Blog

A Look Into Middle School

Posted on by Gina Tryforos

Dear Parents,

At FWM the middle-level grades are organized around the specific developmental needs of early adolescence in a way that celebrates the tenets of who we are as a Montessori school. Our middle schoolers define questions or problems that they see as important: Black Lives Matter, the 2020 Election, Stem-Cell Research, Social Justice Concerns. Their teachers help guide them to craft a skill-based, content-rich response. The response may include gathering and analyzing information (everything from a quick internet search, to interviewing an expert). Their teachers help guide them as they decide to take action (everything from sharing results informally with classmates, to writing a poem, to hosting a debate, to spearheading a method for community-wide public awareness—The 8th Year Podcast). In this way the students’ education develops as they engage in purposeful learning around topics and issues that have meaning for them.

What does that look like?

Our students work effectively and respectfully with others who have different ideas or experiences. They speak and act with fairness, kindness, and compassion. They are given space for critical reflection and honest conversation in our school community.  

Thank you to our Middle School teachers for creating “the space” in each of your classrooms through trust, validation, and diplomacy. Trust is essential. Adolescents by nature are skeptical beings and despise phoniness.  Our middle school students see their teachers as people they can count on to keep promises, listen with full attention, and be accountable for more than the subject matter they teach. They see their teachers as people able to impart insights and wisdom about life. Validation- teachers find ways to validate each student everyday, celebrating their gifts. Diplomacy—as we all know, a day with adolescents is rarely smooth sailing. It helps when the adults understand and model being sensitive to others’ opinions, beliefs, ideas, and feelings. Diplomacy and tact are always the answer. 

“The whole life of the adolescent should be organized in such a way that will allow him or her, when the time comes, to make a triumphal entry into the life of society, not entering it debilitated, isolated or humiliated, but with head high, sure of himself or herself. Success in life depends on self-confidence born of a true knowledge of one’s capacities.”  ~Dr. Maria Montessori

 

Mrs. Hood’s Class: Apple Exploration!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

 

One of the main highlights this week was a fun Sensorial experience your children seemed to enjoy: dissecting an apple! With senses full of curiosity, children touched, observed, smelled, peeled, cored, and tasted a delicious apple. The children found it very fun and interesting to use the handle of the peeler but their eyes really sparkled and the smiles bloomed when they started watching the skin of the apple peeling and falling on the napkin. Children observed what parts we find in apples and were exposed to new vocabulary such as skin, flesh, and seeds. Some of them also experienced the difference in texture and flavor between the skin and flesh of the apple. 

Food preparation is one of the main areas in our Practical Life curriculum! Sadly, because of COVID-19 we are required to limit some of these exercises in our environment. However, I encourage you to make these types of experiences available at home. There are many benefits to involving children in food prep. Even the pickiest of eaters has been known to be more willing to try things when they have had a hand in preparing it. These works also help develop fine motor skills, build coordination, and create a sense of community, as well as increase knowledge of nutrition, science, and math.

Here are some examples on how you can include your toddler in food preparation at home:

  • Scoop cereal into bowl
  • Add milk to cereal
  • Wipe up spills with small towel
  • Take plate to the kitchen
  • Prepare a sandwich
  • Spread sun butter/jelly/cream cheese on crackers
  • Peel and slice a banana
  • Peel a mandarin orange
  • Peel and cut an apple with assistance
  • Wash fruits and vegetables
  • Make orange juice
  • Pour glass of water or milk using a small jug- use small amount of liquid to avoid large spill
  • Drink from a glass
  • Follow a recipe with assistance using measuring cups
  • Set the table/clear the table
  • Wipe the table
  • Sweep the floor -use  dustpan and brush

On another note, children also used apples to create some art this week! Children enjoyed dipping the half apples into different color paint and stamping them all over their papers! They were so proud of their work! 

I’ll leave you here with this easy apple pie recipe, so you can give it a try and experience the awesomeness of having your toddler in the kitchen! 

Have fun, 

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria

Mrs. Doyle’s Class: Yes, I Know The Continents!

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

Have you heard your children singing The Continent Song?  We often hear the children sing this song spontaneously throughout the day.  The Geography materials are always fascinating to the children and are a springboard for wonderful discussions.

The Montessori approach to teaching Geography is unique and is comprised of two components,  physical geography and political geography, also known as Culture. From the beginning of the school year, we weave Geography lessons and terminology into our day as we learn about our physical world.

Early in our school year, we categorized the planet Earth into air, land, and water.  We then sorted what we would find in each of these different components of our world.  Next, we introduced the geometric solid known as a sphere to the children and compared it to the shape of the globe.  We start with a sandpaper globe that helps to distinguish land and water.  The colored globe comes next and we begin to teach the continent names.  We make a sphere out of playdough and cut it into half to help them visualize the concept of a hemisphere.  Simultaneously, the children are learning about land forms that introduce the concept of lake, island, bay, cape, peninsula, gulf, isthmus, strait, archipelago, and a system of lakes.  These sensory experiences help the children learn about their physical world.

