millhopper montessori school oct 2010 news
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Healthy Children
monitor current topics >>>
Fall Festival Thursday, October 28
5:30 - 8:00pm
Early to bed, early to rise, really can help make you wise!
The 2nd Annual Millhopper Montessori School
Fall Festival is sponsored and organized by the
MMS PTO. The event will be held the eve-
ning on Thursday, October 28th on the MMS
East Field. All MMS families are encouraged
to attend this night of family camaraderie full
of food, fun and a variety of activities. For
more information or to volunteer contact the
MMS PTO President, Lonnie Phillips or con-
tact your PTO Classroom Representative. Be
on the lookout for more information in the
upcoming weeks!
For more information go to
www.millhopper.com
It is that time, and the children have returned
to school, eager to share all of their summer
experiences. Along with the gathering of
children into classrooms comes the sharing
of germs. While it is a wonderful goal for a
child to have perfect attendance, it is very
important to keep your child home from
school if he or she is sick. The spreading of
the germs likely occurs before a child’s
symptoms appear, but it is important to re-
member that germs can still be spread after-
ward. It is equally important that the sick
child needs time to rest and recover. The
time for this can be difficult to evaluate espe-
cially if he/ she is jumping on the couch and
appears to feel better. Remember that school
is different from a living room, and children
can tire easily as they are healing from an
illness while attempting the routine of a
school day.
The well known but often neglected formula
for having a healthy child is a good diet and
enough sleep. Teach your child about the
four food groups, and let your child help
select from the food groups as he/she plans
lunch for the next day. There are many
books and websites that are full of ideas to
help think outside the PB&J, such as
www.laptoplunches.com/ideas and
www.cyh.comHealthTopicsHealthTopicDeta
ilsKids.aspx
Making sure your child gets enough sleep is
vital to his/her health. When children don’t
get enough sleep the consequences are well
researched and predictable. According to
sleep researchers, a child’s mood and tem-
perament deteriorate first, followed by a loss
of will to participate in work or play. Then, it
can get difficult for a child to organize and
react appropriately as well as reflect on his/
her own behavior. Higher level thinking
skills also become compromised.
During deep sleep, growth hormones are
released which are advantageous to growth
and a healthy immune system. In the July
2003 Red Book magazine, Stacey Colino
wrote about how to help your child develop
healthy sleep habits. She outlines the “five
sleep robbers” as allergies, computer games
prior to bedtime, chocolate and caffeine,
snoring (obstructive sleep apnea), and
watching TV before bedtime.
Inda Schaenen, in her book, The 7 o’clock
Bed Time, reflects on how important a bed
“time” is and how it allows for an unwinding
of the day. She recalled the time when her
daughter said, “I don’t want today to end,”
as she was leaving her room. She didn’t want
it to end either, but she explained that time
will not stop for anyone, and we are each
responsible for our manner of traveling this
trip of time. She wanted her daughter to get
enough sleep for the trip (continued page 2)
montessori
Fall, 2010
By: Christina Miller, President
PTO News>>>
A Letter from the PTO President
On behalf of the PTO, I would like to welcome back students,
parents, and staff. We are off to another great year at MMS. I
can't believe it is already October! PTO is in full swing. We
held our first meeting in September and plans for the Fall Fes-
tival are under way.
Many of you have volunteered to serve on a committee or as
classroom representative. Thank you for your willingness to
get involved. If you have not yet signed up but would like to
volunteer as a classroom representative or to serve on a com-
mittee, please let the front office know. Also as events come up
we will ask for volunteers in specific areas. Even an hour or
two can be a big help and is greatly appreciated.
The Fall Festival will be held on October 28 from 5:30 pm until
8 pm. Each class will host booth activities, coordinated by the
classroom representative. Please ask your classroom repre-
sentative how you can be involved with your classroom booths.
Volunteers are needed for set-up, operating shifts for the booth,
and clean up. The PTO voted to fund expenses for the festival
this year so that families can focus on buying tickets and donat-
ing their time. The Fall Festival is a great way to get to know
other MMS families and it is a lot of fun!! I hope you will make
plans for your family to attend.
The next PTO meeting is scheduled for November 16th at 6:00
pm. Please plan to come! We will be discussing how we plan
to use PTO funds, the dinner theater, and plans to enhance the
Early Education and Preschool/Kindergarten playgrounds.
PTO Classroom Representatives
Ms. Crystal Sorrow:
Shachar Amdur & Peggy White
Ms. Christina Eckstein:
Niya Dix
Ms. Renee Brohamer:
Jeff Hale
Ms. Elizabeth Falls:
Rhea Bush
Ms. Jackie Johnson:
Jacqueline Lind
Ms. Anita Bender:
Gabriela Castellanos &
Theresa Brewington
Mr. Richard Aslanian:
Deeta Adkins &
Robert Mackritis
Ms. Christina Miller:
Jennine Brandt
Ms. Sherilyn Farris:
Jeanne-Marie Clune-Hrivnak
& Trish Petty
as she acknowledged that nearly half the trip is itself that journey in the dark.
