We can’t believe the school year is over! We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for an amazing year. No, it wasn’t easy by all means. The pandemic has caused a lot of frustration due to quarantines, numerous COVID tests, and classroom closures. However, at the end of the day, we are so thankful to be able to teach your children in person. Despite all the hurdles, the most important thing was your children smiling and laughing through it all here at school, and experiencing the year as “normal” as they can! Thank you again for your patience and cooperation during this crazy year!
May was such a fun month! We learned all about insects, and even hatched our own butterflies in the classroom!
Caterpillars grow fast! It did not take long for them to spin themselves into their chrysalisOnce they emerged we released them into the garden!
The children enjoyed learning about Africa, as the animals are truly fascinating. Their favorite part was learning how to play Mancala, a traditional African game. We also did an in depth study on bees, and learned so many insect songs as well!
African Animal matching workInsect puzzles were a favorite!Insects incorporated into our Practical Life work
Field Day has always been the most exciting day for the children. Thank you so much to Coach Bob for all his hard work setting up the obstacle courses, races, and pools! It was a morning of water fun and popsicles!
Please note that Friday, May 21st, is the last day of school! If you are considering summer camp, please click on this link to check out our summer camp schedule:
Whether you will be spending the summer in a villa in the Maldives, staying in town, or joining us for camp, we thank you again for a wonderful year and wish you a safe, restful, and enjoyable holiday!
First and foremost, we would like to thank you for you generous donations for our service project for the Lullaby Connection. Ms. Melissa, our grade level head, had to make two trips to deliver the goods as we were overwhelmed by the amount of diapers, wipes, and baby clothes! Thank you so much! Please check your emails for photos of your donations being delivered to those in need.
Can you believe we have less than a month of school left! We have had a wonderful month learning about Birds and South America! We had an in-depth study on bird eggs, and were pretty amazed on how much there was to your everyday egg! Have you even heard of the chalazae (ka-lay-zuh)? That’s the white string that holds the yolk in place in the center to keep it from bumping into the shell! We learn something new everyday!
Looking up close at the albumen, yolk, chalazae, and inner and outer membranesSee that string? The chalazae holds the yolk in the center of the egg
The children also loved learning all about the animals of the Amazon Rainforest, and we even had fun activities on the 4 different layers and the living things found in each one. We have also been working a lot on continent puzzle maps. It is such a fun way to learn about the different countries!
Our kindergarten students have been focusing a lot on place value to prepare them for first grade, and many have started 4-digit operations using the golden bead material and the stamp game. All students have been working hard on their sounds and reading as well!
Important Dates:
Friday, 5/14: Field Day 10:00am-11:00am
Wednesday. 5/19: Kindergarten Moving Up Ceremony 1:00 pm
Friday, 5/21: Last day of school!
May Studies:
Insects
Invertebrates
Africa (People, Plants, Animals)
We look forward to an amazing remainder of the year!
Many of you are familiar with Montessori’s 3 year cycle. However, many still wonder why our classrooms are combined within a 3 year age group. Did you know Montessori starts at 0-3? This is the Infant/Toddler program, which is not offered here at FMS. Your children, however, are in the next group up, which is the Early Childhood or Primary Class, which is also known as the 3-6 classroom.
The easiest explanation for this is that children in their specific multi-age classroom are all in a similar plane of development, yet they all still demonstrate distinct individual experiences, preferences, social roles, and learning, and the the interaction hits multiple points of their own growth. They allow the children to learn at their own pace and to learn from each other.
When your child starts as a pre-schooler, maybe 3 or close to that, they are given an introduction to all things. The focus for a pre-school student is to acclimate to their learning environment, find their place amongst their peers, work on grace and courtesy, and most importantly, gain confidence and independence.
During their Pre-K year, they are now familiar with classroom rules and behavior expectations. They have gained some confidence but are not quite ready to be a class leader. This is the time where we focus on repetition and practice of lessons in all academic areas of the classroom. Our goal for them is to be self-directed in the classroom, moving from one work to another during their independent work cycle.
The third year is their Kindergarten year. This is the year we want them to gain mastery of all the skills practiced during their pre-school and pre-kindergarten year. We challenge them with more advanced work, practice time management skills to complete their academic goals for the day, and we help them with leadership and conflict resolution skills. While we often want to rush mastery, the Montessori three year cycle allows the children to develop at their own pace, ensuring that it is authentic and truly internalized.
We hope this gives you a clearer picture of why our classrooms are structured this way, as well as the main goal for each primary year.
We just finished our studies on Asia and reptiles, and have begun learning about the continent of South America, birds, and the environment. Ms. Jo talked about the Philippines and all its beautiful islands, as well as her hometown, the crazy city of Manila. The children learned how to dance the “tinikling”, a traditional dance using two bamboo sticks.
