The Grade 3 students have spent the past few weeks preparing to host the first-ever Lower Elementary Assembly at MBTS on February 6th. They have selected ‘Honesty’ as the virtue around which their skits are themed. Parents are invited to attend, and we will send a reminder note with the details. They have worked hard as a team, each taking responsibility for specific aspects of the skits. We hope you can join us for the presentation!
As we wrap up our African studies, the students are busily editing their projects and you will see our ‘Africa wall’ slowly coming together. This means we are getting closer to the feast! The students have been invited to present their projects to the class and we hope to have the grand finale, our ‘African Food Fest’, by February 17th. We will confirm the date soon!
Please click on the link below to review our curriculum outline for February.
Welcome back, Lower Elementary families! We hope everyone had a great holiday!
We are very excited to get started on Term 2. We have many plans for the month of January, which we expect will captivate and inspire the students. As always, lots of ‘hands-on’ learning, a field trip is in the works, and we’ll be planning our African Food Fest to celebrate the completion of the students’ projects. Please click on the link below to read further details.
The first term has been an incredible journey of discovery. The students have been introduced to many new concepts and were shown a multitude of avenues for further enrichment. They have worked hard on becoming productive citizens and learning to better direct their educational goals.
We wish everyone a joyous and peaceful holiday season and a fabulous 2012. Below is our link for the objectives we will plan to cover in December. We have also attached the adorable Halloween class photo Ms. Ali took for us.
We are looking forward to a full and enriching month of learning. When we complete our Africa studies, we will host a themed lunch during class time. An email will be sent to make the arrangements. It is a great experience for the students, we enjoy having the parents with us for lunch, and the parents have a great time too!
Parents, please remember:
A Montessori Lower Elementary classroom is an active, prepared environment. It offers a wide range of compelling, engaging materials, and is guided by teachers who are keen observers, ready to seize teachable moments. Students go about making independent choices of work in class, and follow their interests through various research projects. They are guided when necessary in order to maintain a well-balanced and productive work period.
Throughout the school day, students are invited to lessons in groups or individually. At times, the class may also engage in thematic discussions or lessons as a whole.
It is important to note that classroom lessons are not strictly limited to or determined by these themes. Other fundamental Montessori principles are considered in the comprehensive implementation of a productive classroom:
We respect and seize moments of serendipitous learning initiated by the student. These “teachable” moments are invaluable, effective opportunities to engage the child’s inquiring mind, and feed and deepen intellectual curiosity. Lessons may and will arise from these moments, and they are prioritized as crucial opportunities for optimum learning.
We follow the readiness of the child for any lesson. Each individual’s pace and readiness for learning is respected. Time is allotted for students to practice and grow with the concepts which have been presented.
Learning is cross-curricular and cyclical. Fundamental concepts and skills are re-visited on a regular basis throughout a child’s time in a Montessori class. Lessons are not simply given one month and then promptly forgotten. The unique structure of a Montessori classroom – with its emphasis on connective learning and its focus on individual inquiry – enables students to come across a particular concept several times and in different contexts or ways within a three-year cycle.
A Montessori lower elementary classroom is an active, prepared environment. It offers a wide range of compelling, engaging materials, and is guided by teachers who are keen observers, ready to seize teachable moments. Students go about making independent choices of work in class, and follow their interests through various research projects. They are guided when necessary in order to maintain a well-balanced and productive work period.
Throughout the school day, students are invited to lessons in groups or individually. At times, the class may also engage in thematic discussions or lessons as a whole. To help give parents an idea of what would normally be covered in the course of a month, we will be sharing general lesson themes for each month, starting with those for the month of October (please click on October Table).
It is important to note that classroom lessons are not strictly limited to or determined by these themes. Other fundamental Montessori principles are considered in the comprehensive implementation of a productive classroom:
We respect and seize moments of serendipitous learning initiated by the student. These “teachable” moments are invaluable, effective opportunities to engage the child’s inquiring mind, and feed and deepen intellectual curiosity. Lessons may and will arise from these moments, and they are prioritized as crucial opportunities for optimum learning.
We follow the readiness of the child for any lesson. Each individual’s pace and readiness for learning is respected. Time is allotted for students to practice and grow with the concepts which have been presented.
Learning is cross-curricular and cyclical. Fundamental concepts and skills are re-visited on a regular basis throughout a child’s time in a Montessori class. Lessons are not simply given one month and then promptly forgotten. The unique structure of a Montessori classroom – with its emphasis on connective learning and its focus on individual inquiry – enables students to come across a particular concept several times and in different contexts or ways within a three-year cycle.
