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Classroom Review

Front Building:

This months’ review begins with a wonderful visit from the Bellevue Museum.  Our kids learned about woodland animals and were able to feel animal pelts, scat, touch skulls, and discern the different footprints from various animals.  Although the school was not open on Valentine’s day because of the snow, we had a belated celebration and distributed Valentines to all our friends and enjoyed a special and yummy treat together.  

Our major curriculum unit this year is the study of Dinosaurs which will be very popular with the kids.  We started off by talking about the Big Bang Theory and how over millions of years animal life evolved from trilobites to small invertebrates and to fish and on to the first reptiles.  The three periods of the dinosaurs, Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous, will be the foundation as we learn many interesting things about the dinosaurs that lived during these times.  The classroom will have many special works and art to support this unit.  We are all happy to get back into our school routines.  We’ve all missed each other!

Back Building:

What an interesting month of February we have had thus far!  In early February we were lucky to have a, visitor from Bellevue Museum come and teach us about bears, skunks, squirrels, deer, coyote and other animals who live in the Pacific Northwest.  They brought animal furs, tracks, bones, and answered the students’ many questions. 

With Valentine’s Day coming up, we prepared our Valentine bags and made an“I Love You” sign language Valentine’s Day card and then celebrated a week late due to all the snow.  Thanks to all the sign teachers who were able to come and shovel the driveway so we could resume classes safely!  

We have been continuing our science lessons on Tuesday afternoons.  Students learned about sound waves by doing an experiment that combined both music and science with a homemade glass bottle xylophone. We’ve also explored surface tension.

We are in our peace unit currently.  We have a meditation work out on the shelves that allows the children to set up a meditation area and sit while they feel their love.  We also introduced the love lights.  Love lights can be worn by a child who feels their love is shining brightly and it encourages the children recognize the feeling of love inside their bodies.

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Classroom Review

Front Class:
It was wonderful to welcome back all of the children in January from the winter break!  They all seemed to really miss each other and had a lot of events and stories from the break to share with one another. 
We spoke at circle time about our new season change ( welcoming in winter  ) … and changes we may see in the world around us.
In the practical life area, we introduced peanut grinding, and the children are loving this.
Land and water forms have been a recent topic: for example, lake vs. island, peninsula vs. gulf and so on …
The children are also enjoying our sink/float work.
We continue to introduce new scientific concepts, often on Tuesdays. 
Martin Luther King was discussed including his focus on working for fairness for all, and how kindness toward one another is essential.
We are continuing our weekly nature walks in our nearby park. 
Recently we talked about 10 landmarks around the world and some interesting facts about them.
Coming up, we will learn about the Chinese New Year holiday, and we will begin in February our extensive study of dinosaurs.
We will cover the big bang theory, ​Pangaea, the 3 dinosaur periods, and specifics about the dinosaurs….and more.
Some of the recent  songs we have enjoyed are ” On top of spaghetti, all covered in cheese…”, and “There was a chubby snowman.”
Thank you for sharing your children with us!

Back Class:
The children were joyful to meet after the two weeks break, and they shared their fun events about their break. 
The children all settled in quickly and smoothly. They were excited to see the class with a lot of new winter work. Even though there was no snow outside children got to make parts of a snowman book, a snowman project, and snowflakes. 
We moved into geography and talked about the sandpaper globe and colored globe. We showed the children how flat maps are formed and the difference between the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere. 
Then we talked about landforms, the difference between lake and island, gulf and peninsula, bay and cape, and strait and isthmus.
Soon we will be talking about the layers of the Earth then we will move onto our Peace unit. 
In science, we did a solubility test, and we also made Crystals.  The children were excited to see the crystals formed. 

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Classroom Review

Front Building:
November felt very settled as the kids were wonderfully engaged in lots of work and making friends.  Teachers have had several months now to know and appreciate each child and what they bring to our classroom.  We’ve been studying the life cycle and parts of a pumpkin, Mrs. Sudha has taught us about the Diwali festival and the kids have been making Thanksgiving artwork and cards.  We are learning about the Thanksgiving story and celebrated with a feast of vegetable soup that the kids helped make complete with handmade butter on bread and pumpkin pie.

Back Building:
We are now past Halloween and entering into the holidays.  We are getting those warm coats on and rolling into Thanksgiving.  The kids are making a fun Thanksgiving project with lots of colors and a cute little turkey on it or course.  They can’t wait to take it home and show it to their families.  We are currently discussing Thanksgiving and what it’s all about with some great books at circle time.  We recently read a book to the children called Stone Soup, which teaches happiness through sharing. In the book a soup is made by a village that’s been through famine and war and three strangers come along and they make a soup for everyone.  The entire village comes together and contributes to the making of the soup.  The children are going to be doing the same thing and bringing in their own veggies to add to a soup that will be made for the Thanksgiving feast!   The kids are so excited about bringing their own vegetables.  The children are learning a lot each day.  They are making friends and having lots of fun.

