Photo by Jerry Wang on Unsplash
HI Montessori Kindergarten Families,
I
hope you are having a good weekend. I saw the documentary about Mr.
Rogers a few weeks ago and it was a reminder for me just in time for our
classroom discussion on 9/11 that the world’s problems can seem so
overwhelming AND YET we each have a part to play in shining light in the
world. This week we talked about 9/11. I used something that Mr. Rogers
has mentioned his mother saying to him in ‘his day’ when bad things
happened. She said to ‘look for the helpers.’ This aligns so beautifully
with what we are talking about in class about community helpers and how
each one can help one another. It also aligns with this week’s
conversations about emotions and how we can still feel our emotions and
yet find a way to still be kind.
We
talked about the 20 World Peace Bells that have been created in the
world to remind us to strive for peace. The students got to watch a
video of the bell located in Kentucky ringing and then they created
their own peace bells. The peace bells WERE NOT easy to make and that
was intentional because the reality is peace is not easy. But when we
work together each day at it in our choices and in our interactions, the
results are beautiful.
Monday:
Math: Number rods and cards: teen numbers
Math: Introduction to the Decimal System
Art/Fine motor: Complex cutting work — collage art
30 days of kindness: Tell a teacher one thing you learned from her OR help with clean up
Begin Bell project
Tuesday:
What happened on 9/11
Community helpers: bad things happen sometimes, look for the helpers
Song: You are my sunshine
30 days of kindness: Say hello to someone you don’t know OR make a card
Math: discussion about the bead cabinet, what is multiplication
Math: 100 chain, count to 100, skip counting by 10
Continue peace bell project
Language lesson: What is a statement/What is a question
Wednesday:
Start new Grace and Courtesy Conversations: 30 days of emotions
Day 1: mischievous
Science:
Weather write the room — there are real life pictures of different
weather systems on the walls of the room. Students take a clipboard and a
checklist and set out to find AND WRITE the names of the weather
systems.
Finishing peace bells
Weather conversation: lightning
Lunch lesson: setting the table with place mats
Thursday:
Pattern making
Design a house using 2D shapes
30 Days of Emotions: excited
Book: Clara is Left Out
Watch video on the World Peace Bell
Friday:
Sequencing
Introduction to writing informative l texts: 6 steps for how to fly a kite
30 days of emotions: lonely
Game:
what’s wrong with this picture (afternoon only — will present again on
Monday with whole group) Looking at real life pictures with one silly
thing one with them. DO NOT SAY what is wrong until the whole group has
seen the picture (this is SOOOO hard to do!).
Thanks again everyone for coming through with the dishwasher pods and the disinfecting wipes. It is the little things that help us to be inspired to bring our best to the classroom every day for your children.
Warmly,
Mrs. Norgren