Snapshots
March 2018
Spring is finally here!
The month of March came in like a lamb and out like a lion this year! Hopefully, last week's snow storm was our last and we can finally get into spring. Although, the children didn't seem to mind all that snow one bit.
Over the past few weeks, the children have been working on various lessons. Many of the four and half year olds, five and six year olds have been working on the Bead Cabinet. Every school day since our last newsletter, children have been working on at least one chain from the cabinet a day.
At the moment, the most popular chains have been: 3,4,5,6 &7 (cubed). The 5 year olds and six year olds are determined to count the Thousand Chain by the end of April. This is more than exciting and the best part is that they will have the months of May and June to repeat. This is a HUGE work!
Even though, the 3 year olds are not counting the bead chains yet, they are enjoying the process. This type of work allows children to project. Younger children watch closely how older students set up, concentrate and carry out the work diligently. The must learn to respect the work as they must walk carefully around this cumbersome material. They need to practice self-control and patience; the younger students would love to take out this work too! They aspire to have their turn with this beautiful and intricate work!
What is the Bead Cabinet exactly?
The Bead cabinet is genearlly introduced after the child has worked extensively on the
1st and 2nd Decimal system trays and the Bank Game. These works (using the golden beads) are used to give a concrete introduction to the decimal system. Like all Montessori materials they are tactile, attractive and easy to understand.
The Bead Cabinet is first introduced in the Children’s House as a means to sensorially demonstrate the linear concept of the Golden Bead Material. It also reinforces linear counting from 1-1,000.
For the 3-6 child, the Bead Cabinet represents a very big work! The children really feel a sense of accomplishment after preparing, counting and putting away their work.
In addition, to linear counting, the Bead Cabinet provides a concrete representation of abstract mathematical concepts. While children at this age are not able to verbalize these concepts, they can represent them. Through the use of short and long bead chains, number squares and cubes, and numeral arrows, the Bead Cabinet concretely demonstrates:
- skip counting -- 10, 20, 30, 40, . . . 1000
- multiples
- squared numbers: 10 squared = 100 beads
- cubed numbers: ten 100-squares = a thousand cube
“ We must first present the whole idea through materials and help the child move freely towards abstractions. ”
They were very excited to report that they had counted to 512 (5 cubed)! Once again, I noticed that it was more than linear counting as I had observed Ryan collecting the squares of 8 (64 beads) as he got to: 64, 128, 192, 256, 320, 384, 448 & 512. When he got to the end of the chain he had 8 squares that sensorially made a cube. I love seeing a child become so motivated by a work or concept that they commit to it 100 percent. This was the case for Ryan today.
Irish Step
Rollerskating Show
The pre-schools were so impressed by the way the Kindergarteners worked together. Their observations were precious.
Reminders
Miss Patti
I would just like to inform you that Miss Patti is back with us in the classroom! We wish Miss Gabby good luck in her new school.May 4th
Also, the conference sign up sheet will be posted soon. Thank you for your patience.
Help!
We would be grateful if you could please include a roll of paper towels with your child's snack day. Thank you in advance!