We’ve had such a smooth transition into fall in Lower Elementary over the past few weeks. All of our students are now fully immersed in some of the topics and activities that they will be learning about and working on all year long; every student in class has begun making his or her way through the Montessori Grammar Boxes, their grade-level Handwriting work, reading comprehension workbooks, and basic Math facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Some students have already begun to finish their Telling Time books (we’re hearing fewer and fewer voices asking the question, “What time is it?”), and a number of students have also begun working through the Waseca Rainbow Drawers program for reading and spelling.
In addition to these topics and programs that continue throughout the year, we’ve also been working through a variety of short-term lessons. Our study of trees and leaves has built up to the Tree Identification activity, with students bringing in five different kinds of leaves that they find around their homes and working with an online leaf guide to determine what kind of tree each leaf came from. Our Practical Life unit on sewing is coming to an end with a week of free sewing; students can choose their own fabric and make whatever they wish, using their knowledge of running stitches, sewing buttons, and embroidery (a true-to-life sewing circle developed in the sunroom this morning with no prompting at all!).
We’ve also been enjoying the fruits of our labor as we harvest the crops from our class garden. We harvested enough carrots to share with Primary and the Upper Unit!
And finally, all of our students have been thrilled with the start of SOAR (Students Outside and Running). On the first day of the program, some of our students formed a tunnel for their friends in the Primary classroom to run through. They shared many words of encouragement with their younger friends, and they continue to cheer each other on during SOAR every day.
