Category Archives: language arts
Parts of Speech, Montessori Style
In Upper Elementary ELA, students are studying and identifying the various parts of speech using hands on manipulatives. They use the Grammar Sense Board, the Sentence Diagramming Box, and Parts of Speech Bingo to identify parts of speech such as nouns, … Continue reading
Celebration of Learning
The Upper Unit students were proud to welcome their families to this year’s Celebration of Learning. They cleaned the whole classroom, arranged flowers, decorated the board, and created work plans so that their families could sample their Upper Unit work. … Continue reading
A Visit of Olympic Proportions
Students in Lower and Upper were excited to welcome guest speaker, Keli Smith Puzo. Keli is a two-time Olympian, competing in the sport of field hockey in Beijing in 2008 and in London in 2012. Many classrooms have been discussing … Continue reading
The History of Mail
For the last month, Lower Elementary has been studying the history of the United States Postal Service. We learned about how letters get from here to there, first by horse and then cars, trains, airplanes, and boats. We followed the … Continue reading
Exploring History Through Fictional Characters
This year in ELA, we are tracing some of the major events in American history and exploring the ways in which history can be conveyed through the experiences of fictional characters, often presented as a blend of documented “truth” and … Continue reading
Giving Thanks
Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to celebrate with family and friends, but the history of the holiday is complicated and often misunderstood. Based on the book “1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving”, Lower Elementary had a chance to discuss what actually … Continue reading
France
We studied France in the Primary classroom for the past two weeks and ended this unit with an Art History lesson about ballet. We discussed how ballet was brought to France from Italy, where it developed into the performance art … Continue reading
Gratitude
Each November at the high school, we talk about gratitude. Last year, we read about and listened to speakers explain the importance of practicing gratitude to cultivate a happy life. We engaged the topic through our Seminar discussions. This year, … Continue reading
Election Day
Costume Day at McGuffey is always the day after Halloween, which happened to coincide with the day before Election Day. In Lower Elementary, we combined the two subjects and held an election about candy! Based on personal preference, the class … Continue reading
Boris the Mantis
Our students discovered a visitor living on a plant that recently came into our classroom. Watching and learning about this beautiful mantis became a daily practice. The students even put democracy into action to choose a name.