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Holiday Food Art!

Posted on by Jen Reid

Since many of the holidays in November and December center around food and gathering together at the table, young artists in kindergarten, lower elementary and middle school created various food-themed projects using a range of materials and processes!

While learning about the nutritional qualities of root vegetables in their classrooms, kindergarten students applied what they had learned to a painting and drawing project in the Art Studio. Students looked at a range of root vegetable images and closely observed their shape, color, and texture to then carefully draw what they saw. Next, each young artist added color to their vegetable drawings using watercolors!

Lower elementary artists created two seasonal food themed artworks. The first was a autumn-themed collage of still life of various gourds, fruits, and root vegetables in a bowl. Students carefully observed the colors in the gourds and vegetables and mixed swatches of paint to match their tone. Once dry, students cut out the gourd and veggie shapes, added details with oil pastels, and then arranged a still-life composition of a bowl of vegetables and fruits sitting on a table. For the next project, LE created colorful rainbow corn paintings in thinking of the Thanksgiving holiday and to honor Native American heritage month. Young artists created large-scale harvest corn drawings using various oil pastel blending techniques. We reviewed ways to draw corn using simple shapes like ovals and circles. Each artist carefully drew their corn and filled in each kernel with a range of vibrant colors!

Middle school artists focused on a food sculpture project with an emphasis on form and texture. For this project, students were asked to create fake food sculptures inspired by foods traditionally eaten around the holidays. They were asked to look carefully at the textures and colors of their chosen food, and recreate it using found materials such as cardboard, sponges, paper, glue paste, yarn, rubber bands and more. The finished results were strikingly beautiful and certainly tricked the eye!

Lower El: A Great Year!

Posted on by Ashley O'Connell

For me, one of this year’s highlights was having the blessing of being part of your child’s journey of life. Each and every one of them has not only grown physically, but emotionally and intellectually.  I can’t wait to watch them blossom even more in 2022! Thank you for sharing your children with me this past year. Here’s to a great 2022!

I wish you the happiest of holidays and I hope you enjoy this special time with your children!

With love,

Ashley

Mrs Semmah: Christmas Celebration

Posted on by Kaoutar Semmah

 

“Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.” Dale Evans

The twinkling lights, a warm feeling of love, and acts of kindness create the spirit of Christmas around us. It is the most wonderful time of the year! The excitement of the approaching winter break can be felt in every classroom. What better way to celebrate than with some fun activities and decorating cookies?

The children had fun choosing the color of their frosting, and it was a joy watching them sprinkle the colorful sprinkles with their tiny fingers on their sugar cookies. Feeling each sprinkle and sneaking a nibble from time to time. We also read the book “Twas the Night Before Christmas”. We did a Christmas tree craft that they liked to create, in addition to the Christmas sensory bin.  

Many thanks to the parents and to all the families who donated supplies for this Christmas Celebration, your generosity is very appreciated!

Merry Christmas and Happy New year!

Kaoutar and Sara

Celebrating Holidays – The Montessori Way

Posted on by Gina Tryforos

True to Montessori, we do our best to keep the commercial “noise” of the holiday season out of our classrooms.

In a Montessori classroom, children are provided with age-appropriate content about different people, places, and traditions surrounding the holidays. This gives the children an opportunity to engage in meaningful activities that teach so much more than ‘a day on the calendar’. By learning about the holidays, they learn about other cultures. They begin to develop an awareness of what is different and what is similar among people around the world. They learn tolerance and acceptance. They learn what brings joy to people all over the globe.  The Montessori approach to celebrating the holidays is a gift to the children as it expands their hearts, their minds, and their world.   

Also true to Montessori is the belief that students are involved in community service. 

Maria Montessori’s vision is that a peaceful world begins with the children and that children would make the world a better place. We as Montessorians know that acts of community service help develop and educate the whole child. Students learn the joy of giving of themselves, and develop compassion because of these real, practical life, volunteer experiences. 

In the images accompanying this blog post, you will see our 8th year class loading gifts from the Middle School’s Holiday Family Gift Drive for two families in need and Upper Elementary students making sandwiches for the St. Vincent DePaul Mission in Waterbury. 

It is our hope that every child grows to become good citizens of the world. It is up to us as Montessori guides, teachers, and parents to teach and model global thinking for our children. 

 

As we prepare to celebrate the holidays with our loved ones, please remember that the health of our FWM community is of the utmost importance.  We need to approach the holidays keeping in mind guidance from the CDC, the state of CT, and our local DPH.  Because there is an increased risk of exposure when traveling to visit others or hosting others from outside of your household, we ask you to take every precaution. 

