Tis the season!

Hello!! Have you missed me? :) Well, I'm back and with lots of pictures to share. Let's get to it.

Firstly, thanks SO much to all families for helping us with our food for the Thanksgiving Feast. We hope you all enjoyed yourselves as much as we did not only having you all together with us, but preparing the food as well. From the mashed potatoes, to the cranberry sauce, to the place settings and flower arrangements; your children worked very hard to make the space and atmosphere perfect for you, our guests. Take a look!

And thank you to Miss Kristen for snapping some shots during the feast!

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Something new that I've learned this year - my first year as a teacher - is that getting new materials in the classroom is almost better than Christmas morning. And let me tell you... Christmas morning is a BIG deal to me! We received our brand new, shiny, beautiful Animal Continent Box. It consists of 4 animals native to each continent, informational cards about them, beautiful figurines; this is off of the shelf and being worked with all of the time now. 

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Right before Thanksgiving Break, Gabriel turned 5!!! Thank you for an addition of The Polar Express to our library and for sharing delicious Avengers cupcakes. Happy Birthday again!! 

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 And of course, the children hard at work collage :)

Top L: Micaela and Josie reading to John Paul about primary and secondary colors... (future teachers?)

Top Middle: William working on the Colored Bead material

Top Right: Candelaria completed her punching of all of the continents and glued her own map of the world together!

Bottom Left: Josie intently thinking on her next move in chess.

Bottom Middle: Miss Francina introducing The Hundred Board to a large group. (My favorite Montessori material from when I was in the Primary class)

Bottom Right: Sarah stringing Christmas themed beads

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• We are finishing up with the life of Johann Sebastian Bach, finally! New composer to come soon
• As we move along in the Old Testament, we are learning about Moses and Passover
• We just got an Advent calendar for the classroom! We'll be incorporating it in our daily routine - very exciting :)
• Please send in Christmas books all month and Christmas music!!! The best time of the year :D

Lastly, Mr. Gavin is visiting us tomorrow for his monthly visit :) We will be studying lizards with him. Please remember to donate a couple of dollars if you can -- the continued support truly helps us show him how much we appreciate him donating his time to us.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Pigs aren't always pink...

...but they are pretty cute! Meet Baby Huey:

Mr. Gavin brought Baby Huey in for us to spend some time with. Baby Huey was very well behaved - I  think because he was being kept very well fed - and because from what I was told, he loves kids!

Our Toddler friends even stopped by to say hello.....

Thank you all for donating your dollars to Mr. Gavin. We appreciate your continued support in making it possible for us to have such amazing hands on animal experiences for the kids; we couldn't ask for a better guy than Mr. Gavin. And he is so very thankful too!

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As we are in the height of the fall season, with this New England fall weather (that I'm learning is unusual but I am absolutely loving!!), it was time to switch up our chalkboard drawing. The kids have all lent a hand in coloring in different leaves with fall colors and it's looking great. It will be complete by Thanksgiving Feast! Some beautiful art to enjoy while eating :)

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This week included another exciting surprise: a visit to the Sacristy! A place where normally only priests, altar boys and girls and a choice other few get to enter. Miss Elizabeth was able to get us in; she's so great! The kids loved it - they were in awe; being able to see the same things they see in the Atrium, but life size. In the Atrium they set up a mini altar as if it were real, but the bigger the better, right?! They were so respectful and inquisitive - it was a wonderful experience. A big thanks to the Oratory for allowing us in.

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Some quick reminders:

1 - Picture Day tomorrow, Wednesday 11/14! I have been asked by a few parents what the background will be - we have such beautiful bushes and weather outside, they will be done there.

2 - Everybody should have received their assignment of what to bring to the Thanksgiving Feast - if you haven't, or if you have any questions about what we've asked of you, please let us know asap!

3 - If you still have not given a definitive number for an RSVP for the Thanksgiving Feast, please make sure you do by tomorrow as well so we can triple check we have the right amount of food :)

Thanks so much -- look forward to your faces in Thanksgiving Feast photos next blog post!

Good Bye October, Hello November!

In light of elections, check out the Presidents of the Primary classroom! If you were president, what would YOU do??

