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Classroom Review

 Hemlock class:

The children are enjoying themselves and are coming into their own. Putting on indoor shoes and getting snack whenever they are in the mood to sit with a special friend has become second nature by now. New friendships are blossoming and harder works are tackled!

What a busy month this has become! We started our Unit for the year –Transportation-.

The children are very excited to learn all about early forms of transport and how they have evolved over time into what we use today. There are lots of examples all around our room to look at, to match, to sort, to count, to categorize, to read about and to inspect for individual parts. We included our theme into our Practical Life area, art projects and even our necklaces will be adorned by vehicle cutouts! We will enjoy talking about forms of transportation for the coming weeks and hopefully start lots of conversations on the subject. The reading corner is stacked and songs are plentiful around the subject.

Thank you all who came for guest night and took time out to accompany your child to see how she/he fills his/her day. We enjoyed meeting so many of you! Sorry, that we can only have one visitor per child as our space is limited!

Our nature walks have been a wonderful experience despite the cold and rainy weather. The last few times children have been able to measure all kinds of items in nature and enjoyed the practice with tape measures (Thank you Ms. Ekstrom for supplying them!)

Valentine’s Day was much anticipated by the children so they could bring home their lovely Valentines cards for their families. Handing out one’s Valentines is always a big deal and taking home a filled bag makes for a special treat. Speaking of treats, our class snack on the 14th was a frozen heart treat, a heart sandwich and a yogurt covered pretzel (Thank you, Mrs. Managuli!).

Please make sure to sign up for our conferences on March 1st. It is a signup genius under Mrs. Managuli. (We are trying a new signup platform to avoid confusion.)

Buckeye Classroom:

We want to thank all of you who came to our guest night, and we hope you enjoyed seeing some of your child’s favorite works on the shelves! February was a busy and fun month in the Buckeye classroom, and a lot of celebrating was done: Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, and Carnival (Mardi Gras). The children learned about the meaning of these celebrations and were able to fine-tune their art skills by creating a variety of arts and crafts.

We want to thank Liyao, Levy’s mom, for sharing stories and information on Lunar New Year during our circle time. The children are very excited when a special guest comes to visit! We encourage all parents (and grandparents) to share any special gifts, talents, or information they have with our classroom!

Valentine’s Day was a highlight for the children, and they had fun making cards and decorating their own Valentine bag to hold cards from their classmates. Distributing the cards into the bags of each child is something the kids always look forward to. Together they also enjoyed a special Valentine’s snack that day.

The children learned about the history of the heart shape, and we discussed friendship and love. Next up was Carnival – a joyous festival of merrymaking that is celebrated world-wide in more than 50 countries. It is pre-dominantly a Roman Catholic festival, the last “hurrah” before the beginning of the season of lent (a period of fasting and reflection) which ends on Easter. Ms. Ross showed pictures of popular Carnival destinations around the world: the famous carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans, elaborate costumes and masks in Venice, Italy, and of her home town in Maastricht, the Netherlands. People dress up in colorful costumes, participate in parades, and decorate floats. There is music everywhere, and people dance and sing in the streets, young and old alike.

On top of all this fun, the children learned about vertebrate and invertebrate animals, and received an introduction to science. We discussed what science is and what scientists do. February was also “Black History Month”, and we highlighted a few of the many black Americans who have made incredible contributions to our country.

We are looking forward to seeing you during conferences on March 1st. The children have grown so much these past couple of months, and we are excited to share their progress with you!

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Classroom Review

Hemlock Class

We welcome all of you in the new year. January is the month of transition, the reflection of the past and looking forward to the future. We were happy to see the children get back into their routine. We could see their excitement to go to the classroom and to be with one another. It motivates the teachers too.

