Healthy Children

monitor current topics >>>

Fall Festival Thursday, October 28

5:30 - 8:00pm

Early to bed, early to rise, really can help make you wise!

The 2nd Annual Millhopper Montessori School

Fall Festival is sponsored and organized by the

MMS PTO. The event will be held the eve-

ning on Thursday, October 28th on the MMS

East Field. All MMS families are encouraged

to attend this night of family camaraderie full

of food, fun and a variety of activities. For

more information or to volunteer contact the

MMS PTO President, Lonnie Phillips or con-

tact your PTO Classroom Representative. Be

on the lookout for more information in the

upcoming weeks!

For more information go to

www.millhopper.com

It is that time, and the children have returned

to school, eager to share all of their summer

experiences. Along with the gathering of

children into classrooms comes the sharing

of germs. While it is a wonderful goal for a

child to have perfect attendance, it is very

important to keep your child home from

school if he or she is sick. The spreading of

the germs likely occurs before a child’s

symptoms appear, but it is important to re-

member that germs can still be spread after-

ward. It is equally important that the sick

child needs time to rest and recover. The

time for this can be difficult to evaluate espe-

cially if he/ she is jumping on the couch and

appears to feel better. Remember that school

is different from a living room, and children

can tire easily as they are healing from an

illness while attempting the routine of a

school day.

The well known but often neglected formula

for having a healthy child is a good diet and

enough sleep. Teach your child about the

four food groups, and let your child help

select from the food groups as he/she plans

lunch for the next day. There are many

books and websites that are full of ideas to

help think outside the PB&J, such as

www.laptoplunches.com/ideas and

www.cyh.comHealthTopicsHealthTopicDeta

ilsKids.aspx

Making sure your child gets enough sleep is

vital to his/her health. When children don’t

get enough sleep the consequences are well

researched and predictable. According to

sleep researchers, a child’s mood and tem-

perament deteriorate first, followed by a loss

of will to participate in work or play. Then, it

can get difficult for a child to organize and

react appropriately as well as reflect on his/

her own behavior. Higher level thinking

skills also become compromised.

During deep sleep, growth hormones are

released which are advantageous to growth

and a healthy immune system. In the July

2003 Red Book magazine, Stacey Colino

wrote about how to help your child develop

healthy sleep habits. She outlines the “five

sleep robbers” as allergies, computer games

prior to bedtime, chocolate and caffeine,

snoring (obstructive sleep apnea), and

watching TV before bedtime.

Inda Schaenen, in her book, The 7 o’clock

Bed Time, reflects on how important a bed

“time” is and how it allows for an unwinding

of the day. She recalled the time when her

daughter said, “I don’t want today to end,”

as she was leaving her room. She didn’t want

it to end either, but she explained that time

will not stop for anyone, and we are each

responsible for our manner of traveling this

trip of time. She wanted her daughter to get

enough sleep for the trip (continued page 2)

montessori

Fall, 2010

By: Christina Miller, President

PTO News>>>

A Letter from the PTO President

On behalf of the PTO, I would like to welcome back students,

parents, and staff. We are off to another great year at MMS. I

can't believe it is already October! PTO is in full swing. We

held our first meeting in September and plans for the Fall Fes-

tival are under way.

Many of you have volunteered to serve on a committee or as

classroom representative. Thank you for your willingness to

get involved. If you have not yet signed up but would like to

volunteer as a classroom representative or to serve on a com-

mittee, please let the front office know. Also as events come up

we will ask for volunteers in specific areas. Even an hour or

two can be a big help and is greatly appreciated.

The Fall Festival will be held on October 28 from 5:30 pm until

8 pm. Each class will host booth activities, coordinated by the

classroom representative. Please ask your classroom repre-

sentative how you can be involved with your classroom booths.

Volunteers are needed for set-up, operating shifts for the booth,

and clean up. The PTO voted to fund expenses for the festival

this year so that families can focus on buying tickets and donat-

ing their time. The Fall Festival is a great way to get to know

other MMS families and it is a lot of fun!! I hope you will make

plans for your family to attend.

The next PTO meeting is scheduled for November 16th at 6:00

pm. Please plan to come! We will be discussing how we plan

to use PTO funds, the dinner theater, and plans to enhance the

Early Education and Preschool/Kindergarten playgrounds.

PTO Classroom Representatives

Ms. Crystal Sorrow:

Shachar Amdur & Peggy White

Ms. Christina Eckstein:

Niya Dix

Ms. Renee Brohamer:

Jeff Hale

Ms. Elizabeth Falls:

Rhea Bush

Ms. Jackie Johnson:

Jacqueline Lind

Ms. Anita Bender:

Gabriela Castellanos &

Theresa Brewington

Mr. Richard Aslanian:

Deeta Adkins &

Robert Mackritis

Ms. Christina Miller:

Jennine Brandt

Ms. Sherilyn Farris:

Jeanne-Marie Clune-Hrivnak

& Trish Petty

as she acknowledged that nearly half the trip is itself that journey in the dark.