If your child does not have a bedtime routine, has difficulty waking and falling back
to sleep at night (especially without your assistance), and shows symptoms of inade-
quate sleep, I strongly encourage you to read Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems by
Richard Ferber, M.D. and The 7 o’clock Bed Time by Inda Schaenen.
I hope you find a routine that works well for you and your child. It will need to be a
ritual that is easy to follow on relaxed as well as hectic days and be one that you not
only feel good about but can actually look forward to at the end of your day. It is a
wonderful gift to give to your child and yourself.
Healthy Children Continued >>>
By: Lonnie Phillips
Meetin
g M
inutes
September unit study >>>
SPORTS! In September the Be-ginner's Class is study-ing sports. Sports is a great early unit be-cause all sports use gross-motor as well as fine-motor skills. Young students love physical play with balls and need practice to refine the all-important gross-motor skills. The sports unit give students the chance to see ath-letes of all ages enjoying sports and allows them to try some ba-sic skills at their own level. Many days on the playground during our sports unit the students kick a soccer ball, field baseballs, throw footballs, and practice skills to help their coordination. Being physical at any age is very important, but the Beginner's
In the Little House we began the year with lessons in Grace and Courtesy. The
Little House class is made up of many students who are coming to school for
the first time, and it takes many days for students to adjust to the order and sched-
ule of the school day. August is filled with learning to walk in a line, sit during line
time, choose work off the shelves, and with learning how to use words to talk to
teachers and peers respectfully. Often a child first entering school is used to re-
quests being fulfilled immediately or is used to parents doing small tasks for him/
her. In the beginner's class in this Montessori environment we work hard to encour-
age a child to explore what he or she can do independently. This can also be a big
transition for a child. Each August we work on lessons for cooperating and work-
ing respectfully in the Montessori environment.
Montessori Monitor >>>
Beginners Ms. Crystal Sorrow, Ms. Elizabeth Sheehan & Ms. Lonnie Phillips
Play-dough helps us develop fine-motor
skills and concentration. It is a great sen-
sorial work and helps us explore.
Sarah is playing
the cajon. The
cajon is also
known as a beat
box, with
the person sitting
on the instrument
using his or her
hands to create
music by rhythmi-
cally striking the
front or edges of
the box.
Class is a critical time for students to be practicing gross-motor skills. Children who are not exposed to gross-motor development and physical skills can be delayed in this area during a most critical pe-riod. This is when students are building muscle memories that will stay with them throughout life. Building muscle control and coor-dination is important for a well-developed young child.
Preschool Ms. Renee Brohamer & Ms. Lily Tajalli
Painting with primary colors
The school year has started off wonder-
fully! We started out learning the pro-
cedures of the classroom and care of
ourselves, others and our environment.
We found out that we learn about the
world around us through our five senses
and we began exploring the sense of
sight while at the same time learning
about colors. We tasted fruits in pri-
mary colors and later we made other
tasty creations by mixing primary col-
ored foods to make secondary colors.
We explored our sense of touch by
comparing rough and smooth objects as
well as hard and soft objects. We also
found that we can know what an object
is simply by using our sense of touch.
One of the children’s favorite lessons is
the mystery bag. They feel for assorted
objects in the bag and identify it by
touch before looking at it to verify the
proper identification. We will continue
our sensory exploration throughout the
next several weeks.
As a part of learning how to take good
care of ourselves we have been learning
about nutrition. The children are learn-
ing about the food groups. In our explo-
ration of the grains group we read the
story of the “Little Red Hen” and we
discussed the process of from where
bread comes. The children ground some
grain and made some flour. After a
week of hard work grinding the grain
we made bread with some of the flour
we had ground. It was delicious!
Continuing in our quest for knowledge
we explored the dairy group and
learned that many of the foods we eat
are made from milk. Last week dairy
farmer Linda Lussier visited us from
Lussier Dairy. She brought a calf and
lots of delicious milk. She explained
about how the farmers care for the
cows so that they will produce healthy
milk. We also watched a video about
life on a dairy farm and we simulated
milking a cow by hand with a rubber
glove.
We’re having a great time exploring so
many of the wonders around us.
Yummy fruit kabobs
Grinding the wheat
Above: Milking
Right: a visit from a calf
This bread is delicious!
A Look Into October>>>
Our October unit brings us to the study of the community. The stu-dents are exploring different careers and creating maps of various ven-ues such as our own classroom community. Secondly, with Halloween just around the corner, the children are discovering the wonderful world of spiders. The season of Fall is also the perfect time for the students to examine leaves, identifying the different types and their parts. The students’ appreciation of art and music is deepening as they study Seurat and Mozart this month.
The month of September was certainly a busy one in our classroom! The students really enjoyed the farm unit. They learned about farm families, the importance of farms and the products we receive from them. They also examined the parts of a horse and made a corre-sponding booklet. Our simulated cow milking experiment was a class favorite. The parts of an apple, its lifecycle and the various types of apples were explored this month as well. Apple crisp and applesauce were prepared and also enjoyed by the class. Another area of study we examined was the five senses. The students “researched” the parts of the body that correspond with the senses by cutting out pic-tures in magazines and gluing them on the picture of themselves that they created. The children also loved studying the great composer of the Baroque period, Johann Sebastian Bach. They found out that he was also a great organ and harpsichord player. Our artist of the month was Piet Mondrian. The students created their very own works modeled after his neo-plastic style. They came out spectacularly!