We started our new year with a peace curriculum. Montessori peace education teaches children to be peaceful, positive members of a thriving society. Peace education is not a separate subject, but a process of learning values, knowledge, skills, and attitude to live in harmony with oneself, with others, and with the natural environment.  We learnt how to calm our bodies and feel the love within us. We learnt our Outer self, Middle self and Inner self using a Matryshka Doll. It is achieved through self-awareness with circles, mind in a jar, lungs and spinal cord awareness, hidden values, peace bottles with the science experiments, recognizing our emotions, grace and courtesy lessons, concentration, normalization, freedom within limits, the core principles of Montessori classroom. We talked about Martin Luther King Jr Day, how we can achieve peace in the world by giving everyone equal rights.

Then we moved to our planet Earth. We learned the position of Earth in Space and how it supports life on it. So, it is our job to protect our planet. We looked at the sandpaper globe to recognize land and water. With a colored globe, we learned the continents and how to divide the globe into two half haves, eastern and western hemispheres to make it easier for us to learn.

We learned why we named the first month as January and important landforms of the Earth too, how they are opposite to each other. Children were excited to learn and identify the landforms in our map. They were happy to make landform books.

We celebrated Asher (3), Leo (4), and Sienne (4) ‘s birthdays. Happy Birthday to our dear children. Since we are in winter and also the weather keeps on changing, we request to provide appropriate clothes, socks and shoes. Thanks to the parents who showed up on kindergarten night. We were excited to share our values and work with you.

Buckeye Class

Happy new year! The month of January is when we bring out a few more advanced practical life materials. This includes bubble mixing, hand washing, color mixing and food preparation. Each of these materials requires many steps to be completed in a specific order. For example, with hand washing, the children will fill a pitcher with water, pour it into a bowl, wet their hands, rub bar soap on their hands, scrub, use a nail brush to scrub their nails, rinse, dry, pour out dirty water, dry their work space, apply lotion to their hands and finally put the material back on the shelf. This helps children develop a sense of order, concentration, coordination, and independence. It provides a structured routine that enhances fine motor skills, promotes hygiene awareness, and fosters a sense of responsibility.

We had a conversation about the new year and the idea of setting personal goals for ourselves. Additionally, we read a book discussing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and his impactful contributions to the world.

The Arctic has been our main focus of study this month. This includes polar bears, hibernation, penguins, the Arctic Circe, and Antarctica. We will also learn about the layers of the earth and land and water forms.

Please remember to dress your child appropriately for the weather as we spend lots of time outside. During these cold months, you might want to pack mittens, hats, scarves, and warm shoes to for your child.

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Classroom Review

Hemlock Class

December is the fun time of the year and with so many different festivals celebrated around the world the children had fun learning about each festival. We started by putting up our Christmas tree and the lights on it in our classroom. We talked about Hanukkah and its Tradition. Children enjoyed seeing a menorah being lit and had fun playing the dreidel game. We moved on to talk about Kwanza and the principles that are followed during Kwanza. They got to practice setting up a Kwanza setting as work on the shelf.

Mrs. Dykstra talked to children about St. Nicolaus and its tradition and how they celebrate St. Nicolaus in Germany. She talked about the Advent wreath and calendar too. we also got to put up an advent calendar in the class, where the calendar leader got to put a magnet ornament on it to count down the days to Christmas. Children got to taste some yummy Lebkuchen (German Cookies).

The children learned about the traditional story of Christmas and baby Jesus.  They got to see the Nativity set. We talked about how Christmas is celebrated around the World.

To go along with the holiday spirit, the children have enjoyed singing carols, especially Rudolf, Frosty, and Twelve Days of Christmas.

 With the Christmas tree up the children enjoyed making different ornaments for the tree and they enjoyed making their special gift for their parents.

We had our book exchange and it was fun to be able to take home a new book to enjoy over the holidays.

The most fun part was they enjoyed the small treat we had for the class party, it was a snowman made of bananas and raspberry, Rudolf made of pretzels and some pears.

The children seem very excited for this time of the year for time off with family and to celebrate the festive season.

Happy holidays and Happy New Year.

Buckeye Class

We hope you all are enjoying this holiday season and getting to spend extra time with your loved ones.

