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Ms. Baum's Classroom Blog May 11, 2009 Lower Elementary Class Mrs. Baum, Mrs. Andrews, Mrs. Hewson It’s hard to believe that we have only 5 weeks of school left. The time is flying by and the classroom has been a busy place, with lots of visitors and a few new members! I am including a calendar/schedule for the last 5 weeks of school, as they will be very busy. Please call or e-mail if you have questions. NEWS The Menagerie! It has been an eventful few weeks, starting with the arrival of the new class rabbit, whose name has been chosen by popular vote: Dust Bunny. The idea is that Dust Bunny, who is grey and very fluffy, will hop along the shelves and behind classroom furniture to “dust”. He is a lion-face male, fearless and very affectionate. We are hoping to house-train him so that he may spend some time running around the classroom. Our turtle Cruiser ate her long time companion, Bubba the frog, much to our dismay. We feel that she is telling us that she needs to return to the wild, so her visit with us has to come to an end. We will return her to the area she came from, and in the fall find another baby turtle to visit with us. Nine of our chicks that we are incubating have hatched successfully. The chicks were sold (before they were hatched! isn’t there a proverb about that?) at our DMS auction to Mr. D. who plans to keep them at his house. Special thanks to Miss Dot, who provided eggs and incubator for us and the auction. She has mentored us through the process. Sarah, of the DRA, came to give us a talk on saltwater and freshwater habitats in Maine in preparation for our field trip to the DRA farm May 19. In art we reviewed the comprehensive material sent to us by the Farnsworth Museum, to prepare us for our tour on May 12. We viewed slides of the artist Louise Nevelson’s life and work, and look forward to see some of her pieces at the Museum. Our tour will take an hour. In art, the week after, we will be creating a backdrop for our play. We enjoyed our Mother’s Day Tea, and thank all the Moms who came and shared their time with us. Between Mrs. Andrews and myself, we have many photos of our class at work and play, and will compile them into a collection which we will post on Shutterfly. The children have been very interested in the construction and take turns checking out any new activity. It is amazing to watch it begin to change shape, and to know that we will be moving into the new classroom when it is completed. The play rehearsals are going well. More information will be sent to you as needed. The children are excited, and our first read-through was great. Please help your children practice their lines by “cueing” them with the line right before theirs.
“Heron’s Nest” Lower Elementary Class - Mrs. Baum, Mrs. Andrews, Mrs. Hewson We have received our scripts for our play, “Stories Under the Big Top”, and will be assigning parts over the next 2 weeks. At first the children will just be memorizing their lines, rehearsals will come later. We will send out complete details in a couple of weeks. For our Auction project, we will be making a set of marionettes, and a “theatre”. We will be working hard on this in the next few weeks. We are lucky to have Diana Williams as a volunteer helping the children with their reading. She comes twice a week with Moxie, her dog. She guides the children as they read to her, helping them with the more difficult words, prompting them to use phonics and context to understand what they are reading, and talking to them about what they have read. She gives us great feedback, and we send her a big thank you!
A birthday walk:
Squeeky clean shelves:
March 16, 2009 "Heron's Nest" Here are the highlights from the last two weeks…..We studied our own painted turtle, Cruiser, and learned what characteristics make him a reptile.
The children enjoy figuring out how to construct an arch
We learned how to construct a Celtic Knot using circles and a special kind of graph paper.
We spent time building a structure together, using our Louise Nevelson inspired boxes that we made with Mr. Bross in Art
March 2, 2009 “Herons Nest” Lower Elementary Class Mrs. Baum, Mrs. Andrews, Mrs. Hewson Well, when the groundhog saw his shadow at the beginning of February, he wasn’t kidding, here we are with yet another snow day! The big project of this week was Mr. Bross’ art class, as the children painted their “found objects” constructions. We will be photographing the collective results this week. In Geography we will be studying the work of water in all its forms, from rivers to glaciers, to climate. We continue our study of the emergence of humans (elders), and the emergence of life (middles and youngers). This week we will be concentrating on making shadow puppets and creating the skits. We hope to perform for the Primary children at the end of next week. Below, see our schedule for the week.