If your child does not have a bedtime routine, has difficulty waking and falling back

to sleep at night (especially without your assistance), and shows symptoms of inade-

quate sleep, I strongly encourage you to read Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems by

Richard Ferber, M.D. and The 7 o’clock Bed Time by Inda Schaenen.

I hope you find a routine that works well for you and your child. It will need to be a

ritual that is easy to follow on relaxed as well as hectic days and be one that you not

only feel good about but can actually look forward to at the end of your day. It is a

wonderful gift to give to your child and yourself.

Healthy Children Continued >>>

By: Lonnie Phillips

Meetin

g M

inutes

September unit study >>>

SPORTS! In September the Be-ginner's Class is study-ing sports. Sports is a great early unit be-cause all sports use gross-motor as well as fine-motor skills. Young students love physical play with balls and need practice to refine the all-important gross-motor skills. The sports unit give students the chance to see ath-letes of all ages enjoying sports and allows them to try some ba-sic skills at their own level. Many days on the playground during our sports unit the students kick a soccer ball, field baseballs, throw footballs, and practice skills to help their coordination. Being physical at any age is very important, but the Beginner's

In the Little House we began the year with lessons in Grace and Courtesy. The

Little House class is made up of many students who are coming to school for

the first time, and it takes many days for students to adjust to the order and sched-

ule of the school day. August is filled with learning to walk in a line, sit during line

time, choose work off the shelves, and with learning how to use words to talk to

teachers and peers respectfully. Often a child first entering school is used to re-

quests being fulfilled immediately or is used to parents doing small tasks for him/

her. In the beginner's class in this Montessori environment we work hard to encour-

age a child to explore what he or she can do independently. This can also be a big

transition for a child. Each August we work on lessons for cooperating and work-

ing respectfully in the Montessori environment.

Montessori Monitor >>>

Beginners Ms. Crystal Sorrow, Ms. Elizabeth Sheehan & Ms. Lonnie Phillips

Play-dough helps us develop fine-motor

skills and concentration. It is a great sen-

sorial work and helps us explore.

Sarah is playing

the cajon. The

cajon is also

known as a beat

box, with

the person sitting

on the instrument

using his or her

hands to create

music by rhythmi-

cally striking the

front or edges of

the box.

Class is a critical time for students to be practicing gross-motor skills. Children who are not exposed to gross-motor development and physical skills can be delayed in this area during a most critical pe-riod. This is when students are building muscle memories that will stay with them throughout life. Building muscle control and coor-dination is important for a well-developed young child.

Preschool Ms. Renee Brohamer & Ms. Lily Tajalli

Painting with primary colors

The school year has started off wonder-

fully! We started out learning the pro-

cedures of the classroom and care of

ourselves, others and our environment.

We found out that we learn about the

world around us through our five senses

and we began exploring the sense of

sight while at the same time learning

about colors. We tasted fruits in pri-

mary colors and later we made other

tasty creations by mixing primary col-

ored foods to make secondary colors.

We explored our sense of touch by

comparing rough and smooth objects as

well as hard and soft objects. We also

found that we can know what an object

is simply by using our sense of touch.

One of the children’s favorite lessons is

the mystery bag. They feel for assorted

objects in the bag and identify it by

touch before looking at it to verify the

proper identification. We will continue

our sensory exploration throughout the

next several weeks.

As a part of learning how to take good

care of ourselves we have been learning

about nutrition. The children are learn-

ing about the food groups. In our explo-

ration of the grains group we read the

story of the “Little Red Hen” and we

discussed the process of from where

bread comes. The children ground some

grain and made some flour. After a

week of hard work grinding the grain

we made bread with some of the flour

we had ground. It was delicious!

Continuing in our quest for knowledge

we explored the dairy group and

learned that many of the foods we eat

are made from milk. Last week dairy

farmer Linda Lussier visited us from

Lussier Dairy. She brought a calf and

lots of delicious milk. She explained

about how the farmers care for the

cows so that they will produce healthy

milk. We also watched a video about

life on a dairy farm and we simulated

milking a cow by hand with a rubber

glove.

We’re having a great time exploring so

many of the wonders around us.

Yummy fruit kabobs

Grinding the wheat

Above: Milking

Right: a visit from a calf

This bread is delicious!

A Look Into October>>>

Our October unit brings us to the study of the community. The stu-dents are exploring different careers and creating maps of various ven-ues such as our own classroom community. Secondly, with Halloween just around the corner, the children are discovering the wonderful world of spiders. The season of Fall is also the perfect time for the students to examine leaves, identifying the different types and their parts. The students’ appreciation of art and music is deepening as they study Seurat and Mozart this month.

The month of September was certainly a busy one in our classroom! The students really enjoyed the farm unit. They learned about farm families, the importance of farms and the products we receive from them. They also examined the parts of a horse and made a corre-sponding booklet. Our simulated cow milking experiment was a class favorite. The parts of an apple, its lifecycle and the various types of apples were explored this month as well. Apple crisp and applesauce were prepared and also enjoyed by the class. Another area of study we examined was the five senses. The students “researched” the parts of the body that correspond with the senses by cutting out pic-tures in magazines and gluing them on the picture of themselves that they created. The children also loved studying the great composer of the Baroque period, Johann Sebastian Bach. They found out that he was also a great organ and harpsichord player. Our artist of the month was Piet Mondrian. The students created their very own works modeled after his neo-plastic style. They came out spectacularly!