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Classroom Review

Front Building

After nearly two months, the children have done an excellent job adjusting to the classroom routines and discovering their role and their independence. This “settling in” has allowed us to introduce many more of the traditional Montessori materials. The new Fall season is a focus including why leaves change color in the Fall. We have tied this in with singing fall songs at circle time. At circle time we have been reciting the pledge of allegiance daily and introduced a job board where the children are selected to do jobs like the calendar, straightening the book corner, and leading the pledge of allegiance. They are very excited about these tasks and jump up ready to participate! On Tuesdays, we usually focus on science and Fridays the focus is French. We have spent some time talking about our peace curriculum and the virtues that go with peace. Some other subjects include: introducing continents, apple parts, life cycle, and tasting. Also parts of a spider.
We are looking forward to our Halloween celebration with costumes and stone soup. We will also care and dissect a pumpkin.

Back Building

At the back class children have settled in nicely. We have been talking about fall, fall weather, why leaves change colors and all about apples. They learned parts of an apple, different types of apples and they got to taste fresh apples, apple smoothie, and apple cider.
Then we moved on to spiders. Parts of a spider and we talked about different kinds of spiders and their webs. We had fun projects making spiders and spider webs.
Now it is all about bats why they are mammals and how they move at night and hunt their food.
On Tuesdays afternoon circle we do a science experiment and we been seeing why apples turn brown and how we can avoid that.
Did an experiment to show how air ( oxygen ) is used for burning.
Solubility and how in hot water sugar dissolves faster than cold water.
We had a fun way to learn echolocation by trying to catch a bounced back ball when the child was blindfolded.
Soon we will be learning all about pumpkins. Their life cycle and parts of a pumpkin. It is a fun time of the year when we start singing some Halloween songs and making Halloween projects.
The children enjoy leading the show and tell circle. They do love yoga too.
We also practiced Fire and earthquake drills.

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Classroom Review

Front Building:

We!come everyone!  Welcome back returning families and a warm welcome to our new families in the front class!

The first few weeks are usually our time to get to know one another and familiarize ourselves with classroom routines and children’s schedules.

This takes time and luckily we have a wonderful group of returning students who help ease the new ones into our room. Lots of “necklaces” (symbols to wear during work time that are color coded from our peace arch) have been given out already J

We have worked hard for the last weeks on: sitting criss cross in circle, raising our hand when talking, listening skills as well as how to roll up a mat (work space for one or two children on the carpet), returning work to the right spot on the shelf after using it and pushing in our chairs. All these details that help make a classroom full of eager learners function. Once the ground rules are established, we can dive into more individual lessons with the children. We are fortunate to have three adults in the class. This year we welcome Mrs. Brunswick to help us on the practical life side of the room. Some children still need assistance in the bathroom and a lot require help when putting on shoes and coats. If you would like to practice taking off outside and putting on inside shoes and vice versa, please do! The coat trick is neat to learn how to put on ones own jacket. If you like, we can give you a lesson, so you can help your child to be more independent, too.

During circle we introduced our classroom rules, our jobs board (calendar/weather, flag and book corner helpers), several well known and liked children’s songs and our “Sing peace around the world” song (check it out on YouTube) which we will sing alongside thousands of Montessori Schools in the country and world wide on Friday the 21stfor world peace day. Books are always a part of our good bye circle right before release time, too.

We are off to a good start and hope to see you all for curriculum night on October 10th!

See you there, your front room teachers.

Back Building:

We had a very smooth first few weeks of school! Joining our class this year, we welcomed 8 new children in the class this year. This can be an exciting time for our “returning” children who enjoy taking on a leadership role in introducing the classroom and how things work. During our circles, we have spent our time on our classroom rules, calendar, reading books and singing songs. We have talked about fire drills and fire safety. We have also practiced our first fire drill for this school year. As a small unit, we have started learning about apples, talking about the parts of an apple, tasting apples, and learning different kind of apples.

In recognition of World Peace Day, we have been practicing our peace song (“Light a Candle for Peace”). We gathered with the whole school for a candlelit celebration to sing our song together on the 21st in unison with other schools around the world.

New materials are introduced daily and many lessons are being given on our Montessori materials. We are so looking forward to what the rest of the year brings!