We finished off November learning about our “peace virtues   that guide us in maintaining a peaceful classroom environment. These virtues include truth-using truthful words, personal best-practice trying your best, peace– having a calm body, friendship-what makes a friend, kind words– nice words to express feelings, and joy– happiness, the sum of it all!

It was a short and busy December here at school. In class, the children worked hard creating a card and gift for you to be surprised with. They also crafted lots of ornaments and other festive artwork.

December became the month of celebrations! By learning about the festivals of the world, we learn to appreciate and respect other cultures, traditions, and religions.

We began by visiting each of the seven continents around the globe to explore just how each continent celebrates Christmas. We found many similarities in the traditions practiced around the world including music, decorations, special foods, greeting cards, gatherings, and gifts. It was fun to see the differences also. In the Netherlands Sinterklaas arrives on a white horse, while in Australia Santa arrives on a surfboard!

In many European countries children receive a shoe filled with goodies given on Saint Nicholas Day. Each student decorated a shoe and left it out to be filled with a special surprise!

Also recognized in December, is a holiday that celebrates African heritage. Kwanzaa centers around seven principles which are a guide to help support one’s personal strength: unity, self-determination, working together/being responsible, support, purpose, creativity, and faith. Children may come home with a woven mat (“mkeka”) or a paper candle holder (“kihara”).

We discussed the Jewish holiday, Hanukkah. This eight-night celebration includes lighting the menorah, playing the dreidel game, eating special fried foods, exchanging gifts, and having parties with friends and family. The kids had fun spinning the dreidel for gold coins.

Circle time was filled with a lot of music, singing, poems and stories.

Our annual holiday book exchange was a hit! All got to take home a book of their choice that was new to them.

In school, we prepared for our holiday party by making pumpkin muffins in class. We baked them and ate them with hot cocoa and marshmallows. Watching “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” while we ate popcorn in our pajamas was a very nice and fun way to end the month.

We have our work cut out for us in January. With the change in season, the cold has crept in inviting topics like hibernation, winter, arctic animals and landscape, and Antarctica.

We are looking forward to having everybody back and hearing about their time away from school. I am sure there will be lots of stories to share!

Happy Holidays and see you next year!

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Classroom Review

Hemlock Class

Thank you all for coming to the conferences. It was truly delightful to see everyone and share the learning experiences of your children in the class.

This month, we began our lessons on the types of leaves and their parts. The children went on a nature walk, collected leaves, and learned the names of different types. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, the children also learned about different parts of a turkey, and some of them also created books about it.

We introduced several new practical life activities, and one of the favorites among the kids is grating nutmeg. They put the grated nutmeg in red envelopes and took it home for their special holiday treats.

For our Thanksgiving celebration, we delved into the Mayflower story and read books about the Pilgrims coming to America. We also learned various songs expressing thankfulness and composed a Thanksgiving poem. The children received a special snack in honor of Thanksgiving. We read the poem together and enjoyed the treat.

Thank you for your continued support, and if you have any questions please reach out to us.

Buckeye Class

The month of November started with all of us learning a bit more about the Day of the Dead (el Día de los Muertos), a Mexican holiday where families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives for a brief reunion that includes food, drink and celebration. Lucy’s dad, Mr. Erik Maez, came to our classroom during circle time and shared some of this holiday’s customs and traditions with us, as well as some delicious Pan de Muerto (sweet bread).

We talked about the meaning of Veteran’s Day, and also learned a lot about maps. We demonstrated how a model Earth made of playdough can be turned into a continent map. Some of our older children made their own map.

It was great seeing many of you during conferences and we hope you got all your questions answered. Please don’t hesitate to contact us any time with any questions or concerns you might have!

Mrs. Govindaraj from the Hemlock classroom came to talk to us about the Hindu festival of Diwali, and then we moved on to talking about thankfulness. We discussed what Thanksgiving is, and what we are thankful for. The children enjoyed writing what they are thankful for on paper leaves and attaching them to our small thankfulness tree. We read the story “Stone Soup” by Marcia Brown, after which we discussed which veggies and other items to bring to make our own Stone Soup. Thank you all for bringing in all that was needed to make a tasty soup! The Monday before Thanksgiving was partly spent by chopping a lot of veggies and making the soup. Everyone was looking forward to our feast the next day.

