Montessori Unit

See all Special Days 19-20 here!

Leprechaun Hunt - March 17th

Career Day - March 19th

Camping Day - March 26th

 Fun at home ideas for these special days will be sent in our daily emails starting on March 18th.

SAVE THE DATE:

Spring Luncheon April 2nd-Cancelled

“Within the child lies the fate of the future.” ~ Maria Montessori

This area of the preschool environment exposes the child to an understanding of our world.  Starting with the whole and moving into smaller parts, the children first learns our world is made of air, land, and water.  The lands have been given names called continents. Within these continents, we explore the cultures, wildlife, natural treasures, countries, people and celebrations.  The children are exposed to the fine artists connecting with their weekly art class. This area develops the sense of our place in our world- to care for it and for each other.  We are all part of the world community.

"We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry." ~ Maria Montessori

This area introduces several disciplines of science:  botany – our study of plants, zoology -- our study of animals, physics -- our explorations and discoveries,  health – our study of our bodies and senses. It is an area of discovery and wonder as we take a closer look at the world around us.

“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

This area develops the various components of language that lead a child to be able to communicate as well as understand what is being communicated. The readiness skill to recognize differences and similarities, sequence and retell a story, understand position, and classify assist in a growing comprehension in both visual and auditory instruction.  In preparation for reading, all materials of the environment organize in a left to right, top to bottom layout to prepare the brain for tracking print. Children use multiple senses as they are introduced concretely to the symbol and sound relationship of letters. As this relationship develops, children will begin to blend the sounds to form words- a phonetic approach to reading readiness.   Children also experience extensive vocabulary in all areas of the environment. Many activities involve matching and labeling using the written word – a whole language approach to reading readiness. Children are moved at the pace in which they are prepared to be successful and gain confidence in expressing ideas and approaching the start in their reading journey.

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.

Our travels moves us to North America this March and April. Our  display windowsill is set and waiting for our return. At that time, children are welcome to bring in artifacts, books, and items that connect to our travels which to be displayed  on our windowsill display. 

March's creature feature is the canine family.

If a rabbit had words, it would

thank you for its ears.

If an elephant had words, it would

 thank you for it’s trunk. 

If a zebra had words, it would 

thank you for its stripes.

If a cat had words, it would 

thank you for it’s whiskers.

But since only I have words,               

Dear JESUS, I will thank you 

for them all.

                               Amen.         

Our 2020 K Religion Bee Winners

Story Starters/ I wonder questions

Have your child  use one of the prompts below to put an entry in their K journal.

• When my friends come over I like to…

• When I grow up, I want to be a …

• My favorite food is ________ because…

• As we came to the end of the rainbow…

Specials teachers:  
Gym- Aleah Conlin       Mon.: KA  KC   Fri.:  KB 
Art- Alexia Perrine Tara Carlos  Mon.: KC Wed.:KB Thurs.: KA
Music- Matthew Esposito   Wed.: KA KB KC
Library- Karen Sabatino   Thurs. KA KC. Fri.:  KB
Spanish- Dena Brown    Mon.: KB Tues.: KA KC
Religion- Jane Diorio    Mon.: KB Tues.: KA KC

On Wednesdays, Kindergarten rotates through afternoon enrichment classes taught by each Kindergarten teacher: Sign/Spanish (Bodnar), Religion (Ragg), and Yoga (Farrell).

We have begun Unit 3 in Fundations. We will be continuing to work on our phonetic awareness skills.  We will be blending sounds in nonsense CVC words, segmenting and spelling three sound short vowel words, and distinguish long and short vowel sounds.  We will also continue to work on story elements including character, setting, and main events.  We have learned all the red and green sight words and will begin to learn the pink sight words. We are also developing our writing skills.  We are working on narrative writing skills and learning that narrative writing is a form of writing that tells a story about people, animals, or things.  Writers write about what they see, hear, or do.  They use describing words and ask questions to help them tell a story.  We are also practicing the rules of writing complete sentences.  Including upper case letter at the beginning, space between our words, and a punctuation mark at the end.