Diary of a First Year Montessori Kindergarten Teacher - Week 22

shallow focus photography of girl sitting on chair drawing on her paper on top of the table
Photo credit: https://unsplash.com/@zhenhappy
Good afternoon Montessori Kindergarten Families,
This week feels like we are getting back into the swing of things.  Our 100 day celebration was this week and the students had a great time hanging out with the other three kindergarten classrooms. We continued working on  South America in our micro discussions of Geography and continued working through what Geography means in our macro discussions - topics such as how do people live in other parts of the world.  We continued our Forces in Motion discussion in Physical Science talking about what items roll and also what other way objects can move (back, forth, up down, zig zag, etc.)  We continue to talk about the difference between fiction/nonfiction/poems and worked on how to assess the main characters and the setting of a story.  We have begun soft introductions of multiplication through skip counting and various works in the classroom.  And we are working hard on number writing practice.
A HUGE THANK YOU for the fantastic projects that have come in over the past few weeks for discussion. This by far is the BEST way I have found to help with peer to peer learning about the World we live in.  NEXT WEEK is the last week to bring in the projects as we will move on to our next Continent in February in order to ensure that I am able to at least touch on each one before the students move to First Grade.
One last thing (before I get into the week's activities):  One of the expectations of first grade is that each child has to be able to count to 100.  Will you check with your child and see if they have mastered this skill yet?  If he/she has not, you can find easy and fun ways to have him/her practice this concept.  (1) Have them count random items like buttons or blueberries, (2) find counting songs or counting videos for them to watch are just a few ideas.
MONDAY:  NO SCHOOL
TUESDAY: 
-We have math journals that we work in each week that include all concepts we need to master before moving into first grade.  
-does it roll science experiment/graph
-write five sentences about the topic 'flowers' and draw a picture to go with the story and label the items in the picture
-create 10 frames (math)
-blue footed booby, finches
-continue to work on South America map
-landmarks: Mount Rushmore, White House, Stature of Liberty
-number writing practice practice booklets
WEDNESDAY:
-100 day celebration
-peruvian masks project
-read/spell/draw
-Lincoln Memorial, capital building, Alamo
-sound table/reading
THURSDAY:
-sort objects by length (math)
-observation table/group projects presentation
-skip counting chains/multiplication
-what is a fiction book? What is the setting of a story?
-alphabetical order
FRIDAY:
-differences between fiction/non fiction/poems
-using nursery rhymes to identify sight words
-direction things can move
-fill in the missing number/sequence of numbers
-bald eagle/American flag
-people around the world/what are people like who live on different continents
-Video: Knuffle Bunny - what is the setting of the story? who are the main characters? What words would you use to describe the story?
South America ABCs this week: harpy, Inca, jaguar, kinkajou, llama
Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Looking forward to more adventures together next week.
Warmly,
Mrs. Norgren