Working on our boxes in Art
February 9, 2009 Lower Elementary Class Mrs. Baum, Mrs. Andrews, Mrs. Hewson The weeks are flying by! The children are working hard and learning by leaps and bounds. We enjoyed seeing many of you at the Montessori Discovery Day, and at the Cabin Fever Pot Luck gathering. The class had been practicing the dance “Alabama Girl” with a great deal of zest. Literature groups are going well. The children are enjoying the discussions. In February we use Ground Hog Day for the launch of our shadow puppet theater project. The children are choosing their characters this week, and will create scripts for little plays. We will be choosing our class play in the next couple of weeks. This play is presented at the Waldo Theater at the end of the year, and is a great learning experience for the children. Some feedback from parents indicated that they would like to know some of the children’s experiences in the classroom so that they could ask leading questions of their children who, when asked what they did in school, reply with such things as “nothing”! I will try to include happenings in my blog, and in the schedule. This week Diana Williams, who volunteers as a child-to-adult reader, brought her mini-poodle to visit.  Checkerboard
 Making
Crystals
3D Art
January 20, 2009 Lower Elementary Class Mrs. Baum, Mrs. Andrews, Mrs. Hewson The children have been working hard since they returned from vacation. These are some of the things on which we have been working. Science: The Elders continue their study of Classification of the living into the Five Kingdoms of Life. They are looking at the Fungi, and, in the Animal Kingdom, invertebrates: sponges and flat worms. In Botany they are studying the body functions of familiar plants and other organisms. The Middles are studying the body functions of plants and animals, including amphibians, frogs, and salamanders. The Youngens are studying the external parts of animals and plants. Geography: The Elders and the Middles are working on the elements of the earth: suspensions, mixtures, solutions, etc. We will be growing crystals this week. The Youngens are working on land and water forms. History: The Elders have begun their study of the Timeline of Humans. The Middles and Youngens have begun their study of the Timeline of Life. This week we looked at fossils and learned how they were formed. The materials for this study include a huge colorful timeline chart of the development of life on earth, including of course, the dinosaurs! Geometry: The Youngens are continuing to learn the nomenclature of shapes in the Geometry Cabinet. The Middles are working on the relationships of lines, horizontal, parallel, etc. and the Elders continue their study of the triangle. We have changed the schedule slightly to start our literature groups. Wednesday afternoons will be dedicated to Literature. The children are grouped according to reading level and interest. Each group will read the same book and meet to have lessons and discussions on the elements of literature. The children will have follow-up work to complete during the week. Sometimes parents will be asked to read with children. We will let you know. This week the Youngens worked together to write a book about Ziggy, our classroom guinea pig. They will be illustrating a copy, and reading it to a primary friend.
December 8, 2008 Lower Elementary Class Mrs. Baum, Mrs. Andrews, Mrs. Hewson Our class has been very busy, as you can see from the photographs. Presentations have included: The creation story experiments, showing how scientists believe the universe began, and how the earth was formed, ending with the eruption of the volcano! The children experimented with an iron filings and sand mixture, and a magnet to determine if the mix could be separated.
Alice came from DLWA and presented information about recycling and how it really helps the environment. Bad weather prevented us from walking to the Transfer Station. The children have been working hard at creating things with yarn, chaining, finger knitting, rope-making, and knitting with needles and looms. In art, the children have been working Mr. Bross on making pictures using textures, color and form. They created 3-D objects, ending with a collaborative installation outside on the far field. They created a large yin-yang symbol from sticks, twigs and leaves. The children have all been working hard in math, language arts and the cultural studies. The Elders are studying the invertebrates, and First Classification. The Middles and Youngens will begin the Time Line of Life this week, including dinosaurs! Mrs. Hewson has rejoined us, taking over for Mrs. Andrews in the afternoons. We make a great team! On Monday December 22nd we will have a music celebration with Miss Kaity. Children learning instruments will perform for their classmates, and we will have a group sing-a-long. We hope you enjoy the pictures of your children working hard. We have a new Shutterfly album of pictures on our shutterfly page. Please check them out!
