Week Four - Review

It certainly is beginning to feel like autumn!  Cool, crisp mornings and sunny, windy days.  We have just completed our first month of school and I am happy to report that the children are right into the routine of things and strengthening their friendships each day.

We worked on landscapes this week.  We learned words like isthmus, island, peninsula, cape, archipalego (land formations). We learned words like strait, lake, gulf, bay, and series of lakes (water formations).  We looked at photos of landforms: mountains, cliffs, rocks and soil, hills, & prairies. We looked at photos of water forms: ocean, pond, river, & lake. We learned that the 5 oceans in the world are salt water and we cannot drink this water but the lakes and rivers are fresh water which can be used for drinking. We also learned that there is water in the ground (called fresh water springs). We learned that we are very fortunate to live where we do because we are surrounded by 5 Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie & Superior.  We talked about the importance of taking great care and being good stewards of the Earth, specifically to the land and the water.

I showed the children using an apple how much farm land we have in comparison to the size of our Earth. I find the children have a better understanding of just how "little" farmland there is in the world and the great demands of it to produce food for the whole world's people if they can "see" this. Also, because we live in a predominately agricultural area they do see most of our land as agricultural. We must do our best to keep our soil and water clean and healthy.

The apple represents our Earth.

3/4 of our Earth is water which leaves 1/4 land.

Of the 1/4 land, 1/4 is mountainous, 1/4 is desert, 1/4 is urban, leaving 1/4 arable (able to grow crops)

Of the 1/8 arable land only the top layer is used for farming...it is good soil.

Looking at the whole apple again and the "peel" of the 1/16 arable land...it really puts into perspective the importance of taking care of our Earth's agricultural resources.

The children created some beautiful landscape art using pastels. I introduced some art of the Group of Seven so they had some inspiration. They enjoyed looking at these pieces and we talked about how they felt and what they saw when they looked at it.  "It looks cold and dark".  "It looks windy, the branches on the trees are sideways". "The Northern Lights are beautiful".

I also began reading to them "Tommy Smith's Animals", by Edmund Selous.  I LOVE this book!  It is an excellent, narrative book and there are 3 other books in the series that I purchased and I am eager to read them all. "All the animals in Tommy Smith's neighborhood lived in fear of him. Thinking that he would treat them more kindly if he knew more about them, they each agreed to meet him and share their life story. In these conversations Tommy Smith did indeed learn lots of information about the animals: the food they ate, the places they slept, the enemies they faced, and much more. In the course of these encounters with the frog and toad, the rook, the rat, the hare, the snake, the peewit, the mole, the woodpigeon, the squirrel, and the owl, Tommy's heart did soften, and, as the barn owl had predicted, he became a friend to all the animals." This week we've read about the frog and toad, the rook (crow) and the rat.

The children have also taken great delight to find insects outside and to stop and observe them. We were witness to an ant pulling a cricket (which was amazing to watch and to listen to the children talk about how strong the ant must be to be able to pull a cricket which is so much bigger), we watched spiders crawl across the grass, and we watched pill bugs.

Friday, we made our own fresh tomato sauce.  The children were able to practise their "kitchen" skills, cutting, peeling, grating, measuring and mixing!  Here are some photos of the children "at work".


Roma tomatoes ready to be canned,

Sullivan, carefully pulling the hot tomatoes out of the sink using the tongs...

Hayley, peeling the skin off the tomatoes...

Quaid helping out...home from school today!

Masha, peeling the carrots...

Talia, grating the carrots....

Life lesson...the grater is VERY sharp...watch your fingers!

Lika, chopping extra bite-sized carrots for snack!  YUM!!!

The finished product - ENJOY!!!

Week Three - Review

We were able to begin this week off with another birthday celebration, my own!  I turned 37 on Monday and the children thought it was very funny to see me as a baby and a young girl with long hair. I did not "orbit the sun", 37 times though - I thought I would get too dizzy! We didn't have cake...and no one seemed to notice!

This week was also our class photo week. The children all smiled their best and worked hard during their photos.  I will be notifying you soon as to when you will receive the proofs.  I can't wait to see how they turned out!

We also had so much fun painting our very own solar system hat.  It amazes me how much care and detail each child takes when working on their "masterpiece", no one rushes "just to get it done"...they all work so hard. What a terrific skill to develop early on in life, especially in our fast-paced, hurried lifestyle.

I told the children a story without a book or pictures.  One class heard "The 3 Little Pigs" and the other class heard "The 3 Bears".  The children sat so still and listened to my every word - which is not always the case when I read stories from a book - they really did enjoy this. I told the story in the morning. After lunch, I re-told the story and I made some changes. It was terrific to hear them say, "Mrs. Kerr, that's not the way the story goes", or "I think you have it mixed up", "that's silly, Mrs. Kerr." Another illustration that they are always paying attention and listening to our every word!

