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Welcome to the Lower Elementary Classroom
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Contact me at lmoreno@brookviewschool.org.
Updates from Ms. Laurie....
January 25, 2012
Lower El students have settled into a beautiful working pattern. They have all completed their study of vertebrates and are beginning the study of invertebrates. Some students have begun the long study of the Timeline of Life on Earth, while others are becoming involved in the study of the development of Early Humans. The coming months will bring a renewed drive toward memorization of basic math facts. We have completed a dance segment with the Citadel Dance Center and now are taking swim lessons at Southshore Health and Racquet Club. Older students have been working on sentence diagramming while our youngest students continue to practice with phonograms, reading, and writing process.
November 1, 2011
Lower Elementary has had a great school year so far. We are studying Asia, concentrating on India, initially. We have had several cultural presentations about India including an opportunity to cook Tandoori chicken, raita, curry paneer, and chapati. The children loved these foods...try it at home!
Our gym program began with golf...the children were taught to drive, putt, and chip at Blossom Trails Golf Course. See the pictures below!
Summer 2011
Here's what I'm doing this summer!
June 30, 2011
Congratulations to all of our students for another successful year!
Ms. Shefali and I will miss you all over the summer, and look forward to the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year in the fall. Enjoy your summer!
For those of you moving on to Upper Elementary: you have worked so hard, and are so ready for the next steps in your lives. You must be so proud of your accomplishments! For those relocating to other places: your years at Brookview have prepared you for a lifetime of learning…we’ll miss you!
Love to all,
Ms. Laurie and Ms. Shefali
May 23, 2011
This May has been a great month for soccer! The students have thoroughly enjoyed working with Coach Faust learning lots of games, developing skills, and getting tons of exercise. Thank you so much to Andy Faust and Ms. Shefali!
This Thursday, May 26th at 8:15 AM, Mr. Larry's choir will briefly perform in the great room for our community meeting. Feel free to join us!
The third year students have been busy with end of the year projects. They have finished their work with Early Humans and have created charts detailing the progress of development of humans over time. They are progressing nicely through "Math Fact Boot Camp" - spending an intense 5 days per operation ending with a quiz for each. They have completed addition and subtraction and begin multiplication tomorrow. Please review the progress with your child as the quizzes come home. Third year students are also building a river model out of sand, rocks, and water. They are creating possible geographic scenarios, labeling, and testing the flow for each.
Look for a lot of oversized work to come home this week...lots of fun things to look over! Depending on your child's age you might see Study of a Nation books, Timeline of Life books, maps of S. America, Angles formed by a transversal works, and lots of research posters. Enjoy!
Click here to view our Shakespeare play, Julius Caesar. This is a great way to share your child's experiences with friends and family from out of town. Thank you to Tom Allen for putting that together, and thanks also go to David Ryan for videotaping the performance and to Scott Fuller for making each family a CD of the show. Thank you all!
February 17, 2011
Recently you received a new copy of "Tomorrow's Child" in your child's Friday folder. I encourage you to open it soon...there is a wonderfully detailed article all about Montessori elementary programs. I think you will enjoy reading it!
This entry centers on the youngest students, the six and seven year olds. They have really proven themselves and are loving learning...which makes me happy! The following list itemizes work they have had since we returned from winter break.
Language - creative sentence writing, multiple phonogram studies, writing stories based on sequencing cards, intro to nouns and verbs, beginning use of grammar symbols, appropriate expression usage (matching animals to their homes and voices), literature circle*, silent reading, journal entry writing. *Not all students participate in this activity
Math - stamp game addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, addition memorization - strip board activities (cut equations, booklets, families of numbers).
Geography/History - land and water forms, Mexico, multiple times of practicing with telling time, flags of North America, seasons of the year, Canadian provinces, Canadian facts, indigenous clothing of the Americas, parts of the earth/lithosphere, parts of the volcano.
Zoology/Botany - types of roots, external parts of the mammal, human senses, parts of the human eye, human hearing/parts of the ear, parts of the human nose, types of leaf veins.
The children have a couple of new things for this semester: we have writing journals for "everyday" free writing, and we started a theater special studying and preparing for a performance of Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar. Leslie Sullivan has been working with the students again this year...she was wonderful with the students last year and we are delighted to have her help again this year.
Happy Holidays.
I am reminded tonight how very lucky Shefali and I are to be gifted the honor and privilege of working with you and your families.
This work we all do together changes lives: your child's, mine, Shefali's, and yours. It changes the lives of those with which your child comes in contact. It changes the lives of Grandparents. It changes the lives of those who listen to the stories and walk down the hall.
A parent of a Primary student stopped me in the hall and told me of the wonderful things she notices about Lower Elementary by simply walking down the hall once a week to help cook. The life within Brookview's walls is an inspiration. It spreads out in all directions and fills in the cracks between. There is a spirit that moves through: a spirit that creates a smile on Ainsley's face, a spirit that carries Camille proudly up to the piano to play and sing a song for the class, a spirit that helped little Benjamin to finish his work plan today - oh happy day!
