Blog

Upper Elementary: Skill Set

Posted on by Brian Comstock

As we get closer to our next cafe opening on November 15, the students are learning about the different roles within a small business. They each had an opportunity to write down their skills and speak with me 1:1 during weekly conference time to share their interests and what they are best suited in doing to help the cafe run smoothly. Some of the areas of interest are marketing, finance, and supply. Community helpers were busy this week cleaning up around the school and returning lost items to students. We concluded our week by making and packaging sandwiches to be delivered to the St. Vincent DePaul Mission in Waterbury, CT. Thank you for the donations and to Liz Bashawaty and Eric Juel for the assistance in the classroom!

Global Culinary Night is Thursday, November 14th, from 6:00-7:00 pm.

This community event is for FWM families to gather together and share a unique dish from their cultural, ethnic, or regional background while also sampling dishes from other FWM families’ cultures. The dish can be homemade or purchased from a local restaurant. We hope you join us as we celebrate the wonderful cultural diversity at our school! This is an entire family event not be missed. Kindly RSVP by November 11th.  RSVP here today.

Senjua Dedende Senjua

Posted on by Ashley O'Connell

 

We have begun learning about the lives of children from around the world. It is so important for children to appreciate cultural differences. One way we have been doing this is by reading books which allow the voice of the culture to be heard. It is imperative for children to learn about some of the unique and amazing things that come from other ways of life. This can promote creativity, collaboration, and higher level thinking.

Another way of promoting diversity is learning songs from across the globe. After attending an insightful workshop about creating community through singing and dance at the Montessori Schools of Connecticut Conference this past week, Karen and I were inspired by the beautiful diverse music we learned. One song we brought back to the classroom, that the children learned, is called Senjua. This is originally a Ghanaian song/story about a boy named Senjua. This piece has been taken up by students in Ghana and other surrounding countries, being sung as a victory song.

Dancing and playing singing games has a powerful effect on children. When we dance and sing together we become more alert, creative, happier, and connected to one another. Singing games and dances enable joyful human connection and create community. When children are happy and physically engaged, they become better students.

Global Culinary Night is Thursday, November 14th, from 6:00-7:00 pm.

This community event is for FWM families to gather together and share a unique dish from their cultural, ethnic, or regional background while also sampling dishes from other FWM families’ cultures. The dish can be homemade or purchased from a local restaurant. We hope you join us as we celebrate the wonderful cultural diversity at our school! This is an entire family event not be missed. Kindly RSVP by November 11th.  RSVP here today.

Mrs. Lopes’ Class: Exploring Our World

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

These last few weeks have been a particularly busy and exciting time with your children. We have traveled through space, explored the eight planets, discovered that the sun is a star, rocketed back to the planet Earth, and are now exploring the first of seven continents; the orange continent, our continent, North America. We will continue to explore the plants and animals native to our continent, map North America’s countries, examine topography, and study how a continents’ proximity to the equator impacts its climate.

The Montessori cultural studies curriculum provides children with an opportunity to explore the whole world including the continents, countries, people, animals, terrain, music, and arts. Children use didactic Montessori materials to familiarize themselves with the needs of all humans for such things as food, housing, and clothing. This early cultural awareness helps cultivate independent, joyful citizens of our world.

Global Culinary Night is Thursday, November 14th, from 6:00-7:00 pm.

This community event is for FWM families to gather together and share a unique dish from their cultural, ethnic, or regional background while also sampling dishes from other FWM families’ cultures. The dish can be homemade or purchased from a local restaurant. We hope you join us as we celebrate the wonderful cultural diversity at our school! This is an entire family event not be missed. Kindly RSVP by November 11th.

Have a great weekend,

Mrs. Lopes and Ms. Vigue

Mrs. Carroll’s Class: Exploring Our World

Posted on by Cindy Carroll

These last few weeks have been a particularly busy and exciting time with your children. We have traveled through space, explored the eight planets, discovered that the sun is a star, rocketed back to the planet Earth, and are now exploring the first of seven continents; the orange continent, our continent, North America. We will continue to explore the plants and animals native to our continent, map North America’s countries, examine topography, and study how a continents’ proximity to the equator impacts its climate.

The Montessori cultural studies curriculum provides children with an opportunity to explore the whole world including the continents, countries, people, animals, terrain, music, and arts. Children use didactic Montessori materials to familiarize themselves with the needs of all humans for such things as food, housing, and clothing. This early cultural awareness helps cultivate independent, joyful citizens of our world.

Global Culinary Night is Thursday, November 14th, from 6:00-7:00 pm.

This community event is for FWM families to gather together and share a unique dish from their cultural, ethnic, or regional background while also sampling dishes from other FWM families’ cultures. The dish can be homemade or purchased from a local restaurant. We hope you join us as we celebrate the wonderful cultural diversity at our school! This is an entire family event not be missed. Kindly RSVP by November 11th.
Enjoy the week!
Cindy & Sharlene

Mrs. Doyle’s Class: Exploring Our World

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

These last few weeks have been a particularly busy and exciting time with your children. We have traveled through space, explored the eight planets, discovered that the sun is a star, rocketed back to the planet Earth, and are now exploring the first of seven continents; the orange continent, our continent, North America. We will continue to explore the plants and animals native to our continent, map North America’s countries, examine topography, and study how a continents’ proximity to the equator impacts its climate.