November 3, 2008 We enjoyed our presentation from Alice, who came from the Damariscotta Lake Watershed Association. The children created a collage of the four seasons, and discussed the role of water and the ecology of Damariscotta Lake. Alice is going to do a project on recycling with us, which will include a trip to the Transfer Station and lessons on how we can better keep our environment “green”. More details will be forthcoming. On Friday the Upper Elementary came and presented “Mystery History”. They each dressed as a historical figure and presented facts about their character, to see if we could guess who each was. The characters included two Maria Montessoris, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The children really enjoyed the presentations, and thank the Upper El. for their great “History Mystery”. We hope this marks the beginning of a tradition. The pictures this week show the children serving and eating Friday’s hot lunch, the presentation and collage with Alice from DLWA, and children doing their classroom chores.
October 27, 2008 Lower Elementary Class Mrs. Baum and Mrs. Andrews Below is the daily schedule, with some of the areas we will be covering this week. On Tuesday we have the Damariscotta Lake Watershed Association coming to do a presentation of the four seasons and how they affect our environment. Last year they introduced us to the vernal pond and its numerous inhabitants, and the importance of preserving the ecology around the Damariscotta Lake. We will do a field trip in the spring to explore a vernal pond on part of the DLWA’s conservation land in Somerville. The children are enjoying finger knitting and chaining, and during free time, our classroom is festooned with brightly colored yarn. We’ll move on to knitting with needles, crochet, and looms as we become more adept. We have several parents and friends who are volunteering their time to do guided reading with the children. The child reads a book at his or her level to the volunteer, who assists with hard words, prompting for phonics, and helping the child learn to use different strategies. Thank you in advance to those volunteers. Our hot lunches are going very well. The lunches have been tasty and nutritious, and the children have done a good job preparing the meal, and serving. We could use a volunteer to help out during the preparation of the meals. Let us know if you can help. Photos…. Letting our monarch butterfly go and Morning Care’s beehive and anthill construction.
October 14, 2008 Lower Elementary Class Mrs. Baum and Mrs. Andrews What a lot of learning is being accomplished in our class! We notice how the students are becoming more independent in managing their work. The class hums like a bee hive. We start each morning at 8:45 with a circle where we discuss the business of the day. Then the Middles and Elders are dismissed to work, and the Youngens have a check-in on work plans, and the group lesson of the day before starting their work. During this work period Mrs. Andrews and I move around the room, observing and helping children and noting progress and work being done. Mrs. Andrews checks on reading progress and keeps a record of what the children are reading. I give various individual and small group lessons and keep track of math progress. During the morning the Middles and Elders are given their lessons of the day. I have posted the schedule of the week below, keeping in mind that we also remain flexible to the children’s needs and to spontaneous learning opportunities. We have a new student, Jolie, who is a welcome addition to our class. Having spent her Kindergarten year in Guatemala, Jolie has been helping her classmates with their Spanish vocabulary and pronunciation. Mr. Bross, our art teacher, has been working with the children on the elements of art. He gave a “homework” assignment, making a picture of autumn. Below are photos of the children sharing their finished works which were both beautiful and unique to each child. After-school violin lessons have begun with Miss Katie. Other pictures include children helping children, serious work going on, and visitor “BunBun”.
October 6, 2008 Lower Elementary Class Mrs. Baum and Mrs. Andrews The class has settled back in after our Kiev experience, which was great. The children really demonstrated their knowledge of how to work as a group, and to resolve conflicts in a peaceful way. It was good for us to be able to observe the children as they interacted as a group and met the various challenges. My two favorite challenges were the Telephone Pole Shuffle and the Rice Paddy. In the first, the children lined up randomly on a horizontal telephone pole about 2 feet off the ground. The challenge was to line up along the pole in order of height. Sounds easy? The catch was, they could not get down off the pole to do it! Following are some pictures of their strategies as they met the challenge, using cooperation while problem solving. Darren, the counselor, had spent some time in Nepal, and created a game that reflected the philosophy that different age groups and generations work together to run their communities. The children had to figure out how to cross the rice paddy by problem solving as a group. Each time someone fell in the ‘water’, the whole group had to return to the side and start over. The children were very patient, and returned quite a few times until they were successful. Each time they met the challenge, they earned a bag of rice to feed their village. We are taking our new experiences into the classroom and working on solving community and individual problems using the Classroom Meeting. There will be more pictures of Kiev on the Shutterfly, including these.
