December 5-9

This week we continued our studies of the flora of the North American biome.  We classified coniferous and deciduous trees.  We explored the different parts of a tree and their function.  We observed the vein structure of leaves and compared the different vein patterns of different leaves.  A most interesting lesson involved the collection and the exploration of different parts of a twig and their function.  Finally we distinguished the different parts of the crossection of a tree and learned about the way a tree grows from the cuttings of one of our student's Christmas tree.  Nomenclature for parts of a tree includes roots, branches, leaves, trunk; for the crossection of a tree, crossection, diameter, cambium, outer bark, growth rings, sapwood, and heartwood; for a twig, immature leaves, bud scales, lenticles, leaf scars, lateral buds, terminal scar, terminal bud, twig; for a leaf, blade, margin, veinlet, petiole, veins.

In Art we studied color and experimented with making secondary colors from the primary colors on the color wheel.  We did leaf rubbings and worked with water color.

Our garden has been growing beautifully this fall.  On Thursday we enjoyed the bounty of our garden by harvesting our kale and roasting it at 300 degrees for 20 minutes with olive oil and sea salt to make tasty kale chips which were enjoyed by all.

November 28-December 2

This week we continued our study of North America.  The children learned about the layers of the forest and studied the classification of coniferous and deciduous trees.

All of the children were able to participate in their first fundraiser for the Heifer Project.  The children decided to serve cider at the Bay Colony Greens Sale outside Jordan Hall on Thursday.  They made a poster to promote their charity and served cider to patrons of the sale while discussing the Heifer Project. The children made $98.00 and are well on their way to their goal of $250.

We wrapped up the week by experiencing the temperate forest in our own First Landing State Park.  We learned to respect nature by walking silently through the High Dune and Bald Cypress Trails.  The silence allowed the children to see and hear things in the forest they otherwise may have missed.  The children explored the different layers of the forest.  They found seedlings and saplings and explored the canopy.  They found seeds, fruits, nuts and pine cones and roots.  They found evergreen conifers and deciduous plants.  They found plants that provided shelter and food for animals.  They explored the forest floor and found rotting things, topsoil, subsoil, and found that the ground in some areas was saturated.  They found evidence of animals and discussed how the animals might eat, get their food, find shelter, protect themselves, reproduce, adapt to the environment.  they noticed the temperature and sunlight and wind and weather in the forest.  They imagined what it would be like to live in the temperate forest for a week.  What would they need to survive!  We will be spending more Fridays in First Landing throughout the year!

Saturday morning a group of students met on the Boardwalk at 37th street to cheer for participants of the Surf-N-Santa 10miler.  They sang carols and enjoyed hot cider and time with their friends.  It was neat to see how their singing positively impacted the runners!  They earned $100 from J&A racing for their work as crowd support which they are contributing to the Heifer Project.

November 21 & 22

This weekend 4 of our students met at First Landing State Park to join the Tidewater Appalachain Trail Club to help clean the Osthmanthus trail.  Other classmates will have opportunities to maintain the trail we have adopted throughout the school year.  This service project goes well with our study of the temperate forest biome!


We spent Monday preparing for the play!  It was so much fun to stay after school and have dinner together before our families joined us to see the final product of all the children's work. 


On Tuesday we enjoyed our traditional class feast.  The children prepared and cooked mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, succotash, stuffing and pumpkin pie (mostly) from scratch.  They set the table, made place cards, and used their very best manners throughout the meal.  They handled the clean up and had a great time from start to finish.  A big thank you to the DiGeronimo family for bringing our leftover stuffing casserole, sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie to the JCOC.  


We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful long holiday weekend surrounded by family and friends!

November 14-18

We have begun our study of the biomes of North America.  We began by taking an imaginary walk across North America, moving through the biomes as we walked through the temperate forest, the wetlands, the grasslands, the desert, the mountains, the tropical forest, and the polar region.  Since we live in the temperate forest in Virginia, this is where we will begin our study.  We will be learning about the flora, fauna, and people of the biome.  A temperate forest occurs in an area where the climate is "temperate" and neither very wet nor very dry.  The forest is a climate creator.  Millions of trees breathe out moisture and oxygen, creating rainfall and cleaning the atmosphere, thus sustaining life.

