Montessori Unit
Welcome
This Montessori Page and the pages dedicated to each level, SSM, PS, and K, feature classroom highlights and previews, school reminders and dates, and home connections. Pages are updated regularly, so check back frequently for new information!
Don't miss that classes pages are now directly below on this page. Just find the tab for your level and see what's happening!
Calendar
Tuesday, March 19th - Parent Workshop- A Day in the Life of Your Montessori Child presented by Megan St. John 7:00pm -8:00 pm
Thursday, March 21st- SSM Career Day
Friday, March 22nd- PS Dinosaur Museum Day
Friday,March 22nd - Sneak Up on Hunger - bring in a canned good to be donated to local food banks
Sunday, April 7th - McCoy Color Run- please see weekly email for detailed information. Please plan to join us for the fun family event
Thursday, April 11th- Preschool trip to Please Touch Museum
Thursday, May 2nd- Kindergarten Trip to Elmwood Park Zoo
Teachers' Favorite Books
Whoever You Are by Mem Fox
The Luckiest St. Patrick’s Day Ever by Teddy Slater
The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
St. Patrick’s Day By Gail Gibbons
Jack and the Leprechaun by Ivan Robertson
Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie de Paola
Resources
February Highlights
Ash Wednesday
Announcements
Megan St John will offer an informative parent workshop on Tuesday March 19th. See box below for more details. RSVP to mstjohn@ancillae.org if you will attend.
Preschool information on the school trip is being sent home in your child's bag Thursday, March 7th. Please send in your reply by March 22nd. We look forward to a fun day with our preschool families at the Please Touch Museum. Download the form.
Dr. Seuss Day
If I Ran the Circus
A Day ( Hour) in the Life of Your Montessori Child.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019 7 - 8 pm
Presented by: Megan St. John, PreSchool Lead Teacher
Sacred Heart Center
We are excited to offer this parent class to our families that want to know more about Montessori and the hands-on curriculum that your child experiences each day. Megan offers this workshop as part of her requirements for her Master degree in education at Chestnut Hill College. This hour long workshop will have us journey together through your child’s life in a Montessori classroom. We will touch on most areas of the Montessori classroom with a focus on lessons in the math area. Come and see individual lessons demonstrated and have an opportunity to work with the materials yourself. We will be taking a closer look at the hands-on experiences that allow the child to develop their own mathematical mind. Our snack table will be open with light refreshments. Hope you can join this hands on glimpse into Montessori. Please RSVP @: mstjohn@ancillae.org by Friday, March 15th.
At school we will journey together in holiness by: meeting weekly in chapel for our Lenten prayer services, learning about the life of Jesus, visiting our prayer corners, showing love and kindness to everyone we meet, saying prayers to start our day and before lunch
At home, we can journey together in holiness by: choosing something that as a family you will do for Lent that will help someone less fortunate, going to church on Sundays, saying grace before meals, saying nightly prayers
“Love and more love,
because love overcomes everything.”
~ St. Raphaela Mary
Montessori Inspiration
"Let the teacher not lose sight of the fact that the goal sought is not an immediate one - not the hike - but rather to make the spiritual being which she is educating capable of finding his way by himself.” Maria Montessori
Class Pages
SSM
Stepping Stones-March
In the Classroom
Monthly Themes: Lent, Rainbows, Sun, The Cross, Pot of Gold, Egg, Lions, Lambs
Season: Spring
Color: Green, Gold and Pastels
Shape: Shamrock
Letter: V, W, X
Art Medium: Cutting, Chalk and Foam Paint
Science: Shamrock and Seeds
Religion: Saint Patrick
Songs, Books, Prayers
Songs: "I'm a Little Leprechaun"
Books: Lucky Tucker, Hooray for Saint Patrick's Day
Felt Board: Three Green and Speckled Frogs
March
Happy Birthday!
Schedule Info
Tuesday- Music
Wednesday- Spanish
Thursday- Gym
Special Dates & Events
March 14th - Leprechaun Hunt
March 21st - Career Day
March 28th -Camping Day
Save the Date:
Donuts With Dad April 4th
Leprechaun Hunt
Career Day
Contact Us
Mrs. Beth Mahan
Ext: 200 VM: 351
bmahan@ancillae.org
Mrs. Nicole Giorgione
Ext: 390
ngiorgione@ancillae.org
Mrs. Barbara Caffey
Ext: 340
bcaffey@ancillae.org
Preschool
Preschool - March
Monthly Message
As winter holds on, we are having indoor fun with snow painting and block building.
