This Holiday Edition of the Physical Education blog is all about keeping kids active to build stronger bodies and stronger minds. First and foremost, it is important for parents to set an example by being active and making fitness a priority in your home.

In PE class at this time of year, we try to do a variety of activities inside and outside so that we can keep the students engaged and moving. While we are outside we enjoy soccer and flag football, and while we are inside the students love to scale the climbing wall in pairs. Check out our photos below from this month's activities.

Keeping the children active during the holiday season is especially important due to the overeating that is typical at this time of year.

Its no secret that physical activity also improves brain functioning. As you can see from the sample brain scans below, a mind on exercise is an active mind!  Look at the brain functioning after just 20 minutes of walking.  Getting kids to move helps strengthen and stimulate their brains. This is why so many recent research studies are showing increased fitness = improved academics.  Note: The blue color represents inactivity in the brain.

 

Here are a few tips that might be some help  during the holidays to keep your kids active.

The following are tips from www.raisesmartkid.com in an article entitled The Benefits of Exercise on Your Kid's Brain.

1. Set example to kids by being active yourself. Engage in a lot of walking, running, biking or playing sports. A study suggests that preschool kids whose moms are active also tend to be active themselves. According to Esther van Sluijs from the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine who made the study, parents affect their kids in three ways – by acting as role models, by helping them to be active, and by being active with them.
2.  Make fitness a priority in your home.  Set limits on watching TV, playing video games, and being in the internet.
3. Make fitness fun.  Engage your kids in fun sports or other games which he loves.  Also, don’t limit your kid to playing traditional sports.  There are video games like Dance Dance Revolutin that can be played actively.
4. Encourage your kid to walk.  Don’t use the car if you and your kid are going to places where you can walk to.  Look for opportunities to walk, find places to stride like a mall, and stairs to climb.  Build you kid’s walking muscles so that distances that used to be far for him will feel near.  Make your child get used to and love walking.  This will benefit him throughout his life.
5. Encourage your kid to run.  Teach him the joys of jogging.  Run with your kid, or make it a social activity, with friends or relatives.
6. Encourage your kid to use wheels.  Not wheels of a car, but bikes, scooters, rollerblades or skateboards (make sure they have adequate protection like helmet, elbow pads, long pants).  On his next birthday, give him one of these gifts instead of another video game.
7. Encourage your kid to dance.  Dancing is one thing some kids enjoy more than conventional exercise.
8.  Encourage some competition.  If your kids have other family members or friends, make them compete with each other in a fun way.  For example, there’s always the running race (give the  younger kid a distance advantage), but you can think of other creative contests like who can do the most jumping jacks, skipping rope, etc.
9. Go to regular outings.  Take a hike.  Explore a nearby park.  Enjoy the outdoors. Remember to bring a ball or a frisbee.
10. Don’t be too strict about an active life.  Although a regular routine of being active is what’s best, perfection is not your goal.  When your kid has a busy day, try to get him to do his best to be active, but if this is not possible, schedule longer activity days when he has more time.
11. Parents of teens should be cautioned against having their kids play contact sports like football. According to Dr. Robert Cantu, chairman of the Department of Surgery at Emerson Hospital and co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at the Boston University School of Medicine, kids under the age of 14 should not be involved in collision sports. Teenagers who played contact sports often already show signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease caused by multiple blows to the head. The symptoms are personality changes, memory loss, depression, even dementia.

 

In Spanish classes, the highlight of this month was the end of the year holidays. The students learned about celebrations around the world and their influence on Latin-America.

Primary

 by Yeny Hernandez   [dt_sc_email emailid="[email protected]"/]

The excitement of the end of the year celebrations was present in the Primary classes. In Spanish, we discussed the different celebrations around the world which have the common theme of light. Apart from talking, drawing and singing, the kids worked with lights related vocabulary like Luz (light), estrella (star), luna (moon), and sol (sun).

