Latest Posts

Ms. Kathy’s Music Classes

The toddler classes are following directions, using instruments correctly, doing movement activities, singing a bit on most songs–a huge development–and keeping a steady beat. We’ve been doing body awareness activities, finger play, and rhythmic development. Every class is delightful!

Toddler II Blog Post

We hope everyone had a nice fall break. September was a very fruitful
month for Toddler II. We colored our pinwheels for peace and also
joined the other classes on the playground to celebrate Peace Day on
September 19. We did lots of work related to apples. Also we learned the
difference between Huge and Small, Heavy and Light. For this lesson we
used common materials such as a huge heavy watermelon and a small
light apple. The kids really loved it. We tested carrots, and we
experimented with the top of the carrot to see how carrot plants grow from
it. Now the plant is growing in our classroom in a pot. We also tested
apples, and the children cut the apple pieces to make apple sauce. Kids are
so interested to explore food both raw and cooked. They also peeled hard
boiled eggs for Grandparents Day. We had fun on Grandparents Day.
I would like to thank my guests for coming and parents for bringing
the food for Grandparents Day.

October has lots of events. On 10/21/2014 we have Children’s Sharing
Night. It is a very good opportunity to watch your child and how they
work in the Montessori environment.

On 10/24/2014 we have parent-teacher conference, and on 10/30/2014 MSH
Fall Festival.

We already started painting Happy Jack o’lantern for part of our
October work plan. This month we are going to study about pumpkin,
gourd and nocturnal animals in very simple way. We are going to cook
sum yum yum pumpkin muffins! End of this month we are going to
celebrate Diwali ( Festival of Light in India ), and we also going to
make some Indian sweets. I love to work with my children and thanks go
to parents for choosing us to be part of their lives.

Have a safe October and Happy Halloween.

Thanks,
Toddler-II Teachers

Primary III — Ms. Shree, Ms. Kelly, & Ms. Verena

In September, we enjoyed tasting different kinds of apples such as Granny Smith, Red Delicious, and Golden Yellow. The kids learned the feel, smell and taste of the apples. They also had fun cooking with apples. Thank you for the parents who helped with the cooking class. This month, we celebrated the International Day of Peace by making pinwheels to decorate our playground and singing peace songs together. Also, in September we learned about spiders and the group they belong and made spider webs. Our class enjoyed learning about the countries and animals of North America by painting the continent and its countries and coloring the flags. Grandparents Day was successful. Kids really worked hard practicing songs for that day and they performed well. Thank you to Julie Blauwkamp (room mom) for arranging the delicious food. Thanks also to the parents who helped with the Grandparents Day craft. A big thank you to all the parents who donated to the classroom fund. October is going to be a fun month as well. We will be learning about nocturnal animals, pumpkins, and the continent of South America. Our field trip to Tate Farms Pumpkin Patch is scheduled for Tuesday, October 14th. This should be a fun community event with all the Primary and Toddler classes attending at the same time. Student sharing night and conferences are also planned for the month of October.  We have the fall festival coming on October 30th. We all are looking forward to another great month. We appreciate all the parents’ support.

Primary 2 Blog Post

Our 2014 – 2015 school year is well under way in Primary 2!  A big welcome to our returning families as well as all the new ones.  We are several weeks into the year and we are both enjoying your children everyday we are with them.  Each little personality is settling into our daily class routines and exploring the materials enthusiastically.

Our focus for the next few weeks will be to continue to guide the children in understanding proper classroom etiquette with each other and the materials.  We will concentrate on developing communication skills with one another by emphasizing our grace and courtesy throughout our day.

The month of September has begun our study of Fall.  In addition to discussing the seasonal changes, apples will also be a unit of study in our classroom.  We will be introducing the globe to the children in order to begin our geography studies, followed by lessons on “Land, Air, and Water” to help facilitate our discussions related to the world we live in.

Our daily morning circle time is where we have introduced the study of history to our students.  The concept of time with the days of the week and months of the year help the children realize a connection with “Past, Present, and Future”.  One very important history lesson we’ve had is learning about Maria Montessori and we even celebrated her birthday at the end of August. Science lessons for this month will include exploring and experimenting with the five senses and identifying and classifying living versus non-living things.

The children are enjoying our music enrichment class with Ms. Kathy each week, and we are sure you have heard from your children some of the songs she has been teaching them! Our Spanish class with Ms. Carmen will begin soon, and we are looking forward to hearing the children practice their Spanish speaking skills.Thank you for sharing your children with us.  We love being a part of their lives, and we are honored to teach them.

Ms. Sarah and Ms. Monica

Elementary I Blog

We have had a wonderful beginning to the school year!

As most of you know, our first service work project this year was to raise money for Heifer International. The children really enjoyed the practical implications of this project. It made perfect sense to them to raise money to buy a flock of chickens to give to a family in need. They could clearly understand how the family would be able to eat the eggs and also be able to sell them at a market so that they could buy other necessities. The children, with your help, raised enough money to buy two Flocks of Hope and also a Bee Kit to help families around the world.

Our next project will be Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF. This is an excellent project that will involve the whole school. Last year, we raised $358 to help children around the world have better health and education opportunities. Our goal this year is to raise enough money for a School-in-a-Box to help kids learn anywhere in the world and for a bicycle to deliver medicine to rural villages. Our class will also host a hot apple cider stand one fall morning to help with the project.

In the classroom, the children have been busy with their daily work and have been participating in a lot of new lessons. They continue to work diligently in language and math. Also, we are studying North America in geography. They have all painted maps and together created a banner of all the flags of North America. We will further our study into the plants, animals, biomes, and people of the continent. I also taught the children a little about my trip to Greece. We discussed the climate, people, food, currency, a little history, and I attempted to teach them a few Greek words. I also brought back olive and lemon Greek candy for the children and all the teachers to try. It was delicious!

I want to thank Emery (Griffin’s mom) for donating a beautiful orange chrysanthemum to help us welcome fall! Our pollinator garden will fade soon with the cooler temperatures, so if someone would like to donate a flat of violas, we would greatly appreciate it!

We are looking forward to Grandparents and Special Friends Day on October 3rd. Please be on the look out for a sign-up sheet to bring food, flowers, etc.

We have a field trip to the Botanical Gardens this Friday, which I know will be awesome. Thank you in advance to all the sweet parents for chaperoning this trip!

Happy Fall!