Week in Review : November 17th-21st

We had another excellent week in Lower Elementary! Students did a wonderful job sharing their thoughts on love and giving during our Peace Ceremony on Friday!

For language jobs this week, first graders had further practice with homonyms, explored adding -es to the end of words to make them plural and wrote their own "noun families". Second graders chose a word study job, created plural words and worked with preposition boxes. Third graders worked with homophones, created plural words and matched adverbs to the correct verb.

For math jobs this week, first graders practiced counting quarters, solved addition and multiplication problems, practiced adding fractions, and told time to the quarter hour. Second graders were introduced to the Bank Game, solved multiplication using the checkerboard, practiced adding fractions, and told time to the minute. Third graders solved subtraction and division problems, multiplied fractions, calculated elapsed time, and rounded numbers to the ten thousands place.

For cultural jobs this week, students continued their research of a flag from North America as well as their study of the Earth's various climate zones. After learning about the cave drawings, students also got a chance to create their own cave drawing using oil pastels and brown paper. Come check out their drawings which are hanging in the hallway!

Next week, students will be busy with language, math, choice, and cultural jobs! We look forward to a great (although short) week!

Montessori Minute- Preposition Grammar Boxes 

Grammar boxes help children learn and analyze different parts of speech. Students work with the materials in Grammar Box 5 to further their understanding of the function and usage of prepositions. They work with prepositions associated with spatial and temporal relations, as well as possession. 

Reminders

- Homework will not be sent home on Monday, November 24th due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Important Dates 

November 21st - Talent Show 7:00
November 25th - Dismiss at 1:00 No Aftercare
November 26th, 27th, 28th - NO SCHOOL (Thanksgiving Break)
December 5th - Middle School Holiday Store (Lower goes from 10-11)
December 16th- Holiday Program (Lower, Upper, and Middle) 7pm
December 17th- Lower Elementary goes bowling 10-11am
December 18th- Lower to Shelby Ridge 10-11am
December 19th- Dismiss at 1pm - No Aftercare
December 22nd - January 2nd - No School (Winter Break)

Week in Review: November 10th -14th

We had a wonderful week in Lower Elementary! Students were busy at work rounding numbers, researching the flags of North American countries, and editing sentences for correct punctuation, commas, and capitalization.

For language jobs this week, first grade students were introduced to homonyms and edited sentences. Second grade students reviewed homonyms, homophones, and homographs, edited sentences, and reviewed the rules for making words plural. Third grade students continued working with suffixes, edited sentences, and reviewed the rules for making words plural.

For math jobs this week, first grade students practiced addition facts, counted sets of quarters, and reviewed skip counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's. Second grade students worked with math operations, practiced counting coins to solve word problems, and reviewed rounding numbers to the ten, hundreds, and thousands place. Third grade students worked with math operations, practiced making change, and reviewed rounding numbers to the tens, hundreds, thousands, and ten thousands place.

For cultural jobs this week, students began independent research on a flag from a North American county. Students also participated in the Fourth Great Lesson - The Coming of Language as well as a lesson identifying the different climate zones found on the Earth.

Next week, students will solve problems using various math operations, work with fractions, finish their flag research, and investigate some of the earliest known cave drawings found in France.

Montessori Minute- The Fourth Great Lesson 

The Fourth Great Lesson is the Story of Language and Written Communication (sometimes called Communication is Signs). It presents the basic story of how people living in different places developed their own spoken languages, and then began to create ways to write their ideas down. The story explains how trade, involving long journeys, was one impetus to develop written language, as was the need to maintain records and set down a record of events and stories. Included in the story are pictographs, symbols, hieroglyphs, early alphabets, and the invention of the printing press. This lesson introduces many concepts and serves to awaken the curiosity for further study into multiple areas such as: Reading (e.g. literature, poetry, non-fiction, myths and folk tales, authors, reading comprehension, reading analysis, literary terms); Writing (e.g. elements of style, function, voice, composition, letter writing, research, study skills); Structure of Writing (e.g. alphabets, spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence analysis, word study, figures of speech); Language (e.g. origins of spoken language, foreign languages, history of languages, speech, drama).

Reminders

- Homework is sent home each Monday. Please return homework the following Friday. We also encourage students to read every night for 30 minutes and to record it on their reading log.

-JBMA is currently participating in a community service project by collecting food supplies for The Catholic Center of Concern. Lower Elementary is collecting cereal (boxed or bagged). Please continue to bring these items in through Friday, November 21st. On November 21st, everyone is encouraged to bring FRESH fruits or vegetables to the Peace Ceremony.