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Classroom Review

FRONT CLASS REVIEW

Well… following the raising and releasing of the ladybugs, and Earth Day education…we are fully immersed in “everything spring” and launching into summer.

Each child has taken at least one nature walk to St Edward’s Park and enjoyed adventuring through the many trails off the beaten path. We have identified some types of plants, listened for new sounds, and experienced touching and smelling some of the plant life in the park.

At circle time, we have talked about insects, worms, slugs, and snails. We observed live worms to see if they preferred dark or light, moist or dry, cheese or potato peels.

We spoke of summer safety including wearing helmets, boat and water safety, talking with strangers, crossing the street, and wearing sunscreen and (possibly) bug spray

Science and botany have been popular subjects. We enjoyed watching propagation happen in our room. (We grew plants from root cuttings!) We have also been identifying flowers. We

currently have some zinnias with colored water…the children have been amazed at the changes happening to the flowers each day! Perhaps the most exciting activity has been the planting of our garden! We have prepared the soil, weeded, planted seeds, planted starts, and watered endlessly. We have tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, radishes, strawberries, and marigolds.

Upcoming, many summer birthdays will be celebrated in the classic Montessori way this month and next. A fire truck will also be visiting at the end of this month! We are looking forward to our annual class party, field day, our St. Edwards Park field trip on the 30t​ h​ and 31s​ t​ (weather pending), and our end-of-year picnic!

At this year’s end, we are so proud of your children’s growth and accomplishments! Thank you for sharing them with us.

BACK CLASS REVIEW
This month, we’ve been putting a focus on nature! We’ve learned about the parts of a flower,

examined different types of flowers, and studied earthworms and their role in nature. Our praying mantis eggs hatched, and the children enjoyed watching hundreds of the insects in their bottle “habitat.” We’ve planted a vegetable garden, and the children are taking turns caring for the plants. The children have also been enjoying our nature walks on the paths of St. Edward State Park.

We have also started a peace unit, where the children are learning to find their “inner peace,” calming themselves down, practicing respect for others, and respecting the classroom materials and rules. The children have been enjoying our yoga exercises, which also can help us feel more peaceful!

During science this month, the kids enjoyed watching a dancing jelly bean, floating eggs in salt water, and making invisible ink.

At the end of this month, we will be going on our “big” class walk to the playground at St. Edward State Park, which the children are looking forward to.

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Classroom Review

FRONT CLASS REVIEW
Finally spring is here! We are very excited to move into flower and insect themes for the remainder of April and May. 

Our body unit ended with class conversations on how to keep our bodies healthy and safe. The children learned about fitness, drinking plenty of water, getting good sleep, and healthy eating. We also talked about peaceful and mindful living and did some yoga. We hope this was helpful going into the break! 

It was great to come back to the classroom and see how excited the children were to be back together! Everyone was recharged for more classroom work. For the first few days after break, we prepared for our new classroom pets: ladybugs. They have finally arrived, and now it is up to us to keep them healthy and growing. We learned about their life cycle, food needs, and habitats, and will continue to watch them change over the next few weeks. 

Meanwhile, our Earth Day project has been underway. Ms. Kenzie spearheaded our planting art project in the true spirit of “reduce, reuse, and recycle.” Our “caterpillars” can be planted in the ground as is, and will sprout beautiful nasturtiums, which are edible and can be added to salads for a nice point of interest! 

We have also begun our nature walks. We are learning a new “earworm” (song) for the walk, so stay tuned. It is all in the spirit of understanding the wonderful world around us. Please dress your children appropriately on their nature walk day so they are ready for a walk in the forest. Thank you parents! 

BACK CLASS REVIEW
This month, the kids have been having fun with our nature theme! They have planted flowers, observed ladybugs, and taken part in nature walks. Early in April, the children began learning about Earth day. In celebration of the holiday, they used their “green thumbs” to decorate little caterpillar planters and plant beautiful nasturtiums to take home and watch grow! 

After spring break, the children started learning about different kinds of insects, including ladybugs, which we were able to experience firsthand in the classroom. Near the end of the month, the children were able to release the ladybugs and watch them take flight. For the next month, we will have a praying mantis in the classroom for the children to observe! We also have had many ladybug-themed works and activities, which they have been enjoying. 

Another adventure for our classroom began this month with nature walks to St. Edward State Park, where the children have been exploring nature with all their senses. Groups of ten children will continue to take part in nature walks with Molly Leach and another chaperone. 

We have also done some fun nature-themed science experiments this month! The children are observing white tulips that have been placed in colored water. We will see the tulips absorb the water along with the food coloring! We will also be observing an onion and a piece of lettuce to see if a small piece of a vegetable can sprout. 

