This Week in the Oak Room
- At February 18, 2013
- By CGMontessori
- In Oak Room
0
What a busy week! We had so much fun celebrating Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day! We had a dragon parade, made lanterns, exchanged Valentine cards and had a m&ms with our bingo game. The children really seemed to enjoy these celebrations!
Our first messy science Friday was a huge success! We made Oobleck (recipe below). This is an interesting concoction that feels like a solid, but changes to a liquid. Super messy, but really cool! Our next experiment was making a balloon blow up with baking soda and vinegar. Ask your child how they did this! Everyone had a turn. And finally, the older children made their own bouncy balls. I was skeptical, but it worked! Science is awesome.
Our Darci will be returning on Wednesday. The children really missed her, so please assure your student that she will be back soon.
We focused on our “peaceful” classroom this week and also talked more about acts of kindness. We read a book about a teacher (“Mrs. Rule”) who challenged her students to “show and tell” an act of kindness they performed at home. We decided we would do the same for our class. If your child performs a kind deed or act at home over the long weekend, encourage them to share it with us on Tuesday!
Oobleck Recipe
1 cup water
1.5-2 cups corn starch
Food coloring for color
Mix all ingredients and enjoy!
Child quote of the week:
“You look like my mom dancing, and that is not a good thing.” (insert “sprinkler” dance motions) – Luke
“ No adult can bear a child’s burden or grow up in his stead.”– Maria Montessori
This Week in the Oak Room
- At February 11, 2013
- By CGMontessori
- In Oak Room
- 0
Gung Hay Fat Choy! Chinese New Year has officially begun! We talked about Chinese New Year in class last week and will celebrate this fun holiday on Monday. We as a class agreed that the class should all try to wear red on Monday to acknowledge this festive time. We cleaned our classroom on Friday to get ready, we will be making dragon puppets and lanterns, having a dragon parade and our older students will be performing a special production for our elementary friends.
Also this week, love is in the air. It’s almost Valentine’s Day! We will be celebrating this special day on Wednesday, so that all of our students can participate. We will be decorating bags during class and each child can bring in Valentines for their friends if they choose to. If your child brings some in, please make sure that there are 23 cards, signed only with your child’s name. Please leave the “to” section blank, as this makes it easier when it’s time to pass them out.
Friday will be our first “messy science” day! We will be trying out several different experiments, and some may yield some gooey results. Please dress your child in clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty. Everyone should have a change of clothes in their cubby, just in case things get really crazy!
“Respect” concerning the people and the environment around us will be our peace lesson this week. How do we show respect to those around us? How do we show respect to a nonliving thing? How do we respect our planet?
We are so excited about the fun week ahead and look forward to another busy and productive week in the Oak Room!
Child quote of the week:
“Arhan is my friend. I just love that guy.” – Ava Katona
“… there is no science and no art of greater importance than that which teaches seeing, which builds sensitivity and respect for the natural world …” – Maria Montessori
This Week in the Maple Room
- At February 11, 2013
- By CGMontessori
- In Maple Room
- 0
The children in the Maple room have been busy in the past weeks.
We have enjoyed learning about the Asian continent. Thank you to all of you that sent in souvenirs from Asia for show and tell. We had a wonderful presentation on Russia with Maryla (Sasha’s Mom). The children enjoyed the dolls, beautiful painted decorative trays and teapot , and other items from Russia. Story telling by Pratyush and his brother Arhan was much fun. Ms. Jama and Sarah presented Japan. We got to see real pictures of homes, Mt. Fuji and money from Japan. Sarah taught us how to use chopsticks to taste the sticky rice. The children are enjoying making flags of countries from Asia.
The children have also been introduced to clocks and money. Hopefully you will be hearing about the bank game and telling time.
They built a bird feeder and painted it with Ms. Jama. Danny brought in some bird seed for the birds. We hope to see birds soon as we look out our windows!
We look forward to celebrating Chinese new year after Valentine’s day.
Children are welcome to bring in Valentines for their classmates for Valentine’s Day. Please help your child to write his/her name on the valentine cards. The children who can read their peer’s name may write their classmates’ name. The class list can be found here. There are 25 children in the Maple room.
Our newest addition to the Maple room is Aanya Srivastava. She is four and has moved from Minneapolis Minnesota where she was attending a Montessori school.
This Week in the Tulip Room
- At February 11, 2013
- By CGMontessori
- In Tulip Room
- 0
These humans never fail to amaze me! They came back from holiday break a month ago, ready to work, which is normal, but it seems that the internal motivation never ends sometimes!! They want to work! They want to learn! They want to learn to deal with social & emotional issues on their own! They want so much and we are so happy they do! With this being a new month, new work plans were on the agenda for Monday and they were hungry for them. They came in ready to tackle their new lists and it has continued all week, new lessons and practicing asking our friends for help as well as recognizing those who do kind things, were at the top of our list this week (and maybe we snuck in some fun water lessons). I really feel each and every day that we are blessed to be surrounded by such amazing, kind, smart and unique people.
This next week brings Valentine’s Day and in the Tulip Room we are wishing to follow our winter holiday season theme of “Giving without getting”, by making valentines for others. We have a call in to our local nursing homes and hospitals to see who we can bring valentines to. But for now, if your child wishes to purchase valentines, we would ask that they do so knowing it isn’t going to themselves or their friends and that we are taking them to the public; to those we have helped before or to those who do kind things for us. So your child may purchase or chose a valentine of their liking to bring in on the 13th, but we will assemble and deliver these to others, with no plan of receiving anything in return. On the 14th the guides are planning an informal party for the learners.
Wow, presidents day is just around the corner and there will plenty of president work on the shelves, but don’t forget we are out the 18th, which brings us to more than the middle of the month and more than halfway through re-enrollment time. Check with Brenda for more details or questions, but for right now we are excited every day to see the re-enrollment list of those returning and those progressing from the Primary Room.