Lower Elementary

by Susana D'Ruiz  [dt_sc_email emailid="[email protected]"/] 

In our lessons on the end of year holidays, we covered Fiestas Alrededor del Mundo (Festivities Around the World) most of which use lights symbolically in their celebrations. One of the activies we did to commemorate the holidays was to make different celebration cards to be delivered to Well Spring Residence. The students wrote them in Spanish and English.

 

 Upper Elementary

by Susana D'Ruiz and Sandra O. Lee  

Fourth Level

This month, the 4th level students have been busy working on parts of speech, vocabulary and phonetics. Our goal is to start working on sentence analysis in Spanish as soon as we return from Winter Break.

Fifth Level

The main contents in 5th level were Geography in Spanish, where the students learned about Central and South American countries, their capitals and borders, and reading comprehension and the use of the dictionary. The kids read "Nuestra Tierra" (Our Earth), and had to write questions and definitions related to the book.

 Middle School

by Sandra O. Lee   [dt_sc_email emailid="[email protected]"/]

This is a busy time of year for middle schoolers with several projects coming to fruition. Along with this, we maintained our daily focus on Spanish language and academics. The students continued working on the Realidades Program, and their customized review packages. They also had the opportunity to talk about and review the world lights celebrations and listen to Villancicos (traditional Christmas songs in Spanish).

At the Greensboro Montessori School we have a world cultural music curriculum in the Primary through Upper Elementary classes. Students watch, listen, and read about a culture’s music and and then work to present a world music concert where they perform cultural songs, dances, story-dramas and play instruments from specific cultures.

We are lucky to have a beautiful collection of functional world music instruments for the students to see and perform on, some of which are displayed in our school’s library showcase.The upcoming elementary winter world music concerts will feature instruments from Europe, such as the accordion, Irish bodhran, penny whistle, the celtic harp, xylophones and guitars. In preparation for the concert, Lower and Upper Elementary students have been delightedly bringing stories to life from Scotland and Wales called, “The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lithy” and “Morgan’s Spell.”

Toddler and Primary music classes have been enjoying animal songs, playing hand percussion and singing songs about rain, vertebrates, kookaburras and singing in French. Favorite songs in toddler music classes have been, “Horsey, horsey” and “See the pony galloping”. In primary music classes there has been robust singing by students on the refrain of “Puff the Magic Dragon” as we follow the illustrated story-song and lots of expressive movement to the song, “Rhythms all Around.”

Art and music classes have been working together to prepare for the upcoming winter concerts on December 3 and 10.

Upper and Lower Elementary students have been using their art time to create stage props for the concerts.  Huge boxes have been transformed into many interesting things.  A favorite of the boys has been a large cauldron made from chicken wire, newspaper and lots of tape.  We made homemade paper mache' and had a messy good time creating the cauldron.

 

 

 

Lower elementary students have been creating winter scenes to add to this large piece of art that will be displayed at the winter concerts.

Other happenings in the Montessori art room include printmaking with leaves. Lower elementary students used leaves to create beautiful prints.  They also painted the negative space with watercolors. In combination with their study of European culture and music, Lower El students were also introduced to the work of artist and architect, Friedensreich Hundertwasser. He was from Austria and his artwork  had a childlike, playful style. Take a look at the students' work that was inspired by Hundertwasser.

I look forward to seeing you at the winter concerts where you will see all of this fabulous artwork created by our talented Montessori art and music students.

Be inspired!

Katherine Gwynn

 

Elementary and Middle School students at Greensboro Montessori School work and play hard in their physical education classes.  Lower Elementary works out 1 day a week for 55 minutes, Upper Elementary works out 2 days a week for 50 minutes and Middle School works out twice a week for 55 minutes. Early in the school year, each class starts off with a fitness evaluation. In this evaluation, we test each student's 1) resting heart rate, 2) muscle strength with push-ups and sit-ups, 3) cardiovascular levels with 1/2 mile or 1 mile walk/jog and 4) flexibility with the sit-n-reach test. The first test is a benchmark for the year; then each student will do a retest before Winter Break and again before summer break.

