Blog

Mrs. Doyle’s Class: Classroom Celebrations

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

 

In the Montessori environment, celebrating holidays is an important component of our philosophy. The children are introduced to the traditions and rituals of celebrations around the world. There is a  gentle focus on how each holiday is distinct and yet there are similarities as well. Helping the children to learn about different holidays highlights the Montessori principals of peace and inclusion.

On Tuesday, Gia and Seth Feltman spent time in our classroom sharing the story of Hanukkah and serving latkes and applesauce. It is always amazing to watch children approach new food with hesitancy and before you know it, ask for more!  Thank you to Rossana Cinquegrana for making the delicious latkes.

On Thursday, Ashley and Salim Boutagy read the classic  ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas.  Everyone then had a chance to decorate their own sugar cookie. Thank you to Meg Gill for providing the cookies and toppings. Please know that we are ever so grateful for all of the ‘behind the scenes’ help that goes into making our classroom run smoothly.

There is always a learning curve in the beginning of the winter when the children are learning to dress themselves in snow gear and also be responsible for all of their clothing. If you have a preference as to whether your child’s snow gear should come home each day, remain in the locker until Friday, or stay there for the season, it would be most helpful if you could send us an email letting us know.

Your children will be bringing home a very special gift for you. Please enjoy this token of love and gratitude. We had a great time creating these gifts and know you will appreciate your children’s creative efforts.

Wishing everyone joy and peace this holiday season!

Michelle & Jeannine

Going Out

Posted on by Ashley O'Connell

We had a fabulous time at Stepping Stones Museum this past Tuesday. The children were happily engaged in the learning session about the water cycle and while exploring the museum. We started our day with a break out session learning about what happens during the water cycle. The children discovered the essential role that water plays in our lives. They learned about evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and accumulation through experiments and hands-on activities. Afterwards we had some free time to explore the other exhibits, such as the Water Lab. Here, the children engaged in pumping, pushing, and directing water. While at work, the children gained an understanding of how water can make things move to generate activity. Another favorite was the new Dinosaur Exhibit. This included exploring a dinosaur nest, making dinosaur tracks, discovering fossils, building a dinosaur skeleton and more. Some other exhibits we enjoyed were the Build It, Express Yourself, and Multimedia Gallery.

Thank you to our parent volunteers for coming on the trip with us!

Mrs. Hood’s Class: Holiday Joy!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

Winter holidays are used in our environment as a fun way to keep children engaged, encourage joy of learning, and help us to introduce the passage of time and seasons. Since they bring a sense of light and joyfulness to the long, dark winter months and create a sense of community, we welcome them wholeheartedly. Peacefulness and purposeful work using the holiday materials is something you can observe when entering the environment! As children are growing, their concentration does too. It’s such a gift to be able to witness this!

This week children had fun learning a new song, Candle Chase by Lauren Berkner, in honor of Hanukkah. Through this song they practiced using their fingers for counting. They really enjoy it! Their faces also glowed when hearing the song Jingle Bells, so much, that organically they paired with a friend to dance and have a good time!. As we continued learning Spanish, children also practiced the song Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano. What a blast!

We introduced cauliflower as food tasting, and even though this food didn’t receive a thundering ovation, we were joyful as some students kept asking for more and more.

We can’t wait for our holiday pajama celebration next week! Please feel free to send your child in pajamas on Thursday, December 19th and thank you in advance for all your support to make this happen!

Mrs. Lopes’s Class: A Week of Celebrations

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

“The Montessori approach to celebrating special days is a gift to children
as it expands their minds, their hearts, and their worlds.”
—Alex Chiu, Montessori Musings

 

In the Montessori environment, celebrating holidays and festivals is an important and exciting study for the students that focuses on the tradition and rituals of celebrations.  Learning about the holidays of different cultures embraces the Montessori principals of inclusion and peace and helps students understand the significance of the several holidays celebrated during this winter season. Holidays are a way that people and cultures come together to worship that which they hold dear, to rejoice, and usually to feast with their community and families.  By exploring the variety of holidays celebrated this time of year, the children learn it is wonderful to be different and honor what is unique about each culture and person.

