Robin Norgren, M.A, R-YT, Spiritual Director Robin Norgren, M.A, R-YT, Spiritual Director

Diary of a First Year Montessori Kindergarten Teacher - Week 5



Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Hello Montessori Kindergarten Families,

This week the students began to really take ownership of the school supplies your families provided for the classroom. They are now responsible for getting their own handwriting sheets, going to their individual compartment bin and choosing from 1 of their 3 pencils,completing the work, date stamping it and putting their items back in the bins. I am noticing already the increased sense of pride and ownership of the things they are responsible for and the work they are accomplishing.

This week, though it was a shortened week due to Labor Day, was still packed with opportunities to learn, explore and build on the work we began as early as the first few days of school. We are delving into the science of weather and have incorporated some art from the lovely Ms. Georgia O’Keefe that is displayed in the hallways of the school along with our Rain Clouds in a Jar Experiment.

We have successfully completed our goals outlined for August so we will continue to review these concepts and move into the goals set forth for September. We are going into our final weeks of “30 Days of Kindness” and will soon begin to talk about over 25 different types of emotions we are capable of having as humans and the ways in which we can be kind while recognizing that there are times when we just don’t ‘feel like it.’ I smile when I type this because I will never forget noticing a prior student in the midst of a situation where she was not displaying ‘her best self’ and she said to me, “I like being rude!” 🙂
I hope everyone is having a lovely Grandparents Day. If your kiddos forgot the name of the flowers they painted for the Grandparents, they are Forget Me Nots.

Tuesday: 
Kindness focus — pick up trash OR help to set the table
This week’s letters: D,d,E,e,F,f
EVERY MONTH the practical life area changes in the classroom — new lessons are given on those works at group time all week
Finish book “I Am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness” by Susan Verde, Illustrations by Peter Reynolds
Practice counting backwards from 20
Handwriting: Write city, state that you live in

Wednesday: 
Nouns Game #1
Hearing/Vision Tests Today
Extreme Weather conversations/vocabulary: fog, hurricane, drought, precipitation
Review of colors/0–10
Kindness: tell your dad one thing you love about him OR say ‘good job’ to someone
Review of types of clouds
Grace and Courtesy Lesson: Bodies and Boundaries -is it okay to hug a friend without asking? What do you do if someone if trying to hug you or touch you and you don’t want him/her to?

Thursday:
Art Lesson Georgia O’Keefe “Sky Above Clouds”
Lesson: How to use a ruler/ measurement/ inches and centimeters/horizon line/ above and below
More discussion on drought, precipitation, hurricane, fog
Kindness: Smile at someone
Nouns Game #2
Lesson: what is an antonym?
skip counting by 2’s to 20

Friday:
Grandparents Day project: painting forget me nots/working with a ruler/measurement/vertical lines/parallel lines
Beginning sounds: 3 letter phonetic blending
Noun Game #3
Noun sorts: person/place/animal/thing
Grace and Courtesy Lesson: Appropriate vs. Inappropriate Conversation — What words can we use to describe a friend or to give a friend a compliment?

Extending the learning:
I remember when Josey was in kindergarten and one day she came home to tell me she got married. Uh really? At the time I was not a teacher. We were stationed in Colorado and I ran an at home business. So the thoughts I had then are way different now that I am a teacher in a classroom. I asked, “tell me about your wedding.” She and her friends and had planned it because she liked a boy and a boy liked her and she said they kissed. Yep this really happened. I said to her, “Josey, you are only 5 years old, you are not old enough to get married and kiss a boy.” Her response? “What? Nobody told me that!!!”
Perhaps many of you are way ahead of the game and are already talking about this with your kiddos and to you I say BRAVO! But maybe you are like me (and I am talking 7 years ago!) and you think this is not a conversation that your child needs to have yet. I trust your judgement in these situations.

This week we has a situation when a student told another student that the student was ‘hot’ and then later told the student that the student ‘had to always be next to her/him because he/she ‘thought she/he was hot.” I try my best to make sure that we are mindful of conversations going on in the classroom. And I am thankful that I did hear this conversation so that I could address it at group time. But the reality is, I do not hear every conversation. And I am not outside all the time on duty to witness conversations with other students in other classrooms. I just want to keep it on your radar that our children our hearing things ALL THE TIME that may not be what we consider ‘age appropriate’ and I take it seriously that I have the privilege to partner with you to raise healthy and not only physically but emotionally strong and competent people.
Thanks for all you do to raise the future generation who each have light to shine in the world.