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Classroom Review

FRONT CLASS REVIEW
Our front class has been continuing to learn about the human body. After learning about internal organs, we focused on how we can take care of our bodies, keeping them healthy, strong, and even calm! We will be finishing our human body studies with some peaceful exercises such as yoga stretches.

We have also been continuing with some science experiments: we saw an egg float in saltwater, but sink in fresh water. We also saw a mixture change color when we added new ingredients in our “iodine clock” experiment.

We continue to study French on Fridays, and many of the children are remembering the names of colors, pieces of clothing, and family members in French.

This week, we also had a visit from Oxbow Farms, and a class egg hunt. The children always enjoy this special event, during which they search for Easter eggs labeled with their names.

BACK CLASS REVIEW

This month, children in the back building have been very involved and interested in our curriculum unit on the body. We talked about skin, bones, muscles, and joints. Amongst internal organs, so far we have focused on heart, blood, and lungs. Currently, we are learning about brain.

In our Practical Life area, we have introduced carrot and cucumber cutting, bread cutting and eating, color mixing, and eggshell grinding.

In science, we conducted some experiments on how blood works and component of blood and also learned about lungs and their function.

In language on Fridays. we have been learning German names for different animals.

The children are having fun working together, learning about the human body, and enjoying each other’s company.

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Classroom Review

FRONT CLASS REVIEW

This month, the front building children are very involved and interested in our curriculum unit on the body. We’ve talked about skin, bones, muscles, and joints, and are now learning about our internal organs. So far, we’ve concentrated on our heart, blood, lungs, brain, and the systems that go with these organs. The kids have a new appreciation for what it takes for their bodies to go out and run, jump, and climb! The kids are enjoying, in our Practical Life

area, carrot, apple, and cucumber cutting and eating. Bread cutting and color mixing have also been newly introduced.

To get ready for Valentine’s Day, the children made Valentine cards and decorated a bag to hold all their cards from their classmates. The day was made extra special with a treat of a heart-shaped waffle and fruit. This is really a favorite celebration of the children.

We had fun learning about the reason for the Presidents’ Day holiday and continue with our French language on Fridays. We have been learning the French names for different clothing pieces, and will soon start on food names.

The children are working so well together, enjoying each other and having fun learning.

BACK CLASS REVIEW
In February, we had a great month in which we learned about the human body and celebrated Valentine’s Day.

The children have been enjoying learning about the human body. They have been learning the bones that make up the skeletal system and about all their senses: sight, touch, sound, smell, and taste. Recently, the children had a circle where they were able to experience the difference between bitter, sweet, salty, and sour. They were able to use their sense of touch by doing fun fingerprint experiments during circle time.

Valentines Day was also a blast! The kids made fun Valentine’s Day cards, had tasty treat at the Valentine’s Day party, and exchanged Valentine’s cards with all their friends.

The children are learning so much, and having so much fun playing together. We look forward to watching them learn and grow more!

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February

FRONT CLASS REVIEW
We hope you and your families all enjoyed a fun and relaxing holiday in December. The children were so excited to reunite with their friends after the break. We have had a lot of interesting and new activities in this new season, month and year!

At circle time, we learned about animals in the Arctic region, as well as land and water forms like lakes and islands (and many more). We continue with French on Fridays, and the children have been very excited to begin leading our show and tell circle time. This month we spoke about M.L.K. day and the Chinese New Year holiday with the help of a guest speaker/parent. Thank you Julia! We held A LOT of birthday circles (ceremonies) this month, which is such a special moment and is something the children really look forward to.

Our classroom also launched off our human body unit in mid-January. We are beginning with body parts and skin and are now covering the 5 senses, to include touch, sight, taste, hearing and smell. Next month, we will work inward to cover muscles, bones and organs.

Some more complicated works, with many steps, were introduced. We now have a hand-washing material and a table-washing work.

As the children learn more and more about the human body, this next month should be very exciting!

BACK CLASS REVIEW

In January, the class was ready for the children with winter-themed materials. After the break, the kids were excited to see their friends and talk about the gifts they received and the trips they went on.

Once the kids were settled in, we began a geography theme where we talked about models and how our globe is a model too. We introduced the sandpaper globe and colored globe, and they saw how a flat map is formed from a round globe.

Different types of water and landforms were introduced, and kids learned the names of opposite landforms such as “peninsula and gulf,” and “lake and island.” We also learned about the layers inside our earth.

In science, we learned about how hot air goes up and cold air moves down. We did an experiment to see it. We also saw how shadows are formed.

Soon we will be moving into our big unit: The Human Body. The children will learn about their own body and how it is similar and different from others.

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