Throughout the month the children enjoyed several creative activities, such as marble painting, stamping, and making a house with pictures of “Who’s in your family?” We also celebrated two birthdays this month: Haley turned 4 and Dominik turned 3!

We wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving break! We can’t believe that when we come back, it’ll be only three more weeks until winter break!

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Classroom Review

Hemlock Class

Fall is officially here. There are so many fun subjects for us to explore in the classroom related to this season. The classroom works have changed and we added polishing to our Practical Life area this month. First the children learned to polish a mirror, then wood and next is silver polish. We started this month off with the study of apples. Apple art, apple puzzles, apple counting and so much more lined the classroom shelves. Parts of an apple, apple dissecting and apple tasting and the “Apple tree” song were just part of our circle activities.

Next we dove into the world of bats. The history of bats and types of bats, their foods and habitats and environments as well as the parts of a bat have been filling our classroom with a bat buzz (or we could call it echolocation).

Next we take a look at spiders. How are they different from insects? We will learn what kind of arachnids exist and which ones live around us. Do you know the “Itsy bitsy spider” song? Now you can learn it from your child. On Thursdays the Hemlock class will start to bring in either Yoga or Science experiments during our circle time. Fridays remain our “Show and Tell” days where every child can bring one object from home to present and talk about in class during circle time. Should you forget to bring something, we will make sure to ask each child to come up and share a little “Tell”. Some children are not big on sharing and that is ok as well!

The Nature Walk on Tuesday am and Thursday pm will now include new students and you will be notified on Pro Care in case your child is going. Sometimes a student is absent or does not want to go. Then a present child can fill the spot and we will not have time to let you know before the walk but since everyone is usually ready for Washington’s outside play time anyways, appropriate clothes are usually no issue. Most children have a water bottle to refresh here, too.

Alongside all these fall lessons we are getting ready for our Halloween fun day by learning the “Witches Brew” song as well as the “Five little Pumpkins sitting on a gate” song. On the day of Halloween the children can come in costumes. The two classrooms will meet on the playground to share a big circle for songs and a costume parade. Then when we are back in our individual classrooms, we will share a spooky snack and have some more class appropriate fun! It is all organized and taken care of by the teachers. It would be nice if your child wears a bathroom friendly costume. FYI our school is free of any type of guns! Please be mindful with masks, some children scare easy (it also hinders their safe outside play).

One more housekeeping item:  we conduct regular Fire and Earthquake Drills as per DSHS regulation. That means we are leaving the building asap, rain or shine and if your child does not have indoor shoes in school, they are outside in true fall fashion with very wet and dirty socks.

So please remember to refresh their extra clothes as soon as laundry comes home. Thank you!

Hopefully we will have more nice weather so the children get to enjoy our outside toys a little longer.

All the Hemlock teachers are looking forward to meeting with you for our upcoming conferences, thank you for signing up and making time in your busy schedules!

Buckeye Class

This October we introduced easel painting which has been very popular with the children. Once the children are finished with their paintings, they lay them out to dry then clean up the easel with a sponge so that it is all clean for the next child to use.

On Indigenous People’s Day we discussed how Christopher Columbus thought he had found his way to India and that is why some people call Indigenous Americans Indians, but he was wrong! He was in what we now call America, which had already been occupied by Indigenous people. We celebrate the people who were here before us.

As we settle into autumn a bit more, we learn about the parts of an apple as well as the life cycle of an apple and had an apple tasting where everyone was offered different types of apples to taste! Spiders and pumpkins have also been big topics lately. We learned about the parts of a spider and parts of a pumpkin. We dissected and carved a pumpkin at circle and had the opportunity to try pumpkin seeds.

