Celeste toddlers have greatly enjoyed their time during the month of April. The warmer temperatures allowed for some scrubbing of tables, chairs, and bikes outside. The toddlers worked on following multiple steps such as washing, rinsing, and drying. There was lots of laughter with the bubbles and water. April also brought some brightly colored balls to our playground, which the children have enjoyed working on their skills of throwing and kicking. The month ended with a concert from Eric Ode on Earth Day! The most talked about song by the toddlers being about a fly and trash can. The music had the children participating in the movements, and singing some of the words. A great time for Celeste to share in the celebration of our beautiful Earth with the entire school.
May continues on with more great exploration and fun for the toddlers of Celeste. The month will start off with celebrating the love the toddlers have for their mothers through an interactive art project with paint. May will also bring more chances for the children to explore the academic interests of animals, language, and math. The toddlers will get to use magnifying glasses to search for bugs, match the designs seen on different types of animals, work with new sandpaper letter sounds, and explore new shapes at the light table. Of course we also hope May brings more sunshine and the enjoyment of our outside play times.
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March has definitely brought Springtime to the children of Celeste. This last week has especially brought sunshine and warmer temperatures. The children have experienced some hesitation with venturing out into the sunshine without heavy coats or hats, but once outside they have enjoyed the new freedom of movement. The toddlers are definitely creatures of routine, and this includes learning the new routine of being able to go outside with less layers for warmer temperatures. A friendly woodpecker and caterpillars have made appearances on our playground, and given the toddlers a great deal to talk about. In the classroom March brought a sensory tub filled with bug searching, sorting different colors of flowers, and matching different items dealing with Springtime such as birds and bunnies. It's been a wonderful month in Celeste.
April is the start to Spring break, and hopefully time for families to spend time in some wonderful weather. When we come back to MCH after break the toddlers will hopefully get to enjoy some practical life works outside. These include scrubbing chairs and tables, washing clothes and boots, and even getting to wash some bikes. Inside the classroom the toddlers will continue to refine their practical life skills of getting dressed and undressed, cutting fruits, spreading food on crackers, and cleaning inside the classroom with different tools. The toddlers get a great deal of joy at being able to do things for themselves, and are sure to have a great time in the month of April. February was a great month in Celeste and the toddler program for touching base with parents through conferences and a parent night discussing how to handle difficult behaviors in young children. Some great questions about setting boundaries, and how to follow through on directions were discussed as well as how to give choices and options when possible to help the child learn to gain a better sense of their selves. The month also brought a chance to celebrate Valentine's Day and the friendships we have here at MCH through a friendship fruit salad. The children enjoyed peeling oranges and bananas, picking grapes off the vine, as well as cutting and stirring several different fruits. Thank you to everyone for the wonderful fruits that were provided for our classroom.
March brings a new focus on Spring and changes in the environment around us. The toddlers will begin having discussions about the change in weather, looking at the blooming flowers on our campus, as well as listening for the chatter of the birds and other animals beginning to make appearances on our playground. The classroom will have some new Springtime works such as sorting different colors of flowers, doing flower arranging, working with a Springtime sensory bin, and reading books about the new season. January brought wonderful opportunities to welcome and meet new friends. We had two new students join our classroom, and several other new children joined us on the playground from other toddler classrooms. The older toddlers enjoyed helping new friends by demonstrating works in the classroom, and helping their new friends get shoes from their cubbies. A great example of the mixed age groups of Montessori having strong benefits for all the children. The month of January was also filled with an emphasis on math. The toddlers of Celeste enjoyed counting songs with finger play, as well as using the cubes of the pink tower to work on identifying the concept of small, medium, and large.
The month of February will start off with conferences for the parents of Celeste. This will give us the opportunity to further bridge home and school together by talking about all of the wonderful ways the children have been working on self-help skills and other developmental milestones. The month also brings Valentine's Day, and an occasion to celebrate our friendships' with one another. Toddlers don't quite understand the concept of passing out Valentines, so they will be sharing a friendship fruit salad instead. This allows the toddlers to work on chopping, peeling, stirring, and serving one another fruit. The end of the month will also hold a parent night focusing on how to deal with difficult behaviors in toddlers. Another great opportunity to build a stronger relationship between home and school. Welcome back to school. I hope everyone had a wonderful Winter Break with family and friends. December was a great month in Celeste. The toddlers enjoyed making their snowman plate for their Winter gift. They chose colors, helped in the tracing of their hand, and were very excited to give the gift to their family. Several toddlers also enjoyed painting with glitter/glue throughout the month. They made sparkling snowflakes, hearts, and gingerbread men. For the toddlers the sensorial experience of feeling the glitter and glue on their fingers; mixed with the fine motor work of wielding the paintbrush was what it was all about.
As we enter into the New Year, January will be a great time for welcoming new friends into our toddler program and classroom. This is always an exciting time for the toddlers and provides great language opportunities to talk about these new faces. It's always wonderful to meet new friends, learn their names, and teach them the routine of the day. This month will also bring a focus on a few math concepts. These include counting, defining the difference between one and two, and understanding the categories of large, medium, and small. Celeste toddlers had a wonderful time in the month of November. A few highlights were working with a tea set in the classroom, as well as with the wooden kitchen. These works allowed the toddlers to explore the concepts of Grace and Courtesy while having fun with their friends. Lots of "coffee" and "tea" were poured for one another. The children also enjoyed getting to see a police officer and his vehicle. They seemed most enamored with the flashing lights and siren. The cooler temperatures of November gave many opportunities to work on practical life skills of dressing in layers, and wearing hats/gloves. Seeing the toddlers trying to help one another with putting on their gloves was a wonderful task to witness. The toddlers have really grown to be so gracious with one another.
