February 25th-March 1st, 2019

It is hard to believe the month of February is already coming to an end. On Monday, February 25th the 3rd graders will be visiting upper elementary. This is a wonderful opportunity for them to experience what all JBMA has to offer them next year. We will also be welcoming the incoming kindergarten students to our environment. This is an important time for our students to take on more of a leadership role.

This week students will learn about dividing a fraction by a whole number and continue to practice measuring quadrilaterals. First graders are learning about prepositions, second graders are learning about pronouns, while third graders are learning sentence analysis. All students are practicing abbreviations and contractions. Next week we will finish our month long student on Black History by honoring famous Alabamians.

Next Wednesday, February 27th, 3rd grade parents will have a short meeting at 7:30 am to discuss our upcoming overnight field trip to Camp McDowell.

 The end of the 3rd quarter is March 1st. Progress reports will be sent home the week of March 11th.

Lower Elementary will be having parent -  teacher conferences on Thursday, March 14th and 15th. Students will be dismissed at 1 pm on both days. We do have aftercare available. Please make arrangements accordingly.

February 11-15th 2019

This week was a quick one with the field trip for Classroom 3 and the Valentine’s Day

party.

Please remember that school will be closed on Monday, February 18th for Presidents

Day.

Next week all students will continue practice on division and fraction word problems.

Students will be presented lessons on perimeter and area of quadrilaterals, homonyms,

and contractions. In history, the students will learn about the Harlem Renaissance which

occured in the 1920’s. The contributions of African American artist will be highlighted

during this time. In science, we will move onto the muscular system.

Feb. 25th Move Up Day (this is an opportunity for all 3rd graders to visit Upper Elementary)

On Wednesday, February 27th  3rd grade parents are invited to a short meeting about
Camp McDowell.

Week of February 4th-8th, 2019

Lower Elementary had an exciting week. Classroom 1 and 2 went to see the play "A Hundred Dresses" on Tuesday. Classroom 3 will be attending this coming Tuesday.  Many of you may remember this book from your own childhood. The message of acceptance and of not teasing someone for being different is a valuable lesson for students of all ages.

This week students were given a lesson on the commutative properties of addition and multiplication. We will be practicing jobs pertaining to the associative and identity properties as well. Students worked on fraction word problems, angles, homographs, and possessive nouns.

We started an exciting unit on Black History this week. Students learned about civil rights activist this week. Our focus was on Ruby Bridge and Audrey Faye Hendricks. Next week, we will look at the contribution of African American inventors. Students continued working on their Native American research projects. In science, the students learned more about the respiratory system. We looked at how the lungs work as well as why we yawn.

We have several things coming up next week so please mark your calendars.

Tuesday, February 12th  Class Room 3 attends Children's Theater

Thursday, February 14th Children will exchange Valentine's Day cards with their classmates.
Classroom 1= 11 students  Classroom 2= 13 students  Classroom 3= 23 students

We will all come together for a small snack towards the end of the afternoon.

Friday, February 15th Peace Assembly at 9:00 am 1st graders will be presenting

Monday, February 18th No school Presidents Day

Week in Review: January 27- February 1st

What an amazing week we had in Lower Elementary. Again, thank you all for your understanding in regards to the "weather day" on Tuesday. Regardless of the missed day the children were all very focused and eager to attend to their responsibilities. 

All of the children were given lessons on the digestive system as well as learning more about the regions of the United States. Students started conducting research on Native American tribes in the our area. Students were given lessons on division, homographs, plurals, and multiplying a fraction by a whole number.

Important Dates:

Feb. 14th Valentine's Day exchange (students will need to bring in a card for each of their classmates)

Feb. 15th Peace Ceremony at 9 am

Feb. 18th NO SCHOOL (President's Day)

Feb. 25th Move Up Day (this is an opportunity for all 3rd graders to visit Upper Elementary)

January 21st-25th, 2019

We hope you all had a nice Monday off for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's Holiday. We started the week strong on Tuesday. With the short week the students were able to practice some materials that had been presented last week. The students worked more on division, homophones, and money word problems. The students also started typing their final drafts on their descriptive writings.

On Thursday evening we had an amazing turn out for Parent's Night. The children were eager to present lessons to their parents as well as share their environment. This week will be introducing new concepts such a homographs, Native Americans of the Southeast, regions of the United States, as well at the digestive system. First graders have been working on past and present tense verbs, while second graders are working with adverbs. Third graders are working on conjunctions and will move to sentence analysis next.

Week of January 14-18, 2019

What an amazing week we all spent together! The students have been working so hard and we are officially back in the groove of our work cycle. In cultural, the students have learned about Native American tribes in various locations of North America. We started learning more about the circulatory system as well as having the students practice the puzzle map of the United States. It was exciting to hear about the knowledge and experiences the children had about various states in our nation.

All students continued to have lessons on money word problems, homophones, multiplying fractions, and rounding. As many of you know Montessori is built on a spiral curriculum. So while the concept is being revisited from one year to the next the actual learning goes deeper with more advanced vocabulary or numeration.

Next Thursday, January 25th will be our annual Parent's Night. Lower Elementary will start at 6:30 pm. Please make plans to come and see what your child has been learning. The students will be practicing presenting materials to their parents and will be eager to share with you all.


Remember NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 21st.

Also as many of you know this year we have all been working on learning more about Positive Discipline By Jane Nelson. Recently two authors (Kristina Bill and Joy Marchese) have written a book entitled "Positive Discipline for Today’s Busy (and Overwhelmed) Parent." If you enjoy listing to podcasts, I have included the link to one I really enjoyed.

https://notjustcute.com/podcast/episode19/

January 11-14, 2019

We have had a wonderful full week back since break.

The students have been learning about indigenous people

of North America and the Bering Land Bridge Theory. The

students completed maps of North America as well. Next

week, we will begin learning about other tribes of the United

States. In science, students started learning about the human

systems. We will continue learning the functions of those

systems through the month of January.

First graders learned about linking verbs and had their first

lesson on rounding. Second graders were introduced to adverbs

while third graders reviewed conjunctions from last year. All

students were introduced to descriptive writing and will continue

to practice the skill over the next few weeks. We have continued

to work with the students on money word problems.

Please make note that JBMA will be closed on Monday, January

21st in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..

Also, as long as weather permits we will be going outside.

Please send your child with appropriate outerwear.