Week 13 - Review

We had so much fun in the snow this week! It made our recess time go by so quickly. We were able to practise our balance on the snowboard and each child did remarkably well. With a little practise everyone was able to master this!

We were able to continue our work on math (static addition and subtraction) using the concrete activities. Some children were also able to do this work on paper as abstract work!

Other children continued working on matching and printing out upper and lower case letters.

The children are also beginning to see continents everywhere they look!  In the clementine they peeled (South America) and even in the snow (Africa) grass as the snow melted.

And, we were able to pack our Christmas boxes for Samaritan's Purse, a total of 12 boxes!  Thank you for donating the items for the boxes - the children really had a lot of fun packaging them.

It's hard to believe tomorrow is December! Next week, we begin learning about Antarctica! And a reminder that Thursday, Dec 6th is the last day of school for the Tuesday/Thursday group! This year has went by VERY quickly!

And, I've been busy each evening working on a business plan for Authentic Montessori School of Huron in order to determine if opening a full elementary school is a viable option for September, 2013.  This is the logo that was designed...for a Facebook banner

for printed material it will look like this...

If you have not had a chance to fill in the survey please do so, as this is how I am determining the viability.  To date, responses have been positive.  70 surveys have been completed, with 16 families interested and willing to pay a tuition, 48 families are interested yet need to know tuition costs.  I am working on establishing a fair price per child, with discounts for siblings.  All details will be released in January, 2013.

Week 12 - Review

We had many opportunities this week for some extended work. The children are getting a good grasp of the concept of units, rods, squares and cubes. Some of us even began static addition!  It is so exciting to watch the children when they "figure out" and equation. Here is a photo of the children at work.

placing the objects on a new mat to figure out the sum!

They did it!

They asked me to take another photo - they didn't have the units in a "proper" position.

Some of the children are also beginning to extend their language work - moving from recognizing the sounds of each letter and the name to wanted to spell out the words.  We've reviewed that each word must have a vowel.  We begin using the moveable alphabet and then we can print it on the paper.

Other children are beginning to write their own books!  This is truly one of my most favourite times - because the language they are learning becomes their own and they are confident in their abilities. The ability to transpose words on a guide sheet to their own paper is quite a skill and it's terrific that they are so keen to do so.  Today, some of the children decided they wanted to make a shape poster.  So, they got right to work, tracing the metal insets, cutting each shape out, reading out the shape names, matching the names to the shape they had made and then glueing them on the poster board. So much detail, completed independently, at the age of 4!

And, it still blows me away (and some visitors that we had this week, Thursday, 4 women) that the children not only can sing a song about Canada, Central America, and South America, but that they actually can identify the countries! As I work with the children, I say the name of the country (puzzle piece) as I remove it from the puzzle. I then ask the child to place "said country" in the puzzle. I was working with one little guy and I asked him to place Chile in the puzzle first. He did, and then immediately grabbed the next piece and said "Argentina", and "Bolivia", etc.  WOW!!!

We also sampled some new foods this week...some were well received, one was not!  On Monday & Tuesday, I tried the children with pumpkin soup from Venezuela...NO ONE liked it!  I thought it tasted nice - so I'm not sure if it was just that they knew it was pumpkin and thought it was weird to eat it as soup?!?

Wednesday, we had Peanut Vegetable Soup, from Bolivia - this was a success, so much so, they asked me to let their mom's know the recipe...and asked for me to serve it again!

Grind into very fine pieces 2 cups of skinless raw peanuts
Put into a large pot
peanuts
2 L of chicken broth
1 large onion, diced
4 large potatoes, diced
4 carrots, sliced
Cook for 30 minutes
Add
1/4 cup uncooked rice (I used brown basmati)
1 cup of peas
Cook 15 minutes

Thursday, due to an avoidance of nuts in food - we had chicken vegetable soup.

Today, another success - each child had 2 servings plus some had a small bowl of chicken vegetable soup!  "Enchilada Casserole" from Paraguay ***Very EASY***
Preheat oven to 350F
Fry
1 lb of ground beef
1 onion chopped
2/3 cup of green pepper, chopped
1 tsp salt
Add
2 cups tomato sauce
6 cups of whole kernel corn (drained if using canned, I used our frozen corn from garden)
Mix well and place in a casserole dish. Bake 20 minutes. Remove from oven and spread
1 cup of cheese (I used havarti)
Return to oven and bake additional 5 minutes.

All in all, things are going well. I am looking at 3 different places this weekend for possible spaces for expanded the Montessori School and will keep you informed on that process.

Enjoy the blustery weekend ahead!
Angela

Operation Shoe Box - Christmas Boxes Around the World

Last year, we did a fundraiser for the Operation Christmas Shoe Box, where the children and I made meals for you and your family.  This year, with the excitement and possibility of a new school, I am not able to do this extra fundraiser yet, I would still like the children to be able to participate, especially since we are learning about the world. I am asking that each child be responsible for bringing one item X 11 (so that it can go into each child's box).  I will contribute the cost of the shipping & administration fee.

I am going to list the items that would be appreciated and if you could write under the "comment" section which item you will purchase - to help avoid duplication.

The age of the children box we will be focusing on is 3-5 and girl or boy

box of crayons

small note book

3 sticker packs/box (33 sticker sheets)

marbles

socks

toothbrush & comb

hard candy (werther or lifesavers)

small animal figure (4 each, like the Schleich brand @ Fincher's or TSC )

small animal figure (4 each)

small animal figure (3 each)

felted figures (Alanna - I'm wondering if you have time to make 11? they are so nice :) if not, no problem - we can add something else)

We will be assembling the boxes next week on Thursday, November 29 & Friday, November 30, so please have the items here by that date.