Warm regards,
Mrs. Norgren
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Robin Norgren, M.A, R-YT, Spiritual Director Robin Norgren, M.A, R-YT, Spiritual Director

Diary of First Year Montessori Kindergarten Teacher - Week 4



Photo by Kelsey Knight on Unsplash

Hi Montessori Kindergarten Families,

I hope this is a restful AND adventurous weekend for you all. I have attached the new snack calendar for the month and I want to give you a heads up that a Scholastic Book Order flyer will be coming home on Tuesday. You can place your order online (my teacher code will be on the flyer) and that will eliminate the issue of lost money. I hope you enjoy picking out some lovely new books — you will notice the prices are really GREAT AND we get points for new books in the classroom. PLUS if you make a purchase of $25+, you are entitled to a FREE book. You have until September 25, 2018 to place the order.
Okay! ON WITH THE WEEK AT A GLANCE! (at the end, I offer ways to extend the learning):

Monday: 
We welcomed new plants into the classroom and CONTINUED our group discussions on living and nonliving. The students came up with a criteria of what makes something ‘living vs. nonliving’: to be considered for the living category, you have to eat, grow and move. We have had some LIVELY discussions around this criteria all week — think about how you would differentiate between the two.
Our 30 days of kindness campaign continues. The following are this week’s conversations: say ‘thank you’ to someone, ask a NEW friend to play with you, tell someone to ‘have a nice day’, ask, ‘how are you?’, do something nice for a teacher
Letter focus this week: S,M,A,T
Handwriting Focus this week: Ss,Mm,Aa,Tt NUMBERS: 1–5 first/last name day of the week

Tuesday:
Sorting/Category work: mothers and babies, living vs. nonliving, what does not belong, short o, colors
Watch a video called “The ABCs of Occupations (extending our community helpers theme)”




(ask your child which occupation he/she said she/he wanted to be 🙂 )
Group Conversation: Let’s talk about flowers (favorite flower, how do they grow, have YOU ever planted a flower)
Wednesday: 
Fire Drill
0–10 addition all students worked on math — practiced writing numbers, discussion about what addition means, the symbols of addition, the concept of zero
Georgia O’Keefe art — watched a video gallery of her work — representations of living (flowers) and nonliving (cow skulls) — created flowers with watercolors, chalk pastels, drawing

Thursday:
Science Experiment: Weather — Convection Currents (THANK YOU to L’s family for making ALL the ice cubes for the class) Students drew a picture and discussed with the group what they noticed.  
We set up our INDIVIDUAL bins today. 
Book: “I wish you more” by A. Rosenthall and T. Lichtenheld
Video: skip counting to 100 by 10s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCJug1WlYJs



Friday: 
Book — “I am Peace — a Book of Mindfulness” — by Susan Verde
Grace and Courtesy lesson: What do we do if someone is hitting us or pushing us? 
1. We say in our strongest voice ‘stop it! I don’t like it” — we make sure we do not have a smile on our face. We walk/run away from the person. 
2. We tell a teacher that you are being hit/hurt/pushed and the teacher will help you 
3. We tell Mrs. Norgren and we tell our parents what happened and what you or the teacher did to solve the problem.
 
Peace DOES NOT mean that you should be hit/pushed/hurt
Llamas go home today
We created cow skulls using pencil and acrylic paint

EXTENDING THE LEARNING:
1. Play a game pointing items out as you take a talk and play ‘is it living or nonliving?’
2. Estimating: we have started playing a game called “Estimation jar” where the students can take a clipboard around the room and a jar of random objects and ask their friends to estimate how many items are in the jar. At the end of the week, we count the number of items together. Did you know estimating is a good skill to acquire because as the student continue to grow in their math experiences, the ability to estimate helps them to gauge if they are on the right track with their attempts to solve the problem/find a solution. It is super easy to come up with ways to play the estimation game i.e how long do you think it will take to…

NEED FOR NEXT WEEK: aluminum canned good can please ( FOR NEXT WEEK’S EXPERIMENT)

Alright families, I will wrap it up. YES we definitely cover a lot of ground every week. I truly hope your child is enjoying her/his learning experience.

Warm regards,
Mrs. Norgren
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Robin Norgren, M.A, R-YT, Spiritual Director Robin Norgren, M.A, R-YT, Spiritual Director

Diary of a First Year Montessori Kindergarten Teacher - Week 3







Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash
 



Hi Kindergarten Montessori Families,


I hope your weekend is going well! I am pleased to report another lovely week together in the classroom. Thanks to all who have had the opportunity to check out Sign up Genius and contribute some lovely new items to make our classroom feel more like a home away from home.

We had a super busy week indeed! We got a chance to visit (and for our new friends get to know) Farmer Sean with Carter’s Farm, we got to have the experience of having our school pictures taken, we got to experience our first Celebration of Life Ceremony with A and we are whisking our own soap that we grate from our Practical Life work to make the suds to clean our plates at lunch time. You have no idea how FUN this is to do! Or maybe you do 🙂
One thing I forgot to mention is we make it a priority at lunch time to wait for everyone to sit down and unpack our lunches onto our plates before we begin eating. It is such a beautiful experience to watch your children care for each other enough to be patient as we wait to eat together.

I don’t know if I mentioned our MAIN science focus this semester is weather. We began with a picture story about Cloudette and this week we looked at types of clouds (we will learn the vocabulary later; this week we simply observed the pictures of different types with our magnifying glasses). You may have heard about our first official science experiment in the classroom — Rain Clouds in a jar — everyone participated and then each child wrote about the experience.


This week we also began to explore math concepts like the concept of zero, counting to 50, how teen numbers work and single digit addition with manipulatives like numbers and counters, number rods and addition strip boards. Some friends became interested in trying the hundred board. And we participated in a couple collage art/process art activities. OH! And the llama shirts are completed — make sure to wear them Wednesday!