Montessori Monitor >>>

Preschool Ms. Christina Eckstein & Ms. Martha Donaldson

Push–pinned farm scene.

Mondrian Creation

Our visit with the calf

Above:

Five Senses Sorting Work

Right:

Land-Water-Air Animal

Classification

Preschool/Kindergarten Ms. Elizabeth Falls & Ms. Widline Senecharles

It is hard to believe that six weeks

of school have already gone by!

During the first few weeks, we

concentrated on establishing rou-

tines and important ground rules.

The children have adjusted well to

their new classroom and new les-

sons are being added daily.

Each year, the beauty of the Mon-

tessori classroom unfolds. Within

the Montessori environment, we

are able to enhance our curriculum

with thematic unit studies. During

the school year, you will see our

classroom change from time to

time, depending on our current

unit studies. During the months of

August and September, we have

been concentrating on “Down on

the Farm” and the Food Pyra-

mid. Within these units, we have

been able to study farm animals,

life on a farm and proper nutrition.

The children enjoyed learning

about and making a book on the

Parts of a Horse. Presentation of

these curricula is achieved by plac-

ing materials throughout the class-

room (integration) related to these

themes. These materials include

books, music, push pinning, lan-

guage activities, etc. Children do

not have to be taught to explore or

question; they are born with the

powerful desire to do so. This

drive sets the stage for all future

learning. In the Montessori envi-

ronment we provide an exciting,

stimulating and educational envi-

ronment for the children to do this

exploration.

Our next unit studies will take us

into exploring How a Seed Grows

and the Life Cycle of a Tree. This

will lead us into our first Geogra-

phy study; South America and

Tropical Rainforests.

In Language, daily journal writing

(for Kindergarteners) is one of

their favorite activities. Each day,

the children copy the date and a

written journal prompt from the

board. They answer the prompt

phonetically (“inventive writing”)

and then get to illustrate their an-

swer. As the year progresses, the

children love to see how far they

have come in their writing ability.

Some of the children are working

on becoming more solid with their

letter sounds. They enjoy working

with the Waseca Reading Program.

This Program was designed to

phonetically break the English lan-

guage down into manageable

pieces to be presented sequentially.

The sequence of presentation fol-

lows that used by the Orton-

Practical Life & Development Art Sewing

Parts of a Horse Book

Addition with Counters

Gillingham approach to reading

and compliments the Phono-

Graphix and Montessori approach.

Throughout the year at Story

Time, we will be reading books

pertinent to our ongoing unit stud-

ies as well as Caldecott Award

winners, classics and studying

various children’s authors. We are

currently reading works by Tomie

De Paola. I have also just finished

reading our first chapter book,

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” by Roald Dahl

to the class.

In Math, activities involving one-

to-one correspondence (0-9), num-

ber rods, bead stair, teen numbers,

the 100 board, the bead chains and

the four operations of math are

currently taking place in the class-

room. On a weekly basis, the chil-

dren are becoming more confident

in their mathematical abilities.

All throughout the year, we will be

doing Developmental Art using

various media in the classroom.

Some of our art projects have in-

cluded: painting with watercolors,

Q-Tip painting, painting by marble

rolling, fruit prints and dog sock

puppets. We will also be studying

the works of Monet, Picasso, Van

Gogh, Cezanne and Matisse.

Music and Movement: The chil-

dren love to sing! Some of their

favorite songs include: Move Fast,

Move Slow; Worm Workout;

Pocket Full of B’s; One Small

Voice; Puff the Magic Dragon;

Ollie the Otter and You’ve Got a

Friend. To also help develop gross

motor skills and concentration I

have introduced the children to

movement exercises using bean

bags (Bean Bag Alphabet and

Bean Bag Bop) and having relay

races with wooden eggs balanced

on wooden spoons. The children

are learning how to work as a

team!

Cooking: As a classroom tradi-

tion, in honor of Johnny Apple-

seed’s birthday and the beginning

of fall, the children learned how to

make a homemade apple pie!

We are excited about this year!

We would like to thank all the

parents who have so generously

made, purchased and donated

items for the classroom. You are

such strong advocates for your

children and we are happy to be

working together with you! We

are looking forward to our first

Parent Night of this school year

on Tuesday, October 12th!

Calf Visit

Sensorial: Pink Tower and Brown Stair

Educational Play: Gross Motor & Social Development

Our class is humming along! We have a wonderful

group of students. The kindergarteners have ad-

justed well to using work plans and are enjoying their

P.E. and technology classes. The preK children have

also transitioned well to our classroom and have

achieved a nice balance between child and teacher

directed work. In addition to math, language, and

handwriting, the class as a whole has been receiving

lessons in Spanish, science, geography, music, art,

sewing, practical life and grace & courtesy. With

the latter we have been having discussions about

self-control and observing the golden rule.

For science, we began the year by studying nutrition.

