The Joys of a Chemical Reaction

*Note- When I post videos of the class on the blog, I will be routing through a private YouTube account and all the videos will be unlisted (private) so that they cannot be seen by the public. Hopefully that is okay with everyone. If not, let me know and I will delete them and then try to do it differently.*

Three Years Strong

I can't believe the third years are, well, kids I've had for going on three years now. This Montessori three-year cycle is a beautiful thing. Thanks Maria, for your genius. This three-year system means I have 13 leaders in my classroom...kids who know the procedures and are there to help the younger students find their way. The are so comfortable with the curriculum and have a very strong sense of community. How smart it is to allow a teacher to keep her students for more than one year. I feel like I know them all so well--what their passions are, what makes them tick (or not), the things they struggle with... it is one of my favorite parts of being a Montessorian. Couldn't ask for a sweeter group. Here they are, hard at work on some cultural essays:

"'Why did you do all this for me?' he asked. 'I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.' 'You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself if a tremendous thing.'"- E.B. White, Charlotte's Web 

Language Updates

Hi all. I just wanted to post a short update about some of the things we've been up to in the language curriculum.

The first years have been learning about nouns and they spent some time labeling nouns in our classroom.

(In the Montessori grammar curriculum, a noun is represented by a large, black pyramid. Hence, all the black triangles.) As you can see, even the hedgehog wasn't safe. The tape is my personal favorite. The second and third years were quite confused. "Why is everything in this room labeled?" as they try to maneuver a drink from the labeled fountain. :)

The second years have been working on compound words and proper nouns.

*Photos courtesy of Skyler's notebook

The third years have been working on prefix and suffix, subject and predicate, and possessive nouns.

*Photos courtesy of Gabby's notebook

*Photos courtesy of Kyle's notebook. Sentence #4 is a gem.

Hope you enjoyed!

The First Great Lesson

The Montessori cultural, science, and history curriculum is founded on The Five Great Lessons, which were created by Montessori to spark the child's imagination while being presented with big concepts regarding how the world has become what it is today. These stories are told with great drama and visual demonstrations and lead to further studies and investigation in the curriculum. The First Great Lesson is the story of how the universe began. I have found this to be a "touchy subject," as everyone has a different idea about how the world came to be--whether it was made by a creator or an explosion or any of the other ideas science has brought to the table. Before giving this lesson, the children and I discuss how our beliefs are the same or different, and I explain that I am going to tell one story about how the world perhaps began. They are all quite satisfied with hearing another story, may it be different from their own. 

Here is what the storytelling rug looked like before the students returned from music class:

When the students arrived, the room was dark and celestial music was the backdrop to the story. There are a few different versions of the story, and my training center has one that takes about 25 minutes to tell, pausing for the various demonstrations. 

Demonstrations from left to right: a great explosion, the light of the first stars, how stars group together to form galaxies, the solar system

Continued: the comparative sizes of the sun and earth, the density of liquids, volcanic eruptions, solids/liquids/gases

The lesson was a great success and a wonderful experience for all of us. I've never had so much "ooo-ing and ahhh-ing" or seen so many interested faces.

Hope you enjoyed a little peek into our First Great Lesson. :)

Incubation!

Dear Families,

I just wanted to post an update about our chicken egg project. The kids and I are anxiously awaiting the hatching of our 8 chicken eggs. We have them in a Hova-Bator incubator and are now on day 7 of the 21 day incubation period. This project has been FULL of learning so far, as the students are learning about the chicken life cycle, as well as embryo development inside the egg. The project has been fascinating and I have also been learning a lot--way more than I ever intended to know about the successful hatching of chicks in the classroom. One thing is for sure, the students and I discovered that it is way more work than anticipated, as the temperature and humidity inside the incubator must be JUST right and must be carefully monitored. We have all turned into "mother hens" checking the temp every so often, to make sure our babies are safe and sound. Each day, a different student is responsible for being the "Temperature Monitor" (checking the temp every 30 minutes), and another student is the "Egg Turner," who turns the eggs every few hours to ensure even heating. We are collecting and charting all of our data thus far on a timeline in the classroom. Tomorrow will be very exciting, as we will be "candling" the eggs. We will be using a bright light in a dark room to see inside the eggs to observe the development and hopefully see some tiny chick embryos moving inside. Very cool--so sometime tomorrow, all 27 of us will be crammed into a closet somewhere in the school examining chick embryos. Always something new! :) I will be sure to post pictures from the candling soon. Here are a few pictures of our project in progress:

The top of the incubator. Notice the thermometer reads 99.5--the perfect sweet spot!

The whole incubator set up. *Note my paranoid message to the maintenance staff. And the sweet handwritten instructions from the farmer. :)

And here's a cool chart of the development:

Thanks for reading,

Alex

Another classroom pet!

Introducing... Ferdinand. He's a baby map turtle I found while kayaking on the Rouge River in Rockford. He was all alone in a strange spot, so we decided to take him home and spoil him. (I know that our classroom is going to be like a zoo, but that's okay.) He was just too cute to leave alone.

(He's a common map turtle, which is how he got his name. After famous map-maker Ferdinand Magellan.)

I can't wait for the kids to meet him in August! Hope you are all having a fantastic summer.

Greenhouse Project: Items for Sale

Hello and welcome to our classroom blog page. Our class has been working on a service-learning project all year called The Greenhouse Effect. Our final goal was to raise enough money to purchase a well for a community in need of fresh water somewhere around the world through UNICEF's Tap Project. We learned that it costs about $500 to install these wells, so we set off on a large project to reach our goal.

We decided to build our own plastic water bottle greenhouse, which could be auctioned off to the public for funding for the well. Throughout the year, students collected 1,500 plastic water bottles (many out of trash cans and bins throughout the community). The bottles were prepped and stored until spring when we could begin the actual construction phase. We are in the midst of the construction and have almost finished our six-by-six foot greenhouse, thanks to the help of many wonderful parent volunteers and the hard work of all the students.

While collecting all of our plastic bottles, the students found that they had collected a large amount of bottle caps and decided to use them to help the project in other ways. Several creative students created the following items on their own to be sold. All proceeds will go to the purchase of our UNICEF well.

We invite you to take a look at the items the kids have made. If you are interested in purchasing any of the items, please leave a comment below detailing which item you would like and your information so we can hold it for you. If you live in the North Park (Grand Rapids, MI) community, you can come to the school between May 29 and June 5 to pick up your item, and we will accept your payment at that time (cash, or a check written to North Park Montessori). If you live outside of our community, we would love to ship your item to you. Once you mail us your payment, we will drop your item in the mail to arrive within a few days.

Thank you so much for your support. And keep checking back on this blog, as we have more items to post for sale in the next few days.

Peace, love, and fresh water,
Mrs. Mikrut's Classroom

Plastic Water Bottle Pincushion Rings

Perfect for keeping your pins right at hand.

Price= $5 each

We also have bottle cap collages made on artboard. $5 each:

"Brooklyn's Bottlecaps"

"Gaby's Bottlecaps"

"Jacob's Bottlecaps"