The Montessori cultural studies curriculum provides children with an opportunity to explore the whole world including the continents, countries, people, animals, terrain, music, and arts. Children use didactic Montessori materials to familiarize themselves with the needs of all humans for such things as food, housing, and clothing. This early cultural awareness helps cultivate independent, joyful citizens of our world.

Global Culinary Night is Thursday, November 14th, from 6:00-7:00 pm.

This community event is for FWM families to gather together and share a unique dish from their cultural, ethnic, or regional background while also sampling dishes from other FWM families’ cultures. The dish can be homemade or purchased from a local restaurant. We hope you join us as we celebrate the wonderful cultural diversity at our school! This is an entire family event not be missed. Kindly RSVP by November 11th. RSVP here today.
Enjoy the week!
Michelle & Jeannine

Flag Football Unit

Posted on by Pam Pascarella

 

This past month, students in Kindergarten through 5th grade have been practicing and participating in the team sport of flag football. Did you know that the Super Bowl is the most watched television event in the United States on an annual basis? In flag football, instead of tackling like in American football, the defensive team tries to remove/pull the flag belt from the ball carrier to end the down.

During our flag football unit, most of our focus was on developing hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness. Skills taught were: passing the football using the the proper grip (fingers on laces),taking a step with the opposite foot when throwing, passing with a partner about 10 feet away, catching a ball thrown to them (thumbs up for a high ball and pinkies down for a low ball), practicing the proper technique for kicking a football off a tee, punting the football, and understanding and using simple game rules.  Students also learned that the quarterback is the person who throws the ball, the center is the person who hikes the ball, and the receiver is the one who catches the ball and runs with it.

Important Information & Events

Posted on by Alison Kistner

Parent Communication Survey Thank you to those parents that have taken the time to complete the recent communication survey. If you have not had a chance to complete the survey, we would love to receive your feedback. The survey can be found here.

Volunteer Opportunity this Saturday, November 9th – 9am.-12pm. Hosted by the FWM Parent Community Service Committee at Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary in Newtown for a morning of fun, contribution, and exploration for the whole family!

As a group, we will be:

  • Winterizing the raised beds with cover crops (hay and leaf mulch) to help protect and prepare the soil for planting next year (both pollinator plants and vegetables for donation!).
  • Assisting the meadow restoration project by mulching the garden and sanctuary pathways with wood chips.
  • Moving some of the seasonal equipment into the barn.

The CVH crew has a fun project planned for the little helpers in addition to a Kindness Rock painting station.

We are asking for donations of gardening tools and gloves to supply the Sanctuary with for their upcoming seasons.  Small shovels and hand tools to work the raised beds as well as full size pitch forks, rakes, and shovels.  Kid size tools are also welcome!  It will be a learning station for years to come.

Questions regarding this event? Please email: parentassocation@fraserwoods.com and they will direct you to the appropriate person(s).

Family Event: Global Culinary Night Thursday, November 14th – 6:00-7:00pm. Join us for a cultural potluck cuisine. Grab your “passport” and travel along with us as we visit countries near and far, sampling foods at each stop!

This community event is for FWM families to gather together and share a unique dish from their cultural, ethnic, or regional background while also sampling dishes from other FWM families’ cultures. It is expected that each family attending will bring a dish with enough food to serve between 6-10 people. The dish can be homemade or purchased from a local restaurant. Kindly RSVP by November 11th.  RSVP here today! 

All children (and adults if interested) will be given a “passport” as they travel around the globe. When a child samples a food, the child will get a stamp on their passport from that particular country.

We hope you join us as we celebrate the wonderful cultural diversity at our school! This is an entire family event not be missed. Let’s celebrate our school’s cultural diversity together!

Parent/Child Night Thursday, November 14th – 6:30-7:30pm. For students and their parents in Primary through Middle School. You and your child are invited to attend an hour of educational engagement.  Parents/ caregivers will have an opportunity to learn about the different Montessori works from their children in the classroom.  This event is open to all parents in Primary through Elementary.  Please park at Sand Hill Plaza to take the shuttle bus.

Mrs. Hood’s Class: Gradual Learning!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

 

Practical life activities present themselves as a highly logical, sequential chain of activities that indirectly lead the child to grander things.

During the last few weeks your child has been gradually learning how to independently use materials in the environment. One example of this is found in our practical life area where children have been practicing transferring and pouring different sized dried objects, in addition to many other exercises. This week we were excited to introduce a new fun activity, one that your toddlers seem to really enjoy, transferring water. Working with water is a great sensory experience and is a good exercise for their hand muscles and fine motor skills. We can’t wait to present all the wonderful works that require water and to watch the children freely and respectfully using these activities in our environment.

In language, children were attracted to a new work called the mystery basket. This is a preliminary exercise for reading. Through this peek game children label objects in the environment. On this occasion we used objects that we usually use in our kitchen. Words such as: whisker, masher, strainer, ladle, pitcher, and strawberry huller were introduced. Children observed, touched, and learned the use of each tool. We hope you can reinforce the use of these vocabulary words by inviting your child to cook with you and show them how you use these tools in your daily lives.

For food tasting, children enjoyed the flesh of a roasted pumpkin. They also enjoyed roasted pumpkin seeds! Most of them liked the pumpkin flesh but ALL of them loved the roasted seeds! We encourage  you to  incorporate this yummy snack at home with your children! They truly devoured them!

We hope all of you that celebrated, had a wonderful Halloween!