Toddler Room 3

April News

Get ready to take a trip down under in April as we explore the continent of Australia and all the animals that live there. We will also be learning about some special landforms; Volcanoes and Islands. Our book of the month Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin and John Archambault, will have us reviewing our letters and sounds. Don’t forget your baskets for our annual Egg Hunt! We look forward to seeing all your smiling faces when we return from Spring Break on April 7th. 

March Recap

Hello Spring! March has been full of rain showers and excitement. We said Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss and Ms. Michelle. We had a blast during spirit week and stomped like dinosaurs. We also enjoyed sharing all our green treats at our St. Patrick’s Day party, thank you to everyone that signed up to contribute to our party.

Our Montessori curriculum focused on care of the self as we practiced hand washing and nose blowing to help keep those germs away. We learned about the letters w, x, y, and z. W is for watermelon and Z is for zebra! We had fun on our rainy days with sensory bin play and painting with water. To celebrate Dr. Seuss, we made colorful fish out of tissue paper and read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish. In Sensorial we compared the sizes of objects using the words Big and Small. In math we introduced the numbers 6-10 and reviewed the numbers 1-5 by counting songs and the sandpaper numerals. We also had fun naming dinosaurs and matching animals found in Africa to picture cards. 

February Recap

It’s been a fabulous February in Room 3! Our book of the month, Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni fit right in with our theme of Cultural Awareness and Friendship by teaching us that even though we are different we blend together to make beautiful colors. We also enjoyed learning a new song, you can tell how I feel by Frank Leto, which is all about practicing our facial expressions to show our emotions. We had so much fun sharing Valentine’s and special treats with our friends during our Valentine’s Day party, thank you to everyone that donated. 

Our Montessori curriculum had us focusing on taking care of the people in our room. As we welcomed more friends into our classroom conflict resolution became a very important aspect of our learning. We were helping the children to use gentle hands with their friends and to take a break if they got frustrated. We let them know that It’s ok to have big feelings, but we must be careful with other people. On the academic side we were introduced to the letters s, t, u, and v. We touched the sandpaper letters and did art to reinforce our understanding. We enjoyed pouring, scooping and tonging hearts in practical life. We matched animals found in Asia in our Cultural Study area. We had loads of fun making bubble heart art! 

January Recap

Happy New Year! We hope you had a wonderful Winter break and were so excited to see all your smiling faces. A big, warm welcome to all the new friends and families that have joined our class. January has been a fun month as we explored the season of Winter. We used our circle time to talk about the types of weather we have during Winter and sang the song Little Snowflake. We read our book of the month, The Mitten by Jan Brett, to reinforce the concepts of sharing and helping our friends. 



  Our Montessori curriculum focused on reintroducing the class to rule number two: take care of the environment. We practiced taking jobs back to the shelves, pushing in our chairs, and being kind to the materials. Our favorite jobs were drawing on the white board and peeling stickers in the art area. We also got introduced to the letters and sounds o, p, q, and r. We made tape resist snowflake art and a snowscape. In the Practical life area, we practiced our fine-motor skills with lacing cards and zippers. In math we continued working on recognizing the numbers 0-9 and building quantities to 5. 

December Recap

Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings! December has gone by quickly for Room 3. The children enjoyed exploring all the new materials on the shelves and welcoming new friends to our class, welcome to Tylee and Dylan. It was wonderful to have all of you participate in our Annual Toddler Family Sing-Along. The children had fun sharing the goodies they brought for our Holiday party and enjoyed all our special dress-up days during Spirit week. We had a great time watching the children work together to decorate our classroom tree and having a chance to say hello to the big man himself, Santa Claus. Our Book of the month, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstien, reminded us that giving can be just as fulfilling as receiving as we continue to learn how to take turns with our friends and how to show empathy when our friends are upset or sad.

