Category: Circle Time

Group Lessons

Group Lessons

Posted on by Lisa Good

We start to introduce group lessons about the middle of the second week of school. We introduced the five classes of vertebrates. On another day we read about mammals and found out how we now if an animal belongs in the mammal group. We will continue with remaining groups during the next few months.

In coming weeks, depending on when you start school, we will discuss further vertebrate groups, including amphibians. This is how I introduce Amphibians in Week 9, in case you want to use it as a template:

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The Sun

The Sun

Posted on by Lisa Good

We read about the sun and looked at parts of the sun last week in our Science 68 second circle. Here’s what we discussed…

The weather is getting warmer outside. What shines down on the Earth to warm us up? The Sun. The sun is a middle-sized yellow star. It is a star just like the ones we see in night sky, but it is the only star we see during the daytime. The Sun is so big that you could fit more than 1 million Earths in it! it is a huge ball of hot glowing gases. How hot?

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Coins and Presidents

Coins and Presidents

Posted on by Lisa Good

Just a quickie, but I wanted to share a couple of thoughts and ideas with you…

Talk with the children about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. This is a good time to also talk about money and have a Penny Polishing work in Practical Life. Lemon juice and salt work great to make pennies shine!

We read about coins and some of the presidents that can be found on them. We also looked at which president is found on the dollar bill. The children can choose to make a coin booklet.

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Mondrian Art and Sewing

Mondrian Art and Sewing

Posted on by Lisa Good

We are going to talk a little about a kind of art called Abstract Art. We talked about different kinds of art before like Cubism and Impressionism. Well, what it Abstract Art mean? Abstract artist felt that paintings did not have to show things that were recognizable. Their paintings do not try to show animals, people, or places exactly how they really look. They like to use color and shape in their paintings to show images of emotions or moods. Some of the Abstract artists composed their paintings entirely of geometric shapes, such as circles, triangles, or squares.

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Asia/India

Asia/India

Posted on by Lisa Good

Let’s look at this map of Asia. We have talked about this country of China and this one, Japan. Today we want to talk about this country. It is called India. When we look at India we can see it has three sides surrounded by water. It is a peninsula. The world’s highest mountain range is in India. They are the Himalaya Mountains. India has some desert land, forest, and jungle area as well.

The cow is a very sacred animal in India. They can be found wandering through city streets. India is also home to many other animals like elephants, lions, pythons, river dolphins, and the snow leopard. The Bengal Tiger is the national animal of India. This beautiful cat lives in the forests and grasslands. They also swim and can be found in ponds, lakes, and rivers.

Indian clothing is very colorful…

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Antarctica Review

Antarctica Review

Posted on by Lisa Good

We read more on the continent of Antarctica and consider Circle Time Lesson Geography 31.

Let’s find Antarctica on our Continent Globe. What is it like on this continent? Do people live there in houses like we live in? What kind of animals are on this continent?

Penguins are one of the animals that live on Antarctica…

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Children Working

Children Working

Posted on by Lisa Good

Sometimes i like to go around the room and explore with the children what works on the shelf they chose. Of course, not everyone can do the lesson work from Circle Time, so it is important to have the shelves filled with works that reinforce those areas of the classroom like Geography, Botany, Math, Language, Practical Life, etc. It is amazing how, in the Montessori environment, the children are given these opportunities and they are allowed to explore to their hearts content. Many from traditional schools don’t understand this methodology because they are not used to relinquishing their perceived control over the childs progress. However, for us, we see that this allows them to blossom within the controlled environment of works we provide. One student may have interest for only a half-hour, while another may take an entire day, and return to it the next day. The child is 100% engaged and retains the lessons learned. I love it!

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Dairy Group

Dairy Group

Posted on by Lisa Good

Recently we read about dairy foods.

We have been learning about nutrition. We have learned about fruits and vegetables. We also know that it is important to eat foods from the four food groups to grow healthy. We can’t eat only vegetables. Today we will start to talk about the dairy food group. It is also called the milk group. The foods that belong in the dairy food group are foods that are made from milk. Where does milk come from? A cow.

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