We have been singing lots of Halloween themed songs this month. A favorite song is the five little pumpkins:

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate

the first one said oh my it’s getting late

the second one said there are bats in the air

the third one said but we don’t care

the fourth one said let’s run and run and run

the fifth one said isn’t Halloween fun?

then wooooo went the wind

and out went the lights

and the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight

During this song we have a child turn out the lights and the teacher rolls five little pumpkins to the children. This is very exciting for the everyone.

We are continuing are nature walks twice a week. Lately we have noticed many different kinds of mushrooms along the trails.

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Classroom Review

Hemlock

A warm welcome to the 2023 – 2024 Hemlock community. We hope
Everyone had a great summer with their families and we are very excited to see new and returning children. We enjoyed all of our new families during meet and greet day. It is great on our side to know about your precious ones and concerns. We are very happy to be part of their developmental years. Please let us know anything different or new happening in your child’s life. This can help us better
respond to your child’s individual needs. No piece of information is too small, anything you would like to tell us, we are here to hear. Children have all done a fabulous job in the first month by adjusting to the new environment. It is great to see children walking through the door on their own by each day. They are doing it beautifully. Our returning children help our newcomers to settle down at ease
which fulfills the envision of a multi age group.

We started our school year by learning each other’s names by welcome songs and classroom rules and why they are important. We are striving to be the kindest persons which is our first rule followed by walking feet, inside voices, respecting others’ work, and work cycle. We learnt circle rules of sitting criss-cross, hands in our lap, listening ears. We also learnt to carry a mat, tray, and chair. We celebrated World Peace Day on September 21st by lighting candles and singing peace songs with Buckeye friends. We conducted our first fire drill and discussed the safety protocols to be followed. We played finger games and songs. It was a great opportunity to meet you and explain the Montessori methodology on curriculum night.

Travis, Carlitos and Shourya celebrated their birthdays. We wish them a very happy birthday. As Montessori classrooms emphasize independence, please send age-appropriate shoes and have your child’s name in bags, dresses and water bottles. As the weather gets cooler, children may need appropriate clothes. Once
again thank you for choosing Creative Montessori and trusting us with your loved
ones. Looking forward to having a great school year.

“The education of even a small child, therefore, does not aim at preparing
him or her for school but for life.”

———–Dr. Maria Montessori.

Buckeye

September 2023
What a busy month! We hope you all are settling nicely into your own individual family routines. In class, the children are learning to put on their own coats and shoes, wash their hands, and to set-up and clean-up their own snacks/lunches. They experience such joy when they can accomplish these tasks on their own. This you can reinforce at home.

Joining our class this September, we welcomed eleven new children. This is an exciting time for our returning children who naturally and effortlessly take on more of a leadership role. We have spent time talking through our classroom rules. These focus on respecting others and their own space and maintaining a calm and peaceful classroom.  Through traditional Montessori “grace and courtesy” practices we learn to treat others with respect, kindness, and thoughtfulness.

Circle time is filled with music, singing, stories, role-playing, and show-and-tell.  We utilize the book The Peace Rose, by Alicia Olson, to illustrate a problem-solving tactic where we pass a rose for a turn to speak.

We have also talked about identifying and handling our emotions. When a child feels calm/happy, they may ask for a “love light” to be pinned to their shirt. The love light is the love that lives inside us that is bright when we are calm/happy and dim when we feel sad.
In recognition of the United Nation’s International Day of Peace, we gathered with the Hemlock class to sing “Light a Candle for Peace” in unison with other schools all around the world. This holiday has perfect timing as we prepare to learn all about our “peace virtues” in the days to come.

Our practical Life area is especially popular at the beginning of the year as children work on controlled movements, care for self and care for their environment. They are busy choosing work that is new, exciting, and challenging.

The popular nature walks in St. Edward State Park have begun! Each child will have a chance to walk every other week. This outdoor education helps to tie in nature concepts in our indoor classroom.
Birthdays are an exciting time for your child to celebrate their birth and share pictures from each year of their life during our circle. They will take home a small model of the earth including the four elements that are the foundations of life. It is impressive to see all that your children absorb in these first few weeks.

