Geese and Martinmas/Veteran's Day
November 9-13, 2009
Letter of the Week: Ff
Number of the Month: 3
Shape of the Month: Square
Color of the Month: Yellow
Nursery Rhyme: Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater

• At the sensory/art table, we have yellow play-doh, leaf sorting, and a salt tray.
• At the paint easel, we have yellow paint, water color paint, and yellow DOT paint.
• On the practical life shelf, we have cutting food, nuts and bolts, flower arranging, sew and sew, beading, opening/closing, and dressing vests.
• On the art shelf, we have build a scarecrow, and a pumpkin coloring sheet, 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 and 2, the brown stair, block tower, and knobbed cylinder A and B and C and D and the red rods.
• On the geometry shelf, we have the circle, triangle and square puzzle. There is also a geoboard, shape sorter, and geometric solids and a new shape game.
• On the letter shelf, we have sandpaper letters (lower case and upper case) alphabet cards, and leap frog letters. I’ve also added the Red Language materials (learning 3 letter words that start with r, a, m, f, b, i, t and g.) We are working hard on the letters f and b.
• On the language shelf, classified cards on rooms in your house, calendar matching, and fall letter words. I also have the Bob books – Set A (easy reader books) on the shelf.
• On the writing shelf, we are working on the square shape with the metal insets. We also have dry erase writing, letter stamping, letter tracing for f, magnadoodle, and moveable alphabet. We also have f coloring sheets and f tracing sheets
• On the science shelf, there is reptile puzzle – turtle, plant puzzle – leaf, and land and water cards.
• On the geography shelf, there are the continent globe and the sand and water globe and the continent map puzzle.
• On the math shelf, we have sandpaper numbers, number puzzle, number bears, bead matching, fraction puzzles, spindles, and seasonal counting activities.
• We are reading Boxes for Katje, Gertrude the Goose who Forgot, Geese, One Smart Goose, Honk, Honk, Goose!, Boo to a Goose, and Goose’s Story.

Preschool Week 9: What We Were Up To

Scarecrows
November 2-6, 2009
Letter of the Week: Ee
Number of the Month: 3
Shape of the Month: Square
Color of the Month: Yellow

Nursery Rhyme of the Month: Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater

• At the sensory/art table, we have yellow play-doh and the nature box.
• At the paint easel, we have yellow paint, water color paint, and yellow DOT paint.
• On the practical life shelf, cutting food, nuts and bolts, flower arranging, bracelet beading, scarecrow building, and leaf sorting.
• On the art shelf, we have lots of scarecrow and leaf coloring sheet, 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 and 2, the brown stair, block tower, and knobbed cylinder A and B and C and the red rods.
• On the geometry shelf, we have the circle, triangle and square puzzle. There is also a geoboard, shape sorter, and geometric solids and a new shape game.
• On the letter shelf, we have sandpaper letters (lower case and upper case) alphabet cards, and leap frog letters. I’ve also added the Red Language materials (learning 3 letter words that start with r, a, m, f, b, i, t and g.) We are working hard on the letters f and b.
• On the language shelf, classified cards on rooms in your house, calendar matching, and fall letter words. I also have the Bob books – Set A (easy reader books) on the shelf.
• On the writing shelf, we are working on the square shape with the metal insets. We also have dry erase writing, letter stamping, letter tracing for e, magnadoodle, and moveable alphabet. We also have e coloring sheets and e tracing sheets
• On the science shelf, there is reptile puzzle – turtle, plant puzzle – leaf, and land and water cards.
• On the geography shelf, there are the continent globe and the sand and water globe and the continent map puzzle.
• On the math shelf, we have sandpaper numbers, number puzzle, number bears, bead matching, fraction puzzles, spindles, and seasonal counting activities.
• We are reading Fall Leaves Fall, Black Crow, The Wild Leaf Ride, Lonely Scarecrow, Pig and Crow, and The Little Scarecrow Boy (I love this book).

Pictures from Week 9: Preschool

Making bead bracelets

doing the leaf puzzle with the control sheet

using the number line with Math U See blocks

exploring the geometric solids

writing a letter "e"

doing a cylinder block

goggly eyes are fun on anything

a brown stair/block tower extension of his own creation

Wiggles and Little Boy (who is now 18 months old!

