“As we observe children, we see the vitality of their spirit, the maximum effort put forth in all they do, the intuition, attention and focus they bring to all life’s events, and the sheer joy they experience in living.”  – Maria Montessori – The Child, Society and the World (Unpublished Speeches and Writing)

As we get closer to recording presentations of Ancient Civilizations, we are focusing more of our time on research, even devoting morning work cycle to gathering and recording information in small groups. In addition to writing presentations, Upper El students are learning to keep track of and cite their resources, both printed and digital. We have now moved the dioramas into the classroom as well and students will be working on completing their models in addition to the written work they are doing for their group presentations. All of this intense focus is met with great enthusiasm by the Upper El students. They are thrilled and energized to immerse themselves into this work with their peers. We are looking forward to sharing the recorded presentations with you on Friday of next week.

Even with all of our focus on work, we are finding time to have lots of fun together. We had a great time playing outside in the snow this week, including an awesome Upper El vs. Middle School snowball fight. Upon returning to the classroom after recess that day, an Upper El student shared, “That was the best recess I’ve ever had in my entire life!” Another day this week, they created a snow slide on our playground and enjoyed taking turns sliding down the hill.

We have worked hard during this short week. The students’ ancient civilizations research projects are starting to come together. They are putting their MakerSpace and Art time to good use, making dioramas of their civilizations. It is wonderful to see how well they are collaborating on these projects. As we get closer to recording the presentations, we will concentrate our focus more completely on this group work and, towards the end of next week, will dedicate our work cycles completely to immersing ourselves into research.

In addition to our focused research in History, we continued with lessons in our other subject areas this week. In Geometry, the fourths learned to prove the equivalence between regular polygons and rectangles and fifths learned to apply a formula for finding the area of a trapezoid. In Biology we looked at functions of relationship in plants with a lesson on sensitivity and movement, called tropism. We learned about five different types of tropism: photo- (towards light), thermo- (towards heat), geo- (towards gravity), hydro- (towards water), and thigmo- (in response to touch or contact). Our Geography lesson on the work of air focused on the causes of local winds and rain.

This week we enthusiastically continued our work with ancient civilizations in preparation for our upcoming research presentations. Students started working together in groups of four to study the ancient civilizations of Egyptians, Romans, and Aztecs. On Monday the class collected all of the books from our classroom library on ancient civilizations and divided them up between the different groups. They are following a detailed research guide to help them pull the pertinent information from books their group chose. Art and MakerSpace work will be integrated with their research over the next several weeks, as they make models of their civilizations. The collaboration I am observing on a daily basis is impressive, down to their inclusion of their group members who are working from home.

Other work this week included large and small group lessons. In geometry, the fourths learned more ways to prove a trapezoid’s equivalence to a rectangle and fifths learned to use two formulas to find the area of obtuse triangles. In our large group geography lesson we looked at the causes of local winds and learned about sea breezes and land breezes. We also looked at how the seasons create steady winds that blow towards the equator and variable winds near large masses of land and water. We talked about parts of the world where monsoons are caused by changes in winds and areas of low pressure. Fourth grade language work this week focused on singular and plural nouns and fifth grade focused on regular and irregular verbs.

Thank you for your contributions to our sandwich making community service this week. I’m happy to say that each time we complete this process, we become a little better at it. Your children will be expert sandwich makers by the end of the year! We joyfully made and delivered over 200 sandwiches to St. Vincent DePaul.

I hope you all had a wonderful break and enjoyed the holidays with your families. We have had a happy and busy first week back full of collaborative work, individual lessons, and engaged class discussions.

This week we kicked off preparations for our upcoming research presentations during the first week of February with daily lessons on Ancient Civilizations. In Upper Elementary, we study civilizations to learn to see them as an evolutionary stage and to identify with the process of civilization. They learn to challenge the notion of a simplistic, linear progression of human development and they discover the most significant events of civilization. We explore the cultural contributions of civilizations and we hope these studies will arouse each student’s curiosity for expanded studies of civilizations. As we learn about the development of civilizations, we will explore how each group satisfied certain fundamental needs. We will look for ways they expressed basic human tendencies and will compare and contrast groups. Within each study, we will focus on geography, cultural activities, everyday life, and political and economic systems. Upper El students will be working in small groups, each group focusing on one civilization. Working together, they will complete their research in school. During the first week of February, they will present to their peers and I will record their presentations. The Ancient Civilizations group presentations will be shared with you at the end of that week. I’ll be sharing more information with you as we go!

“When a particular sensitiveness is aroused in a child, it is like a light that shines on some objects but not others, making of them [their] whole world.”…”[The sensitive period] comes for a moment but its benefits last for a lifetime.” -Maria Montessori

“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!