Blog

Mrs. Doyle’s Class: To Infinity and Beyond!

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

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 will do hands-on activities to explain revolution and rotation.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week!

Michelle & Jeannine

Mrs. Lopes Class: To Infinity and Beyond!

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

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 will do hands-on activities to explain revolution and rotation.

Until next week,

Mrs. Lopes and Ms. Vigue

Upper Elementary: Whistle While You Work

Posted on by Brian Comstock

Class jobs are an important part of our routine in a Montessori environment. The jobs rotate on a weekly basis and include things such as pet/plant care, table cleaning, floor sweeping, and emptying trash.  These practical life skills are an important part of our philosophy and the students work as a team. Earlier in the week we had a fabulous visit from the owners of Sugar Magnolia! They shared their expertise and business experience with us. At the conclusion of their visit they gave the students some delicious treats! We look forward to scheduling a visit to their establishment in the near future.

Mrs. Wilson – A Trip to Fraser Farm

Posted on by Cynthia Wilson

One of our goals at FWM is to create caring, empathetic students who are capable of thinking beyond themselves. It was Dr. Montessori’s vision that a peaceful world, starting with children, would make the world a better place. Community service is one of our Montessori strategies to 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.

A couple of times a month our Middle School students visit our environments and work with our toddlers. They do so by reading and working together with the different materials displayed on our shelves. They assist your children in how to put on their shoes and jackets, how to clean their face and hands, they look for ways of comforting their younger peers when they are having a hard time, and they love to join in the fun when we sing, dance and play games together. They are great role models and your children love when they enter our environments and get to spend time with them. This week our Middle Schoolers were also of great help during our very special wagon ride and pumpkin picking at our Fraser Farm. It was precious!

Thanks to your help as well, we gathered wagons to carry all our toddlers at once in a beautiful parade around the school. Children were so happy and excited they were going to pick their own pumpkin! A couple of them decided to not ride the wagons but had the opportunity to push the wheelbarrow or help by pulling their friends’ wagons. Once we arrived at our Fraser Farm located in our zen garden, children were ecstatic to run around and pick their own pumpkin. There were giggles and so much excitement! They also got a treat by checking out Oreo, our school bunny! Children explored different sizes of pumpkins and worked hard to carry them around. We all had a great time! When the time came, every toddler got into their wagon, carrying their pumpkin and we went for another ride around the school arriving happily at each of our classrooms, satisfied with the experience and ready to continue to explore some more in the environment. We can’t thank you enough for your pumpkin donations and supporting our fabulous class parents, who worked hard to help us make this event a success! We are thankful to be part of a community that cares!

On another note, we explored yellow peppers as food tasting this week and got to explore new works on our shelves! We hope you enjoy the pictures!

Lastly, we are looking forward to meeting with you at our Parent-Teacher conference next week, on Thursday, October 24th to discuss your child’s progress and goals for the school year.

We hope you enjoy the pictures!

Sincerely,
The Toddler Team

Upper Elementary: A “Grand” Week

Posted on by Brian Comstock

This week was packed full of fun and energy as our eager students could not wait to open up their new café! We devoted some time each day to go over the logistics and planning so we would be prepared for our first customers.  We expect this café to evolve with time and open up new opportunities for learning and team building. The students continue to come up with new ideas every day, but we can only incorporate so many at one time. I am thrilled that they are so passionate about the experience! We confirmed a visit from the owners of Sugar Magnolia on Tuesday morning. The timing cannot be better as we will be able so share with them how the opening went.

Biologists Hard at Work

Posted on by Karen Sankey

“For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.” -Henry Beston

This week we started the study of life. Animals are more familiar to children than plants, and vertebrates are the most familiar animals. Throughout the year, first and second grade children will study five classes of vertebrate animals and third grade children will study five classes of plants in evolutionary order. We will learn about fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals as well as seaweed, moss, ferns, pine trees, and flowering plants.

First year students learned about the external parts of fish. We started with a little in-school field trip to the Middle School science room to observe Mr. Brown’s fish. Mr. Brown facilitated a discussion about the external parts of the fish. We will follow up next week with an introduction to classroom materials of fish.

Second year students also took a little trip to the science room to learn about the body functions of fish. Mr. Brown reviewed the external parts of fish and then the children examined the internal parts of the fish the Middle School students are working on dissecting. They will be introduced to our classroom body functions of fish materials next week.

