Blog

Mrs. Lopes: Deepening Our Dinosaur Studies

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

Our dinosaur study continued last week, with the children diving deeper into these fascinating prehistoric creatures through books. We explored different types of dinosaurs, learned more about their unique characteristics, and discovered new facts that built upon what we already knew. The children’s questions grew more sophisticated as their understanding deepened, and they loved sharing dinosaur facts they’d discovered with their classmates.

Our Kindergartners embarked on an exciting literacy project last week: writing and illustrating their own books! This meaningful work allows them to apply their growing reading and writing skills while exploring topics they’re passionate about. Each child chose their subject, carefully forming letters, composing sentences, and adding detailed illustrations. The concentration and pride evident on their faces as they worked showed the deep satisfaction that comes from creating something uniquely their own.

This author work supports the development of fine motor skills, creative expression, storytelling abilities, and confidence as writers. Watching these young learners transition from readers to authors is one of the joys of the Kindergarten year!

Extending Learning at Home

Support your budding author by encouraging them to tell you stories and helping them write them down. Keep blank paper and crayons accessible so your child can create books at home, just like in the classroom!

UPCOMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

This Week

Tuesday, October 28: Playground Volunteer–Carina and Logan, Pumpkin Patch on the Playground, Nicolas’ Birthday Walk
Wednesday, October 29: Guest Reader–Katie and Classroom Pumpkin Carving
Thursday, October 30: Primary Pajama Day, Classroom Harvest Celebration & Kindergarten Veggie Skeleton
Primary students are invited to wear their favorite pajamas to school on Thursday, October 30! Please help us keep the day fun and focused by leaving stuffed animals, toys, and other special items at home, as these can be difficult to keep track of and may be distracting during our learning activities.
Friday, October 31: No School—Montessori Schools of CT Conference

Mrs. Sargeant: Geography and Community

Posted on by Christine Sargeant

Last week, the classroom was alive with geographical exploration! The children were captivated by our globe work, learning the names of the seven continents. They traced their fingers across the blue oceans and colorful landmasses, beginning to understand the vastness of our world. Many students progressed to the beautiful work of pin-pricking, carefully creating their own maps of the continents. This meticulous work develops fine motor control and hand-eye coordination while building early map-reading skills and spatial awareness.

We also touched upon the holiday of Diwali, one of the most important celebrations in Hindu culture. Diwali symbolizes the victory of light over darkness and good over evil. The children were fascinated to learn that Diwali is celebrated over five days and that people wear new clothes and exchange gifts during this joyful time. We will continue our exploration of this beautiful tradition with a special celebration early next month.

New Works in the Classroom

Two delightful new works appeared on our shelves this week. The rock “painting” activity uses only water and a thin paintbrush, allowing children to see how rocks change color when wet—a simple yet magical demonstration of transformation. The clementine peeling work supports independence and fine motor development while providing a healthy snack that the children prepared themselves!

Learning from Each Other

Our Kindergarteners took a field trip to New Pond Farm in Redding last week, where they visited a working farm and discovered the differences between dairy cows and those raised for meat. They explored the barn and chicken coop, cleaned wool from a sheep, and used tools to make wool bracelets. The children learned that sheep serve as natural lawn mowers and even got to practice milking a cow!

The kindergarten students were absolutely thrilled to share what they learned with their younger classmates. The most fascinating fact? Sheep have more than one stomach! This beautiful example of our mixed-age community shows older children building confidence through teaching while younger ones look up to their mentors with admiration.

UPCOMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

This Week
Tuesday, October 28: Pumpkin Patch on the Playground & Daly Playground visit
Wednesday, October 29: Classroom Pumpkin Carving & Driscoll Guest Reader
Thursday, October 30: Primary Pajama Day, Classroom Harvest Celebration & Kindergarten Veggie Skeleton
Primary students are invited to wear their favorite pajamas to school on Thursday, October 30! Please help us keep the day fun and focused by leaving stuffed animals, toys, and other special items at home, as these can be difficult to keep track of and may be distracting during our learning activities.
Friday, October 31: No School – MSC Conference

Ms. Rhodora: Sink and Float

Posted on by Rhodora Santayana

Last week, the classroom buzzed with scientific inquiry! The children were completely absorbed in our sink and float experiments, testing various objects in water and making predictions about what would happen. They observed, hypothesized, and discovered the properties that make some items sink while others float. This work develops critical thinking skills and introduces the scientific method in a concrete, hands-on way.

