A Fun Week

 It was a fabulous week. We had an excellent field trip to Aldridge Gardens.  Ms. Mac demonstrated many propagation methods. Each child brought home three types of propagation.  Later in the week we did a taste test of all the vegetables in our garden.  Each vegetable was ranked by each student as salty, sour, bitter, sweet or savory.  I was impressed by how many students tried all of the vegetables. We also had our first guest speaker since Covid began: Jackson's father!  He gave a wonderfully child appropriate talk about the Christian traditions of Easter. To round out our week we held a Lower Elementary egg hunt.  You can imagine how much fun they all had shrieking around the playground looking for their three eggs.  Have a wonderful holiday weekend.  See you all next Tuesday.

Peace

   In our modern world, it is so easy to get sucked into conflict – online, on the news, with our family and friends. It is important that at a very young age, we begin to learn how to settle our differences and appropriately handle strong emotions.  Peace education is a major component of the Montessori classroom. Adults model peaceful and respectful behavior, and because Montessori classrooms are composed of mixed age groups, older students serve as role models for younger children. At Bruno Montessori we are blessed with an exceptionally beautiful environment.  We have variety of beautiful trees, open fields, a pond and plenty of wide open space.  This outdoor environment is oftentimes conducive to peacefulness.  Within the classroom there is a peace corner or peace table, at which two students can go to resolve a conflict or a single child can go to calm down and feel peaceful. One strategy is the use of a peace rose. Children learn to take turns holding the peace rose while speaking about how they feel. They stay at the peace table until they have heard each other and resolved their conflict. With very young children, adults model and coach the children with words they can use. Older students can do this independently. At the Elementary level, when the imagination takes off, students enjoy role playing and solving problems in small groups.  Each day in Lower Elementary begins with a peace ceremony.  A candle is lit and a quiet peace greeting is passed around the group.  We hope this sets the tone for the day for each student. Peace is very important in the Montessori learning environment.

The week of March 21 - 25, 2022

 The Lower Elementary third year students had a fantastic time at Camp McDowell.  The trip included many lessons on environmental science but the highlight was petting a snake and building pillow forts in the cabin. The first and second year students enjoyed writing descriptive paragraphs about the third year students while they were away at camp.  It was a special moment in class when the first and second year students read their special paragraphs to their student upon their return.  Even though Spring Break is right around the corner, we continued with our progression of lessons. Fraction word problems, division with the stamp game and memorization of division facts were completed by all students.  We also gave lessons on dictionary skills and played a detective triangle game.  Students had to find specific triangles by sides and angles.  Next week is our Spring Break!  I hope everyone enjoys extra family time together.

The Week of March 7 - 11

 

We have had a week of fun activities and lessons.  On Monday the third year students were able to attend a basketball game with the fourth through eighth grades.  On Tuesday the entire school was able to attend the impressive understudy performance of Aladdin.  We have also had the very popular Scholastic Book Fair this entire week.  As you can imagine, the Lower Elementary students have been full of excitement and anticipation everyday. 

Our lessons this week were a continuation of last week's lessons.  In our nutrition lesson the students were able to sort food cards by group and read information about the food.  They also created a balanced menu for a meal.  In geometry triangles were drawn and labeled by sides and angles.  We had continuation on the study of division using the Montessori bead board, bingo board and stamp game. Grammar reviews were done for each level.  Each child is creating a book on South America using information collected from previous weeks. Subtracting fractions with different denominators was introduced with the fraction circle box. Finger knitting was introduced as a way of giving students a chance to take a break from their work and relax.  We had many finger knitting chains created in the room.

A Beautiful Week in the Lower Elementary Program

 What an amazing week we have had!  The weather was perfect for spending extra time outside.  We were able to eat lunch at our outdoor picnic tables.  We also had extra outdoor time to appreciate the beauty of our campus.  Flowering Saucer Magnolias, flowering Forsythias and the sprouting of seedlings are a few of the things we noticed.  Children need a connection to nature.  Their concentration improves, their sense of peacefulness grows and their natural curiosity grows the longer children are able to spend outside.  As long as the weather is nice we will continue to spend extra time outside and in our outdoor classroom. 

Lessons this week included writing a biography on a famous woman in history, an introduction to nutrition, a focus on plants, animals and flags of South America, and a review of triangles by both sides and angles.  Everyone had fun making a probability tally chart.  Plurals and singulars were introduces as well as the abbreviations for the days of the week. Division was introduced using some important Montessori materials such as the division bead board, division with the stamp game and the division bingo board.  Next week our nutrition study will include having the children plan a menu using foods in all of the five food groups.   Ask your children this weekend about the five food groups and see if they can identify the food groups from their meals at home.

                                                              

Valentine's Day and a Busy Two Weeks

 Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate with children.  They love exchanging affirmations with their friends. There is always a lot of smiles, happiness and joy in the classroom and it is inspiring to see.  Over the last two weeks we have continued with our studies in South America by looking closer at animals, plants, flags and important places.  In geometry we began our study of triangles by identifying the parts of a triangle.  In science we are continuing our study of human anatomy by looking at the digestive system which will soon lead to a look at nutrition.  In grammar students are continuing to identify prepositions, adverbs and interjections.  In addition students have been creating contractions and identifying suffixes. Students were able to practice making predictions using simple probability.  Finally, each student practiced writing and expository paragraph.  It is truly remarkable how much hard work the students are able to complete each week.  Have a wonderful weekend.

The Importance of a Routine

      In the Lower Elementary learning environment we post a daily schedule and review it with the students during our morning meeting.  Most students check the schedule everyday right after they arrive.  In fact we often have a group centered around the posted schedule discussing what is posted. For the most part, the schedule each week remains the same.  Children are able to easily predict what will happen in their day at school.  They can plan their morning and afternoon work based on the daily schedule.  They look forward to certain weekly events.  Knowing the schedule gives them a sense of control.  A consistent routine at home will reinforce the child's sense of control.  Consistent bedtimes, arrivals and departures from school set the child up for success at school. Doing homework each week is another way to set your child up for success.  Homework can be done on a consistent weekly schedule that allows your child to get the most out of the homework experience.  Please reach out to us if you have questions or need input on scheduling your child's work week.

    This week the students looked closely at the nervous system.  They labeled a diagram of the nervous system and studied the types of nerves.  We also began our addition work with fractions with different denominators.  Maria Montessori's fraction circle box helps the students use their "finger brains" to select a common denominator.  We also continued our work with suffixes, interjections, and prepositions. We also are continuing our focus on the operation of subtraction by supplying the missing minuend in a subtraction problem. Our study of South America was kicked off this week by having each student create their own map of the continent. In geometry we extended our study of angles by looking at angles created by two lines and a transversal.  As you can see, it was a very busy week.  We are all looking forward to exchanging Valentine's on Monday.  Remember to have your child label 38 Valentines with his/her name only.  Have a wonderfully peaceful weekend.