Diary of a First Year Montessori Kindergarten Teacher - Week 12
Photo by Hannah Tasker on Unsplash
Good afternoon Montessori Kindergarten Families,
It is been 12 weeks of working, growing and sharing together as a community. I truly hope this has been a beautiful experience for your families. I marvel at the opportunity to witness the changes in your children as they are introduced to new concepts and then delight and thrive in the processes that a Montessori classroom offers. This month we are moving into becoming more independent in the classroom as each one becomes more comfortable with what a work cycle entails. Specifically, this means that every day each student has an opportunity to work on language, math, handwriting and cultural studies with practical life and sensorial activities rounding out the day.
This week we began having working meetings when we sit together and bring our folders which contain some of our long tern activities like creating and publishing a book, writers workshop activities and our maps of North America and we discuss how we can help each other to complete the tasks and discuss anything new we may be learning in the creation process.
The building projects that have come in based on the theme North America have been incredible! You would be so proud to see how each one has been able to stand in front of their peers with minimal prompting and give us his/her three interesting facts. The bonus is how I have witnessed spontaneous encouragement like “great job!” or “that is so good” and to hear from students who may not necessarily speak up in group time share with confidence.
Monday:
Morning Handwriting/Writers Workshop: Punctuation: period/question mark/Noun/Article
Rhyming books
Write the room North America: A-F
Book: Stelluluna
Quiet reading: books on seeds and bats
Handwriting: v,w
Publishing a book: “A Noun is a…”
Math your choice: addition or subtraction
Math lesson: ten board
Character trait of the day: patience
ABC’s of North America: kayak
Sorting/Language: seeds/planting,bats, spiders, life cycles
Tuesday:
Morning Handwriting: uppercase J
Smelling jars: pumpkin spice seasonings
Make cover of book “A Noun Is a…”
Life cycle of a bat
Bat gestation vs. human gestation
60 days vs 270 days In tens/more/less/larger/smaller
Begin community work meetings:working on publishing our books together
Math review: skip counting by 5’s/5s cubed bead chain
Character trait: industrious
ABC’s of North America: lobster
Wednesday:
Early Dismissal: 11:00AM
Language work in groups: lesson on alphabetizing
Art: draw a scarecrow/lesson on the purpose of scarecrows
Continued conversation: life cycle of a bat
Sequencing: how to roast pumpkin seeds
Shared snack/food tasting: pumpkin seeds
ABCs of North America: Maple
Thursday:
CHANGES IN THE CLASSROOM WITH NEW MONTH
· Choose handwriting option from your cubby
· Choose math option from your packet
· Practical life decreased to 2 bookshelves
· Working meetings
Goal: more independence
Student presentations:
· Redwood forest — (use of nonstandard measurement to figure out width of trees), Looked up bark in the dictionary
· Niagara Falls — watched a video of what Niagara Falls sounds like
· Big Ben — Video: sound of Big Ben
Narrative writing lesson: talked about beginning, middle and end of a story
H.W.T: START LOWERCASE: t,o,c,w,s to make cvc words
Working meeting: construct our maps of North America
Friday:
Morning work: choose your math
Working meeting: Continue book making — A Noun is a ____
Small Group lesson on adjectives
Finish reading Stelluluna — look at the skeleton of a bat wing vs human arm
Student presentations:
· Golden Gate Bridge
· Chicago Water Tower
Character trait: loyal
ABCs of North America: Niagara Falls
Next week, we will start a weaving project to accompany our study of Native Americans. If anyone has any weaving/baskets/etc. that you wouldn’t mind allowing us to have in our class next week, we would be so appreciative.
Warmly,
Mrs. Norgren