Week 11 - Review

This week has been filled will lots of interesting and new work. We reviewed the countries of South America again using the wooden puzzle. I find it so amazing that when all the pieces (13 in all) are out on the mat I can ask where Venezuela is or Bolivia, or Chile and the children grab the piece and place it where it belongs! We've learned about the armadillo this week and some of the children tried sketching one. We have also been learning how to build numbers. We are all quite comfortable with 1-9, so I've introduced 10-90, 100-900, 1000-9000.  The numbers 1-9 are referred to as single units, represented with a bead.  The numbers 10, 20, 30 etc, are referred to as rods, represented as 10 beads forming 1 rod. The numbers 100, 200, etc. are referred to as squares, represented as 10-10 rods forming the square. The numbers 1000, 2000, etc. are referred to as a cube, represented as 10-100 squares forming the cube. When learning how the numbers are put together and what this really looks like is key for mental math. I remember Quaid's JK teacher telling me that she had never seen a child who understood numbers like he did, "it's almost like he can see them being formed in his head". They are working on building numbers like 8724. They would have to take 8 cubes, 7 squares, 2 rods and 4 units and place them on the mat. We are also learning how to read the numbers. Once this becomes matter of fact, we'll begin to add two numbers together using static addition (no carrying over) and static subtraction, eventually moving on to dynamic addition & subtraction (carrying over or borrowing from).  We do this by playing "banker".

The children loved making empanades for lunch this week. They were able to make the dough and roll it out...adding the chicken & pea filling with a little cumin...popular in Bolivia. We've enjoyed listening to pan-pipes a native instrument to South America while working, it's very soothing.

I've had a request from the children to make more flags...so I'll have the flags ready for colouring for next week so they can accurately colour the country flags of South America.

We have also reviewed the musical terms forte (loud & strong), pianissimo (soft, quiet), presto (fast), and adagio (slow).

And, as most of you are aware, I am in the midst of trying to determine if there would be enough support to open a fully licensed Montessori CASA program (ages 2.5 - 6) under the Day Nurseries Act, as well as interest for an independent Montessori elementary school registered with the Ministry of Education. Thank you to all who have answered the survey and posting it or forwarding it to others. I currently have had responses from 48 people. If you provided me with your email address I will be sending you additional surveys to help me with planning and determining what is the best offering for parents of the children attending. Calvin has helped me understand that "maybe not every parent wants the same thing you do, and you should probably ask them". If you have not yet answered the survey please take 5 minutes to do so...it is anonymous (unless you provide me with your email address for further communication). I would love to have 100 responses come back so encourage your peers, friends, and family to fill it in.

Week 10 - Review

We have been studying South America this week as a whole. We are all familiar with the shape of the continent and where it is located on the world map. We've looked at a few different maps so they can identify it in more than one spot. We've been learning the names of the countries, Venezuala, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Suriname, Guyana. There are 12 countries in South America, there is one other country called French Guiana but it belongs to France and shares the same flag. We've learned that 12 is also known as 1dozen.

We've been learning about the rainforest animals also known as jungle animals. I showed this cute video The Rainforest Song today and the kids really loved it...I'll be sure to show it on Tuesday as well...

The children worked on more math equations and more printing this week. It is nice to be able to have them choose work that is meaningful to them.

Enjoy your weekend,
Angela

Week Nine - Review

What a wet, windy week!  It is so nice to be able to go outside for a walk (when the weather cooperates) for both the children and myself! I find our time together in the afternoon goes so much better when we can all get some fresh air and enjoy nature. The days when we are "cooped up" seem to last forever - and everyone is just itching to get outside.

This week we worked on addition and subtraction.  Some of the older children are beginning to print out math equations, while the younger ones are using concrete objects to verbalize math equations. Words like add, plus, equals, subtract, minus are being introduced as well as the picture symbols.

We also reviewed what an island is.  We learned about the Caribbean Sea and that there are many islands located in this sea.  The islands are tropical and grow fruit like mango, pineapple, banana, and papaya. We listened to Calypso music and the steel drum. This music made everyone feel like dancing. The islands song was not so easy to learn - but the children did have colouring their flags of each island and just learning and looking at pictures of these tropical islands. We tasted some island foods. I made Creole Chicken (Domincan Republic) and Rice & Beans (Jamaica) which all the children LOVED! The Rice & Beans was super easy...1 1/2 cups of long grain rice with 1 can of coconut milk plus 1 cup of water and add 1 can of garbanzo beans (chick peas)...the recipe called for kidney beans but the children don't really like those - so we did a substitution. We also ate some tropical fruit - pineapple, bananas & mango.

We learned that the Earth has an invisible "belt" around it called the Equator.  The "belt" has the top invisible line called the Tropic of Cancer and the bottom invisible line is called the Tropic of Capricorn.  All countries found inside the "belt" area are considered tropical.  This means that they have 2 seasons: rainy & dry. The sun shines on the belt all the year round, making it very warm all year round.

We learned about the volcano and we made our own out of clay. We used baking soda and vinegar to make it bubble. It was funny listening to one little guy who kept asking "when will the volcano interrupt Mrs. Kerr?  I really want to see it interrupt!" I had to gently remind him, "not interrupt but erupt".

We spelled out words like volcano, lava, erupt, rock, red, hot, magma, vent, bubbles. All the children are getting so confident in their letter sounds and naming the letter that makes it! Spelling comes naturally. If your child has a tendency to print from right to left (very common) you can give them a helpful guide. I've introduced a green dot (on the left side of the board) and a red dot (on the right side of the board) as a quick visual to remember where to start and stop. You may only need to do this a few times before they begin to make this a habit.

Next week we begin our study of South America (the pink continent).