Janaury 2011 Newsletter from Absorbent Minds

Welcome:

"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about."
~Angela Schwindt

School Supplies $20.00

School Snack $5.00

Slippers $8.00

Application Fee $100.00

Knowing your child is learning and growing in a safe and educational environment, surrounded by teachers and staff who love them and who are committed to building confidence, character and academic excellence... PRICELESS.

Enrollment time is here for the upcoming school year and our 2011-2012 Admission Form is now available! We are giving our returning families the first opportunity to enroll now through Monday, February 28th to ensure your spot and schedule requests! Open Enrollment for new families will begin March 1st. After Open Enrollment begins, openings and schedule requests will be honored based on availability.

It has been an honor teaching and caring for your children, we are looking forward to our 2011 school year!

Art Extravaganza

Come one come all to Absorbent Minds Montessori School's

Art Extravaganza Open House!

Who: Moms, Dads, Brothers, Sisters, Grandparents - Bring the whole family!

What: Prepare to get your hands dirty with our fun family craft activity. Your child will also have many art projects displayed around the room for you to see.

When: Friday February 25th, 6-8 pm.

Where: We will be in the gym and will have the door closest to the playground unlocked for your convenience. We are looking forward to seeing everyone there!

~Kelly

Cooper's Corner:

Anna_Blue_1 The children had a snowy start to January as we studied the Arctic region! The students learned our very own state of Alaska is part of the Arctic Circle. We found Alaska on a world map and pointed out other countries that make up the Arctic. In the Geography area the students created the Alaskan flag. Next we learned about the Inuit peoples. We discussed social customs, food, shelters, clothing and art. An igloo is only a temporary shelter built of ice when temperatures are below freezing. In Art the children created paper igloos pasted on to a night sky. Next we studied various Arctic animals! We focused on both marine and land animals. We played a game where the students were each assigned to a specific Arctic animal. After discussing habitats the students had to choose which habitat their own animal would best be suited. While learning about ice burgs and glaciers we conducted an experiment in Science. We took various substances or conditions like hot water, salt, salt water, cold water and room temperature to observe which one would melt our ice fastest. We made a graph to summarize the outcome. Our last day, we talked about the importance of the sled dog to the people of Alaska. We discussed how both the Alaskan Malamute and Siberian Husky have long been assisting people of the Arctic by pulling, herding, and hunting and in the Language area the children put together mini booklets titled "Happy Husky wants to play."

Our Community Workers theme came next. First we talked about what a community is and what it takes for a community to be successful. In the Sensorial area the students worked hard to put together a large floor puzzle of various community workers. Next, we talked about career fields such as: medical, food, media, government, education, etc. We talked about a day in the life of various community workers to establish a better understanding of their responsibilities. In Art the students created various symbols such as a bookmark (librarian) and a badge (police) to represent the workers we were learning about. Next we explored different community buildings such as a fire station, library, post office, police station, hospital, and school. We talked about who would work where and what the buildings were used for. In Geography small figurines of community buildings and corresponding pictures of supplies or materials that might be used inside the buildings were placed. The students matched the pictures to the corresponding buildings and placed them inside. Lastly the students thought about all the people and places that make up a community. The children started with an outside map including roads, parks, landmarks etc. On their maps they placed houses, people, pets, cars, buildings, trees, etc to create their very own communities! During this week we had the privilege to have parents come in and demonstrate their own careers with us! Thank you to everyone for your time and encouragement! The children learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed having you!

Next we moved onto the Five Senses! We began with the sense of smell. We put together two of each substance such as vinegar, garlic, peppermint, vanilla, and coffee into glass jars. The children used their sense of smell to match the aromas in the jars. For the sense of touch we filled latex gloves with different substances such as flour, rice crispies, liquid soap, oatmeal, wet and dry noodles for the children to touch and compare the textures. While learning about hearing, the students shook plastic eggs with different materials inside and tried to guess what was making the sound. The children used their sense of sight by observing bottles with different liquids and materials inside. In Art we created "jello smellos!" The students loved smelling their yummy masterpieces! They also painted with colored glue and enjoyed feeling the different textures when it dried!

Cooper_teddybear

The last week of January we learned all about Bears! First we introduced the black bear, polar bear, and brown bear who each make their home in North America. We talked about their characteristics and traits. In Art students glued yarn to an outline of a grizzly bear. Next we talked about bear cubs. We focused on the different sizes of bears. In Math the students placed various size buttons on pictures of small, medium and large bears. We learned that Panda bears live in Central China. We mentioned how the Panda is endangered and what we can do to take better care of their habitat. For teddy bear day the children brought in their favorite stuffed animals to share with the class. We had fun participating in various activities like bears in the bucket toss, bear on a blanket toss, and musical bears! Our last topic was hibernation. We talked about where bears go in the winter, how hibernation works and different types of dens. We transformed our tables into dens and practiced hibernating. After our long winter we came out of our dens and discovered a yummy snack of honeycombs and goldfish. We gathered all our food and had a bear picnic!

