February in a Flash

The first week of February, the children were happy to be hard at work, with a busy month on the horizon.

Weaving

Snake Game Addition

Division Facts with the Division Board

Working on the Decanomial

Flag Research

Word Bingo

More Flag research

Learning about Fractions

Learning about the Stem

Our Solar System

Pythagorean Board

Seasons Mat, learning about the months of the year, and how they relate to the Earth's position relative to the sun.

Going into the second week of February, we had a field trip, Valentine's Day, and a LOT of illness. I don't think we had a day that week without a few students out. But, not to be deterred, the children persisted. There was a lot of work on finishing up research, in particular.

Hard at work on a Model

Partners in Research

In the final stages of preparation, using Highlighters to show who will read what.

Working on a model

Sammy and Axel making their models for Snake research

Sammy and Axel were able to present their research, and as a special treat, Sammy's mom brought in their pet snake, a young reticulated python named Pixie, as a live model.

As part of our community service, we collect Pop Tabs to donate to Ronald McDonald House. We weighed our pop tabs, and discovered we were VERY close to the amount that would pay for a family's one night stay!

We are also making chapsticks to be donated to the Ada Jenkins Center. Here is the set-up on the shelf, and a couple of children walking through the process!

The waxy balm is melted using the same type of candle and ladle we use for sealing wax. It's then carefully poured into the chapstick container using a funnel. The timer ensures the chapstick has cooled sufficiently to be moved to a different tray, and the work tray can be restored and made ready for the next person.

Pouring takes careful concentration!

Waiting for the wax balm to melt!

We had a field trip to the Mint Museum (separate blog) followed by a Sun Celebration, and finished up the week by celebrating Valentine's Day.

Axel's Sun Celebration

I loved this sweet, spontaneous moment of friendship. One student's bow had come undone, and the other stopped to fix it.

Distributing Valentines

Absent students mean lots of room to work, I guess?

These students are making sure we have fresh hand towels (extra important when fighting germs!)

Lincoln was SO proud to be the first student to figure out how to make a Chinese Lantern. He followed the written directions and figured it out all on his own!

"Magic" Pencils as a Valentine from Ms. Heidi

We limped over the finish line to the February break with nearly half the class out for one illness or another throughout the course of the week.

When we returned from the break, with everyone finally feeling better, we hit the ground running with lessons!

3rd graders reviewing Fractions

1st graders working through quarterly common assessments that pair paper and pencil math problems with Montessori Materials.

2nd Grade Common Assessments

James and Michael have really gotten into creating their own Land and Water Forms

Map of Canada

Stamp game addition is a step toward abstraction from the Golden Bead material

Learning to read for information using an SRA

Finding information in the Encyclopedia

Division Facts

Making Chapstick

Lincoln reviewing fractions

Learning about Contractions

Combining syllables to create words

Another SRA

Addition with the Snake Game

Third Graders Working on Homophones Definitions

Mr. Matt Shared an overview of the Hero's Journey with us. The children really connected with it.

Ms. Erin (Percy's Mom) not only shared her knowledge with us, but she also provided some beautiful lessons to be used in the classroom, as well as this beautiful Chinese Scroll. It says "Montessori" in Chinese. We are so grateful.

And finally, the CREEK was OPEN FOR BUSINESS! Yay!