After learning the continent names, we introduce the puzzle maps for each continent, starting with North America in November. We learn that there are many countries in North America.  The older children will trace and paint each of the puzzle maps. We will learn about the animals, people, and climate often associated with each of the continents.  Our goal is to encourage the children to appreciate the beauty and wonder found in the similarities and differences around the world.

In our classroom, we have a cultural shelf with artifacts from each continent.

Wishing all of you a week filled with peace and love!

Michelle & Lizette

The Creation of the Universe

Posted on by Ashley O'Connell

This week the third year students told the first of Maria Montessori’s Five Great Lessons, the Creation of the Universe. The third years have been working so hard for the past few weeks, preparing and practicing, to give this lesson to the younger students. Even though the third years told me they were nervous about being the “teachers” and presenting this lesson to the class, they leaned into the discomfort and did an outstanding job. What an amazing thing to witness! They should all be so proud of themselves.

The children also enjoyed their first classification lesson, learning about living vs. non living. This was a group discussion which introduced the concept of life by contrasting living organisms with non-living matter. We used our class pet, Rocky, and a rock from outdoors to facilitate the discussion. The children were thrilled to observe and touch our leopard gecko! The objective of this lesson was to distinguish living organisms by these functions: metabolism, growth, reproduction, response to stimuli and adaption to the environment.

Mrs. Lopes’s Class: Our Solar System

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

“Let us give the child a vision of the whole universe. The universe is an imposing reality, and an answer to all questions.” -Maria Montessori 

We are beginning our study of the solar system. Bringing some of the wonders of the universe to the children is exciting and one of their favorite units that we study. By nature, children are inquisitive, observant, and eager to learn about the world around them.  A child’s concrete thinking, understanding, and desire to label and name everything they learn about makes this a wonderful unit of study.

We begin by discussing what the children think the Solar System is. We know that as we look up at the sky during the day we can see the sun and at night time we can see the moon, stars, and some planets.  We learned about the largest star, the sun.  It is made of gas and gives us light and heat. Our sun is the center of our solar system, with planets circling around it.  The children then learned the names of the planets, in order from the sun.  We also learned fun facts about each planet and sang a fun planet song.  Below I included a video we watched this week introducing each planet in a simple way and also the lyrics to the “8 Little Planets” song we have been singing, enjoy!

Wishing everyone a wonderful week!

Amanda & Sharlene

 

“8 Little Planets”

(sung to the tune of “10 Little Indians”)

One little, two little, three little planets,

Four little, five little, six little planets,

Seven little, eight little, eight little planets,

Orbiting around the sun.

Mercury, Venus, and the Earth,

Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn,

Uranus and Neptune,

Eight planets orbiting the sun.

 

Middle School: Week in Review

Posted on by Michelle Lamb

It is another beautiful Friday! What an amazing week to be outdoors!

Humanities

In Humanities, 6th year students are reading Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. This goes hand-in-hand with our unit centering around empathy and compassion. Also, 6th year students have begun their descriptive writing unit. They are locating and practicing word choice and figurative language to enhance their writing. The 7th year students finalized and delivered their Religions of China research, and presentations on Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, Confucianism, and Christianity. While not concerning world history, this group has an interest in US politics, so we are taking time to go over the election process. We are excited to begin looking at the SubSaharan African continent next week. The 8th year students are also learning about the US election process. Additionally, they continue their unit about Indigenous Americans. This week they covered time in the 1500s concerning conquistadores and Spanish colonization as well as the British trips to Roanoke that resulted in the lost colony. All Humanities classes completed a vocabulary unit this week as well.

Math

This week in Math class, all groups concluded their study of Chapter 2 in the USCMP textbook. They have started to learn about Chapter 3 concepts and are more comfortable with their class routines and expectations as they enter the second month of the school year.
In Pre-Transition class, students are learning about rounding a decimal to an indicated degree, converting decimals, fractions and percents, as well as comparing values using inequalities. Students are becoming more comfortable with finding percentages in a real-world situation and reading a circle graph to analyze the given information.
In Transition class, students are learning how to substitute values into a given formula, identify the variable, constant, and coefficient within an algebraic expression, as well as use the Pythagorean Theorem to find distances in real-world situations. Students can successfully find a value that satisfies an open number sentence and they can graph inequalities on a number line.
In Algebra class, students are learning to graph linear patterns, solve equations with tables, and manipulate two-step equations to isolate a variable. This class is able to write related facts for all arithmetic operations and use graphing technology to check that equations are equivalent.
In Geometry class, students are learning how to draw and analyze arcs and angles in a circle,  find the degree measure of arcs, and appropriately measure the central angle. Students can also give justification and reasoning to rotations in real-world situations.
As a general reminder, all students are expected to complete both the lesson master assignment and the assigned textbook questions on a daily basis. These assignments help students practice what they are learning and ensure they are understanding what is being taught in class.
Math Joke: Why should you worry about the math teacher holding graph paper? …………..She’s definitely plotting something.