September 22, 2008 Lower Elementary Class, Mrs. Baum and Mrs. Andrews The class is coming together nicely. We have been working on developing our classroom meeting, and held the first “practice” meeting last week. We share compliments and appreciation for each other, work as a group to solve problems, practical and social, and plan future projects. We end with three children sharing their “Show and Tells”. We ask the children to sign up ahead of time to share. They may share items from nature, or that are educational. No toys please. Children place requests to solve problems ahead of time on an agenda. We plan to hold three class meetings a week. The early care children have been busy creating 3-D projects, initiated and carried out independently! They discovered some honeycomb like structures when breaking down a cardboard box for recycling, and immediately began to construct beehives and bees, which led to an ant’s nest……. It is great to see children of different ages working together. The children are rapidly becoming accustomed to managing their morning work period. They check off the jobs that they will work on that day, choosing friends to work with, or friends to help them. We usually have three group lessons a day, and many individual lessons. On Thursday we began our Spanish lessons, we are working on colors and numbers. As you may have already discovered, this is a year of nature study. As pictures are worth a thousand words…. here are some taken of the first weeks by Mrs. Andrews.
September 8, 2008 Welcome to our new school year! The children have settled in very well. We have had a busy week getting to know each other and learning about our expanded class and classroom. We have 22 children and we seem to fit well into our new space. The math materials are now in what was Mr. D.’s room, and the larger space accommodates our circle nicely. Each child having a personal mug is working well, and a reminder to those who have not yet brought in a mug…. Please do. We have been doing activities to prepare for our classroom meetings, to learn to use the Peace Shell conflict resolution process, and to talk about the ground rules for our classroom community. This week the children will begin their classroom cleaning jobs, from vacuuming, to dusting and tidying, to cleaning the kitchen and bathroom. With 22 children our classroom should be gleaming! Spanish lessons with Mrs. Rushton will begin this Thursday. The children will also have Spanish vocabulary materials to work on during the week. Many of the children have expressed an interest in learning the penny whistle, which will be offered as part of our music lessons with Miss Katie who will be starting in a couple of weeks, on Mondays. We have decided that learning the penny whistle is optional this year. We will be having our usual introduction to music and sing-along with Miss Katie. We are working on making the afternoon transition to the playground as smooth as possible, and ask that parents meet their child on the side playground rather than coming into the school, and that you check in with us before you leave with your child. Mrs. Andrews and I have really enjoyed this first week of school. The children’s excitement and desire to learn are wonderful, and give us lots of energy! Here’s to a great year! May 2, 2008
The year is zipping by so fast and our last six weeks will be full of learning and special events. The children were delighted to know that their sock puppets were in demand at the Spring Auction. The puppet making materials are out for those who wish to make one to keep.We really enjoyed Grandparents’ Day. It was great to see the children show off their classroom and skills.
We continue to work hard in all our academic areas. In Biology we are studying the bird. The Elders and Middles are working on a bird research project. Our attempt to incubate chicken eggs was not successful. :( We will try again next year! Meanwhile we see so many birds outside the school and at our feeder, including our old friend the pine warbler, affectionately know as “Basher” because he insists on attacking his rival male (his reflection) by flying at the windows of the school.
We are conducting a plant experiment, to see if a plant will grow through a maze in a box to seek the light coming through a window at one end. We are also growing pole beans to make a bean plant ‘tipi’ on the playground. We will start our study of Mammals this coming week.Our play is going well. The children are practicing their lines and learning quickly. I will send out a letter with details this week.
