Week of Harvest

Grandparents day and some celebratory stone soup...
It just doesn't get much better than that. On Monday we chopped carrots and reenacted the story of stone soup, adding the ingredients they brought from home (hint: there is a book in the making so keep on the look out, Angelina is busy putting it together). The story of Stone Soup centers around the power of sharing and the happiness that unfolds when we open our hearts, doors and cupboards to the people that surround us.

On Tuesday our classroom filled with some very special friends and hummed with loving activity, shared food and laughter. It was a truly glorious celebration to kick off the Harvest celebrations.
The students enjoyed sharing some of their familiar activity's with some of their favorite people.The pink tower...
Sharing some soup...

Having fun on the playground...

With a captive and adoring audience...cheering from the sidelines...
And when the day was done we all understood the meaning of happiness and the joys of sharing.


Here is the recipe if you would like to make our soup at home:

Ingredients

• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 3 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 small zucchini, sliced
• 2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• 2 (15-ounce) cans diced tomato
• 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce OR V-8 juice
• 1 (15-ounce) can small white beans or cannellini beans
• 1 (10 ounces) box, cut frozen green beans OR 1 can of cut green beans
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup fresh basil, torn or shredded
• Grated Parmigiano or Romano, to pass at table
• 3 small stones (provided by the teachers
• Place each ingredient (except the cheese) into a crock pot, cook on high for 1 hour and on low all day. Serve with crusty bread and sprinkle cheese. Enjoy (This dish tastes best when shared).

Remember, conferences are scheduled for December 4th and 5th, we look forward to seeing you then.
There will be no blog post next week, due to the shortened week.
See you again soon and Happy Harvest to everyone!
A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO THE UNTERMYER'S FOR THE FABULOUS BISQUITS!!!!

November 16-20 2008

The unseasonably warm and beautiful weather continued (through Wednesday) and the great outdoors beckoned, inviting us outside to play beneath the sunny skies, flip flops and all!

Our new playground balls are a big hit. Prompting a wide array of play, even the occasional game of basket ball... with a few modifications.

Inside, the classroom has been a hive of activity.
Many of our students have become interested in the continent map.
The first step in this map making process is to punch/poke each of the 7 continents out of colored construction paper. Next, we paint the watery backdrop onto which the 7 continents will be carefully placed, glued and labeled. This map making process takes great concentration, hand skill and patience.

There's so much to do!

There's scrubbing a mammoth...

or discovering the beauty of the written word,

exploring designs with the Red Rods in the Sensorial area...

and checking to see if the indian headress fits...

or even making colored sand and pouring it into layers in small jars.

And when the day is done we still have time to reflect on all that has transpired, and pose the quintessential question...
"Do you really think it's going to snow??"

We'll just have to wait and see.
Looking Ahead
We will be making Stone Soup on Monday December 24th. Many of you have already signed up to bring in ingredients, but if you haven't please check the sign up sheet and choose one.
Grandparents Day is scheduled for 12:30 on November 25th. We are looking forward to it and the students are eager to share their soup with these very special people.
There will be no school on November 26th thru November 30th.
Conferences are scheduled for December 5th and 6th. There will be no school on these days.

November is upon us!

We can't believe it's November! As we move through Autumn we continue to explore our enjoyment of cooking. Angelina popped corn at circle and discussed harvest time and foods that we like to eat during Fall celebrations, like Thanksgiving.
One of our morning mom's collected the season's last grapes from our arbor and treated both Ward Hobbs classes to the fun of making jelly! This time of year we bring seasonal items into the classroom for the children to enjoy. Tweezing kernals of indian corn has sparked lots of interest among the children. In addition, this activity boosts finger muscle strength and eye/hand coordination.



The "45 layout" shows how we use concrete materials, the golden beads, to illustrate the concept of place value in the decimal system. The child counts out unit beads from 1 to 9 then shifts to a column of 10 bars counting by tens from 10 to 90. The hundred squares follow showing quantities 100 to 900 and finally thousand cubes from 1000 to 9000. It is a spectacular display when complete and children marvel at their own effort and ability and at these fascinating numbers they are beginning to understand.
Here is a new and very popular color mixing work showing how yellow and blue mix to make green.
Seeing the two colors come together is truly magical for the children. We would do well to take note of their sense of wonder and discovery at what may seem obvious to us as adults. This week we had visits from 2 toddlers who will be joining our class in the near future. Our veteran preschoolers were gracious and generous in showing them around the environment and helping them feel comfortable and welcome.
We love our readers who come in to spend time with us!




Learning together...

And finally we are grateful for the beautiful weather we've had this week. It's a great time to be outside playing together before the snow flies!

Coming up...
Harvest Celebration
Our students have been talking about the harvest season and how we would like to celebrate it as a class. Please look for a handout outlying our plans.
November 25th at 12:30 PM is Grandparents Day!
There will be no school November 26-29 for the Thanksgiving Holiday.
Conferences are being scheduled for December 4-5.
Whew!
Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the first flakes of snow winding their way to the Earth, we'll see you on Monday.

