Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Mother's Day Picnic

We had beautiful weather for our Mother's Day Picnic this year!  The children started the festivities with an all school song for their mothers, "I Think You're Wonderful".  Afterwords we had a group picnic on the playground complete with blankets to sit on, fancy hats adorned by the moms, and strawberry shortcake for dessert.  Thanks for making this such an incredible experience!  We have such awesome Sourdough Moms (& Families)!

The audience was comprised of all kinds of family members.

The hand-print flowers were a big hit.





Turner gives a flower to his mom.

Finn swoops in for a big hug.

Mia was excited to see her mom!

Lucy had two visitors for the Mothers Day Picnic.

Kat & Fergus.

Ashley & Sadie.

Robbie & Jennifer.

Mica sat with his mom, Molly, & Christine.

Jaden hangs with his sister Siri & mom.

Maya ate with her grandma, her mom, & her little sister.

Jamie & Orin joined Rylin & Keir at a picnic table.

Beckett & sister Ali join mom on a picnic blanket..

Ella shares her mom with Hazel during the picnic.

Hollie & her two boys.

Luka & Sadie.

Soren is joined by his grandma.

Ronan & Grandma Alice.

Yikun & Rhiannon.

Maya & Amy.

It was a very busy playground.





Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Ocean Theme (upstairs class)

As an end of the year tradition we let the kids select of monthly theme for May.  While there were many great ideas tossed around (Swiss Army Knives, Flip Flops, Taco Del Mar etc.), we all voted on studying the ocean.  Jim Klug, fisherman extraordinaire of Yellow Dog Fly Fishing, just returned from Cuba and came to Sourdough to share his knowledge. Both children & teachers were captivated by his presentation.

Jim brought in some huge shells and a horseshoe crab.

The kids recognized these star fish right away.
Ella examines the conk shell.

Turner takes a quick look inside the shell before passing it on to another friend.

This shark jaw was probably the class favorite. Even though Finn was very careful, he managed to get bit!
Finn walks the puffer fish around our circle.
This was a very big fish.

The friends took turns feeling the fishes scales.

Ryan & Connor wanted to look inside of its mouth.


Nature with Ashley

Once a month Ashley Palmer joins the kindergarten class to teach about nature.  In April we took a walk to Sourdough Trail to observe what kind of insects live in the stream and what that tells us about the water quality.  We found leaches, aquatic worms, and many other insects where we did our samples.  The children used a microscope to identify the bugs they caught.

We enjoyed the nice weather on our walk.

Ashley led the way to the trail.

We scooped up debris in the water to find bugs.
Kade found an aquatic worm!

Turner examines his tub for creatures.

Before we headed back to school, Ashley led a group meeting in the tree fort.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Kindergarten Egg Drop

Every year we test the kindergarten class' science skills with the Annual Sourdough Kindergarten Egg Drop.  Each child in the kindergarten program brings an egg to drop out of the second story window at school, with the goal of creating a device that will keep their egg in one piece.  This year was the first time in Sourdough history (that we know of) that all of the eggs survived the drop.  Great job kindergarten kids!
The audience was filled with children, teachers, parents, and grandparents.

These boys got front row seats.

Austin shows off his shoe box contraption.

Tate prepares to drop his egg.

Vaughn & Tim scope out the results.

Ronan is all smiles.

Cole checks out his egg after the drop.

Greta looks nervous, but it all worked out.

Turner put his egg in a peanut butter jar, looks like its still there!
Brooke used plastic bags as a parachute.

Congratulations kindergarten class!