It has been an exciting month in our class! A few weeks ago we welcomed a new student, Finn MacPherson. It feels as if he has been with us a long time because of our settled class environment and wonderful friends who enjoy showing Finn the ropes. By adding a new students mid-year, it brings many of our practical life lessons back to the forefront. The older students, with the help of Mr. Paul Washington and Ms. Cindy Rodgers, spent the Friday before our open house doing extensive practical life chores in the classroom. When given the responsibility (and a spray bottle and brooms), the students whipped the classroom into shape and took such pride in their work.
I have been showing students many sensorial lessons with a blindfold! Dr. Montessori designed a great variety of lessons for the stereognostic sense (the ability to judge size and shape through the sense of touch). I was pleased that Dr. Davis (the Developmental Optometrist who spoke at our last parent night) reinforced Montessori's theory that touching objects with the hand is necessary in developing intelligence. If you are interested in finding out more about the stereognostic sense, type the term into your computer search engine for some very interesting information.
The generosity of the holiday gift fund made it possible to purchase many new reading materials for our class. We have new word cards, printed sentence cards, and many new phonetic readers which are sparking a lot of reading time in our class. It is always a delight when I observe a five-year-old reading a story to a classmate - such great experience for both!
Math lessons enable the older students to read addition and subtraction facts aloud. These lessons culminate with students reading their equations to me - valuable feedback on the students' mastery of the process and allows even more practice in reading numerals and reinforcing math facts. Whether counting, writing numerals or making calculations, math skills are ever-present througout our school day.
The cultural studies group has been learning about Indonesia. The main focus of our study has been on land formations, volcanos, and spices. Thank you to Jessica Kuzmick and Kate Christen for doing some great baking projects with the children and sharing those Indonesian treats with the class. We are hoping to find a source for a durian fruit which is grown in Indonesia and other parts of Asia - it sounds intriguing, although smelly. If anyone knows of a source for durian fruit, please let us know. We are also looking for a sarong and any Indonesian jewelry (glass, crystal, or shell beads) anyone would care to share with us for a short period of time. Batik painting will be the next phase of our study.
November 24, 2008 In respect for the season I will share with our school community some things I am thankful for in our class. These are some of the things I have observed just recently: A child, not yet three, embracing an older child (the reason for this embrace was unknown to me).
A five year-old child, when presented with the phonetic object box said, "I can't read, Mrs. Irre." We finished the presentation to the words, "I read that! Can we do it again?"
I overheard a child telling an adult in the cubby room one morning, "I had a new lesson with the presentation tray [to the bank] yesterday." That same child washed his hands and set right to work. This student's parents have actually shared with me that he washes tables at home and couldn't wait to come in and wash a table at school.
One five year-old student told me recently that she was excited for a younger student who no longer participated in a behavior she was not supposed to do AND this student learned the respect of walking around the work mats!
"I zipped my coat!" has become a common phrase to hear shouted out at the end of the morning work period.
One day I was given many flowers and cards, chosen and drawn especially for me for my birthday. One of the cards had the American flag on it in respect to the work we have been doing during cultural studies time.
The five and six year-old students recently drew pictures for a twenty-one year-old friend of mine who is extremely ill. I told them a story about how I met her and how special she is to me, and suggested we send her pictures that might cheer her up. The pictures were priceless. One drew jelly eggs, tadpoles, and frogs because this is something that makes him happy. One wrote ha ha ha ha ha all over the paper, perhaps thinking about laughter cheering someone up. There were many pictures of children dancing, flowers, and homes - this shows me that our children are in tune with the important things in life! Thank you for sharing your children with me each day. Our class is one of the things for which I am most thankful. Please remember the five and six year-old students from both classes have been studying the reason for the first Thanksgiving. It would be a good time to discuss that event as your families celebrate this week.
October 10, 2008
Each year I am awed by the inner workings of our class. The youngest children from the previous year, a.k.a. the three year olds, become a little more mature and take on the role of the very important four year old students. The former four year old children mature greatly and become those amazing and competent five year old students. This group of older students then pass on their knowledge and courteous ways to the brand new students entering the community. For the past eleven years I have been witnessing this phenomena along with my assistant, Beth Irwin. To work in a community such as this continues to give me great pleasure.
In September I marvel at the capacity of children to take on the prepared Montessori environment and thoroughly embrace it. The very smallest of children quickly learn respect for the work of others by walking around the small work mats on the floor and refraining from touching the work of another. They instinctively take on the courtesy of only choosing work from the shelf that has been shown to them and only taking it if no other has already made that choice. They learn about leaving work "beautiful for the next person" and how to clean up after themselves. They incorporate the freedoms and limits within the environment and show such gratitude for the respectful nature of the community at large.
The Kindergarten class has already completed our first "chapter book" novel called Ralph S. Mouse. We are now working to learn The Pledge of Allegiance and doing a brief study of Washington, D.C., as well as an introduction to the thirteen original colonies and how they came to be. Many of these students are very familiar with the geography puzzle maps, making this connection a little clearer. One of our next endeavors will be a trip to the apple orchard and a study of the cycle of the apple.
Many of the four year old students have been busy reacquainting themselves with sandpaper letters, the moveable alphabet and bank work. They are busy painting pictures and exploring our art shelf and getting to know some of the new four year old students we are fortunate to have added to our class.
The three year old students and new students are connecting to our practical life lessons, busily arranging flowers, washing tables, and polishing and "making shiny" many of our silver, brass, glass and wood objects, bowls and trays in the environment.
All are learning the ways of the class and learning about each other. It is a busy, productive and gentle environment with much support from adults and caring friends.
Please note we are inviting observers to our class. Please call to schedule an observation and follow up with a parent teacher conference. I look forward to seeing you!