Ms. Proffetty has had the children working with clay, making tiles, and making unique self-portraits, samples of which are in the downstairs hall Art Gallery. Our field trip to the Greenleafs was postponed because their pond washed out in the flooding rains last week. We will set another date with the Damariscotta Water Shed Association. Thank you Marge, for all you do to keep our Maine habitat aquarium and terrarium stocked. We now have: a turtle, frog, peeper frog spawn, 2 large bullfrog tadpoles, 2 shiners, several fresh water clams, a snail and a few other creatures! The guinea pigs continue to give us much pleasure.
We look forward to our Mother’s Day Tea on Friday.
March 29, 2008 The class has been working on several projects. We continue our study of birds and have begun to learn about leaves and their functions. The Elders tapped a tree at the school and we learned first hand the results of all the work that a leaf does to make food for the plant. We tasted some sap that was provided by Miss Dot. We had a wonderful visit from a mallard duck and some young chicks, also lent by Miss Dot. In History the Elders continue their exploration of early man, and the work of archaeologists and paleontologists. The Middles and Youngens are studying the Fundamental Needs of Humans. This week we are looking at where our food comes from, and how people through the ages met their nutritional needs. In the coming weeks we will explore shelter and clothing through the ages. In Geography the Youngens are working on learning the parts of a mountain and, in the coming weeks, the parts of a river. They also work on the puzzle maps, learning the names and location of continents and countries. The Elders and Middles are looking at the Work of Air, studying the properties of air, and how it affects the world’s weather and climates. The next subject will be the Work of Water. In Geometry, the Youngens begin their study of triangles. The Middles will be studying triangles on a more complex basis, and the Elders have just completed their study of angles, and are moving on to polygons. We have begun to practice our play. It is an African story, Who’s in Rabbit’s House? , and we have adapted it to a play within a play. The children will be making their own masks for their costumes. We will send home more information as we progress. We are also working on our Auction contribution, which is a Sock Puppet theatre. Each child will make a sock puppet. The theatre itself will be a fabric one to hang in a doorway. The children chose their characters, and are enjoying the process.
February 29, 2008 Here are some of the lessons we have been working on, and plan to do in the following weeks. Geography Elders: Work of Air, properties, air pressure, wind patterns, winds and seasons. Pin Maps of Countries, U.S. States Middles: Maps and Directions, Parts of a Mountain, Economic Geography (interdependency) Puzzle and Pin Maps Youngens: Land and Water Forms, Maps and Directions, Parts of a Mountain, Economic Geography (interdependency) Puzzle Maps History Elders: Clock of Eons, Time, Timeline of Man, from earliest man to first written history. Middles and Youngens: Clock of Eons, Fundamental Human Needs, Time Biology Elders and Middles: Reptiles, internal parts, Birds, internal parts, Stems of plants, internal parts, Leaves, internal parts and functions Youngens: External parts of Reptiles and Birds, stems and leaves Geometry Elders: types of angles Middles: measuring angles using a protractor Youngens: study of quadrilaterals, triangles The class worked hard on the Shadow Puppet Project. They made their own shadow puppets, wrote a script for a play, and presented them to Mrs. Lavigne’s class. This week we are having a Mallard duck and some chicks for a visit to start off our study of birds! February 8, 2008 We have been busy in our classroom, learning and experiencing through a variety of activities. Here is a pictorial journey. We set off our volcanoes.
Ms. Proffetty demonstrated making a Japanese tea bowl to use in a Tea Ceremony with Sensei Mameko Iwama, Japanese exchange teacher. In our special ceremony with Mameko, She showed us how to prepare tea. She wore a beautiful kimono and prepared the tea with graceful movements.
We learned to bow to her as she served us a special Japanese cookie.
She showed us how to make the tea.
Sipping very green tea from our Japanese tea bowls.…..
We have been very busy with animal research. And our snacks have been great!
Thanks to Miss Kim (Andrews) and Miss Kelly for coming in to listen to us read.
Our counselors from Kiev came to visit for a day. We had fun reviewing what we learned at Kiev and playing group games. Our favorite was “Robert the Bass”
We had a visit from Hannah’s dog, Tasha.
We set up the Terraquarium, and our new painted turtle “Sleepyhead” has taken up residence.
We started our study of the “Work of Air” with some experiments.