November 7-9

At this point, with an understanding of the concept of biomes and a knowledge of the different biomes, we are focusing our study on the continents and the plants, animals, and people who live in the various biome of each continent. 


We have wondered about how the spherical shape of the globe can be translated into a flat map.  We have worked with the Continent Map and played the continent game.


Some of our older students have been working on a study of water for the Challenge 20/20 Project.  Challenge 20/20 is based on J. Frischard’s book High noon:  20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them and is offered by the National Association of Independent Schools.  We have been partnered with a school in India and a school in Canada to they identify local solutions to the global problem of the water deficit.  Together we are working to define and research a problem, identify a workable solution for our school’s community and context, and map out steps of an implementation plan.  So far students have begun their research on water use and conservation, treatment of water and where our water comes from.  They are planning an outing to discover some of the answers to their questions after they research.

Please make sure to take the time to work with your child on his costume over the long weekend.  Costumes will be due to school on Wednesday.  A note went home today with information about your child's chosen costume.  The play will be Monday, November 21st at 3:30.

We look forward to seeing you at conferences Thursday and Friday.  


Please remember that All Day Montessori is available for your child at no cost during your scheduled conference time.  This service is available for those students enrolled at our school only.  

October 31-November 4

Historical Halloween was a huge hit!  We would like to thank our parents for coming to our "Living Museum.”  **We will be providing other opportunities for parents to come into the classroom throughout the year.  In an effort to make sure all parents know about classroom events we will always send home at least 2 notices and post events on the blog.  It is very important to check your child’s bag each night for notices of such events and to check the blog weekly!

In continuing with our Biome study the children played "Predator and Prey."  They used higher-level thinking skills to synthesize and apply their knowledge of biomes by drawing and labeling their own biome.  They were also introduced to the biome mat which allows them to practice their grammar by composing creative sentences about the biome and played "Biome Questions and Answers" to review characteristics of biomes of the world.

On Friday we had a great time at our Scenery Sleepover!  We painted, played Pictionary, had a great pizza dinner and survived a power outage from the great Nor'easter of 2011!  Many thanks to Mike Fernandez for making the children pancakes in the morning (and for bringing the teachers coffee!)!  

October 17-21 and October 24-28

Last week we had the amazing experience of traveling to Sarasota, Florida to attend the International Montessori Council annual conference.  We are excited to put all we learned into practice!

The children have been busy preparing for Historical Halloween.  Please be sure they bring their costumes to school on Monday.  We will give an oral presentation to the younger students and then invite you to join us at 3pm for a tour of our "Living Museum".

The students have been learning about plants.  The plant kingdom includes mosses, ferns, conifers and flowering plants.  Flowering plants have been the most successful, evolving into thousands of species and adapting to a variety of conditions.  The students learned to distinguish between flowering and non-flowering plants as well as the parts of a flowering plant.  We went outside to go a seed hunt to explore the various forms that seeds come in, the fruit that contains them, and their designs for traveling.

The students then moved on to the study of animals.  They learned about herbivores, carnivores and omnivores.  They move to find food.  They produce waste from the food that their bodies cannot use.  Their waste and their bodies go back to the soil to provide the soil with carbon.  Animals have the ability to adapt.  The students had a lesson to distinguish between invertebrates and vertebrates and to distinguish between the five classes of vertebrates.  They have studied the parts of the vertebrate and are looking at fish, amphibians, and reptiles.  They will study birds and mammals soon.  They had an engaging lesson on adaptation strategies and played a game of predator or pray to understand the dynamic between the two.

The students had an introductory music lesson on frequency and amplitude and have been exploring sound.  We are looking forward to the arrival of our new tone bars to bring our music curriculum to new heights!  Thank you to all who helped raise the funds to purchase the material to make this possible!

Several students began to dive in to our Challenge 20/20 Project to study the water deficit around the world.  They are really excited about the project and are bursting at the seams with ideas!  Look for more information to come!

Don't forget about our "Scenery Sleepover" next Friday, November 4th.  Information will be forthcoming.

Week of October 10-14

This week we had the Fourth Great Lesson:  The Story of Language.  Look for information to come home to facilitate conversations at home.  Your children may be curious about different languages or alphabets or learning about the Rosetta Stone.  During art this week the children made tablets of clay and wrote messages in cuneiform, a system of writing using a wedge shaped stylus developed by the Sumerians who lived along the Tigris and Euphrates River over 5,000 years ago.

