Parent Peek Into Elementary

A Great Start to the School Year!

2008-09-15T13:47:00.001-07:00

In the elementary class, we begin every school year with Maria Montessori's Great Lessons which are large group, story presentations about the creation of the universe and the beginning of life on the planet earth. Giving an imaginative overview, each story is told with a sense of wonder, and each has many points of interest that hold the attention of the children and drive them to explore concepts further through follow up lessons and materials, or their own independent research. As they perform science experiments, create time lines, and study fossils from prehistoric time periods, their minds begin to analyze and appreciate the order and beauty of the universe. They work during this developmental period to fully understand the relationship of all living things to each other.

Their interest and exploration in biology extends to the practical parts of our day as they feed and care for our parakeet, turtle, and fish, watch the snail climb the sphinx statue in our fish tank, care for the plants, and save some of our lunch food waste to feed the worms in our compost bin. Many thanks to the Hull family for their generous donation of a stacking worm "apartment," and to Sara Hull for her research efforts to find one that would work best for our food consumption levels at AoC. Although we are still experimenting with the best ways to manage the bin, keeping the worms satisfied and working on the food, while also keeping the contents manageable with shredded newspaper and other fiber, this has proven to be an excellent ongoing science experiment that the children thoroughly appreciate. We can't wait until the worms complete their job on the first bin so that we can retrieve the resultant compost to use in the garden. The children are also, of course, thrilled to collect worm bin donations of egg shells, banana peels, coffee grounds, and occasionally cucumber skins from the food prep exercises thus far in the primary classes.

The Great Lessons spark interest in big explosions, and also big numbers. We have had a flurry of math practice going on in the classroom during these first couple of weeks. Several students returned to materials that had been old favorites in the spring, only to find they were able to very quickly set aside the materials in favor of mind calculations. After a few days of practicing basic facts confidence grew. Some have been feverishly practicing long division while others have been deriving prime factors and learning about percents and decimals. The youngest children are anxiously brushing up on their clock reading skills so that they won't have to ask their friends what time it is, while others have been discovering that the hands of the clock are like rays, and that they form various size angles as they move around in a circle, and those angles can be measured on a protractor.

The tone bars have been tinkling and the children have been singing and clapping rhythms. Some of the students are learning about the black notes, notation for accidentals, enharmonic notes, and rhythm notation.

The maps have been just as enticing already. Pin maps and atlases have been in use every day. One of our younger students created a master list of all of the states for anyone else who wanted to try to create a personalized US Atlas with her. A few children have tried "testing themselves" on geography by labeling the countries, capitals, waterways, landforms and large cities of a particular continent. Some have tested themselves on recognition of flags, and others are revisiting flag materials from a new perspective as they read about the background of the colors and designs which is often a window into the history of the country. Students working on Asian flags, for example, have discovered the constancy of certain elements among middle eastern states. Other countries' flags depict their struggle for freedom and sometimes their hope for peace and prosperity.

Since we are nearing the US Presidential Election in November, we have begun to discuss our voting privileges and responsibilities as Americans, and some of the background which has lead us to this very special time in the history of our country. Our discussion has included general information about the parties and the representatives they have elected to be on the upcoming ticket. We have also begun discussing the responsibilities of office and the balance of power within our government. We will continue watching how the election unfolds and discussing related events from a nonpartisan perspective.

A few things to note as we progress:

Homework begins this week for many of the upper elementary students. Students will be given math homework books as it seems appropriate. If your child comes home with a math book, please return $8.00 cash for the cost of the book at your convenience. The homework is intended to be a review of basic math skills. If any problems pose difficulty, please send your child in with the homework mid-week for a "refresher" lesson. Five pages per week are due each Friday. Work for multi-step problems must be shown. I encourage the students to use graph paper rather than working directly in the book in order to keep columns aligned nicely, and am happy to share our classroom graph paper if a student doesn't have any at home.

We rarely will have anything to send home in Thursday folders since the students collect their work at school and our administrative paperwork will usually be distributed online. Please check the AoC Intranet site for updates and information every Monday. I also promise to blog on this site as often as I can to keep you informed, and will send an email notifying you when blog postings are ready.

Join me in welcoming Mary Beth Hayes to our class. Mary Beth has been gracious enough to share her Irish Step Dance talents and technique with us! I hope you were able to meet Mary Beth and her parents at the picnic. Although we have not had any students move up to our class in September, we are certainly enjoying the quiet return to our studies and this advantageous period of reduced class size.

We are happy to have Alessandro Vichi direct our Italian classes this year. The children are already enjoying his style! Italian class will be scheduled for Monday afternoons.

