Our Third Week

Our third week of school has gotten off to a great start!  The children are adjusting to the new routines very well, and each morning we have had a peaceful and fairly long work period.

RM has continued her work with the MA.  She began work with puzzle words last week and two word phrases.  On Monday I gave her a lesson with sentences using CVC words and puzzle words.  Here she is hard at work:

 

The younger students are very comfortable with the “transitional” type works and select them first each day.  They have been walking carefully and holding the trays and containers in the manner that we presented.  I noticed today that many of the children are not pushing in their chairs when leaving the table.  We will need to emphasize this in our presentations more this week, or have another lesson just for sitting in a chair at the table.

 

On Tuesday we did our first craft type project for Rosh Hashanah.  We made plates to hold our apples that will be dipped in honey for a sweet new year.  The children worked in pairs and were given a plate coated with mod podge (glue).  They selected tissue paper squares to creat their own design.  When finished a second clear plate was placed on top sealing their design inside.

On Wednesday I gave CN a lesson on how to build a tower with the knobless cylinders.  He was very interested with this material last week and spent a quite a bit of time placing them in order.  He was enthusiastic about seeing another way to work with the material and he concentrated for a long time in order to complete the tower:

 

Today I gave a group lesson with the land, air, water materials and sorting cards.  Here, NM has selected the work on her own and is correctly placing the cards in the proper categories:

Suffie the Rabbit

Today we introduced the children to caring for our classroom rabbit while outside.  On warm days, we are able to put Suffie in a special harness and take him for walks in our play yard.  Today’s lesson was observing Suffie, and petting him softly from head to tail.  Here, two girls are showing their understanding of the lesson by gently stroking Suffie.  As the children become more comfortable and capable with Suffie, they will be able to hold his leash while he hops around the yard.

Adjusting

One of our youngest students, YMB, is in school for the first time.  He is just over two and a half and he is working hard to adjust.  Mom and I decided that half days will be bet for the first few weeks until he is feeling more confident in the classroom.  Today he chose the knobbed cylinder puzzle all by himself and worked with it for a little while on his own.  This was a big step since the first day of school.  Here he is putting it away:

 

It was a beautiful day today so we spent most of the afternoon in our play yard learning how to use all of the different pieces of equipment:

Our Second Day!

Today was our second day of school and the children were full of excitement.  Our holiday of Rosh Hashanah is coming up at the end of the month and most of our works in the classroom reflect the themes of apples and honey.  Our class of twelve children are all new to Montessori and to mixed age setting with the exception of one student.  In addition, the majority of the children are under four years of age.  For this reason, we have decide to begin the first few weeks of class together at the line to present lots of grace and courtesy lessons.  Here is NM practicing rolling her rug after today’s rug rolling lesson:

At line today we introduced the shofar (ram’s horn) which is blown in synagogue during the Rosh Hashanah services.  The children took turns trying to blow the shofar (we sanitized it between uses):

Today I gave YMG the pink tower lesson and he worked with the cubes on his own:

YS was very interested in numbers yesterday and today, and was able to point out the numbers from 1-10.  I gave him a numbers and counters lesson with an apple theme:

RM is my only returning student.  She attended the school I taught at last year (which is not a Montessori school) and her parents wanted her to have one more year in this classroom setting before moving on to a traditional classroom – so she joined me for another year!  I was worried she would have forgotten much of her letter work over the summer, but she went right to the shelves today and started build CVC words all on her own!

I felt that our second day was very positive and even though almost everyone is new to Montessori, we had a peaceful and productive day!  Here are a few of the kids busy working:

Second Orientation Day!

Today was our second orientation visit. Some families took advantage of a second visit with their child, which I am hoping will provide extra comfort for them on the first day of school. The classroom really feels good and parents have continued to comment. The trees right outside the windows add just a beautiful touch. One mother said, "I feel like I am in a spa!"


Here is YM exploring a shape puzzle on his second visit:





















YM really started to relax. I started him off on a counting work, then slowly moved back and let Dad take over. YM really perked up and they finished it happily!















PJ really enjoyed the magnet work. He chose it on Tuesday, and went right back for it today.