Happy New Year! I hope everyone one had a very nice holiday break!
Before we left for break, our Rojo classroom was very busy and active. In December, we have started to learn how to thread a needle and sew a button on in Practical Life. With Miss Katherine, our gardening and cooking specialist, the children worked hard to prepare their holiday gifts for their parents. We also finished up our Culture units on North America and on reptiles. The children worked with and explored our North America puzzle map. Some of the children traced the map as well. I told you in the November blog that we were going to have a reptile visitor come to our classroom. The visitor became very popular with the children, his name is “Crash” and he is the pet tortoise in an MCH elementary classroom. A couple of the elementary students brought Crash to our room and gave us a little presentation on him, giving our Rojo children a chance to see an interesting retile, watching him walk in the middle of our circle. It also allowed our students an opportunity to see older children in the elementary level being role models; showing leadership skills in handling Crash and teaching us about the tortoise. The children are still enjoying the specialist lessons in gardening/cooking, Spanish, and music. Our parent volunteers came in again working with the children in food preparation, reading to the children and writing down (transcribing) the children’s stories. 2014 is now behind us, and we are going to start 2015 with fun and engaged learning. In January, we are starting our new units. For Geography, we are starting to learn about South America now. We will be exploring the South America puzzle map, listening to Brazilian music, reading about the cultures there, as well as the Rainforest plants and animals. In Science, we are starting to learn about Ocean Life. We will be exploring sea life through art, music, puppets, reading books and writing. It will be a busy and interesting month!
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It is December already, hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving break last week!
The children in our Rojo classroom have been busy and active in the month of November. We have been blessed to have parent volunteers helping in our classroom with cooking (this month we made fruit salad with the children), reading books to the children, and practicing letter sounds with them as well. We would like to thank all the parent volunteers who help in the classroom and out of the room as well (field trip chaperones, making play dough, etc.). Also, thanks to the parents who have been bringing in flowers and fruit for our classroom works. The children are also helping to make food each Wednesday with our garden specialist, Miss Katherine. Our Assistant teacher in Rojo, Miss Courtney, is our Spanish specialist, and the children enjoy and are engaged in learning Spanish with her through songs and games every Tuesday. We also have Miss Amy, our music specialist, with us every Thursday for a music circle that the children particularly enjoy. Our Kindergarteners had their first field trip to see a musical play. We also had firefighters come to our school, and the children were able to go and see a fire truck and ambulance up close. In our classroom, we have wrapped up our studies of Salmon and fish and have started to learn about reptiles. The children went to meet up close and touch our school's pet lizards in the aftercare room. We will also be meeting another reptile in December, a pet turtle from another classroom. In our Cultural studies, we have been learning about Native American peoples, and we will be wrapping up our study of North America later in December. For December, we will be starting to learn about the season of winter. We will also be learning about winter holidays and celebrations. If your family has a cultural holiday or celebration that you would like to share with our classroom, please let Mr. Joe know and we can make arrangements for you to present to our classroom. Also, please remember to make sure to update your child's extra clothes for the winter weather which can be wet and cold. October was another active and busy month for our Rojo classroom. We would like to welcome the newest child to join our classroom community, Thia. Welcome Thia! October started with the MCH Harvest Festival, which the children enjoyed. Also, the Rojo families had a Halloween party that was attended by parents and children and was a lot of fun!
In our classroom, the children continued our study of North America. We have been learning the animals of North America, and some of the students have been engaged in tracing our maps of North America as well. In science, we have been conducting experiments in our "Sink and Float" station, where children would make a guess (their hypothesis) as to whether an item would float or sink in water, and then investigate to see the results. We have been going outside to our nature trail area to explore autumn in nature, collecting colorful leaves and looking for signs of life. We also started our study of salmon, learning about the lifecycle of these big fish and the importance of salmon to the region. In our Practical Life area, the children have been conducting "care of the environment" works, such as dusting the shelves and window washing. We have also started a pumpkin hammering work, nailing golf tees into the pumpkin. We continue our studies in the Sensorial area, where children have been working with our "Sound Cylinders", a work where the children compare and contrast sounds and match sounds that are alike. We have also been exploring geometric shapes with the Triangle Boxes. In Math, the younger children are learning to recognize numerals and practicing counting. Our older children are working on learning about place value with our golden bead works and are now starting simple addition operations. In Language and Writing, the children are learning the sounds of letters, how to read and write simple three and four letter phonetic words, such as dog or frog with our pink and blue series of works. We have had parent volunteers coming in to help the children with letter sounds, as well as reading circles and also in transcribing the children's stories onto paper for the children to then make a picture and illustrate the story they "wrote". We have been enjoying the weekly music and Spanish specials in our room. The children find these learning programs very fun and interesting. Our kindergarteners have been going to and enjoying the Nature and to PE clubs with the first graders in elementary. Overall, October has been a very active and engaged month of learning! September was an exciting beginning of the school year in the Rojo classroom. The children have been busy getting to know their new teachers and classmates. The children have been busy and engaged in exploring the various curricula areas in our classroom: Practical Life, Sensorial, Math, Language/Writing, Art, Geography/Culture, and Movement. The children have started to meet with our specialists for Spanish, Gardening, and Music in September as well. The children seem to especially enjoy these focused circles and activities.
