During February, P1 is exploring the oceans of our Earth.  Although we live in the desert and have little natural exposure to oceans, it brings out the natural curiosity about the oceans, as the children have been eager to learn all they can about this abundant ecosystem.

We are looking at the fish, mammals and reptiles who make the oceans their homes.

One wall of our classroom has been transformed into the ocean where the kindergarten students have painted fish, seaweed and sea anemones. Last week we made a trip to Mandalay Bay’s Shark Reef Aquarium.

Sharks in the desert?  Who ever heard of such a thing?…We did!  The FMS primary classes stepped into the aquatic world found at Mandalay Bay, better known as the Shark Reef Aquarium.  

We started our trip walking into a rain forest where we were met by the world’s largest lizard, the Komodo Dragon.  Then our eyes fell upon a boa constrictor curled up on a ledge with fish and sea turtles swimming below him. We learned that catfish taste food with their whiskers and fish like to eat lettuce!

Moving into the area of hammer head and leopard sharks, we felt how graceful the fish world is where their swimming and movement is like one continuous dance.  Our fingers gently touched the back of the horseshoe crabs and sting rays.

Then we set our eyes on the luminescent bodies of the jellyfish as they swayed gently in their tank.  The children were captivated by the power and grace of the animals around them.

This week our Kindergarteners visited a local marine lab at Estes McDoniel Elementary School where they saw fish, sea stars and  sea anemones.

As we study the oceans this month, the understanding of the aquatic world is now more tangible and realistic for the students after making field trips to the Shark Reef Aquarium and to the Estes McDoniel marine lab.

Ms. Nancy sharing some of her sea shells with the students.

Happy Valentine’s day, and thank you for making our celebration sweet and memorable.

Reminders

No school on Friday 2/13 due to teacher in-service

No school on Monday 2/16 in celebration of President’s Day

Friday 2/20:  PTO Family Dance at DragonRidge Country Club

Thursday 2/26:  Parent-child night.  Families with the last name starting with A-L are invited to attend from 4:30pm-5:15pm and families with a last name starting with M-Z are invited to attend from 5:30pm-6:15pm. Join us with your child as they show you their favorite Montessori works.

Thank you to Chloe and Zoey, and their families, for bringing in delicious snacks and beautiful flowers!!

 Many of you have seen your child come home with a little, yellow felt circle pinned to their shirts, representing their “love lights.”  This is actually the fourth, inner circle representing the spirit of a person.  

As we have progressed through our peace lessons this year we have expanded our awareness of the four aspects of a person; body, mind, emotions and spirit.  The largest circle represents body, followed by mind, then emotions and in the center is the yellow, spirit circle.

As an extension of learning about the body, Ms. Melissa spent time recently talking about the spinal cord and its very important function of connecting commands sent to the mind, and executing the command through the body.  She played the game of “Simon Says” with the children and they got to experience the sensation of really listening to the instructions, or not, and feeling the disconnect when they realized they had moved with out the “Simon Says” directive.

We explored the five senses this week and the children were quickly able to isolate which of their five senses they had used to match color tablets, identify sounds with their eyes closed, smell the difference between an orange and a piece of chocolate, and watch Ms. Melissa grade (put in order) the wooden cylinders with her eyes closed using only her sense of touch to guide her.

 These lessons help the children identify aspects of themselves that they have in common with each other and it gives them labels that help them communicate more clearly with each other.

Sometimes, when a child is having a hard time emotionally, it simply is a matter of helping them identify their emotions, such as “were you mad about that?”  You can see the tension drain from them as they know that they have been heard and they are more willing to soften their stance and work through the disagreement.

Every peace lesson is closed with “Making Silence”, a centering exercise that is as simple as it is profound.  We encourage you to ask your child about it and if you want, let them lead you through it.  Here are the words:

I cross my legs,

I place my hands on my knees,

I make my back very straight,

I tell my body to be still,

I tell my mouth to be quiet,

I take a deep breath,

I close my eyes,

I make silence and feel my love

Thanks to all the parents who helped us on our field trip to see “The Little Mermaid” performance at Green Valley High School.

REMINDERS:

Saturday, 1/31:  Middle school community service fundraiser – parking lot sale at FMS.

Tuesday, 2/3:  Shark Reef field trip is scheduled for all P1 students. Please dress your child in the blue, Foothills Montessori School tee shirt.

Wednesday, 2/4:  Kindergarten enrollment information night at 5pm. For parents of students entering the kindergarten program for the 2015-2016 school year.

Tuesday, 2/10:  P1 Kindergarten field trip to Estes McDoniel Marine Lab.

Thursday, 2/12 Valentine celebration in P1.

 Friday, 2/13:  No school, teacher in service.