Our theme was Celebrations across the World. We talked about the weather when we played outside on the playground and introduced different holiday traditions with picture cards. We focused on fine motor-skills in the Practical Life area with ornament tonging, posting buttons, and matching nuts & bolts. In Math and Sensorial we introduced triangles; we did triangle counting and featured the triangles we have in our classroom. We also introduced the letters/sound L, M, and N. Ornament tonging and Christmas treat matching were definitely our favorite jobs this month. 

November Recap

Following the rules and learning new routines is hard work but that is exactly what we did this November. Our class practiced using kind words with our friends and taking care of the classroom. With the help of our book of the month, Fill a Bucket by Carol McCloud and Katherine Martin, we learned the value of helping others. We also practiced wiping our tables after snack and taking our things to the trash when we finish eating. It was a pleasure to meet with all of you during Parent-Teacher conferences. This collaboration is essential in building the best individualized program for each of your children.

Our Montessori curriculum led us on a journey of discovery. We talked about the names of different fruits and vegetables and practiced cutting pretend fruit on a cutting board. We used magnifying glasses to explore our world map and to look at the leaves that have been falling on our playground. In the Math area we were given our first introduction to the bead stair, it helps us begin to understand the concept of quantity building and number to quantity association. In the Sensorial area we investigated different textures with our fabric matching job and the sandpaper boards. As always, we were introduced to our letters of the month I, J, and K. For art we did marble paintings to make fall leaves. We had a great time sharing and trying many different foods during our Thanksgiving Feast. 

October Recap

 Spooky season was upon room 3 and we enjoyed getting into the spirit of Fall! Our class had a busy October as we blasted off into a galaxy of learning with our theme The Solar System and Space. We continued to practice our Montessori classroom skills, with a focus on sitting properly in our chairs and pushing them in when we leave a table. Thank you to everyone who brought in their family pictures for our tree, it is beginning to look full. And the best part of all is, we got to see all our friends in their fun costumes as we did our costume parade and had treats at our Halloween party. 

We went on a leaf hunt with our book of the month, Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steven Metzger, and made leaf handprints to add to our classroom tree. We enjoyed discovering the names of the planets in our Solar System with planet picture matching. We practiced our finger-painting skills while painting the sun. We strengthened our fine motor skills by spooning flowers and beans. In math we continued practicing the numbers 1-5 and introduced the number 6. In the sensorial area we talked about biggest to smallest with our knobbed cylinders. 

September Recap

We are so excited to have begun a new school year! We are looking forward to getting to know each and every one of your children and watching them reach their milestones. Our class has been busy in September learning all about themselves and how to work in the Montessori classroom. We have been focusing on taking out one job at a time and returning it to its “home” on the shelves. It was great to chat with all of you during Back to School Night. Thank you for entrusting us with the care and learning of your children as we move forward through this year. 

We loved our book of the month, The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. We used it to talk about our families and the way they take care of us. We shared our family pictures and talked about the names of the people in our families. We had fun learning about our letters of the week a-d. We sang a song about the sound that each letter makes and named things that start with that letter. In Practical Life, the children practiced their spooning skills with glitter balls and shape bead stringing. Art had us painting big yellow school buses to strengthen our fine motor and paintbrush skills and making handprint apples for our classroom tree. In the Math area, we introduced the numerals 1-5 and started building quantities to 5. 

Summer 2024 Recap

This summer has been a splash in Room 3! We had loads of fun learning about the different types of animals that live in the ocean, being introduced to the planets in our solar system, and talking about the animals we find on a farm. Our water days were a big hit. The children loved going down the slide and playing on the splash pad. Dancing with Ranger Jack and his puppets and meeting all the Reptiles with our pre-primary friends was a big highlight of our summer adventures. 

In our classroom we welcomed many new friends and began practicing our Montessori jobs. In practical life we practiced our fine motor skills by tonging sea animals and spooning Pom Poms. We were introduced to our colors with our fish puzzle and our colored glasses. We used all types of art materials to make turtles, fish, volcanoes, and constellations. We are all doing our best to sit in our chairs during snack and lunch time. Our favorite book of the summer was Bubbles.