January 28, 2008 We have two new members of the class, guinea pigs Ziggy and Star, (formerly known as Larry and Curly). They are two year old males, and have never been separated. They are gentle and easy to handle. The children have been great with them! This week they get a new cage which has been designed to lessen the amount of hay and shavings that they love to scatter, and make daily cleaning easier. We have 2 Botanist-Zoologists on our weekly classroom job list. They are responsible for the care of plants and animals in our classroom. We have researched what guinea pigs like and need nutritionally, with the help of Mrs. Hewson, and made a list of the food they can have per week. The botanist-zoologists will bring in a few extra veggies for their week. We have a little bag similar to the snack bag to collect them in. We also have worked on the “terraquarium” and will be ready to receive our first guest, a painted turtle. Thanks to Miss Dot’s family we have a 4 foot tank which we have divided into two spaces, one side for a turtle, with a terrarium and basking rock, the other will be deeper for freshwater fish and creatures. We plan to maintain this as a natural Maine freshwater habitat, with guests that the children bring in. We will be working with the DRA to effectively manage it. There has been talk lately of the place of art, music and Spanish in the curriculum. We are fortunate in our extra-special teachers! On Mondays Miss Katie comes to our class for about 45 minutes. She spends some time introducing the children to basic music notation, how the notes dictate the beat (ask your child about “blue jello”), and words like FORTISSIMO! Then we sing accompanied by Miss Katie on her banjo. She brings a nice seasonal mix of songs, and we have really worked on singing rounds. We are working on developing music jobs for the classroom to practice what they learn in group.
Tuesday is Miss Proffetty’s art day. She brings us many wonderful projects so that we can learn the basic concepts of art, and aligns them with the cultural curriculum. In the past few weeks we have been learning about Japanese art. A Japanese exchange teacher, Sensei Mameko Iwama, came to show us how to write our names in three kinds of Japanese calligraphy. Projects have included painting a Japanese scroll, working with black and white and the values in between, and making and glazing clay tea bowls. Mameko will return to us this week to demonstrate a Japanese Tea Ceremony.
On Thursday Senora Rushington comes to teach us Spanish. The children are learning everyday words in hands-on lessons that they really enjoy. They can order or make a sandwich, name the members of their families, numbers, colors, days of the week, and seasonal words. We have developed some complimentary lessons for the classroom that help with both English and Spanish languages and reading.
January 2008 Happy New Year! Parents are often concerned about what and how much their children are learning. How do we know what knowledge, skills and concepts they have learned? How do we assess? With children moving at their own pace according to their individual development, how do we accomplish “testing”? We have talked about the first two parts of the Three Period Lesson: the first being the impressionistic presentation of the concept, the second being the practice and application of the knowledge and skills. The third part of the three period lesson is where the child demonstrates what s/he knows, before moving on to the next concept. Using the Pin Maps as an example, in the second period the child has used the labeled control map when necessary to complete the placement of pin labels on the blank map. During this practice period, the teacher will observe the child’s progress and see if the child can respond to prompts such as “Show me the Indian Ocean”. In the third period, the child not only demonstrates his or her knowledge without using the control, but the prompts of language, such as “show me India” are now changed to “Name this country”. When the child has demonstrated that s/he can name the various places without clues or controls, s/he may move on to the next map. The new lesson will not be introduced until the child has demonstrated mastery of the current one. In a traditional classroom, a lesson is taught for a specific amount of time, with an assessment scheduled at the end. The results of the assessment show how much the child has understood the concept, and are represented by a grade. The teacher then moves on to the next lesson, whether the child has mastered the last one or not. In a Montessori classroom the child moves at the pace that s/he needs to in order to learn. The teacher monitors and carefully observes the children at work, and the expectation is that the children will work steadily at the appropriate level. By observing the child, the teacher will make sure that s/he is being challenged, and not “coasting”. She will also manage the environment, making new jobs available as necessary, to ensure that the children have sufficient practice and variety to meet their individual needs. So this third period is actually a period of assessment, re-teaching, and refinement of skills.
