The month of October was filled with excitement! The children were introduced to our long year topic of the rainforest through a unit on trees. The kids explored the parts, life cycle and different types of trees. They received a presentation on the different products that are made from trees and we worked as a classroom to create the layers of the rainforest which are now (proudly) displayed on our wall.
Halloween was a very popular topic of discussion, we had the date saved on our calendar and as we changed the date each day the children counted down how many days were left before they could go trick-or-treating. We added weather charting to our daily circle routine; the kids enjoy taking turns looking out the window and deciding if it is sunny, partly sunny, cloudy, rainy, windy or stormy. We also had the opportunity to do our first food prep project. The children transformed mandarin oranges into pumpkins by peeling them and then adding a small stick of celery to the top. They certainly had fun and were excited to eat their “pumpkin” during lunch time. Lastly, we were able to carve a pumpkin and the kids took turns estimating how many seeds we would find inside. The guesses ranged from 11 to 1,000,102! In the month of November we will begin our unit on land forms and we will also discuss the topic of Thanksgiving.
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![]() In the month of September we had the opportunity to learn about each other, our school and our world. The returning students re-visited classroom rules and took the initiative to show their new friends how we care for our environment. Within the first few weeks of school, I could see that the children were beginning to feel a bigger sense of responsibility to clean up after themselves and make sure that materials and rugs were being used and stored appropriately. Slowly, our new comers began to explore different areas of the classroom. They started to request lessons and make connections with their classmates. What a lovely sight to see them working with new friends, sharing stories and laughter during lunch time and inviting each other to play in our playground. Most of our circle times have consisted of learning about our world and what we can do to care for all living things. We discussed what it means to be alive and learned that there are other beings that that feel, breathe, and have necessities just like us. The children have been able to explore this concept by visiting our nature trail and spending time with our animals with our farming specialist, Miss Deanna. The children have also learned about plants and how to care for them with the guidance of our gardening specialist, Miss Katherine. Other circle times have been dedicated to having fun and learning a little bit more about each other. The children have enjoyed playing games, listening to stories, having group discussions and singing new songs. We are very excited to continue learning about each other and we are especially looking forward to the beginning of our year long project on the rain forest. The month of October will be dedicated to learning about trees, how we can preserve them and much more. Stay tuned! We wrapped up our bee and pollination unit study last week. The children have had a lot of fun with different bee works as well as presentations and a group project.
One of the most popular works has been bee painting. It was designed to give children the opportunity to learn how to alternate colors (black and white). They certainly found a lot of concentration doing this work! Flower painting was also a success, children used the bottom of an empty water bottle to stamp petals on a piece of paper, they then completed their "garden" by using a brush to add the stems and leaves and finally added the flower disks with a yellow marker. Another favorite has been bee quantity to numeral association. This work not only reinforced the children's counting skills but it also reinforced the concept of bees collecting nectar from a flower to make honey. Bee bingo was also a hit! Children worked in small groups to play this game which reinforced visual discrimination. We received a visit from Miss Camelia (Sabina's mom). She took part of our honey tasting presentation and she helped the children make a delicious banana dessert with cinnamon and honey. We also enjoyed working on a beehive class project. The children worked as a team to create a beehive using different materials such as paint, paper and egg cartons. We will slowly start moving into our new unit on North America this week. We will be talking about all the North American countries, the culture and focusing on the United States as this will lead us into our final unit of the year: Washington State. |
Ms. JoanEl Salon Amarillo Lead Teacher Archives
June 2018
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Montessori Children's House
5003 218th Ave. NE Redmond, WA 98053 Phone: 425-868-7805 [email protected] For Records Requests, please reach out to [email protected]. |
Founded in 1987
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