In January, we saw the dinosaurs come back to life in all the areas of the classroom. Children learned about different types of dinosaurs and their varied diets through an herbivore and carnivore sorting work. We also learned about volcanoes and their parts and looked at pictures of environments before and after eruptions to explore the concept of time. Children were able to make their own erupting volcanoes with mashed potatoes and watched broccoli “trees” get swept away by gravy “lava” before enjoying the snack with their lunch.
It’s so hard to believe that February is already here! Although short, we have many exciting things planned. We opened our unit on Antarctica with a visit from a Lila family member who did research at the South Pole. Children gathered at circle to listen to the hardships of living in the white desert as well as the rewards and unique experiences of living at the cleanest place on earth. Penguins have found their way into the Lila classroom, and children will be learning about their body parts and life cycle. Also, our Antarctica A-Z booklet will allow children to explore different features of the continent using each letter of the alphabet. In our botany section, children will find information about the Antarctic Pearlwort, one of the only flowering plants on the continent. In addition to Antarctica and penguins, we have also been introduced to the concept of empathy and what it means to be empathetic towards others. Our language section has been updated with conversation cards that ask children “what would you do?” in situations that call for empathy, compassion, and understanding. Using red to symbolize the color of empathy, our practical life area has been made over with red water for sponging, pouring, and basting. Our sensorial area has been updated with heart shaped fabrics for matching. In our math section, children can count and add hearts together to exercise their mathematical minds. At circle, we listen to stories of empathy between family, friends, and strangers to strengthen our own understanding of the concept.
0 Comments
Happy New Year!! By now, everyone has returned and the Lila friends are happy to be reunited. December was short, but we learned so much. We learned about the parts of the hermit crab which segued into the children learning about other invertebrates and their differences from vertebrates. An old time favorite, The Magic School Bus, showed us what symbiotic relationships look like using the hermit crab and the sea anemone as an example.
For the month of January, we will be learning about dinosaurs and volcanoes. The children have started making their own books with the different parts of stegosaurs. They work together to match the skeletal system of different dinosaurs to its picture. In art, the children can bring brontosaurs back to life in the form of stamp painting. In our geography area, volcanoes are explored and children are able to label its parts. With our classroom model volcano, the children can open up the landform and see it from the inside. Through our dinosaur unit we will also talk about herbivores and carnivores and the part these animals play in an ecosystem. How is December here already?!?!?! November flew by with our study of apples and North America. Thank so families that brought in apples for the kids to work with. They had so much fun being able to select an apple out of a basket and dissect it to find all of the parts. The only thing missing were the leaves attached to the stem, so we would go outside and find a leaf to use. They also loved figuring out how to slice apples to make fractions. This became both a Practical Life and a Math lesson! As for North America, they really enjoyed exploring our globes and not only finding North America, but finding where we live within it. Another favorite was a North America A-Z book with matching picture cards. We got this work out at circle and everyone was able to have a card and place it on a work rug in order. We learned so much about this great continent we live in!
As for December, we are going to learn about Hermit Crabs! Since we have 4 living in our room, it only makes sense to learn all we can about these amazing invertebrates. Many children have already begun learning the different parts of the crab, and also get to practice handling the animals as they try to find all of the parts they can see. We will also be learning about shells and why they need them, what their diet is, and how to take care of hermit crabs as pets. You might also see parts of the peanut plant books coming home as well, since believe it or not peanut butter is a favorite treat of theirs.* *Due to the allergies present in the classroom, our hermit crabs are not fed peanut butter, but instead get other fun treats such as popcorn… Happy Holidays! For the month of October, we dug deep into salmon and land/water forms. We looked at the different parts, types, migrations and life cycle of salmon. The kids really got into the life cycle, making books to take home to their families. They were able to explore further by placing felt fish on a large ocean mat. They also enjoyed pictures of each stage of the salmon life cycle; their favorite, of course, was the picture of the dead spawners. We also had a lot of fun exploring the different land and water forms through books from the library, three part cards, and making books to take home as well. Their favorite by far was getting to find lakes and islands on maps like true explorers! We also had some amazing cooking projects in class, making fruit shish k bobs, baked apples and zucchini bread.
