Down on the Farm

September 2 – September 6

We made it through the first week of school! The weekly theme was "Down on the Farm"-- Here's a recap of our week of fun.

FIELD TRIP
For the first field trip of the year we visited the Utah State Fair. It was incredibly hot but lots of fun. We visited farm animals, discussed how genetic traits are passed from parents to their offspring, critiqued the visual art displays, watched the lumberjack show, browsed the craft booths, practiced spinning wool into yarn, touched a moon rock from the NASA exhibit, and judged quilting/baking/preserving entries.

LANGUAGE ARTS
Read-Aloud
Our first selection for the year is from the genre of realistic fiction: Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. It makes a fun start to the year for fourth graders (and up) and because the reading level is appropriate for most students this age, many will be excited enough by this first book to read the others in the series.

Penmanship
Each week, students are provided with copywork quotes related to the weekly theme that they can use to practice their handwriting. They are a fun addition to our Montessori classroom. Here are this week’s selections.

Reading
We read Alexander and The Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. Our mini lesson (check it out here) focuses on using prior schema to make connections. It's an introductory lesson that we will build on during guided reading all year long.


Spelling 
We use the Words Their Way spelling program because it is an individualized spelling program that integrates beautifully into a Montessori classroom. This week students learned how to use their spelling folders and how to do word sorts independently.

Poetry and Literature
This week's selection is “I Know All the Sounds the Animals Make” by Jack Prelutsky. We had lots of fun creating silly poems by substituting our own animal sounds for those Prelutsky chose.

MATHEMATICS
Measurement: Money, Time and Temperature Review-- As we start our first math unit of the year, I want to make sure that my students are familiar with the common forms in which we see and use numbers. When learning about time, students must understand what "quarter 'til" and "half past" mean. They should know that temperatures drop below zero so we use negative numbers to describe those temperatures.They need to be recognize that 75 cents is the same thing as three quarters (3/4). These basic concepts will help them as we delve deeply into the Real Number system.

SCIENCE
We are using several fun matching games from the University of Utah research division on genetics and heredity.

HISTORY
Introduction to Key Events and Ideas in Utah's History and the History of the Westward Expansion of the U.S. [i.e. Manifest Destiny]; Introduction to the  Montessori Timeline

VISUAL ART
This week we got an introduction to the Drawing Center of our art studio. On day one, we learned how to put away paper and pencils, how to use our personal drawing kits, and how to store our completed drawings in our art portfolios. On the second day of art class, we talked about preparing to work and how artists find inspiration.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION
One of our goals for P.E. is to show children that there are many choices for physical activities. How about exploring traditional county fair games: Horseshoes, Three-Legged Race, Gunny Sack Race, Wheelbarrow Race, Basketball Shooting, Baseball Throwing at Bottles, Hoop Rolling?

DANCE
Line dancing anyone? It's a great way to teach spatial directions.

Five Minute Museum: Paul Klee

Paul Klee, 1911

This is another Five Minute Museum mini lesson that is taught during the first five minutes of the lesson period. The curriculum sets Paul Klee as one of the artists studied in third grade but the plan is useable at any grade level.

LINK TO THE LESSON PLAN

All of the paintings in the lesson plan are in the public domain and can be downloaded in various sizes from Wikimedia Commons.

These are the additional works (to use, but not included as samples, in the attached lesson plan) by Paul Klee:

•  Blumenmythgos, 1918
• Cat and Bird, 1928
• Death and Fire, 1940
• der Goldfisch, 1925
• Die Vase, 1938
• Ohne Titel (der Todesengel), 1940
• Red Balloon, 1922
• Revolution des Viadukts, 1937
• Senecio, 1922
• Sinbad the Sailor, 1923
• Tale a la Hoffman, 1921
• Twittering MAchine, 1922

 Because Paul Klee used oil paints, colored pencils and watercolors together in the same paintings, his works are fun to display as samples in the painting center where children can experiment using multiple media and tools in a single work of art.

Red Balloon by Paul Klee, 1922

While there are many fun extension activities to accompany this unit of study, rather than have the entire class duplicate a particular art project, I prefer to show students several works of art created by other children who are imitating Klee's style. This provides my students with inspiration for their future works of art but still gives them the freedom to choose.

Links to websites with samples of children's artwork inspired by Paul Klee:
Paul Klee Inspired Abstract Fish
Paul Klee Goes to Africa
Paul Klee Art Projects for Kids
Broken Window Drawings

Read-Aloud: Fablehaven

What we're reading together...Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

Fablehaven is a terrific fantasy series that appeals to a broad age range. There are five books total, with the first book being the shortest. The author lives here in Utah so we had the opportunity to meet him in person and get a signed copy of each book in the series.

Our Extension Activities

• It's been fun to collect images off the internet of vocabulary words from the book: aurora borealis, boathouse, bivouac, breastplate, mesa, butte, centuar, corkscrew, crossbow, fleur-de-lis, gazebo, geodesic dome, golem, griffin, hacienda, harpy, kachina, karkadann, limberjack, lammasu, lycanthrope, mannequin, manor, manticor, matryoshka doll, minotaur, paddle boat, peryton, phonograph, plateau, pueblo, quarrel, raft, roc, satyr, sirrush, sphinx, Stonehenge, toga, totem pole, unicorn, yahtzee, ziggurat.

Mississippi River

• Brandon Mull LOVES serial commas so it's an easy way to point out their use in print. These lists also provide multiple opportunities to discuss adjectives.

• We also checked out the map for the various geographic locations mentioned in the book (Mississippi River, Ethiopia, Australia, Turkey).

• I searched YouTube for videos demonstrating a limberjack to help the kids see one in action.

• We also played several games of Yahtzee, just like they did in the book.

Five Minute Museum: Olek

Olek (whose real name is Agata Oleksiak) is a contemporary artist who has moved crochet from a handicraft into a fine art.

This is another Five Minute Museum mini lesson that is taught during the first five minutes of the lesson period. Olek's unique art form is a fabulous way to help students see that art is more than just drawing and painting. Our curriculum sets this lesson as one of the artists studied in third grade but the plan is useable at any grade level.

LINK TO THE LESSON PLAN

A quick follow up to this lesson is a simple crocheting lesson (again just five minutes long). Most children over the age of 7 or 8 easily pick up the chain stitch.

Because she is a contemporary artist, few copies of her works are in the public domain (although some outdoor public displays have been documented by various photographers.) However, she has a nice website that is easily used inside the classroom via a projector and a quick internet search for images of Olek Crochet (her professional title) gives plenty of resources.

[As a fun side note, we are currently reading Fablehaven by Brandon Mull and there is a character called Olloch in one of the books. Olloch has this long, multi-tentacled, froglike tongue. M. commented that it would be easy to remember Olek's name because he could imagine Olloch's long tongue reaching out of his mouth and quickly crocheting around his prey like Olek does when she crochets around living people. I have to give him points for creativity and good use of the visualization memory technique.]