The hammering a pumpkin work was an instant favorite. Children used small hammers and golf tees to create designs on pumpkins, strengthening hand muscles and practicing careful, controlled movements. This seasonal practical life activity combines the joy of fall with important fine motor development.

The nuts and bolts work continues to draw focused attention as children practice the twisting motion needed to screw and unscrew various sizes. The geometric solids allow children to explore three-dimensional shapes and feel the differences between spheres, cubes, cylinders, and cones.

Extending Learning at Home

Continue the science exploration at home by gathering household items for your own sink and float experiment in the bathtub or a large bowl. Ask your child to predict first, then test their hypothesis!

Discovering Our World

Our geography work expanded this week as the children explored land and water forms, specifically learning about peninsulas and gulfs. Using our beautiful landform models, they traced the shapes with their fingers and poured water to see how land and water meet in different formations. We also began studying the state of New Jersey, including its location on the map and its unique features.

UPCOMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

This Week
Tuesday, October 28: Pumpkin Patch on the Playground
Wednesday, October 29: Classroom Pumpkin Carving
Thursday, October 30: Primary Pajama Day, Classroom Harvest Celebration & Kindergarten Veggie Skeleton
Primary students are invited to wear their favorite pajamas to school on Thursday, October 30! Please help us keep the day fun and focused by leaving stuffed animals, toys, and other special items at home, as these can be difficult to keep track of and may be distracting during our learning activities.
Friday, October 31: No School – MSC Conference

Ms. Handibode: Celebrating Culture and Stories

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

Last week, we had our first guest readers of the year! Veda’s mom and dad shared the wonderful story “Binny’s Diwali” with our class. The children learned about Diwali, the Festival of Lights celebrated by Hindu communities around the world. They discovered that families celebrate by lighting oil lamps called diyas, creating beautiful rangoli patterns with colored powders, sharing sweet treats, and gathering with loved ones. The story helped the children understand that Diwali symbolizes the victory of light over darkness and good over evil. This is such a special time that the children truly enjoy, and we are grateful to Veda’s family for sharing this beautiful tradition with us.

Our Kindergartners took a field trip to New Pond Farm in Redding last week. This working farm allowed the children to spend time with sheep, chickens, cows, and pigs. Each child then learned how to turn sheep’s fleece into yarn for knitting and weaving. They washed the fleece, hand-carded (combed) it, and then hand-spun it into yarn to make a bracelet.

“What the hand does, the mind remembers.” —Maria Montessori

Every Montessori classroom has a Sensorial area filled with materials that help children study their environment through their five senses. Maria Montessori believed that sensorial experiences begin at birth for every child and that refining these skills helps them understand their surroundings. The sensorial materials allow children to acquire precise information and classify things around them. They use their senses not only to create their own experiences and knowledge but also to help them process the different impressions each sense receives. The child is, therefore, a natural “sensorial explorer.”

Each material in this area has a built-in control of error so that, after an initial lesson, little teacher direction is needed. This control of error helps a child determine what needs to happen to complete the lesson successfully. The children can distinguish, categorize, and relate new information to what they already know. Each sensorial material isolates one specific quality, such as color, weight, shape, texture, size, sound, or smell. These materials emphasize this particular quality by eliminating or minimizing other differences. Many of the sensorial materials are also the basis of future mathematical concepts that the children will learn.

UPCOMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

This Week

Monday, October 27: Zion Flowers and Sharing Box
Tuesday, October 28: Playground volunteer Casey, Pumpkin Patch on the Playground
Wednesday, October 29: Classroom Pumpkin Carving, Guest reader Nicole and Zion’s Birthday Walk
Thursday, October 30: Layla Birthday Walk and Sharing Box, Primary Pajama Day, Classroom Harvest Celebration & Kindergarten Veggie Skeleton
Primary students are invited to wear their favorite pajamas to school on Thursday, October 30! Please help us keep the day fun and focused by leaving stuffed animals, toys, and other special items at home, as these can be difficult to keep track of and may be distracting during our learning activities.
Friday, October 31: No School—Montessori Schools of CT Conference

This Week in Upper El

Posted on by Karen Sankey

Fostering independence and ownership among students is a crucial part of Montessori education, especially in fourth and fifth grade when kids are really beginning to figure out who they are and what they love academically. On Friday, our upper elementary students had a fantastic experience with student-led conferences, which were truly uplifting and eye-opening.

The core idea behind these conferences is to empower students to share their own progress. When they step into this role, they take on more responsibility for their education and strengthen the bond between their learning and their families. This approach aligns with where fourth and fifth-year students are developmentally, as they become more actively engaged in their educational journey.