The children are learning about food groups, and the

general benefits derived from each type of food. I

do not teach the food pyramid per se since it is dif-

ficult to conceptualize at this age, and is susceptible

to nutritional fads. My focus instead is to encourage

them to eat a variety of wholesome foods including

foods with naturally occurring color (i.e., fruits and

vegetables), whole grains, proteins and dairy. We

also talk about the importance of trying new foods

and trying foods more than once, since many food

preferences are acquired. To stretch their often

finicky palates, we have been preparing different

foods in the classroom, and sampling foods during

circle time. Our shake-a-salad was a hit.

In the afternoons, we have been doing art, sewing,

food preparation, or nutrition related activities; and

in literature, we are reading James and the Giant

Learning the Advanced Code

Print Making

Magnet Construction

Practical Life: Tonging

Preschool/Kindergarten Ms.. Jackie Johnson & Ms. Kathleen Long

Peach. We are looking forward to doing more after-

noon activities outside as the weather gets cooler.

We are having a great start to the year. We are hav-

ing lots of fun and already forming wonderful friend-

ships!

Shake A Salad

Dot Dot Dash

Food Group Sorting

Sewing: Running Stitch

Concentrated Cutting

This school year is off to a great start. The first graders are getting used to having a daily Work Plan and are developing an invaluable sense of organization. Also, they seem happy about having a binder and several notebooks where they keep their work. The second year students in the classroom have been an incredible asset to the first year students. It is an honor to have them back in the classroom and seeing them share their knowledge and excitement. In a 6-9 year old Montessori class the curriculum includes special presentations of material that introduce concepts to the chil-dren with a visual presentation. One of the most fascinating characteristics of Maria Montessori was her ability to connect life at the moment with life in the distant past. She understood the growing imagination of the elementary aged child. Her goal for the elementary school child is to have a holistic approach to understanding the Universe. We have been discussing how to take care of our environment and our classroom. We also have been working on respecting each other and the classroom, and learning rights and responsibilities. The materials available in the classroom help lead the children into becoming independent thinkers. Our goal is to follow each child and to guide him/her into making the right choices within his/her environment. We use worksheets that you see coming home as a supplement to reinforce the materials being introduced in class. In Geography, we have covered Map Skills and the four cardinal points (N,S,E,W). We reviewed the compass and how it aligns itself with magnetic North. We will also put some of the Science experiments we are studying into action during the first of five Great Montessori Dramatic Lessons. We are also working on the concept of time through the use of calendars and time-lines. Language, reading, math, geometry, science and problem solving skills are part of the children's weekly work plan. You may also see work coming home that has symbols above phrases or sentences. Maria Montessori designed symbols to repre-sent all of the parts of grammar and the child uses the parsing symbols to help learn the functions of our words. Overall, I think everyone is adjusting to the classroom beautifully, making new friends and facing new challenges that go along with the maturity and accountability that comes with this age.

Montessori Monitor >>>

First & Second Grades Ms. Anita Bender & Ms. Susie Long

Special Thanks >>>

*To all of the families who have donated classroom mate-rial, yarn, plants to care for and/or special snacks to the classroom. *We appreciate the donation of Box Tops for Education, please continue to collect and bring into class. *For ordering from the Scholastic Books website it has added more books to our classroom library and every time you order online we get an additional certificate for a new book for our classroom. The children have enjoyed shelving these new books into our classroom library. Please check out the Scholastic website at scholastic.com. Our class code is GPFKF. *For representing our classroom at the P.T.O. and helping to prepare for the Fall Festival. *For participating in all of the activities during Spirit Week!

Second & Third Grades Mr. Richard Aslanian & Ms. Suzi Rumsey

Welcome to the second and third

grades class. We are off and running

with the new school year and are

happy to report that we are doing

well, working hard and learning

many new things.

Our science studies are based on

space and earth science this year.

We experienced the Montessori

Great Lesson on the creation of the

universe and space. This lesson en-

compasses a large amount of impres-

sionistic materials that open the stu-

dents’ minds to what possibly may

have happened in the beginning.

Subsequent lessons have been based

on types of galaxies, star classifica-

tion, and an in depth study of our so-

lar system. We enjoyed our field trip

to the SFC Kika Silva Pla Planetar-

ium and are looking forward to class

projects in November.

In Social studies and history we have

been practicing our mapping skills,

working with longitude and latitude,

legends, continents, the oceans and

learning about the seasons. We have

all practiced our phone numbers and

addresses and have talked about the

importance of this information. We

are looking forward to our presenta-

tion of a Historical Timeline at the

end of October. Each student has

received a person of importance from

history and will be portraying this

person during a school wide presen-

tation.

Participating in Spirit Week was once

again an enjoyable and learning ex-

perience. Many thoughts and lessons

come out of this week, with the cul-

mination being about school pride

and our Millhopper Family helping

the community to be a better place.

Thanks to all of the families for your

support of our endeavors.

Students in Ms. Tina's class have been adjusting to their weekly routines and

setting good habits in place to help themselves stay organized this school

year. Students have gotten used to keeping track of their assignments using

Snapgrades, the class assignment board, and their school planners.

