I cannot believe that we have already been in school for six weeks.  SIX WEEKS!  Time flies when you are having fun, and working hard.

Tuesday we held our elections for class representative.  All of our candidates gave fantastic speeches, one even sang!  I’m so proud of your children’s courage to stand up and give a speech.  Even though it was in front of friends, who they are now quite comfortable with, it took a lot of guts to put themselves out there.  In the end Samantha is our class representative.  Her job will be to report, to the student council, any concerns, problems or solutions our class may have.

Wednesday we had our first ever student council elections.  Two of our students ran for office and both gave amazing speeches in front of the entire upper elementary student body.  A big round of applause for their awesome campaigns and equally awesome speeches.

Yesterday was International Talk Like a Pirate Day.  While things didn’t get as piratey as I had hoped, we still had some fun making eye patches, creating geometry based treasure maps and practicing reading a coordinate graph.  We also had our first spelling test of the year.  The students have been practicing these words for two weeks now.  Going forward, they will get their words on Monday, practice Tuesday and Wednesday and have a test on Thursday.  Any words that they miss, they will be expected to take home and practice.  All students are expected to write their spelling words in their planners.  As you sign their planners each night, it would be a good idea to quiz them and discuss the words so they are prepared for the test on Thursday.

Today we had a 100 problem timed test.   Some of the students took an addition test, some a multiplication test and some took a mixed multiplication/division test.  Please watch for flashcards coming home in the next week.  Though Montessori schools are not traditionally known for homework, specifically rote memorization of facts, math facts are some things that the children do need extra work on at home.  Being able to quickly multiply or add single digits is key to progressing through the math curriculum.   Please support what we are striving for in the classroom by practicing these facts with your children at home.

Today also marked our second week of studio class rotation.   I am teaching recycled art,  and we made bracelets from t-shirt “yarn”.  The style we made were similar to the paracord survival bracelets that have been popular in the last couple of years.   It was challenging for some of the children and possibly a little frustrating as well.  I plan on making these bracelets with our class as a “free time” activity.  If you have any old t-shirts that are just hanging in your closet, please consider donating these to our class so we can create more projects.  I have in mind a rag rug that we can sell at the annual MAPA Gala as well as coasters and even more bracelets, headbands, etc.  These kind of projects are nice for the children to relax with after they have had an exceptionally productive day.   Ask your students what classes they have and what they have been doing.

And finally, check out the snack sign up page as well as the celebration of life sign up page.  We love snacks in our class and the children love to share their birthday with their classmates.  If you have a child with a summer birthday, consider signing up for a half-birthday celebration!