Monday, 2/16:  No school in celebration of President’s Day

Friday, 2/20:  PTO Family Dance

Thursday,: 2/26:  Parent-Child Night.  Families with the last name starting with A-L are invited to be here from 4:30-5:15 and families with a last name starting M-Z are invited to be here from 5:30:6:15. Join us with your child as they show you their favorite Montessori works.

A great big thanks to Ava and Noah and their families for providing delicious snacks and beautiful flowers for our classroom.

Happy new year!  Settling back into our school routine after our recent winter break, came easily to our students as they were reminded of the four simple rules governing our classroom: “show respect for the environment, the jobs, ourselves and to practice being kind to each other.”

Eager to try the myriad of new jobs placed on the shelves; the children moved quietly around the room taking jobs off the shelves, digging into the use of the materials and then returning the work to their proper places.

The hush of the room confirmed the level of engagement in our classroom, allowing many opportunities for the teachers to quietly observe the focused activities of the students.

 In the Montessori classroom quiet, focused attention is achieved when each of the students has reached a true level of independence and are able to move from one completed task to another.

 A “normalized” classroom is a  term used to describe the collective feeling that the classroom as  a whole is working. Materials are being used with intent and purpose, interactions between students are easy and communal and there is a flow of activity that is clearly productive.

When a visitor steps into a normalized Montessori classroom, there is a tangible impression that the children are content in their roles as learners and that the teachers are actually there to guide the process.

 Even when the children have differences among themselves, a teacher can influence the resolution process, but the real work of settling disputes rests with the children.

In a normalized room the students have the tools and the desire to engage peacefully. The overall atmosphere in the room is conducive for deeper learning as the children experience a quiet of mind and an openness to the depth of learning available to them.

We are studying the solar system and constellations this month and encourage you to spend a little time with your child looking at the night sky, observing the moon and even experiencing a full sunset with them.

Small moments like these can leave a lasting impression upon your child, igniting a passion for learning about the natural world around them.

REMINDERS

We are pleased to announce a uniquely Montessori parenting education opportunity you won’t want to miss.  Mark your calendar for a visit to FMS on Thursday, January 29th at 5:30p.m. for a speaking engagement by Betsy Holke.

“Betsy Hoke is a Master Trainer for the Gurian Institute and an Education Consultant working with private, public and charter schools across the country and abroad.  A Colorado teacher and administrator for 39 years, she joined the Gurian Institute’s training staff in 2006. After graduating from DePauw University in English and Secondary Education, she completed her Montessori early childhood teaching certification in London, England.

As the Head of School at Montessori School of Evergreen for 29 years, she expanded the program from a small preschool to a school of 300 students ages 2 through middle school while continuing to teach for many years at the preschool/kindergarten level. She is currently an instructor at Montessori Education Center of the Rockies, teaching Montessori Philosophy and Classroom Leadership to future Montessori teachers at the early childhood level. “

No school on Monday, January 19th in celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

The Primary classes went on a “global safari” this week, with our enthusiastic guide, as she brought rescued animals to the multi-purpose room and we traveled through six of the seven continents looking at animals indigenous to those locations.

The “milk snake” hails from North America and got its name from the dairy farmers who would often find this type of snake trying to help themselves to milk fresh from the cows.  We saw a red-headed parrot from Europe whose green-headed mate does all the food gathering for her, allowing this beauty to spend most of her time sitting on her eggs in their nest.

A lizard (has eyelids, allowing them to blink) who looked very much like a snake, came from Australia and when in danger, will drop its very long tail and throw the hunter off its trail. We saw a tortoise from Africa who only eats at sunrise and sunset and a “side neck” water turtle from Asia whose neck can bend to the side when he feels like he is in danger.

Our safari glided to a sweet stop with an adorable chinchilla from South America, who was placid enough to endure gentle pats on the back from four classes of primary aged children..

A hearty thanks to Paxton and Saagar and their families for providing delicious snacks  for our classroom.

Sensorial is an area of the Primary classroom that is uniquely “Montessori.” Many of the jobs hearken directly back to Dr. Montessori when she set up her original classroom for the benefit of the young, unattended children in the housing projects of Rome in the early 1900’s.  Dr. Montessori could see the advantage of having the children develop and refine their five senses.

She also understood that if a child was presented with materials where they could check their work themselves, and know visually that the job was done correctly or incorrectly due to the precise way the materials were used, then their level of independence and self-confidence would increase.  Dr. Montessori referred to this concept as the “control of error’’ and it has great significance throughout the classroom, and especially in the sensorial area.

As the child begins to explore the sensorial works, one of the first jobs introduced is called the pink tower. “The pink tower has ten pink cubes of different sizes, from 1 centimeter up to 10 cm in increments of 1 cm. The work is designed to provide the child with a concept of small and big.” The child starts with the largest cube and puts the second-largest cube on top of it. This continues until all ten cubes are stacked on top of each other. The control of error is visual. The child sees the cubes are in the wrong order and the tower becomes unstable if a larger cube is placed on top of a smaller cube.

