January 26th - January 30th, 2009

Preschool:

Letter of the Week: D
Number of the Month: 4
Shape of the Month: Ellipse

We are reading lots of books about about snow, snowflakes and snowman and I have several activities out on the shelves related to snow, most that that I found on My Montessori Journey.

• At the sensory/art table, we have white play-doh, round cookie cutter, and some beads to make some snowmen. We also will be doing some marble painting with white paint on blue paper.
• At the paint easel, we have dot paint and watercolor paint.
• On the practical life shelf, there is a new winter necklace work out with blue beads, clear beads, letter beads, and snowflakes. There is also pouring between two cups with blue marbles, spooning with white pom-poms onto a small tray, tonging with big white pom-pom balls, and our dressing vests. We are concentrating on the zipping vest to help us learn how to zip our winter coats.
• On the art shelf, we have a snowman face craft, a snowman scene, and then our free art supplies (paper, cardstock, construction paper, scissors, crayons, markers, pencils, tape, glue, stapler, and paper punch.)
• On the sensorial shelf, we have color tablets 1, 2, and now 3, along with another color matching activity. We still have the brown stair, block tower, and knobbed cylinders, but we also now have the knobless cylinders, and the red rods.
• On the geometry shelf, we have the geometric demonstration tray, the circle puzzle, the triangle puzzle, the square puzzle, and the rectangle puzzle. There is also a geoboard, shape sorter, geometric solids, and geometric shape matching cards.
• On the letter shelf, we are reviewing the first set of letters we learned (r, a, m, f, b, i, t, and g).
• On the language shelf, there is snowflake matching, snowman matching, calendar matching, and winter letter words. On the writing shelf, We are working on the ellipse shape with the metal insets and practiced writing "snow".
• On the science shelf, there is animal track matching, parts of the fish, parts of the seed, and an animal group game.
• On the geography shelf, there is the continent map puzzle, the North America map puzzle, the United States map puzzle, the continent globe, the sand and water globe, and the Antartica continent box.
• On the math shelf, we have the Introduction to Decimal Quantity tray, Introduction to the Decimal System tray, spindles with white pipecleaners, snowflake cards and counters, and the hundred board.

3rd Grade
Starting in February, Flower is going to study history and literature by using the American Girl series, starting with Kaya. But until then, she is finishing up studying about Ancient Rome.

• Math: Math-U-See Beta units 16 and 17.
• Reading: On the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Writing: Working on a story to enter in the state Young Author's contest
• Spelling/Vocabulary: from On the Shores of Silver Lake
• Botany: The Lily Family
• Zoology: Whales
• Geography: Longitude/Latitude and Illinois
• Culture: Usborne Internet-linked Peoples and the quicklinks with it
• History: Ancient Rome
• M is for Music, R is for Rhyme, M is for Masterpiece: Letter I
• Music: Recorder - Review music notations and work on new songs Choir - Meets on Tuesday
• Art: Matisse
• Practical Life: In February, Flower will be taking sewing lessons twice a week.