The Last Week of the 2021-2022 School Year

 It was a fabulous week in Lower Elementary.  We had a successful Field Day on Tuesday.  Teams for Field Day were composed of Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary and Middle School students.  They worked together to construct a container to cushion an egg for the egg drop held on Thursday.  After the container was completed the teams rotated through nine activities on our soccer field.  The day ended with a water balloon contest and popsicles.  Wednesday and Thursday were days filled with board games, a movie and classroom clean up and pack up. Some tears were shed for those not returning next year.  But we ended with an outdoor chalk, bubbles, cookies a frozen treat and lots of smiles.  Have a fun summer and remember to read, read, read with your child.

Teacher Appreciation Week

 We love teacher appreciation week in Lower Elementary. Thank you to the PTO for the delicious lunch and most importantly a chance to eat lunch in a quiet room with other adults.  It was appreciated by everyone.  Also thank you to every family who sent in special gifts for us.  We are grateful for each and every one of you.   It has been an action packed, fun filled week in the Lower Elementary learning environment.  We had visits from a gecko and a hedgehog with facts presented by the student owners.  We had fun watering the garden each day.  The rosemary, coreopsis, blueberry, nasturtium and zinea plants need daily watering until  they are firmly established.  We continued our study on metric and customary liquid measurements. We continued with our calculations of area.  For the final lesson on the human senses we had a summary sorting by sense activity. Our poetry study this week was on acrostic poems.  Each student wrote their own acrostic poem about themselves or an important person in their life. Adding on a fraction number line was presented.  We continued with our focus on analogies. A science experiment related to the layers of the ocean was presented.  Finally each student wrote a paragraph about what they could do to be a peacemaker.  Hope everyone enjoys their weekend.

The First Week of May

 

     This week we ended our look at the senses by studying the sense of touch.  Students were able to make a model of the skin and examine the sensors for pain, cold, hot and pressure. We also continued to convert liquid measurements in both the metric and customary systems. Grammar studies focused on pronouns, conjunctions and sentence analysis. Students continued with their calculations of area on objects in the classroom. Everyone also wrote a short paragraph about a Peacemaker they researched. Some students chose to read their paragraphs in a community meeting. The layers of the ocean were introduced. Hope everyone has a Happy Mothers Day.

 

The Last Week of April

It has been another busy week.  The 3rd year students were in SAT testing each morning.  All students enjoyed learning more about clouds by conducting cloud experiments.  Students measured volumes of water using the metric and customary system. Each child calculated prime numbers to 100. Students have also been reviewing all math operations and memorizing math facts for each operation. We continued our look at the  human senses by focusing on the sense of smell.  Students learned about the olfactory system and used smelling bottles to isolate their sense of smell.   Analogies were introduced to all students.  Have a peaceful weekend.

 

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.