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Practical Life – Part 2

Today we continue our series exploring the Practical Life area of the Montessori classroom, focusing in this post on the ways in which Practical Life skills benefit other curriculum areas. 

Many of the exercises in the Practical Life area are preparation exercises of Sensorial works. The exercises help to fine tune the development of the child’s senses. Many uses of the five senses occur in the Practical Life area: sound, sight, and touch are used in equipment-bases activities, such as bean scooping; smelling and tasting are involved in the preparation of food.

Practical Life not only develops the child’s senses and teaches real life skills, but sets the basic foundation for other areas to come. For example, understanding size, weight, and equal distribution are skills which are vital when the child is introduced to the Math area of the classroom.

Perhaps the most significant is the development of the pincer grip, which allows the child to correctly grip a pencil and begin working in the Language area.

Middle School On The Move

Our Middle School Students are always doing and learning so much that it’s hard to keep up. And Middle School Head Teacher Ms. Erica chronicles it all every two weeks on her amazing blog — subscribe today to get posts by email.

Here are just a few highlights from last week:

  • Students visited Opportunity Village and had a blast singing, dancing, doing comedic improv and more. Student blogger Logan writes: “If there is one thing that I learned from this trip, it would be that it doesn’t matter where you come from, what you look like, how you talk, or the way you walk, every human on the face of this planet has something in common with everyone around them. So, all it takes to make a make a friend is to smile and say Hello.” READ MORE AND SEE PICTURES HERE (password protected).
  • E1 celebrated Pi Day with no less than ELEVEN different mathematical “Pi Stations,” including PiTunes, Pi-doku, Pi Graphs and Radial Radii. And of course, there was pie.
  • Students are learning all about Asia and are focusing on the geography, culture and architecture of the Middle East. From the blog: “This week we looked at pictures from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, and Armenia, which illustrated a little of the architecture, beautiful landscape, and cultural diversity of a region with both European and Asian influences. One seventh grader admiring the photos of Dubai said, ‘I want to go there. I want to go everywhere!'”
  • Students created a chronology of World War I that included biographies of key players and tracked American involvement. They even built their own “weapons”!
  • In Language, students are reading and analyzing various novels including Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. From the blog: “This novel first appeared during the era which historians label ‘the McCarthy period,’ the post-war political climate characterized by xenophobia, blacklisting and censorship. Many of the issues explored in the novel cannot be separated from the historical period in which it appeared. Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns. This novel commands lively discussion.”
  • Math studies included illustrating exactly why, as Pythagoras claimed, a^2 + b^2 = c^2!,.
  • “Middle schoolers are in the thick of the Circulatory System, and are anxious for our upcoming dissection of cow hearts! This dissection will give them a very clear picture of our recent studies: heart chambers, valves, the aorta, the vena cava, pulmonary vessels, the path of blood, and more! It doesn’t matter how many diagrams or books we have to share; nothing compares to holding an actual heart in your palms and learning through that type of hands-on experience. We hope you can join us for the big day!”
  • And finally, gardening: “Thank you to Marnie and Teri for helping us begin our new round of gardening! After the eighth graders’ trip to Star Nursery, the middle schoolers planted our basil and peppers on the outskirts of our box. Do you know what’s going in the middle?”

Phew! To read more and see more pictures, don’t forget to check out Ms. Erica’s E1 blog. And try to keep up!

*Don’t forget to stop by the Foothills Montessori School parking lot this Saturday from 8 AM to noon for a special sale to benefit Roos ‘n’ More, a local family-owned rescue-oriented zoo in need of donations. Student Maddie Hoggan writes: “Last semester, one of our field trips included visiting this zoo and it was one of the most memorable field trip experiences I’ve ever had. Two veterinarians that have a love for unusual animals own the zoo and they help provide care for animals that come there. Most of these animals, because they are so fond of humans, love to be held and played with. Recently, the zoo has been shut down in their transition to becoming a commercial property due to the size of their septic tank and lack of paved walkways. They will not reopen on site until they’ve raised the $300,000 necessary to address the issues. We hope our Parking Lot Sale can be a part of achieving that goal. We hope you drop by on the 22nd!”

 

Finding Beauty in Numbers

E1 is learning about the beautiful mathematical Fibonacci sequence. Check out pictures from their classroom which illustrate the concept in all its perfection, and read more about Fibonacci numbers here.

 

 

Foothills Montessori School is a private Montessori school serving families in Henderson, Las Vegas and Southern Nevada.

 

Parents Get to Play

Last week, parents of upper elementary students were welcomed into the classrooms for our annual Upper Elementary Parent/Child Night.

From the E6 Blog: “The students and teachers of E6 welcomed their parents back to school for an evening of lessons, puzzles and games that utilized the problem-solving skills acquired in upper elementary. Parents and students worked together to solve math challenges and word puzzles. They enjoyed creative practice in direction following and using their imagination to write sentences and short stories. Students tested parents’ knowledge of states and capitals and sorted animal crackers into biomes. It was fun to see so many of our families working, learning and laughing together.”

 

Plus, it snowed!! Check out more pics on the E6 Classroom Blog.

[button url=”http://elementary6.fmsparents.com/2013/02/01/parents-and-students-who-work-together-learn-together/” target=”_blank” size=”small” style=”coolblue” ]READ MORE[/button]

Help E1 Win The Reel Math Challenge

A group of students in our E1 classroom have entered the 2012-2013 Reel Math Challenge. This is a nationwide competition where teams of four work together to creatively solve a math problem and make a video.
Videos are posted online; those with the top votes will advance to the next round. The top team will win $1,000 scholarships for college. Students do it on their own with absolutely no teacher assistance. We invite you to view the video and vote for our E1 students. A note from a student:
“Hello; This year, some of my fellow classmates and I have created a video. This is a math video we made for a contest called Reel Math Challenge. We have submitted it onto the website, but have no chance of winning without your votes! Please visit the website below, and hit vote! Every vote counts. Thank you for you time!” – Noelani
[button url=”http://reelmath.org/videos/sunday-sundae-special-ice-cream-shoppe” target=”_blank” size=”large” style=”coolblue” ]VIEW VIDEO[/button]