As the weather cools down, 4th graders have been warming up for some gar-

dening activities. In the classroom we examined seeds and seed packets to

find out information about when, where and how to plant different types of

crops. Students consulted a Florida vegetable planting guide to learn more

about fall and spring crops in our part of the state. Soon Ms. Wendy, Sophie's

mom, will be helping us plant our fall crops.

Here's a look at what students have been up to in some of their academic

classes:

5th graders in US His-

tory with Ms. Susan

Hansen have finished a study of Native American cultural regions in the United

States and have begun learning about European exploration. Students enjoyed par-

ticipating in a simulation of underwater archaeology. They examined ruins of ex-

plorer ships and artifacts

related to the motivation for

exploration, new technol-

ogy, and new products in the

New World.

4th graders in Florida His-

tory have completed a re-

view of basic geography

concepts including latitude

and longitude and other map skills. Students started getting to know our state by

completing their own map of Florida. As we progress to our study of Florida's na-

tive tribes, students will take a field trip to Morningside Nature Center to learn

about the native Timucua people who lived in this part of Florida. We will also

visit the Florida Museum of Natural History to view their exhibit and participate in

hands-on activities related to the various tribes that once lived throughout our state.

Fourth grade writers are preparing for the annual Florida Writes test in March. This statewide writing program prepares students to write 5

paragraph expository essays, with an emphasis on focus, organization, conventions and supporting details.

In Science class with Ms. Carol students have been learning about variables

and how variables affect the outcome of an experiment. Students set up a

pendulum experiment to test the effect of the length of the string on the

number of swings the

pendulum made in a

given length of

time. Students made

graphs with their data

and learned about how

scientists use graphs to

make predictions and

why reliable data is so

important.

Montessori Monitor >>>

Fourth & Fifth Grades Ms. Christina Miller, Ms. Susan Salvatore & Ms. Erin Sorel

History

Ms. Susan Salvatore &

Ms. Sherilyn Farris

Sixth grade students h

ave been studying

the Paleolithic and Neolith

ic eras as well as th

e

different types of early hominids. S

tudents pre-

pared skits to present diffe

rent hominids to the

fourth and fifth graders. T

he skits featured dia-

logue the students w

rote themselves and home-

made costumes and props!

Seventh and eighth graders are stu

dying

American Westward expansion and the im

pact

on Native Americans. They are looking specifi-

cally at the Nez Perce trib

e and Chief Joseph,

also known as Thunder Rolling In the

Mountains, while bringing the

song “The Heart of th

e Appa-

loosa” to life.

Technology Ms. Sylvia Aslanian Tying into American History, Seventh and eighth graders are cre-ating a presentation project on Gaggle.net to chronicle the lives of the Nez Perce dur-ing Westward Expan-sion. Sixth graders are learning about all of the tools available on the wonderful Millhopper Tech website.

Speech

Ms. Sylvia Aslanian

Sixth graders are learning

the basics of public speaking

while preparing speeches about

each other.

Seventh graders p

repared

and delivered speeches about their

biggest pet peeves.

Eighth graders w

ere able to

show off all th

ey’ve learned after

three years of public speaking

with impromptu speeches.

Spirit Week

Middle school students had a

great time during Spirit Week this

year. Students chose a Western theme

and we even wore cowboy hats during

are cheer.

Congratulations to our school-

wide costume winners: Sarah Kilgore,

Ashley Petty, and Austin Petty.

Thanks to all of the parents

who helped by putting together cos-

tumes or sending in cans. We were

able to bring in 320 cans!

Middle School Ms. Sherilyn Farris & Ms. Susan Hansen

Science

Ms. Carol Fogelman

Physical science and chemistry

are the focus for this school year. Sixth

graders have just finished an exploration

on mystery mixtures while learning sci-

ence FUN-damentals!

Seventh and eighth graders are

learning the basics of Chemistry and

balancing chemical equations.

All middle school students are

already preparing for the Science Fair.

Video Production

Ms. Sylvia Aslanian

Seventh and eighth

graders have formed produc-

tion teams to create liv

e news-

casts about all o

f the events

going on at MMS.

Sixth graders a

re learn-

ing video fundamentals while

creating original commercials

for MMS.

Language Arts Ms. Susan Hansen All of the middle school stu-

dents have jumped right into the

Shakespeare Festival this school year.

Though, the festival won’t be until

February, students are already prepar-

ing for it. To help prepare, 7 th

and 8 th

grade students are reading Henry V

and 6 th grade student are reading The

Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Black-

Hola mis amigos. We’re having a wonderful time getting to know each other in all of the Spanish classes (Beginners-8

th Grade). We have been

studying the geography of the Spanish speaking world and have also be-gun to study the holidays, traditions and customs of those twenty-one very diverse countries. We began our study with Spain as we explored the ori-gin of the language, the geography, the customs, traditions, expressions, accents, music, art, food, industries, lifestyles and other diverse aspects of the history and the people of that beautiful and amazing country. We were able to tour Spain through a special movie maker project that Ms. Jeanne-Marie created and through the Promethean board. In September we celebrated the Central American and Mexican Independence Days, and in October we will celebrate El Dia de la Raza (Race Day or Colum-bus Day), El Dia de los Muertos, and National Hispanic Month in the United States. We will continue to share and celebrate the diversity of the Spanish-speaking world with the students throughout the year as we explore different countries. Al-though Spanish-speaking people all over the world may differ in many ways, they share a love of their language and a desire for world peace.