Finally, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about how your child is doing or would like to review work. Conferences will be held at the end of October, but I am happy to touch base sooner. I am generally available after school until 5:00pm, and I respond to email and voice messages quickly.

Hot Topics in the Classroom - January

2008-01-21T15:26:00.000-08:00

Interesting Investigations

Two second year students used many books to determine the various ways in which different cultures fulfilled their basic needs. They used our classroom Chart of The Needs of Man, to identify the material and spiritual "needs" that they wanted to research for each culture (for example: nutrition, shelter, clothing, defense, health, communication, transportation, art, religion). Some of the cultures they studied included Ancient China, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, The Vikings, and The Middle Ages. They illustrated and labeled their findings and formed booklets of their finished work.

A second year and a third year student composed their own music with the music movable alphabet, wrote it down on staff paper and then wrote lyrics for the melody.

Three or four styles of thesauri were used to create lists of synonyms (sometimes still referred to as "cinnamons" among the younger children!) of adjectives and nouns.

Several children had lessons on the formation of contractions using the apostrophe. The children have fun during the initial lesson trying to figure out what word can be used as a substitution for a phrase that I write for them on a small piece of paper(for ex., "do not"), and then determining which letters will be replaced with the apostrophe (in this case the second "o"). They cut out the letter(s), turn them over and write an apostrophe in red on the other side of the cutout to indicate the substitution. Phrases become more complicated as the lesson progresses or during follow-up lessons (for ex., more advanced contractions might be something like "of the clock" or "should have," where more than one letter is being replaced. This work helps the child internalize the appropriate placement of the punctuation as well as the proper spelling of the contractions formed.

Daily Discoveries

This month's student report topics have included:

* Atlantic Ocean
* Austria
* Beginning of Life on Earth
* Florence Nightingale
* Eleanor Roosevelt
* Helen Keller
* Japan
* Mountains
* Pacific Ocean

Historical research this month has covered the following areas:

* The Story of Ships (independently researched and illustrated)
* The BC / AD Time Line (lesson)
* The Story of Written Communication (classroom material)
* The Story of Light (independently researched and illustrated)

Words of the Week

rune, berserk(s), thesaurus, synonym, giocare (Ital.), piace (Ital.)

Exciting Events

The oldest girls in our class recently wrote letters in the Italian language and mailed them to their new pen pals in Italy. The Italian students they are corresponding with are between ten and twelve years old and are studying English in their school. We hope to be receiving return correspondence shortly.

Home Happenings

Today we began discussions of our upcoming spring performance. All students will be assigned lines and/or actions to learn in the play. Some practice at home will probably be needed to reinforce memorization of the script. We will be sending home notes about costumes in February.

Please note that the evening rehearsals at MLK Middle School are required for all students in order to be sure that each child is fully prepared for his/her role in the play. We ask parents to please permit their children to forego any other evening activities on the days of the two evening rehearsals in order to give full attention to the performance that week. While the date of the play has been confirmed as it was originally posted on our calendar, please take note of the changes to the rehearsal dates. The online calendar on our website has been updated to reflect these changes.

Parent Particulars

Much of our classroom work is recorded in "journals." These bound books maintain recorded work in date order. During the last two weeks a number of Math Journals have been completed in full by our students. The first math journal used by incoming first year students is filled with transitional graph paper with large 1/2" squares. Subsequently, as the child has the ability to form smaller numerals, each new journal is filled with about 40 pages of traditional 1/4" graph paper.

Paper marked with squares is used to help a child maintain neat columns of numbers and keep his place when working with categories of numbers (units, tens, hundreds, etc.). While not all math work is recorded on paper, when it is written down the children do so in their personal journals. Journals are brought to math lessons and assignments are often posted in journals ahead of time. Journals are completed at each child's own pace and then a replacement is made as needed.

The completion of a full journal in any subject area represents personal hard work and accomplishment. Journals may be decorated once they are completed and checked. Typically, within minutes, students ask to choose a cover for a new journal. No one wants to be without a journal when the need arises!

Parents -- you are invited to come and play with our materials at the Parent Discovery Journey this Thursday evening. Please let me know if you would like to attend!

Hot Topics in the Classroom - December

2007-12-12T01:25:00.000-08:00

Interesting Investigations

A group of boys decided to chart the categories of numbers from millions to googles, and the number of zeros in each. (Last I checked, they had reached octillion which has twenty-seven zeros and had decided to take a break!) They recognized the similarity between the roots of the names of many of the categories and their work with geometric figures as well as their Italian language studies.