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At this point, everybody should have received their Thanksgiving Feast invitations. The kids worked hard with Miss Melissa cutting, gluing and punching to get these invitations looking just right. The long awaited opening of the Leaf Press holding their chosen leaves - that came aaaaall the way from Boston - was an exciting event, and you now have the final product. And we have Natalie to thank for the beautiful cursive you see in all of your invitations. We are looking forward to having you all at the school with us for our delicious feast!! Be on the lookout for your family's ingredient that we'll be assigning you to bring for the kid's to prepare themselves. Who's getting excited for turkey, potatoes, stuffing and.... PIES!? **raises hand**

:) Hope to see everyone there!

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The kids are doing so well with their individual projects/lessons, as well as with our group curriculum that we are teaching... below you can see:

Top Left: Aidan doing the addition strip board

Top Right: Miss Elizabeth reading a bible story to the class

Bottom Left: Miss Francina skip counting in 5's with Micaela

Middle: Mark strengthening his 3 finger grasp with our eyedropper lesson

Bottom Right: Miss Elizabeth and Aidan demonstrating to the class the proper use of the Queen

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 Now, my apologies for a very delayed HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! to Timothy :) (Miss Melissa getting stuck in Boston may have thrown the blogging off a bit - so sorry!) .. Timmy turned 4, had a super awesome and creative poster to share, and we thank him tremendously for The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle as his gift to the class!! One of our favorites...

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Fire Safety day also feels like it was forever ago... but here are some pictures from that day. I'm sure you've heard endless amounts about Escape plans, etc, but the day was a blast. I definitely didn't envy the firefighter wearing roughly 50 pounds of equipment on that very hot day!

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Lastly, we want to thank you all for being so attentive and receptive to our feedback at Parent Teacher Conferences... the days went by very smoothly and it was great to meet with you all.

Please send your RSVP's back for the Thanksgiving Feast by next Monday, November 12th.

Also, School Portraits next Wednesday, November 14th!! This is the first year that the school is doing this, and our very own Miss Melissa will be taking the pictures, so rest assured that the kids will feel comfortable, and she should definitely be able to get that genuine smile out of them! :) Please ensure that you have your slip back by Wednesday, at the latest.

Hope everybody is having a great week!!

Autumn breeze... changing leaves

Can you believe October is almost gone?! We've done tons of fun stuff in the past 2 weeks, so I'll get right to it:

As some of you parents may know, as an intern completing my Montessori certification this year (this is Miss Melissa), I am required to choose a topic to do a year long project on with the kids. I've gone back and forth on many different things that I'm passionate about and have lesson ideas on and have finally decided on: The Four Seasons. :) So excited to get going with the kids on this... I got right to it. I asked my dad up in Boston to mail me foliage, enough cool leaves for every child, and he did! Each child got the chance to choose their own leaf to press and in a few weeks we'll take them out to do an art project. Check it out:

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We celebrated Columbus Day, of course, learned a short poem, watched a short video, celebrated the discovery of our earth not being flat, and started to learn about a compass -- we've got a ways to go but the kids love working with our compass lesson and learning the directions:

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Not only did we celebrate Christopher Columbus, but how about Jack and Alex! Jack turned 4, and Alex turned 6.

Thank you, Jack for your book gift of The Polar Express. Can't wait to read that during our Christmas celebration! And thank you, Alex for The Giving Tree. A story that can be appreciated by children and adults alike. :)

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Halloween is very soon upon us! Did you all love our toilet paper roll monsters?!

and in the Halloween spirit, though most of you got to see during your observations this past week.. our Practical life area has transformed to all halloween activities -- the kids can't get enough :)

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Hard at work...

L to R, T to B: Aidan working with the colored beads, Maureen sequencing events, Sarah classifying magnetic and non magnetic objects, Brandon working with Miss Elizabeth on his number formation, Micaela & Sarah starting the endangered species puzzle, and Mikey practicing his violin.
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After all that hard work we do, we get a little hungry... this week we decided to make a delicious cream cheese fruit dip... mmm mmmmm

• 1 package of 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar (recipe calls for 1/2 cup but 1/4 was enough)
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

And whisk away!

YUM! We sliced apples to eat with, but I'm confident it could be eaten with any fruit. Delicious.

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After eating, we got back to our chess learning... now that everybody is well acquainted with the positions on the board, we've introduced the pawns:

I'm starting to get a little nervous playing against these kids... they are really picking it up!!

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This upcoming Tuesday the firefighters will be coming to visit, so of course we've got to be prepared. We've been focusing on fire safety... did your kids ask you to make an escape plan for your home??