MMS Spanish >>>

Ms. Jeanne-Marie Hrivnak

Beginners, Preschool & Kindergarten

We have been learning greetings, introductions and expres-sions of courtesy and have been conversing in Spanish regularly. Through conversation and the use of songs, pup-pets, finger-play activities, models, pictures, and charades

we are able to learn and use Spanish vo-cabulary. In September our focus was on the human body. We dis-cussed the parts of the body, the senses, and taking care of our bod-ies by eating healthy foods and staying active (sports). We have described physical and personality traits, emotions, and feelings of others and ourselves in the class and in photos. We identified classroom objects, numbers, colors and some

animals. "Cabeza, Hombros, Rodillas, Pies" ("Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Feet" in Spanish) was a favorite song and game as we learned the parts of the body as was "Simon Dice". In Ms.Christina and Ms. Liz’s classes we also studied the farm and learned the names for the people, animals, objects, and jobs on the farm. The children were fascinated to learn that the animals make different sounds in Spanish. All of the classes were excited by the visit from a dairy farmer and calf and we discussed the theme “From the Farm to the Fridge” in Spanish.

First through Third Grades We had fun getting acquainted and re-viewing basic greetings and classroom expressions with the help of songs, cha-rades, and role-play activities. It was so much fun to use TPR (Total Physical Response) to learn directional phrases and to give directions... We reviewed numbers and colors and went on to learn more numbers and how to say the day and date. We practiced this new vocabulary using our birthdays and holi-days and by playing Bingo in Spanish.

We were also able to play “El color es-condido” in which we had to sing a song and find a missing color. We used models, pictures, charades and other games to learn about classroom ob-jects, expressions and activities. Role-play activities have given us the oppor-tunity to converse with each other in Spanish in a fun way. We will be dis-cussing fall weather and activities as well as the solar system in October.

Fourth & Fifth Grades After reviewing basic greetings, feel-ings, numbers, colors, pronunciation we were able to get to know each other better by sharing our likes and dislikes using the verb “gustar” and the vo-cabulary for activities, pastimes, and sports. We went on to increase our vocabulary threefold by learning and using cognates (words that are similar in Spanish and in English). We also

shared our birthdays and favorite holi-days as we went over the days of the week and months of the year. We have been using TPR to identify classroom objects and to give commands about activities and expressions in the class-room. In October we will cover fall vo-cabulary and weather and then talk about our families with the family trees we create in Spanish.

Middle School .Students are taught using a variation of the “direct method”. This means that the instructor teaches using the target lan-guage as much as possible. Through conversation, models, pictures, TPR (Total Physical Response), role-play activities and other visual and audio aids, the students learn the four lan-guage skills (listening, speaking, read-ing, and writing) in Spanish. This tech-nique is effective because the students are able to hear the target language in a variety of “real life” situations in a fun way. A “communicative competency” approach to language learning supports the use of this method. When possible, we follow the teachers’ unit studies as a source for our themes throughout the year. By doing so, we are able to take a multidisciplinary approach to language learning. 6th Grade: In Spanish I we have been working hard to review all the Spanish we have studied in previous years and are perfecting and expanding our vo-cabulary. We have begun to concen-trate more on grammar, reading and writing skills than in the past, but we continue to work regularly on our speak-ing and listening comprehension skills. The topics we have covered have en-

abled us to do this quite easily. They are the following: introductions, greet-ings, well-being, feelings, age, origin, personality & physical traits, likes and dislikes. In October we will go on to learn how to express our needs and wants at home, at school, and in our free time. The 6

th grade students have

been very excited about the Spanish activities on the Promethean board. 7th & 8th Grades: In Spanish II we have reviewed all the material covered in Spanish I by writing and performing some incredibly interesting skits (They are available on our school website for your perusal.). We were able to learn how to ask many different questions and to use adverbs of frequency by talking about what we do in a typical week. Ne-gation was also discussed as we talked about the things we never do. Time, dates, weather vocabulary factored into our conversation as did the use of all the basic verb forms. In October we will be discussing our families in detail and cre-ating power point projects to share with the class. The 7

th & 8

th grade students

were especially talented at doing the “Cha Cha” for our celebration of the Central American and Mexican Inde-pendence Days.

MMS Sports Teams >>>

SOCCER

Physical Education is off to a fast start. The first few weeks were filled with team building activi-ties to help the stu-dents with their team concept and serving a role on a team. Presidential Physical Fitness

Pre-Testing followed and went extremely well. Coach Cam thinks we have a genuine shot at the state title this year! Most recently we played our way through spirit week before gearing up for our first unit. Soccer will lead the way to go in conjunction with our sports league involvement. Students work on passing, shooting and dribbling with a focus on being able to control the ball. It looks like its going to be a great year in P.E.

