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Mrs. Hood’s class: Observing and Waiting!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

Your children continue to observe patiently how our very hungry caterpillars fulfill  their metamorphosis process and become beautiful painted lady butterflies! They have already witnessed how these tiny caterpillars have grown, climbed up, positioned themselves upside down and how quickly they had made their chrysalis.

At some moments the children seem to despair a bit because the butterflies are not coming out so this has been a great opportunity to talk and reflect about the importance of waiting and being patient. The children have helped to collect nature items to decorate our glass house and prepare the environment for when the butterflies emerge. We might come back on Monday to find butterflies out of their chrysalis but we are having our fingers crossed for them to wait and give the VIP show to the children next week. Regardless of what happens, we can’t wait for next week!

To reinforce this special life cycle lesson, the children have learned a new song and since it has been so LOVED by your children, we want to share it with you at the end of this note, so you can rock it at home and watch your children dance to it. We hope you enjoy watching them dance to this song as much as we do everyday!

Another highlight of this week has been the introduction to a Pikler triangle into our movement area. Children have been thrilled to explore it and challenge themselves in it. Using this equipment enhances gross motor development, Increases spatial awareness, provides vestibular stimulation, strengthens limbs, promotes proprioceptive learning (physical self-awareness) and enables open-ended play. A Big shout out to Mrs. Wilson in our toddler team for sharing this equipment with our class!

For food tasting children explored crunchy cucumbers and had a good time sharing about the purple item they brought from home. We absolutely love to witness the explosion of vocabulary that your children are experiencing lately! It has been so fun to hear them express themselves much more clearly!

Lastly, Mrs. Maria and I want to thank you for the love shown through this teacher’s appreciation week.  Your children’s cards are treasures to us and we value every expression of love coming from you all!  We feel so honored knowing each of your toddlers and working together with you to create the most beautiful experience for each of your children.

Enjoy the pics,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria

 

Mrs. Semmah Montessori Celebration Of Life

Posted on by Kaoutar Semmah

Everyone wants to be remembered and cherished on the special day they were born. Every week during May and June we are going to celebrate the life of one of our beloved children. In this blog, I’m going to explain how the birthday walk takes place in our classroom. The Montessori Celebration of life is a lovely way to celebrate a child’s birthday at a school.

Our birthday walk begins by placing a mat with illustrations of the sun and the seasons and with labels that represent each month of the year, as well as the seasons.  We light a candle that represents the sun, and a child carries the globe that symbolizes the earth. Then we discuss the fact that it takes one year for the earth to orbit around the sun. The birthday child stands beside his birth month. Then the teacher reads the life story up until the age of one and shows the child’s photos at this stage. After that, the birthday child starts walking slowly around the sun one time again, with the globe in his hands stopping when he reaches his birthday month. While the birthday child walks, the children who are sitting in the outer circle sing a song.

The earth goes around the sun

The earth goes around the sun

It takes 12 weeks 52 weeks 365 days in a year.

Then the reading of the life story continues until age two. The birthday child walks around the sun again, and the children in the circle sing the birthday song again.

This continues until the child’s life story is complete. Then, we sing “the birthday song” in French and English and the child blows out the candle. Then the children enjoy a special birthday snack at the big table.

This week, We had our toddler moving up visits on Tuesday.  A couple children from Mrs. Wilson’s class visited our classroom to experiment the primary. We also had the Newtown Strong Therapy dogs visit us and some of the children had the opportunity to spend a peaceful time with the dogs.

Thank you so much for Kenyon our class parent to devote his  time to collect the beautiful cards.  Children write cards  with lots of love, Sara and I enjoy each one of the lovely cards.

whishing a peaceful weekend.

Kaoutar and Sara

Upper El’s Week

Posted on by Karen Sankey

This week in Biology, we continued to work with circulation while simultaneously reviewing respiration and nutrition in our vital functions of animals work. Students worked cooperatively to lay out the first three rows of a vital functions matrix. They enjoy doing this work together and are learning so much about the internal systems of animals. Our History work with Humans’ Closest Relatives this week focused on Australopithecines, extinct apes that lived between about 5 million and 1.5 million years ago. We experimented with knuckle walking during our lesson and quickly confirmed that our human bodies are not designed to move around this way! In math, in addition to our individualized lessons, fifth year students are focusing on multiplying binomials, using the bead materials to fully understand the process before moving away from materials. Fourth graders have continued their grammar work with adjectives. Fifth graders continue working with pronouns, this week rewriting a story which used no nouns, only pronouns, adding antecedents and detail. We all enjoyed listening to the fifth grade students share their creative pronoun stories with the class.

We have been working hard on our songs for the Grandparents Day video, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” and “Let It Be.” I must confess, I have a very hard time keeping my composure while listening to their beautiful voices singing. I can’t wait for you to hear them!

I hope to see you on Sunday evening at our gathering at Aquila’s Nest Vineyards! Look for the movie and pizza night silent auction item, hosted by yours truly.

Have a lovely weekend!

Montessori Transitions and Moving Up Visits

Posted on by Gina Tryforos

The end of the school year is quickly approaching, and some of our students who are moving into a new classroom in the fall will be starting their transitions now by spending part of their school day in their future classrooms.

In the coming weeks, fifth year students will visit our Middle School, Lower Elementary third year students will visit Upper Elementary, and Kindergarten students will visit Lower Elementary.  In addition, we will have our second year Toddler students visit in Primary in the coming weeks.