L to R: Miss Francina sharing our fire safety poster that everybody gets to color for themselves, Josie demonstrating how to feel a door to make sure it's not hot before walking through it, Aidan and Alex coloring their posters.
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Fun in the sun now! Show and Tell this past week brought us some puppies. They were surprisingly well behaved in the classroom all day, loved getting all the attention from the kids, and were exhausted when the day was over:

 & some everyday good times on the playground:

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Well, this post was somewhat of a test to see what happens when I skip a week of posting.... I'd say there's a lot of information to share!!! Hope I didn't keep you for too long and you've enjoyed.

Until next time... :)

ps. don't forget to type your e-mail in the top right hand corner of this blog to get subscribed to be emailed every time there's a new post.

Pssst... October's here!

HEY, ALFREDO!

Doesn't he look like an Alfredo?!

Alfredo is a 5 year old, 18 pound tortoise who loves kids :)

L to R, T to B: Mr. Gavin asking Alyssa "what does he feel like?", Gabriel: "it feels rough," Mr. Gavin with the group, Miss Francina demonstrating how we touch Alfredo, John Paul leading the line to touch Alfredo, Josie knocking on the shell, Timmy: "it feels like a rock!", RJ: "it tickles!"


While we have one animal join us Monday, why not have 2 more join on Friday for Show and Tell??? Big thanks to Martha for sharing her guinea pigs, Chocolate Chip and Peanut! They hung out with us for the morning and were really great guests :)
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When it rains, it pours... and staying inside all day is just not an option... there's too much energy to expend! Take a look at how we release some of that energy when stuck under a roof, but still outside. "Vayan a la puerta!" (Go to the door!) - Get the body moving and brush up on those Spanish skills. (I chose to post this video over "The Hokey Pokey" ... we've all heard that one enough, I think) .. Enjoy!

When the weather plays nice, however - or even sometimes slightly too hot - how lucky are we to have the beautiful University campus to play on?

L to R: Friends cooling off in the fountain, a group of friends gathered on the bench, probably enjoying a breeze.

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Okay, okay, academics!! What about that stuff they come to school for? Plenty of that to go around.... have a look:

Top: Aidan using the movable alphabet to create sentences
Middle Left: Ellie reading in the library, Middle Right: Jack, Timmy & Michael doing botany & zoology puzzles
Bottom: Lucy proudly displaying her movable alphabet spelling words associating with objects.

L to R, T to B: Micaela practicing the violin, Mark doing the eyedropper exercise, Josie ecstatic at her finished product of her very own map of the world, Micaela happily displaying her very own map of North America, Sophia washing her dishes after doing the pickle exercise, and Natalie making her "10 ways to help the earth" poster.

Among all of the awesome work the kids are doing, above are just some of the highlights... every day there are new and exciting discoveries and milestones happening in the classroom.
 “The child can develop fully by means of experience in his environment. We call such experiences ‘work’.” - Maria MontessoriBeing a part of that "work" with your children is nothing short of a blessing! Below, Miss Elizabeth teaches the kids the very beginnings of chess. Watch out now! It might be time you all brush up on your skills before they come home fully equipped with the knowledge to beat you ;)

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And with these last reminders, we leave you for this week...

• This Wednesday, the 10th is the complimentary hearing and vision screening for the children. If you haven't brought your permission slip back yet, please do!!
• October 25th and 26th are Parent/Teacher conferences so please choose an observation time to come spend some time with us in the classroom prior to then, starting next week. The sign up sheets are taped up on the window next to the classroom door. If you have any questions, let us know!

Cabeza, Hombro, Rodilla, Pie!

...Do those words sound familiar?? Hope so! 

We've been ramping up the Spanish language piece in the classroom, and it has been so much fun. It never ceases to amaze me on a daily basis when the children are remembering Spanish words that they were just taught the day prior with no problem. We've expanded from body parts and basic commands, to things in our environment; chair: silla, wall: pared, etc... We've even begun labeling the classroom in both English and Spanish and it's spiked the children's curiosities greatly. Hopefully you've heard us when we greet the kids at the doors that it's now, "buenos dias" or "buenas tardes" -- they'll be speaking to you in fluent Spanish before you know it! (okay, maybe not fluent, but that would be pretty cool.)

Environmental sign -- Miss Francina asking, "point at the silla!"