UPCOMING NEEDS FOR OUR SCIENCE PROJECTS:
 — 20 empty aluminum cans ( 14.5 oz and labels off)
 — 6–8 trays of blue ice cubes (they can be left in the ice tray and we will make sure to return them)
We would like to do at least one of the experiments by Thursday so I will keep you posted WHICH ONE based on everyone’s ability to donate.
Here is a breakdown of the week in particular:
Monday: we observed everyone’s peace rocks and talked about the peace inside us and how we can shine peace in the world. We also started 30 days of kindness where each day we talk about 1 way we can be kind to someone in the world. We also did a rhyming activity where the student was given 2 rhyming words and he/she had to make up a rhyme on the spot to the tune of “Down by the Bay” — they loved it! 
Day 1 Kindness: leave someone a surprise
Tuesday: Talked more about community helpers. Saw a video about sanitation workers and how a garbage truck works
Kindness #2 Help someone before they ask
Lesson on odds and evens and preliminary lesson on what is a noun.


Wednesday: talk about pronouns using one of the class favorite songs “The Choo Choo Song” 
Kindness day 3: Tell your mom something that you love about her
We received a new set of dressing frames so the students can start to practice buttoning, tying shoes, velcro, snapping, etc. 
Started conversations about extreme weather using real life pictures and language for hurricanes, hail storms and mudslide.
Thursday: Kindness day 4: Ask “How are You?’ 
Complete our peace sticks, talk about the value of taking turns when talking and making sure to listen. 
Played a game where the student had to listen to his friend answer a question and then tell the class the answer. 
Read a book called “Some Bunny Loves me” by Parry Gripp that talked about kindness to animals. 
Practice yoga together in the afternoon. 
Science Experiment.
Friday: Took time to look at and admire the Peace Sticks at the Observation Table, Talked about extreme weather blizzard, lightning storm, floods, review of the week. 
Kindness day 5: Give your friend a high five or fist bump.

Thanks as always families for the PRIVILEGE to be a part of your children’s lives.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Norgren
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Robin Norgren, M.A, R-YT, Spiritual Director Robin Norgren, M.A, R-YT, Spiritual Director

Diary of a First Year Montessori Kindergarten Teacher - Week 2


Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash


Hello Kindergarten Montessori Families,

I hope your weekend is going well. I would like to share a few of the highlights of the lessons we learned this week. I will also give some extended learning ideas for the weekend for your child to participate in and bring to school on Monday if they wish to. Finally, I have the sign up genius link for items that would help our learning environment run more smoothly — thank you in advance for any contributions!

Monday: This week we went to our specials outside of the classroom — the students love it! Today’s specials were music and P.E. — as you know P.E. happens daily. We continued our conversations about Peace in the classroom, in our homes and in the world by reading a book called “Can you say Peace?” by Karen Katz and looking at Picasso’s rendering of a dove. we also began our Science unit by talking about clouds. We read a book called Cloudette, about a fictional cloud with a lovely message about the way she used her gift to help the world.



Tuesday: P.E. and S.T.R.E.A.M today
We read the book “Peace is a offering” by Annette LeBox and we talked about what we will be doing with the rocks and sticks we have been collecting. We played a game called Silence and Noise and tied in the concept of Peace in the midst of Silence and in the midst of Noise. In Math I began introducing the beads to the students with the small bead stair and its colors and what they represent in the math work. We talked more about why fire drills are important. And we counted to 50 using cubes.

Wednesday: P.E. and library today
We learned the song “This little light of mine” and what it means to shine our light in the world. We watched a short video about Wangari’s Trees of Peace. We wrote a story using pictures based on Cloudette and talked about what other ways Cloudette could help the world. In math, I introduced red and blue rods and integrated conversations about addition using the rods.



Thursday: P.E. today
We talked about a place in the U.S. that has a large Peace Rock on display. We talked about community helpers and watched an old Sesame Street video called “People in your Neighborhood” about a fireman and a postman. In math, we talked about the concept of zero and I gave some small group lessons on the teen board (those who were at parent night saw this work) and the binomial cube.

Friday: library today
We made our peace rocks and we worked on birthday cards for Dr. S’s birthday next week. MAP testing was done through the day with Mrs. L and Mrs. B. We had a conversation together (Grace and Courtesy lesson) on what to do if you feel like someone is class is being mean to you or pushing you while you are in line and role played ways to handle when things like this happen. We also talked about needing to ALWAYS tell a teacher when something like this happens so that everyone feels safe at school.
As you can see, we have really diverse and interesting conversations and activities throughout the day! Many of you have asked when you can be a part of the classroom environment as a helper. Normally we ask for 6 weeks to allow the students to get accustomed to the routines of the classroom. Please look for me to send out a signup link and information on how to get involved towards the end of September.
Extend the learning: Talk about with your child ways in which your family, culture, church celebrates peace and the symbols you use to symbolize peace. Also, invite your child to draw a picture of what peace looks like. You can then ask them what they drew and write down their thoughts.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Sincerely,
 Mrs. Norgren
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