Montessori Monitor >>>
Preschool Ms. Christina Eckstein & Ms. Martha Donaldson
Push–pinned farm scene.
Mondrian Creation
Our visit with the calf
Above:
Five Senses Sorting Work
Right:
Land-Water-Air Animal
Classification
Preschool/Kindergarten Ms. Elizabeth Falls & Ms. Widline Senecharles
It is hard to believe that six weeks
of school have already gone by!
During the first few weeks, we
concentrated on establishing rou-
tines and important ground rules.
The children have adjusted well to
their new classroom and new les-
sons are being added daily.
Each year, the beauty of the Mon-
tessori classroom unfolds. Within
the Montessori environment, we
are able to enhance our curriculum
with thematic unit studies. During
the school year, you will see our
classroom change from time to
time, depending on our current
unit studies. During the months of
August and September, we have
been concentrating on “Down on
the Farm” and the Food Pyra-
mid. Within these units, we have
been able to study farm animals,
life on a farm and proper nutrition.
The children enjoyed learning
about and making a book on the
Parts of a Horse. Presentation of
these curricula is achieved by plac-
ing materials throughout the class-
room (integration) related to these
themes. These materials include
books, music, push pinning, lan-
guage activities, etc. Children do
not have to be taught to explore or
question; they are born with the
powerful desire to do so. This
drive sets the stage for all future
learning. In the Montessori envi-
ronment we provide an exciting,
stimulating and educational envi-
ronment for the children to do this
exploration.
Our next unit studies will take us
into exploring How a Seed Grows
and the Life Cycle of a Tree. This
will lead us into our first Geogra-
phy study; South America and
Tropical Rainforests.
In Language, daily journal writing
(for Kindergarteners) is one of
their favorite activities. Each day,
the children copy the date and a
written journal prompt from the
board. They answer the prompt
phonetically (“inventive writing”)
and then get to illustrate their an-
swer. As the year progresses, the
children love to see how far they
have come in their writing ability.
Some of the children are working
on becoming more solid with their
letter sounds. They enjoy working
with the Waseca Reading Program.
This Program was designed to
phonetically break the English lan-
guage down into manageable
pieces to be presented sequentially.
The sequence of presentation fol-
lows that used by the Orton-
Practical Life & Development Art Sewing
Parts of a Horse Book
Addition with Counters
Gillingham approach to reading
and compliments the Phono-
Graphix and Montessori approach.
Throughout the year at Story
Time, we will be reading books
pertinent to our ongoing unit stud-
ies as well as Caldecott Award
winners, classics and studying
various children’s authors. We are
currently reading works by Tomie
De Paola. I have also just finished
reading our first chapter book,
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” by Roald Dahl
to the class.
In Math, activities involving one-
to-one correspondence (0-9), num-
ber rods, bead stair, teen numbers,
the 100 board, the bead chains and
the four operations of math are
currently taking place in the class-
room. On a weekly basis, the chil-
dren are becoming more confident
in their mathematical abilities.
All throughout the year, we will be
doing Developmental Art using
various media in the classroom.
Some of our art projects have in-
cluded: painting with watercolors,
Q-Tip painting, painting by marble
rolling, fruit prints and dog sock
puppets. We will also be studying
the works of Monet, Picasso, Van
Gogh, Cezanne and Matisse.
Music and Movement: The chil-
dren love to sing! Some of their
favorite songs include: Move Fast,
Move Slow; Worm Workout;
Pocket Full of B’s; One Small
Voice; Puff the Magic Dragon;
Ollie the Otter and You’ve Got a
Friend. To also help develop gross
motor skills and concentration I
have introduced the children to
movement exercises using bean
bags (Bean Bag Alphabet and
Bean Bag Bop) and having relay
races with wooden eggs balanced
on wooden spoons. The children
are learning how to work as a
team!
Cooking: As a classroom tradi-
tion, in honor of Johnny Apple-
seed’s birthday and the beginning
of fall, the children learned how to
make a homemade apple pie!
We are excited about this year!
We would like to thank all the
parents who have so generously
made, purchased and donated
items for the classroom. You are
such strong advocates for your
children and we are happy to be
working together with you! We
are looking forward to our first
Parent Night of this school year
on Tuesday, October 12th!
Calf Visit
Sensorial: Pink Tower and Brown Stair
Educational Play: Gross Motor & Social Development
Our class is humming along! We have a wonderful
group of students. The kindergarteners have ad-
justed well to using work plans and are enjoying their
P.E. and technology classes. The preK children have
also transitioned well to our classroom and have
achieved a nice balance between child and teacher
directed work. In addition to math, language, and
handwriting, the class as a whole has been receiving
lessons in Spanish, science, geography, music, art,
sewing, practical life and grace & courtesy. With
the latter we have been having discussions about
self-control and observing the golden rule.
For science, we began the year by studying nutrition.