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Our birthday celebrations for September didn't end... 3 more this past week! Happy 5th Birthdays go out to Josie, Will and Alyssa!

Top L: Miss Francina showing Josie's book gift, "Wow, America!"
Bottom L: Will unwrapping his book gift of, "Old Bear"
R: Alyssa holding the globe of the world doing her walk around the sun.

3 more books added to our library this week. Thank you all!! As soon as the new books get put in the library there's a mad rush to see who gets to read them first :) Nothing more exciting than kids being excited about reading!
Before I forget, we also owe a thank you to John Paul Baxa who gave us the gift of "The Earth Book" since his birthday was over the summer, we didn't get to celebrate, but he still wanted to add to the library. I think now may be a good time to mention: please, when you gift a book to us, don't hesitate to put a dedication on the inside cover! We would like to always remember who to thank for our growing library collection.

Also, for those who are looking at their Birthday Book Wish List with anticipation, there are 2 books that you can scratch off:
The Earth Book by Todd Parr
Old Bear by Kevin Henkes
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As we continue to work on our recycling curriculum, the kids are telling me I'm running the water too long sometimes - I love it! Our current focus has shifted from Water to Energy.
Our story of the life of Johann Sebastian Bach continues as well - Miss Elizabeth even brought in her real violin the other day!
Miss Francina brought in some of her Matryoshkas this week, and who doesn't love beautifully painted little wooden people who fit into eachother?! The kids sure do.


Aside from our special topics, the children are always hard at work eager to master their individual tasks:
Top L: Benedict practicing tracing his numbers, Josie writing her 10's on a chalkboardTop C: Alyssa working on the binomial cube, Aidan working on the trinomial cube
Top R: Sarah matching objects to the sounds on our consonant wall
Bottom: Natalie gluing her USA map together, and the finished product!

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And lastly, we always make time for some creative fun at the playground. :) This week, we created our own little bowling alley! And learned that some of your kids have some seriously good bowling form... This just may be our new favorite playground game... check it out:
L (top): Aidan bowling; L (bottom): Brandon bowlingC: Josie, Aidan, Gabriel and Natalie filling our bowling pin bottles with sand
R (top): Gabriel bowling; R (bottom): Jack bowling

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Well, it's time to sign off... have to get a good night's sleep for Mr. Gavin's visit tomorrow -- he's bringing turtles! Don't worry, there will be pictures :) 
Good Night!

Birthdays! & more bears...

Hello Casa Primary Community!!

What a great September we've had so far.. it's flying by and we've been having a blast. Not only has it been a great September, but this past week has been crazy busy! Enough talk.. take a look:

We had three birthdays in the past week... three!! Our friend RJ turned 3, on the top row you can have a sneak peek at his birthday poster board, his book gift to the class ("Oh Say, Oh Say, What's the Weather Today?" - we loved it!) and the class enjoying popsicles he brought to share! 

Micaela turned 6! In the middle is a picture of Micaela presenting her book gift of "Everyday Graces" to the class - another favorite :)

Lastly, Sophia turned 3! At the bottom you can see her carrying the globe of the world around the sun celebrating her 3 years on this earth, sharing the pictures on her poster board with us, and tracing her number 3. (We can't wait for her book gift which is on the way.)

Happy Birthday RJ, Micaela and Sophia!!! Thank you for celebrating with us!

Remember we mentioned Mr. Gavin from the Orange Jeep Tours would be joining us to talk animals with the kids? Well, he made his first visit - and it was a huge hit:

We can't wait for his next visit! He plans on bringing some crawling creatures for us to learn about and play with.

In light of his visit, we have started learning a new poem. Ask the kids about "Old George Bear" :)

In the above collage, take a look at us having fun on our playground, not just playing, but reading and learning about our garden!

Now, to close, we are sad to have to say good bye to one of our friends, Thomas. Thomas and his family are moving to Miami. We wish them the best and will deeply miss them! Thomas has been such a great helper so far this year... you can see him below helping his friends learn their continents with our continent song, matching weather cards in front of the class, proudly displaying his violin puzzle with Gabriel, and coloring Adam & Eve with Miss Melissa. 

Such a fun and busy week we had! With 2 days left in this short week, we hope everybody has a great long weekend and we'll have more to report back and share next week :)

Hasta luego!

If at first you fail, try and try again!