November will bring North America and apples to the classroom. We will be looking at everything from the United States and the American Flag, to festivals celebrated this time of the year such as Thanksgiving and El Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). We will also be exploring the animals of North America, going in depth with the parts of the turkey. Apples are a great thing to study in November, as they are fresh and in season. We will be looking at the parts of a plant/tree as well as the apple itself. We will also be learning the parts of the apple, and for fun, the parts of the earthworm! Another year in El Salon Lila is well underway and off to an amazing start! In September we focused the first month on Grace and Courtesy and Peace Education. There were lots of customs and routines to remember and teach the new students. The older kids were amazing role models and helpers. Many times throughout the month I saw friends helping one another remember how to roll a work rug, or where works go on shelves. This is such an amazing sight to see because not only are the new students learning the classroom rules, the older students are solidifying their own learning by helping younger children. We have also been working on what being a good friend looks and sounds like, and the children have been hard at work making friendship necklaces for one another.
For the month of October, we will be focusing our curriculum on salmon and land forms. I love October for a Salmon study, because all of the fish are returning upstream to spawn. I will be inviting families to join me at the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery on a weekend to check out all of the salmon in the fish ladder. If you haven’t gone, you won’t want to miss it! Those fish seem to be as big as your children, and they get such a kick out of being able to see them up close. More info to come through the Bloomz app. We will be covering the life cycle, parts of, and species of salmon. For land and water forms, we will be exploring lake and island, cape and bay, peninsula and gulf, and isthmus and system of lakes. In the month of May we in Lila studied mushrooms. There was a great deal of enthusiasm from the children on the subject. We learned the parts of the mushroom and about the life cycle. We even watched a full life cycle with a mushroom grow kit I picked up at the local Redmond farmer's market. The kids came in excited each morning to see the change in the growing mushrooms. We also did an experiment with a large mushroom cap to make a spore print. It was amazing the way the spores collected on a piece of paper when left unmoved for a couple of days! Children enjoyed practicing literacy and handwriting skills while making their own booklets of the parts of the mushroom and writing the names of various animals that eat mushrooms. There was also a mushroom sewing work, mushroom coloring, and mushroom pin poking. We were thrilled to have Samarth's mother and grandmother volunteer in the classroom to help us make stuffed mushrooms. The children immensely enjoyed the cooking aspect. When it came time to eat them, children seemed to either really like them or really not like them. I was glad to see that almost everyone tried them, even if they decided it wasn't for them:)
In the month of June we will be reviewing core materials and working as a community to clean the classroom in preparation for the end of the school year. Throughout the month of April Lila class focused on learning about the water cycle and weather. At circle a felt board water cycle presentation was supplemented with real examples of water as a liquid, solid (ice cube), and a gas (steaming tea pot). We learned how to identify cirrus, stratus, and cumulus clouds. During work time children used a cloud sorting material to practice independently. Many days children would approach me on the playground to comment on the clouds in the sky. Some children practiced their handwriting skills while making their own book about clouds. In the art area there was a popular cloud gluing work and a sun stencil painting work. Jake's mom and grandma came in to make Fluffy Cloud Potatoes. It was great fun. The potatoes on sky blue plates really did look like clouds. The children ate their "clouds" while I read a fun book about seeing different shapes in the clouds. Unrelated to weather, but very popular in April was a butter making work. The children shook a small jar of cream until it became butter. Once butter was made, a butter spreading work was available. Both were a big hit. Once the butter was used up with the spreading work, the butter shaking began again.
