Week 2

Montessori math materials are so beautiful. The kids are already rolling with new lessons and getting their hands back on the materials.

The subtraction strip board

Multiplication bead board

Decanomial

Fraction insets

Also, Michael Duffy, a veteran Montessorian and author visited North Park this past week. He held an informational parent night on Friday and then an all day staff professional development day on Saturday. It was very informative, relevant, and inspiring. If you haven't checked out his books, I highly recommend them. I believe the office is getting in a few copies for purchase. 

Also, we've celebrated a few birthdays in the classroom already this year. I make sure that everyone has a special day during the year to celebrate their birthday, even if they have a summer birthday. I think it is important that every child have this day to feel celebrated. The child is encouraged to bring in a timeline of their life and a birthday snack. Here's an example of a birthday timeline (not my image... I always forget to take a picture of a student's timeline):

If you want this free printable, go here: http://www.theclassroomcreative.com/2014/05/free-printable-timeline-template-and-activity-inspired-by-montessori/ 

We also set up the Montessori sun and have the child walk around the sun for the number of trips around the sun they have taken. :) We also have a special song that we sing. 

Here's to Week 3!

First Week

Hello Families!

I can't believe we are already in week 2 of the new school year! Last week was a lot of fun and was very successful, as the students learned procedures, built a strong community, and got back into the groove of the school routine. We were very busy and did a lot of fun activities. Some of the things we did were:

• a Bandaid activity, where we learned about fairness (and that it doesn't mean "sameness")
• many different team-building games
• decorated our notebooks
• an anti-bullying activity with a pink paper heart
• started reading Tales of Desperaux
• made name tags
• created our own classroom rules poster and signed it
• created a classroom book called "Our Peaceful Classroom"
• played a very cool rhythm game in a circle
• drew self-portraits
• played the marshmallow game
• ...and lots more

Here are some photos from the week:

 Making self-portraits

 Writing our numbers to 100 (first years)

 Doing the Hundred Board (first years)

 Practicing closing the door very quietly!

Cursive letters (second and third years)

This week, we are getting into new lessons, spelling, guided reading groups, and starting our personal narrative unit of study. We are thankful for the beautiful weather that is allowing us to go out for a short break in the morning and afternoon for fresh air. We are also already thankful for Miss. Tuchman for being a second teacher on hand for the kids. 

I looked around today during the most beautiful, peaceful work time. The kids were all spread out in our new space, working away. I think this is the earliest that the work cycle has been so productive in the classroom, and that makes me very excited about the year ahead.

"One test of correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child." -Maria Montessori

Animals and Plants Galore!

Our classroom has felt so alive the past few weeks. We have been deep in our studies of botany and zoology with all three grade levels. Enjoy these recent updates in photos and words:

One day, we had ALL of these animals in our classroom: a hedgehog, turtle, butterfly, hermit crabs, and ducklings. Those are some happy kids. (All we needed were a fish and an amphibian and we could have had all vertebrate groups represented.) 

Intently watching the butterflies attempting to hatch. (We didn't actually get to see it happen, but one chrysalis was shaking like crazy and had the kids very excited.)

One of our gorgeous painted lady butterflies. All four hatched out of their cocoons. Two were very healthy so we released them right away. (This was a learning opportunity to talk about how life in the wild is much better than life in captivity.) The other two that hatched had wing issues, so we kept them around for awhile and cared for them until they got stronger. (Another opportunity to learn about how predators prey on injured animals more often than healthy animals.) The two injured butterflies randomly, somehow were named by the kids: Casey Jones and Indiana Jones. All 26 kids seemed to instantly pick and agree on naming the butterflies before I even knew what had happened. And middle names too! I had to laugh. Casey Jones and Indiana Jones are now flying free in our area.

Thanks for the butterflies, Erica Swenson! :) 

Brooklyn's ducklings. 

Harper and Sylas just doing a little work with their hermit crabs on standby. 