We have been focusing on our Grace and Courtesy curriculum, such as saying “please and thank you”, saying “excuse me”, how to walk around another person, and we have been spending time learning how to do classroom works without disturbing each other and how to sit together in our classroom circles. In October, we will start learning more about peace and how to be a peaceful person. In Geography/Culture, we started our study of the globe, the seven continents and have started our focused study of North America. The children have been working with our North America puzzle map, some have made maps by tracing the continents of the world or the nations that comprise North America. We have been reading books about North American nations (Canada, United States and Mexico; and in October we will be learning more about the Central American nations in North America. Also in October, we will be exploring North American landmarks and animals. In Science, we have been learning about “Living and Non-Living”, “Plant and Animal”, and “Vertebrate and Invertebrate”. We have been going outdoors to our school Nature Area to investigate these themes. The children and Mr. Joe did a census of invertebrates and vertebrates on the nature trail area and on parts of our school campus. The children have started to help with feeding our classroom fish and our guinea pig. We have also been going outside to look at and feed the school goats, looking at the rabbits and some have had the chance to collect eggs from our chickens by the playground area. Overall, it an exciting and engaging month in Rojo! We will continue to keep exploring our classroom areas and new topics for the rest of the school year. In October, our classroom themes will be Pumpkins and Salmon, and we will continue to study our September themes of Apples for a bit, with an apple tasting at group circle. We will also continue to learn about the Seasons, with a special emphasis on autumn. Thank You, Mr. Joe Coming back from Spring Break was refreshing! Children were focused and enjoyed learning and exploring the Animal Kingdom in the month of April.
In Montessori, Zoology study or animal study is introduced in a unique way. Rojo children explored Living and Non-Living things and were introduced to the classification of Animal Kingdom (i.e. Vertebrates and Invertebrates). Under Vertebrates we talked about fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and their characteristics. We focused on the Vertebrate horse and learned about the parts of a horse. Under Invertebrates we talked about Arthropods, characteristics of insects and learned about the life cycle of a butterfly. The Book Fair was fun and children couldn't stop talking about it. Special thanks to the families for donating such wonderful books to our classroom. In May, we started talking and learning about the smallest continent Australia and its neighboring countries. We are currently learning about Australian animals in class. The topics that we'll cover are the culture, plants, landmarks and flags. As you all know that this is my last year of teaching at MCH, I am very thankful to all of you for your love, generosity, trust and support that I have received all these years are unforgettable! I'll always cherish the beautiful experience I had working at MCH, especially with my children in Rojo. The connections that I built over the years with each of you will always be very special and memorable! I wish you all the very best for your coming years! Thanks Tuhina Rojo children enjoyed the month of March by exploring the nature trail and their surroundings as well as looking for and finding an abundance of treasures. The children had enormous fun painting with them and on them as well. Children collected rocks of various sizes and shapes, branches, sticks, pine cones, bark, and leaves and displayed their creativity in their own unique style!
We also performed a couple of science experiments. In one experiment, we played around with mixing colors on a white coffee filter using several colored markers. We put some colored spots on the coffee filter far away from each other to avoid the mixing of colors. With the help of a dropper, we put a few drops of water on each spot. Then we left the filter to dry. We observed different colors are formed when the primary colors mixed. The other experiment we did was called "Sink and Float". Children collected various objects from their surroundings. We took a big bowl of water and dropped one object at a time to see if it sinks or float. We came to the conclusion that heavier objects (rock, marble, metal key glass bead etc) sink and the objects that are lighter (bark chips, leaf, paper etc) float on top of the water. Gardening began this month. Children are experiencing and enjoying spring by planting with Ms. Katherine. So far we have planted tomatoes, peppers, beans, and peas! We said goodbye to Gemma at the end of this month! We'll miss her a lot! She moved to California with her family, and we wished her good luck for her coming years. We welcomed Charlotte and her family to our community! Can't believe April is here! We already started talking about Vertebrate and Invertebrate animals. We are going to learn about the characteristics and elaborate on horse and butterflies and its life cycle. Looking forward to Spring Break and I hope you all have a good time! In the month of February Rojo children explored art by using various techniques/objects and mediums. Children had hands on experience in mixing primary colors to learn about secondary colors and color shading. They also used various mediums of paints to create various textures. The activities involved marble painting, roller painting using tempera paints, watercolor and liquid colors, and easel painting.