We are looking forward to what the rest of the year brings!

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Classroom Review

Hemlock Class

Can’t believe that we have come to the end of the year.

This month was all about bugs, flowers, and gardening. Our April showers brought us beautiful May flowers all around our school.

In the beginning of the month, we finished up learning about butterflies, and moved on to other insects, their importance to us and the environment, and their role in the plant world. We still have our caterpillars in our classroom and it has been a wonderful learning opportunity to witness their metamorphosis. Each morning the children come in curious to see if a butterfly has hatched. The excitement was high when this finally started happening! The children learned some interesting facts about ladybugs , ants, worms and bees.

Besides insects the children learned about the life-cycle of a bean and they planted their own bean seeds took care of them took it home. We looked in-depth at flowers some got to dissect their own flowers to see the parts of a flower.

 It has been wonderful to see the children so engaged in our spring units. They clearly enjoy learning about nature and our natural world, and they love helping out in our vegetable garden! They were happy to plant seeds and plants in our garden, water them and see them grow. They also enjoy eating the lettuce leaves. We continued the message that was emphasized in April, especially around Earth Day, that we need to take care of nature and should be kind to all creatures that we share our planet with.

Bread cutting and orange squeezing are the hits of the classroom.

They have been enjoying sing along music, movement with rhythm sticks and yoga and practicing calm breathing.

Our children have converted into beautiful butterflies and are ready to make a season finale. Thanks for all the understanding and cooperation from your side to make this beautiful journey.

Buckeye Class

What a wonderful, warm turn the weather has taken this May! With all this warm weather, we have been spending more time outside. We have opened up outside for worktime where the children may take work outside and work at the outdoor tables or on the outdoor rugs.

We also started gardening! We pulled weeds and tilled the garden in the backyard, dug up hyacinth bulbs, and planted them along the edge of the garden. We also dug up and planted some potatoes. We planted seeds in egg cartons and have been growing seeds inside. This included: sweet pea flowers, sugar snap peas, lettuce, squash, pumpkin, spinach, tomato, cucumber, basil, carrot, and asparagus. Those have now been planted in our garden. One morning was dedicated to a gardening party! Half the children were planting seedlings in the garden and half the children were working outside folding laundry, eating snack, and working with other Montessori materials.

Ladybug larva arrived for us in the mail, and we have been observing the exciting change from larva to pupa to ladybug. We have also learned about the parts of a ladybug just as well as their lifecycle.

Some exciting materials that have been introduced in May were, pouring water for friends and “tea for two”. After the children serve each other, they wash, dry, and put away their dishes at the washing station.

At circle we have learned a little bit about daffodils by dissecting them and labeling each part. This has continued while the children play outside and find flowers and can name the parts. Another popular outside activity lately has been looking for bugs outside.

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Classroom Review

Hello Hemlock families,

Welcome to the April edition. As spring jolts, we could see the life shoots up around us. Hope you all had a wonderful spring break. Children are settled with their routine and explore new friendships and
keep the old ones too. Envision of Dr. Maria Montessori that older children are taking care of younger children and help them in their work and routines are unfolding in our classroom.

We wrapped up our Birds unit with how they are endangered and ways to protect them. We talked about what birds eat, the natural and man-made food. Children enjoyed making bird feeders of their own. Children showed enthusiasm to learn about the animals belonging to different continents.

We talked about spring, the difference between bulbs and seeds, the animals and their babies, why spring is the right time for animals to have babies, where do animals give birth to their baby parts of a flower by dissecting Daffodil. We also discussed Earth Day and the importance of protecting our planet.

We learnt the parts of bean seed and germination, and children were excited to plant their own seeds. Gardening is a huge success and children enjoyed preparing the soil and planting. Gardening can heighten all senses in children and develop their fine motor skills. It brings responsibility in children’s life and teaches basic science and math. Each of us is a flower growing in life’s garden. Carrot cutting and foam making works are huge hit. Children were excited to work on
Mother’s Day project.

