“To keep alive enthusiasm is the secret of real guidance, and it will not prove a difficult task, provided that the attitude towards the child’s acts be that of respect, calm, and waiting, and provided that he be left free in his movements and experiences.”
Maria Montessori
Welcome to the Elementary Classroom Blog!
The 2011/12 school year is off to a wonderful start in the elementary classroom. It gave me such joy to see the students practically sprinting from their cars and into the school on Tuesday! We began our first class with a story from my childhood about the first day jitters I experienced in the 3rd grade and students shared some of the things they felt nervous about coming to school this year. Many students shared the same fears (surprise, surprise!) and it didn’t take long before we were all laughing our nerves away.
We got right down to lessons and have covered a lot of material already. In addition to exploring areas of interest around the room, here are some subject area highlights:
Allagash Group (1st Year)
- Metal Inset designs, which will prepare their hands for cursive writing
- We cut land & water forms out of construction paper. New vocabulary: island/lake, cape/bay, isthmus/strait, peninsula/gulf, archipelago/system of lakes
- We practiced composing numbers into the thousands place and fetching the appropriate number of golden beads
Moosehead Lake Group (2nd Year)
- We reviewed article/adjective/noun and created lists of phrases
- We combined fractions with calendars and discussed different ways to break up the year
- We took out the subtraction strip board and reviewed vocabulary (minuend/subtrahend/difference)
Acadia Group (3rd Year)
- We began an in-depth study of adjectives by discussing counting adjectives (one, tenth, etc)
- We started our semester long “study of the nation” be reviewing what we already know about the United States
- We did a multiplication review by focusing on some of the patterns we can see. We talked about multiplication being a bit like magic.
Katahdin Group (4th Year)
- We began with a fantastic story about a walk I took in Chicago (ask about the ducks with braces & the foxes on a leash). This kicked off our study of collective nouns.
- Students chose countries of interest that they might like to research this semester.
- We explored multiples in order to prepare for our work with LCM and GCF
Students had their first fiddle/violin lesson with Andrew on Wednesday. We all had an amazing time and I look forward to this group experience. Their homework for Friday is to practice rest position and taking a bow. We are looking forward to starting art and French in the coming weeks. Our library trip was rained out today, so we will walk over on Monday and then return to our regular schedule, which is every other Thursday.
Check back often for updates & photos. Remember to like us on Facebook!
Anna
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| Composing Numbers |
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| Searching for the Lowest Common Multiple |
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| Geography Work |
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| Preparing for Art History “If we could say, “We are respectful and courteous in our dealing with children, we treat them as we should like to be treated ourselves,” we should have mastered a great educational principle and be setting an example of good education.”
Maria Montessori
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