Lanternfest

It's time to enjoy the beauty of a Fall night and realize that night can be fun and not scary, especially when shared with your friends and family.  We celebrated night through our second annual "Lanternfest."  This is a traditional German holiday, usually celebrated as "St. Martin's Day."  We constructed lanterns with each child and sang the songs taught to us by our German teacher.  It was a great night for all as we strolled around historic Capitol Park lighting the way with our lanterns.  For more information, please visit Hannah Box's blog:  http://hillboxcluster.blogspot.com/

Election Day - Mock Election

Our Middle and High School students researched the campaign platform of each of the presidential candidates, chose a candidate, and prepared Powerpoint Presentations as a project for a class with Dr. Monica Rodgers, our English and History/Civics teacher.  Dr. Rodgers then had the students simplify these presentations for our younger students.  The older students then formed groups to present their candidate to the younger students using their Powerpoint presentations and posters.  After presenting each candidate, they helped the younger students vote in a Mock Election.  I have a feeling that the students in our class, the 5-7 year olds, generally voted for the candidate their parents voted for.  Barack Obama was our winner.

Human Body Replicas

The students created these great human body replicas during our study of The Human Body.  We learned about the various organs and their function including the heart, the lungs, the liver, the stomach, the small intestine, and the large intestine.  As we studied each organ, we colored and cut out the organ.  I traced around each student using butcher paper.  They glued each organ into place.  I liked how this related to our study of maps.  We made a map of the organs.  Next each child colored their replica.  I made sure we had plenty of multicultural markers to match the skin and hair color of the children.  We worked on learning to spell various body parts.  We added three labels to our bodies:  leg, arm, and hand.  The children were very excited about this project.  I enjoy seeing them learn to develop a piece of work over time, rather than in a single sitting.

Outdoor Checkers

Our students love the outdoor checker board Dr. Rountree had set up in the park.  They use it every day.  Sometimes they enjoying playing one-on-one and sometimes teams play each other.  Coach Moody and Coach Collins introduced the game and set the procedures.

Checkers are a great way to learn to problem solve and use strategies.  You have to learn to think ahead.  It is a fantastic visual-spatial activity.  

Taking Care of Others

   We explain to our children that our number one rule is that everyone must be safe.  This includes taking care of each others bodies, taking care of each others feelings, and taking care of each others learning.
   We read "Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse" by Kevin Henkes.  Lilly loves school and her teacher, Mr. Slinger.  One day, Lilly takes something she loves to school, her brand new purple plastic purse that plays a jaunty tune complete with movie star sunglasses and three shiny quarters.  Often, when children bring items to school, they become distractions.  This is also true of Lilly's purse.  Mr. Slinger has to take Lilly's purse until the end of the school day.
   This book helps the children understand that bringing items to school can hurt our learning.  They learn that other behaviors can hurt our learning as well.  They also learn that Lilly expressed her anger in an unacceptable manner.  However, Mr. Slinger forgives her.  We give our friends permission to make mistakes so that we can mistakes as well.

A Weekend With Wendell by Kevin Henkes - Using the Lifeskill of Friendship

We read "A Weekend with Wendell" by Kevin Henkes.  In the story, Sophie and her parents have a weekend visitor, Wendell.  Wendell and Sophie attempt to play together.  However, Wendell makes all the choices and makes Sophie pretend to be boring things, like a sweet roll in a bakery.  In the end, Sophie turns the tables on Wendell and he learns to play cooperatively.  As I read this book, the children felt how Sophie must have felt.  They found that they would rather play cooperatively than tell everyone what to do.  We discussed how to let each person involved in playing to make choices.  A few days after reading,  one child was telling another what to do.  I simply asked, "Is someone being Wendell?"  The person immediately said, "Yes" and then asked the other "What would you like to do?"  This book helped the children understand the Lifeskill of Friendship as defined by Kovalik and Associates. http://www.thecenter4learning.com/

Photos of Montessori Work on Shelves

I love this idea that one of our preschool teachers, Margaret Freeman has implemented.  She has taken photos of the shelves in her room with the work in place.  She has placed a photo of each shelf set up next to the shelf in a frame.  This enables the children to see where each item should be placed when they return their work to the shelf.

We have two preschool classrooms that utilize the teachings and theories of Dr. Maria Montessori. 

This shelf includes the metal insets that are used to develop small motor skills.

Active Listening

To understand the concept of "Active Listening," we read the book, "Night Noises" by Mem Fox.  Active Listening is one of our Lifelong Guidelines developed by Kovalik and Associates.  The use of Active Listening promotes positive behavioral expectations in the classroom environment.