A number of children have been working on symbolizing the poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. To accomplish this task, they must be able to identify the parts of speech for the words in the poem. Younger children who want to tackle the same job usually start by hunting for articles and nouns, then moving on to verbs, while older students work word by word determining its use in the sentence. They are delighted when the entire poem is filled with colored symbols and often the poet's style of writing becomes obvious through the patterns that are formed with the symbols.

Some children have been testing their ability to read music by naming notes on a staff that are interspersed within short stories of famous composers (Bach, Handel, and Haydn). As they label the notes they decipher words in order to complete the sentences of the story. This has also prompted an interest in looking up full biographies of the composers and listening to excerpts of their music.

Our oldest students are beginning to correspond with eleven year old students in Italy. They have written introductory letters about themselves, describing what they look like and activities they enjoy. The letters will be mailed next week, and then they will anxiously await a response.

Daily Discoveries

after talking about dodecahedrons a week or two ago, two children discovered that the ancient Chinese calendar wheel is in the shape of a dodecagon
two other children discovered the method for converting mixed numerals to improper fractions and vice versa without using materials
two children learned about the origin of the names the planets and their position as compared with the sun
one boy discovered a link between Italian words and the Latin roots of English words, for ex.: Ital. cento/Lat. centum (hundred) as compared with Eng. century, cent
two girls used the dictionary to identify synonyms and antonyms of long lists of words
one of our youngest boys worked out the Roman Numerals 1 through twenty after revisiting the story of the ancient Romans who held up one finger to mean the number one -- indicated by a straight line on paper, five fingers to mean five -- folding down the middle three fingers to form a "V" for notation on paper, and two open hands for ten -- crossing the arms with open hands denotes an "X"

Words of the Week

gelatinous, mathematician, mesoamerica, dynasty, google

Exciting Events

Everyone enjoyed the Kennedy Center field trip. The consensus was that while they enjoyed the performance, they found the book to be far more riveting than the musical. We had full discussions about plot, setting, characterization, author's intent, and interpretation of the text when we returned to school that afternoon. Thank you to all of the volunteers who accompanied us. Having the opportunity to read two interesting novels this fall and see their stories performed on stage has been an invaluable experience for the children!

We will be drawing names for Secret Snowflakes Wednesday afternoon! New children will need help understanding how the process works and encouragement to keep their secret!

Home Happenings

Our class loves when it snows because we look forward to traditions of dressing in snow pants and frolicking in the white stuff! Please send snow pants or an extra change of clothes whenever snow is on the ground. The children in our class are permitted to bring sleds if the grass is covered completely. If they decide to bring a sled to school, they must be willing to share it with all classmates. We have also discussed that sometimes things break unexpectedly, so please keep this in mind when deciding whether to bring items from home to share.

Parent Particulars

Last week, two six year old boys in our class were fascinated with a golden bead lesson during which they were asked to lay out a quantity of beads ten times. We started with twelve times ten. They counted the unit beads one by one, exchanging them for ten bars as needed, and then counted the tens and exchanged for a one hundred square of beads. They arrived at the quantity one hundred twenty. When we wrote the problem down on paper, 12 x 10 = 120, we highlighted the zeros in red.

Next problem, 14 x 10 -- out came the beads on the work rug, and onward to the counting and exchanging process, and then, finally, writing the answer down with the zeros in red.

As they continued with problem after problem, excited to count and exchange the beads to find the answers, other children who were familiar with the lesson would pass by and smile, knowingly. Later, as the morning progressed, a couple of girls stopped along the way and whispered to me that they thought they knew the answer without counting the beads. Of course, I smiled and whispered back, "Let's try to keep that a secret!" The onlookers were bursting at the seams to relay that there is an easier way to multiply by ten than counting all of those beads. "Don't they know the secret?" they would ask. Eventually, they were sneaking off to check with older children in the class to confirm that their answers were correct.

For fear they might let the secret out, the girls decided to write down their predictions on a small piece of paper and tuck them into a pocket until the beads had been counted. After each problem, when the boys finished counting their beads and writing down their answers (25 x 10 = 250, 437 x 10 = 4,370, and so on), they would check with the girls who seemed to be able to predict the answers perfectly every time! Astonished at the correct answers coming out of one pocket and then another, the boys kept at it, even after lunch and recess, asking for more problems, counting and exchanging.

Finally, with only about ten minutes to spare until it would be time to go home, the boys ran over to me. "Look, Mrs. Hutchinson, we think we can do this without the beads!" They had just enough time to check their theory to see if they were right! Lo and behold, they had become members of the group who had discovered how to multiply by ten! (It just wouldn't have been as interesting if I had told them from the beginning that all they had to do was add a zero!)