The children are learning about food groups, and the
general benefits derived from each type of food. I
do not teach the food pyramid per se since it is dif-
ficult to conceptualize at this age, and is susceptible
to nutritional fads. My focus instead is to encourage
them to eat a variety of wholesome foods including
foods with naturally occurring color (i.e., fruits and
vegetables), whole grains, proteins and dairy. We
also talk about the importance of trying new foods
and trying foods more than once, since many food
preferences are acquired. To stretch their often
finicky palates, we have been preparing different
foods in the classroom, and sampling foods during
circle time. Our shake-a-salad was a hit.
In the afternoons, we have been doing art, sewing,
food preparation, or nutrition related activities; and
in literature, we are reading James and the Giant
Learning the Advanced Code
Print Making
Magnet Construction
Practical Life: Tonging
Preschool/Kindergarten Ms.. Jackie Johnson & Ms. Kathleen Long
Peach. We are looking forward to doing more after-
noon activities outside as the weather gets cooler.
We are having a great start to the year. We are hav-
ing lots of fun and already forming wonderful friend-
ships!
Shake A Salad
Dot Dot Dash
Food Group Sorting
Sewing: Running Stitch
Concentrated Cutting
This school year is off to a great start. The first graders are getting used to having a daily Work Plan and are developing an invaluable sense of organization. Also, they seem happy about having a binder and several notebooks where they keep their work. The second year students in the classroom have been an incredible asset to the first year students. It is an honor to have them back in the classroom and seeing them share their knowledge and excitement. In a 6-9 year old Montessori class the curriculum includes special presentations of material that introduce concepts to the chil-dren with a visual presentation. One of the most fascinating characteristics of Maria Montessori was her ability to connect life at the moment with life in the distant past. She understood the growing imagination of the elementary aged child. Her goal for the elementary school child is to have a holistic approach to understanding the Universe. We have been discussing how to take care of our environment and our classroom. We also have been working on respecting each other and the classroom, and learning rights and responsibilities. The materials available in the classroom help lead the children into becoming independent thinkers. Our goal is to follow each child and to guide him/her into making the right choices within his/her environment. We use worksheets that you see coming home as a supplement to reinforce the materials being introduced in class. In Geography, we have covered Map Skills and the four cardinal points (N,S,E,W). We reviewed the compass and how it aligns itself with magnetic North. We will also put some of the Science experiments we are studying into action during the first of five Great Montessori Dramatic Lessons. We are also working on the concept of time through the use of calendars and time-lines. Language, reading, math, geometry, science and problem solving skills are part of the children's weekly work plan. You may also see work coming home that has symbols above phrases or sentences. Maria Montessori designed symbols to repre-sent all of the parts of grammar and the child uses the parsing symbols to help learn the functions of our words. Overall, I think everyone is adjusting to the classroom beautifully, making new friends and facing new challenges that go along with the maturity and accountability that comes with this age.
Montessori Monitor >>>
First & Second Grades Ms. Anita Bender & Ms. Susie Long
Special Thanks >>>
*To all of the families who have donated classroom mate-rial, yarn, plants to care for and/or special snacks to the classroom. *We appreciate the donation of Box Tops for Education, please continue to collect and bring into class. *For ordering from the Scholastic Books website it has added more books to our classroom library and every time you order online we get an additional certificate for a new book for our classroom. The children have enjoyed shelving these new books into our classroom library. Please check out the Scholastic website at scholastic.com. Our class code is GPFKF. *For representing our classroom at the P.T.O. and helping to prepare for the Fall Festival. *For participating in all of the activities during Spirit Week!
Second & Third Grades Mr. Richard Aslanian & Ms. Suzi Rumsey
Welcome to the second and third
grades class. We are off and running
with the new school year and are
happy to report that we are doing
well, working hard and learning
many new things.
Our science studies are based on
space and earth science this year.
We experienced the Montessori
Great Lesson on the creation of the
universe and space. This lesson en-
compasses a large amount of impres-
sionistic materials that open the stu-
dents’ minds to what possibly may
have happened in the beginning.
Subsequent lessons have been based
on types of galaxies, star classifica-
tion, and an in depth study of our so-
lar system. We enjoyed our field trip
to the SFC Kika Silva Pla Planetar-
ium and are looking forward to class
projects in November.
In Social studies and history we have
been practicing our mapping skills,
working with longitude and latitude,
legends, continents, the oceans and
learning about the seasons. We have
all practiced our phone numbers and
addresses and have talked about the
importance of this information. We
are looking forward to our presenta-
tion of a Historical Timeline at the
end of October. Each student has
received a person of importance from
history and will be portraying this
person during a school wide presen-
tation.
Participating in Spirit Week was once
again an enjoyable and learning ex-
perience. Many thoughts and lessons
come out of this week, with the cul-
mination being about school pride
and our Millhopper Family helping
the community to be a better place.
Thanks to all of the families for your
support of our endeavors.
Students in Ms. Tina's class have been adjusting to their weekly routines and
setting good habits in place to help themselves stay organized this school
year. Students have gotten used to keeping track of their assignments using
Snapgrades, the class assignment board, and their school planners.
