We're going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo...

We went to the Zoo to see the newest exhibit, Out of Africa, it was exciting to see all the new animals and the changes Zoo Boise has made. One of the most exciting parts of the trip was seeing Eagle & Parkcenter Montessori's plague. Last year we all gathered our pennies to give to Zoo Boise so that we could help bring Africa to Idaho. It was great to see that our donations helped.
While at the Zoo we spent some time petting snakes. They weren't scary at all and felt really cool.

Here we are riding a jeep on safari through the Out of Africa exhibit. It's not the real thing, but it's still awesome!

Group shot! It was such a great day, we had to capture the moment for posterity.

Back when it was warm...

At the beginning of the school year we took a class camping trip to Bruneau Sand Dunes... It's fun to look back when it's cold outside and remember short sleeves and warm weather!

We had to climb a BIG hill to "sled" back down.














Thanks for the push George! It was nice that our parents were able to come along for the ride.





How many Eagle Elementary Montessori students can you fit in the back of Joe's van?














Even Pete came along for the camping adventure. It was a beautiful evening and we are looking forward to next year's camping trip. But until then, we have work to do and winter to enjoy.

Halloween!

Each year we celebrate Halloween by honoring people from History or by honoring other cultures. This is a great way to dress up and celebrate Halloween while still learning. We pick a someone to dress up as and then we write a report and present our costume to the class.

Kelsa and Reagan dressed up as Cave Women.

Celena and Rachel dressed as the Greek Goddess of Fertility and Brutus from Rome.

We had three Cleopatra's, Sarrah, Ms. Erin and Naomi.

Native Americans- Drew, Heather and Lydia

Astronauts and Pilots Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Amelia Erhart - Shane, Angus, Dezmo, Spencer, Abigail and Aaron.
People Born before 1900 - Einstein, Civil War hero, Betsy Ross and Laura Ingalls Wilder- Cameron, Tyler, Ben, Emily and Ms. Shannon

International Costumes - Japan, Germany, Mexico, Spain and Ecuador- Ms. Maria, Krista, Elise, Courtney, Grace and Ms. Alethea

People born in 1900s - Jane Goodall, World War II Hero, Blondie and Sean Johnson- Ms. Jody, Max, Olivia and Maddie

We had such a great time checking out each others costumes and learning about the different people and cultures. It was a great start to our Halloween weekend.

Stayin' Alive!

As part of our quest to help students become self-reliant, capable community members, the Elementary classes are learning First Aid and CPR.  The goal is to provide an opportunity to practice the skills of keeping someone alive and safe in an emergency.

Krista and Naomi practice CPR.

Jody is a Red Cross trainer and took an afternoon to talk to the kids about how to handle an emergency as well as keep someone alive who is choking or unconscious.  Students had the opportunity to practice that afternoon, as well as throughout the week.  The following Friday, Donna Wood (Raegan's mom), who is a cardiac nurse, gave each willing child a "test" and a "membership card" that demonstrates the student's practice in CPR skills.  ***This does not mean that students are "Certified" in CPR, only that they have practiced and demonstrated the skills.***

The kids had a great time and really took the practice seriously.  We hope that in an emergency they will stay calm and know where to begin helping someone until an adult arrives. 

Angus working on his pumping technique.  

Parents might choose to take some time to practice calling 911 as well as reciting telephone numbers and home addresses with their children. 

Whitnee, Grace, Brett and Raegan work on the mannequin.

Ashwin finding the right place for his hands.

Did you know the Red Cross recently changed the CPR breath/pump ratio to 2/30 for everyone, including infants?

Bridger giving two breaths.

What capable and confident kids!  

The First Great Lesson

This year the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders put on a big bang play entitled "The Coming of the Universe" for the 1st and 2nd graders.  This is the first Great Lesson in the Montessori curriculum and is meant to give an impression of the forces at work in the Universe from which all that we know was created.  Before this, 1st and 2nd graders were read some creation stories from around the world.  Below are pictures of them performing their parts or doing their experiments.  Maybe next year we will have some video.

Celena starts us off by lighting a candle that symbolizes the gathering of heat that happened before the big bang.

Rachel demonstrates how centrifugal and centripetal forces work.  They balance each other out and keep objects in space from being flung wildly about.

Above, Whitnee is demonstrating centrifugal force again by swinging a bucket with water in it around in a huge circle.  There were lots of "whoa" and "ooohh" sounds coming from the audience with this one.

Here, Courtney is using a magnet and some metal pieces hidden in sand to show how some particles are attracted to each other and some are not, creating new elements.

Just before Courtney, Josiah used a model of Idaho and a bowl of sand to show how many stars are in the sky.  If a star were the size of a grain of sand, all the stars in the universe would cover Idaho about 200 yards deep.  That is a lot of stars!