Hot Topics in the Classroom - November

2007-11-23T05:20:00.000-08:00

Interesting Investigations

mummification, bacteria, decay, rituals
English settlers and the First Thanksgiving

Daily Discoveries

Determining all the prime numbers from 1 to 100
Identifying the parts of a sentence (predicate, subject and objects)
Forming a hexagon from six equilateral triangle
Figuring out that you never get any units when you multiply by the hundreds
Discovering syllabication rules
Finding that common denominators can be formed by multiplying two denominators together.
Determining the classes of favorite vertebrates and invertebrates

Words of the Week

infinity, dodecahedron

Exciting Events

In October, we prepared several pumpkins and then used the cooked pulp to bake cookies for the Thanksgiving Feast. This week we made a delicious vegetarian stuffing to be shared with the whole school. We had planned to make pies, but a parent generously donated them instead.

Reminder: Field Trip to Kennedy Center - Friday, Nov. 30th

Home Happenings

Usborne Books have been ordered. Mrs. Ackerman visited on Monday morning to give the students Certificates of Participation, and to let them know that their books will be delivered on December 5th. Not only did the children seem to have a very positive reading experience wihch lead to many book discussions, but they also seemed to earn quite an amazing number of books for continued reading enjoyment. Much to our surprise, the teaching staff was able to select $1,400.00 (60% of the pledge amounts) in books at various reading levels for our classrooms and school library, as well.

Thank you very much for the terrific level of participation in this event!

Parent Particulars

Crocheting a chain stitch was added to the classroom choices of work this week. Once a child becomes skilled at this beginning stitch, a subsequent lesson will introduce the single crochet stitch, and then those that continue to be interested can take off with projects of their own.

There are many benefits to including handwork such as crochet in the elementary classroom. Handwork helps to develop hand-eye coordination, dexterity, organizational and problem solving skills while at the same time offering some relaxation and relief from more cerebral and often taxing academic challenges. Amazing concentration ability can be spawned by handwork, even in children who may otherwise have the most difficulty focusing. Even younger boys enjoy trying their hand at the task, and then make gifts for mothers and sisters. It brings about individual creativity, feelings of good nature, a sense of accomplishment and self-confidence, and a warm, homey feeling in the classroom as we each see what others create. The children develop a sense of respect for the ways human beings have met their basic needs throughout the ages, often wanting to know more about the progression of weaving and stitching in various cultures. Very often they want to contribute to society by making home goods which will communicate warmth and caring to those in need.

Children become independent in this type of handwork very quickly. The goal is to be able to start longer, independent projects which may take a few weeks to complete. Once they are able to work without much intervention on a project, they may also bring their own yarn and crochet hooks to school. I suggest they carry their things in a little backpack, bag or purse. The projects may be worked on during quiet periods where they need to wait for others to be ready for a group activity such as before/after lunch, after recess, or when jobs are complete. I also allow crocheting while I read to the class. Some children may even choose to work on their projects during bad-weather indoor recess periods.

Hot Topics In The Classroom

2007-11-14T15:15:00.000-08:00

Interesting Investigations

Mayan Nose Jewelry, Aztec Sacrifices and Inca Messenger Services
Ted Geisel's (Dr. Seuss) Biography
Egyptian mummies

Daily Discoveries

Two children derived Roman Numerals from 1 to 237.
Several children have discovered how to multiply by two digits without materials.
One child learned how to successfully connect cursive letters and add capital letters to his work.
A few children learned how to reduce fractions and form equivalent fractions without using materials.
Some children calculated the factors of the numbers 1 through 68.
Two children wrote silly sentences with pairs of homonyms.

Words of the Week

discord, doldrums, disconsolate, chroma

Exciting Events

Usborne Read-a-thon ends today!

Community Contributions

We have been setting goals to finish our tie quilt which will be donated to Project Linus.

Home Happenings

Students need to return their wish lists by Friday.

Parent Particulars

Daily lunch seating is periodically rearranged by playing a variety of innovative seating games. This week, a group of students made a list of the children's middle names and then alphabetized them to decide who would be called first to get ready for lunch. Our rule for these games is that the each person may choose his table with one exception: he may not sit at the table chosen by the person who went before him.

Periodic rotation of seats in this manner helps the children learn to mingle and develop social relationships with more than just a small group of friends, while also allowing them to maintain some freedom of choice within the process. We still usually have one or two days per week where they are allowed to freely choose where they would like to sit without any game playing to mix things up.