What an exciting week we have had in our classroom!  We enjoyed listening to a special guest reader and had fun with two holiday celebrations.

On Monday, Mr. Robertson came to our classroom to read the story I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child.  This book shows how an older brother convinces his little sister to eat her vegetables.

On Tuesday, we had our Hanukkah celebration.  We discussed the meaning of the menorah and traditional ways Hanukkah is celebrated.  Thank you to Natalia Kokalj-O’Driscoll and Kristen Rio for bringing in and serving authentic Jewish latkes to the children.  Thank you also to the parents who kindly donated applesauce and sour cream to go with them.  Many of the children enjoyed trying this traditional Hanukkah food.

On Thursday, we had our Christmas celebration.  We read Twas the Night Before Christmas together and then decorated Christmas cookies.  Thank you to Hudson’s grandmother and Kristen Rio for helping the children decorate their cookies and to all the parents who donated supplies for the activity.  The children were so excited to bring the cookies home to share with their families!

Your children have also been busy rehearsing for the school wide Holiday Concert next week.  Please mark your calendars for next Friday, December 20 at 10am.  The children cannot wait to share the songs they have been practicing with you.  Also, just a reminder that next Friday is an early dismissal day and all children will be dismissed at 11:30am.  If you are planning to take your child home after the holiday concert please plan to pick them up in the classroom at the end of the performance.  This helps us to keep track of all the children as they are leaving, thank you for your help!

Have a great weekend,

Amanda and Deanna

Culture Through Reading

Posted on by Sara Hall

One of the greatest things about learning another language is learning about the cultures of its native speakers. Students are introduced to new traditions, holidays, and perspectives while building upon their language skills. All first through eighth year students have learned about the tradition of El Día de los Reyes Magos. 

Lower elementary students are exploring Flamenco dance as we begin to learn about Spain. We read a story called, Jorge va a España, which introduced Flamenco dance and a few major cities in Spain. Then, students constructed castañuelas and abanicos, common accessories used in Flamenco.

Upper elementary students have been working toward becoming independent readers in Spanish. They have been reading stories and identifying cognates, summarizing the main idea, and recalling details from the text. Most recently they did this with the story, “La carta a los Reyes Magos” from Storyteller’s Corner. 

Middle school classes have just completed their third unit of our SOMOS curriculum. They are now working on writing sequels or alternative endings to video clips we saw in this unit. They also listened to a story which summarized the traditions of El Día de los Reyes Magos.

Upper Elementary: Cultural Lessons

Posted on by Brian Comstock

This week we spent time completing fun cultural lessons. Some students presented one of those lessons to a classmate. It is one of our most memorable lessons about the vital function of nutrition. The follow up lesson is the nutrition layout based on a variety of animals from protozoans to mammals. One student commented and said, “Wow, this is really interesting!” The other most recent cultural lesson was based on the study of humans. We met a ramapithecus (extinct anthropoid from 8 to 14 millions years ago). We had an excellent discussion about the ramapithecus and the students are eager to begin another lesson. In our next lesson we will discuss the Australopithecus. To conclude our week we had a very successful and joyous Happé “Holiday” Café! This café included a soft opening of drive thru service. Each month when we evaluate the café and reflect on the progress made we are able to come up with new and fun ways to try different things. Thanks once again for the support!

Middle School: Week in Review

Posted on by Michelle Lamb

It’s been a wintry week, but we have been busy!

 

