January 2014

The beginning of November marked the start of our two months long curriculum unit. We first established our cosmic address: Universe – Milky Way Galaxy – Solar System – Earth – North America – United States of America – Washington State – Redmond – Montessori Children’s House. Then we talked about the Earth and its model – the globe, and how it translates into a map. We learned the names of seven continents and their colors on the “Montessori” globe. As with all of our continent studies we talked about North America’s countries and their flags, people and their languages, fauna and flora. We also talked about Christopher Columbus, his voyage to find a new and faster way to India and instead discovering that there was a continent neither he nor anyone else in the world knew about. We talked about Native Americans and discovered they represented many different cultures, spoke different languages, dressed differently and lived in different houses.
Also in November we had a chance to talk about and celebrate Thanksgiving. We learned who Pilgrims were and why they came to America. We read the story of the first Thanksgiving and prepared our own “feast” of friendship fruit salad, zucchini bread and homemade butter (everyone thought shaking jars of whipping cream was the best part). For this occasion we joined all tables together and enjoyed fruits of our labor.

In December we explored the United States of America in more detail. We talked about the American Flag and what all of its elements represent, we listened to and talked about the Pledge of Allegiance. We learned that people who came to live here are from different cultures, continents, countries and how much we can learn from each other.

We wrapped up the unit this week when we talked about the Washington State and its symbols.

Our topics of study for January look equally exciting. We are going to start with exploring reptiles and then move on to one of the favorite subjects of study for kids – dinosaurs. We can’t wait!