November 2007
Learning to order and make a sandwich, in Spanish with Senora Rushton. During the last couple of weeks the class has been involved in much second period work. Montessori’s three period lesson is the Montessori approach to introducing a new concept. It is used to move the child from basic understanding to mastery. We talked about the first period lesson which is the introduction of the vocabulary (nomenclature) and the concept. Many of us who learned in a traditional setting want to get to the third period as soon as possible. We are product oriented. We want to test, get it over with, and move on to something else. Montessori believed that the second period is the critical, most important period and should be the longest. The second-period lesson serves several purposes: reviewing the vocabulary, reinforcing the vocabulary, and getting a glimpse of the process underway within the child. What connections are made? What slipped through the cracks? What needs more emphasis. Through self-correcting materials, the children work their way through the process, repeating the task many times. During this period the teacher can observe how the children use the materials, and fine tune the concepts and the vocabulary, re-teaching if necessary. The children are learning association and recognition of concepts and vocabulary, without worrying that they will forget or not know. They work towards mastering the work, and decide for themselves when they feel ready to demonstrate their knowledge without the control charts. Montessori wants us to teach by
teaching, not correcting. If the teacher moves the child to the third period too
quickly, s/he will be in a correction mode. Children learn better with this
positive approach to learning. Following are some pictures of the children doing second period work.
Amos is working on addition of numbers using the stamp game. The thousands, hundreds, tens, and units are color coded to help him identify them easily as he learns to manipulate the numbers. A typical problem would be 2,345 + 3,254. As he physically moves the stamps to exchange and add, he is learning concretely how the numbers work together during the operation. Above Zoey is practicing addition of large numbers on a paper dot- board. Still using the color coding of the hierarchies, the “stamps” are now represented by tiny squares, a move to a more abstract understanding of number operations.
Josh is working with the checkerboard material, multiplying a large number by a two digit multiplier using color coded bead bars. The same color coding as the stamp game is used for the board. Kayleigh is exploring the addition tables by using the addition strip board. Each blue and red strip represents a number from 1 – 9. By placing a red strip and a blue strip together on the board, she can figure out their sum. As she repeats the tables she will notice the number patterns that they make, on the board and in the tables.
Quinn is creating an isthmus and its inverse, a strait, with clay and colored water and labels as a follow up from a geography lesson. As he makes the land and water forms he is experiencing them using the kinesthetic mode as well as the visual. Quinn and Isaiah are placing the puzzle pieces of the continents on the control map, which has the outline and name of each continent on it. They can independently check to see if they are correct using this control map. They repeat this job often, until they are able to name the continents without cues. They demonstrate this to the teacher in a third period lesson.
Eve has created a sentence, and identified the subject and predicate using the movable symbols. Now she is rewriting the sentence on paper and using a symbol template to identify the parts of the sentence. Seth and Garrett are finding the names of countries in South America by looking on the control map. When they have identified a country they will place the flag pin with the name on it into the correct place on the pin map. After much practice (work in the second period) they will see if they can place the flags correctly without using the control map. I hope this has helped you better understand your child’s work in our classroom. We welcome questions about the process! Also, please feel free to arrange an observation in the classroom. End of October 2007 The class has really settled into steady work. Here is a list of some of the lessons that have been presented, and the ongoing work of the class. Youngens Geography: Puzzle maps of continents, oceans, land and water forms. History: the calendar, Introduction to time, parts of the year. Grammar: the noun family Biology: external parts of plants and animals, beginning classification of plants and animals. Math: Stamp Game – addition, strip board addition with tables booklet Geometry: basic geometric shapes, polygons, curvilinear shapes Middles and Elders Geography: Pin Maps of North America History: the calendar, Introduction to time, parts of the year. Grammar: Word Functions, introduction to parts of the sentence Biology: Internal parts of plants and animals, beginning classification of plants and animals. Math: Bead Frame, Abstract addition, Dot Board, Checker Board (2 and 3 digit Multiplication) Geometry: introduction to angles, measuring angles As we go through the year, I will go into more detail regarding the various lessons listed above. Underlying these lessons is the basic Montessori lesson structure known as the three-period lesson. It is used throughout the Montessori curriculum, and can be as simple as teaching three different colors to a primary child, to something as complicated as the most advanced cultural presentation in the upper elementary.