We ask that all Fraser Woods students follow the guidelines set out in our FWM Healthy Initiatives. A copy of this is in the Resources section of myFWM.org.

 

Upper El – Caring for Others

Posted on by Karen Sankey

We have had a fantastically busy and productive week in Upper El. Our week began with large group lessons in biology, history, and math. In biology, our lessons on the vital functions of animals continued with the Strip of Vital Functions. In history, we discussed archaeological digs and the roles of the different people on a dig team. We also learned about Lucy, our oldest human ancestor. We will have our own impressionistic archaeological dig next week! In math, we laid out the decanomial, the geometric representation of multiplication tables one through ten. After laying out the bead bars, we learned about the commutative property of multiplication and identified the squares of each number. We will continue to use the decanomial layout next week for more lessons.

This week we made sandwiches for St. Vincent DePaul Mission in Waterbury. Everyone was very enthusiastic and did a great job making sandwiches. We will continue to volunteer our time once a month for sandwich making. Thank you very much to everyone for contributing the ingredients for this community service project. And thank you as well for the mitten and hat donations. We will package those up and donate them next week.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Doyle’s Class: Celebrations Around The World

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

 

As Montessori teachers, we embrace the knowledge that one way we can promote peace and understanding of cultures around the world, is to to find age-appropriate ways to introduce to the children to different traditions and celebrations.  While doing so in a very introductory way, it still allows us to highlight the similarities and differences of people everywhere.  These past few weeks have provided the opportunity to talk about Hanukkah, St. Nicholas Day, Christmas and Kwanzaa.

Last week, we learned about Hanukkah by reading stories, learning about a menorah, how to play the dreidel game and even had the opportunity to taste some delicious potato latkes.  This week we learned about St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was a Bishop who inherited a lot of money from his family. He was also a very gentle, kind man who lived by the virtues of personal generosity, charity towards those in need, and taking care of the young and the most vulnerable. We learned that St. Nicholas loved to perform random acts of kindness for those in need. Many people around the world celebrate St. Nicholas Day by leaving a pair of boots outside their door. So, we left boots outside our classroom door and to our amazement, the boots were beautifully decorated and filled with candy canes the next morning.

Next week, we will read Twas The Night Before Christmas and decorate Christmas cookies to bring home. We learn through stories the importance of Christmas for those who celebrate.  We also learn about Kwanzaa which was created in 1966 and is based on the elements of African heritage.  It is a celebration lasting seven days, from December 26th to January 1st.  Each day a candle is lit to represent a different principle, unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.  We will read stories and share the traditions of Kwanzaa.

A huge shout-out to parents who always help in any way they can.  I know there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to afford us these opportunities.  It is so very much appreciated.  As always, if there is anyone who may have different traditions or customs to share with us, please reach out.

Wishing you a week filled with peace and love.

Michelle & Liset

LE Blossoming

Posted on by Ashley O'Connell

The children had a great time playing in the light dusting of snow this week! As winter approaches, please make sure your child has the proper clothing for our outside play: warm coat, snow pants, hat, mittens or gloves, and boots. Thank you in advance!

The children are wrapping up their Writer’s Workshop unit on Personal Narratives. Each child had the chance to share his/her writing with the class and most of the children proudly read their stories aloud, showing their illustrations to their friends and teachers. They are very enthusiastic about their writing and often don’t want to stop when it is time to move on to another activity. It is so wonderful to see their enthusiasm blossoming and their growth since September!

Mrs. Lopes Class: Welcome December!

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

With the holidays approaching and the start of a new month, the children came back into an environment full of new lessons and materials to explore. This month we will be learning about the continent of Antarctica, food groups, and we’ll be discussing the various holidays celebrated around the world in December. One such holiday we talked about this week is St. Nicholas Day, which is celebrated on December 6.  St. Nicholas was a bishop in Europe. He was born into a wealthy family and at a young age made the choice to give away all his possessions to those with none. He is known for his kindness, generosity, and taking care of the young and in need. We learned that St. Nicholas would leave small gifts or treats during the night for the less fortunate in his community. St. Nicholas has evolved over the years into the Santa Claus we recognize today. Many people around the world celebrate St. Nicholas day by leaving a pair of boots outside their door. So in the spirit of the season, we decided to leave a pair of boots outside our classroom door. To our surprise, the boots were decorated and filled with candy canes the next morning!

Wishing you a peaceful week,

Amanda & Heather