Emily and Max check their scripts.  Max's job was to show how solid elements stay solid even when they are broken.  Emily was charged with showing how solids melt a different temperatures.  We had a few technical difficulties and didn't get the heat turned on for Emily or Cameron's experiments, but the show went on with true thespian grace.

Ben, Cameron and Grace await their turns.

Ben showed two experiments that illustrate how heavy elements sink and light elements float.  Cameron's job was to show how while the Earth cooled, the lighter, floating elements cooled and formed a crust on the surface of the Earth.  Grace had the task of demonstrating the volcanic forces at work on Earth. 

 

After the performance, the first and second graders were invited to come see the experiments up close and try them again.  

Rachel gives the bucket a try.  I'm wondering how many centrifugal force experiments happened at home after this performance?

Reagan, Bridger, Naomi and Brooke have go with some experiments.  

Sarrah, Kelsa, Olivia and Elise check out the volcano.

Drew gets his hands into the Heavy Things Sink experiment.

Over the next few months, the class will dive into the next four Montessori Great Lessons.  Next up, the Timeline of Life!

Firefighter Frenzy!

Firefighters are cool!  The Eagle Fire Department visited us in October to talk about fire safety.  

They put on ALL of their firefighting gear.  The kids were 

great observers, making sure the firefighter's skin was totally covered.  We jumped a little when they turned on the personal alarm.

Then, they used Elise to show about how much weight they are carrying around fully dressed!  We're sure glad they do though.

They brought the firetruck this year and everyone was excited to have a turn to sit inside.  The line was quite long!

Here is Lydia having a turn.  Behind her is an air tank that sits on the seat, ready for the next alarm.  

Here are Ben, Grace, Courtney, Lydia, Elise, Maddie, Emily and Tyler posing by the HUGE tire on the truck.

They were amazed to learn that the truck can cost half a million dollars or more.  The Eagle Fire Department just bought a truck that costs a million!

Olivia, Tyler, Ashwin, Courtney, Lydia, Emily, Maddie, Elise and Brooke ham it up.  

Teachers are hamballs too!  Maria and Erin flex for the camera.  The firefighters also turned on the hose for us.  

Thanks Eagle firefighters for visiting and keeping us safe!

Mountain Building

Second graders are expert "mountaineers!"  Not only do they know all the parts of a mountain, they can build one too!

Here you can see Elise and Krista putting the finishing touches on their clay 

mountains.  Check out the tiny flags they have created to label the parts!  

One of the best parts of our classroom is the way one child inspires another with interesting, beautiful work.  Abigail and Dezmo were inspired to create their own mountain books and models after watching the second graders.

Below, Aaron and Parker create their Parts of a Mountain book before beginning model building.  They have painted the parts to be defined in red.

  

Hands-On Language

In these pictures, students are spending some time exploring language concepts.  It sure looks like play, doesn't it?  

Below, Bridger and Angus use the miniature environment to make meaningful experiences about grammar.  They can name things (nouns), position things (prepositions), or create action with the objects (verbs), among others.  

There is nothing like something small and interesting to capture a child's imagination and make learning fun!

Here, Drew is sorting a basket of objects by initial sounds.

"The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences." - Maria Montessori

We love Biology!

In Biology, Upper Elementary students began the year by studying the prokaryote kingdom.  Here they are creating wall charts showing parts of a prokaryote.  

After studying prokaryotes, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders began the study of bacteria and protoctista. They were busy in September and October creating clay models and Powerpoint presentations about these kingdoms.  

It feels like summer...

We are excited about summer and the warm weather but there is still so much left to do with the rest of our school year. We had so much fun at Spring Festival and our new clubs have been keeping us busy between all that great Montessori work. Check it out, pictures of the fun we have been having!!

Here is Petey, our classroom pet, he is tired after a long day helping us with Math, Science, Grammar, reading, cultural work, playing outside, ringing his bell to signal he wants to go outside to go potty and eating lunch. We love having Petey in the classroom with us!

Here is Aaron selling popcorn, frozen yogurt and cookies to raise money for our classroom!

We just started a wood working club that ALL the kids have joined. We are so excited about creating new and exciting things out of wood.

The Baking Club has been baking delicious items each Friday familes and friends can purchase these freshly baked items for $.25 and the Baking Club will donate the money to a Make A Wish child named Austin who is battling Leukamia. Also, next year the Baking Club will combine all the recipes they have used this year into a book and sell their cookbook to raise money for the Boise Montessori PTO! It's great that they get to have fun and raise money for good causes!

Here is a picture of our choir director, David, he is funny and every Friday we love singing the songs he chooses. We sing campfire songs, traditional folk songs and then mix it up with "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson and "Dancing in the Streets" by Martha and the Vandellas! We had our last choir day last Friday but we are excited for next school year so that we can learn new fun songs to start our Fridays off right!

That's all for now. Check back, we will post some of our Summer Camp pictures and starting Septmeber 2008 we will have a new year loaded with new things to blog about!