Hello ! The specialist team is very excited to welcome you back at M.C.H.A

It was  a long time but we are really happy to see all  the children and families ready to start this new year. We know it’s being a little bit challenging but with everyones care and effort is going to be a very unique an special chapter to write together.

This year we hope to keep working with you to make the Specialist  classes a blast and to keep the children engage and in  love of learning another language, doing physical activity and exploring their musical souls.

Stay close to our post with all the information about our programs and some tips of things you can do to create an interesting environment to encourage and promote learning at home. 

See you soon ,

Specialist M.C.H.A

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FRENCH DECEMBER

L’hiver…. Winter

The month of December was very busy and interesting for our “Petits Français”. In fact, the overall theme for the month was “L’hiver” (winter). In class, we looked at the different winter clothing we wear outside, the winter activities and sports that we do in the snow and we learned about the different winter holidays. We learned through various hands-on materials such as memory games, sensory bins, matching activities and different winter objects. We also reviewed the topics from the previous months to keep everything fresh in our minds. For example, we reviewed the numbers with snowflake counters.  It was a short, but fun month and we will keep building on this new knowledge throughout the rest of the year.

I wish you all a wonderful winter break and I look forward to the New Year! Joyeuses fêtes à tous!

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MUSIC DECEMBER

Hello
Wow! We are at the end of the year, but we were learning and practicing as much as possible. This is what we’ve been doing:
➢ Colouring the G and F clef
➢ Listening and reading the story of the nutcracker and mole music
➢ The meaning of an orchestra and what does a conductor do
➢ Listening games with rhythmic instruments
➢ Practicing the recorder and tone bar
➢ Listening the nutcracker suite op 71, Tchaikovsky
Attaching links for your children:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Jc4sP0BEE
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M8J8urC_8Jw&t=227s
Merry Christmas and have a wonderful 2020!
Music Teacher

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SPANISH NOVEMBER

FIGURAS (SHAPES)



Usually when you think on shapes you use to consider more a math (geometry) area which is not a mistake but what I like in Montessori is that we look at shapes as a sensorial activity.

Thats why I brought for the class the geometry shapes from the Geometry Cabinet, material that they are familiar with in their classroom, and that is why they were able to match the information with the new vocabulary in Spanish. This material was use to identify and name but also later to work with games as: What is missing ? and The secret bag.

Then moving more into the abstract a matching game was use, with the addition of a coupe of shapes that even they are not geometric they are part of their daily vocabulary.

This is the vocabulary that we are learning:

Circulo     Cuadrado    Triangulo    Ovalo        Rectángulo         Rombo
Estrella     Corazón     Luna

As usual we use songs to practice

https://youtu.be/gGBeyG1BKUY

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FRENCH NOVEMBER

The Shapes- Les formes géométriques

November was a very busy and interesting month for our “Petits Français”. During the month of November, the main focus of the French classes has been “Les formes géométriques” (The Shapes). This being said, like always, we review what we have already learned, colours and numbers. To learn about the shapes we did a few different and interesting activities. We started off with a “Shape Roll and Hop” where the children rolled the shape dice and hopped to the matching shape. We also had a day where we did “Shape Stations”, where 3 different activities were offered (Shape Bean Bag Toss, Button Shapes Sorting, and Geometric Images) and the children had the opportunity to rotate and try all 3. We also did a “Sensory Bin Shape Sorting”, where the children dug in the rice to find the shapes they then sorted. Finally, we played “Shape Bingo”.  It was a lot of fun but also very educational. There was a special emphasis in relating the shapes the children studied to real life objects. For the Kindergartens, we took things further and started learning about how to describe the shapes in French (How many sides? What colour is it?). All in all, the children really enjoyed the month of November and have learned a lot of new French vocabulary. I am excited for all the fun things planned for December.

Main shapes:

1.     Carré – Square (https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/carr%c3%a9/13417?q=carr%c3%a9#13256)

2.     Cercle – Circle (https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/cercle/14236?q=cercle#14090)

3.     Triangle – Triangle (https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/triangle/79485?q=triangle#78521)

4.     Rectangle – Rectangle (https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/rectangle/67205?q=rectangle#66448)

5.     Ovale - Oval  (https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/ovale/57012?q=ovale#56681)

6.     Étoile – Star (https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/%c3%a9toile/31493?q=%c3%a9toile#31425)

7.     Pentagone – Pentagon (https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/pentagone/59291?q=pentagone#58930)

8.     Hexagone – Hexagon (https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/hexagone/39876?q=hexagone#39796)

The Shapes Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-5gVAlR438

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MUSIC NOVEMBER

Hello!
November was a fun month in music, we practice some areas and we learnt new things:
• Dynamics (intensity) loud, soft, medium, getting louder/softer
• Steady Beat vs Non Steady beat
• Hand signs (do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti)
• Pitch (high, low)
Material:
• Handbells
• Montessori bells
• Tone Bar
This is the song they were practicing at school and also you can sing and listen with your child:
• Do, re, mi Do, re, mi – from the sound of music – with lyrics and hand signs
Attach some links that you can join with your children:
https://www.familyfuncanada.com/calgary/youth-singers-christmas/
https://www.calgarycivicsymphony.ca/event/christmas-star/
Music Teacher
Miss Slim

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SPANISH OCTOBER

Los colores

I’m always excited when is time to talk about colors because the tools that can be used to practice and learn them are everywhere.

And this time science experiments help us to understand the concepts of primary and secondary colors  because we made a walking rainbow, also with paint we discover the power of blanco (white) and how to made everything lighter and even that we can create gris (grey) and rosado (pink) finally also we use reflection to create un arco iris (rainbow) in the classroom.

To reinforce the vocabulary Color box #2 of the Montessori material was a great idea because we where able to clarify and match.

Also looking for different approaches some materials from P.E class were borrowed to have fun and to worked on hand eye coordination while we named the colors.

Finally is  time to sing to practice the new vocabulary:

amarillo         verde            rosado        blanco
azul             morado            gris        negro
rojo             naranja            café

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHPbg9x8Gvs

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