Montessori Monitor >>>

Physical Education Coach Cam Parker

Our Fall Soccer Season has begun with a record

number of players and a flurry of activity. Practices

have been hot, but fun and exciting to watch. MMS

stresses team building, friendship, and enjoying our

time on the field. Positive attitudes teach good

sportsmanship. Our sidelines are filled with laugh-

ter, cheering, and most of all, big smiles! Come

check out our games at Oak Hall on Saturdays and

be part of the fun!

Peripheral

A hardware device that is connected to a computer,

usually by a cable.

Technology Buzzwords…. abound in the me-

dia center this month. Kindergarten – Fifth graders

have been learning about parts of the computer, online

safety, cyberbullying, and evaluating websites.

We have been watching animated clips on computer

parts and online safety housed at Brain Pop and Brain

Pop, Jr. Some of these clips can be accessed via mill-

hoppertech.com The students also have taken several

online quizzes to help reiterate the concepts. In the

Interactive Section under Computer Basics at millhop-

pertech.com they worked in several activities to help

them to understand the terms they’ve learned. In the

Be Safe section they were able to obtain their web li-

cense once they answered several questions about

online safety. In addition the kindergarteners are learn-

ing to maneuver the mouse.

Middle school students set up their accounts in Gag-

gle.net. Gaggle.net is a safe and secure online commu-

nication. Gaggle allows students to take advantage of

current technology tools for communication, collabo-

ration, and social learning.

Why is Gaggle Safe? Gaggle provides a safe collection of in-

structional and communication tools controlled by admini-

stration and teachers with spam, virus protection and content

filtering.

Compliant with Federal Student Privacy Regulations (CIPA,

HIPPA, FERPA, and COPPA)

Sixth Grade students utilize the Technology Lab to

work on their Science Lab Homework. Foss

"Chemical Interactions" is loaded on several laptops in

the media center. This program simulates experiment

the student do in class. By using the added component

they can see the experiment several times to help them

retain and understand the concepts they are learning.

Technology

Answering questions in the Input/

Output Lesson.

Practicing Mouse Skills

What’s new in MMS Technology?

We have upgraded our internet ser-

vice and will be upgrading our net-

work. Look for new multi use com-

puter tables that will be arriving for

the Media Center in the next few

weeks, built and donated by Ms.

Amilda’s husband, Dr. Mark Clark.

Welcome 2010 Ms. Sylvia Aslanian

2010-2011 Yearbook is Underway! Our Middle School students are off to a great start cre-ating our new yearbook. Using the Lifetouch com-pany on-line site, Webease, we are collecting wonderful memories and carefully preserving them into our yearbook. Our MMS year-book includes students from all nine classes, plus music, art, science, drama, tech-nology, reading, math, and many special events. Our first step in creating the yearbook is to decide on a theme for the year. The M3S students worked in groups to brainstorm possible theme ideas. Each group then cre-ated posters to convey its idea for the theme. Theme ideas included: graffiti, 60’s (peace,

love), Gators, Superheroes, Doodles and Candyland. Each theme idea was presented to the class and vot-ing was used to decide on the final theme. The posters are now on dis-play in the media center windows, and they are beautiful! Yearbooks sales have already started. Yearbooks need to be pre-ordered. This year payment op-tions include; check, cash, credit card, or billing. The cost is currently $25, but will increase in October, so order early and save$$$.

Montessori Monitor >>>

Yearbook Ms. Martha Horter

Safety Patrol The Safety Patrol is in full swing and off to another GREAT year! As a reminder, the drive-thru opens each morning at 8:40 and closes at 9:05am. The af-

ternoon drive-thru opens at 2:40pm and closes at 3:10pm. When on MMS campus, please remember cells phones are prohibited. Please help us keep our children safe by keep-ing all of your attention on the task at hand. Also, when leaving the school, please be sure to only turn right. If you need to go west, please make a U-Turn on NW 39th Avenue. Waiting to turn left out of the parking lot is not only dangerous, but also causes a bottle neck in our parking lot/drive thru making it difficult for those entering the school to get in. Thank you so much for your cooperation in this matter.

Lulu Plays Pretend

Author, Illustrator and MMS Grandparent, Manny Alonso joined our first through third grade classes on Friday, September 3rd in the

MMS Big Room. Liz from Mr. Rich-ard’s class (whom the book is named after) acted out each pretended sce-nario while an-other student from the class read the book aloud. Books were for sale

prior to and the day of the book reading. Manny and Liz stayed afterward and did a book signing with 10% of the proceeds to going to MMS.

Thank you to everyone for

clipping Box Tops off of select General Mills products.

The Class that collects the most box tops will win an

Ice Cream Party at the end of the school year!

www.boxtops4education.com

Keep Collecting...

Social Networking

Keep up with all things MMS

on our social networking sites:

www.facebook.com/millhoppermontessorischool

www.twitter.com/mmsknights

Lunches Made Easy & Convenient!

Are you Going out of

town and don’t want to

have to worry about

the babysitter making

your child’s lunch or

are you simply tired of

making lunch

everyday?

MMS has taken the

guesswork (& headache)

out of lunches!

We are excited to announce

you can now order your

child’s lunch online by the

week, month, quarter,

semester or year!

Simply go to our website

(www.millhopper.com) and

click the

HotLunchOnline.com link to

get started!

