Week 4: Sept 18-22

Blog week 4:  Sept 18-22

Excitement of the Barn Dance and lots of community building this week.

"Cosmic Education is intended to help each of us search for our cosmic task as a species and as individuals. To do this, we must understand ourselves in context. It is only against the background of our place in the universe, our relationships with other living organisms, and our understanding of human unity within cultural diversity, that we can attempt to answer the question, "Who am I?"

Hello Parents!

Monday:  Another wonderful Spanish day with Sra. Rosa.  I’ve decided to help incorporate Spanish into the everyday curriculum in an effort to normalize languages.  My goals this week is to reinforce counting (1-26) as we count the children.  Note I don’t normally count the children, but it was a fun way to let them hear the numbers while waiting in line for their friends to join them.  I might add some sentences and let them try to guess what I’m saying, such as “who are we missing?;” “who is number X today?;” ect..

In addition to Spanish language work (and I will note Sra Rosa is much better than I am, but I can at least give them the repetition), we expanded on the Everyday living section.  Introduce hand hammer press in clay and cleaning a small dry spill work.  Both works proved popular among the younger children.  The older children seemed focused on the letter writing works, their spelling works, our Barn Dance Decorations.  We also had our second fire drill of the year.  Again, I’m excited to say we haven’t lost anyone yet ; )  Actually it was a more challenging drill since we were already at recess so our kids did wonderful by stopping their play (so hard to do at recess) and standing in line during the drill, and then they got to return to play.  This afternoon, we had a dramatic reading of Charlotte’s Web (Egg Explosion) and then at closing circle we read the Who am I? An Animal Guessing Game, by Iza Trapani.

Tuesday:  Another busy morning circle.  We talked about Community meeting and what our class responsibilities are.  We had a few volunteers to share favorites works.  Now as their teacher I try to let them choose whatever work they want, but it constantly surprises me what their favorite works are compare to what I observe them working on (my perception of their favorites works based one their choose).  It was also really fun to see who volunteered to speak in front the entire school.  I expect only K students to raise their hands, but newer kids and younger kids also gave it a try.  They were asked to say their names and what they are sharing for the entire school.  Milo & Sam, Alex & Ryan, Vedha & Izzy, Finn & Carl, and Lucy & Viva did an amazing job representing our class. 

Wednesday:  At morning circle we reviewed the calendar and talked about how different people start their calendars at different points.  We start our in January, but other people might start their record of the year at the harvest season or the equinox.  In bringing in the peace and culture education, we talked briefly about how some people (Jewish) celebrate Rosh Hashanah this evening and how they celebrate it (blowing into goat horns and by wishing everyone a sweet new year).  We had prepared apple and honey slices for each child if they choosed to have a sweet day.  Thank you for the donations of apples and Ms. Becky donation of her hive’s honey. 

For most of the work cycle we focused on Barn Dance Decorations, several younger students started asking for lessons in new works.  We also had our second music class with Mr. Wolfe, who played “Pop goes the Weasle” and “London Bridge” on his guitar and then the kids played “Freeze tag” and other body-movement to sound games.  It was a sweet and fun day!

Thursday: We started off the day with the date and reviewing the months of the year.  We talked briefly that today was the Autumn Equinox, marking that it was fall. We also had a very special birthday walk for Dominic who completed 4 orbits around the sun.  We celebrated with him and thanked him for his special gift to the class: a beautiful new work of a number/alphabet giraffe puzzle.  It turned out to be a popular work during the work cycle today.  Thank you Dominic!

Other new works include fish 3 part matching card set to bring the fish puzzle to the next level.  This is a more advance work, so it will be interesting to watch who will choose to have lessons to use it.  Popular works include the spoon transfer work and the clay hammer work.   Another new Barn Dance decoration work is the “Wilbur cut out” work.  This is primarily a cut out along the lines work, use by me to gage how well they have control of hands, coordination of the eye and how they are responsible for the clean up of the many little pieces of papers as well as returning the scissors.  As they show me they can be responsible for the cleanliness of their environment, I will increase the challenge of clean up with some interesting art work choices. 

We were also very careful at recess today as we observed the lower elementary pressing apples for the cider press.  We carefully play around the cones (Yay!).   And found the work that the older kids were doing was fascinating.  I forgot to mention yesterday afterschool a handful of kids were treated by some the lower el students for a 3 part matching card lesson on the Apple Cider Press.  This is a seriously interesting machine and we are very lucky to have it.

Friday:  Day of the Barn Dance.  Boy you can tell there was a level of excitement all week that was crazy, but today we are maxed out!  Morning circle, we again started with the date and reviewed the months of the year.   We had a very special birthday walk for Logan who completed 3 orbits around the sun.  We celebrate with him, and thanked him for his special gift to the class: Fresh cut flowers for arrangements and decorations!   We used that as part of Practical life today and arranged seven vases to decorate our lunch tables, and then also used as part of the Barn dance decorations.   Thank you Logan!

Our work cycle was dominated by finishing up decorations for the barn dance and the occasional lesson.  Popular works included, journaling, garland making, pumpkin rubbing, fish card set, creating letters out of pipe cleaner (new work for barn dance), and web making.  

This week was crazy, but the children have worked so hard for the Barn Dance.  It really special that they get to work independently (Despite our Montessori second plane quote, we are still the first plane of development) towards a common goal that the older kids are also working towards.  Despite the solitude learning style at this age, it really helps them feel like part of the greater school community and gives special meaning to the dance.  I hope you all can make it!

Until next blog,

Ms Becky and Preschool Staff!

 

I know a lot of blog pictures from this week and not sorted at all.