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.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
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!
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!
Friday, October 7, 2011
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
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
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