I am moved to tears when I consider the development we have seen in your children in just the past four months. They are giving of themselves each day, letting us know what they need, letting us know what they can do, helping others to reach their potential. Spend a morning in the classroom and you will glimpse a bit of the miracle that is Brookview. Together, we achieve this miracle through our work in partnership. We each have our role to play in this partnership, all of us (children, teachers, parents and grandparents) taking part in the tremendous effort that is Brookview, for the benefit of the children who have so much to teach us about perseverance, creativity, tolerance, hard work, joy, achievement, and love.
Shefali and I thank you for your support, good wishes, and kindness. We wish you the happiest of holidays and a happy new year.
Much Love,
Ms. Laurie
Sunday November 7, 2010
More hard work...I just can't resist!
Literature Circle Study of the United States
Body Functions of Amphibians
Math Story Problems Spanish Numbers
Thursday, November 4, 2010
The children were hard at work today! Currently students have been working on the following activities:
- external and internal body functions of amphibians
- a geographic study and research of the United States of America
- golden bead addition and multiplication with carrying
- names of vein patterns in leaves
- biography reports of various famous Native Americans
- the life cycle of frogs
- "dot game" addition
- telling time
- function of adjectives
- division by grouping and by distribution
- suffixes
- types of stems
- function of articles
- parts of a globe
- frog research
- math story problems requiring 2-3 steps
- conjugating verbs according to tense-person-and number
- addition -subtraction - multiplication and division math facts
- plant identification
- types of volcanic eruptions
- adjective grammar practice
Painting of the U.S. Flag Science Experiment
Life Cycle of a Frog
Leaf Venation - Pinnate or Palmate Painting of U.S. Flag
World Map Golden Bead Addition w/carrying
Monday, October 18, 2010
What a day we had today! Take a look at these pictures!
Thousand Chain Study of the U.S.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Lower Elementary students have been working on the following activities over the past week:
- Simple Experiments
- Learning capital cities of North America
- Linking verbs
- Internal body functions of fish
- Writing "creation" stories
- Parts of a plant stem
- Characteristics of plants and animals
- Vertebrate / invertebrate
- Bead frame subtraction
- Passage from a square to a non-successive square
- Hundred board in new and different patterns
- Parts of a biome
- World continents and oceans
- Beginning calendar work
- The Year and its parts
- Progress in the Development of Human Civilization - addressing fundamental human needs over time
Notes:
Please remember that Parent - Teacher conferences are on Wednesday, October 6th or Thursday, October 7th. Please sign up for a time slot or speak to me if you have not already done so. I look forward to meeting with each of you!
- Healthy Lunches: In the beginning of the year information, I shared with you that Brookview School has the philosophy that we aspire to eat healthy foods. The fabulous slow snack movement came out of this desire. Lower Elementary families have always been encouraged to send healthy food choices in the lunchboxes. We feel that if children are getting the message that eating healthy is beneficial, both from school and from home, they will likely develop good habits that will serve them into adulthood. The issue has been that a couple of students have brought a "Lunchables" lunch which included candy as a dessert. Unfortunately, candy is the one sweet item that really needs to remain at home. Children are free to bring in other types of desserts: fruit kabobs, oatmeal cookies, zucchini bread and the like - sweets which have some redeeming food value. Many children bring no sweet at all, relying on a variety of delicious foods to satisfy hunger. Children are confused when they see a student bring candy to school, and they ask why that student is allowed to have it. Help us to be good role models for healthy eating and keep all candy at home. Thanks!
- Literature Circle groups are beginning this week. Many children have been given a book to read with a group and will have an opportunity to discuss it and do follow up activities. This work may be done at home or at school. Meetings will occur once per week. This week, most groups will be unable to meet due to conferences, but we will get a routine beginning next week. Email me with questions!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 Parent - Teacher Conferences are coming up: October 6th or 7th. Sign-up sheets are posted in the hallway. Stop by the classroom hallway to select a time slot!
September 21, 2010. Today is the International Day of Peace. Brookview children will assemble in the Great Room at 11:00 A.M. to sing "Light a Candle for Peace" together with Montessori children all over the world. Feel free to join them!
September 17, 2010. We have had a productive couple of weeks so far! Children have already become fully engaged in all areas of the curriculum. Some of the activities we are seeing these days are listed here:
· Cursive writing practice
· Spelling groups
· Math facts practice
· Origins of Native Americans
· Sentence writing
· Writing process
· Binomial and Trinomial analysis of a square
· Checkerboard long multiplication
· Addition and subtraction with exchanging
· Characteristics of living things
· Advanced counting
· Singing Native American songs
· Planet study and research
· Noun study
· Verbs – how the action disappears
· Animal and plant identification by characteristics
· First idea of “Time”
· Three Fundamental Tenses
We are doing golf for our gym activity. Thank you to the parents and grandparents who have helped us!
We will begin Literature Circle book groups soon. We need additional parent volunteers to run these 20 minute discussion groups. If you are interested in this weekly activity, please contact me.
September 3, 2010. Welcome to the 2010-2011 school year in Lower Elementary. School begins Wednesday, September 8th. Ms. Shefali and I have prepared the classroom and look forward to the new year with your children.
Please attend the Parent orientation on Tuesday evening, September 7th, at 6:00 P.M. I will go over all of the logistics that I can in one hour and promise to end on time sharply at 7:00 P.M. to allow you to be with your children on that special evening before the first day of school. See you then!
Brookview School