The Week of August 23 - 27

This week Lower Elementary students were able to settle into the flow of the morning and afternoon work times.  The development of concentration is an important component of the Montessori learning environment.   The level of concentration is increasing daily.  We had another key Montessori lesson: Timeline of Life.  A beautiful timeline with artifacts was presented.  Students were able to follow up the lesson with research of a specific organism.  Students were given an introduction to the planets and the land and water forms. It was a productive and enjoyable week.  I hope each family is able to enjoy some rest and relaxation over the weekend. 

           

  

       

The Week of August 16 - 20, 2021

This week the Lower Elementary students had an important Montessori lesson called the Clock of Eras.  This lesson is a follow up to The Coming of the Universe lesson they had last week.  The passage of time  is presented both as a timeline and as a clock. We also had another key Montessori lesson called the Drama of the Archeozoic Ocean. Science experiments on solids, liquids and gases were conducted. In addition, we continue to start each day with a brief ceremony and class discussion focusing on important aspects of the Montessori learning environment such as freedom within limits, concentration and personal responsibility.  During both our morning and afternoon worktimes the students are given both individual and group lessons.  The lessons given in the Montessori classroom are cumulative; most lessons build on the previous lessons.  For this reason please schedule vacations, doctors appointments and family gatherings after the school day. It is a joy to have your child with us each day.

                          

First Week of School

We had a fantastic first week at school. It was wonderful to be back together again. We started each day with a classroom peace ceremony.  The Montessori First Great Lesson was presented and enjoyed by all.  Many beginning of the year lessons were given. On Friday India's Independence Day was presented. It was a busy and fun week. We are so glad the Lower Elementary students are conscientious and eager to learn.  We are looking forward to a fabulous school year.

 

May 21, 2021

 Can you believe it? This school year is coming to a close. It always seems so far away in August but then arrives suddenldly, and we wonder where the time went. The students are finishing jobs about biomes, peacemakers, and environmental scientists. All four math operations were practiced as an end of the year review. Grammar jobs have practiced parts of speech for all grades and parts of a sentences for third graders.  Probability was intoduced with words and ratios. It is "very likely" that the students are ready for vacations. Remember that school dismisses at 1:00 on Thursday, May 27th. We wish you all a safe and enjoyable summer. 

May 7, 2021

Happy May! If you celebrated May Day (May 1),  May the Fourth be with you (Star Wars fans), Cinco de Mayo (May 5), National Nurses Day (May 6), or you will be celebrating Mother's Day (May 9), this has been a full and busy week. Our classroom has also been busy researching another biome (tropical rainforest), more about Colonial times (famous people), and environmental science (conserving natural resources. The students are revisiting creative story writing using characters, setting, plot, and conclusion. We have enjoyed seeing them use their imaginations. New lessons have introduced probability, possessive nouns, and customary weight equivalences. Speaking of equivalences, we have also had extention jobs for congruency, similarity, and equivalence regarding geometric shapes. This was the last week for spelling tests and the last homework is due Friday, May 14. We thank you very much for your recognition and generosity during Teacher Apprecition Week. Hopefully we will have more nice weather to finish out the school year. Happy Mother's Day! 

April 19 - 23, 2021

 We had a good week wilth 3rd grade testing and lessons. Colonial Life, Biomes, and Environmental Sciences are the themes for cultural lessons. A fun geometry job involved shapes that changed postions with slides, flips, and turns that were labeled as transitions, reflections, and rotations. Presentations were also given for metric liquid measurements and for fractions relating to percentages. Third graders are learning about parts of a sentence (subject and predicate), second graders are practicing recognizing conjunctions, and first graders are labeling adverbs. Everyone is moving along with spelling words so remember to check their Google Classroom page for updated lists and to practice new words for Thursday tests. Have a safe and enjoyable weekend.

April 9, 2021

 My, my, how time flies. The 3rd quarter ended, we had Spring Break, and the school narrowly survived a tornado since the last post. The students did reviews and finished cultural studies and have now started new lessons on biomes, liquid measurement, circles, and persuasive writing. They continue to practice division, plurals, and reading charts. Third graders will be taking standardized tests next week. This is their first experience so we want everyone to be calm and help them use this time to see what tests are like without a lot of pressure. Everyone take care and have a safe and enjoyable weekend.