So far this fall we have completed units on soccer and football.  In soccer, students, practiced all the foot skills associated with that sport. Soccer is still the favorite sport of every class - Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary and Middle School.  We then moved into a unit about American football.  To keep all the students interested,  we changed it up and converted the game of ultimate frisbee to ultimate football. Students got plenty of practice with eye hand coordination skills, team work skills and had a fast moving game to play at the same time. This unit worked in conjunction with the Middle School after school sports program  All of the age groups are getting to develop their skills towards the big goal of playing on the middle school flag football team.

Occasionally we take a break from the schedule and work on our teamwork skills with a good ol'game of floor hockey or kickball.

 

Duncan Page graduated from Greensboro Montessori School in 2011 after 11 years as a GMS student. He attended high school at the Early College at Guilford and this fall enrolled in the NC State University program for electrical and computer engineering. Visit the Early College at Guilford homepage.

Duncan and two classmates from NC State were top performers in a recent global online programming contest known as IEEEXtreme, ranking 2nd in the U.S. and 24th in the world. IEEEXtreme is a global challenge in which teams of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Student members compete in a 24-hour time span against each other to solve a set of programming problems. IEEE, the world's leading technical professional association for the advancement of technology, conducts the programming competition.

Click here to read more about the competition.

Duncan is the youngest three siblings all of whom are Montessori alumni.  Duncan's older brother, Griffin, is a senior at NC State studying Computer Science, and his older sister, Courtney, completed her master's degree in Historical Archaeology from Eastern Carolina University and now works as the lab manager for Blackbeard's - Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck, which draws together some of the leading scientists around the nation to collaborate and use the latest techniques in the science or preservation. Duncan's parents, Judy and Brian Page, live in Greensboro.

This month, in which Latin America remembers the “Encounter of Two Worlds”, the students were busy in the classrooms learning, working, researching and presenting their work about our rich Hispanic culture and its people. Below is a glimpse of our activities.

Primary

 

by Yeny Hernandez   [dt_sc_email emailid="[email protected]"/]

This has been an active month in Primary in Spanish. The students worked with geometry, recognizing the different geometrical shapes and naming them as they created figures with them.

We also celebrated the Hispanic Heritage Month, talking about different aspects of it: history, geography and art among others.

We look forward to another month of exciting activities!

 

 

Lower Elementary

by Susana D'Ruiz  [dt_sc_email emailid="[email protected]"/] 

In cultural studies, we covered Mes de la Herencia Hispana (National Hispanic Month), songs and cultural content. As an end to cultural month, we read about one of the most renowned Mexican artists, Diego Rivera. In phonetics, the emphasis was on /m/ sound and syllable formation for first level students, and /d/ sounds and syllable formation for second and third levels.

Upper Elementary

by Susana D'Ruiz and Sandra O. Lee  

Fourth Level

The fourth level students have transitioned well into Upper El. This past week the lessons focused on noun gender. In vocabulary the emphasis was on useful phrases for the Spanish class.

Fifth Level

This month the students have been busy working on vocabulary and sentence analysis. They compared the Spanish versus the English patterns using the Montessori Grammar Symbols. They continue working on vocabulary and phonetics. 

 

Middle School

by Sandra O. Lee   [dt_sc_email emailid="[email protected]"/]

Part of October has been marked for the visit of our friends from our sister school in Costa Rica. Our kids had the opportunity to make new friends, practice Spanish and get ready for their trip to Costa Rica in May. But we do not forget about academics during "Mes de la Hispanidad" in which we celebrate the "Encounter of Two Worlds". The students in Middle School researched and presented their work about different people, natural wonders and monuments from Spain and Latin America.

Collaborating with colleagues speaks of community and shows our students that we support each others work.  Lower elementary art students have been  helping our librarian Erin Carmola with her reading challenge called Reading is a Piece of Cake. Students are helping to promote the reading challenge by creating pieces of cake in art class.  These will be displayed on the bulletin board outside the library.  The element of art we are studying in October is line.  Look for a variety of lines used in these delectable looking pieces of cake. Notice how each artist uniquely expresses their interpretation of a piece of cake.

