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My name is Robin Norgren, M.A. and I am here to help make Montessori philosophy more relevant in the classroom. My projects include: Josey's Art School, The Gifted Learner, Creativity and Wonder and A Montessori Way of Seeing. I found my way into educational spaces as a mother of Creative children yet I am not an art teacher. This information is important because my style empowers teachers who are shy about teaching art but looking for products that promote expression over technical perfection.
Diary of First Year Montessori Kindergarten Teacher - Week 4
Photo by Kelsey Knight on Unsplash
Hi Montessori Kindergarten Families,
I
hope this is a restful AND adventurous weekend for you all. I have
attached the new snack calendar for the month and I want to give you a
heads up that a Scholastic Book Order flyer will be coming home on
Tuesday. You can place your order online (my teacher code will be on the
flyer) and that will eliminate the issue of lost money. I hope you
enjoy picking out some lovely new books — you will notice the prices are
really GREAT AND we get points for new books in the classroom. PLUS if
you make a purchase of $25+, you are entitled to a FREE book. You have
until September 25, 2018 to place the order.
Okay! ON WITH THE WEEK AT A GLANCE! (at the end, I offer ways to extend the learning):
Monday:
We welcomed new plants into the classroom and CONTINUED our group
discussions on living and nonliving. The students came up with a
criteria of what makes something ‘living vs. nonliving’: to be
considered for the living category, you have to eat, grow and move. We
have had some LIVELY discussions around this criteria all week — think
about how you would differentiate between the two.
Our
30 days of kindness campaign continues. The following are this week’s
conversations: say ‘thank you’ to someone, ask a NEW friend to play with
you, tell someone to ‘have a nice day’, ask, ‘how are you?’, do
something nice for a teacher
Letter focus this week: S,M,A,T
Handwriting Focus this week: Ss,Mm,Aa,Tt NUMBERS: 1–5 first/last name day of the week
Handwriting Focus this week: Ss,Mm,Aa,Tt NUMBERS: 1–5 first/last name day of the week
Tuesday:
Sorting/Category work: mothers and babies, living vs. nonliving, what does not belong, short o, colors
Watch a video called “The ABCs of Occupations (extending our community helpers theme)”
Watch a video called “The ABCs of Occupations (extending our community helpers theme)”
(ask your child which occupation he/she said she/he wanted to be 🙂 )
Group Conversation: Let’s talk about flowers (favorite flower, how do they grow, have YOU ever planted a flower)
Wednesday:
Fire Drill
0–10 addition all students worked on math — practiced writing numbers, discussion about what addition means, the symbols of addition, the concept of zero
Georgia O’Keefe art — watched a video gallery of her work — representations of living (flowers) and nonliving (cow skulls) — created flowers with watercolors, chalk pastels, drawing
Fire Drill
0–10 addition all students worked on math — practiced writing numbers, discussion about what addition means, the symbols of addition, the concept of zero
Georgia O’Keefe art — watched a video gallery of her work — representations of living (flowers) and nonliving (cow skulls) — created flowers with watercolors, chalk pastels, drawing
Thursday:
Science Experiment: Weather — Convection Currents (THANK YOU to L’s family for making ALL the ice cubes for the class) Students drew a picture and discussed with the group what they noticed.
We set up our INDIVIDUAL bins today.
Book: “I wish you more” by A. Rosenthall and T. Lichtenheld
Video: skip counting to 100 by 10s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCJug1WlYJs
Science Experiment: Weather — Convection Currents (THANK YOU to L’s family for making ALL the ice cubes for the class) Students drew a picture and discussed with the group what they noticed.
We set up our INDIVIDUAL bins today.
Book: “I wish you more” by A. Rosenthall and T. Lichtenheld
Video: skip counting to 100 by 10s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCJug1WlYJs
Friday:
Book — “I am Peace — a Book of Mindfulness” — by Susan Verde
Grace and Courtesy lesson: What do we do if someone is hitting us or pushing us?
1. We say in our strongest voice ‘stop it! I don’t like it” — we make sure we do not have a smile on our face. We walk/run away from the person.
2. We tell a teacher that you are being hit/hurt/pushed and the teacher will help you
3. We tell Mrs. Norgren and we tell our parents what happened and what you or the teacher did to solve the problem.
Peace DOES NOT mean that you should be hit/pushed/hurt
Llamas go home today
We created cow skulls using pencil and acrylic paint
Book — “I am Peace — a Book of Mindfulness” — by Susan Verde
Grace and Courtesy lesson: What do we do if someone is hitting us or pushing us?
1. We say in our strongest voice ‘stop it! I don’t like it” — we make sure we do not have a smile on our face. We walk/run away from the person.
2. We tell a teacher that you are being hit/hurt/pushed and the teacher will help you
3. We tell Mrs. Norgren and we tell our parents what happened and what you or the teacher did to solve the problem.
Peace DOES NOT mean that you should be hit/pushed/hurt
Llamas go home today
We created cow skulls using pencil and acrylic paint
EXTENDING THE LEARNING:
1. Play a game pointing items out as you take a talk and play ‘is it living or nonliving?’
2. Estimating: we have started playing a game called “Estimation jar” where the students can take a clipboard around the room and a jar of random objects and ask their friends to estimate how many items are in the jar. At the end of the week, we count the number of items together. Did you know estimating is a good skill to acquire because as the student continue to grow in their math experiences, the ability to estimate helps them to gauge if they are on the right track with their attempts to solve the problem/find a solution. It is super easy to come up with ways to play the estimation game i.e how long do you think it will take to…
2. Estimating: we have started playing a game called “Estimation jar” where the students can take a clipboard around the room and a jar of random objects and ask their friends to estimate how many items are in the jar. At the end of the week, we count the number of items together. Did you know estimating is a good skill to acquire because as the student continue to grow in their math experiences, the ability to estimate helps them to gauge if they are on the right track with their attempts to solve the problem/find a solution. It is super easy to come up with ways to play the estimation game i.e how long do you think it will take to…
NEED FOR NEXT WEEK: aluminum canned good can please ( FOR NEXT WEEK’S EXPERIMENT)
Alright families, I will wrap it up. YES we definitely cover a lot of ground every week. I truly hope your child is enjoying her/his learning experience.
Warm regards,
Mrs. Norgren
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