As the weather cools down, 4th graders have been warming up for some gar-
dening activities. In the classroom we examined seeds and seed packets to
find out information about when, where and how to plant different types of
crops. Students consulted a Florida vegetable planting guide to learn more
about fall and spring crops in our part of the state. Soon Ms. Wendy, Sophie's
mom, will be helping us plant our fall crops.
Here's a look at what students have been up to in some of their academic
classes:
5th graders in US His-
tory with Ms. Susan
Hansen have finished a study of Native American cultural regions in the United
States and have begun learning about European exploration. Students enjoyed par-
ticipating in a simulation of underwater archaeology. They examined ruins of ex-
plorer ships and artifacts
related to the motivation for
exploration, new technol-
ogy, and new products in the
New World.
4th graders in Florida His-
tory have completed a re-
view of basic geography
concepts including latitude
and longitude and other map skills. Students started getting to know our state by
completing their own map of Florida. As we progress to our study of Florida's na-
tive tribes, students will take a field trip to Morningside Nature Center to learn
about the native Timucua people who lived in this part of Florida. We will also
visit the Florida Museum of Natural History to view their exhibit and participate in
hands-on activities related to the various tribes that once lived throughout our state.
Fourth grade writers are preparing for the annual Florida Writes test in March. This statewide writing program prepares students to write 5
paragraph expository essays, with an emphasis on focus, organization, conventions and supporting details.
In Science class with Ms. Carol students have been learning about variables
and how variables affect the outcome of an experiment. Students set up a
pendulum experiment to test the effect of the length of the string on the
number of swings the
pendulum made in a
given length of
time. Students made
graphs with their data
and learned about how
scientists use graphs to
make predictions and
why reliable data is so
important.
Montessori Monitor >>>
Fourth & Fifth Grades Ms. Christina Miller, Ms. Susan Salvatore & Ms. Erin Sorel
History
Ms. Susan Salvatore &
Ms. Sherilyn Farris
Sixth grade students h
ave been studying
the Paleolithic and Neolith
ic eras as well as th
e
different types of early hominids. S
tudents pre-
pared skits to present diffe
rent hominids to the
fourth and fifth graders. T
he skits featured dia-
logue the students w
rote themselves and home-
made costumes and props!
Seventh and eighth graders are stu
dying
American Westward expansion and the im
pact
on Native Americans. They are looking specifi-
cally at the Nez Perce trib
e and Chief Joseph,
also known as Thunder Rolling In the
Mountains, while bringing the
song “The Heart of th
e Appa-
loosa” to life.
Technology Ms. Sylvia Aslanian Tying into American History, Seventh and eighth graders are cre-ating a presentation project on Gaggle.net to chronicle the lives of the Nez Perce dur-ing Westward Expan-sion. Sixth graders are learning about all of the tools available on the wonderful Millhopper Tech website.
Speech
Ms. Sylvia Aslanian
Sixth graders are learning
the basics of public speaking
while preparing speeches about
each other.
Seventh graders p
repared
and delivered speeches about their
biggest pet peeves.
Eighth graders w
ere able to
show off all th
ey’ve learned after
three years of public speaking
with impromptu speeches.
Spirit Week
Middle school students had a
great time during Spirit Week this
year. Students chose a Western theme
and we even wore cowboy hats during
are cheer.
Congratulations to our school-
wide costume winners: Sarah Kilgore,
Ashley Petty, and Austin Petty.
Thanks to all of the parents
who helped by putting together cos-
tumes or sending in cans. We were
able to bring in 320 cans!
Middle School Ms. Sherilyn Farris & Ms. Susan Hansen
Science
Ms. Carol Fogelman
Physical science and chemistry
are the focus for this school year. Sixth
graders have just finished an exploration
on mystery mixtures while learning sci-
ence FUN-damentals!
Seventh and eighth graders are
learning the basics of Chemistry and
balancing chemical equations.
All middle school students are
already preparing for the Science Fair.
Video Production
Ms. Sylvia Aslanian
Seventh and eighth
graders have formed produc-
tion teams to create liv
e news-
casts about all o
f the events
going on at MMS.
Sixth graders a
re learn-
ing video fundamentals while
creating original commercials
for MMS.
Language Arts Ms. Susan Hansen All of the middle school stu-
dents have jumped right into the
Shakespeare Festival this school year.
Though, the festival won’t be until
February, students are already prepar-
ing for it. To help prepare, 7 th
and 8 th
grade students are reading Henry V
and 6 th grade student are reading The
Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Black-
Hola mis amigos. We’re having a wonderful time getting to know each other in all of the Spanish classes (Beginners-8
th Grade). We have been
studying the geography of the Spanish speaking world and have also be-gun to study the holidays, traditions and customs of those twenty-one very diverse countries. We began our study with Spain as we explored the ori-gin of the language, the geography, the customs, traditions, expressions, accents, music, art, food, industries, lifestyles and other diverse aspects of the history and the people of that beautiful and amazing country. We were able to tour Spain through a special movie maker project that Ms. Jeanne-Marie created and through the Promethean board. In September we celebrated the Central American and Mexican Independence Days, and in October we will celebrate El Dia de la Raza (Race Day or Colum-bus Day), El Dia de los Muertos, and National Hispanic Month in the United States. We will continue to share and celebrate the diversity of the Spanish-speaking world with the students throughout the year as we explore different countries. Al-though Spanish-speaking people all over the world may differ in many ways, they share a love of their language and a desire for world peace.