“ The child has a different relation to his environment from ours…. The
child absorbs it. The things he sees are not just remembered; they form
part of his soul. He incarnates in himself all in the world about him that
his eyes see and his ears hear.”

-Maria Montessori

 

Buckeye Class

In the month of April we continued our unit on Washington State, and talked (and sung!) a lot about mountains. We learned about how mountains are formed, looked at pictures of our state’s mountain ranges and learned the names of a few. The children were able to make a booklet with the names and pictures of 8 different mountains, and learned a little about the distinction between mountains and volcanoes, as well as the parts of a volcano. Did you know Washington is home to 5 active volcanoes – Mounts Adams, Baker, Glacier Peak, Rainier, and St. Helen’s?! The children saw a picture sequence of the last eruption of Mount St. Helen’s on May 18, 1980, and during circle witnessed a Volcano Eruption (a baking soda and vinegar science experiment).

We learned about the biomes in Washington State, its animals and plant life. We discussed what we see on our nature walks and viewed a variety of pictures. We also learned about plants we eat, their parts, and what foods they bring us. For example, asparagus is a stem, carrot a root, broccoli a flower, spinach a leaf, corn a seed, and tomatoes a fruit.

The children had fun during our egg hunt on the Friday before spring break. After coming back from break we started with the Washington coast, marine life, and the tides. It was interesting to learn that the moon’s gravity causes the earth to have high and low tides. For earth day we collected trash during our nature walks and talked about what we can do every day to help and be kind to our environment and the earth. We explained what it means to reuse, reduce, and recycle.  We will end our unit this month with learning about Washington’s first people and Lewis and Clark’s journey west.

Together with the children we have started preparing our outside garden and will soon start planting. We are ready for spring to really take off and are eager for the nicer weather to arrive!

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Classroom Review

Buckeye Class:

Spring has finally arrived!

Thank you all for taking the time out to attend conferences. We really enjoyed sharing  with you what your child is up to in class. Seeing their individual growth in kindness, confidence and academics made it fun to share!

We began our month working on a practical life skill, slicing. Food preparation is such a fun and valuable skill as children truly love being able to do things for themselves. During work time the children had opportunities to slice up a cucumber, eat it, and clean up after themselves. More food to come later!

In science we found out that matter is anything that takes up space and that matter can be a solid, a liquid or a gas, depending on its qualities. We were able to observe a liquid (ex: water) taking on the shape of its container, while a solid (ex: frozen water) does not. Air, on the other hand, fills all available space. A SINK/FLOAT work was introduced explaining what it means to be more dense or less dense than water. We look forward to conducting some more hands-on science experiments.

We discussed the water cycle being the constant movement of water and an appreciation for the availability of water.

This month we started a lengthy unit study of our own beautiful state of Washington. We begin with a cosmic view that ties everything together, leading with the universe and ending with the city we live in. Using paper maps, puzzle maps and models of the earth, a picture is painted of where we are in the world.   (Universe, galaxy, planet, continent, country, state, and city)

We learned all about different biomes in Washington state including their unique and specific climates, animals and flora and fauna. We have also been talking about the state symbols like the bird, flower, gem, fruit etc.… Because our state fruit is the apple, a little apple tasting experiment was conducted.

Kids have been working hard on a spring themed project that will come home in April.

Thank you to Mrs. Leach who shared with the class some of the traditional activities she has enjoyed during the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day including parades, story telling and spreading love.

We can’t wait to dig into plants and gardening!

Hemlock Class Newsletter for March

A big Thank you to all of you for meeting with us for conferences. It is an important time to connect. We learn a lot from you about your child and can inform you about our daily activities in class as we do not have time to do so during drop off and pick up! Thank you again for partnering with us in making your child/children successful!.

Spring is in the air and things are changing. New friendships are forming for a lot of children and how to navigate them is another skill to figure out. We keep our eyes and ears open inside as well as on the playground but appreciate your input, too. ProCare works great for quick messages.