-Mrs. Cooper

Mr. John's Corner:

Line time lessons:
We all returned to school after a well rested winter break. Due to the long break we did a refresher week covering the classroom ground rules. We went over the four basic rules of: 1) No running in the classroom. We do not run because we can get hurt or hurt someone else. 2) Use our listening ears. The students pay attention to the teachers during line time and before cleaning the room and line time. Important information is shared during line time and listening is a sign of respect and courtesy. 3) Keep our hands to ourselves. We do this to honor other student's personal space. In addition, we do not hit, punch, push or do anything to physically hurt other students. 4) Respect others and being nice to your fellow students. Use nice words, smile instead of giving mean faces, sharing, and helping those in need.

To honor the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. we learned a bit about his life and his accomplishments. The students became actresses and actors as they recreated Rosa Parks making her stand on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The students enjoyed playing the part of the bus driver, Rosa Parks, "the mean guy," a police officer, Martin Luther King Jr., and passengers on the bus. We discussed our differences such as skin color, eye color, hair color, and gender. Then we discussed how we are similar. We talked about discrimination and segregation, and tried to explain these concepts so the children could understand them. We talked about if someone with red hair wouldn't be allowed to do art "just because" they have red hair or if anyone who had blue eyes would have to go to a different classroom with less materials, broken crayons, or no books "just because" they have blue eyes.

We spent two weeks gearing up for the Sensorial Fair. We talked about the five senses. We learned how the ear catches sound, then sound travels through a tunnel, hits the eardrum, and sends a signal to the brain. This is what we call hearing. Next, we learned how we see things. We call it sight. The students were fascinated how light hits the pupil, and sends a message to the brain telling us what we are seeing. Our students learned we use our nose for the sense of smell. We have sensors that catch the scent from the air and send the signal to the brain telling us what we just smelled. We primarily use our finger for the sense of touch. Although, I mentioned if you step on something hard in your bare feet or if you skin your knee you feel that too! Nerves in your skin send messages to your brain and the brain tells you if something is hot or cold, hard or soft, or rough or smooth. Finally, we talked about taste and how our taste buds take the information from whatever is in our mouth and sends that information, yes you guessed it, to the brain to tell us if something is sweet, sour, salty, or bitter.

After learning about the senses we had some hands on activities during line time. The children touched 2 sea shells, one prickly and the other smooth. They passed around a soft sponge and a hard wooden ball. Then they felt a bag of cold ice and a bottle of warm water. We also filled 4 glasses with different amounts of water and lightly struck each glass to hear the different sounds. We smelled a variety of smells such as, rubbing alcohol, vinegar, chili powder, garlic powder, a cinnamon/ginger clove mixture, coffee, and a vanilla/mint blend. We ended the week by tasting the 4 different tastes. We experienced sweet with sugar water, sour with lemon juice, bitter with green olives, and salty with salt water. We discovered if we plug our noses our sense of taste is not as strong when we have a clear nose.

John_painting01-2011

Kindergarten Lesson:

The kindergarten class broke away from areas in cultural subjects and jumped into math. We started out working with advanced decimals and getting familiar with the thousand, hundred, ten, and one (unit) columns. The students discovered10 units are in a ten bead bar, 10 ten bead bars are in a hundred, and 10 hundreds are in a thousand. We went on to associate the symbol that goes with the quantity and finally we composed numbers. Some numbers were easy such as 435 or 1289. Others were a bit trickier such as 1002 or 1090. We ended the month with mastering exchanging ten units for a ten bead bar, ten bead bars for a hundred, and 10 hundreds for a thousand.

Science:

Charlotte, our resident tarantula molted this month. We were a bit concerned that she was not eating. The day before she molted the students saw her do her "spider dance." She was wagging her bottom and spinning a web. The next morning it looked as if there were two spiders in the tank. One was Charlotte and the other was her old skin.

spider_molting

Super Heroes:

Cha ching... remember that old commercial? I think it was a Wendy's commercial. The donations are pouring in! The students have been pouring their donation into a bucket as we applaud their generosity. Our buckets are getting very full and very heavy. The donations will be going to a charity to help people overseas. There is still time! If you still need to bring in your container, you have until February 10th. In the near future we will be having a food drive and donate the food to a local food bank. I want to have the children learn they can make a difference to people abroad and locally. Thank you for your generosity!

-Mr. John

Ms. Courtney's Corner:

During the first week of January, my students learned all about families! We discussed how unique and special each family is. Our students learned Lily and AJ have big families with many family members, while Madison and Allie have smaller ones. We also discussed that Leona and Erin have new family members on the way!! We talked about what it means to be a big brother or big sister and why it is important to be a good role model to our siblings. Our students explored the difference between immediate families and extended families and read many books on why relatives are important. Families are tied together with heartstrings and Ms. Brandy made that possible with her Preschool lesson. The students have been tying their patchwork "family" quilts together which will be proudly displayed at the Art Extravaganza.