Active Listening means to listen with your eyes, your ears, and especially your heart.  In her book, "Night Noises," Mem Fox uses many words to evoke sounds.  The book has a wonderful message about a great-grandmother who has lived a wonderful life and is surrounded by her huge family and her many friends.  She may be nearly 90, but she still feels young inside.

After listening with our hearts to the story, we listened for various musical sounds on a CD.  The children had to identify the instruments being played. We also played "Listening Lotto" in which the children had to listen for outside sounds to place markers on their boards.

No Put Downs

We teach and utilize a set of Lifelong Guidelines and Lifeskills developed by Kovalik and Associates to set positive behavioral expectations in the classroom.  One of the Lifelong Guidelines is "No Put Downs."  We encourage the children to use only nice words or words that make someone feel good.  We call these "Put Ups."

We read the book, "Chrysanthemum" by Kevin Henkes.  He is the author we are going to focus on during September.  In the book, Chrysanthemum goes to school for the first time.  During the first few days, some of the girls in the class make fun of Chrysanthemum's name since it is much longer than theirs.  They tell her she is named after a flower.  All is well after Mrs. Tinkle, the music teacher steps in and says she loves the name Chrysanthemum and plans to give her new baby the name.

While listening to this story, the children began to feel how Chrysanthemum felt.  They realized they do not like put downs.  We discussed many put ups that we could give to our classmates.

Next, each child received a heart made of paper.  We shouted put downs to the heart as we crumbled it and stomped on it.  We then attempted to smooth the heart out and found that we couldn't.  We ripped the heart to symbolize a broken heart.  We found that even when we said "Sorry," we couldn't fix the heart.  Hopefully, the children saw that put downs can hurt and even if you say, "Sorry,"  the hurt can remain behind.  However, the children were also told that they didn't have to listen to anyone else tell them who they are.  This is a more difficult lesson and will take some time to learn.

Numeral Formation Practice and Counting

In the 5-7 year old cluster, we decided that one of the things we would do to start the school year would be to focus on numeral formation and counting.  We knew this would help the children write the numerals during math work the rest of the year.  We also need to assess the children's knowledge of number concepts.  The work is also simple enough to give us an opportunity to teach the children how to select work and which procedures to use.  Some of our new students have a Montessori background since they were enrolled in our preschool program.  Some of the children came to our school from other preschool programs.  Some were cared for by their parents at home until age 5.  Some came to us from other kindergarten programs.

Here are some of our numeral formation activities:

Using 1 X 1 Legos to form numerals.

I had 2 clear Lego brick plates.  I made a copy of a plate and then designed a template for the numerals 0 to 9.  The idea is that the student positions the plate under the clear plate.  The student then uses 1 X 1 bricks to form the numerals.

Geoboard Numerals

Math Their Way Dot-to-Dot Templates
http://new-center-account.stores.yahoo.net/

Math Their Way Number Line Templates

 

Playdough Numerals with Ten Frames

 

Hundreds Board

 

Ten Frames with Cat Counters

Montessori Spindle Box

Montessori Hanging Bead Stair 1-9

Montessori Hanging Bead Stair - Teens

 

Schultüten Ceremony on the First Day of School

Parents in Germany traditionally give their child a "Schultüte" or cone-shaped present filled with little gifts, candy, and school supplies on their first day of first grade.  We have adopted this tradition and have a special ceremony on the first day of school since we usually have many students from Germany enrolled in our school.  German is also one of the languages we study starting at age 2 1/2.

The 5-7 year old class participates in this ceremony which includes the singing of a German song about the first day of school.  Here are two photos from the 2011 ceremony. We can't wait for the first day of school to do this again this year.

Lego Art

Several years ago, I purchased a Lego set that had various colors of 1 X 1 bricks, a transparent building plate, and a number of pictures.  The child would place a picture under a plate and then place the corresponding colored bricks in the correct positions to create a picture.  Well, this set was well loved and has seen its best days.  I searched in stores and online for a replacement, but haven't found another.  I tried to revamp the set.  I have one transparent plastic plate and a number of colored bricks.  I decided to have each child draw a picture, place under the plate, and then cover with bricks that corresponded with the colors.  Here is an example of one child's creation.  I decided to put the bricks in an organized container to make it easy to find the colors needed. 

Color and Light

I recently did several lessons on Color, Light, and Shadows during my two week summer "Super Science" class.  I put some of the materials we used on a tray to place with work on the shelf for further exploration.  The students loved exploring these simple materials and couldn't get enough.  The materials I included were some color mixing glasses, acrylic prisms, flashlights, and a mirror to experiment with reflections.

