As my last post mentioned, we start off the school year slowly...learning the routines & procedures are key to a successful year! Doing this with 20 3, 4 & 5 year-olds can prove challenging at times but it is also a beautiful thing to see it all come together. In order to acclimate all the students to the classroom work environment, we typically have the older preK & K students (most of who are returning students) work in the classroom with me for the first few weeks. We review our work habits & expectations for working as well as going over old & new lessons. During this time, our new preschool students are typically working in a contained environment out in the hallway with Mrs. Mikhail. Everyone did great during this introduction/review time & this week, we finally combined everyone into one happy, classroom family! Here are some photos of the great work that took place when we did: (click on the photos to enlarge) Each morning we start off with our morning meeting. This is a time for us to do the calendar while exploring math, literacy, science & social studies standards. We spell the name of the month, sing about the days of the week & talk about yesterday, today & tomorrow. We count the days, check our pattern on the number cards and graph the weather. After the calendar, we begin our morning message. This always begins with completing the following sentences: Today is (day), (month) (date) (year). It is (weather). We explore various language standards by filling in the missing sounds, writing in sight words & putting periods in the right places. After this part of the morning message, there is always another activity. Sometimes it is related to a theme. Sometimes it is a math/language activity. For the the last few weeks, we've been focusing on our sounds. Each morning, we sorted pictures by their intial sound. Here are some examples: Another time we take advantage of is during dismissal. We often spend this time using online resources to incorporate our learning standards. This week, we've also been exploring graphing in order to learn more about ourselves. We graphed our eye color, hair color, if we have brothers/sisters/etc, and how many letters are in our name. Check out our graphs below: Hope you've enjoyed this little peek into our days! Check back soon for more!
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Well, we're back to school and everyone is getting into the groove! We've had a great start to the year and I'm so excited about our class this year. We have a lot of new friends this year (12 out of 20 are new to our class!) but everyone is adjusting well. The first couple of weeks of school can be tiring for all--kids and teachers alike! It is a tricky blend of entertaining these little people while helping them learn all of the classroom routines, procedures and rules. At times it may seem a tiny bit boring to the kids as we can't really "let them go" in the classroom until they truly understand the expectations. This is particularly important in a multiage classroom. Since our materials cover a wide range of abilities, it is extremely important that they children understand the expectations for behavior, work habits, etc. before we are able to have our uninterrupted work cycle. One way we accomplish this "orientation" to the Montessori environment is by slowly introduce the grace & courtesy lessons as well as the materials while having our new, youngest students in a more controlled environment (which happens to be the hallway outside our classroom door). In this way, they are able to work with a limited choice of materials while learning the expectations and work habits before they are able to work freely in the full classroom. Here are some examples of the kids working in the hallway: Look at those happy faces of students engaged in their work! Our PK & K students have been having a little "Montessori Boot Camp" where we review lessons from various areas of the classroom/curriculum each day before we have an abbreviated work cycle I take the time to really remind them of our work habits/expectations while they are working--pushing in chairs, not yelling across the room, choosing work you've had a lesson on, completing your work & returning it to the shelf appropriately. Here's a peek at these students at work: I hope you've enjoyed this little peek into our day! I will be updating this blog with photos & information, so please check back often. I'll close this post with a slideshow of some portraits from the first week of school. The first few weeks of school can be such a whirlwind! New students are joining our community; old friends return. There is a lot of adjusting that needs to be done before the classroom can run smoothly. As a result we spend much of the first weeks (and even months!) reviewing procedures, expectations and rules. Returning students need reminders about how we are expected to behave at school and what procedures we follow. Our newest, youngest children have so many new procedures & rules to learn! Consequently, repetition is key to making sure these behaviors and expectations become second nature. In the Montessori classroom, you will often hear people talk about "Grace & Courtesy" lessons. These lessons refer to the way we teach children these behaviors/procedures as well as other common expectations for good manners & behavior. Often as adults, we forget that we before we can expect children to know how to act properly, we must teach them. These grace & courtesy lessons include how to greet someone, how to push in a chair, rolling a rug, walking around other students' work, how to interrupt, etc. We introduce these lessons and practice them often through role playing as well as when the opportunity arises within the school day. I would encourage you to incorporate this practice at home as well. One of the most important lessons we practice is how to wait/interrupt appropriately. In the classroom, we encourage students to either place their hand on the teacher's shoulder and wait quietly or simply stand and wait quietly next to the teacher. We often discuss how calling across the classroom or interrupting a teacher who is engaged in a conversation/lesson with another student is disruptive to other student's learning. You can put this into practice at home, too, by expecting your child to wait QUIETLY when you are talking with someone else or on the phone. Each day begins with our morning meeting. After the pledge/announcements, we explore our calendar. During this time students learn to spell the names of the months, count the number of days, explore the pattern on the calendar and learn concepts such as yesterday, today & tomorrow. We graph the day's weather which allows us to discuss the graph results--which has more/less, etc. After the calendar, we complete our Morning Message. The morning message has a variety of purposes--students are able to learn the conventions of writing such as capital letters at the beginning of a sentence and punctuation. Students practice writing by helping to fill in missing sight words or letters. Part of the morning message always highlights a specific skill/standard. Sometimes it's a math/language skill such as word problems or identifying rhyming words. Other times it focuses on a theme or science/social studies topic. Often our morning meeting is also accompanied by a story, song or new Montessori lesson. Below are some examples of our Morning Messages from the last week or so: I will leave today's post with some photos of the work we've been doing this week. I am always excited and encouraged by the eagerness the students bring to school at the beginning of the year. They are so excited about these new learning opportunities! I will post again soon--this week, we will be learning about the Five Senses! Well, we made it through the first week of school! And, all in all, I think it was a success! We are so glad to have so many familiar faces returning and we are just as excited to meet our newest friends. Mrs. Mikhail and I have been working hard to get everything ready for the students' arrival. It's hard to believe that just a couple of weeks ago, everything in the classroom was packed up and all of the furniture was piled up in the corner. Slowly but surely, we returned the room the environment your children are familiar with. A few notes:
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