MMS Spanish >>>
Ms. Jeanne-Marie Hrivnak
Beginners, Preschool & Kindergarten
We have been learning greetings, introductions and expres-sions of courtesy and have been conversing in Spanish regularly. Through conversation and the use of songs, pup-pets, finger-play activities, models, pictures, and charades
we are able to learn and use Spanish vo-cabulary. In September our focus was on the human body. We dis-cussed the parts of the body, the senses, and taking care of our bod-ies by eating healthy foods and staying active (sports). We have described physical and personality traits, emotions, and feelings of others and ourselves in the class and in photos. We identified classroom objects, numbers, colors and some
animals. "Cabeza, Hombros, Rodillas, Pies" ("Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Feet" in Spanish) was a favorite song and game as we learned the parts of the body as was "Simon Dice". In Ms.Christina and Ms. Liz’s classes we also studied the farm and learned the names for the people, animals, objects, and jobs on the farm. The children were fascinated to learn that the animals make different sounds in Spanish. All of the classes were excited by the visit from a dairy farmer and calf and we discussed the theme “From the Farm to the Fridge” in Spanish.
First through Third Grades We had fun getting acquainted and re-viewing basic greetings and classroom expressions with the help of songs, cha-rades, and role-play activities. It was so much fun to use TPR (Total Physical Response) to learn directional phrases and to give directions... We reviewed numbers and colors and went on to learn more numbers and how to say the day and date. We practiced this new vocabulary using our birthdays and holi-days and by playing Bingo in Spanish.
We were also able to play “El color es-condido” in which we had to sing a song and find a missing color. We used models, pictures, charades and other games to learn about classroom ob-jects, expressions and activities. Role-play activities have given us the oppor-tunity to converse with each other in Spanish in a fun way. We will be dis-cussing fall weather and activities as well as the solar system in October.
Fourth & Fifth Grades After reviewing basic greetings, feel-ings, numbers, colors, pronunciation we were able to get to know each other better by sharing our likes and dislikes using the verb “gustar” and the vo-cabulary for activities, pastimes, and sports. We went on to increase our vocabulary threefold by learning and using cognates (words that are similar in Spanish and in English). We also
shared our birthdays and favorite holi-days as we went over the days of the week and months of the year. We have been using TPR to identify classroom objects and to give commands about activities and expressions in the class-room. In October we will cover fall vo-cabulary and weather and then talk about our families with the family trees we create in Spanish.
Middle School .Students are taught using a variation of the “direct method”. This means that the instructor teaches using the target lan-guage as much as possible. Through conversation, models, pictures, TPR (Total Physical Response), role-play activities and other visual and audio aids, the students learn the four lan-guage skills (listening, speaking, read-ing, and writing) in Spanish. This tech-nique is effective because the students are able to hear the target language in a variety of “real life” situations in a fun way. A “communicative competency” approach to language learning supports the use of this method. When possible, we follow the teachers’ unit studies as a source for our themes throughout the year. By doing so, we are able to take a multidisciplinary approach to language learning. 6th Grade: In Spanish I we have been working hard to review all the Spanish we have studied in previous years and are perfecting and expanding our vo-cabulary. We have begun to concen-trate more on grammar, reading and writing skills than in the past, but we continue to work regularly on our speak-ing and listening comprehension skills. The topics we have covered have en-
abled us to do this quite easily. They are the following: introductions, greet-ings, well-being, feelings, age, origin, personality & physical traits, likes and dislikes. In October we will go on to learn how to express our needs and wants at home, at school, and in our free time. The 6
th grade students have
been very excited about the Spanish activities on the Promethean board. 7th & 8th Grades: In Spanish II we have reviewed all the material covered in Spanish I by writing and performing some incredibly interesting skits (They are available on our school website for your perusal.). We were able to learn how to ask many different questions and to use adverbs of frequency by talking about what we do in a typical week. Ne-gation was also discussed as we talked about the things we never do. Time, dates, weather vocabulary factored into our conversation as did the use of all the basic verb forms. In October we will be discussing our families in detail and cre-ating power point projects to share with the class. The 7
th & 8
th grade students
were especially talented at doing the “Cha Cha” for our celebration of the Central American and Mexican Inde-pendence Days.
MMS Sports Teams >>>
SOCCER
Physical Education is off to a fast start. The first few weeks were filled with team building activi-ties to help the stu-dents with their team concept and serving a role on a team. Presidential Physical Fitness
Pre-Testing followed and went extremely well. Coach Cam thinks we have a genuine shot at the state title this year! Most recently we played our way through spirit week before gearing up for our first unit. Soccer will lead the way to go in conjunction with our sports league involvement. Students work on passing, shooting and dribbling with a focus on being able to control the ball. It looks like its going to be a great year in P.E.