December is sure to bring new exploration of art materials and sensory items to the toddlers of Celeste. This includes working with the concepts of warm and cold while learning about the differences, gluing/painting, and working on a holiday gift for their family. The toddlers will also continue to explore the developmental concepts of using tongs to strengthen their fine motor skills, as well as sorting materials with their pincer grasp. The end of the month brings Winter Break, and a wonderful time spent with family. I just want to wish everyone Happy Holidays! Celeste toddlers really enjoyed the month of October. It brought some wonderful and new activities to our school and classroom. Many of the toddlers enjoyed the visit from the firemen, and a few even enjoyed sitting in the firetruck. It was great to see many toddler faces at the Harvest Festival as they fished for prizes at the booth I was working, or smiled and laughed when they recognized each other. The end of the month brought a visit from a storyteller who captured the toddler's attention with her pig sounds, and rhymes about "picking peas and putting them in a pail." In the classroom the children of Celeste have greatly enjoyed exploring the textures of gourds and pumpkins, as well as making one of the big pumpkins into a Jack-O-Lattern. The flowers and sensory items donated by parents have been wonderful new additions into the classroom as well. The children worked on using a funnel to fill a vase with wate and then carefully putting the flowers together into the vase. These wonderful bouquets have filled our room with great colors and smells and encouraged many discussions about them. Thank you again to all of the parents contributing these sensory items to our classroom!
The month of November will continue with more flower arranging works, as well as the sensory table filled with new and exciting things for the toddler's hands to explore. November also means an even greater change in temperatures, which means more opportunities for the toddlers to work on putting gloves and hats on. A basket of gloves will be brought into the classroom to allow the children even more time to work on putting their fingers into the correct spots, and accomplishing this task on their own. They get a great deal of pride out of being able to say "I did it!" The toddlers will also work on grace and courtesy skills of serving and offering each other snack. This includes introducing a tea seat in which the children can work on pouring their own "tea," as well as serving each other. The grace and courtesy also extends into helping to set the tables for lunch. November will also bring a start to our reading program with the elementary students. The elementary students will begin to visit each week, and bring new books to read and share with the toddlers. It will be wonderful to see the bond grow between the older children and toddlers. September was a month of welcoming new friends into our classroom, as well as saying goodbye to friends transitioning on to early childhood classrooms. The new faces and smiles are a wonderful addition into our classroom. The routine of the day became a great focus. This included focusing on self-help skills that allow the children to accomplish tasks on their own. The toddlers worked on taking on and off slippers and shoes, as well as participating in setting tables for lunch. The pride seen on their faces and in their words, “I did it” is wonderful to see and hear. Part of the routine includes showing our new friends how to go on walks to the big playground while holding safely onto a ring. The children quickly picked up on this skill and really enjoy going on walks while talking about what they see and hear.
The month of October brings some exciting events to our classroom and toddler community, including a visit from some firemen, a storyteller, a meet and greet at the park, as well as the school wide Harvest Festival. All of these wonderful events will foster a growth in community and add enrichment to the curriculum and development of the toddlers. October also brings a new focus on Fall and the observing of color changes in the environment and cooler temperatures. Celeste will focus on some harvest time activities that include handling gourds and pumpkins, identifying different vegetables and fruits, as well as looking at the different colors of leaves. The month will also bring the start to our parent/child participation in bringing fresh flowers and sensory items into our classroom. We are looking forward to adorning the class with small vases of flowers and experiencing the new sensorial works. Thank you to everyone contributing to these wonderful activities. May brought wonderful weather to the children of Celeste. The toddlers enjoyed seeing some new animals outside, such as a woodpecker and some deer. They also scoured the playground looking for slugs, spiders, and ants. The Mothers of Celeste all receive their flower tote bags for Mother's Day, which their child was so excited to share with them. Inside the classroom some new works quickly became favorites of some of the children including our wooden kitchen and roadway rug. Pretend-play is a very prominent focus of some of the toddlers right now.
June is upon us, and will be a time of enjoying more sunshine and wrapping up the school year. Several of the older toddlers will be joining early childhood classrooms for Summertime, so we will cherish our remaining time with them in our toddler classroom. The end of the school year will finish up with an end of the year celebration carnival and a field day. Both of which will be sure to bring smiles to all the toddler's faces. I hope everyone has a wonderful summer, and I'm looking forward to some great summer camp themes. Thanks for a really great school year! April brought some warmer temperatures for the children of Celeste to enjoy some water works outside. All of our chairs were sparkling from some hands on scrubbing and drying. The outdoor bikes and cars also received some nice cleaning! In April the toddlers also explored different items to glue on paper, and we have some wonderful collages hanging in our classroom that include sequins, tinsel, and decorative paper. The month wrapped up with a wonderful concert from Eric Ode, in which the toddlers did lots of dancing to celebrate Earth Day!
May brings a time of celebration for the toddlers of Celeste to thank their moms with wonderful painted canvas totes. Happy Mother's Day to all! May also brings more wonderful weather to include some more outdoor works. The children will enjoy searching for bugs with magnifying glasses, painting with water, and working on a lot of their gross motor skills. What a great time to be a toddler and have the chance to explore their environment with their senses! |
Ms. TammiaEl Salon Celeste Lead Teacher Archives
October 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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