I read the first chapter of "The Seven Little Sisters who Live on the Round Ball that Floats in the Air". It was quite interesting for the children to realize that the round ball was our planet earth and that the Seven Little Sisters are the continents! If you are interested in this book, it is available as a FREE download on google books as well as itunes. Our morning song is called Beautiful Earth and we are beginning to locate the countries mentioned in the song on the world map!  It's fun to see the children point at the map and call out the country name...and most already recognize the flag of those countries as well. The countries they are learning through the song are the United States, South Africa, New Zealand, India, Canada, Japan, Italy, Vietnam, The Philippines, El Salvador, China & Ecuador.

I reviewed with the children each letter sound. I spend a great deal of time reinforcing the vowel sounds (since they are in every word).  We learned that there are 2 types of letters; vowels (blue) and consonants (red). We also learned that there are 2 types of numbers, even (blue) & odd (red). When we count out objects we put them into "dancing pairs".  If there is an object that doesn't have "dancing pair" it becomes the "stopper".  This makes it a visual way for the children to identify if the number is even or odd.  We are also singing songs to help us remember. We also were able to discover that the word "odd" has 3 letters, and 1 vowel!  The word "even" has 4 letters and 2 vowels!  Some of the children are also reading early phonetic books, and others are beginning to read books of all kinds.  I find it so exciting when children learn to read...often it's all they want to do! With that said, I'm so happy that this environment allows for them to do this, without interruption and for the length of time they choose.  The joy of a buzzer-less learner environment!

I also wanted to mention that I am enjoying listening to your children as they work and play. I have tried my best to model kindness and encouragement with my words towards the children and often have said a sentence for them to repeat during a situation that may not be going so well on their own. I obviously have days when the tone of my voice is not matching the words I am saying. Just this week, one student asked me what I was upset about.  I told her I wasn't upset and she said "well you sure sound upset!" It was a nice and friendly reminder to me that I need to be aware of "how" I sound, not just "what" I am saying.

On the whole, we are building a nice little family unit here where the majority of our days are filled with empathy, compassion and assistance towards each other. It really is lovely to witness!

Oh, and in case anyone hears that I might be "dying", I am not sick. As we've been discussing the life cycle, death has come up a few times and in different situations. Quaid's lizard has died, one of the caterpillars died, and we are seeing dead bees. I have explained that every living thing must die. Every living thing as a different length of life cycle, some days, some weeks, some months, some years. Today during snack and completely out of the blue, one of the girls said "it's okay Mrs.Kerr if you die soon, we'll just get another teacher, but make sure you leave our names up on the wall so she knows who we are! How old are you again?"

Enjoy the first day of autumn tomorrow!

Week Two - Review

We were able to begin our week with a birthday celebration!  Happy Birthday to Natalia, who turned 4 on September 8th.  We celebrated on Monday by baking her a chocolate cake. We sang her the "Montessori Birthday Song" while we looked at photos of her at birth, age 1, age 2, age 3 and then her current age! We also read one of my favourite books, "On the Day You Were Born". Birthdays are always a special time here at school!

On Tuesday, the class was witness to the emerging butterfly which was amazing. They were thrilled to see it coming from the chrysalis and also to watch it fly away.  On Thursday, we were able to watch a caterpillar form its chrysalis!  This has been a real treat to be able to witness these changes and observe what we've read about in books.

We were also able to see that the last butterfly to emerge was a male...you can tell this by looking at the wings.  If the wings have 2 dots on the bottom part of the wings it is a male.  Can you see the dots?

We have been reviewing the idea of living and non-living things.  Living things are plants and animals, they have a life cycle...they are born, they grow and they die. I explained that the length of a life cycle is different for each living thing including people.  Non-living things are made of something like plastic, wood, metal, fabric, or paper.  Sometimes people say "my phone is dead, or the batteries died" but in fact these things cannot die because they are non-living things, they just are not working anymore.

We continued to review our planets, the Earth and its continents as well as oceans.  We also were able to do our rocket experiment much to the delight of the children!  We've reviewed the idea of motion and its' 3 Laws.  It was especially surprising when one of the students was looking through one of my space books and noticed a picture of Isaac Newton.  She gathered all her classmates around and compared the picture in the book to the one I have of him on the wall!

I introduced the children to opera music, specifically, "le papillon et la fleur" (the butterfly and the flower) by Fauré, who composed this beautiful song in 1861 at the age of 16! We practised singing ourselves a bit of opera which was fun and also a little loud!

And, at the request of the children, I have purchased new, "better tasting" toothpaste.  They now have 2 flavour choices, melon burst by nature clean or berry smart by kiss my face.  Both are 100% natural, free from dyes.

A student who was here last year when we studied the butterflies mentioned to me that she already knew this stuff and she'd like me to teach her something she didn't know.  I asked her what she would like to know and she said "a handstand!"

Please note that the pictures scheduled to be taken on Wednesday, September 19th have been moved to MONDAY, September 17th due to a scheduling conflict with the photographer. 

