Room 5 Show-N-Tell

We encourage the children to bring in something from nature, something they have made or something we can learn from.  We are trending toward educational items (please limit it to no more than once per week) so we can learn about new things in our world.

Some of the great things we have learned about so far are:

·         Peacock Feather

·         Praying Mantis

·         Star Fish

·         Shark Teeth

·         Katydid

·         Ultrasound Picture of a future sibling

Show-N-Tell is a great time for children to work on presenting something in front of their peers as well as working on talking in front of a group, using descriptive language, and answering questions.

We all look forward to future items that we can learn about from the children.

Update from Room 4

The children in Room 4  have been enjoying celebrating all the many birthdays of our friends, and there are several more birthdays to come!  They have mastered singing our special birthday song and it's a delight to watch them sway to the music with their arms linked.  What a beautiful community of friends!

Botany is one of our major areas of study this year.  Recently the children have been learning about what plants need to live: water, sunlight and air, and we've discussed how plants start as tiny seeds, no bigger than your finger nail, grow into a shoot, and then into a plant.  They learned the basic parts of a plant and of a tree: the root, the stem, and the leaves and together we've been reading several science books containing interesting facts about plants.
 

This past week brought our first thunderstorm and the class has  enjoyed talking about storms and enjoyed hearing the thunder.

Many great works continued this week - washing works, lots of Sensorial, several Language works and Sounds lessons, and many great math works.  It's exciting to see the students' concentration and independence.

Submitted by: Lois Burns

Exploring Watercolors

This week at Creative Experiences we explored watercolors; watercolor paints, watercolor pencils, watercolor crayons and crayon resist with watercolors.  The time went by too quickly for most of the children--when it was time to clean up, several had not had the opportunity to get to all of the works.  After being assured that they would be available in the future we cleaned up and said our farewells.

Watercolor Resist--mystery picture

working in a self-portrait

watercolor design



Morning Routine

 

I hang up my bag.
 

I put my folder in the basket.
 

I take off my shoes.



 

I put my lunchbox on the shelf.

I put on my slippers.



We sit on the blue line.
 



We sit on the blue line for Group Time.  Our Teacher presents a new work.
 



I choose my work (binomial cube).
 





I choose to work at a rug for the large hexagon box.

 

We can have snack with a friend when we are hungry.

 



Room 4 Update!

We're off to a busy, bustling new year!  The children are excited about working and trying new works.  Several children have done creative extensions with the Pink Tower and Brown Stair, and Geography Maps. Sensorial works have been exploding, with Fabric Matching and the Constructive Triangles, among others.

 

Other children have been doing large math works, which is inspiring more children to try their hand and explore them. 

 

It’s an exciting new year!

 

Hello from room 5!

Mrs. Shelley, Mrs. Rockafellow, Ms. Klingel and Ms. Harvey welcome you to a new school year. 

Our class has been talking about classroom rules and playground rules.  Not only rules, but how to roll a rug, push in a chair, serve ourselves snack and set up for lunch—all things we do on a daily basis. 

The ice cream social was a great success!  Ms. Klingel and Ms. Harvey had a fun time at the face-painting table adorning many children with hearts and rainbows.  The children were excited to see other boys and girls who wore red and loved how easy it was to locate their friends.

Save the Date and Plan to Attend our first Parent Education Night of the Year, Thursday, September 19, 6:00-7:30p.m.  This is an opportunity for moms and dads to come and experience what a typical early childhood class is like at Montessori.

Save the Date!

The 15^th annual Fall Frolic is coming up just around the corner.  This annual run is to benefit The Montessori Classroom at the South Bend Center for the Homeless.  This classroom was created in partnership with the SBCFH in 1994; it still remains the only Montessori Classroom offered in a homeless setting in the country.   Because of this partnership a unique pre-school program now serves children at the Center by integrating Montessori philosophy, methodology and materials with the special needs and gifts of homeless children, ages three through six. The results have been remarkable!

   “A total of 20 children were transformed by the Montessori Classroom at the South Bend Center for the Homeless during the 2012-2013 school year.  While not all of the 20 children attended at the same time nor did all of them complete the Montessori cycle, they were all loved, honored and cared for within the Montessori community.  Some of the children attended school for a few days, others a few weeks, some a few months and one completed the third year of the Montessori curriculum.  While the classroom at the center does oftentimes seem like a revolving door, we at the Montessori Academy believe that no matter what the length of attendance is, if we can offer a safe and secure environment for these young children and allow them to have a peaceful environment to learn in and to be successful. "

 

   The Early Childhood Program at the South Bend Center for the Homeless is designed to work with the intellectual, emotional, physical and social needs of three through six year olds.  Children who come through the door of this special classroom have experienced the extremes of human existence: hunger, poverty, abuse of all kinds, homelessness, and neglect.  For many, this classroom serves as the backdrop for their first experience with the realization they can work to meet their own needs, with the limits and self-discipline that make society thrive with the respect and value of being a contributing member of our classroom community, with the sense of some small measure of order in their young lives, and with the freedom of choice.

v  The children gain social and communications skills that evolve into cooperative                relationships;

v  they acquire the ability to make decisions through guided choices;

v  they develop skills in respectful problem-solving and conflict-resolution.

v  Through a diversity of activities the children gain confidence, concentration and              independence.

v  The enriched language materials give experience in self-expression, vocabulary development, as well as pre-reading and writing skills.

v  The concrete math work is process-based for an understanding of concepts.

v  Geography and science are integrated for greater cultural awareness of the world and its people.

v  The classroom motivates children from the young three’s through the kindergarten age.

 

 

 

Creative Experiences: Primary Colors

We kicked off the 1st session of Creative Experiences on Monday--we made a mess!

Class started off with an yummy snack of grapes and cheese and the reading of Little Blue and Little Yellow, by Leo Lionni.  This is a book about two primary colors forming a secondary color.

 

The children then toured the prepared environment to view what types of art were out for exploration.  Some of the activities were:

• Creating a Color Wheel
• Rubbing Plates
• Tearing or Cutting Paper and Gluing
• Painting with Blue
• Painting: Blue & Yellow Make...
• The Color Palette Painting
• Painting at an Easel (Red, Yellow, and Blue)
• Finger Painting with Primary Colors
• Color Mixing with Bingo Blotters
• Texture Painting (Yellow and Red)

 

 

 

Happily Kicking off the Year!

 

 

 

 

Room 2--Off to a Great Start!

Our friends have been so busy.  Here's a quick view of our class in action!

 

 

 Our class has already bonded during our group snack last week. 

 

 

Hand washing is already a popular work.