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Family Day, a long standing tradition at COLCMS, was held on Nov. 18. The children worked together with parent volunteers to cook a delicious Chicken Posole soup. Below is the recipe - Slow Cooker Chicken Posole Stew from Simply Sugar and Gluten Free (Submitted by the Gummels Family) serves 4 – 6 For the stew: 2 bone-in chicken breasts, skin removed 2 (15 ounce) cans white hominy, rinsed and drained 3 cups good quality chicken stock 2 (14.5 ounce) cans of diced tomatoes 3 carrots, peeled and sliced into thin rounds 3 scallions, both green and white parts, sliced thinly 3 cloves of garlic, minced 1 tablespoon cumin 2 teaspoons light ancho chili powder 1 1/2 teaspoons Mexican oregano 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper Optional toppings: Chopped cilantro Queso Fresco or other good quality Mexican cheese (montery jack would work) Shredded radishes (Use the large holes on your box grater) Avocado Sour cream Gluten-Free Tortilla chips Place chicken breasts in the bottom of the slow cooker. Put remaining ingredients in and stir the top to mix in spices. Cover and cook on low for 5 – 6 hours, or until chicken and carrots are cooked through and tender. Remove chicken from slow cooker and shred with two forks. Return chicken to crock, stir to combine. 
B., age 4, practices writing numbers. The numbers on the green wooden rectangles are made from sandpaper. She traces these sandpaper numbers first in order to help train her muscle memory.
 E., age 5, shows her mom the flag making work. Not only is she learning flags from around the US and world, she is also getting valuable practice for writing. Before our chapel service and reception, parents were invited to take a peek into the classrooms to see the work their children have been doing. Here are some photos from the Primary Casa. 
J., age 5, counts beads on the 100 chain. The chain is made up of 10 bars, each consisting of 10 beads. Once he has counted all the beads, he folds the chain in a special way to form a square, visually illustrating that the square of 10 equals 100.
E., age 3 1/2, shows his mom his work with the Metal Insets. These are a preparation for hand writing.
S. age 4, working with the Metal Insets. By making a variety of designs, she has repeated experience gaining control over a writing instrument. This fine motor control is necessary for forming letters on paper.
E., age 4, also working with the Metal Insets. In addition to preparation for writing, this work offers the opportunity for making ever more intricate artistic designs.
T., age 4 1/2 works on the United States puzzle map. Along with learning where each state is located, he is also learning the name and shape of each state.
E., age 5, works on the puzzle map of South America. Little known fact - on the Nienhuis brand puzzle maps, the knobs are in the location of the capital cities.
M., age 3 1/2, shows her mom the bells. These give the children the opportunity to learn the notes of the scale, match notes, and grade them from highest to lowest and vice versa. There is even a lesson where children learn to compose a song!
  One of the sayings you will often hear in a Montessori Primary Classroom is 'bring the world to the child.' This means we work on cultural studies from day one, learning about different countries and cultures through maps, flags, globes, pictures, stories, items brought from travels, songs, etc.... In addition to our curriculum during the three hour work period, we have added an after school French class this year, taught by our own Ms. Lise. The half hour class is a fun introduction to conversational French. Here is a peek into last weeks lesson.  The class started with how to say hello....Bonjour Mademoiselle Lise, Bonjour Ella! Tre Bien!  It was so fun to watch the children encourage each other and laugh with delight at speaking in another language!  We are learning a special song for Family Day on Nov 18th. Can you guess what it is?  After practicing our song, it was time to review the names of body parts in French...  la tete...  la bouche  le nez (nose)  oreille  Finally we ended with a 'dance party' to a disco-themed song naming all the parts we learned in French. The kids had a blast with this, and it made learning the vocabulary fun and easy.  Here is a website for basic parts of the body in French - click on the words to hear the pronunciation - http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/parts-of-the-body.htm  au revoir! |