In May we will be learning all about mushrooms, including the life cycle, parts of the mushroom, mushrooms common to the Pacific Northwest, and animals that eat mushrooms. We will be growing mushrooms in class and will also do an amazing spore print experiment. Mushrooms will be incorporated into many areas of the classroom. We will also be making stuffed mushrooms. Yum! In the month of March we learned about the continent of South America. We began by revisiting the continent globe to help the children better understand South America in relation to where we live. A few children were inspired to trace and label the continent of South America and the countries that make it up. At circle we also looked at various pictures of typical South American life (e.g. a girl at school, people at the beach, people at a festival, Amazonians in the forest, etc). We compared what we saw in the pictures to how we know life in North America to be either similar or different. I observed a number of children independently looking at these pictures during work time. We spoke a bit about animals that live in South America. A number of children practiced handwriting by choosing an animal in a South American Animal Book, and then writing various facts about the animal along with an illustration. We read a couple of South American folk tales/realistic non-fiction that the children really enjoyed and repeatedly requested. In addition to this, Jenelle (Julianna's mom) came in to make Brazilian Cheese Bread Balls. They were so yummy! In addition to South America, we also touched on various aspects of self-esteem, including the importance of loving yourself and advocating for yourself.
In the month of April we will be focusing on weather and the water cycle. I have a fun science experiment planned to show what happens when the clouds cannot hold any more moisture. We'll learn to identify different types of weather, storms, and clouds. We also have a fun weather-related cooking project planned. In February we focused our learning on birds. Together we spoke about their life cycle. This organically led into a larger conversation about life cycles of living things in general, prompting some children to cut and paste pictures of living and non-living things from magazines. During group time we also touched on what birds eat and how different birds get around (fly, swim, run, walk). Looking at various pictures of bird nests, the children came to really understand that birds make their house out of what they have available (city bird's nest had many human artifacts like newspaper, beachside bird's nest had seashells, etc.) and that they build them in a way that will keep them safe where they live. We had a great selection of bird-specific library books which children often looked at and requested to be read. The children enjoyed practicing visual discrimination along with bird recognition skills with a memory picture game. A number of children used nomenclature cards to practice the parts of the bird and then made their own book of the parts of the bird, practicing both handwriting and organization skills. In the Practical Life area of the classroom, children practiced hand/eye coordination and fine motor skills with a bird lacing material and a tonging work in which they carefully tonged small eggs from one nest to another. Children also enjoyed watercolor bird painting and parrot paint dobbing in the Art area. We were thrilled to have Julianna's mom, Jenelle, volunteer to come in to help children paint individual bird houses that they were able to take home.
Next month in March we will be learning about South America. We will focus on how living there is both similar and different from other places on earth, including cultural food, dress, and music. I plan to have a cooking project to help make it more tangible and relatable. We will also be focusing on self-esteem and the peaceful values we hold important in the classroom. Best Regards, Nancy Hi Everyone,
In the month of January, we focused on learning about volcanoes. We learned about the different parts of the volcano (magma, conduit, cone, etc.), about the difference between active, dormant, and extinct volcanoes, and about the scientists that help keep humans safe by studying volcanic activity. I was lucky enough to borrow a jar of ashes that my friend's grandmother collected from her yard after the Mount St. Helens eruption. The children were greatly intrigued by the ashes and often looked at the jar. We looked at before and after pictures of Mount St. Helens, the change was quite dramatic and made a great example. One work children used involved sorting various pictures into three categories, before, during, and after an eruption. Another work was designed to give a sense of where volcanoes are located and showed pictures of volcanoes from all over the world along with a map of the continents indicating where each volcano was. A number of children practiced handwriting while making their own book about volcanoes. In the Art area there was a fun volcano gluing work with which children would practice finger dexterity and strength by tearing paper (lava) and then gluing it to a volcano. Julianna's mother, Jenelle, offered a model volcano with which we emulated an eruption with the classic vinegar and baking soda mixture. The kids loved it! In February we will be learning about birds, including their life cycle, what they eat, where they live, and how they get around. There will be a fun memory game with bird pictures, as well as nomenclature cards that children can use to practice visual discrimination and language skills. There will be materials in both the Practical Life and Art sections that will integrate birds. We will also be painting individual bird houses that the children will be able to bring home. Best Regards, Nancy |
Ms. JackieEl Salon Lila Lead Teacher Archives
May 2018
Categories |
Montessori Children's House
5003 218th Ave. NE Redmond, WA 98053 Phone: 425-868-7805 Fax: 425-502-6608 office@mchkids.com |
Founded in 1987
|