Kinderqueen

Dear Families,

I hope you have all had a wonderful summer.  I thought I would share an event with all my families both past and present.  Kinderqueen will be performing at Kennedy School in NE Portland on September 1st from 6-8.  She puts on a wonderful show if you have not been before.

Last Day

To all my families,
What a wonderful year it has been.  Thank you for letting me teach your children this past year.  I have been able to share in the joys as the children have discovered their abilities to tie, do addition, read, or even to zip their own coats for the first time.
I hope that all of you have a wonderful summer.  I have been told there are many exciting trips, camps, and special time with family planned for the summer.
I look forward to the return of many students and wish those moving up the best of year.

Classroom Family Picnic

Just a reminder that our classroom family picnic is tomorrow evening (Tuesday, June 7) from 6-7 p.m.  I am hoping for some nice weather so we can do it outside, but of course, we will have a rainy day alternative.  See you tomorrow evening.

Class Picnic

Our class picnic is June 7th from 6-7.  I hope all families can come and share the joys of the end of the year.  Everyone keep your fingers crossed for sunshine.

World Map Exploration

Today our extended day group decided to play with all of our world maps.  The children paired up and explored  our world on a larger scale.  We had a conversation about why we don't have a map for Antarctica and how our world is both very large, but small enough that we need to think globally in our actions.  This was a fun way to spend the beginning of our extended day.

Heaven and Language Cards

Language cards are great for expanding vocabulary for children and provides opportunities to write and read as they advance in the language area.

Sean Washing a Chalkboard

Here is Sean who just joined our classroom playing with one of the beginning practical life lessons, chalkboard washing.  We are very happy to have Sean in our classroom.

Color Tablets

Jack is playing with the color tablets.  This material is fun from ages 3-6.  When this is first presented it is a matching game.  As children begin exploring the environment more, they can play games matching the colors with materials in the classroom.  When children in the classroom begin reading, this is a great material to play a label game.

Kinderqueen

I hope that all of you have seen that Kinderqueen will be performing a free concert on June 4th.  Please come out and enjoy the music.  I will be there with dancing shoes on.

Hudson and Trinomail Cube

Hudson is exploring the trinomial cube.  This is a fun sensorial lesson that children use to explore math concepts in the Montessori elementary.

Unit Division Bead Board

After children in the classroom have explored division with the golden beads and stamp game, the unit division bead board is nearing the end of our math series in the primary.

Snack

Thank you to all families who provided the children with such wonderful
snacks during the year.  The children love to invite their friends to snack and have often very funny conversations.  Snack is also a great time for children in the classroom to experience new foods.

Welcome Sean E.

I would like to welcome Sean Elliott.  Sean is the younger sibling of Kyleigh and started in our classroom Wednesday.  He had a wonderful first day and we look forward to him sharing the rest of the year with us.

Knobless Cylinders

Here is Sydney exploring the knobless cylinders.  These are so much fun. So many ways to build and create patterns.

Working Together

Many lessons in the classroom are given and explored as individual lessons.  It is the purpose to help that child develop the nature of working with the material independently to gain mastery of skill.  It is however, as the children get older in the environment that some lessons give way to partner work or sharing.  Emmie, who just started the moveable alphabet is now able to work with others to explore language.

Enjoying the Sun

 The sun is finally showing its face in Portland (although not everyday) and  the children are really starting to enjoy the outdoor space connected to our classroom.  Many of you have received the letter explaining the plans to expand our outdoor environment.  I am looking forward to providing more opportunities for the children to explore that space.

Language in the Final Year

This is a great example of some of the work our classroom is doing right now.  Two students wrote the words for a song we sing in the classroom and then used the language symbols to identify nouns, adjectives, prepositions, etc.  This is only possible after they have worked through our sentence analysis work.

Friday School Optional Conferences

Hi Parents,
There is now a sign up for our optional conferences.  These are only if you have anything specific you would like to touch base with me regarding your child.  Please also note that classes will be closed that day and there are limited daycare spots available.

Join West Hills on Facebook

West Hills has just added our school to Facebook.  Look us up and add us as a friend.

Happy Mothers Day

I would like to wish all of you a very happy mothers day.  The children made a gift for the holiday that I hope you will all enjoy.

Group work

In the third year, many more lessons become collaborative.  Here Kyleigh and Piper are working on creating a map of Europe and working on their cursive writing skills.

Three Year Cycle

Why the third year?  Here is a great example of two friends working together to solidify their knowledge of sounds.  It is great for the older children to be able to play with giving lessons and fun for all.

Student Teacher and Division

Here our student teacher, Emily, gives a lesson to three children in our classroom on division.  Did you have that smile on your face when you learned division?  Montessori is so much fun!

Wood Polishing

Practical Life lessons are always fun.  Theo polished many things made from wood materials on this day.

The Hundred Board

The hundred board is a lesson that is great for recognition of patterns when counting.

Collective Exercises

The first time the children receive a lesson on addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division, they all begin with the collective exercises.  These lessons are often the first collaborative work children do in the classroom.  Here Campbell and Megan were setting up to play addition.

Our Lunch Song

Many parents have most likely heard your children singing some of our songs.  At lunch each day we sit down and sing this song before we begin eating.

The Earth is good to me
and so I thank the Earth for
giving me, the things I need,
the sun and the rain and the apple seed,
The Earth is good to me.

Hope you enjoying knowing all of the lyrics

Earth Day Celebration

Earth Day is today.  We are going to have an all school celebration with Joan where the children will really see how much they've learned this week.  We will also sing songs and have a special lunch in honor of this day.  Thank you for providing your child with support of wearing our classroom color-black.

Samadhi and Teens Counting

Counting to ten is just the beginning, here Samadhi is working on the teens boards.

Hudson and Painting

Hudson is painting this wonderful pictures.  It is so fun to see how different each child's art is.  They are as unique as each person in our room.

Campbell and Hammering

I just presented hammering for the first time today.  It was very exciting for all the children and everyone is looking forward to getting a lesson.  The outdoor environment becomes more enjoyable now that the rains are not constant.

Artist in Residence

Joan sharing dance and movement for our artist in residence this year.  We will be having a Earth Day celebration with the children on Friday.

Practical Life

Orange juicing and apple slicing are favorites in the classroom.  Jack soon discovered after working very hard to get all the juice out of this orange that he doesn't really care for fresh squeezed orange juice.  But it is the process that is important.  Jack now knows he can squeeze the juice and offer it to a friend to drink.

Recording Linear Counting

Sean worked on the chains and recorded his work in a short chain book.  The chains are always very exciting to get and give lessons on.

Pink Tower and Brown Stairs

Theo explores the relationship between the brown stairs and pink tower.  So many wonderful ways to create designs with these materials.

Cursive

Kyleigh and Piper who are both attending our elementary program in the fall are beginning to learn cursive.  More collaborative work happens as the children get older in the primary.

Isa and Moveable Alphabet

It is wonderful that as the children learn to spell using phonetic sounds that they are able to write ideas and stories.  Isa was writing to her future baby sister.

Comfortable running shoes next week

Hi Parents,
Please make sure your children have good shoes to move in next week with our Jumping Joan returning for a fun week of activities.
Thanks

Button Sewing

Sewing is a very popular lesson in the classroom.  We begin by teaching burlap sewing and then progress to button sewing and embroidery.  There are many fun extensions that can be done in the classroom which the they all enjoy.

Check File Folders

Parents, if you could try to check file folders either at pick up or drop off, many of them are full as we are now putting paintings in them to go home.  There is not  a lot of room and they are getting full.  Also, there are the sign up forms for pictures in your box right now, if you have not already picked yours up and would like to order pictures, please fill out the form and return it to me.  Thank you.

Heaven and Spindle Boxes

Heaven is concentrating on the spindle box lesson.  This is presented after children have worked with the number rods.  It allows the children to explore quantity and the concept of zero as a value as there are no spindles placed in the box labeled 0.  

Class Pictures

There are order forms for our class pictures located in parent files.  Pictures will be taken on April 20.

Class Auction Project

Here is a preview of our class auction project.  I hope one of our families will get this wonderful item in the bidding.  Thank you to Hollie Elliott for helping make this all possible.  Also I would like to thank all of the families who donated the great dress up clothes for our box.

Happy April Birthdays

Happy Birthday to Megan, Isa, Piper, and Lincoln.

Elementary Poetry Reading

Thank you to the Elementary students who shared poetry with our extended day.  Some of these children have returned as reading buddies for our older students.

The Thousand Chain

The thousand chain is often a work that is impressive to watch.  Here is Jacob recording the labels from his work at the thousand chain.

Jack and the Brown Stairs

Here is Jack at the brown stairs.  It was wonderful to observe that shortly after this picture was taken, several kids gathered to watch him working with the material.  It developed into a group exploration where the children with the assistance of Jessica built the brown stair up on end to build a very tall tower.  The children were in awe of how tall the brown stairs were when placed in such a way.  Exploration of materials is encouraged in the classroom each and every day.

This is Sheila and Megan playing subtraction independently with the golden bead materials.  It is great to see children of different ages working in cooperation to share their friendship and knowledge.

Bread baking is a new addition to the classroom.  Sydney's family was kind enough to donate the toaster over that made this possible.  The children bake bread daily and then share with the classroom as our snack. This has often been a lesson I offer to older children who have developed the reading skills to navigate the lesson independently by reading the recipe.
As the year continues I hope to provide baking opportunities for those who are not yet reading.  We do have throughout the year other food prep lessons such as orange juicing, banana slicing, apple slicing, and coffee grinding.  Baking is a wonderful addition to the classroom.

Thank you to Megan's mother Wei for providing our extended day lessons in Chinese.  The children look forward to this experience each week.  We began this shortly after the Chinese New Year and have continued to have lessons as often as we can.  Thank you to Wei for providing the children with this experience.

The wonderful exploration of animals from each continent.  Painted and Sandpaper globes are the first introduction in the classroom to geography, but further exploration of the world can and is explored by children of all ages in the environment.

Asia Map

It was wonderful to observe as two students worked on learning and creating a map of Asia that they discovered that one of them was from South Korea, the other had cousins and a grandmother in China, a friend in the classroom is from Saudi Arabia, and when we learned that yet other student's parent was from Sri Lanka, these two students laughed out loud.  What a discovery.

Student Teacher returns

Hello Parents
Emily, our student teacher returns this Thursday, March 31st to begin her practice teaching.  Some of you may hear about the lessons she is giving.  Emily will return in mid April to continue her training.

Welcome to West Hills New Blog

Greetings Parents
As a way to share with parents the wonderful things your children are doing each day in the Montessori classroom, we have created a blog to share pictures, activities, and upcoming events with families from the comfort of your computer.
Please take a moment to explore and enjoy.