He started here at 6 weeks!)

Little Boy comes downstairs for Line Time and

sometimes for a little bit of Work Time

doing letter stamping

building a scarecrow

building something with the pattern blocks
without using the pattern cards

drawing with the dry erase markers

We are going on a Leaf Hunt . . .

We went on a leaf hunt in early November. The students put their coats on and got their bags and we walked around the block. And they put lots of leaves in their bag. Simple, but OH, they enjoyed it SO much.

Sweetie, Lollipop, Wiggles, Super and Princess getting ready to go outside - I love this picture.

It was drizzling, but it has been raining for the longest time, so I took my opportunity when we could. I love this picture too.

Our neighbors put these blow up decorations up for all the major holidays.

Most of the pear trees still had leaves on them when we went on our hunt, although most of the other trees had lost their leaves. Now most of the trees are bare. It definitely LOOKS like November around here. Bare trees, grey skies.

Pictures from our field trip to the Fire Station

Sweetie sitting in a fire truck with the Public Safety Officer

Looking at the front of a fire engine.

Looking at an ambulance

Sparky came out to meet us.

He was a BIG hit.

Princess, Wiggles, Super, Sweetie, Lollipop, and Spunky

Of course, the silly picture

And then we had an extra special visitor - Pluggie! He came out and talked to us!

Thanks to everyone at the Fire Department. We had a fun day!

Small Hands

You may notice a new little button in the top right corner that says "Help Us Earn Free Materials! Browse For Small Hands Now."

For Small Hands is a catalog put out by Montessori Services. This catalog contains many hands-on materials that will help young children engage in real life experiences such as pouring, gardening, and painting.

If you place an order for $25 or more, then Montgomery Academy will receive a 10% credit of the total bill to put towards Montessori Materials for our classroom. Please use our classroom number 100641 so that Montgomery Academy will receive the credit. The promotion ends on December 31st, 2009, however, you will want to order your items by November 22nd if you want to ensure that your items will arrive before Christmas.

(Parents of Montgomery Academy students, we will be placing a group order. Please do not place an individual order. Instead, please turn in your order form to me by November 23rd and I will place the group order on-line that evening so that the items will be here before Christmas. However, feel free to tell your friends and relatives to place an individual order. )

A busy couple of weeks around here . . .

This week, we are:

• gathering coats and warm things, food, and items for Operation Santa (in celebration of Martinmas and Veterans day on November 11th.)
• preschoolers are going on a field trip to the fire station
• having parent teacher conferences.

Next week, we are having:

• our Thanksgiving Feast on the 19th. Parents, students, siblings, and alumni and their families are invited. We will probably end up with at least 20 people. I provide the turkey, stuffing, and plates/utensils, etc., and the parents provide the rest of the meal. It is SO yummy, and one of my favorite parties of the year.

Pictures from Week 8: Preschool

This is what we were up to during the week BEFORE the Halloween party, so my posts are a bit out of order. Anyway, it was a fun week in preschool, as always. LOL

Putting the bears in circle, with a pattern.

Playing with the nature box

Doing the lock puzzle

Spooning spiders - this activity was inspired by a similar activity at What DID we do all day?

Drawing. As always, a very popular activity.

Here there are three friends drawing at the same table.

Creating a free art project using construction paper, scissors, stapler, and markers.

One of the students did this activity and completed it. He was SO proud of himself.

(This activity is inspired from My Montessori Journey.)

I have about 6 post that are still just rolling around in my head

that I want to write about, but I either need to take some pictures before I post about it, I need to finish part of it, I need to finish reading something, or the thoughts are still bouncing around in my head, and aren't quite coherent thoughts to anyone but me yet.

But here are some of the things that I'd like to post about in the next week or so

* Our "new" grammar curriculum
* Organizing the learning areas
* Making some Montessori materials
* Changes to the Art, Music, and Poetry lessons
* Geography for preschool and elementary - What we are doing
* What's new on the shelves for November. I never even got a picture of what's new on the shelves for October. Sorry!