Other trays available on the shelf during "Super Science" included:

Magnetic Marbles

Magnetix

Pattern blocks on a mirror

Optical Illusions on cards

Optical Illusions on cards

Optical Illusions on cards

Gears

Marble Run Game

Puzzelations

I first became interested in tessellations when our mentor from England, John Emanuel showed us how he and his teachers taught the children how to use shapes that tessellate when printmaking to create books.  This interesting puzzle teaches the children how to problem solve to fit the shapes together.  I want to order more from this great series.

Slime

This is a fabulous recipe for slime from http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/glue-borax-gak.  The students loved doing this.  I think we spent an hour making the slime and then playing with it.  They really didn't want to stop.  Everyone put their slime in a plastic bag to take home.  I am going to try using clear glue next time.

Crystal Garden

I love growing a crystal garden with the students.  My mom called it a "Depression Garden" since she grew up during the Great Depression.  I've used the same recipe for years.  The students are fascinated by the growth of the crystals.  If you can't find laundry bluing locally, you can order it on the internet.  http://www.mrsstewart.com/

My recipe:

Put pieces of coal into a glass dish.  (I picked up my coal from the railroad tracks long ago.  I know some people used charcoal briquettes, bricks, or other porous rocks.) On top of the coal, pour 4 tablespoons salt, 4 tablespoons water, 2 tablespoons ammonia,  and 4 tablespoons bluing.  Add drops of food coloring.  I always sprinkle on extra salt at the end.

After watching the crystals grow for several days, I just wash off the coal and dishes.  I store with my other materials until the next time I wish to grow crystals.

Arch Blocks

I really like these arch blocks that I purchased at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis several years ago.  Our faculty traveled there to attend a conference at the New City School on utilizing the theory of Multiple Intelligence.  It is quite a challenge for the children to figure out how to stack these to be able to remove the center block to create an arch.  I love their looks of amazement when the arch they formed stays intact.  I checked the museum store and they still have a version for sale: http://www.jnpa.com/Prod-157-1-504-45/Catenary_Arch_Puzzle.htm

Skip Counting Bead Strings for Multiplication

On heidisongs.com, I saw a great idea to make a group of cube beads on a string to practice counting by tens to 100.  I loved this idea and decided to expand it.  I made 11 sets of counting beads so that the students could practice skip counting by twos, threes, fours, fives, sixes, sevens, eights, nines, tens, elevens, and twelves.  I made sets of beads containing the multiples of 2-12 up to 12.

I experimented with various types of beads and strings from Michaels.  My favorite are the cube beads.  These had a larger surface on which to write the numbers and they lay flat on a table for counting.  The children hold the left side of the string while moving each bead as they count.  I also found some star beads, which I thought the children would love.  These also lay flat on the table for counting, but the surface is smaller.  This makes it harder for the children to see the numbers.  The rounded beads are okay, but you must turn them to see the numbers.  I am currently on the lookout for a great tray or storage system for my sets.  I would like to use something that keeps them separated so that they will not tangle.

I recently taught a two week summer class called, "Marvelous Math."  The students enrolled ranged from entering kindergarten to entering second grade.  It is most important to me to work with each child on his or her own level, according to his or her own needs.  I asked each child to count for me starting with tens to one hundred, then by fives, and then by twos. If they could do all of these, then I had them work on the threes.  One student knew all the multiples to 12 of all the numbers from 2-8!  He is entering second grade.

This was an extremely motivating activity for the children.  It was exciting to see them pick up a strand to practice skip counting.  I want to add that I do many other activities to help them conceptualize the process of skip counting and multiplication.  This was simply a way to practice the multiples.  Many thanks to Heidi for this great idea.  Check out heidisongs.com.  Her ideas are fabulous.

Candy Kisses

At The Capitol School, we strive to integrate the areas of the curriculum around a theme or topic that we are studying in the classroom.  One of our goals is to use projects in which the children learn and utilize skills from the various curriculum areas.  I found a wonderful set of books written by Donna Burk, Allyn Snider, Paula Symonds called "Math Excursions K:  Project-Based Mathematics for Kindergartners,"  "Math Excursions 1:  Project-Based Mathematics for First Graders," and "Math Excursions 2:  Project-Based Mathematics for Second Graders."  The series is published by Heinemann.

One of the projects in the first grade book is called "Candy Kisses."  This project integrates a number of mathematical and problem solving skills.  The children estimate the number of kisses in a container.  Next, they build two sizes of boxes and two sizes of cylinders to predict which they think will hold more.  Lastly, they count the kisses and figure out how to divide them with the class.  This is a great project that the children enjoy and remember for years to come.