Our dinosaur unit has us identifying dinosaurs, digging for bones as paleontologist , and making a volcano erupt. Our dinosaur unit ends with a "dino"mite day of fun. On Friday March 22nd, we invite your child to bring in a dinosaur toy or book to place in our own class dinosaur museum. (Please remember to label for a safe return home.) Children will enjoy a visit to the museum, a prehistoric snack mix, and an afternoon stegosaurus parade through the school.
Skills: rhyming, positional words, opposites, color identification, skip counting, classification, organizing, sequence, size order
Themes: dinosaurs, Lent, rainbows, Ireland, Spring
Our area boxes will highlight work choices in each area of our classroom.
Practical Life
" The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one's self." ~ Maria Montessori
Sensorial Area
“The senses, being explorers of our world, open the way to knowledge.” ~ Maria Montessori
Math Area
“Children display a universal love of mathematics, which is par excellence the science of precision, order, and intelligence. “ ~ Maria Montessori
Culture Area
“Within the child lies the fate of the future.” ~ Maria Montessori
Language Area
“Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as the enthuse him to his inmost core.” ~Maria Montessori
Science Area
"We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry." ~ Maria Montessori
America the Beautiful
Preschool Trip to PLEASE TOUCH MUSEUM
Time to Mark Your Calendar
APRIL 11, 2019
This year the Preschool trip will be to the Please Touch Museum on Thursday, April 11th. Please plan to join us for this fun morning. Information and reply form sent home in your child's bag. Or, RSVP below!
Activities planned:
9:30-9:45 Orientation
9:45-12:00 Floor Time. Carousel Hand Stamp for anytime
12:00-12:30 Lunchtime
12:30 Departure
TRIP RSVP
Did you know Mae Jamison is an American engineer, physician and NASA astronaut. She became the first African American woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the space shuttle Endeavor on September 12, 1992. Children had fun making rockets.
Contact Us
PSB
Clare Brown cbrown@ancillae.org x 339
Karla Russek krussek@ancillae.org x 385
PSR
Megan St. John mstjohn@ancillae.org x 373
Karen Vizza kvizza@ancillae.org x 342
PSW
Marianne Egner megner@ancillae.org x 341
MaryBeth Scher mscher@ancillae.org x 346
Specials
Specials teachers:
Gym- Aleah Conlin
Art- Brittany Flanigan
Music- Gen Black
Spanish- Dena Brown
PSB - Mon- GYM Tues- ART Wed- ART Thurs- MUSIC Fri- SPANISH
PSR - Tues- MUSIC Wed- ART Fri- GYM & SPANISH
PSW - Mon- GYM Tues- ART Wed-ART & SPANISH Thurs-MUSIC
Show And Tell
We appreciate your assistance in making this a fun experience for your child. Make a game out of finding an item that fits into our weekly theme. Please talk with your child ahead of time about what could be shared about this item with his/her classmates.
March themes: Fridays
March 1st 2 things that rhyme
March 8th 2 opposites
March 15th Green
March 22nd A sign of Spring
March 29th A favorite animal
Prayers
To Start our day:
Spirit of Life, we thank you for our new school day.
St. Raphaela Mary, Pray for Us.
Before lunch:
Thank you dear Jesus. This day is for you.
We ask you to bless all we think, say, and do.
Amen.
Artist of the Month
Eric Carle is our artist of the month. He is well known for his children's books. He uses collage techniques to illustrate his books. Painting paper and then cutting into pieces , Eric uses these paper pieces to create his characters and beautifully illustrate his books in a fun and cheerful display.
Kindergarten
Kindergarten - March
Monthly Message
As we "march" along through our year, we are excited to see signs of spring emerge. Children are moving into choices that challenge their organization and put into practice the many skills learned.
KA Highlight
KA studies of Africa including animals and Swahili language
KB Highlight
March Accomplishments
KC Highlight
Learning fun!
Writing Lab
Kindergarten children visit the writing lab in ½ cluster groups three times a week. The Fundations program is incorporated into these sessions. Fundations is a reading program that uses a systematic and explicit approach to reading and spelling words with phonics. The skills taught through Fundations, are laying the necessary foundations for your child to become a fluent, independent reader.
