January 20, 2015

I hope you've enjoyed the long weekend and that heart-breaking/breath-taking/amazing Seahawks game yesterday!

This past week in Turquesa, we pursued many different subjects with interest, curiosity and vigor. What I really mean is that children showed how insatiable they are when it comes to learning and doing new things!

Students are particularly enjoying our Sentence Analysis lessons recently. We are taking apart sentences, learning how the words work and what the different parts of the sentence are called. In Montessori, we take a systematic, investigative approach to diagramming sentences that really helps the kids engage deeply in the process. Although the different grade levels are focusing on different aspects of sentences, there is a shared buzz in the classroom about predicates, subjects, direct and indirect objects and more. It's amazing what happens when learning is fun.

This upcoming week in Turquesa, we have a shorter time together due to MLK, Jr. Day and the field trip on Friday. When this happens, we always have to shuffle lessons around a bit. This week students will not have new Sentence Analysis lessons. Instead, they will have the opportunity to practice what they are learning and deepen their own understanding through independent study. This is an amazing thing in a Montessori classroom: we don't need to rush. We place high value on practice and repetition because this is how people create deep, personal understandings of concepts.

We have an amazing field trip planned for this coming Friday. We are going to Cedar River Watershed to launch our winter-time ecology studies. We will leave school at 9:30 and return by 2:00. We will be outside most of the time and children will need to dress in warm layers with careful attention to having waterproof outside layers. We'll send home a detailed email later this week with specifics. We would love to have you join us on our trip. 

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Nicole