Ashland Montessori School » blog

Penguins in the News…

dana — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:48:05 +0000

The students at Ashland Montessori School have been learning about penguins! Parts of a Penguin is one of the works on the science shelf as is a “time line” egg hatches, chick has down, chick grows & gets feathers, penguin dives for food. On a recent Thursday afternoon the children made igloos (with sugar cubes and butter cream icing for “glue.”) The Monday, Wednesday, Friday afternoon group is listening to a chapter book – Mr. Popper’s Penguins – by Richard and Florence Atwater. The children are doing well listening to a book with no illustrations! We finished chapter seventeen today. By next Monday we will finish the book!

There are Polar Regions works in Geography. We now know that penguins live in the southern polar region and polar bears in the northern polar region. We even have a child – sized tent that looks like an igloo. It has a basket of books (about penguins) in it. Two people at a time may be in the tent to look at books.

Mrs. Howe brought in a pair of oven mitts (the layer of blubber that keeps penguins warm) and a big zip lock bag (the oily feathers that keep penguins dry.) She had the children sip ice water (it was VERY cold.) Then each child had the opportunity to slip their hand into the oven mitt, inside the plastic bag, and submerge their hand into ice-y water. Every hand came out warm and dry!

Some facts your student might share are: Penguins eat fish. Emperor penguins can grow as tall as a six-year-old child. Penguins flop on their bellies and slide. Dad takes care of the egg, while Mom goes out for food. Killer whales and seals eat penguins. Penguins have a layer of blubber that keeps them warm. Penguins do not fly but are excellent swimmers and divers. Quite possibly more than you’ve ever wanted to know about penguins, but the children have had fun! What could be better than learning AND having fun?

Geography Area

dana — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 19:19:04 +0000

The geography area expands on some things in science. We will discuss Air, Land and Water and vehicles. There is a very basic puzzle of vehicles to classify, a wooden vehicle puzzle , a matching work and another wooden vehicle puzzle. The third shelf has three classifying works, the bottom shelf has a work to use a stamp pad & stamps of vehicles and a game of rolling a die and coloring a picture of the vehicle that came up on the die.

We will continue to explore the Montessori environment in the coming days.

Science Shelves

dana — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 19:07:46 +0000

In “science” we will learn about Air, Land and Water, why they are necessary and classification of animals that move in the air, on the land and in the water. There is a mat to put on the floor with a scene on it. The children will place animals in the air, on the land & in the water. The next work is an 8 x 10 sheet that is white, brown and blue (air, land, water,) animals will be placed on each column. Next is a matching (star fish) work. The bottom shelf is a stamping/classifying work. The second shelf is all about fish. Several puzzles, and a matching work are on this shelf. There is a wooden sea creatures puzzle, a nomenclature work – naming the parts of a fish, a sequencing work and the students may make their own “parts of a fish” book. That rounds out the science area!

Language area

dana — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:45:19 +0000

The Language area is all about pre-reading and reading activities! First, let me tell you that all activities in any Montessori School are called “works.” The works are all arranged to flow from left to right; from the most concrete to the abstract. That being said, the first works in “language” are matching works. Objects (fish,) pictures (cards of Nemo characters,) sea shells, and pictures of flora and fauna. the next shelf in language has works of animal matching (and labeling, if you can,) matching pictures of part-of-something to the whole of something (giraffes, ostrichs, and camels. Next is another part-to-whole picture work, and again, zoo pix Mrs. Jones took a couple years ago. The bottom shelf is alphabet puzzles. The third shelf contains materials for teaching/learning the sounds of the letters in the alphabet! The advanced language materials are in the advanced room with Mrs. Howe. Oh yes, many trays and bowls/baskets in the language area are lavender. Language = lavender, yes, i’m obsessive!

Open House

dana — Tue, 10 May 2011 10:43:27 +0000

Please join us for our Spring Open House; Thursday, May 19, from 6:00 – 7:00 P.M.

