Mandeville Weekly News
3/1/10—3/5/10
· Kinder Haus’ Open House is Thursday, 3/11/10 from 6:00-7:00 p.m. Please join us as we open our classrooms to our parents, to your friends and relatives and to the outside public. This is your time to visit with the teachers, ask questions about your child’s classroom and learn more about the “Magic of Montessori”! We hope to see you there!
· Please do not leave cars running in the parking lot and do not leave children unattended in cars. Thank you for helping us to keep Kinder Haus a safe environment for all children.
PreK/Kindergarten Chronicles
If the Ground Hog’s “6 more weeks of winter weather” prediction proves to be true, we’ve only got one week and one day to go! The few sunny days we had this week brought jubilant smiles and “extended” playground time! Football and soccer, cheerleading and friendly chasing, rock pies and romps through the tunnel are but a few of the many varied activities that brought smiles, ear to ear, from our happy crew! Surely, spring is on the way!
With the coming of spring, rocks and minerals as well as volcanoes and magnets are but a few of the many things we will be talking about. Our new Library will also be on the agenda for lessons on how to remove and replace a book on the shelf, how to return the book to the shelf in the exact space from which it was taken and how to show appreciation for the books that we have. Soon we will start placing books on the shelf by category so that by the time we are ready to introduce Library protocols to the children, book arrangement can be included. We are, by the way, looking for a large oval rug for the room, for a small table and two small chairs for a reading area in the library. Let us know if you are interested in donating any of these items.
This month (March) our DID YOU KNOW column will focus on the works from the SENSORIAL area of our classroom. Did you know…that all the works address the senses? For example, for the VISUAL SENSE, our Montessori works for exploring dimension include the Cylinder Blocks, the Pink Tower, The Brown Stair, the Red Rods and the Knobbles Cylinders. For exploring color we have color box 1 (the primary colors), color box 2 (the secondary colors) and color box 3 (the graduation of colors). For exploring shape we have the plane figures addressed in the Geometric cabinet and cards, the tessellations and constructive triangles; for solid figures we have the geometric solids. For pattern we have the Binomial cube and the Trinomial cube. For the AUDITORY SENSE we have the sound cylinder boxes (explores tone) and the bells (exploring pitch). For the SENSE OF TOUCH, exploring texture we have the rough and smooth boards, the texture board, the touch pairing tablets and the fabrics. For exploring weight we have the Baric tablets; for exploring three dimensions we have sorting trays and the mystery bag. For exploring SMELL AND TASTE we have the smelling bottles and experience with tasting.
Next week we will look at PRACTICAL LIFE AND WHAT WE OFFER THE CHILD IN THIS AREA.
Preschool Press
Cats and kittens were lots of fun to learn about. Our preschool friends brought in pictures of their cats and we talked about the different breeds of cats. Of course, our sign language word was…cat! We also celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday; and in honor of this great author we read “The Cat In The Hat”.
A very popular activity this week was our “Pin the tail on the Cat” game along with many fun lessons on cats. A few of the favorites were matching cat pictures and sorting colored cat work. We have also been introducing counting dice and counting peg work.
The week of March 8—12th the preschool class will be focusing on the color green, shamrocks, and learning about the beautiful country of Ireland and Irish music! It should be fun!!
Toddler Talk
This week we celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday. The “cat in the hat” color sheets were a big hit. Thursday and Friday were are hat days—our inspiration came form the book “Go Dog Go”, which is about dogs going to a dog party wearing hats. Our friends were very excited to show off their fabulous hats to everybody. The toddler’s loved the Dr. Seuss inspired snack, which was a Ritz cracker with a big slice of banana as the “hat” on top…it was also a very yummy snack! Thank you to all the parents for making hat day a great success.
The toddler room would like to welcome Kate Rapp to our toddler family. She is adjusting well to her new environment and her friends. All of the toddler friends welcomed her with hugs and warm greetings.
Next week we will be learning about the weather!