November 3rd- 7th

Well another week has come and gone and this time you will be astonished to note... there isn't a posting (well unless you count this announcement as such). It was a short and full week so, after some discussion on the point, we decided to postpone our next dance until Friday the 14th.
Until then,
Angelina, Shannon and Belle

10/27 - 10/31

I offered to write the blog this week because I took the photos of the garlic bread and spaghetti project, so I am a guest writer, writing from an observer’s point of view. It was a pleasure to observe part of this project.

Our curriculum springs from three sources: the child, the adult, and the environment. We see it at a careful dance between protagonists, during which each dancer responds to the other. If there is a leader, it is the child, but they are beginning dancers, so as we adults follow their lead, we also lend our support. And, just to push this analogy a bit farther, we adults prepare the dance floor, removing obstacles which might trip our beginning dancers, and adding background music which is so intriguing that we often stand back and just watch as a child dances with the environment.

This week Angelina added a cooking element to the environment by bringing the ingredients for garlic bread and spaghetti to the children for snack. After showing everyone the ingredients, she asked for their help to assemble it. That was one of her contributions to the dance.

She asked three children at a time to join her at a small table and named all the ingredients and tools they were going to use.

Spreading butter takes focus which, among other things, strengthens a child’s ability to muster the concentration it takes to learn how to read. We have a reason for most everything we do in a Montessori classroom – ask us!


If some butter is good, more is better.





Mmmmmmmm!
Cooking is possibly my favorite and certainly one of the most intriguing activities you can do with your child. Our children spend their childhoods finding their place in society – first in their families, then in the Children’s Garden society, next at a bigger, more “grown up” school, and eventually in the world of adults. Giving them many ways to be involved in the real day-to-day work that is required to keep a home running smoothly tells them they are needed and loved.

Maria Montessori’s development of the Practical Life area was aimed at giving children ways to participate. Although the practical life exercises begin with practice – pouring beans from one pitcher to another, or transferring kernels of corn from one container to another with tweezers – they graduate quickly to real and meaningful activities. Children in a Montessori environment mop up spills, help take out the compost, wash tables, wash their hands, scrub the floor and arrange flowers. They water plants and care for pets. The classroom is their room, and they learn to take care of it. Cooking uses all the skills they are acquiring in the Practical Life area, and ends with eating, one of the most important human social activities. What’s not to like about that?

So......who will dance next week?
Kathryn

week of 10/20-10/24

Another week has wandered in and out our door, carrying with it some cherished memories and discoveries.
Many of us are preparing for the Halloween holiday at home and although we don't celebrate Halloween at school, it has become a hot topic of conversation. We have pirates, princesses, spidermen and any number of other characters filling the imaginations of the students. We have been singing songs and chants celebrating the month of October and the children are enjoying social opportunities to discuss their excitement.
Here a student works on a calendar page for October. This affords an excellent opportunity to practice writing skills and serves as an introduction to the concept of time and its passage.

One child pulls a letter from a basket and announces "a" does anyone have an "a"(short phonetic sound). The children examine their sheets and place a disk on any "a's". This process proceeds until someone enthusiastically yells "BINGO" and the game begins again.

Triangles, triangles, triangles everywhere. Here a student is working with the constructive triangles exploring different ways to form equilateral triangles.

Voila! If you put them all together you get one big equilateral triangle!

How many of us lament over unwashed dishes on the dinner table (myself included). Here the students are responsible for washing their snack dishes and cleaning up after themselves. They do a spectacular job and although the dishes are not always rendered clean, they are cleared from the table, washed, rinsed and set out to dry.

Thank you for another wonderful week.
Remember the wine auction is at 7:00 on Friday, October 24th.
There are no costumes permitted at school on the 31st. Thank you so much for your help with this!
We'll see you all on Monday.

week of October 13-17

Are we having fun yet? I think it is safe to say, YES WE ARE!
Students are finding a natural rhythm within the various transitions of the classroom and a buzz of conversation and play fills the backyard.

A snippet of Montessori philosophy:
During the first phase of a child's life s/he draws from the environment in much the same way that a seed draws its necessary nourishment from the soil. There is a symbiotic relationship between the child and the environment, as with the seed and the earth. The young child's mind is similar to a sponge, effortlessly absorbing the world around him including sensory information, environmental stimulation emotions, language, etc. For this reason the child is able to effortlessly adapt to his environment and in so doing begin the process of self creation. In order to keep the environment rich, diverse and reflective of the child's life we strive to bring a variety of stimulating materials into the classroom. In keeping with this intent, we introduced a basket of flora from the frontrange of the Rockies, several scenic photos, and even one photo of a rattlesnake encountered on a hike accompanied by a snake skin.


A student examines a yucca pod.


Water pouring activities are always interesting to the child, especially with the addition of orange colored water.



Magnetic/Non-magnetic explorations have arrived in the classroom and students are exploring this principle through a variety of materials.



Thank you to Susan Daggett for reading to the class on Thursday!

Looking ahead:
The wine auction is scheduled for Friday, October 24th. We'll see you there.

Announcements:
We have had several requests for the, "Why Do Leaves Change Colors", book written by your children. I will be placing an order next week for more copies of the book. I will only be ordering the number of books that have been requested. If you are interested, the cost is $32.00, please tell Angelina or post a comment on this blog.

Thank you so much for another wonderful week. We will see you on Monday.