This past Friday the Primary class inadvertently learned an important life lesson: To always keep trying and never say you "can't."

We had a fun-filled day of lemonade making, toy airplane building and treehouse cabin construction... take a look!

L to R, T to B: Aidan building a plane, Alyssa squeezing a lime, Miss Melissa, Micaela, Aidan & Josie proud of their work, Miss Francina teaching how to throw the plane, Aidan, Miss Francina building plane while friends watch, Alyssa pouring freshly squeezed lemon juice, Gabriel, Aidan & Michael putting treehouse logs away, Miss Francina pouring lemonade for an excited Michael while classmates await, Ellie throwing the plane.

It only took accidentally breaking one plane while building it, and having another not fly until the third time was smooth soaring. The Lincoln Log treehouse? Only took just under an hour... I always remembered those being easy... maybe my brother did more of the work than I did!? After several head shakes, frustrated sighs and reconstructions we were really proud of our work and everybody was excited to see the finished product. Finally, our first lemonade (technically lemon/limeade) making of the year -- something we will be doing every Friday; first it was too sour, then a little bit too sweet.. last batch of the day: just perfect :)

Through all of this fun, we still found time to get work done, of course ;)

L to R, T to B: Brandon practicing his buttoning, Gabriel focused on weaving, Martha showing off her Red and Blue Rod work with numerals.

We can't believe a month is almost up! Look out for more posts this week; we've got exciting things planned.

Until then... always remember: to never give up :)

Bach, Bears and Beginnings...

Hello!! Welcome to the brand new Casa de Bambini of Ave Maria's blog. I hope you are all as excited to read as I am to be writing it. This is Miss Melissa :) my plan with this blog is to keep you not only informed, but interested about what goes on in the classroom. This way, it's not always a total surprise what they come home telling you about what they've been up to, and maybe you can even surprise them with what you know...

Left to right: Maureen learning to tie, Sarah sorting fruits and vegetables, Aidan and Gabriel proudly standing behind their "49 Layout" of values and numbers from 1 to 9000!

As we enter the third week of classes, we are so excited to share with you what we have been doing so far in the Primary classroom. The children have been acclimating to their new classroom environment very well and are more than eager to learn! We've started the year off with a few different topics:

1) Bears - could the children be more enthusiastic about this one? The stories they have been sharing about our frequent wild visitors are priceless, and our plan is to educate them as much as possible about these often misunderstood creatures. We are extremely excited to have our friend Gavin, from the Orange Jeep Tours coming in to the classroom once a month to share different (sometimes even live!) animals with the children. This month will be bears. Don't worry, not live ones. :) This week, we will be sending out a permission slip further explaining these visits.

2) Recycling - We have a recycling curriculum that we will be following throughout the year. We are starting with the importance of water. Learning to make sure that when we brush our teeth and wash our hands the faucet isn't left running - wasting water uses precious energy!

3) Johann Sebastian Bach - One of the greatest composers of all time. The children will be taken through the story of his life, learn about the instruments he used (we've started with the violin), listen to his conciertos and ultimately become classical music aficionados (so we hope). 

I found this short video below. I wanted to find something that would give a brief look into the Montessori classroom so you have a better idea of what your children are up to all day and something to look forward to when it's your turn to come observe! Oh, and the soundtrack is from Mr. Bach himself; how appropriate. Enjoy!

Last, but certainly not least, we have started taking the children to the oratory to become more familiar and comfortable with the space and to say hello to Jesus of course :) We have been working on the sign of the cross and reading bible stories everyday. The children's response thus far has been wonderful.

Before I close this first post, I would like to throw in some quick reminders!! 

• Please, when it is your child's birthday remember to take a few minutes to look at the Book Wish List that was given to you at the beginning of the year to choose a book to give as a gift to the class. We very much appreciate it and are so looking forward to expanding our library!
• Speaking of books, that is the one thing that your child can bring to school every day. Encourage this! We love to share books as often as we can. The more, the merrier.
• Snack!!! This is so so important. Please make sure that you bring snack on the day that you were assigned - the children feel very proud to share their snack with their friends and they have tons of fun with it :) 
• Show and Tell Friday! This is the day that your child can bring anything they want, other than a book to share with friends. This is a favorite... we all remember Show and Tell :)

Until next time, happy beginning of the year! We are so happy you are embarking on this wonderful journey with us.