Also--if you get a chance to go to the GRAM, Kyle's artwork and accompanying story are on display. 

Our bean plants are doing well in our grow labs, built by two of our students. These will be coming home with students on Friday, as the kids know that in order to produce beans, the plants will need their flowers to be pollinated by bees. 

Hope you enjoyed these photo updates. Check back soon for videos from our recent Spanish class.

This Week

Hi Families!

This week was very busy! We had two different field trips. On Tuesday, the first years went to Blandford Nature Center. The program we originally selected was called "Birds of a Feather," but there was a miscommunication and Blandford ended up doing the "Seeds and Plants" workshop with our group. This was actually a happy switch-up, as the majority of the classrooms are currently working on Botany studies, so it was very applicable. The students went on nature hikes around the property on a seed/plant scavenger hunt.

Playing a game called Squirrels and Blue jays :)

We also had two Mystery Guest presentations this week. Brooklyn was Betsy Ross and Kyle was Galileo. 

Sylas also did a really cool hermit crab presentation and brought in his pet hermit crab, Spidey, but I totally forgot to take a picture! 

We also celebrated Earth day with several different lessons and this art project.

Today, the second graders went to the Civic Theater to see a presentation of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It was really well done and the students had a great time. 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Beautiful Botany

Hi Families,

I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing spring break. Mine was very restful, although I am happy to be back with the kids. (Your children bring so much joy and happiness to my days.)

This week marked the beginning of our botany studies. The first years are studying the needs of plants as well as animal life cycles. The second years are studying more advanced parts of a plant, and the third graders are studying the parts and life cycle of a flowering part. The third years were amazed to learn this week that flowers are both male and female. 

Second grade work--diagramming the parts of a plant

Stella working on her parts of a flower diagram.

Melina working on her life cycle of a frog. 

We also planted bean seeds and are now waiting for them to sprout. 

Just some beautiful collaborative learning. :) 

Kid Funnies of late. (Hope these are funny to you too... some of them maybe are only funny in context--you had to be there, kind of thing.) I still have to share:

Jon: "Looking at this map of Europe makes me want some cheese."

Henry: "I know that King Tut's wife was so sad when her husband died that she killed her own self with a snake."

Me (Prompting a discussion for our writing prompt): "What would you do if the hummingbird you rescued didn't seem to be getting any better?"
Brady: "Well maybe he is just faking it."

We also went outside to clean up litter on the playground. The kids were thrilled with the odd assortment of things they found outside--dental floss, a giant wad of sticky tack, and the ultimate highlight: a petrified frog. Caileb wanted to touch it badly and Harry yelled out, "No Caileb! It has rabies!"

I have tears in my eyes from laughter just typing this as we are sitting in the peaceful computer lab, everyone working quietly with headphones on, when Sylas yells out: "LOOK AT THE CAT!" which has apparently appeared on his screen. Oh these kids, I love them so.

Weeky Updates--Last Week

This was a very busy week in our classroom!

The first years have been learning about states of matter. Here are some pictures from our science lesson. The kids were VERY excited about making Carbon Dioxide with baking soda and vinegar and watching it blow up the balloon. This is a great visual about how gasses spread. We also talked about particles. I was in the middle of a very simple explanation of particles when one of the first years said, "Oh, are you talking about atoms?" (These kids surprise me every day.)

We started by looking at three balloons: one contained air, one contained water, and one contained ice. We opened up the balloons and kept an eye on the ice ball until it melted a few hours later.

Our carbon dioxide gas blew up the balloon. (And we had a near explosion.)

Showing particle spacing with Cheerios.

The third years are working on finishing up their fantasy pieces for the unit with the Grand Rapids Art Museum. They created beautiful collages in art class featuring their very own unique mixed-up animal (an animal that is a cross between two common animals), and they are now writing a story about them. The stories are proving to be very creative and interesting and will be displayed in our hallway when they are finished.

