January 2012
40 posts
January 27
During our Morning Work Time, your children continued to use the bear den for dramatic play. They also had the opportunity to investigate using our magnets; specifically the hexagonal, flat circular, and round shapes. The children also worked with the Montessori wooden spindle box. I observed Teddy carefully looking at each number (in order), count first in his hand the number required, and then...
January 26
During our Morning Work Time, your children had the opportunity to create a bear. On one of our rectangle tables were pictures of a variety of different types of bears to be used for inspiration or for reference. Also on the table were pre-cut pieces of paper in brown, white, and black, glue sticks, and crayons. Your child first decided what kind of bear he or she wanted to create: brown, black,...
January 25
During our Morning Work Time, your children painted the cardboard box that we plan to use tomorrow to represent a bear den for Show and Tell. The children also cut apples to make chunky applesauce for snack time. Following a rebus recipe, your children were able to follow along and read the directions. The classroom smelled wonderful and every child had a cup of applesauce to enjoy or try. The...
January 24
During our morning Work Time, many of the children worked with the Montessori spindle box (zero through nine) as well as the knobbed cylinders. I observed Sophie manipulating and testing the cylinders to see if they would go into the corresponding place the opposite way (she was testing the dimensions of each piece!). I gave a presentation to Noa with the numbers zero through four and Yael read me...
January 23
During our morning Work Time, your children added red tissue paper streamers to their dragons. They also worked with our doll house, built roads and a city in the block area, explored puzzles, used our Montessori materials, worked in our art center, created structures with the magna tiles, and helped to cook rice! For the rice, Asher and Teddy added four cups of water to a large pot. When the...
January 20
During our morning Work Time, many of your children drew a picture to give to Eitan for his birthday. Eitan also invited his friends to help him place stickers on his birthday crown. Asher, Max, and Teddy worked in our block center. I observed the three boys using the long rectangular units as imaginary “machines” to help with their play. After the machines did their jobs, the three...
January 19
Sample Responses from the How I Feel Now chart: I observed your children when putting their name under a feeling, tell each other how and why they felt that way.
Yael - happy - “because my Mom forgot to bring my backpack and she did”
Lelo - happy - “because my uniform is here”
Today during our morning Work Time, the doll house was used for dramatic play by your children. I...
January 18
During our morning Work Time, your children began to make their own dragons for our dragon parade this Monday, the 23rd, to celebrate The Year of the Dragon. We have a new addition to our classroom: a dollhouse! Many of the children worked together to set up the furniture and people. The dollhouse is a wonderful addition to our classroom. It can help your children learn to role play. This is where...
January 17
WELCOME BACK MUSHKA!!
During morning Work Time, each child made an abacus. We will be discussing, reading books, watching short videos, and creating projects to celebrate the Chinese New Year; it is theYear of the Dragon 2012—Gung Hay Fat Choy! The abacus that your children made is just one invention that came from China. They needed to string ten cheerios, count, tape the string down, and...
January 16
WELCOME BACK SOPHIE!!
During our morning Work Time, many of your children worked with the knobbed cylinders. They also had the opportunity to explore, mix, and paint with water colors. At the art easel, the colors white, red, and yellow were available. Each child who chose to paint mixed and swirled and created new shades to paint with. The magna tiles and bristle blocks have now become a shared...
January 13
During our morning Work Time, your children had the opportunity to again work with the large tweezers and pom-poms for fine motor skill work. We also had available our dry erase boards, markers, and erasers. It was wonderful to see Max problem solve; he wanted to join our writing table though we have just three dry erase boards. While waiting for a turn, he went to the art center, got a piece of...
January 12
Today during our morning Work Time, to support our Montessori Practical Life curriculum, many of your children had the opportunity to use our easy grip tweezers. Their task was to transfer medium sized pom-poms from one container to another. We also used ice cube trays with smaller pom-poms for a more difficult challenge. We completed our collaborative peace sign today by decorating the inner...
January 11
During our morning Work Time, your children had the opportunity to do a peace mosaic. The first step was to flatten a rolled ball of clay. Clay is not as pliable as play dough; your children needed to use their fine motor skills and upper body strength to flatten the clay like a “pancake.” On the table where your children were working, were pictures of peace signs to refer to. The next...
January 10
Your children were very busy during our morning Work Time. Max worked with the Montessori Spindle Box (zero through nine) as well as made the letter “W” with Teddy using our connectors. Both children looked first at the sand letter, placing the straight pieces on it as a guide, and then independently built the letter. Asher, Arcady, Eitan, and Mika built a farm/city. They first...
January 9
WELCOME BACK ASHER!!
This week we will be celebrating the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. During our morning Work Time, every child (and teacher!) made a tempera felt handprint to create a collaborative quilt. “Our Peace Quilt” is now on display on our front door.
Many of your children worked either alone or collaboratively with the magna tiles. The art easel was in constant...
January 6
During morning Work Time, your children had the opportunity to begin making yarn snowballs. This concept is similar to the fine motor skill used to make papier mache. The multi-step project involves using a blown up balloon as the base; than adding glue, white yarn, and your child’s imagination.
Your children prepared and cleaned their classroom for Shabbat. They wiped the chairs,...
January 5
During our morning Work Time your children worked on a new, fine motor skill activity: cards with buttons, snaps, zippers, buckles, and shoelaces. Sophie, Sunny, and Yael worked with this new material which will help the children master their own self help skills. Mika worked with the textured wooden domino pieces as well as the connectors. She made the letter T, circles, ovals, and triangles...
January 4
During morning Work Time, your children continued their scientific discoveries with temperature, time, and liquids. They first used markers to decorate a popsicle stick. Your children noticed that they share some of the same letters as in my name. We then filled each plastic cup (halfway) with grape juice and placed them outside. Your children noticed that there was a bottle of olive oil as well...
January 3
During our morning Work Time, to help celebrate the season of winter, your children had the opportunity to think about, hypothesize, and then take part in a scientific experiment. The question posed was: Will a cup of water freeze if it is placed outside? Today was a wonderful opportunity to begin the discussion of temperature as well as solids and liquids. The first step was to think of a way to...
January 2
Responses from The How I Feel Now chart:
Ben - happy - “because Mommy sleep with me”
Sophie - sad - “because I miss my Mommy”
Max - sad - “the book ripped because it was stuck on the table at home”
Teddy - happy - “because Mommy give me orange chocolates and Max did a poopie and a pee pee”
Sunny - happy - “me and Momma went to Gram’s...