Look at that height! Don’t get your feet caught!
Here are your children working hard this month!
Phonetic spelling with objects and the moveable alphabetPhonetic spelling with objects and the moveable alphabetLearning phonetic sounds with sandpaper lettersAddition with gems up to 20Teaching place value (Thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones) using the golden bead material. We were playing the gathering game!4-Digit addition with the golden bead materialWorking on teen numbers 11-19Practicing her teen writingSorting recycle materialsMatching up the animals of South AmericaAsian animal bingo!South American animals bingo!
April Studies:
Birds and rainforests
Environmental Awareness, recycling, and care of the earth
South America: People, plants, and animals
Parts of the flower
Important Dates:
Monday, 4/12: Service Project begins for the Lullaby Connection
Friday, 4/23: Service Project finished
Spirit Days:
Friday, 4/16: Holiday Day! Dress as your favorite holiday
Friday, 4/23: 50s/60s day! Flower Power! Dress far-out like they did over 60 years ago
We have concluded our studies on Oceans, Fish, and Australia. Each of your children loved contributing to our ocean wall, and they learned quite a but on coral reefs last month!
We extensively talked about how fish are different from mammals, and learned about their special organs. They were most fascinated about the fish that dwell in the deepest parts of the ocean, with their special features such as built in lures and lights!
Parts of a Fish with 3 Part Cards and the fish puzzleThis puzzle to a long time! So many pieces! But they were so proud!
Australia was an amazing continent to study with their unique wildlife! Not only did we learn all about marsupials and the Outback, we also learned that the biggest rock, Uluru, can be found in the Australian Bush. The children were able to study aboriginal writing, and work on the Australia puzzle map, learning about the different territories.
Australia puzzle map
As the children continue to practice phonetic sounds, reading, counting, and math operations, we have also started large group lessons on time, money, measurement, odd and even, and very simple fractions. The Kindergarten students are also practicing place value regularly with the decimal layout, a very concrete material that teaches them units, tens, hundreds, and thousands. They have also been practicing nouns by labeling items in the classroom!
Odd and EvenLearning place value with the Bank Game using our golden bead materialAdding with the Addition Strip BoardThe Hexagon Box is an introduction to geometryMetal Inset to develop the pincer grip for writingAddition with the colored beads
We are only halfway through March so we are excited to learn more about Asia. Ms. Jo is excited to teach the children about the Philippines and its 7000+ islands! We have also read about Japan and China. Your children may have come home talking about the Giant Pandas!
Thank you so much for attending parent-teacher conferences. It is so important to keep an open line of communication between teachers and parents. Being on the same page is extremely beneficial for the children!
“The greatest gifts we can give our children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.”
Happy February! It’s been an exciting time in P3 during the last two weeks! We welcomed many new friends, and they truly have adjusted beautifully and acclimated well to our classroom. Because of our new additions, we have been practicing basic Grace and Courtesy skills, allowing our older children to model how we raise quiet hands, use walking feet, help clean up, how to use our work mats, and how to put things away. We have also focused on mindfulness during our large group lessons, talking about kindness and making good choices. The children may have come home talking about being “bucket fillers” or “bucket dippers”. We talk about how everybody in the world carries an invisible bucket, and every time we do an act of kindness, we fill people’s buckets. But when me make difficult choices, we dip from people’s buckets, and no one wants to be a bucket dipper!
We have begun our ocean studies and the children love to learn and sing about the different kinds of animals in the ocean. We are learning about the 5 oceans, and also begun our study on the continent of Australia.
Ocean life labelingOcean life labeling
We have also begun our ocean mural, where all the children take part in painting parts of a coral reef. Can’t wait to post it in the next blog! In the meantime, here are the children working hard on puzzle maps, math, and sounds!
Phonetic spelling with the reading boxAddition with the colored bead stairmetal insets to strengthen the pincer grip for writingLearning the territories of AustraliaNorth America puzzle mapBeginning 4 digit addition with the golden bead material
We also enjoyed a sweet Valentines Day celebration in class, decorating cookies, doing crafts, and playing some Valentine Bingo! Your children were so incredibly cute in their pajamas! We are also amazed with the huge amount of online valentine grams delivered to our classroom! Thank you so much,the children were so excited!
Please take note of the following important dates:
Monday, 2/15: President’s Day NO SCHOOL
Thursday, 2/18: General PTO meeting
Please keep an eye out for our spring conference sign up sheets, we will be sending them out soon! We can’t believe it’s that time already!
Enjoy the long weekend, have a great Valentines Day, and Happy Chinese New Year!!
