LEW Newsletter 10-21-2016

Dearest Families,

 

It was a short and sweet week in Lower El West mixed in with excitement and plans for the long weekend. We hope that all of you have a chance to enjoy some rejuvenating downtime with one another. This week, we started our weaving classes with Mariann. The students bound their own personal notebooks, created designs with pattern blocks and browsed through books about sewing and weaving.  If you're interested in being a volunteer to assist Mariann during our weaving time (T,Th,F 2:00-2:45), please respond back to this email. She would love to have you and she is an incredible teacher to work with.

 

Lessons from this week:

 

First years

•  Characteristics of fish
• Dynamic addition with the snake game
•  Making progress on their globe pillows

 

Second years

 

• Internal characteristics of vertebrates
•  Money practice, using dot counting (ask them about this)
•  Cursive practice

 

Third years

• Study of the BC/AD timeline
•  Wrapped up space study. The students have:

o   Collected notes by writing lists or creating concept webs about their topic.

o   Wrote topic sentences, using attention getters. They chose from two writing tools:

§  Imagine statements

§  Ask the reader a question

o   Took their notes and wrote about their topic in their own words for a rough draft.

o   Edited their rough draft for spelling and proper writing conventions.

o   Wrote up their final copy to be "published."

o   Created an illustration to go with their writing. 

 

Upcoming Events

•  Third year field trip to the Bell Museum on Wednesday, Oct. 26^th – The students will be going on a trip to the Bell to wrap up their space work. Right at the start of the day, we'll take metro transit to the U o fM (the students love this). Then, we'll participate in an astronomy lab and get the chance to spend some time in the planetarium!

•  Spirit Week arranged by the A3 students Oct. 31-Nov. 3
  

o   Monday: Costume Day for Halloween! (Please no weapons or masks)

o   Tuesday: Twin Tuesday

o   Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday

o   Thursday: Class Color Day (Lower Elementary is Orange)

o   Friday: Pajama Day 

•  Work Share Nov. 4^th 1:30-2:45 (and it looks like we'll be wearing pajamas for Spirit Week  [see above] so be prepared J )
  

o   This will give your children the chance to share some different works and teach you how to use some of the Montessori materials! Should be a great time. Hope you can make it!

 

That's all for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

 

All the best,

--

Jessy Eaton Fabel

Lower Elementary Guide

"Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core." ~ Maria Montessori    

LEW Newsletter 10-7-2016

Hello on this brisk, Autumn-like afternoon!

We just got back from our adventures at Buttermilk Falls Farm! We harvested carrots, broom corn, and marigolds. We planted garlic and made apple cider. We visited with the animals and we hiked around Buttermilk Falls.  We had incredible chaperones join us (Thank you!) and if you happened to take any pictures, please share them with me :) We'd love to put them on the blog. Also, the coordinators for the Harvest Festival (next Saturday BTW) would love some Fall-themed photos of the kids as well.  

Other than our field trip, all of us were working hard on literally very large work this past week. 

Erik took each of the grades out to collect different types of leaves and analyze them. They came back with some great specimens. Our lessons included...

For the First Years: lessons on sewing a Globe Pillow, search for 10 and the Snake Game (ask them about this!), Cursive Writing, and analyzing the Parts of a Leaf. 

For the Second Years: lessons on Telling Time by 5-minute intervals, Fraction Equivalence (ways to make one-whole, one-half, etc.), analyzing Leaf Margins, and classifying Rocks & Minerals (Ask your child if they can tell you the difference between a rock and a mineral. Thanks again for the donations!)

For the Third Years: lessons on the Protractor and measuring angles, the Fundamental Needs of Humans, and classifying Types of Leaves.  This group also had a tremendous space exhibit where they got to share their projects and their knowledge about their topics. They were very proud of this work and they should be! Check the photos below :)

A few notes:

• Picture Day: Friday, October 14th. We sent home the envelopes to select and pay for the type of pictures you would like of your child. Please have your child bring in the payment envelope to school by next Friday. 

• Harvest Festival: Saturday, October 15th from 2-5 PM.  Hope you all can make it, especially for the lower elementary folk dance performance!

• No School - MEA: Thursday, October 20th - Friday, October 21st

• Save the Date: Lower Elementary is planning a "work share" on Friday, November 4 from 1:30 to 2:45 in the afternoon.  This is a chance for parents to come and do Montessori work with their children.  We are waiting for calendar approval and will send out a final Yes on this event as soon as we get it.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Warm regards,

--

Jessy Eaton Fabel

Lower Elementary Guide

"Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core." ~ Maria Montessori