Ashland Montessori School, 1515 Mifflin Avenue, Ashland OH 44805

419.289.5699

Ashland Montessori School goes retro!

dana — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 18:51:00 +0000

This past Thursday, when it was too wet to be on the playground, i dug out something “new” for us to do! We have a record player and lots of vinyl. The children were amazed. “I’ve never seen that before!” ”What are those? We have a record with a song to use with bean bags – yet another cool “new” thing. The song tells us to” throw the bean bag and catch, turn around, turn around, stamp, stamp, stamp.” Then we put the bean bag on our shoulder, on our elbow, on our stomach, fingers, foot, knee….the chorus says “put it on your head and walk around the room.” What fun! What good listening skills! On Friday, the children asked if we could play the records again! Everything old is new again. (i didn’t tell them that i still listen to a few 8 track tapes – we’ll save that for another rainy day!) dana

Praises for Montessori Method

dana — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 23:10:29 +0000

Here is a link to an article from the Wall Street Journal – thought you’d enjoy it!

Currently Enrolling for 2011-2012

dana — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:02:33 +0000

Please pass the word to friends and family that we are now enrolling students for next school year! Enough families have made the commitment to us that there will be a kindergarten program as well! Call the school at 419.289.5699, to set up a time to visit.

A Stroll Through the Environments

dana — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 01:00:27 +0000

Before we start our stroll, let me say a little about orange juicing. The children have loved it! Thanks to all families who donated oranges. Each time a student wants to squeeze orange juice they take one half of an orange and juice it – not with a fancy electric juicer, but with an old-fashioned manual juicer that has a strainer. The juice is caught in a plastic cup with a spout. The juice is then poured into a paper cup & consumed. The reamer/strainer is then rinsed and replaced on the plastic cup and the work is ready for the next child. We’ve had so many oranges that a pretty glass plate is set out each day with half-slices of oranges on it. The child takes a napkin, uses a cocktail fork to serve themselves and eats several slices. We have, all, had plenty of vitamin C in the past few weeks!

Practical Life works currently include transfering green and clear beads into small glass bowls with tweezers; transfering various sizes of green pom poms into an ice cube tray using chop sticks; using sugar cube tongs to move wooden beads; parquetry blocks used to recreate designs and many lacing works. Mrs. Etzwiler also put out a cloths-pinning work for the children to hang shamrocks on the cloths line. There is dry pouring 1:3 and 1:5 and wet pouring 1:3.

Language area continues to have alphabet puzzles, several musical instrument matching works, nomenclature and identifying musical instruments. There are also two works of singular and plural, where the word is pluralized by adding “s.” A new work has been presented with onsets and rimes; word-building; moveable alphabet and many other reading works.

Sensorial has a new work, an extension really, to the geometric cabinet.

In Science, the children are learning about the solar system and dinosaurs.

The Math shelves have many green coloured counters for the counting works. We are also learning about coins – just naming/sorting/stamping them right now, but counting them and understanding equivalents very soon.

In Geography, we are wrapping up the continent of Africa (Europe is next.) We observed Ohio’s birthday early this month and are delving more deeply into Ohio’s bird, flower, gemstone, animal, insect, beverage, fossil…

All this, while having fun! Music Play is going well and the morning students are enjoying Kung Fu for Character Building. This next week, on Monday, we welcome the parents of morning students to come and see how their child spends part of their morning. On Wednesday, the afternoon parents will spend some time at school. We welcome each of you and thank you for sharing your child with us!

New Poems for January

dana — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:44:54 +0000

“Winter Cheer

I love all the seasons, but winter is the best. Let’s put on our mittens, now we are all dressed. In the snow we love to play and this is what we hear, burr, burr, burr, burr, that’s this season’s cheer.”

“Wheezer

A very fat snowman named Wheezer, Was truly a clever old geezer; Whenever he felt He was starting to melt, He would spend a few days in the freezer.”

Ask your student about the poems, Nearly all have memorized “Winter Cheer.”