Montessori Night

Earlier this month the kids' school held their Montessori Night, which gives the kids a chance to show off the works they've learned to their parents. We got to watch Rebecca first then Daniel.

She was feeling shy thaat night and while we could tell she knew the works well she didn't want to show off very much. She hadn't napped that day AND had gotten shots at her well check that afternoon, which probably didn't help.

Showing us the book she made of some of her works

Organizing the knobless cylinders by size

Matching objects to the letter they start with-this one she did seem to get into and was more excited to show us

Showing us the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" book she had colored, and pointing out all the things the caterpillar ate.

Purple shirt, shorts, pink boots- yes, she did pick her own wardrobe that night ;)

Daniel, by contrast, was eager to show us one work after another. No sooner would he finish one then he was asking his teacher what he could do next.

Fractions work. He was really excited about this one. And I was surprised to see that he knew that 1/4+1/4=1/2, but I can see how this work would help students grasp that concept well.

Life cycle of a tree: he put the stages in order from seed to flower, then matched the pictures and words. He had also made a poster showing the stages, which he was proud to take home to hang on his wall.

Skip counting by 5s. He also had a song he sang to get from 0 to 100.

It was a natural progression from skip counting by 5s to using the clock. When we gave him different times-7am, 8:15, 3:40, etc., he'd move the clock hands to that time.

Trinomial cube. This work is used in older grades to teach algebra but younger kids use it to learn colors and shapes. The layers must be done one at a time and each piece will only fit in one place. Every piece must be in place for the box to close. He was able to do it quickly and confidently.

The works he's doing really seem to be developing his numbers sense and he seems to be really enjoying them and understanding the concepts well. I think that as he enters grade school, with the right curriculum and an encouraging teacher, he may really get excited about math. (I guess he inherited something from Kevin!)

This was Daniel's last Montessori Night at Apostles and seeing Rebecca's class first provided a good reminder of just how much he has learned in his time there and how much confidence he has gained. We didn't catch Rebecca on her best day this year but it was clear she knew a lot and was proud. It'll be fun to see how she does next year.

Another ADS milestone in the books for this school year!