Week One - Review

It has been a terrific first week of school all around!  I am so pleased at the ease of routine and the eagerness of each student.  "O.K., what's next, Mrs. Kerr" shows me that they are keen learners!

We have reviewed that the Earth is made of land, water and air.  That the land is called continents, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Antarctica and Africa. That the water is called oceans, Pacific, Atlantic, Southern, Indian and Arctic.  And that we call air the atmosphere. We have been introduced to where these are all located on various maps. We also reviewed that the Earth is one of nine planets in the Solar System within the Milkyway Galaxy. That Earth (as well as the other planets) orbits the Sun (which is a big star) and the orbit takes one year. We learned that to travel to space we would have to ride in a space shuttle. We pretended to ride a space shuttle and we travelled to each planet. I read to them some interesting facts about each planet to help them remember. We learned Mercury has craters like the moon. Venus has volcanoes and smells like rotten eggs. Earth is the only planet that has life. Mars is known as the red planet and there are many scientist who are taking pictures and collecting samples of it using the Mars Rover. Jupiter is the largest planet and it has 63 moons. Saturn has horizontal rings around it made of ice and rock chunks. Uranus has vertical rings around it and is the same size as Neptune whose colour is a beautiful indigo. Pluto is the smallest planet called a dwarf planet and is the farthest away from the Sun. We sang our favourite song about the Planets to help us remember the names! And we watched an IMAX movie called Destiny in Space...which showed pictures of the astronauts, the different planets and the space shuttle. Quaid let me borrow a solar system that he has attached to his ceiling to use with the children. I disassembled it and have it in a basket. The children are able to match the planet to the written word. I am always amazed at how quickly they grasp these concepts!

One highlight for the week was a science experiment; making our very own rocket. We were introduced to the 3-D shapes of cone and cylinder, as well as triangle pieces to help guide the rocket. We also learned about a man named Isaac Newton. He was a scientist who lived a long time ago (over 250 years) and he discovered 3 Laws of Motion (movement) and the Law of Gravity. We learned the First Law of Motion or the Law of Inertia by rolling a potato until it hit an object - it stopped the potato and made it go in another direction. We also learned the Second Law of Motion, which is knowing that to move an object that has a greater mass you must use more force than what is needed to move an object that has less mass.  We practised this by lifting a 10lb dumbbell and a 20lb dumbbell. Next week we will be able to test out Newton's Third Law of Motion, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is where the rocket comes in! The rocket's action is to push down on the ground with the force of it's powerful engines (alka-seltzer and water) and the reaction is that the ground pushes the rocket upwards with an equal force. When you push an object it pushes back. There is much excitment surrounding this activity! I am trying to secure old film cannisters (not as easy to find as they once were) I hope to have them for early next week. We also learned that gravity is an invisible pull that holds us on the ground. We threw many different items up into the air and they always came back down, that's gravity! The IMAX video also showed the astronauts "floating" where there is no gravity.

I introduced the written words and definitions with examples of same, similar and different. We compared and contrasted many objects within our school environment. Each child was able to point out each word when asked and to place the objects under the headings.

Another exciting part of our week was the delivery of 1 milkweed plant with 4 caterpillars and 3 chrysalis' for us to observe.  The children loved the unit on butterflies so much last spring that I purchased a monarch butterfly set from the Conservatory. Beginning in October we will be tracking their migration through North America as we study more of our own continent. During this month we will observe the changes of the life cycle and enjoy watching the miracle of metamorphosis.  Friday's class was able to witness this miracle already, sooner than I had expected.  Before the butterfly emerges from the jade green chrysalis it becomes translucent. The children could "see" the monarch's wings through the chrysalis. It was quite delightful to watch their faces as the butterfly emerged with wet wings all crumpled.  It took about 3 hours for the wings to dry and I "tagged" it before releasing it on the butterfly bush in the front flowerbed.  

The children have been a great help in the kitchen, husking their own piece of corn for lunch, chopping up vegetables for snack, setting the table, and putting the dishes into the dishwasher!

A reminder that if you haven't sent your child's toothbrush please do so.  I am providing the toothpaste (Green Beaver - Zesty Orange!) and have already had a request for Melon Burst!

I have been reading through a book "When Children Love to Learn" by Elaine Cooper and I wanted to share with you this...

"we are not over the child as the source of all knowledge, but beside the child, also learning. We usually teach, but children offer a lot for us to consider and learn. The interaction is mutually enjoyable, and both are developing understanding - the "teacher" and "the taught"."

Thank you for allowing me to work beside your children,
Mrs. Kerr

Blogging My Way through the School Year

Blogging is something I've never done.  I've read many blogs and enjoy them yet have never written my own.  This should be interesting!

It is my hope that by writing once a week it will free up some of my time with the children...being more engaged during their "recess" time instead of writing like mad in their notebooks.

The intention of this blog is to highlight areas I've covered with the students as a whole.  Work that your child is doing independently will not be discussed within the blog but in a separate email to you, the parent.

This blog is also only open to families who currently have children attending school.