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Dear Parents,

 

We would like to welcome you and your child to the Alcott School. We hope to make this a fabulous and productive year. We will be working on many different projects which will not only be educational but also fun for the children. One of our goals is to help the children to be independent.

 

We spent the first few weeks of school getting to know one another, to adjust to our daily routines as well our classroom rules and procedures: learning about “My space”, keeping safe distancing, using inside voices while in the building, washing hands, taking turns, cleaning up after ourselves, raising a hand, carrying a tray, and using work mats on the floor (how to roll and put them away).

 

We also talked about the change from the summer to fall, the Autumnal Equinox and the Harvest moon. For International Peace Day we read “The Peace Book” by Todd Parr and made a special project.

 

The next few weeks we will continue to work on getting to know our new friends and exploring all the areas of the classroom. We’re going to start talking about apples and we will incorporate them in science, math, language, art and social studies.

 

Starting October 1, we are so excited to have Liana Gugliemli join our teaching team full-time since our class size has grown. Together, please help us welcome Ms. Gugliemli to our classroom.

 

Three reminders:

• Back to School Night will be via Zoom on Wednesday, October 6th from 7 – 7:30pm; link to follow

• School will be closed on Monday, October 11th for Columbus Day

• Please provide a clean, fresh mask for the children on a daily basis

 

Best,

Eva, Helene and Liana

 

 

 

Our theme is: Fall - Apples

 

Art:

Apple collage

Fizzy apple painting

Tracing, cutting, pasting circles

Wassily Kandinsky: a Russian-born artist uses circles to make famous artwork

 

Cultural Arts/Geography:

Sandpaper Globe for Sensory Impression of Land and Water on the Earth

Jigsaw map of the World

 

Language:

Introduction of Metal Inset: Ten geometrical flat metal squares, in each of the squares is a geometrical shape cut-out. Working with insets prepares the child for handwriting and for pencil control. We will start with circle inset

Name tracing

We’re going to start “The sound of the week “ - This week is [a] for apple - [f] for fall

 

Math:

Sandpaper Numerals: The numerals 0 to 9 are cut-out in fine sandpaper and mounted in separate green boards. The child feels the numerals and says the name. The purpose is to learn the name of the written symbols.

Spindle Box: Two wooden boxes with nine compartments marked with numerals 0 to 9 and 45 spindles in a small box. The purpose is to make associations between the numerals and their corresponding quantities.

Apple game for counting 1 to 10

 

Practical Life:

The Practical Life exercises are the beginning point in a Montessori environment. All these activities help the child to develop concentration, eye-hand coordination, perfection of movement and order.

Transferring small plastic apples

Lacing paper cut-out apples

Spooning beads from one container to another

 

Science:

What do people, animals and plants do in Fall

Learn parts of an apple

Experiment: Apple rotting experiment

 

Sensorial:

All sensorial activities aim to develop visual and muscular perception of dimensions and awareness of dimensions.

Pink Tower: 10 pink wooden cubes varying in size from 1 cm. cubed to 10 cm.

Color Tablets - Box 1: 6 tablets, a pair of each of the primary colors (red, yellow, blue) for matching

              

Books:

Fresh Fall Leaves by Betsy Franco

Let It Fall by Maryann Cocca-Leffler

Mouse’s First Fall by Lauren Thompson 

The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall

Little Apple by Brigitte Weninger

Apples A to Z by Margaret McNamara

 

Classroom Schedule

9:00 Arrival, Screening/Hand washing

9:15 Circle/Worktime

9:45 Snack/Outdoor play

10:30 Circle/Worktime

11:45 Lunch (set up/handwashing)

12:30 Toileting/Rest

1:30 Worktime

2:30 Snack and Circle

2:45 Gross Motor

3:15 Dismissal

*9:05 - 9:25 Gym (Inclement weather)

*2:00 – 2:30 Gym (Inclement weather)

 

Mondays – Music Enrichment 11:00am

Tuesdays – Spanish Enrichment 9:30am