While this week definitely did not go as planned, the boys and girls adapted so well! We accomplished so much work and had great opportunities to be outside and enjoy the beautiful weather!
Show and Tell
The Pre-K students did a great job with a tricky show and tell this week. For most of the year, we focused on the short /a/ sound for the letter A; but today, the boys and girls learned that the letter A can make many different sounds, like in apple, April, or airplane!
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| Apples, allosaurus, airplane, arrow...oh my! |
Addition
Our whole group math lesson this week was on addition and what could be more fun than taking our addition lesson outside! First, we watched this Jack Hartman video to reinforce what we already know about addition. We practiced some addition facts and then took our addition lesson to the parking lot. Using chalk, the children drew a certain number of shapes in one color and added some more in a different color. Then, they added them together to see how many they had in all! THEY LOVED IT! "We are just like the kindergartners!" I gave them some addition problems to work on as a group and they created their own at the end. This is a simple, fun way to practice addition at home.
Science
We experimented with density for our science lesson this week. The boys and girls learned that the "science definition" for density refers to the amount of space an object or substance takes up (volume) in relation to the amount of matter in that object or substance (mass). But what does that mean? We experimented to find out!
First, we poured water into a tall container - and added some food coloring for fun!
Next, we added some syrup. We observed that the syrup sank to the bottom. That meant it was more dense than the water!
Then, we added some oil. The oil stayed at the very top meaning it was less dense than both the water and the syrup.
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| "WOW! That's so cool!" |
Then, we tested several different objects to see if they were more dense or less dense than the liquids in the container.
We discovered that a spoon, a screw, a penny, and a nickel were more dense than all the liquids because they sank right to the bottom. A crayon was more dense than the oil and water, but less dense than the syrup. It appeared to sit right on top of the syrup! A pencil was more dense than oil, but less dense than water and syrup. A ping pong ball was the least dense of all - floating right on top of all the liquids!
The boys and girls LOVED this experiment! A huge thank you to Alexandra and her mom for sending it to me. If you want to try it at home, you can see the full experiment here.
Earth Day!
This week, we learned all about the importance of helping to keep the earth clean and healthy. The boys and girls learned about the importance of recycling and reusing during our Weekly Reader lesson. On Thursday, we had a "waste-free" lunch and enjoyed showing our friends our reusable containers!
On Friday, we went for a litter walk to help clean up the neighborhood.
Montessori Lessons
One of my favorite things to see as a teacher is when the students ask if they can give a classmate a lesson on a material. They make excellent teachers!
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| Luke showed Anthony how to use the Ten Board. |
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| Lexi helped Connor start spelling with the Movable Alphabet and Phonetic Object Box 1. |
Important reminders:
- Show and tell will be on Wednesday, April 28. The topic will be something with I.
- Don’t forget to sign up for our Mystery Reader program! We would love it if every child could have a parent participate. Remember it’s a surprise! Please let me know if you would like to sign up to read to the class.
- A huge thank you to Anthony's mom for being our first mystery reader! The boys and girls were so excited and kept saying "I hope my mom or dad is next!"