The month of March is our Unit month in class and we are diving deep into -Birds-So far we covered birds in general: beaks, feathers, claws, nest building, egg laying etc. Then we looked closer at different types of water birds, birds of prey from the PNW and tropical birds. We also explore birds that do not fly and birds we see in our area. The children learn lots of bird related songs, make bird puzzles, parts of bird books and read Library books about the subject and some children even write and draw their own! It is very impressive how much detailed information the children remember and all of them have a favorite bird! In practical life the children can create their own nests, feed chicks and write with feathers and feel feathers in different ways. There is dry pouring with bird seeds and gluing of bird pictures available. In other classroom areas we have bird memory as a favorite and matching birds to each other or their homes. Every week a new activity is added 🙂

The time change made some children a bit tired but overall seems to have no effect on our learning. The children started with their Spring project since time flies by and there are several steps to prepare it 🙂 It will come home for Spring Break.

Thank you all for sending in snacks and water bottles as having snack with a friend is an exciting social time during class.

St. Patrick’s Day was celebrated with stories and lots of children wearing green. On the same day we had to say Good Bye to our friend Irfa from the afternoon class. Her family is moving to Canada and we will miss her dearly! We wish her all the best!

creativemontessorischool_mz5i3rClassroom Review
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Classroom Review

Hemlock Class:

This month we started teaching peace as we began the peace curriculum where we talked about what inner peace means and ways to find that inner peace. We call it a love light. The children were shown different breathing techniques to calm themselves down. The virtue of class peace bottles was discussed, which involve Red- truth, orange- personal best, yellow- peace, green – friendship, blue- kind words, purple-joy. We keep reminding children about these virtues. February was also all about celebrating: the Chinese and Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, and President’s Day. The children learned about the meaning of these celebrations and were able to fine-tune their art skills by creating different arts and crafts. Valentine’s Day is always a highlight for the children, and they enjoyed decorating their own Valentine’s bags to hold the cards that their fellow students brought to give out. Distributing the cards into the bags of each child is something the kids always look forward to. We also had a simple snack of watermelon, cantaloupe, and muskmelon cut in heart shape and cherry tomatoes filled with cream cheese and spring onion (put together to look like a tulip flower). We continue to work on how to treat each other with respect, try to be helpful to each other, and enjoy doing things as a group.

We are starting our next unit about birds. Soon your child will be sharing some fun facts about birds.

Buckeye Class:

We started February off by talking about safety at circle. This included understanding that firefighters are not scary and that people should trust them. We learned about what smoke detectors do, and not to touch hot things. Lastly, we discussed how to walk safely in parking lots, streets, driveways and neighborhoods. We also had guest night. This is one of our favorite and most popular events at our school. There were many children who brought their guests and showed them what they do at school. For Valentine’s Day we decorated bags for our valentines, then made cards for our parents. We learned about what love is and where Valentine’s Day came from. On Valentine’s Day, the children passed out their valentines and ate a small plate of fruits. We also introduced land and water forms. We learned about peninsula/gulf, strait/isthmus, cape/bay, archipelago/system of lakes, and island/lake. The children have had the opportunity to pour water into our land and water form models and place objects like fish, trees, people, bridges, and animals around them. Another holiday we learned about is Carnival. Carnival is a fun festival of merrymaking; people dress up in costumes, participate in parades, and decorate floats. There is music everywhere, which makes people dance and sing in the streets, young and old alike. It is pre-dominantly a Roman Catholic festival, the last “hurrah” before the beginning of the season of lent (a period of fasting and reflection) which ends on Easter. Ms. Ross showed pictures of popular Carnival destinations around the world: the famous carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans, elaborate costumes and masks in Venice, Italy, and of her home town in Maastricht, the Netherlands, where people celebrate for three days and even most stores, schools, and businesses are closed during this time. On our nature walks, we are beginning to see a few early signs of spring including trees budding! We will wrap up the month with talking about the presidents on our coins and a few other presidents.

creativemontessorischool_mz5i3rClassroom Review
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