We are learning to identify, write, and recall the sounds of all of the letters of the alphabet and now it is time to blend the sounds together to build words. We have been working hard practicing our decoding skills. We are learning to blend words with three letter sounds by tapping each sound. Ask your child to show you how they can tap out the sounds of a word.
Kindergartens made beautiful spring flowers on the computer in anticipation of spring!!
Contact Us
KA
Bevin Bodnar bbodnar@ancillae.org ext. 396
KB
Chrissy Ragg cragg@ancillae.org ext. 395
KC
Marianna Farrell mfarrell@ancillae.org ext. 394
Writing Lab
Angela Olbrich aolbrich@ancillae.org ext. 345
SOCIAL MOVES
Social Moves is a playgroup specifically designed to promote prosocial behaviors and productive social language. Over the course of the play sessions, children will gain insight in the joys of having friends and being part of a group while bringing awareness to their bodies, emotions and reactions in social situations.
Over the four weeks, the focus will be on flexibility in friendships, problem solving during play, the gift of compromise and recognizing expectations in social situations. The children will learn how to share space with others. They will learn how to label their emotions and body language in a variety of social scenarios so that they gain self-regulation strategies that can be practiced in and out of school. Lastly, the children will begin to develop a sense of empathy for others as we all have sensory differences. All of this will occur through fun, play-based activities.
Meet Coach Janice Janice Dombroski Pfeiffer is a pediatric physical therapist with over twenty years of experience. As the mother of three boys, she recognizes the varying differences among children in social situations. Additionally, as a physical therapist, Janice understands that children figure out the world through movement and play.
Meet Coach Lauren Lauren Zingaro-Toth has been teaching children with special needs for over twenty years. Lauren is the mom of two (one of which attends Ancillae!) She recognizes the necessity of learning through play while developing social skills.
Together, the two coaches have married their expertise and would like to offer Kindergarteners an opportunity to have fun while learning foundational skills for socialization. As this is a pilot program being offered to our Ancillae-Assumpta Academy Kindergarten, there will be no fee for this session. The session is limited to 8 children.
Session Dates: 3/28, 4/4, 4/11, 4/25 3:00-4:15 p.m. Pick up in main lobby
To register email: jdiorio@ancillae.org subject line: social moves. CLASS HAS FILLED
100 day song
World Travels
Our travels land us in North America for the months of March and April. The children will be learning where North America is located on the globe and what countries makeup this continent where we live. We will take a look at the culture, land and animals throughout the next two months. Children are welcome to bring in pictures, artifacts, and books that connect to our travels which will be displayed for the month on our windowsill display and shared at circle time. Our trip o Elmwood Park Zoo on May 2nd will connect with our studies of the animals of North America.
Creature Feature
March and April is for the dogs! There are so many interesting members of the dog family including wolves, foxes, coyotes, and dingoes. We will be talking about these interesting families, especially the wolves of North America, which we hope to see on our field trip.
Prayer
May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind always be at your back
May the sun shine warm on your face
May the rain fall softly on your fields
And until we meet again, May GOD hold
You in the palm of his hand
Amen
Work Choice Spotlight
The Addition Strip Board
The addition strip board is a gridded board that uses two sets of wooden numbered strips to perform addition problems.The Children complete sequenced addition problems by reading equations and combining different numbered strips to count their answers. The answers are noted on the board and the children are invited to record their sums with paper and pencil. The addition strip board provides a concrete way for children to begin solving and memorizing addition facts.
Specials
Specials teachers:
Gym- Aleah Conlin
Art- Alexia Perrine
Music- Gen Black
Library- Karen Sabatino
Spanish- Dena Brown
Religion- Jane Diorio
KA - Mon- GYM Tues- RELIGION & SPANISH Wed- MUSIC Thurs- ART & LIBRARY
KB - Mon- SPANISH & RELIGION Wed- MUSIC & ART Fri- LIBRARY & GYM
KC - Mon- GYM Tues- RELIGION & SPANISH Wed- MUSIC Thurs- ART & LIBRARY
On Wednesdays, Kindergarten rotates through afternoon enrichment classes taught by each Kindergarten teacher: Sign/Spanish (Bodnar), Religion (Ragg), and Yoga (Farrell).