Welcome and welcome back!  It was wonderful to see all of our old friends and to meet some new friends during this first week of school.  All of the children jumped right into the routine of the day, busily exploring the room, visiting, and working.

During the first few weeks of the year we will be focusing on our community, ourselves, and our families.  This week we talked about living in Lancaster, Jefferson, and Groveton New Hampshire, and Maidstone, Vermont.  We listed some places in our community that we visit, such as the farmer’s market, McDonalds, the Library, and the playground.  Next week we will visit the library and learn how to check out books with a library card.

During music we learned about percussion instruments, instruments that make noise when you strike them, such as drums, triangles, bells, wooden toc tocs, and cymbals.   We took turns playing each instrument.   The children observed that the metal instruments have a high pitch, while the wooden and skin instruments have a lower pitch.

We learned how to walk the line on Thursday.  Walking the line is a regular activity in a Montessori classroom, which focuses on balance and equilibrium, the mind body connection, and control of movement.  The students quietly and carefully walked heel to toe all around the central rug.

At the art table the students decorated the front cover of their portfolios, which will hold their work throughout the year.  The portfolios will go home the last week of school.

The children found many caterpillars and toads on the playground this week, mostly Hickory Tussock Moth caterpillars, which they were very careful not to touch.  Some students even discovered a baby bird in the grass.  The mother bird was spotted in a nearby tree so it was decided to place the baby bird outside the fence so it’s mother could care for it.

Zeanny has joined us in the classroom for three mornings a week this year.  It is wonderful to have her speaking Spanish to the children all through work time, introducing new vocabulary, and giving the children the opportunity to hear the flow and grammar of the Spanish language.  In Spanish circle Zeanny introduced numbers with the deditos song and an animal counting story.

Some of the stories we read this week are Andy, That’s My Name by Tomie DePaola, Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes, and All the Colors of the Earth by Sheila Hamanaka.

After a busy morning of work Friday students were excited to take out the drums and beat patterns for their fellow drummers to follow.  They then took out the scarves and did some dancing to the drum beats.  When everyone moved on to dancing we put on some of our favorite African Putamayo music.

 

During Science Friday, we read a story about Living and Non-Living then sorted a variety of objects onto two mats according to whether they were living or non-living.

At afternoon circle the children were introduced to the magic disappearing cloth, which miraculously makes things disappear.  They took turns disappearing the cone, sphere, and cube from the geometric solids basket, while the other students guessed which shape had disappeared.