Third year students learned about the external parts of seaweed. We started by examining three different types of seaweed brought in by Ms. Beckett. The children used a magnifying glass to get a closer look and they also compared how different the three types of seaweed looked and felt. We will take a third grade trip to the science room next week to examine seaweed under a microscope. Thirds years will also continue learning about seaweed next week with lessons on its body functions.

Mrs. Hood’s Class: At the Fraser Farm!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

One of our goals at FWM is to create caring, empathetic students who are capable of thinking beyond themselves. It was Dr. Montessori’s vision that a peaceful world, starting with children, would make the world a better place. Community service is one of our Montessori strategies to 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.

A couple of times a month our Middle School students visit our environments and work with our toddlers. They do so by reading and working together with the different materials displayed on our shelves. They assist your children in how to put on their shoes and jackets, how to clean their face and hands, they look for ways of comforting their younger peers when they are having a hard time, and they love to join in the fun when we sing, dance and play games together. They are great role models and your children love when they enter our environments and get to spend time with them. This week our Middle Schoolers were also of great help during our very special wagon ride and pumpkin picking at our Fraser Farm. It was precious!

Thanks to your help as well, we gathered wagons to carry all our toddlers at once in a beautiful parade around the school. Children were so happy and excited they were going to pick their own pumpkin! A couple of them decided to not ride the wagons but had the opportunity to push the wheelbarrow or help by pulling their friends’ wagons. Once we arrived at our Fraser Farm located in our zen garden, children were ecstatic to run around and pick their own pumpkin. There were giggles and so much excitement! They also got a treat by checking out Oreo, our school bunny! Children explored different sizes of pumpkins and worked hard to carry them around. We all had a great time! When the time came, every toddler got into their wagon, carrying their pumpkin and we went for another ride around the school arriving happily at each of our classrooms, satisfied with the experience and ready to continue to explore some more in the environment. We can’t thank you enough for your pumpkin donations and supporting our fabulous class parents, who worked hard to help us make this event a success! We are thankful to be part of a community that cares!

On another note, we explored yellow peppers as food tasting this week and got to explore new works on our shelves! We hope you enjoy the pictures!

Lastly, we are looking forward to meeting with you at our Parent-Teacher conference next week, on Thursday, October 24th to discuss your child’s progress and goals for the school year.

We hope you enjoy the pictures!

Sincerely,
The Toddler Team

Mrs. Hood’s Class: Beauty, Roll and a Winner!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

 

Dr. Maria Montessori introduced Practical Life exercises to provide the children with opportunities to perform simple tasks that they have already observed at home. Practical Life exercises enable the children to care for themselves, take care of the environment and develop respect for others.
Care of environment activities encourage the child to interact with the environment, exhibiting respect and love. These activities help the child form a connection with their environment and find a personal responsibility towards it.
This week we introduced one of the most beloved activities in our Montessori environments: flower arrangement. This is a beautiful activity that offers so much to your child’s development. Through this exercise, children develop a sense of beauty, the mental task of sequencing, they learn to exercise the judgment of size and capacity in matching flowers to vases and in pouring water, also, manual dexterity in using scissors. This activity also indirectly prepares your child for botany studies in our Primary program and offers a great opportunity to work on independence and concentration. Your children love it! We can’t thank you enough for your weekly flower donations!

On another note, children had a great time learning how to play “Roll and Play” in a group setting, using a cube of different colors and following the directions commanded on each play card. Through this game children review colors, numbers, feelings, animals, and develop critical skills. It’s one of their favorite activities!

For food tasting we explored a green apple. Some of the children’s facial expressions when they saw a green apple were priceless! They couldn’t believe there were green apples! It was so funny to them! Needless to say, they enjoyed every bit of it!

To close our apple unit studies we presented a basic graphing exercise, where children had the opportunity to taste the three types of apples we explored during the last weeks: red, yellow, and green apples. Each toddler chose their most favorite and at the end we all counted the results.

Do you want to know which one was the winner? (Drum roll please!) To our surprise, every apple had 5 different votes! All of them were the winner! Hooray for apples!

Lastly, Shake Your Sillies Out by Andy Mason was one of the new favorite songs and Arriba (up) and Abajo (down) were the 2 new commands in Spanish learned this week.