Blog

Mrs. Lopes Class: The Five Senses

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

A chill to the air, the first fire in the fireplace, the smell of pumpkin spice. It’s finally fall!

This week your children experienced autumn, not just as a date on the calendar, but as an opportunity to use our sense of smell to really savor the season. The smells of cooking applesauce, spices, and newly fallen leaves brought smiles and created lasting memories.

Maria Montessori believed there is a sensitive period for developing the senses. Although the senses are an integral part of our lives, children during the early years have the greatest potential to develop and retrieve them. It is precisely this idea that demonstrates the purpose of Sensorial materials in the Montessori classroom. The Sensorial materials are powerful tools, which allow children to become aware of their unconscious impressions and bring these impressions into conscious awareness. Additionally, they enable your children to create a basis of order in their mind, allowing for intelligent exploration of their environment.

Please use this link to sign up for your  Parent/Teacher Conference. We look forward to sharing your child’s many accomplishments.

Mrs. Lopes’ Conferences

Best,

Mrs. Lopes and Ms. Vigue

Upper Elementary: Togetherness

Posted on by Brian Comstock

This week we celebrated two October birthdays at our monthly birthday breakfast. The students look forward to this monthly celebration and parents and siblings are always welcome to join us.

Lately the students have been working in teams to complete activities in class. Some of those activities included making a poster for one of the kingdoms of life, designing game boards based on books they read, or creating slideshows about their personal interests.  This is a tight-knit group of students and they have a great time learning and interacting together!  We hope you can stop in Friday morning, October 18, for the opening of our cafe at 8:00 AM!

Mrs. Lopes Class: The Three Period Lesson

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

When we introduce new concepts or materials to the children, we often do so using a three-period lesson. This is an important tenet of Montessori education and it helps to move the child from basic understanding of a concept to mastery.

Period One is the introduction stage. In this stage we are isolating new vocabulary to the children. For example, if we are introducing the color tablets, we would say, “this is blue.”  Repeating that statement and allowing the child to manipulate the blue color tablet are crucial during this stage.

Period Two is all about association and recognition. It is often a separate lesson. We do not ask the children to remember the vocabulary or recall the concept.  We are simply reinforcing the concept taught in Period One. We use words such as “show me the blue tablet” or “can you place the blue tablet on your lap?”

Period Three is the recall stage and the first time we ask the child to remember the concept independently. We ask them “what is this” when showing them the blue color tablet. We are careful not to begin Period Three until we know they are ready for success.

Every time a child masters a new concept it paves the way to move towards another one.

Beginning this week, our Primary teachers will be collaborating on the weekly blogs. Therefore, the written content will be similar each week.  Pictures for each classroom blog will be specific to your child’s classroom. Each Primary class follows a like curriculum and by aligning our classroom blogs, we can consistently communicate highlights in the Primary classrooms. More so, this platform is a wonderful way to share the beauty and wonder of the Montessori philosophy and materials with all of you.

Have a great week!
Mrs. Lopes and Ms. Vigue

Upper Elementary: Mix It Up

Posted on by Brian Comstock

There has been a variety of activity in and outside the classroom lately. The soccer team began the week with a victory over The Southport School. They showed great teamwork and sportsmanship throughout and should be proud of their efforts! A few students completed their endangered animal research and are ready to share with the class. We started rotating our daily outdoor recess between the field, playground, and outdoor classroom areas to mix things up. The students enjoy alternating between the different spaces. We prepared three cinnamon swirl breads as a practice run for the Happe Cafe. This was a great lesson in measurement and following directions. As you can see from the photos, although each group used the same recipe, the breads turned out differently. On Friday, they will share the bread with faculty and staff to promote the cafe. Our grand opening is planned for the morning of October 18. We hope you can stop in to support their efforts!

Lower Elementary: Going Out and Playing In

Posted on by Karen Sankey

 

“When the child goes out, it is the world itself that offers itself to him. Let us take the child out to show him real things instead of making objects which represent ideas and closing them in cupboards (From Childhood to Adolescence – Maria Montessori).”

An important part of Montessori education is letting children experience the wonders of our world. Taking outings increases independence and creates opportunities for the children to bond with one another and make lasting memories. We enjoyed our first field trip of the year today. It was a beautiful fall day and we filled our bags with delicious apples. Next week, the children will cook with some of the apples we picked.

Earlier this week we had a rainy day indoor recess. We observed the children peacefully enjoying activities together in small and large groups. It was heartwarming to see some of the older children teaching younger ones how to use the materials from our game cabinet. Playing inside gives the children the opportunity to spend quality time with classmates they don’t usually work with during the morning work cycle.

Mrs Hood’s Class: Apples to Apples!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

Skin, flesh, seeds, and stem are words that we can hear often in our environment. Every morning children arrived to the classroom with one mission: Check the apple on the observation tray! Our little friends have been so amazed at the changes. At the beginning of the week, they felt tempted to bite some of that apple, in fact, one of the corners was gone. But by the end of the week those cravings were gone! 😉 Conversations about decomposition have also been an engaging tool to develop language. In contrast, this week children explored a fresh yellow apple and enjoyed the taste of it.

One of the main highlights this week was working together in making a delicious apple sauce! Using an apple peeler, each student peeled, sliced, and cored a fresh apple. Then they helped by opening the slices, arranging it in the crock pot, adding some fresh lemon juice and water. There was no need for sugar or other ingredients! Our environment smelled so delicious and children were eager in tasting the results. 100% of our class ate every little bit of it!

Food preparation is one of the main areas in our Practical Life area of the curriculum! 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.

In addition to this fun project, we used this opportunity to present a lesson on Grace and Courtesy. Two of our oldest toddlers worked into spooning some apple sauce into small bowls and serving the younger toddlers in Mrs. Wilson’s class. They felt so proud of their work. It was precious!

On another note, children worked this week in a special art project that will be exhibited in Oktoberfest this coming Saturday, October 5th, from 4-8pm at FWM! We really hope you and your family can join us! It’s going to be great fun!

Upper El Entrepreneurs

Posted on by Danielle Ulacco

Upper Elementary students have the grand opening of their small pop-up café starting on October 18th. The name for their business is “The Happé Café” (it rhymes!)

 

Students took time in our MakerSpace and Art Studio to have a full cross curricular approach to finalizing their hopes and dreams of their coffee shop. We closed our eyes and tried to envision this small business and what the set up would actually look like. This created a discussion of signage, menus needed, necessary supplies, and possible merchandise for sale. We decided as a group to use the logo they custom designed as a team to create coasters that will be available for purchase. Both Mrs. Reid and I were ecstatic to introduce the students to the process of engraving, coloring, and perfecting a Glowforge’d tile!

 

More to come on our STEAM adventures at FWM!

Peace Day Ceremony 2019

Posted on by Yun-Kyung Kim

On September 20th, we celebrated the annual International Day of Peace. Fraser Woods as well as many other Montessori schools across the planet were united as ONE, singing Shelley Murley’s song, “Light a Candle for Peace” for the past 5 years in a row. The song for peace moves around the world throughout the whole day; “That our wish for world peace, will one day come true!”

Maria Montessori believed that establishing peace is the work of education. And thus, peace is an integral part of the Montessori philosophy.