Pre-Transition math has officially started Chapter 5, the theme for this chapter is statistics. Students are learning all about mean, median, mode, range, maximum values and minimum values. They are also graphing stem and leaf plots, bar graphs, histograms and line graphs. This unit is a lot of fun and a great way to wrap up trimester 1.
Transition math has started to learn all about graphing linear functions. In this group students are solving for unknown variables, understanding the additive property of equality, manipulating fact triangles, and using absolute values to find the distance from zero. Students need to remember to bring their Chromebooks to class as we will be using Desmos.com more regularly.
Algebra math has nearly completed Chapter 5 and will write Quiz 2 on Friday, December 13. This group is working to understand the difference between rates and ratios, probability distribution, relative frequency, and percentiles from a set of data.
As report cards will be distributed this week, Ms. Sutherland would like to thank all middle school math students for their hard work this first trimester. It has been an adjustment for everyone; however, students are proving to be successful across the board. Great job, everyone!
MATH JOKE: Why do plants hate Math?……. It gives them square roots
Next, 6th year Earth Science students have been exploring how earthquakes are created and how recordings of earthquakes (seismographs) are obtained. Students were asked to create their own seismogram using a shoebox, rubber bands, marker, and sports ball. They have demonstrated seismic waves using several wave patterns with slinkies. 7th year Physical Science students concluded their unit on States of Matter and have just begun their unit on “Molecules”. To begin the unit, students have been tasked with identifying the molecular structure present in an object they frequently use (ex. sulfuric acid in parchment paper for baking, isoprene found in rubber for sports balls). Finally, 8th year Life Science students have completed a laboratory experiment identifying certain variables that result in the highest production of fermentation using yeast. Variables students could manipulate were sugar, water temperature, and yeast. Concluding this lab, students were required to write a formal lab report. Students are currently working on a project identifying the similarities and differences between photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
In 6th year Humanities class, students completed geography assessments for North Africa and the Middle East. They also began writing and discussions surrounding civilizations and how we keep track of history. Students also began to look at Ancient Mesopotamia. Seventh years, completed the novel, A Long Walk to Water, and they continued their study of Sudan & South Sudan. This week, they particularly studied the conflict in Darfur and the reason for separation of Sudan into two countries in 2011. Finally, 8th years have been reading the novel, If I Ever Get Out of Here, about life on the Tuscarora Reservation in the mid 1970s. 8th years are also now studying Andrew Jackson’s policies of Indian Removal including The Trail of Tears and the Flight of the Nez Perce, making connections to modern Native American feelings of resentment towards White Americans as a result of colonization. This has been an interesting and divided discussion! Finally, all Humanities classes finished the week with current events presentations.

Important Information & Upcoming Events

Posted on by Alison Kistner

Progress Reports for Kindergarten through 8th Grades will be live on Friday, December 13th.  Once parents receive an email from Chris Robertson announcing the reports are availabe, parents will be able to access their child’s report on the MyFWM.org account.

Giving Tuesday Gratitude A great BIG THANK YOU to you those that contributed to our Annual Fund on Giving Tuesday! A total of $22,910 was raised in 15 hours and 27 minutes! Add to that amount the previous donations made by all of our faculty, staff and board members for a grand total of $37,606. Our annual giving tree is now blooming again! While Giving Tuesday is over, you can still participate and make a donation at anytime here. Help us get closer to our $65,000 goal!

8th Year Community Outreach In continuing with this kindness our community exudes, the 8th years have adopted two families in Newtown through the Newtown Fund for this holiday season whom could really use our support. Please consider supporting their endeavors by signing up to purchase an item(s)  that are not yet fulfilled from the family’s wish list here. All donations must be brought in by this Thursday, December 12th to the lobby. We are incredibly grateful for your continued generosity and look forward to making the holiday brighter for these local families.

Martial Arts Winter Program OPEN!  With the success of the fall program, FWM is offereing a winter Martial Arts program with Sensei Chris Schaefer.  The program is a 6 week course that will begin on Wednesdays starting January 8th.  The last class is on Wednesday, February 12th.  The class is from 3:00-3:45pm.  The cost of the program is $120.00 per student.  Registration closes on January 3, 2020.  Please sign up at your MyFWM.org account under PROGRAMS.

Thursday, December 19th After School Program Closing Early The After School Program will be closing at 5:00pm. due to the Faculty & Staff Holiday Party.  Please make necessary arrangements so your child is picked up by this time.  Thank you in advance for your understanding!

Friday, December 20th Parent Breakfast (9:30am.) and Holiday Concert (10:00am.) All are invited to the Parent (and guests) breakfast provided by the Parents and to enjoy the musical selections from students in Primary through 8th. A sign up for breakfast treats will be sent out by the Parent Association shortly.