Montessori Monitor >>>
Physical Education Coach Cam Parker
Our Fall Soccer Season has begun with a record
number of players and a flurry of activity. Practices
have been hot, but fun and exciting to watch. MMS
stresses team building, friendship, and enjoying our
time on the field. Positive attitudes teach good
sportsmanship. Our sidelines are filled with laugh-
ter, cheering, and most of all, big smiles! Come
check out our games at Oak Hall on Saturdays and
be part of the fun!
Peripheral
A hardware device that is connected to a computer,
usually by a cable.
Technology Buzzwords…. abound in the me-
dia center this month. Kindergarten – Fifth graders
have been learning about parts of the computer, online
safety, cyberbullying, and evaluating websites.
We have been watching animated clips on computer
parts and online safety housed at Brain Pop and Brain
Pop, Jr. Some of these clips can be accessed via mill-
hoppertech.com The students also have taken several
online quizzes to help reiterate the concepts. In the
Interactive Section under Computer Basics at millhop-
pertech.com they worked in several activities to help
them to understand the terms they’ve learned. In the
Be Safe section they were able to obtain their web li-
cense once they answered several questions about
online safety. In addition the kindergarteners are learn-
ing to maneuver the mouse.
Middle school students set up their accounts in Gag-
gle.net. Gaggle.net is a safe and secure online commu-
nication. Gaggle allows students to take advantage of
current technology tools for communication, collabo-
ration, and social learning.
Why is Gaggle Safe? Gaggle provides a safe collection of in-
structional and communication tools controlled by admini-
stration and teachers with spam, virus protection and content
filtering.
Compliant with Federal Student Privacy Regulations (CIPA,
HIPPA, FERPA, and COPPA)
Sixth Grade students utilize the Technology Lab to
work on their Science Lab Homework. Foss
"Chemical Interactions" is loaded on several laptops in
the media center. This program simulates experiment
the student do in class. By using the added component
they can see the experiment several times to help them
retain and understand the concepts they are learning.
Technology
Answering questions in the Input/
Output Lesson.
Practicing Mouse Skills
What’s new in MMS Technology?
We have upgraded our internet ser-
vice and will be upgrading our net-
work. Look for new multi use com-
puter tables that will be arriving for
the Media Center in the next few
weeks, built and donated by Ms.
Amilda’s husband, Dr. Mark Clark.
Welcome 2010 Ms. Sylvia Aslanian
2010-2011 Yearbook is Underway! Our Middle School students are off to a great start cre-ating our new yearbook. Using the Lifetouch com-pany on-line site, Webease, we are collecting wonderful memories and carefully preserving them into our yearbook. Our MMS year-book includes students from all nine classes, plus music, art, science, drama, tech-nology, reading, math, and many special events. Our first step in creating the yearbook is to decide on a theme for the year. The M3S students worked in groups to brainstorm possible theme ideas. Each group then cre-ated posters to convey its idea for the theme. Theme ideas included: graffiti, 60’s (peace,
love), Gators, Superheroes, Doodles and Candyland. Each theme idea was presented to the class and vot-ing was used to decide on the final theme. The posters are now on dis-play in the media center windows, and they are beautiful! Yearbooks sales have already started. Yearbooks need to be pre-ordered. This year payment op-tions include; check, cash, credit card, or billing. The cost is currently $25, but will increase in October, so order early and save$$$.
Montessori Monitor >>>
Yearbook Ms. Martha Horter
Safety Patrol The Safety Patrol is in full swing and off to another GREAT year! As a reminder, the drive-thru opens each morning at 8:40 and closes at 9:05am. The af-
ternoon drive-thru opens at 2:40pm and closes at 3:10pm. When on MMS campus, please remember cells phones are prohibited. Please help us keep our children safe by keep-ing all of your attention on the task at hand. Also, when leaving the school, please be sure to only turn right. If you need to go west, please make a U-Turn on NW 39th Avenue. Waiting to turn left out of the parking lot is not only dangerous, but also causes a bottle neck in our parking lot/drive thru making it difficult for those entering the school to get in. Thank you so much for your cooperation in this matter.
Lulu Plays Pretend
Author, Illustrator and MMS Grandparent, Manny Alonso joined our first through third grade classes on Friday, September 3rd in the
MMS Big Room. Liz from Mr. Rich-ard’s class (whom the book is named after) acted out each pretended sce-nario while an-other student from the class read the book aloud. Books were for sale
prior to and the day of the book reading. Manny and Liz stayed afterward and did a book signing with 10% of the proceeds to going to MMS.
Thank you to everyone for
clipping Box Tops off of select General Mills products.
The Class that collects the most box tops will win an
Ice Cream Party at the end of the school year!
www.boxtops4education.com
Keep Collecting...
Social Networking
Keep up with all things MMS
on our social networking sites:
www.facebook.com/millhoppermontessorischool
www.twitter.com/mmsknights
Lunches Made Easy & Convenient!
Are you Going out of
town and don’t want to
have to worry about
the babysitter making
your child’s lunch or
are you simply tired of
making lunch
everyday?
MMS has taken the
guesswork (& headache)
out of lunches!
We are excited to announce
you can now order your
child’s lunch online by the
week, month, quarter,
semester or year!
Simply go to our website
(www.millhopper.com) and
click the
HotLunchOnline.com link to
get started!