The first period is the time for the teacher to engage the children’s interest and curiosity about the subject of the lesson, and to make meaningful associations with the child’s prior knowledge. We call this an “impressionistic lesson”. For example, in Zoology we are studying the fish. The children gathered around the aquarium to examine and discuss Firecloud, our goldfish. What do we notice about him? How is he different from us? What do you already know about fish? Meanwhile the teacher is giving factual information in a way that will make a vivid impression on the children.
During a first period lesson the teacher may also be modeling the precise way to do a job, giving vocabulary and concept. In the first presentation of this puzzle map of the continents, the teacher sets up the mat and materials: the puzzle and a control map with the names. She then takes each puzzle piece and places it on the map, saying the name of the continent, and giving interesting facts about each continent. This lesson may be repeated until the child is able to read the names of the continents independently.
In this job from the “Turning Leaf” book series, the first period lesson would be for the teacher to model placing the cards neatly in a line, then reading each label and placing it to match the picture. The book has already been read to the child so that the pictures are familiar to him, and to connect him with the story. These books have beautiful realistic illustrations, and good stories and language in spite of the controlled vocabulary.
This is an impressionistic work. The girls are making their own islands and lakes, using a pitcher and spray bottle of water, and watching to see how the water finds its own level.
Coming next time……. The Second and Third Period lessons!
Breaking News: We are working with the Damariscotta River Association (DRA) to create a collaborative series of lessons in Biology, Science and Culture. They will help us to start our project of creating a fresh water pond habitat in our big aquarium. We will also be going to their farm for a series of explorations. We are excited to access such a valuable local resource.
Mid-October 2007 What a busy few weeks we have had! While continuing to work on our academic lessons and jobs, we have also been working on creating a harmonious class community.
Cleaning up Pemaquid Beach as part of Coastal Clean Up Our trip to Kieve was wonderful, and I really do mean full of wonder! We got to see each other in a different, and challenging, setting. The children rose to the occasion and delighted the adults with their courage and willingness to try new and different challenges. It was also a time for us to learn to work together as a team. We played several games that helped us learn to problem solve as a group. It took a few huddles, but we finally learned the best plan was to cooperate, and then we were successful!
The Kieve staff was pleased to see that our students already had an understanding of community, and a process in place like the Peace Shell to help us problem solve in a productive and safe way. On the ropes course, the children learned to work as a team to keep their classmates safe, and to cheer them on.
We all learned that we could choose our own levels of challenge; one person might work to be a good member of a team, while another person’s challenge might be to climb a little higher. We learned to help each other, and that to do this safely requires a team effort and trusting the members of your team.
The groups built shelters with newspaper and tape.
In the game of Chips and Salsa, we also learned to problem solve as a team, which required patience....and lots of strategy. In the evening we had fun, and it was good to see the older children helping the younger. The children earned certificates for their hard work, effort, and achievement.
On the last day the Elementary Class made the ultimate effort as a team... and gave Mr. D a flying squirrel ride that I'm sure he'll never forget!
September 2007 Welcome to the new school year! All the children have made a smooth transition to our Lower Elementary Class. We have six “Youngens”, three “Middles”, and four “Elders”. We have been working hard at learning to choose our jobs for the day, the ground rules for our class and school, and our daily routine. The Middles and Elders have done a great job of helping the Youngens get acclimated. We have begun the study of time in History, which will lead to the Creation Story. In Biology we are learning the First Knowledge of the Five Kingdoms, which will lead into First Classification for the Elders, the study of External Parts of Vertebrates for the Youngens and Middles. Next week we will start our study of plants. We have been busy with math, reading, writing and grammar.
Labeling words with grammar symbols and Working hard! Multiplication Bead Board.
Making words with the Movable Alphabet and The reading corner.
Studying polygons and Addition on the Large Bead Frame Reading with Mrs. Hewson andLearning about line in Art. I hope you enjoyed your journey through our classroom! Mrs. Baum
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