Hello LEW Families!
This week has been filled with concentration, determination, spring fever, hours of play time outside, dodging the rain, and poetry! Erik and I found ourselves holding back more and letting the children go deep into their work. Having a sustained and uninterrupted work is one of the hallmarks of a Montessori classroom, but at the beginning the children need lots of assistance to get to that kind of concentration. It gave us a sense of joy to see the children naturally going to the big cultural work, huge math problems, poetry (so much poetry!), and science projects with little to no guidance from the guides. This is a sign of a classroom that is maturing and strengthening its culture.
This Week's Lessons...
First Years:
- Triangle Math - relationship between + and -
- River Study
- Poetry - line and shape
- Seed to Plant
Second Years:
- Multiplication Board
- Continued work with the Timeline of Life
- Poetry - line and shape
- Parts of a Stem
Third Years:
- Mississippi River Interest Project - the students are creating displays about animals, plants, invasive species and some are creating broadcasts! Our work will end with a trip to the Mississippi River Exhibit at the Science Museum on Friday, April 28th.
- Dictionary Booklets
- Mabel Marble (Ask them what they had to construct for this)
- All third years have completed their MCAs! Hooray.
Announcements and Reminders
1. Parent Partnership and Homework
Lower Elementary is going to start sending games and activities in your child's Thursday Folders in order to practice math facts and spelling (for some). Some of the ideas are as simple as using a deck of playing cards to practice addition facts. We have noticed that the children are truly beginning to understand the concept of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, but learning the quick facts for these operations is incredibly helpful as they learn more and more complex concepts. They do math fact work and spelling work in class, but the added (and hopefully fun) practice that you do at home will help enhance this learning and help the students get them down solidly. We were thinking that this would something that you could do together around 3 times per week. No need to turn anything back to us. If you have any questions about this change, please feel free to contact us.
2. School Lunch
If your child needs school lunch for May and June, please make sure to contact Natalie Yaeger at nyaeger@greatriverschool.org. The school is trying to get an accurate record of who needs lunch as a result of ending up with a lot of extra, uneaten lunches.
3. Gardening on Mondays
We'll be choosing a small group of students each week to go to lessons for about 30 minutes on Mondays in our community garden. They will be guided by two experts - Tami Limberg (Adolescent Science Guide) and Cate Williams (Upper Elementary Guide) - on how to care for and maintain the garden. We've let them know to bring clothes that they don't mind getting a little dirty, but please keep this in mind of Monday mornings :)
That's all for now. Have a joyous weekend!
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