Questions? Contact Ms. Sherilyn Farris at mmsm3s@bellsouth.net
Monday*
I Love NY
Pizza
Tuesday
Flying Biscuit Wednesday
Moe’s Thursday
Heavenly Ham Friday
Schlotzsky’s
3 Piece Chicken
Finger & Potato
Wedges
1 Slice Cheese
Pizza & Side
Salad
1 Slice
Pepperoni Pizza
& Side Salad
2 Slices Cheese
Pizza
2 Slices
Pepperoni Pizza
Baked Spaghetti
w/ garlic knot
Spaghetti &
Meatballs
6” Turkey Wrap
*I Love NY
Pizza is
available to
Beginner
through
Kindergarten
students only
Oven Fried
Chicken Strips
(5-6 strips)
Grilled Chicken
Strips
(5-6 strips)
Turkey Meatloaf
Oodles of
Noodles with
Butter
Oodles of
Noodles with
Marinara Sauce
All orders come
with a choice of
Mac & Cheese
or Mashed
Potatoes
All orders come
with a biscuit &
8 oz. bottled
water
Cheese
Quesadilla
Chicken
Quesadilla
Chicken Burrito
Black Bean
Burrito
Two Ground
Beef Tacos
Two Chicken
Tacos
All orders come
with tortilla
chips, salsa, a
chocolate chip
cookie & 8 oz.
bottled water
Ham Sandwich
Turkey
Sandwich
Roast Beef
Sandwich
Veggie
Sandwich
Ham Wrap
Turkey Wrap
Roast Beef Wrap
Veggie Wrap
All orders come
with Baked Lays
Potato chips, a
chocolate chip
cookie & 8 oz.
bottled water
Cheese
Sandwich
Ham
Sandwich
Turkey
Sandwich
Veggie
Sandwich
Cheese Pizza
Pepperoni
Pizza
BBQ Chicken
Pizza
Chicken Caesar
Wrap
All sandwiches
come with
lettuce, tomato
& cheese.
Sorry, no
special orders.
All orders come
with Baked Lays
Potato chips, a
chocolate chip
cookie & 8 oz.
bottled water
Weekly Menu Options:
1st - 8th Grade: To place orders for Piesanos on Mondays Contact Anita Bender, 352-375-6773 or 2anitabender@gmail.com
October 2010
Monday, October 11 Sally Foster Sales Begin Tuesday, October 12 Ms. Elizabeth Falls’ Parent Night 4:30-6:00 Tuesday, October 12 Ms. Renee Brohamer’s Parent Night 4:30-6:00 Tuesday, October 12 Mr. Richard Aslanian’s Parent Night 6:15-7:45 Tues., Oct. 12 - Thurs., Oct. 14 Middle School R.O.P.E.S. Trip Friday, October 15 Holiday - UF Homecoming Friday, October 22 Fall Picture Re-Take Day Thursday, October 28 Sally Foster Orders End Thursday, October 28 Mr. Richard’s Class Historical Timeline - 11:00am Thursday, October 28 Fall Festival - canned food collected for Gainesville Harvest Friday, October 29 Student Holiday/Teacher Workday
November 2010
Monday, November 8 First through Eighth Grade Report Cards mailed home Tuesday, November 9 Teacher Work Afternoon – 3:30-5:30 Wednesday, November 10 Early Childhood/Kindergarten Teacher Lunch Meeting Thursday, November 11 Holiday - Veteran’s Day - Flex Day Thursday, November 18 Vocal Ensemble/Theatrical Choir Performance (“Joy”) at MMS Tuesday, November 23 Elementary/Middle School Thanksgiving Luncheon Wednesday, November 24 Holiday Thur., Nov. 25 - Fri., Nov. 26 Thanksgiving Holidays Mon., Nov. 29 – Fri., Dec. 3 Scholastic Book Fair at MMS
December 2010
Friday, December 3 First through Eighth Grade Interim Reports mailed Saturday, December 4 Gumshoe High A Totally Teen Mystery - 4:30pm, dinner served at 5:00pm Tuesday, December 7 Teacher Work Afternoon – 3:30-5:30 Wednesday, December 8 Early Childhood/Kindergarten Teacher Lunch Meeting Thursday, December 9 Sixth, Seventh & Eighth Grade Science Fair - 10:00-12:00 Judging Mon., Dec. 6 - Mon., Jan. 31 MMS In House Re-Enrollment Period for School Year 2011-2012 Monday, December 13 Middle School Spelling Bee Tuesday, December 14 Middle School: Festival of Dionysus Wednesday, December 15 Middle School takes the Florida Writes Assessment Test Friday, December 17 Winter Shows: Ms. Christina Eckstein’s & Ms. Renee Brohamer’s classes 9:30 AM
Ms. Elizabeth Falls’ & Ms. Jackie Johnson’s classes 10:30 AM
Ms. Anita Bender’s & Mr. Richard Aslanian’s classes 11:30 AM
Ms. Christina Miller's & Ms. Sherilyn Farris’ classes 12:30 PM
School day ends after each show – no after school program available.
Mon., Dec. 20 - Fri., Dec. 31 Winter Holiday’s
Calendar
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