Many of the sensorial materials are made with 10 components so that the students get used to counting 1-10 quite naturally.

For instance, the brown stairs is made up of 10 sets of wooden prisms and introduces the concept of thin to thick. “Each stair is 20 cm in length and varies in thickness from 1 to 10 cm. When put together from thickest to thinnest, they make an even staircase.”

After the initial pink tower and brown stair lessons are mastered, both materials can be used together forming interesting combinations.

Another set of ten pieces is the red rods.  “The red rods are rods of equal diameter, varying only in length. The smallest is 10 cm long and the largest is one meter long. Each rod is 1 square inch thick. By holding the ends of the rods with two hands, the material is designed to give the child a sense of short and long.”

Many other works make up the sensorial area of the classroom.

Triangle box

Once the basic sensorial lessons are mastered, numerous extensions can be practiced with each of the materials.  Often sensorial materials will engage the interest of the child for long periods of time because the materials are concrete and the “control of error” is so immediate.

There are also many math and language applications using the sensorial materials, such as labeling the materials, or taking a moment to count the quantity of materials used in a particular job.  Sensorial is part of the classroom that uses all five senses and draws directly from the wisdom of Dr. Montessori in a concrete, useful and vivid way.

Reminders:

Chinese Group Assembly on December 15th.

All are invited to our Winter Performance!  Mark you calendars for next TUESDAY (12/16) at 9:30am in the Multi Purpose Room.  SEE YOU ALL THERE!!

Half day dismissal on Friday (12/19).  Pick up is by 11:15am.  Enjoy your WINTER BREAK!!  School resumes on Tuesday (1/6).

Please remember to exchange your child’s change of clothing to match the colder weather and label all of their clothes with their name.  Thanks for your assistance.

A great big “thank you” to Cooper and William and their families for providing delicious snacks and beautiful flowers for our classroom.

Now that the colder weather is upon us and you are sending your child to school with jackets, hats and sweaters, please remember to write their name on the label.

Also, putting on a jacket can be one of those milestones that helps your child feel independent.  There are a couple of tips to follow when you are teaching your child to put on their own jacket.

First, make sure they have pulled the sleeves out of the jacket and that both sleeves are ready for their arms to go through.  If the jacket has a hood, encourage your child to put the hood on, thus making it clear where their arms go in putting on the jacket.

If there is no hood, show them where the tag is in the back of the jacket and show them how to lay the sweater on their shoulders (with the tag in back).  Help them start the zipper if need be, then let them zip it up.  The more often your child practices putting on their own jackets, the better they will be at doing it all by themselves.

Please be reminded that now would be a good time to refresh your child’s extra change of clothes and trade out the shorts and lightweight tops for sweat pants and long sleeved clothes.

As we approach our Thanksgiving holiday, we acknowledge all the wonderful gifts of life that we share, including good health, abundant food, strong friendships and the bounty of being in caring families.  May we cherish the time we spend together over this holiday.

“offering a pickle slice”

A big thanks to all of the families that donated jackets, sweaters and blankets for the homeless children in our community.  Every act of kindness brings more light to our world and offers hope and love to people in need.

Spanish bingo.

The shrill squawk of the juvenile Macaw bird greeted the Primary students this morning as they entered the world of the Rain Forest Animals.  The Macaw’s beak is so strong, that it could snap a broom handle in half with one bite.  We also learned that a Macaw also has a bone in its tongue, making it function much like a human finger.

A Golden Banded Tarantula was quietly walked around the room on the arm of our very own Ms. Val!  Possessing no teeth, the Tarantula uses its fangs to stun its “food” and then sucks out the edible portions of its prey.  The Tarantula defends itself by shooting invisible hairs off its body into the victim’s mouth and eyes.

The Blue Skink showed us his blue tongue which it uses to smell things with.  It is one of the few animals on Earth to have green blood.  Apparently the taste of this green blood carries a sour taste, making it  less appealing to eat.

The Green Iguana has a marking near the top of its head that looks like a third eye, making it more threatening looking to would be predators flying above it. Ms. Dianna, makes holding a Green Iguana look easy!

The Boa Constrictor snakes were heavy to hold, cool to the touch and a great reminder that the animal world is full of amazing and powerful creatures.

.Reminders:

Half day dismissal at 11:15 on Wednesday 11/26.  No school on Thursday or Friday 11/27 and 11/28 in celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday.

“Frozen the Musical” performance on Tuesday, 12/16 at 9:30 in the Multi Purpose Room.

In December, there is a half day dismissal at 11:15 on Friday 12/19.  Winter break runs through 1/5/15.  School resumes on Tuesday, 1/6/15.

A big thanks to Suki and Addie Z. and their families for providing delicious snacks and beautiful flowers for our classroom.

pin punched continent map