“The child’s development follows a path of successive stages of independence, and our knowledge of this must guide us in our behaviour towards [them]. We have to help the child to act, will and think for [themselves]. This is the art of serving the spirit, an art which can be practised to perfection only when working among children.” -Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind

Every single day I am amazed and impressed by this group of students. In all my years of teaching, I have never seen a group of individuals who treat each other with such kindness and caring. They rarely have any conflict at all, and when they do, they work things out with each other beautifully and respectfully. And it’s not just their social interactions which are impressive. Each and every one of them is incredibly hard working and focused. They hold themselves accountable for their work and are consistently motivated to work hard. They love collaborating with each other, both within and across their two grade levels. They are a joy to teach and I am grateful every day to guide them in their education.

This week’s lessons in geometry were a continuation of the fourth grade work with equivalence and fifth grade work with finding area. Our biology work continued with a lesson on the chemical reactions that take place in plants during respiration. We used the molecule model material to represent what happens when plants take in oxygen and burn and break down their sugar into molecules of water and carbon dioxide. In our geography lesson this week we looked at air pressure on Earth. We learned what causes areas of low and high pressure and the different kinds of winds that are created by these areas. The students have also worked hard all week on their individualized lessons and independent work across the curriculum. We ended the week by making over 200 sandwiches for the St. Vincent DePaul Mission in Waterbury. Thank you so much for generously donating all of the ingredients for our sandwiches!

We were happy to be back after our long weekend. We had a productive week with lots of lessons and fun.

In geometry, fourth years learned to determine if a parallelogram and rectangle are equivalent by looking at the base and height of each. Fifth years learned three formulas for finding the area of an acute angle triangle. Our biology lesson this week on photosynthesis focused on the specifics of what is happening inside the plant during the process. We looked at the molecular structure of water, carbon dioxide, sugar, and starch and, using models, explored the work the plant does to make sugar and starch. In history, fourth years wrapped up their Timeline of Life work with an exploration of the entire timeline and they will be working with it independently over the next two weeks. Fifth years learned about the Maglemosians, the people of the great bog. They continue to research and illustrate one concept from the lesson and will be constructing a timeline of modern humans together. Literature circles are going well with fourth years reading Rules and fifths reading Wonder. Each group is now able to lead their own discussions, and after going over their roles, spends time discussing what has happened in the book so far and shares their thoughts about the story.

The students are looking forward to making sandwiches for St. Vincent DePaul Mission in Waterbury next week. Please look for the sign up in the next few days if you would like to contribute.

This week the Upper El students and I would like to share some thoughts about what we are thankful for this year. With permission, and a promise to keep it anonymous, I am sharing quotes from each student’s daily journal…

“I’m thankful for my family, friends, and dog, Freddy. This is because they’re kind, funny, make me feel loved, and are a little bit crazy – but in a good way. I’m also thankful to be able to have Thanksgiving in person this year which I think is amazing and very important this year 🙂 !”

“I am thankful for my mom, my grandpa, and my dog because my dog is very funny and so is my grandpa and my mom is very nice. I am thankful for my friends, my family, and food. I am thankful for food because food is one of the things we need to live, my family because they are the best, and my friends because they stick with me and we have the greatest memories.”

“I’m thankful for my family because if we did not have family what would we do, my friends, teacher, and church because they are nice, strong, and amazing.”

“I’m thankful for my family and friends, pets and farms because they honor me and respect me. I am thankful for my moms because they help me and cook for me.”

“I am thankful for my family, for my friends, for the food we get to eat, and for my video games.”

“I am thankful for my grandma (Nonna) because she is fun to play with. I am thankful for mountain biking because it feels good when you land a jump or go down a trail very fast and don’t fall.”

“I am thankful for my family, friends, and teacher. I am thankful for water, food, my house, entertainment, and school.”

“I’m thankful for my brother and my dad because my brother and I don’t see each other that much.”

“I’m thankful for my friends because they’re always there for me. I’m thankful for food because it keeps me living.”

“I am thankful for food because you can’t live without it. I am thankful for my mom because she helps me in tough situations and we do fun things together.”

“I am thankful for my family because they help me when I need it. I’m grateful for my xbox because it is fun.”