Important Dates 

November 21st- Peace Assembly 9:00
November 21st - Talent Show 7:00
November 25th - Dismiss at 1:00
November 26th, 27th, 28th - NO SCHOOL (Thanksgiving Break)

Week in Review: November 3rd-7th

We had a great week in Lower Elementary! Students worked very hard and we are pleased to see how much they are progressing each week !

For language jobs this week, first grade students worked with homographs, practiced their addition skills, edited sentences for beginning capitalization, and learned vocabulary terms for animals and their young. Second grade students practiced with homographs, homophones, and homonyms, were introduced to prepositions, and edited sentences for capitalization. Third graders continued working with suffixes, were introduced to adverbs, and edited sentences for capitalization.

For math jobs this week, first grade students practiced addition, learned about the communicative property of addition, told time to the quarter hour, and were introduced to adding fractions. Second graders worked with multiplication, reviewed the commutative and associative properties, told time to the five minute or minute mark, and practiced adding fractions. Third graders worked with math operations, explored elapsed time, identified the commutative, associative, and identity properties of addition and multiplication, and were introduced to multiplying fractions.

The highlight of our week was working with students from Indian Springs school! They helped us in building a solar oven from a pizza box. We made S'mores just with the power of the Sun!

Montessori Minute

Fraction Circles used as a concrete way to introduce all aspects of fractions within the math curriculum: correct terminology, equivalent fractions, all arithmetic functions, conversion between fractions and decimal fractions, and measurement of angles.

Reminders

- Homework is sent home each Monday. Please return homework the following Friday. We also encourage students to read every night for 30 minutes and to record it on their reading log.

-JBMA is currently participating in a community service project by collecting food supplies for The Catholic Center of Concern. Lower Elementary is collecting cereal (boxed or bagged). Please continue to bring these items in through Friday, November 21st. On November 21st, everyone is encouraged to bring FRESH fruits or vegetables to the Peace Ceremony.

Important Dates 

November 11th - NO SCHOOL (Veterans Day)
November 21st- Peace Assembly 9:00
November 21st - Talent Show 7:00
November 25th - Dismiss at 1:00
November 26th, 27th, 28th - NO SCHOOL (Thanksgiving Break)

Week in Review : October 27th-31st

We had a fantastic week in Lower Elementary! From learning the parts of the Sun, to carving a pumpkin, to playing Halloween games during our party, this week was fun for all!

For language jobs this week, first grade students were introduced to homographs, put sentences in a logical sequence, and discussed whether sentences were a question or a statement. Second grade students had more practice with irregular and regular verbs, practiced with homonyms, and placed the correct punctuation at the end of declarative, exclamatory, interrogative, and imperative sentences. Third grade students had further work with prepositions and suffixes, edited a paragraph for capitalization and punctuation, and placed sentences in a logical sequence.

For math jobs this week, first grade students practiced addition facts, wrote number words 80-100, explored adding "double numbers", and counted dimes. Second grade students wrote number words to the thousands and beyond, found various combinations of coins in order to equal a particular amount, and practiced math operations (addition, multiplication, subtraction, division).

For cultural jobs this week, students explored the parts of the Sun through a powerpoint presentation and by matching three part cards. Students are looking forward to building a solar oven out of a pizza box next week!

The highlight of our week was the Halloween parade and party on Friday! Thank you so much to all the parents who donated items or time to make it a success! The students had a blast!

Next week, students will continue working with math operations, explore the commutative, associative, and identity properties, tell time, and work with homophones, homographs, and homonyms.

Montessori Minute- Racks and Tubes 

This material which is called either Racks and Tubes or Test Tube Division, is used as the final bridge towards abstraction in long division. It includes different sets of racks with tubes representing the decimal family hierarchies with exactly 10 beads in each tube; this allows for control of error in exchanging. The material also includes four different boards on which the different divisors are placed according to the decimal hierarchy as represented by the divisor number. Color coded skittles are also used to indicate the divisor quantity and decimal hierarchy. 

Reminders 

*Homework will be sent home each Monday. We also encourage students to read for 30 minutes each night and record it on the reading log found in your child's red folder.

*Students are welcomed into the classroom promptly at 8:00. Students who arrive on campus before 8:00 should attend early care.

*Please send a change of clothes to be kept in your child's book bag. This will help lessen the amount of disruption to your child's (and your) day when bathroom accidents or spills occur. Thank you!

Important Dates 

11/11- Veterans Day - NO SCHOOL