We are looking forward to a productive and enlightening month together!
A Montessori Lower Elementary classroom is an active, prepared environment. It offers a wide range of compelling, engaging materials, and is guided by teachers who are keen observers, ready to seize teachable moments. Students go about making independent choices of work in class, and follow their interests through various research projects. They are guided when necessary in order to maintain a well-balanced and productive work period.
Throughout the school day, students are invited to lessons in groups or individually. At times, the class may also engage in thematic discussions or lessons as a whole. To help give parents an idea of what would normally be covered in the course of a month, we will be sharing general lesson themes for each month, starting with those for the month of October (please CLICK HERE to view the October Lesson Themes Overview).
It is important to note that classroom lessons are not strictly limited to or determined by these themes. Other fundamental Montessori principles are considered in the comprehensive implementation of a productive classroom:
We respect and seize moments of serendipitous learning initiated by the student. These “teachable” moments are invaluable, effective opportunities to engage the child’s inquiring mind, and feed and deepen intellectual curiosity. Lessons may and will arise from these moments, and they are prioritized as crucial opportunities for optimum learning.
We follow the readiness of the child for any lesson. Each individual’s pace and readiness for learning is respected. Time is allotted for students to practice and grow with the concepts which have been presented.
Learning is cross-curricular and cyclical. Fundamental concepts and skills are re-visited on a regular basis throughout a child’s time in a Montessori class. Lessons are not simply given one month and then promptly forgotten. The unique structure of a Montessori classroom – with its emphasis on connective learning and its focus on individual inquiry – enables students to come across a particular concept several times and in different contexts or ways within a three-year cycle.
Our first month in LED has been an amazing journey through new beginnings. We began with our classroom community, making new friends, welcoming new students and parents, getting to know new teachers, and beginning our educational year together.
We started at the beginning with our curriculum as well . . . the beginning of the universe. From there, many lessons came forth, including the commencement of universe projects. The students are busily researching their chosen celestial topic and we are looking forward to posting their art and reports on our patio wall. After the orgins of the universe, we studied the beginning of the Earth and then moved on to the beginning of life on Earth. Finally, the month ended with the beginning of humans on Earth.
As chance would have it, we also had a holiday celebration about new beginnings: Rosh Hashanah. There are some lovely pictures posted on this blog of the students doing an amazing job of blowing the shofar (ram’s horn). There are also some photos of the students during our first days together.
From the ‘Story of Humans’ springs numerous additional studies, including the ‘Common Needs of People’, the ‘Origins of Writing’, and the ‘Origins of Numbers’. Many lessons will follow these larger studies, which will be detailed in our forthcoming October curriculum post. Check back with us on or after October 7th. See you soon!
We are so excited to get started! The first day of school is August 29th. There is a new look to our classroom, including our new teacher, Ms Adrienne. Ms Adrienne has over 9 years teaching experience in elementary and will be a great asset to the LED teaching team. Ms Adrienne will be outside, along with Ms Marcia, to greet the students and parents on Monday, so please feel free to get acquainted. There will also be a Parent Orientation night on September 6th which will offer ample opportunity to get to know Ms Adrienne.
We have sent a welcome letter to parents detailing the schedule for LED, what to bring, and other important notes. Please remember that Monday and Tuesday are half days. There will be a lunch break, so all students will need to bring lunches both days. The first full day is Wednesday.
Our first week will be dedicated to orienting the students to the new classroom arrangement, getting to know each other through “ice-breaker” activities, composing our Classroom Constitution, and completing some academic “warm-ups” to assess where the students are after the summer break.
We look forward to seeing everyone on Monday. Enjoy your weekend!
From now to the end of the year we will be linking out cultural studies to the continent of South America.
So far we have touched upon the land forms and biomes of that region, country names, and country capitals. Ask your child to share the “South American Capitals” song with you (link below):
Since the March break we have been working from our studies of North America and the Caribbean to learning about the Ecology of those places. We have introduced the concept of biomes and food webs, and some students are investigating more deeply into the various biomes found around the world. They are encouraged to choose a biome and do a project on it. If you would like to take this work home, please let us know! Next week we will be linking ecology with our recent studies of “The Story of Fish,” by zeroing in on our local “Coral Reef” biome. Students will choose their favorite reef creature to research, and we will create our own “reef” on the glass wall.