Also we are offering an Elementary Encore…it’s the second act to the “Kristen and Melissa show”, that your children experience every day, this summer, so if you feel your child could benefit or would really love some extra time in the classroom sign them up soon (it’s love, laughing, learning & fun)! Brenda has more info!
Open House Information and Flyer
- At February 09, 2013
- By CGMontessori
- In CGM Parent News
- 0
Please feel free to print and post the open house flyer! Tell your friends and family, we’d love to see everyone.
Click here to view and print the flyer: Open house flyer
Let’s Make a Fairy House
- At February 06, 2013
- By CGMontessori
- In CGM Parent News
- 0
It’s a Party at “Let’s Make a Fairy House” !
Dammann’s Southside Location
Dammann’s “Let’s Make a Fairy House” Class
This Week in the Oak Room
- At February 04, 2013
- By CGMontessori
- In Oak Room
- 0
Hopefully you are hearing all about India at home. This week we will continue our study of Asia with a focus on China. The Chinese New Year is coming soon, which brings with it a lot of fun activities and an excellent opportunity to learn about this fascinating country. As always, any artifacts from home are most welcome for sharing!
We are hoping to have our full class back in the next week. Illness has been affecting many families. As always, we have taken measures to sanitize the classroom daily and encourage frequent hand washing. We suggest to the children that they should be washing their hands, with soap, for as long as it takes to sing the ABC song.
Since this is the year of the snake for Chinese New Year, we will be learning all about these fascinating creatures for our newest science lesson. There are many questions to be answered about where they live, what they eat, why they are cold-blooded, etc.
Our peace lessons this next week will be centered on helpful and hurtful language. We will be having discussions about name-calling, how words have power and perhaps most important, what happens when you can’t “take it back.” In my most recent readings on this subject, I have learned that name-calling and hurtful language is often a result of a child feeling powerless themselves, or can just be testing new language options to see “what happens.” I encourage parents and guardians to come up with a system for you and your child to let them know when they have used words that are hurtful. I liked the suggestion in this month’s “Tomorrow’s Child,” to use a single word, such as “ouch,” for a reminder.
Child quote of the week:
“Do you know what movie I saw when I was just a little kid?” – Emery
“All our handling of the child will bear fruit, not only at the moment, but in the adult they are destined to become.” – Maria Montessori
This Week in Tulip Room
- At February 04, 2013
- By CGMontessori
- In Tulip Room
- 0
What a busy few weeks we have had! As happens with breaks, everyone came back refreshed, rejuvenated and ready to work and so everyone wanted a lesson on something new! I realized all of a sudden that I haven’t been blogging or getting pictures because these learners are hungry for new things and there hasn’t been time for picture taking! Thankfully this week we settled back into our routines and into our more familiar work and into some changes that were made.
The children really seem to love the new “Reading time” that we have carved into our schedule. Each day we stop everything we are doing to read for 30 minutes, including Ms. Kristen and I! I am so excited to have this chance to read the things they are reading or getting ready to read, as well as re-read some things I read when I was their age. This gift of reading time has really helped some, finish books and others, finish work during work time, knowing that they will have time for their reading.
We also began student led spelling tests. Ms. Kristen and I test the older students (3rd-5th) then they test the younger ones. They love it and it is the essence of Montessori, with older learners teaching the younger ones. We swell with pride at the amazing people they are and how they become more amazing every day. With this we have seen a surge in student led lessons (i.e. older students giving lessons to younger students as opposed to a teacher led lesson) and are impressed every moment with the maturity, peace and love in the classroom.
This past week we were happy to host a “Walk through Math” and were very happy with the turn-out! I know there were many who wished to be there but couldn’t so we have posted pictures on CGMs Facebook page so you can see the set-up. Ms. Kristen and I showed lessons with each of the four operations and how we show the child to move the materials to paper. Anytime you would like a lesson please feel free to ask one of us, we would enjoy it immensely!
Our New Year’s goal is to have your child ready at pick-up time. Sorry that we are slow on this but in February I intend to put my all into it! So, just a reminder that pick-up is from 3:00-3:15. At 3:16 they will be sent to aftercare. After 3:15 is an important time for teachers to prepare the classroom for the next day. Thank you for your partnership in this!
Re-enrollment is just around the corner and begins in February, watch for more info!
This Week in the Oak Room
- At January 27, 2013
- By CGMontessori
- In Oak Room
- 0
This Week in the Oak Room
Such big work this week! Several of our younger students started their golden bead work. These layouts are so much fun and are such an integral part of the Montessori curriculum, it pleases us every time we see it!
Hopefully all of your children went home on Thursday bragging about their delicious smoothies. After a discussion about what children in India like to eat, we chopped mangoes and bananas, added yogurt and honey and after a quick mix in the blender, we enjoyed a tasty treat before yoga. I encourage all of our families to get their children involved in the kitchen. It is so much fun for them, but also very meaningful work. It builds their practical life skills as well as their confidence and coordination. Just make sure they help with the cleaning too!
Bend, stretch, dance and wiggle. When we are not able to go outside to run, we take time to incorporate physical activity into a lot of our lessons. We try to do jobs far away from where the materials are stored, so that we have to walk back and forth, we dance and sing at circle. Miss Darci even had a pretend sled right in our classroom! So fun. It is important that children receive regular “movement” breaks throughout their day, so when your cozying up to the fireplace this weekend, don’t forget to get those little guys up and moving!
Happy Birthday to Ava Katona! She’s six!
Child quote of the week:
Ava Shirley: “My dad has to dress all prettily for work. I don’t know why.”
“When dealing with children there is greater need for observing than of probing” – Maria Montessori