Because March is reading month, we are also keeping running records of the number of pages we read as a class during our Sustained Silent Reading time. We'll total it up at the end of the month for a grand total. Should be pretty impressive, as we're already at close to 10,000 pages read (picture book pages count). This has definitely built the excitement for reading in our classroom.

I hope to be better about updating this blog on a weekly basis. It has been hard to find the time, but I learned that whole-class computer lab time is a great opportunity for me to do this as the kids are becoming very independent with the computers.

I also plan to include "Kid-Funnies" every week when possible--this class is seriously so funny. Question for you. (Leave your answer as a comment.) Is it okay with you for me to put the names next to the kids quotes, or would you prefer I left it anonymous? Also, is it okay to caption photos with the students' names, or would you rather not have photo descriptions? (I don't think many people read this blog except for current parents, but I always want to be doing the right thing.) Thanks for your input!

I will give this week's update very soon. Have a sunny weekend!

New Work Plans

Hi Parents,

Sorry for the lack of updates on this blog--classroom life has been busy! I wanted to write a post explaining the new work plan system we have been using for the past several weeks. It is going really well, but is definitely different from the Record Books of the past.

Previously, the students were recording all of their daily work in a Record Book. They were required to do two math works and two language works per day, with science and cultural work in the afternoon. I would look over the Record Books at the end of each day and have conferences with the students about how well they were/were not balancing their curriculum. Some students were wonderful at this, others struggled. My Montessori training consultant asked me to try out a new system and I was very hesitant at first, but I am so glad I made the switch to something a little more structured.

Our new work plans look like this:

They are kept inside a folder which is organized into three sections: finished work, unfinished work, and work plans. Every week, the students get a new, mostly empty work plan. Every time I give a new lesson, we write it on the work plan and the students know they are responsible for that work one week from that date. (This is where the freedom of choice comes in--the students can choose when, and often how, they complete a particular work.)

Once a student has completed something, they highlight it and move it to the "finished" side of the folder. The following week, I check work that is due each day to ensure that it is done on time and correctly. We do this at the start of each new lesson. In my teaching calendar, I follow a schedule so that each grade level is getting the same amount of lessons and all content areas are covered each week.

Here's a picture of our schedule:

The kids are responsible for completing the work that accompanies their lessons, tracking what is finished and unfinished, and also keeping their folders neat and orderly. This has been a learning curve for some of the kids, but others are flourishing with it and are managing beautifully. I am so proud of them for how well they handled such a big change, mid-year. I hope that these work plans will continue to be as successful in the future as they are now. I feel that the kids are accomplishing much more work than before and their time at school is more productive.

You may have also heard of "Fun Friday." This is something that is totally not Montessori and slightly cringe-worthy, but there are several students who need extra motivation to accomplish that work on time. Every Friday,  those who have completed all of their assignments are able to participate in games in small groups for 45 minutes. Those who still have unfinished work sit with me to get everything accomplished. So far, this has held those students accountable for completing their work. I hope to do away with this external motivator as more kids are able to manage their work time, but freedom is still hard for some kids and they are still learning how to balance it. It sounds a bit harsh for some kids not to be able to participate, but by the time this Fun Friday rolls around, I have usually helped, prodded, reminded, and retaught the unfinished work several times, so usually the people with unfinished work have simply wasted too much time. Again, I hope to make this system a bit more Montessori very soon, but for now, this was necessary for some students.

The large majority of the kids are doing extremely well with it and my heart has been so happy seeing their school days so full and seeing the pride they experience as they organize themselves and check things off their plans.

I'll leave you with some "kid-funnies" of last week. Your kids are way too quotable!

Jana, holding up our wooden symbol for contractions (grammar): "How did this come to the earth?"

Henry, at a science lesson about liquids and solids: "Milk is usually in a jug or a cup, unless it's in an udder."

Olivia: "Why do you have that mint but you aren't eating it? Want me to pop it in your mouth?"

Oh, I love them so.