Leading up to the conferences, students prepared by writing self-reflections. They evaluated their learning goals, identified their strengths and weaknesses, and looked ahead to the rest of the year. This self-discovery process encouraged them to dive deep into their academic experiences.

UPCOMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

This Week

Thursday, October 30: Halloween Celebration – Children may come dressed in costume and bring a pumpkin to school for pumpkin carving. We will carve pumpkins, have a costume parade, and share some yummy treats. Thank you to all who are contributing Halloween goodies!

Friday, October 31: No School – Montessori Schools of Connecticut Conference

Lower Elementary Grammar Lessons

Posted on by Ashley O'Connell

Our classroom has been buzzing with thoughtful language work lately as the children dive deeper into their Montessori grammar studies. Each child is working at their own level, exploring the parts of speech through hands-on materials that bring language to life.

Our first-year students have been focusing on nouns and articles and discovering the relationship between them. Through activities with the Montessori grammar boxes and various other concrete materials, they are learning how the words “the, a, or an” give meaning and precision to the noun they accompany. The children have also begun to explore the difference between common nouns—like city or teacher—and proper nouns—like Connecticut or Mrs. O’Connell, Mrs. Taveras, and Mr. Jake.

Meanwhile, our second-year students have been hard at work with their adjective and verb grammar boxes. The grammar boxes allow children to build and analyze sentences by selecting word cards from drawers, each color-coded to represent a part of speech. With adjectives, they’ve been exploring how descriptive words add color and texture to our language, and how the placement and choice of these words can change the meaning of a sentence entirely. Their verb work has been full of energy, as they experiment with these words and see how verbs form the action of every sentence.

The third years are also enjoying their adverb work, discovering how adverbs give even more detail by telling how, when, or where something happens. Recently, they’ve also begun their study of sentence analysis, an exciting new layer of grammar work in the lower elementary classroom. Sentence analysis helps children understand how words come together to form complete thoughts. We start by identifying the subject (who or what the sentence is about), the action (what is happening), and the direct object (who or what receives the action). Using arrows and symbols, the children visually map out the structure of a sentence, which deepens their comprehension and supports their growing writing skills.

Ms. Vicki’s Weekly Update

Posted on by Vicki Downs

This week, we have been talking about and noticing the changing of the seasons.  We have been Weather Watchers and observing what the sky looks like and how the air feels.  We also watched the big tree by the playground each day turn from red, yellow, and orange leaves to almost all yellow, then fall from the tree with the big gusts of wind!

Inside the classroom, the students have taken an interest in water lately, so we opened up a water play area and  pumpkin washing work.  We also added new artwork: Paint sticks!  These are much smoother to draw with and add a different sensory experience than using crayons.

For food tasting this week, we tried radishes.  Almost everyone wanted to take a bite! (Swallowing was a harder sell.)

I have enjoyed watching some of the older children helping their younger classmates and showing them how to do work and follow directions.  We had some time in the gym this week riding on the scooter cars and gathering bean bags to drop into a bucket.

Enjoy the pictures!

Reminders:

  • No school next Friday, the 31st (Halloween)
  • We will be going through the children’s bins and sending home summer clothes.  Please replace these with long-sleeve shirts, sweatshirts, and pants.
  • Pumpkin Patch Wednesday the 29th. Lots of pictures will be taken, so dress in fall attire!

Mrs. Wilson: Pumpkin, Pumpkin

Posted on by Cynthia Wilson

Throughout the school year, we will be exploring life cycles — discovering how living things grow and change over time. To begin this exciting series, we introduced the life cycle of a pumpkin. The children listened to the story Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington, which tells the tale of a young boy named Jamie who plants a pumpkin seed and patiently cares for it as it grows into a big, round pumpkin. The story ends with Jamie carving a face into his pumpkin and saving six seeds to plant again in the spring—a perfect way to illustrate the full circle of life.

Next week, we will begin our very own pumpkin life cycle project, a year-long science exploration that will allow the children to observe, care for, and revisit the growth process throughout the seasons. This hands-on experience will nurture their sense of curiosity, patience, and care for living things — all foundational to Montessori science learning.

Food Tasting Experience: Sweet Potato

This week’s food-tasting experience featured the sweet potato. The children used their senses to explore its smooth skin and earthy scent before tasting it. The sweet potato’s vibrant orange color also tied beautifully into our autumn theme and our continued exploration of all things orange!

Love and Light,

Cynthia and Sara