Reading is a Piece of Cake

 

                          

 

 

 

Three -dimensional line work

 

Collaborating with Upper Elementary Teachers

5th level upper elementary students are studying about Rome and we have been making mosaics in art.  This has been a valuable learning experience.  Students have learned that art is a process that evolves over time. They have used problem solving skills when realizing their design was too detailed for the mosaic pieces to work in their image.  Reworking the design became a natural part of this learning process.  This process has been grueling at times but upper elementary students are very proud of their finished pieces!

Mosaics Designed By Upper Elementary Students

         

All this fabulous art work will be coming home at the end of this first trimester.

Art and music will be working together to create scenery and costumes for upcoming winter concerts. Students love when their classes overlap and there is continuity in their day.  It is such a blessing to work with such talented colleagues and to come alongside such eager learners.

 

From September 15^th to October 15^th  is the National Hispanic Heritage Month. As part of this celebration in our classrooms, the students will be working on different activities related to Latin American countries and Spain, their culture, artists and landmarks.

Primary  [dt_sc_email emailid="[email protected]"/]

We started the month reviewing greetings and learning the Buenos Días song. The students have enthusiastically practiced the song, as well as greetings, colors and numbers inside and outside the classroom. When we finish our lessons, we also sing the "Roll, roll, roll your mat" song in Spanish - "Enrolla, enrolla, enrolla tu alfombra."

During this month, we will be learning and practicing colors in Spanish through the painting “The Flower Carrier” by the Mexican artist, Diego Rivera.

 

Lower Elementary[dt_sc_email emailid="[email protected]"/]  

A, B, C, Ch, D, E, F, .... Gee what a lot of fun we had these past weeks. Our names have been very important this week. We are looking for letters that are the same in each other’s names, counting letters, comparing the length as well as looking for letters that we have learned. We also reviewed greetings in Spanish and vowel sounds. In addition, the students are working on a tongue-twister in Spanish: El hipopótamo Hipo.

 

 

Upper Elementary

by Sandra O. Lee and Susana D'Ruiz

Fourth Level

We used the first weeks of school helping students to get to know one another and become comfortable with various classroom routines. One of our goals is to help students become independent workers, so students are currently learning how to organize work in their Spanish notebook, folder and on index cards.

Fifth Level

This month we started our writer’s workshop. The students are very excited, working on constructing and connecting sentences with the final goal of writing paragraphs in Spanish. To do this, they are working on vocabulary lists, spelling exercises and analyzing sentences. Looking forward to share their writing with you!

Middle School  [dt_sc_email emailid="[email protected]"/]

September has been a busy month in Spanish. Sixth level students have transitioned well. They are getting familiar with the different components of the Spanish 1 program, and I must add they are doing a great job!!!

Seventh and Eighth levels are working on their projects and presentations about a Hispanic – American landmark or people. The projects will be presented the last week of September. I look forward to see the result of their research work!

In early August, GMS music teacher, Betsy Bevan, attended a week-long workshop titled “Music Makers Around the World” taught by a Musikgarten teacher trainer from New York. The workshop was held in Greensboro and people attended from as far away as California and Canada. It was a wonderful week of learning new songs, children’s dances to classical music, activities that teach young children about the world of music, music note reading and instrument playing. Betsy is now certified as a Musikgarten teacher.

The Musikgarten program uses the Montessori teaching style and is based on a combination of prominent music traditions such as Orff, Kodaly, Dalcroze, Ed Gordan, classical and folk music literature and studies in neuroscience about brain development by Dee Coulter.

"I found it to be a fun, active and in depth curriculum that suits Montessori education very well. I’m looking forward to presenting some new music material to my students!" said Betsy. This year she will facilitate a music class once a week in each toddler and primary classroom. The toddler music program is called Sing with Me, Dance with Me and Primary music class will use the Cycle of Seasons Musikgarten curriculum of singing, movement, song games, note reading and a variety of other activities which match with their class studies. Lower Elementary will be following the Home Place, Woodlands, Marshlands and world Musikgarten program and Upper Elementary will draw on the world music curriculum.