As a Montessori Public School, we follow the Montessori Curricula as well as the State and Federal Core Curricula standards. Our children are learning about where plants and animals live and how they adapt to their environment.
A habitat is the home of an animal.
A biome is a large region where plants and animals depend on one another and must adapt to the conditions there.
The biomes are: grasslands; deserts; forests; wetlands, oceans and tundra (polar regions).
There is an app for the ipad called: EcosystemsHD The children enjoy trying to figure out which biome an animal or region is. I recommend it.
I also highly recommend the video series, Planet Earth created by the Discovery Channel. You can buy it or borrow it from the public library. There is a companion series, The Blue Planet. It is totally amazing and addictive. It is a great way for the family to watch and learn.
We Celebrate Birthdays
Celebrating a birthday in the Children's House focusses on how much your child has learned and grown over the years. It is about recognizing that each year you learn more and can do more. The birthday boy or girl takes the globe and walks around the sun (candle) once for each year of their life. Then the children give the cards they have made. If they can, they write a compliment that describes what the birthdaychild does well. We sing Happy Birthday in Spanish and English and then eat mini-corn muffins. Parents are always welcome to attend. It is a wonderful way to acknowledge the Birthday Child.
What's Going On
Science Lessons Part of the Scientific mind is being able to put things into categories and esplain why the characteristics of each category. In Science, we have already learned about Living and Non-living things.
We are now looking more closely at the category of living things...especially mammals. Some students are sorting photo cards into two groups while others are reading and writing about mammals of the Arctic and Antarctic.