School Days

Well, the first week of the 2010-2011 school year is under our belts & I think we all made it through without a hitch! Welcome all to our classroom at Hull-Jackson Montessori & welcome to our classroom blog! We are very excited about the upcoming school year and all the possibilities it holds. Check back here often for information about school events, lessons being learned in the classroom and more. For the first post of the year, I thought I'd post a few photos of our classroom environment to help you get the lay of the land. The first few weeks of school are spent getting new students adjusted to the Montessori environment and reminding returning students of our school and classroom expectations. The kids are so excited to get their hands on all of the wonderful materials but if we don't spend the time up front making sure everyone understands what is expected of them, how to take care of the materials in our classroom, etc. it will make learning throughout the year more difficult. The following photos are a peek into the lessons your child will be experiencing throughout the upcoming school year... Cultural Shelf with lessons on Continent Folders, "Land, Air & Water" & Land & Water forms.
Early math lessons teaching numbers & quantity 1-10 as well as the Teen Board

Dressing Frames

Practical Life shelf

More Practical Life

The Metal Insets

Our sound chart

Sandpaper Letters, Name Tracing, Sand Tray & Chalkboard

Language Lessons

More Language Lessons

The Snack Table

Work Rugs & The Pink Tower

Sensorial Lessons

More Sensorial Lessons

The Clean-Up Shelf

Looking forward to a great year together!!!! Please don't hesitate to contact me by e-mail if you have any questions--or, if you have questions/comments about the blog posts you can leave them in the comments section. Thanks!!!!!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

I hope everyone is enjoying their snowy weekend....we are!!!!!

January...in progress

Sorting animals that live in the polar regions and those that don't Identifying initial sounds


Reading chapter books & writing a book report

Composing numbers with the Golden Beads

Using sensory experiences to sort the Discrimination of Grains work More polar animal sorting Composing complex numbers with the Golden Bead material

Map work: Learning the names of the continents & creating our own maps with playdoughUsing scissors to practice snipping pieces of ribbon to use for collage work

Food prep work: Learning to spread peanut butter on crackers

Happy Holidays!

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday! My husband & I are heading to NY & NJ on Christmas Day with the baby to visit my family. I hope you & your families all have a happy & healthy winter break. Here are some photos of our last couple of weeks of school:

Working on the addition strip board

The 100 Chain
The 100 Board
Playing Chutes & Ladders

Working on puzzles

Decorating Gingerbread Men

Writing letters to Santa

Metal Inset work

Learning phonograms with Sandpaper Letters

Sharing our book with Mrs. Campbell

We'll miss you!!!

Fall Frenzy

It's been a while since I've posted, so get ready! Here are a bunch of photos from the last 6 weeks at school. First up, some of the kids working: Sensory exploration with shaving cream at the easel
Easel painting

Washing dishes after snack

Working with the Negative Strip Board

Golden Bead Fetch

Working with the Grammar materials

Drawing in the shaving cream at the easel

Working with Compound Words

Next up: Photos from our Community Soup cooking experience. We read "Stone Soup" first and then talked about what it means to be a community. Each student came up and poured in his/her ingredient. Then everyone had a chance to come mix the soup. We cooked it while we were working and then ate it for snack. It was delicious!!!! (The recipe is "soup-er" simple if you want to make it at home: Just choose various cans of vegetables and mix together--including the liquid in the cans. Add a can of tomato sauce, a packet of taco seasoning & a packet of dry ranch dressing mix. You can also add ground beef or keep it vegetarian if you like. Enjoy!)

Earlier this week, we had a special visit from Ms. Sissy, our Dining Hall Manager. She came and taught the kids about healthy eating & the Food Pyramid.

The kids learned lots of great information about being healthy Ask them some of these questions:

How many hours of sleep do you need? 8

How many glasses of water should you drink each day? 8

How many bones do you have? 208

How many teeth do you have? approx. 28-32

What are milk products for? keep your teeth & bones healthy

What do vegetables do for you? Help with digestion

What are fruits good for? Help your skin stay healthy

What do Grains do for you? Give you energy

We've had a great first half of the school year! There's lots to do throughout the rest of December so check back for more updates and photos :)