“I’m thankful for my mom and dad because they do so much for me and they brought me into this world. I am thankful for food, family, entertainment, friends, joy, love, caring, being kind, and the Earth.”

 

…and I am beyond thankful that I get to walk this journey with your children. They are truly amazing, hard working, kind, and compassionate people.

I hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The MyFWM Dashboard has a fantastic new feature called the HUB. Each morning we start our daily work cycle by visiting the Dashboard of MyFWM and checking out the HUB. There, the children are learning to check any messages they have received from teachers, see what the schedule is for the day, and look at their current assignments. They check off assignments as they complete them, and in this way are using the HUB as an organizational tool for their schoolwork. By making this part of our daily routine, each student is not only learning useful skills to help them become responsible, organized, and accountable, but they will also be prepared to use this tool in the event that we spend a portion of our year learning from home.

In Geometry the fourth years learned another way to prove the equivalence between a rhombus and a rectangle and fifths learned how to find the area of a parallelogram. Everyone really seemed to enjoy our Biology lesson this week on photosynthesis. We had a great discussion about the pigment chlorophyll and why most plants are green. The students enjoyed using a mortar and pestle to crush leaves into a pulp and then combine the pulp with rubbing alcohol to draw out the pigment. They also learned that plants need the sun, and without the sunlight, the pigment in the plant will die. Our fourth grade History lesson this week was on the Cenozoic Era, the age of mammals. Our fifth graders learned about the Azilian people of the Mesolithic, or “Middle Stone Age” culture. In language this week, fourth graders wrapped up their work with Sentence Analysis, and fifth graders did some in-depth work with main and auxiliary verbs.

Our week has been filled with fun and learning together. The fourth years learned about proving the equivalence of a rhombus and a rectangle in geometry and the fifths worked on finding the area of squares. In our biology work this week, we continued learning about the upward flow of water in plants with a focus on transpiration. We learned that as water passes out of leaves through the stomata and evaporates, the empty space it leaves is filled by water flowing in from the stem. This continues and creates a steady pull of water and nutrients from the roots, through the xylem and the leaves. The students were surprised to learn that this force is strong enough to pull the water ten times as high as the highest tree. In our geography lesson, we experimented to see which heats up and cools off faster, land or water. We started with some predictions; some thought land would heat faster and some predicted the water would. Everyone thought the water would cool off faster. The children impressed me with the reasoning behind their predictions. We learned, by monitoring the temperature of a jar of sand and a jar of water placed in the bright sunlight, that the sand’s temperature rose much higher than the water’s, and when we removed them from the sunlight, it cooled off faster too. This principle will be used when we examine the heating and cooling of land and water masses.

An observer of our Upper Elementary classroom would see most of the children collaborating on their work; this is intentional. Montessori elementary communities are designed to support this collaboration because it is recognized as a need for this age group. Elementary children crave interaction, not just in a purely social setting, but also in organized groups where they are focused on a goal with their peers. At this age, children form strong attachments to friends and want to be surrounded by their peers. For this reason, most of their work is collaborative, with the exception of when they are working on individualized skills. This is also the phase for “acquisition of culture” (Montessori). This is one reason why there is such a strong focus on learning about how people throughout history have contributed to society. The children assimilate this new knowledge about history as they are learning to contribute to their own world, classroom and beyond.

This week our fourth grade geometry work focused on proving the equivalence of a triangle and rectangle. This work starts sensorially; the children use a metal inset material to prove the equivalence of the two shapes. After using the material, we discuss the requirements for the equivalence of a triangle and rectangle; when the base of the two shapes is equal and the height of the rectangle is half that of the triangle. The fifth graders focused on inverse area formulas. They learned how to find the height when given the base and area, and how to find the base when given the height and area. In biology we continued our lessons on the circulation of plants with a discussion and demonstration about capillarity; the upward movement of liquids as a result of surface tension. In history this week, the fourth years learned about the Mesozoic Era of the Timeline of Life (250 to 65 million years ago) and the fifth years learned about the Magdalenian people (17,000 to 12,000 years ago), the last group of modern humans in the Upper Paleolithic Age. The children’s enthusiasm about our Literature Circles continues to grow. They are enjoying discussing their books and sharing their roles with the group.