Dear Parents,

I hope you’re all enjoying the weather as much as we have been! Our students all seem to have a new burst of energy since the weather started warming up, and we’re taking full advantage to offer challenging material on an individual basis. Lately, I’ve been going back through everyone’s evaluations from parent-teacher conferences to make sure that each child is focusing in the areas where we spoke of room for growth. It’s crazy to see the overall progress of each child since our last meet-up, and I hope that you, too, have noticed how much your child is learning!

Applying Communication Skills 

During large group gatherings, we have gone over a number of exercises on how to express ourselves, how to use descriptive words, how to compliment and encourage others, and how pronounce the words we have more clearly. Voice coaching is something that I like to practice with the kids to prepare them for communicating in all situations, from conversing over dinner to public speaking, and so forth. I’ve picked up some voice coaching techniques through my interest in linguistics over the years, particularly dialects for actors such as Neutral American, Mid-Atlantic, and vocal training for singers. Lessons on these dialects offer a variety of exercises that kids often find fun and silly as they begin to pay attention to how their vowels and consonants are formed. I’m no speech therapist by any means, but I am pleased to see a vast improvement with everyone’s confidence in participation during our discussions and music lessons since the beginning of the school year.

Older Students Teaching Younger Students 

Over the past couple of months, older students have gained a lot of confidence in their communication skills as they practice to give lessons to younger students. Our younger students have also benefited in finding their own sense of pride in communicating and participating during these one-to-one presentations. To hear our little ones quietly conversing with one another during these lessons is priceless. Below are just some examples of our older students helping our young ones to better understand the material in our studio.

Zooming into the World 

We have had ongoing lessons throughout the year on the earth as we find ways to teach our little ones that our planet is sphere-shaped, that gravity keeps us from floating out into outer-space, and that the world has much more space to offer than just the environment we live in. Lately, we’ve especially been zooming into maps to show the complexity of continents filled with countries, states, cities, and so forth. Many students have been focused on the United States of America as we have been learning some random facts about surrounding states of North Carolina during circle times.

Matching, Classifying, & Sequencing Cards

Various types of matching, classifying and sequencing cards are offered and rotated from our shelves throughout the school year to draw interest to every age group in the studio. Lessons are given on each set of cards to teach vocabulary and to find order in the world. During work cycles, you will see our students working on their own or with a peer, lining up their cards in rows or columns along the edges of their rugs. These exercises are calming to each child as they are focused and satisfied in their problem solving abilities. Through repetition, each child is developing reasoning skills and demonstrating knowledge in new vocabulary. They take pride in their ability to find order in our material.

Chapter Book of the Month

Jackie has been reading a little bit each day from Beezus and Ramona, by Beverly Cleary. After each chapter, there is a discussion for the kids to reflect on the events on the story. They are learning new vocabulary as they enjoy talking about the silly behaviors of the characters. On various occasions, many of our students enjoy browsing through this book during work cycle as they “read” with a peer. Funny, I don’t think there are many pictures in this book… It’s great when you really know the kids are putting their imaginations to work!

Popular Work of the Month: Metal Insets

We recently purchased a set high quality colored pencils for our metal insets, drawing kids in left and right to try them out. Sorry, Crayola & Rose Art, but we are soooo done with your pencils as they just don’t compare to good quality colored pencils with a nice grip and rich colors!

We have had lesson after lesson on the metal insets throughout the year, for it is an indirect tool of language, particularly writing. Children are shown over and over again a technique on how to grip a pencil and guide it along the hard edges of the insets. There is a lot of fine motor movement happening as a child handles these tools.  By keeping the point close to the edges of the stencil, the child begins to gain control of writing movements. While the kids are having fun making “shape art,” they are also learning how to make continuous strokes for writing letters in our alphabet. These metal insets are some of Maria Montessori’s famous tools that truly help kids to learn how to write at an early age.

Math Material

There is material for every child to work on their math skills in our studio. Our youngest children are working on understanding the quantities of numbers 1 through 10, while our older students have had lessons on addition, subtraction, skip counting, and so forth. Every child is having indirect lessons on division, multiplication, and fractions as they work on hands-on math activities as well as practical life material that is meant for sorting.

Beginning Sounds & Word Building

While every child is working on their beginning sounds, they are also introduced to very simple 3 lettered words, especially during our circle times during vocal warm ups for singing. Older students are focusing more on 3-5 lettered words as well as the phonetic variations and combinations of letter sounds. Our young ones who have been with us throughout the school year are often exposed to this material, which leads to a better understanding once they get a little older and begin to show a real interest in reading. We have countless activities on beginning sounds and word building for all ages. Everyone is really interested in language right now, and I couldn’t  be more proud of this motivated group of Primary students!

Transitional Activities

As you you know, we recently had a meeting for questions and concerns for parents here at the Indigo Primary Class. While I believe everyone’s questions were answered, I realize that not everyone was able to make the meeting on such a short notice. We especially talked about what goes on during transitional activities, and even though I think everyone knows what that means by now, I wrote a thorough article on the details of this term and what exactly goes on during these times, just to make sure that everyone has a strong understanding. If you have never heard of this phrase or need a refresher, check out my post called “Transitional Activities,” also found under on the drop-down menu of our “Extra Extra” section. Please, do not hesitate to reach out if you ever have questions as it is very important that you have a good understanding of what your child is up to during the day!

Below are some examples of different materials that we offer during transitions. More samples are mentioned in my article.

Activity Sheets

Check out these Vintage Legos!

Game Chips

Opening Our Doors to the Pre-Primary Students

Every Wednesday, we open up our doors and allow students to work in both the Primary Studio & the Pre-Primary Studio, as long as our older students are helping the younger ones. This is not only great for social skills, but it helps our younger ones to feel more comfortable as they eventually make the transition into our classroom.

Visiting the Pre-Primary Studio

On that note, I’d like to welcome Caleb to the studio! He has just recently transitioned into the Primary Studio after several weeks of working his way up! Such a sweetheart!

Holiday Activities

I know this part is a little belated, but I can’t leave out our Valentine’s Day Party! Crafty art activities were offered throughout the day, along with party snacks and favors. Thank you everyone for participating in the holiday fun with valentine’s cards, etc!

Celebrations of Life

We had some wonderful celebrations recently for the following students. Thank you all for your participation to make the day extra special for your child!

Kids at Work

And last but not least, more photos of your kids working so well during our work cycles and transition periods.