At Home #12: Zoom Sessions May 12-14

May 12th, 2020

This week Ms. Maria continued Zoom sessions for all The Montessori House students learning at home.  She’s added language and number lessons to the storybook sessions.

Each week, we’ll post links to video recordings of select sessions.   For this week:

Tuesday May 12:

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At Home #11: Zoom Sessions May 5-7

May 4th, 2020

This week Ms. Maria continued Zoom sessions for all The Montessori House students learning at home.  She made a few changes based on our recent survey of parents.  Ms. Maria She continued with several formats for at home learning (see Zoom Primer for Parents), including another  Science Demonstration, Show & Do Cooking at Home, and Follow the Leader (movement and songs), as well as several book readings.

Each week, we’ll post links to video recordings of select sessions.   For this week:

Tuesday May 5:

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At Home #10: Zoom Sessions April 28-30

April 28th, 2020

This week Ms. Maria continued Zoom sessions for all The Montessori House students learning at home.  She introduced several new formats for at home learning (see Zoom Primer for Parents), including a Science Demonstration, Show & Do Cooking at Home, and Follow the Leader (movement and songs).

Each week, we’ll post links to video recordings of select sessions.   For this week: Read the rest of this entry »

At Home #9: Montessori House Zoom: Primer for Parents

April 24th, 2020

We wanted to provide our Montessori House families information on our Zoom sessions, to help make them fun and productive for students who attend.  We have multiple formats for Zoom sessions — some require preparation for children to participate (for example if we do food preparation together, you’ll need to gather ingredients ahead of time),  others are intended to teach students how to do a project on their own after the session (with parents’ help of course, for example a science experiment), and many have little or no preparation or follow up.   If a session is aimed at older students (e.g. Kindergarten) or younger students (under age 4), we’ll let parents know.  Below you’ll find a chart of our different session formats (note, certain formats may have no limit on participants, while others are intended for a limited, small group of students).  Following the chart is further information and a few pointers for parents to make our Zoom session with your children fun and successful.

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At Home #8: Zoom Sessions with Ms. Maria (April 22-24)

April 24th, 2020

This week Ms. Maria started Zoom sessions for all The Montessori House students learning at home.  On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (Apr 22-24), she read storybooks for younger and older students, and held three show & tell sessions (My Favorite Stuffed Animal).  We had over 50 children participate in one or more sessions, with enthusiastic feedback from our Montessori House families.

Next week, Ms. Maria will introduce new material and read a few more books.  Parents receive an email invitation to register for the session Ms. Maria offers (some have a limit on attendees).

Each week, we’ll post links to video recordings of select sessions.   For this week:

  1. Ms. Maria reads three books  most appropriate for younger children up to age 4 (older children may enjoy too).
    Froggy Gets Dressed, Froggy Learns to Swim, Froggy’s Sleepover, all three by Jonathan London.
  2. Ms. Maria reads two books most appropriate for children older than age 4 (the vocabulary and story’s are more complicated, but younger children may enjoy too).
    Some Birthday by Patricia Polacco and Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann

Look for future posts about Ms. Maria on Zoom.

P.S.  This was our schedule for Apr 22- 24:

9:00 am
Story for Younger
10:15 am
Story for Older
1:00 pm
Show & Tell (S&T)
Wed Apr 22 “Are You My Mother?” “METEOR” Favorite Stuffed Animal
Thu Apr 23 “Are You My Mother?” “METEOR” Favorite Stuffed Animal
Fri Apr 24 “Froggy Gets Dressed” “Some Birthday!” Favorite Stuffed Animal

 

At Home #7: Don’t and Do for Beginner Readers

April 6th, 2020

At The Montessori House, we use the classic, phonetic Montessori Method to have children form a sound basis for reading.  Those who already read well (that is, parents), may no longer be aware of the complexities involved in learning to read.  Without that awareness, it’s easy to confuse a child just starting to learn her/his phonetic sounds.

To help parents at home work with their pre-readers and early readers, here are some key Don’ts and Do’s: Read the rest of this entry »

Beach Day! (Ivy and Madeline take a dip)

April 6th, 2020

Ms. Maria does NOT recommend swimming in the Hudson to her students.  Her black greyhound, Ivy, can’t walk by this beach cove along the Hudson without taking a dip — spring, summer, fall, and even winter!  If you see her there, stand back after she leaves the water — when she shakes herself dry, even 6 feet of social distance may not keep you dry!

Ivy and Madeline — an excellent adventure!

April 6th, 2020

Many Montessori House students have met Ivy and Madeline — Ms. Maria’s two dogs.  Ivy’s the black greyhound and Madeline’s the shaggy, black and white mixed breed (poodle and Havanese, perhaps?).  All three (Ms. Maria, Ivy and Madeline) love to hike the trails along the Hudson in the Palisades Interstate Park.  This adventure took them about 3 miles south from the Alpine Boat Basin along the Shore Trail to the best waterfall in the NJ section of the park — Greenbrook Falls.

 

Things are hopping! (more bunnies)

April 6th, 2020

We couldn’t resist taking more pictures of our rabbit doe Cindy (doe is the technical name for a mama bunny) and her seven rabbit kits (short for kittens, the technical name for baby bunnies).

Bunnies Everywhere!

April 5th, 2020

This year we had a mama bunny in the classroom and she had baby bunnies!  Since Montessori House children weren’t at school (due to Covid-19), we let the baby bunnies play in the classroom.