Science

6th year Earth Science students have finished their 3d models of Earth’s layers. Each student designed their own model, illustrating the different layers that make up our planet. Students were able to use a variety of material, from styrofoam balls, clay, markers, or paper to best represent their ideas. They are currently working on formatting their first formal lab report on Density.

7th year Physical Science students have completed their laboratory investigation on the solubility of water based on temperature. Students conducted three trials using ice, room temp, and hot water to determine which temperature water was able to hold more dissolved sugar. Students knew that their water sample was saturated when the sugar being added would no longer dissolve but rather remain crystalized at the bottom of their beaker.
8th year Life Science students are working on identifying key characteristics that define an animal cell from a plant cell. Students have performed several tech-book simulations to facilitate meeting this objective in addition to classroom activities.

Open Lessons

Posted on by Karen Sankey

In Upper El we follow an open lesson policy. This means that small group lessons which have a target group (usually grade level groups for lessons in history, language, geometry, and sometimes biology and geography) are also offered to anyone else who wishes to attend. The “target” group is required to attend the lesson, and it is optional for anyone else who is interested. Sometimes fourth year students are interested in sitting in on a fifth grade lesson, sometimes fifth grade students want to see a lesson again, or sometimes I’ll invite someone to join who I determine needs to see the lesson again. The follow up work is assigned only to the target group; the others who join aren’t expected to do the follow up. This week, as I gave a history lesson on the Paleozoic Era of the Time Line of Life to the fourths, some fifth graders decided to join and see it again. Their participation with the fourths in this lesson added delightful enthusiasm and richness to the discussion. I was also pleased to see one of our fourths join the fifths for a geometry lesson this week!

In our Literature Circles this week, students shared their role sheets with their group. They did a wonderful job completing their roles and sharing with their classmates. Next week’s roles have been sent home, along with their books, to be completed as homework. For geometry, fourths learned about classifying regular polygons and about the different parts of a polygon, and fifths learned a theorem based on equivalent figures. Our biology lesson focused on the nutrition of plants and of the work of the roots, and included four experiments which will be ongoing for the next week or so. In history lessons, fourth years finished the discussion of the Paleozoic era and fifth years learned about the Solutreans, who lived 20,000 years ago. The focus of the fourth grade language lesson this week was identifying the elements of a sentence and adverbial extensions. The fifth graders learned about action verbs, linking verbs, auxiliary verbs, and verb phrases.

Upcoming News & Events

Posted on by Alison Kistner

NO SCHOOL – Monday, October 12th – Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Meadowfarms Gift Fundraiser now until October 16th FWM receives 40-50% profit from every item purchased! Invite family and friends to support this fundraiser endeavor by shopping online: www.meadowfarms.com/app purchasing great items and gifts. We hope that you will support this year’s fall fundraiser as we are unable to host our annual FWM Family Oktoberfest Fundraiser. Completed order forms and payment are due back to the school by October 16th. Additional catalogs and order forms can be requested by contacting Alison Kistner.

School Picture Day next Wednesday, October 14th Order forms have been sent home with your child. Completed order forms should be sent in with your child on Picture Day. You can also order ahead of time. Additional online ordering instructions can be found here. Picture makeup day has not been announced as of yet. If you have any additional questions, please contact Michele Stramaglia.

Virtual Coffee & Chat with Gina Tuesday, October 20th – 9:30 am. Parents and Caregivers are invited to join Gina for coffee and conversation. Gina will be hosting Pat Werner, former Montessori School Head and FWM Trustee as she presents: Montessori 101. If you are new or returning to FWM, are you curious about the purpose of practical life or what a three-period lesson is?  Do you wonder what sensitive periods are or why classes are mixed ages? Join Pat for a brief but comprehensive explanation of both the basics principles and the value of Montessori Education. There will be an opportunity to submit questions ahead of time. We hope that you will join us. Invitation to come.

Halloween Parade Drive-Thru Friday, October 30th – 3:00-4:00 pm. Families are invited to stop by anytime between 3:00-4:00 pm. for a drive-thru trick or treat. Dress in Halloween costumes or festive attire, deck out your car and drive through our one-way driveway stopping at various treat stations. Wave hello to teachers and staff! RSVP here! A BIG thank you to our event sponsors: CT Braces and Ingersoll Automotive.