Dear Parents,

The kids seemed happy this week to be back into a normal routine, after our week of conferences and celebrations.  We taught group lessons on a variety of material such as the teen boards, mixing primary colors to make secondary colors, peninsula and gulf land forms, dinosaur fossils, the United States map and the American flag.

Verbal Fetching

During the work cycle, we played memory games with individuals by verbal fetching, a Montessori technique that keeps kids focused and active as they “fetch” items in the classroom that solve a puzzle or complete a work.  For example, as kids are learning their colors, a teacher might place color tablets on a table and then place their matching color tablets on a rug across the room.  Then, the teacher will sit at the rug with the child, point to a color and tell them the name of the color.  Finally, we ask that they go fetch the matching tablet.  The child must remember what the color looks like as they go across the room to find its match, bring it to the rug and then state the name of the color.  To the child, it feels like a playful game as they begin to learn new vocabulary.  This week, some kids worked on fetching colors, geometric shapes, and countries from our geography map puzzles.

Piano Lesson: F Major Chord

This week, our students were shown the notes of the F Major chord on the piano.  For anyone who is interested in Angelique’s approach to teaching music and how this lesson was taught, visit her Music Education Page.

New Student!

Bobby is a new student who has moved into to our studio this week as he was ready to move up from Melisa’s class.  Our older kids were especially quick to help Bobby out with classroom routines and new material.  It really helped Bobby to feel welcomed and more comfortable in such a new environment.  Welcome, Bobby!

Below are Pictures of this week’s work cycle to give you a better idea of how busy and productive everyone has been lately.

Have a great weekend!

Angelique & Carrie