The children had an impressionistic lesson involving a long black strip of cloth that represented the length of time since our earth was created.  The 30 meter black strip was unrolled on the field to reveal  a 3 centimeter white section at one end which the students were told represented the fraction of time that humans have existed on our plant.  They could see that the tiny strip of fabric represented all of human history, all of humanity:  from early humans through the Egyptians, the Greeks, early European Explorers all the way to the present.  The teachers could tell that impression of the lesson had landed when several of the students expressed awe and and amazement at how small they felt!  

During music we learned about Native American creation stories.  We learned about the importance of music and song for Native Americans and sang the Song of Happiness!

We met our new Physical Education teacher Ashley Sales!  Ashley will be working with the teachers over the next few weeks and will be taking over the PE class soon.  She has had great experience working at the YMCA and is very excited to join our staff!

This week we reviewed the hydrosphere, lithosphere and the atmosphere and learned what land and water forms are created when land and water meet on our planet earth.  Students worked with the terms lake and island, peninsula and gulf, bay and cape, strait and isthmus, and archipelago and system of lakes.

Students learned to orient oneself in relation to the four directions and worked with our Landform Mat to reinforce the name of the land and waterforms, to reinforce directions, and to provide opportunity to have conversations using the vocabulary they are learning.

Finally, we had several lessons and conversations about the life cycle of lice!  Please take the necessary precautions to check and treat children for lice over the weekend.  Staff members will be checking children on Monday morning to be sure they are nit free before they may return to school.  Thank you in advance for your help!

Week of October 3-7

This week we started working on our class play, "A Drop Around The World," which highlights the water cycle.  All children should be learning their lines at home.  Please see the Study Journals for more details.

This week we have been learning about soil.  Soil is necessary for life on this planet.  Plants need the minerals the soil provides.  Soil comes from the weathering of rocks (inorganic material) and the decomposition of living things (organic matter).  Soil consists of water, air, and fauna.  The right amount of water and warmth allow the soil to develop into distinct layers.  Soils are in the process of evolving.

The children have explored soil and clay, and different parts and layers of the soil so they can understand a typical well-developed soil profile as a standard against which they can compare soil profiles in the various biomes they will be studying.

Students explored the Carbon Cycle and the Nitrogen Cycle so that they can understand how energy can be recycled in the soil.  The students learned the recipe for compost is air, water, carbon from dead leaves and egg shells, and nitrogen from green grass clippings and vegetables.  They were then able to apply their knowledge as they participated in our classroom composting project.  Some of you sent in egg shells which the students crushed to provide carbon for our compost.  Our new garden is providing a wonderful place to learn abou the cycles of energy and our place in the food chain.  We would be very grateful for donations of grass clippings and more egg shells as well as coffee grounds for our compost!

We harvested the first of our fall vegetables today!  We had enough bib lettuce from our garden to make a wonderful salad for everyone to enjoy with lunch.

On Friday we had the Third Great Lesson, The Coming of Humans.  Please look for information to come home which explain the lesson and provide vocabulary the students are using in the classroom.  Take some time at home to access our school's World Book Online account to explore further about the Coming of Humans!

Last Friday during art the students made replicas of fossils using plaster.  They made both mold and cast fossils and made a book to demonstrate their knowledge.  During the Third Great Lesson, the students learned that one of the fundamental needs of humans is the need to express themselves artistically.

This week's art lesson included a study of cave paintings found in Lascaux, France.  After viewing the cave on the Lascaux website, the students made replicas of cave paintings using charcoal.

Experience the cave at home!
http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/index.php?lng=en#/fr/02_00.xml

