November Work in P1

November flew by as we had time off for Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving Break.  We hope all our P1 families enjoyed some relaxing time together as we get ready for the upcoming holiday season.

During the month of November, we had the opportunity to learn about North America and our desert.  We learned that deserts have very little rainfall, temperature extremes and strong winds.  These factors make it difficult for plants and animals to survive, but there are some that are uniquely suited to our Mojave environment.  Coyotes are very adaptable animals that can thrive in many different environments, including deserts, forests, mountains and cities.  Road runners need very little water and are fast enough to catch and prey upon rattlesnakes.  Prickly pear cactus plants provide food for many desert animals and can even be eaten by people!

Some of our Spanish vocabulary this month included the names of some desert animals:

Tortuga – turtle

Correcaminos – road runner

Serpiente – snake

Escorpion – scorpion

Halcon – hawk

Desierto – desert

Caballo – horse

Tribu – tribe

Fruta – cactus fruit

Conejo- Rabbit

Here are some photos of our students working on different lessons and activities this month.

November work in P1

As December arrives, so do cooler temperatures.  Please make sure your child brings a jacket to school in the morning.  Even though the afternoons can be quite pleasant, the Outdoor Classroom can be downright chilly in the morning.  We are requiring that students wear a jacket outside with Ms. Gayle while they explore the Outdoor environment.  Please make sure jackets are labeled with your child’s name.

This month, we will be learning about trees, places and animals of Europe and some of the many holidays that are celebrated around the world in the winter.

Thank you for your continued support!

Ms. Melissa, Ms. Diana and Ms. Kini

Reading in the Montessori classroom is developed through phonics.  This multi-sensory approach is unique in that it has children building words (encoding) before actually reading them (decoding). Developmentally appropriate activities allow children to build their own understanding of how sounds are represented by symbols, and these symbols are joined together to form words.

Students begin phonics work by learning to identify the beginning sound of a word through games such as I Spy.  Simultaneously, they work on learning the symbols that represent sounds with the sandpaper letters.  When several sounds and symbols can be recognized, students work on sound sorting activities by pairing objects with the appropriate beginning letter. 

When children have learned the phonetic sounds, they are ready to begin word building with the moveable alphabet. They begin by building to two or three letter phonetic words (those in which all the letters make their most common sound, like dog, pig, ram, bat, etc.). In order to allow the children to work independently, they are given small phonetic objects which represent the words they are to build. Later, pictures of phonetic words can be introduced for variety and additional practice in word building.

After the child has mastered two and three letter word building, he or she can begin matching reading cards with the objects.  Reading activities such as Phonetic Flip books are introduced so children can practice 3 letter phonetic reading focusing on a single vowel (‘a’ words), then move onto further reading activities such as the Ha-Ha Game (cards with 3 letter phonetic words using all 5 vowels) early Bob Books.  As children master phonetic reading, sight words, silent ‘e’ words and consonant digraphs (th, ch, sh, etc.) and vowel digraphs (oa, ue, ie, ai, etc.) are introduced leading to more advanced reading skills.

Here is a link with further information on phonics and why they are helpful in the reading process.

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/how-phonics-contributes-reading-success/#:~:text=Phonics%20instruction%20helps%20the%20reader,the%20easier%20the%20reading%20task.

Here are some photos of our students in different levels of reading practices.

11/15 Blog Photos

The weather is getting a bit cooler, especially in the morning.  Please make sure your child has a light jacket for the Outdoor Classroom.  This area is still in the shade of the school during the P1 students’ time and it can be quite chilly!  Please make sure jackets are labeled with your child’s name.

Thank you for all your continued support and, as always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

Ms. Melissa, Ms. Diana and Ms. Kini

October in P1

This month we learned about vertebrates and the bones in our bodies.  Students had the opportunity to work with a skeleton floor puzzle to give them some hands-on learning about how our bones fit together and the names of different bones in our bodies.  We also studied pumpkins, our 5 senses, the continents of the world and learned about mammals.

Here is some Spanish vocabulary that we practiced this month:

Huesos – bones

Esqueleto – skeleton

Craneo – skull

Falanges – phalanges (the bones of the fingers and toes)

Calabaza – pumpkin

Semilla – seeds

Mamifero – mammal

Murcielago – bat

Monos – monkies

Bruja – witch

We also spent some time preparing for International Children’s Day!  Students were thrilled with the opportunity to “travel” to the exotic continent of Africa!  We explored batik printing on fabric (the cloth can be used as a lunch placemat), danced to traditional African Drum music, went on a safari and collected animal models (that each child can keep).  We learned that there are over 800 languages spoken on the continent of Africa and practiced counting to 10 in Swahili.  We looked at pictures of the rich variety of wildlife that live on the savannah, observed the Great Pyramids of Egypt and enjoyed bananas, dates and chocolate that are all produced in different regions of Africa.

Next month, our studies will keep us close to home as we learn about North America, the United States and the Mojave Desert.  We will also take some time to study reptiles and compare them to mammals from last month.

Here are some pictures of some of our favorite jobs in the classroom, as well as some pictures from International Children’s Day.

10/30 Blog photos

Have a safe and fun Halloween!

Thank you!

Ms. Melissa, Ms. Diana and Ms. Kini