The second week in January, the class learned about their bodies and how they work. Students discovered the heart is the hardest working muscle in the body and the brain is 3 pounds of tissue! Next, we discussed why it is extremely important to take care of our bodies and we spent a few mornings working out and learning new stretches and exercises during line time. We worked on stretching our muscles and toning our tummies! The class learned why eating nutritional foods and exercise is vital in keeping our bodies strong and healthy. The children enjoyed learning their bodies are different in sizes and shapes, but no matter the differences, we ALL have beautiful bodies and big hearts!

The following week we began our lesson on the Five Senses. It was an enjoyable time for all of the students when we talked about the importance of all of the senses and why we should appreciate each one of them. To better illustrate the sense of smell I brought in some smelling jars filled with cotton balls soaked in mysterious contents. All students had the opportunity to smell the jars and decide what scent they smelled. We sniffed lemon, cinnamon, coffee, vanilla, garlic, pickles and some others! In the end, the lemon scent was the class favorite while most of them turned their cute little noses up at the garlic scented jar! We also performed a taste test this week and the class enjoyed many new treats. We ate salty pretzels, sweet gummy bears, bitter olives, and drank sour lemon juice. I was so proud of the students who experienced and tasted new foods! This fun week ended with the Sensory Fair. It was great seeing all of you and I hope you enjoyed yourselves as you learned more about the Five Senses.

The last week we talked about our feelings and emotions. We learned that being happy is a wonderful feeling while feeling sad is not. Together we discussed, it is okay to cry and once in a while everyone does it, even Ms. Courtney! We talked about what scares us and causes us to feel afraid and how we can help friends who feel lonely or hurt. We learned no matter how we are feeling: happy, sad, mad or glad it is important to express it.

Thank you for another great month filled with special times and memories!

- Miss Courtney

Enrichment Activities:

Spanish with Miss Tabby:

Tabby McCulloch

We have been having a blast in Spanish Class this past month! January has been a month of reviewing everything my students have learned over the past four months of school. We have incorporated fun, new games and activities to help the students verbally and visually refine their Spanish skills and knowledge of the language.

We have concentrated on reviewing our knowledge of shapes, colors, numbers clothes and the weather in Espanol. I am so proud of our students; most of them can count up to treinta (30) and some beyond! It has been a pleasure teaching your children in Spanish class.

Sign Language with Ms. Kristin:

Afton Knight

December seems to have come and past, but not without a lot of fun in Miss Kristin's Sign Language class! The children love coming to sign language and Miss Kristin makes it nothing short of a wonderful time. She provides each student with a take home paper to show what they have been learning about and how to sign each sign. Parents can use these take home papers to reinforce what we have been talking about in class. Having Miss Kristin come in is a special treat on Fridays; the children always leave with stickers or fun prizes they have won. The first week in class we talked about transportation. The handout contained signs for different means of transportation by air, land, and water. Miss Kristin provided a set of pictures for the students to choose from. Then they choose what sign they wanted to learn and together we discussed what that mode of transportation it is used for. Students had fun picking out pictures themselves such as the rocket ship and motorcycle. We also played a game of bingo using pictures of signs we had learned that day. Skittles were used as the markers, which was their favorite part! Our second week in class, Miss Kristin focused on shapes and different body motions such as standing, sleeping, and hiding. We played a fun game of Silent Simon Says. Students were having so much fun; they had a hard time being silent! Miss Kristin was our "Simon," and every time she would show the class a sign, they would have to act out that sign. They were taught how to stand up, sit down, tip toe, fish, drive, and even paint. Speaking of painting, Miss Kristin set up different stations throughout the room where students could paint. They learned how to sign different shapes and then painted them onto paper. Since we have all had enough snow and are ready for summer to come, our last class treat was a luau! The room was decorated with flowers and palm trees, our students even got to keep their very own lei. After we walked in the festively decorated door, we found bright colored fish on the floor with magnets attached to them. Miss Kristin used real bamboo and created a fishing rod for the students to catch the fish. After a student caught a fish, they were asked to sign the picture on the back of the fish. They waited so patiently for their turn and loved this fun activity. As you can see, sign language with Miss Kristin is such a blast! We can't wait to see what Miss Kristin has in store for February!

Music with Ms. Lisa:

Michele Hayden

Ms. Lisa always brings such wonderful energy and excitement to our music class. In the first week of January, Ms. Lisa reviewed musical words the students have learned like adagio (slow tempo), allegro (quick tempo), and andante (medium tempo). The students listened to a song which had the different tempos. Then they waved colorful scarves to show the speed. We also used egg shakers and shook them to the tempo. The students loved this!

The children started learning about an orchestra from Ms. Lisa. We read Peter and the Wolf and learned about the flute, the oboe, the timpani, the clarinet, the bassoon, the French horn, the woodwinds, and the strings. The children fell in love with the characters of the story and learned which instrument represented each character and the unique songs and sounds it played.

Ms. Lisa also brought in a keyboard for her students. They all had a turn to play the keys and learned they come in black and white and in sets of two and three. We determined if the sounds were high or low sounds. Lisa also played songs from Peter and the Wolf to see what the Children remembered from the week before. We also listened to the songs of Mozart and moved to the music. It was an exciting time in music this past month, the students learn so much and have a great time with Miss Lisa!