Week, of September 26-30

• You may have heard that this week we had our Second Great Lesson: The Coming of Life.  Please see the papers that went home today for an overview of the lesson as well as a list of vocabulary from the lesson!
• We also had a lesson on the planets.  Many students are busy learning the planets, some are learning their symbols, and others still are doing research in varying depths on each of the planets.  You can help your child at home by talking about Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the "planet" recently deemed not a planet, Pluto.  Students have been working with a material that demonstrates stellarnucelosynthesis, the process by which stars are formed.  They are exploring the elements as well.
• Last week we concluded our focus on air by conducting an experiment that demonstrated the effect of temperature on land and water in order to understand air movements.  The students measured the temperature of a container of soil and a container of water and predicted which would heat up faster when set under a heat lamp.  Younger students drew and labeled pictures of their predictions, materials, and results; while older students recorded the research question, listed materials, outlined the procedure, wrote a hypothesis, and recorded their results.
• This week our focus was on water.  Water is essential to all life and is present in a biome in many forms. The amount of moisture directly affects the flora and fauna and determines many of their adaptations.  The amount of water in the soil affects the evolution of the soil and its ability to sustain plant life.  Water vapor is contained in the air.  Fresh water resources are renewed in a continuous process called the water cycle.  Life began in the water and liquid water make our planet special.
• Children had the opportunity to work with our beautiful new material the Water Cycle Mat.
• We demonstrated the relative amount of fresh water to salt water to make an impression about how precious fresh water is to our world and to give a practical demonstration of percentage.
• We demonstrated that water flows downhill and through channels.
• We conducted an experiment to illustrate the water cycle.  We ventured up to the big kitchen and predicted what would happen if we put ice on the hot griddle.  We watched the ice jump on the hot surface and saw how the molecules were moving quickly when heated.  We watched a solid turn to a liquid and then trapped the gas in a clear lid and watched it condense and return to the surface again creating our own water cycle.  You can do this at home while you are cooking!  On Thursday we enjoyed popcorn for a snack and the children made the discovery that popcorn pops because there is water trapped in the kernels.  That water heats up and changes to steam which pops the kernel releasing steam which was trapped in our popcorn popper.  Amazing!!

Week of Sept. 19-23

• This week students learned about air.
• Air is held to the earth by gravity.  We call this blanket of air our atmosphere.  You cannot see it, but you can feel it when it moves as wind.  It is made of mostly nitrogen with a lesser amount of oxygen.  The remaining 1% is a mixture of gasses including carbon dioxide.  Our atmosphere protects us from harmful rays of the sun, traps heat, and forms clouds to bring rain.  It keeps earth at the right temperature for plants to thrive and produce oxygen that we need.  
• The children demonstrated the exchange of gases between plants and animals in a lesson called the "Air Cycle Ballet." 
• They explored the different layers of the atmosphere (troposphere, stratosphere, ozone layer, mesosphere, and finally the thermosphere) and the characteristics of each layer.   
• In art class the children made collages of the atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere.
• We finished planting our garden.  We are growing butter lettuce, kale, chard, broccoli and cabbage.  This led to a discussion of seasonal produce and the availability of a wide variety of produce at our grocery stores.  It would be interesting to explore the produce aisle and discover how many different types of lettuces are available.

Week of September 12-16

• We had our first great lesson.  A handout went home explaining further details.  
• We had lessons on the sun and earth, investigating the movement of the earth in relation to the sun, discovering the causes of day and night.  We learned the earth rotates on its axis, causing day and night.  The earth takes 365 day to orbit the sun.
• We investigated the length of the rays of the sun, discovering that the rays of the sun reach the earth across various distances and through various depths of atmosphere depending on one's position on the earth relative to the equator.
• We discussed the climate zones (Tropical Zone, Temperate Zones and Polar Zones) and observed how the effect of the sun's rays creates climate zones on the earth.  
• We demonstrated how the seasons are caused by the tilt of the earth on its axis.
• We spent time working in our garden, preparing the soil for planting fall vegetables.   
• We have been enjoying community snack and many children enjoyed trying new things.  Look for more information to come home next week about how your family will be asked to participate.
• Piano lessons started!
• International Day of Peace is Wednesday, September 21.  Look for information to come home next week explaining how we will be celebrating!
• Check out the following link.  http://internationaldayofpeace.org/news_and_updates/

The First Week of School

We had a wonderful first week of school!  We have had many lessons on classroom management and things are running smoothly.

• We had a group lesson "What is a biome?" as an introduction to our new study of biomes.
• We had our first music lesson in which the students were introduced to rhythm by reading notes with clapping cards.  
• Many of the students are working on their first book reports.  Others are researching in areas of science.  
• Lessons in spelling, grammar, and math are underway!
• We worked in the garden to prepare for fall planting and found many signs of life.

Look for Study Journals to come home next week.