Primary II - Susan and Patrick

Music with Mr.DerrickBread Cutting

Sorting is an important preparation skill for reading, writing, and math.  Sorting exercises are often found throughout Montessori classrooms.  Next week, we will begin sorting our recycling bin into paper, plastic, glass, and cardboard.   We will also discuss why recycling is important and which materials can be reused and which will go to the recycling center.  This will become a regular weekly activity.

 We will be having our parent-teacher conferences on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon.  Conference reports will be sent out electronically on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Let us know if you would like a hard copy as well.   Conferences are 20 minutes long.  Children are not permitted to attend.  We will be meeting in the Pre-primary Classroom (Trish and Sam’s room). 

Primary II - Susan and Patrick

Maria Montessori had a vision that went beyond her curriculum. It was to bring peace to the world through education.  At the core of her educational curriculum is instilling reverence for the earth, the self, each other, the animals, plants, critters, other cultures, etc.  She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times but never received the award. Friday, September 21^st is International Peace Day. We will be celebrating by planting a tree near our building that will become our good deeds tree. Prior to planting the tree, we will talk about the parts of the plant.  Then the children will be able to recognize their good deeds or those of others by hanging a symbol on the tree each day. 

We will also begin adding food preparation/nutrition education to our curriculum next week.  Food preparation lessons not only give the children a practical life (cutting, slicing, grating, etc) and sensory experience (taste, smell, etc.) but also one that teaches grace and courtesy.  The children may eat the food they prepare themselves or they may walk around the classroom and offer it to others. We will begin with bread cutting as breaking bread is a universal symbol of peace.

Primary 1 - Marjory and Judy

Next week we will be introducing the Solar System. This is such a fun study! We will continue our worm study as well. The students are preparing our worm bin, so be sure to ask them all about it. Conferences are coming up, and our sign-up sheet will be available by Tuesday of next week. 

Primary II-Susan and Patrick

music with Derricksqueezing a spongeSusan and Patrick's class had their first visit from Derek last Tuesday.  He sang songs and told a story using a thunder tube. He will share his music with the class every Tuesday from 10:15 –11:00.  Susan will start incorporating rhythm-based activities into the morning routine each Thursday as well in an effort to use hand percussive exercises to build confidence and community.  Fridays will be sharing day this year beginning Friday, September 14th.  Look for a note and sharing calendar in the Friday folder explaining how sharing will work. 

Primary 1 - Marjory and Judy

working togetherThis week Marjory and Judy sent home a September calendar with the sharing schedule.   Sharing time a little different this year.   Each Friday, six students will have the opportunity to share something with their classmates, so each student should get to share about once a month.  For sharing, we ask that students bring something that is educational or anything that is about them, absolutely NO TOYS. If a students is absent on his/her sharing day, he/she will get another opportunity the next month as we do not have time to add him/her to the following Friday.

The September calendar also includes the Birthday Timeline schedule for students with August and September birthdays. June and July birthdays will be added to our May calendar. For the Birthday Timeline, each student should bring in pictures that represent each year of his/her life.  Please send no more than two photos per year of your child's life, and include a brief description about each picture so that we can help your child talk about the photos during the Birthday Timeline.

Next week we will start prep work for our worm bin and our lessons will be about worms.  Students will have lessons on vertebrates and invertebrates, and parts of the worm, and we'll be adding several wormy works around the class. We're excited about getting our worm bin started and sure the kids will love the lessons.