about the importance of waiting and being patient. The children have helped to collect nature items to decorate our glass house and prepare the environment for when the butterflies emerge. We might come back on Monday to find butterflies out of their chrysalis but we are having our fingers crossed for them to wait and give the VIP show to the children next week. Regardless of what happens, we can’t wait for next week!

To reinforce this special life cycle lesson, the children have learned a new song and since it has been so LOVED by your children, we want to share it with you at the end of this note, so you can rock it at home and watch your children dance to it. We hope you enjoy watching them dance to this song as much as we do everyday!

Another highlight of this week has been the introduction to a Pikler triangle into our movement area. Children have been thrilled to explore it and challenge themselves in it. Using this equipment enhances gross motor development, Increases spatial awareness, provides vestibular stimulation, strengthens limbs, promotes proprioceptive learning (physical self-awareness) and enables open-ended play. A Big shout out to Mrs. Wilson in our toddler team for sharing this equipment with our class!

For food tasting children explored crunchy cucumbers and had a good time sharing about the purple item they brought from home. We absolutely love to witness the explosion of vocabulary that your children are experiencing lately! It has been so fun to hear them express themselves much more clearly!

Lastly, Mrs. Maria and I want to thank you for the love shown through this teacher’s appreciation week.  Your children’s cards are treasures to us and we value every expression of love coming from you all!  We feel so honored knowing each of your toddlers and working together with you to create the most beautiful experience for each of your children.

Enjoy the pics,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria

 

This week we started exploring colors and discovering how mixing colors together creates new ones! We did the walking water experiment and we watched and observed the different changes in it during the week.  Children got to see the magic happening right in front of their eyes: We made a rainbow!

This reminded me of the importance of community! We for sure can shine by ourselves but the beauty and the brightness is stronger when we can rely on each other. A very strong sense of purpose and belonging is critical for all of us as humans.

In our toddler environment, it is evident how children already feel like a family. It’s common to hear parents to tell us each morning how excited their child is to come to school and we couldn’t be happier to know this! Your children are more than students to us! We belong together and we like it so much!

In the next couple of days and weeks there will be a couple of events that serve to strengthen our FWM community, and the toddlers, of course, are so excited to be part of it. We hope you can join us too!

This coming Sunday, May 1st,  is our FWM Auction and the toddlers worked on creating an artistic piece to participate in it. A couple of months ago I found this little cute bench and I brought it into our environment and since that day, children LOVE  rocking and reading their books on it. So, we decided to donate it for the auction and children worked this week on painting it in a very fun way! We can’t wait for you to see it this Sunday! We hope one family can really enjoy this little bench that comes with a lot of love from our toddler class!

We want to thank Kate and Patricia, who volunteered their time to come and work with the children for this project! We appreciate you SO much!

The children also worked this week with Mrs. Reid, our school art teacher for our upcoming School Art show. From May 9th through May 20th, Parents can come inside the building and view the art work from every child in the school, between the hours of 9am-2:30pm.

There are more events on the horizon for all of us to get connected, but for now we are going to leave you here with these two. We hope you also can participate and help us create a beautiful “rainbow”.

Enjoy the weekend,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria

P.S. Your children love kumquats and we love to see their faces testing them! Yum! 🙂

“We cannot create observers by saying ‘observe’, but by giving them the power and the means for this observation and the means are procured through education of the senses” – Maria Montessori 

The grass is getting greener, the birds are chirping louder, and after a long winter, we continue to happily observe how the Earth wakes up from its deep slumber. Even though we witness this season every year, it feels so magical every time! 

Like Dr. Maria Montessori, we believe that nature is a patient teacher and that Earth is our classroom. Corresponding to how we teach children in the Montessori tradition, nature provides us with both concrete and abstract learning for students of all ages. At our level, children have experiences that introduce them to marvelous wonders by using all five of their senses to comprehend concrete things and build a foundation for understanding the processes of natural life, plus children absolutely love the outdoors! Lately even the shoes come off! 

On that note, we have great news: Our very small hungry caterpillars have arrived and the children seem in awe!  The amazement in your children’s eyes is indescribable but we can tell you that they seem very excited about our new visitors. For the next few days your children will be able to observe the metamorphosis of a butterfly. 

We enjoy this season so much and we hope you do too! Happy Earth’s day!

Enjoy the weekend,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria 

This week we continued with our eggs and chickens theme. Children learned that chickens don’t have teeth but they use their beak to crush their food, they have feathers but they can’t fly very far, and they also enjoy eating some worms and seeds. To bring a real life experience to this topic, each child got to explore an egg. We introduced vocabulary words like shell, egg white, and yolk. They also had the opportunity to practice their fine motor skills by learning how to peel their own egg. They seemed to enjoy cracking the egg and carefully peeling the shell, then they had the opportunity to taste it. Some of them were really excited to see their egg also had a yolk like the one I presented. I encourage you to add this activity at home! Children were feeling very proud of themselves!

To reinforce the Spanish language, the children were also introduced to a fun Spanish song called: Los Pollitos. By the way,  in Spanish, the chicks say, “Pio, pio,” instead of “Chirp, chirp.” Just an interesting cultural bonus sent your way :). Children requested this song over and over, so we wanted to share it with you and let your children show you all the movements that go with it, while, of course, practicing their Spanish and having fun!

We also explored the color RED during our sharing time! Children loved talking about their objects and one of the students delighted us all while playing his red harmonica. Of course, this encouraged his peers to get up and dance and we had a blast!

Finally, for food tasting we explored black beans and even though this food item didn’t receive an outstanding ovation by all, some children asked for seconds.

We hope you all have a wonderful Easter and enjoy this long weekend together!

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria