Casa 2

This week we introduced the seven continents: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia, and Antarctica. Second Years will be focusing on learning the colors that we use for each continent throughout the Montessori curriculum, and on recognizing the continent shapes and locations on the globe and map. Kindergarteners are re-familiarizing themselves with the above and are also going into greater depth by focusing on flags and some individual countries.

Today Mr. Guy (Marissa and Jared’s dad) visited Casa and talked to us about the universe! He shared some beautiful pictures and taught us that there are many, many, MANY stars in the universe. We looked at real Hubble photographs of galaxies and tried to imagine all those stars far, far away from our own Earth. Ask your child if he or she remembers his story about how the planets were formed (hint- William, Raya, Brandon and Olivia acted it out!)

This week we have been learning about different weather systems and the interior of Earth. The children are showing a keen interest in this area and they are looking forward to making their own Volcano.

Casa students are continuing to learn about our Earth home! We have discussed different ways of representing the Earth, focusing on globes. These discussions include distinguishing between “land” and “water”, as well as “solid” and “liquid.” Ms. Andrea and Ms. Helene presented the “Inner Earth” lesson at group time, and the children were introduced to the terms “crust,” “mantle,” “outer core,” and “inner core.”

In Casa we spend time exploring each of our five senses in the Sensorial area. One day each week we pay special attention to our gustatory (tasting) sense!In Casa 1 the children did a “taste test” comparing bananna and pineapple and taking a survey of the student’s and teachers’ preferences.  In Casa 2 the children will be experiencing sweet, salty, sour and bitter flavors and using a blindfold to do a blind taste test. Ask your child which flavors he or she prefers!

We had some very interesting presentations at our first ‘Show and Tell’. Amongst them were some useful art, money from Hong Kong and a football shirt from A.C. Milan. It was a very diverse assortment, and we’re looking forward to next month’s treasures.

We had a busy September! The kids have settled in well, and have become familiar with each other and their environments. We talked about our families, ourselves, and our school community. The Kindergarteners attended assembly and enjoyed a presentation on Grace and Courtesy by the Year Sevens! We’re looking forward to an exciting October, during which we will be talking about our planet Earth.