We spent time learning and studying about a few artists and their art from all around the world at our circle time. We looked at Diego Rivera, a Mexican artist who painted in a variety of art mediums but was best known for his powerful murals depicting the history of Mexico and its people. Edward Hopper from New York used bright colors depicting urban living and the disruption of the nature. French painter Paul Gaugin used flat, simplified shapes outlined heavily in black to create symbolic paintings. Children had fun celebrating Valentine's day in class. Thanks to Alisha (Sabrina's mom) for organizing a short activity for children in the morning followed by distribution of cards at circle. Also this month Rojo classroom had an opportunity to learn and make crepes from chef Reza (Ayla's dad). Thanks to Reza for donating his time to support children in learning culinary skills. With the essence of spring arriving, in March we are looking forward to extend art to the outdoors. This month we are going to use various collectives from nature and explore our Science, Art and Nature trail! That being said we will also be conducting some simple, age appropriate science experiments to help children spark their ideas and understand and reason behind anything and everything! January was a very busy month for Rojo. This month we learned about the seven continents and explored North America. We identified the largest and the smallest continent and the children had fun discussing which continent they had been to and which ones they had yet to visit. We also talked about the major countries and cities on different continents.
During the later part of the month we focused and broadened our learning about North America! In this continent we explored different animals that are found, various kinds of herbs and plants that surround us, the landmarks along with the countries, places, people and culture. It was a great learning experience for the children. In January and February we also welcomed 7 new children in class and that bring us to a full house, 20. Katie, Gemma and Minnha transitioned from Rosa, Sabastian from la Casa and Zoe, Dane and Scarlett started new. A warm welcome to all the new families in our Rojo community! In February, we are exploring Art! We are learning about various artists from different parts of the world. We are going to create our own art by experimenting and using different mediums of painting and by using various kinds of tools. We are also looking forward to celebrating Valentine's day in class. I can't wait to share with you more next month! A very happy and prosperous New Year to everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday!
In the month of December, Rojo children learned about and enjoyed celebrating cultures from different countries. Ms. Monica and Ms. Loretta read various books on Hanukah, Kwanza and Christmas. Children had hands on experience with various activities and art projects along with the books. They also had lots of fun making Christmas ornaments and wrapping them up with Ms Katherine. I am sure you all loved having them up on your tree! We also talked about the layers of the Earth. Rojo children made little booklets to learn about the layers of the Earth. We would like to thank Michael's and Tsion's families for hosting Chocolate over the winter break and for taking such good care of her! We can all tell she got spoiled! Rojo children were thrilled to return to school and welcomed 2014 by greeting each other and sharing their stories. We began this new year learning and naming 7 continents. Children are working on tracing and coloring maps and the continents, while identifying the largest and the smallest continents. Later this month we are going to expand our study on North America and will learn about people and culture, animals , plants and herbs, landmarks and countries of North America. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Last month in November, the Rojo classroom enjoyed and explored the outer space! They learned about the Milky Way galaxy and the Solar System. They were very inquisitive to learn about their planet Earth and how Earth is so special and different from the other planets. We talked about the characteristics of each planet and how far they are from the sun. Children had fun coloring each of the planets and have put together their own Solar System to learn the order of the planets. We also discussed about how day and night occurs and the different seasons that we enjoy living through on this planet. Rojo classroom also enjoyed various activities in class this month. Robin (Annalise’s dad) volunteered for a cooking project with kids. Children made delicious vegan zucchini muffins. They not only were keenly involved in the process of making but enjoyed eating them as well. Neha (Simren’s mom) volunteered to celebrate Diwali (celebration of lights) with Rojo children. They had an amazing experience learning about why and how Diwali is celebrated. Children loved listening to the story with pictures. They also enjoyed coloring and decorating diyas. Last but not the least, Alisha (Sabrina’s mom) volunteered to help the classroom celebrate Thanksgiving just before the holidays. The children had a wonderful time and experienced cooking and preparing a small meal. We cooked baked beans, sweet potatoes and yams, and pumpkin cookies. We all sat together in a circle and enjoyed the meal. We are all very “Thankful” when you donate your precious time to us! Thank you very much! CONGRATULATIONS!!! To Johnathan’s family on birth of his sister Evalyn! She was born on November 3rd. This month we are looking forward to celebrate various cultures from our community. So please email myself and Steff (Tsion’s mom) so that we can schedule you. We are also going to learn about “Layers of Earth”! Have a happy and a safe Holidays! |
Ms. SunandaEl Salon Rojo Lead Teacher Archives
June 2018
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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
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