Questions? Contact Ms. Sherilyn Farris at mmsm3s@bellsouth.net

Monday*

I Love NY

Pizza

Tuesday

Flying Biscuit Wednesday

Moe’s Thursday

Heavenly Ham Friday

Schlotzsky’s

3 Piece Chicken

Finger & Potato

Wedges

1 Slice Cheese

Pizza & Side

Salad

1 Slice

Pepperoni Pizza

& Side Salad

2 Slices Cheese

Pizza

2 Slices

Pepperoni Pizza

Baked Spaghetti

w/ garlic knot

Spaghetti &

Meatballs

6” Turkey Wrap

*I Love NY

Pizza is

available to

Beginner

through

Kindergarten

students only

Oven Fried

Chicken Strips

(5-6 strips)

Grilled Chicken

Strips

(5-6 strips)

Turkey Meatloaf

Oodles of

Noodles with

Butter

Oodles of

Noodles with

Marinara Sauce

All orders come

with a choice of

Mac & Cheese

or Mashed

Potatoes

All orders come

with a biscuit &

8 oz. bottled

water

Cheese

Quesadilla

Chicken

Quesadilla

Chicken Burrito

Black Bean

Burrito

Two Ground

Beef Tacos

Two Chicken

Tacos

All orders come

with tortilla

chips, salsa, a

chocolate chip

cookie & 8 oz.

bottled water

Ham Sandwich

Turkey

Sandwich

Roast Beef

Sandwich

Veggie

Sandwich

Ham Wrap

Turkey Wrap

Roast Beef Wrap

Veggie Wrap

All orders come

with Baked Lays

Potato chips, a

chocolate chip

cookie & 8 oz.

bottled water

Cheese

Sandwich

Ham

Sandwich

Turkey

Sandwich

Veggie

Sandwich

Cheese Pizza

Pepperoni

Pizza

BBQ Chicken

Pizza

Chicken Caesar

Wrap

All sandwiches

come with

lettuce, tomato

& cheese.

Sorry, no

special orders.

All orders come

with Baked Lays

Potato chips, a

chocolate chip

cookie & 8 oz.

bottled water

Weekly Menu Options:

1st - 8th Grade: To place orders for Piesanos on Mondays Contact Anita Bender, 352-375-6773 or 2anitabender@gmail.com

October 2010

Monday, October 11 Sally Foster Sales Begin Tuesday, October 12 Ms. Elizabeth Falls’ Parent Night 4:30-6:00 Tuesday, October 12 Ms. Renee Brohamer’s Parent Night 4:30-6:00 Tuesday, October 12 Mr. Richard Aslanian’s Parent Night 6:15-7:45 Tues., Oct. 12 - Thurs., Oct. 14 Middle School R.O.P.E.S. Trip Friday, October 15 Holiday - UF Homecoming Friday, October 22 Fall Picture Re-Take Day Thursday, October 28 Sally Foster Orders End Thursday, October 28 Mr. Richard’s Class Historical Timeline - 11:00am Thursday, October 28 Fall Festival - canned food collected for Gainesville Harvest Friday, October 29 Student Holiday/Teacher Workday

November 2010

Monday, November 8 First through Eighth Grade Report Cards mailed home Tuesday, November 9 Teacher Work Afternoon – 3:30-5:30 Wednesday, November 10 Early Childhood/Kindergarten Teacher Lunch Meeting Thursday, November 11 Holiday - Veteran’s Day - Flex Day Thursday, November 18 Vocal Ensemble/Theatrical Choir Performance (“Joy”) at MMS Tuesday, November 23 Elementary/Middle School Thanksgiving Luncheon Wednesday, November 24 Holiday Thur., Nov. 25 - Fri., Nov. 26 Thanksgiving Holidays Mon., Nov. 29 – Fri., Dec. 3 Scholastic Book Fair at MMS

December 2010

Friday, December 3 First through Eighth Grade Interim Reports mailed Saturday, December 4 Gumshoe High A Totally Teen Mystery - 4:30pm, dinner served at 5:00pm Tuesday, December 7 Teacher Work Afternoon – 3:30-5:30 Wednesday, December 8 Early Childhood/Kindergarten Teacher Lunch Meeting Thursday, December 9 Sixth, Seventh & Eighth Grade Science Fair - 10:00-12:00 Judging Mon., Dec. 6 - Mon., Jan. 31 MMS In House Re-Enrollment Period for School Year 2011-2012 Monday, December 13 Middle School Spelling Bee Tuesday, December 14 Middle School: Festival of Dionysus Wednesday, December 15 Middle School takes the Florida Writes Assessment Test Friday, December 17 Winter Shows: Ms. Christina Eckstein’s & Ms. Renee Brohamer’s classes 9:30 AM

Ms. Elizabeth Falls’ & Ms. Jackie Johnson’s classes 10:30 AM

Ms. Anita Bender’s & Mr. Richard Aslanian’s classes 11:30 AM

Ms. Christina Miller's & Ms. Sherilyn Farris’ classes 12:30 PM

School day ends after each show – no after school program available.

Mon., Dec. 20 - Fri., Dec. 31 Winter Holiday’s

Calendar