Diary of a First Year Montessori Kindergarten Teacher - Week 16
Good morning Montessori Kindergarten Families,
16 weeks of learning and growing together. This has been quite a journey getting used to being a part of a Charter School. What I love about the environment is your child gets an amazing opportunity to connect with so many wonderful teachers and have amazing experiences that just would not be possible for me to give him/her if I want to stay aligned with the beautiful Montessori curriculum — which of course I am biased but I LOVE teaching it and inviting your child to discover the world through the approach. There are definitely times it can be a bit overwhelming. There is so much to communicate because there is so much going on all the time. So it is definitely a give and take to have the opportunity to have these additional experiences and I am growing along with you. Your trust and patience with this process is DEEPLY appreciated. I could not do what I do without your support. Thank you.
Monday:
Continue to work with the Botany Cabinet
Free Reading: Penguins, Chickens, Owls, Flamingos
ABCs of North America: Yukon and Zuni
Character Trait: Mannerly
Handwriting: lowercase k
Study of Great Horned Owls
Reading: “Great Horned Owls” by Melissa Hill
Vocabulary: predator, prey, hatch, danger, swoop
Choose your math
Tuesday:
Writers Workshop:
choose a story prompt
1. write the topic sentence
2. write a second sentence about your story
3. label your picture
Language: compound words review — take the words apart
Review of North America — through living and nonliving and plant/animal sort cards
Review of teen board
History Lesson: time broken down by morning, noon and night
Book: “Do You Really Want to Meet an Owl” by Bridget Heos
Choose your math
Wednesday:
Stella’s Birthday Celebration
Math: What comes before? What comes after?
Group Lesson: Subtraction Strip Board
Language: Compound Words Review
Handwriting: your choice
Geometry/Sensorial Lesson: Constructive Triangles Rectangular Box (1)
A bit of information about this material:
“The constructive triangles are used to demonstrate that all plane geometric figures can be constructed from triangles. There are five boxes: 2 rectangular, 1 triangular, and 1 large and 1 small hexagonal. Each box contains triangles of different sizes, shapes, and colors. With the exception of Rectangular Box 2, black guidelines are painted in different positions on the triangles to help the child to construct other figures. This should be encouraged as an exploratory work that will provide a foundation for later concepts of equivalency, similarity, and congruency.”
Read more here:
Thursday:
Handwriting:First and last name written on all work
Penguin symmetry and label three parts of the penguin using phonetic spelling
Intro to adjectives
lowercase: j,y
Continued conversations about owls
Vocabulary: camouflage, nocturnal, prey, pupil, swivel, talons
Begin prepping for Great Horned Owls art and writing project
Sponge painting with acrylic paint
Friday:
Watch MAP video and prepare students for MAP TESTING NEXT TWO WEEKS
Group time: life cycle of a turkey
Autumn sort cards — two person work
Character Trait: thankful
Mrs. L talks to class about rules in P.E.
Yoga sequence: I am kind, you are kind, we are kind, to ourselves and to each other
Continue working on Great Horned Owl project
Handwriting: lowercase p
Have a lovely weekend!
Warmly,
Mrs. Norgren