The experience of spending time in the next environment helps the students learn about their future classrooms and ease their concerns about moving up.

One of the wonderful things about the three-year cycle is that when a child moves into a new classroom, they will get to renew friendships with older classmates who already moved up the year (or two) before. Many students are excited to be with their old friends again. The rising students are happy to see the friends they already know and this helps them feel more comfortable in the environment.

Feeling at ease with other children of all ages in a supportive, non-competitive environment gives our school the feeling that we are a big family.

Throughout the building, we see every day how the older children know the little ones by name, and the little ones often light up when they see one of the older students on the hallway.

Seeing an older child as a resource takes on more importance since new students are paired with a mentor. The children learn everything from how to have snack to what the daily work cycle and lessons look like.

The teacher will bring the students to their future classroom for a morning visit. For toddlers this may be only 20 or 30 minutes. The older students will spend more time. During their visits, the children are presented with appropriate activities to do and are given a taste of how the classroom works.

Moving up visits are a good example of the Montessori idea of: “follow the child.”

We look to the child to see what specific support is needed to make them feel comfortable and at ease about the visit.

If more support is needed, we can take a step back if we need to, move at a slower pace, or create baby steps. It is our goal to help the child transition with success.

Transitions take time once the new school year begins as well. It can take a few weeks before the child fully adjusts to the new classroom, routine and expectations.

It can also take parents time to adjust to the new routines, too. If you have concerns about your child’s transition, you can contact their current teacher. Parents, you are also welcome to schedule an observation in your child’s future classroom or schedule a time to meet and talk with their future teachers.

Open communication between parents, children and teachers is imperative. We want our children to have a positive and joyful learning experience.

We are looking forward to celebrating our FWM community at our Spring Get-Together.

Let’s Get Acquainted at Aquila’s on Sunday, May 1st from 4:00-8:00 at Aquila’s Nest Vineyards.

Mrs. Doyle: Head, Thorax, Abdomen, Abdomen!!!!

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

We are hard at work becoming entomologists.  This is always a favorite unit of study for the children.  An entomologist is a scientist who studies insects. We began our unit by discussing what we already know about insects, what they are and what they can do. We discovered that insects are slimy, little, gross, soft, and hard. Insects can crawl, sting, bite, eat, fly, walk upside down, and jump. We learned that insects lay eggs, have antennae, three main body parts, a head, thorax and abdomen, eyes, and six legs. Insects are also cold blooded, have an exoskeleton, and many have wings. We found out why a spider is not an insect. Ask your child to see if he or she knows why.

We also welcomed five tiny caterpillars to our classroom. It is so exciting to observe each step of the fascinating life cycle of the Painted Lady Butterfly. Right now our caterpillars are busy eating,  spinning silk and growing bigger every day. During this incredible period of growth, they will shed their exoskeletons four times and grow more than ten times their original size! When they have finished growing, the caterpillars will climb to the top of the cup. Once there, they will hang from the paper disk in a “j” shape under the lid. They will shed their exoskeletons one last time before they pupate and form a chrysalis.

Wishing you a week filled with peace and love!

Michelle & Liset

Mrs. Lopes: The Magic of Metamorphosis

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

“Growth is not merely a harmonious increase in size, but a transformation” -Maria Montessori

This week we have been learning all about the life cycle of a butterfly.  We had five caterpillars join our classroom last week and the children have been captivated by the rate of change we observe each day.  The caterpillars arrived very tiny and over the last week have grown and shed their exoskeleton several times.  We are anxiously waiting for our caterpillars to enter into the final stages, the chrysalises, before emerging as butterflies.  The children have spent many days learning about the magic of this transformation called metamorphosis, and are eager to see when our butterflies will join us!

We also had so much fun going on a nature scavenger hunt outside this week.  With the warm weather finally arriving, we were all excited to do some outdoor learning.  Children were given a checklist to search for natural objects on the playground – rocks, leaves, soil, and of course some insects.  We collected as many as we could find and the children were thrilled to share all the objects they were able to collect!

Have a wonderful week,

Amanda & Heather

100 Mile Club!

Posted on by Pam Pascarella

Fraser Woods Montessori was selected to be featured in the 100 Mile Club national newsletter this past month!  Be on the lookout for a “save the date” email about the 100 Mile Club Gold Medal Ceremony on the soccer field in June!

Fraser Woods Montessori School and I are very excited to celebrate our 5th year with the 100 Mile Club!  FWM is a non-profit school located in Newtown, Connecticut. We offer Montessori education for children in four distinct programs: Toddler, Primary, Elementary, and Middle School. Students have the opportunity to join the 100 Mile Club starting in 1st Grade. Proudly, we currently have 45 participants, which gives us a 90% participation rate for eligible students. When students arrive at school each day, they use the first 30 minutes for running, walking, and playing with friends. Our school is very fortunate to have a designated soccer field on our campus that allows us to track the miles our students run efficiently. All students use the area during our physical education classes, recess, and FWM’s Walking Club. As an advocate for health and wellness, it puts a smile on my face to see students running and truly enjoying exercising. However, I am most happy that each of our youthful participants chooses to live and achieve a healthy lifestyle by participating in physical activity every day, thanks to the 100 Mile Club!

– Coach Pam Pascarella

Lower Elementary’s Week

Posted on by Ashley O'Connell

As we enter May, the end of the year seems right around the corner, and I can’t help but reflect on each child’s progress throughout the year. I am so pleased to see what a compassionate, kind-hearted, unique group of students we have in the classroom!