Blog

This Week in Upper El

Posted on by Karen Sankey

“There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.” -Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder 

As I look over the images from last week, I am struck by the children’s joy. They are playful, innocent, and full of enthusiasm about learning and their friendships. They generously give their time to help others and are passionate about justice both in the world and in our classroom. During their lessons and independent work, they are focused learners. Over the past seven months, they have honed these skills and qualities, and as we enter the final weeks of the school year, they will reap the benefits of their hard work as they wrap up lessons across the curriculum. Go Upper El!

We began the week with a writing lesson on paragraph outlines for narrative writing. The students worked on this writing assignment alongside their daily writing prompts, which they created themselves. Each child has written a prompt for their classmates to respond to. We will work through the prompts one at a time each day until we have completed all 19. The children are enjoying seeing their prompts displayed on the board and are excited to discover how their friends respond.

In our geometry lessons this week, both groups focused on finding area. Fourths learned the formula for finding the area of a rectangle. I introduced this concept using Montessori area materials, allowing the children to discover the formula and then apply it to their own drawn rectangles. Fifth graders listened to the story of Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi – Radius and the Number Pi by Cindy Neuschwander.

In grammar, the fourth graders learned about reciprocal and reflexive/intensive compound pronouns, while the fifth graders studied nouns of direct address.

Our biology lesson this week centered on the vital functions of support and movement. We examined the differences between exoskeletons and endoskeletons and learned about the animals that fall into each category. We also explored the muscular structures of animals with both types of skeletons and how those muscles aid in movement. In the coming week, students will examine in greater detail the vital functions of support and movement for each animal on the evolutionary strip.

We wrapped up our week with a focus on serving others. On Thursday, we made over 200 sandwiches for St. Vincent DePaul soup kitchen in Waterbury. Thank you to everyone who contributed sandwich ingredients, and a special thank you to Moira and Jeannine for your help in making the sandwiches, as well as to Teresa for delivering them to the soup kitchen! On Friday, Upper El students enjoyed buddy reading with their kindergarten book buddies.

 

Upcoming Dates:

  • Friday, April 24
    • No school – Student-Parent-Teacher Conferences
  • Friday, May 1
    • Grandparents & Special Friends Day
    • Spring Concert
  • Saturday, May 2
    • Springfest

Mrs. Wilson: The Growth of Imaginative Play

Posted on by Cynthia Wilson

At this time of year, we begin to notice a shift in the children’s play. As they grow, their interactions become more connected and intentional. While some younger children are still engaging in parallel play, our older toddlers are beginning to move into cooperative play—working together, sharing ideas, and building relationships through their experiences.

We are seeing the emergence of both symbolic and pretend play in the classroom. Children are using objects to represent something else, such as a block becoming a phone, or acting out familiar, real-life experiences like cooking or caring for others. At this stage, their play is often rooted in reality, reflecting their growing understanding of the world around them.

The outdoor mud kitchen has become a space for collaboration and creativity, with children preparing “meals” and engaging in shared storytelling. In another moment, two children sat together “watching a movie,” focusing on the same space and building a shared idea through conversation—an example of deep connection and concentration.

In a Montessori toddler environment, we value this type of play as meaningful work. It supports language development, social connection, and independence. Through these experiences, children practice turn-taking, listening, and expressing their ideas. They are also developing concentration, creativity, and a sense of belonging within their community.

These moments reflect the important work of the child—making sense of their world through purposeful, joyful exploration.

Food Tasting: This week, we tasted a familiar fruit, a ripe red strawberry.

Love and Light,

Cynthia and Sara

Ms Marissa: Weekly Update

Posted on by Marissa Frisk

We’ve been studying the life cycle of chickens in our 3–6 classroom, and it’s been such a special experience. We have real eggs in an incubator right in the room, and the children have been checking on them every day, watching, waiting, and asking the sweetest, most thoughtful questions about what’s happening inside.

It’s been a perfect fit with our bird study this April, making everything feel more real and exciting as we learn together. The children are especially drawn to the idea that these eggs will soon become baby chicks, and you can feel the anticipation building each day. It’s giving them such a meaningful, hands-on connection to what we’re learning about birds.

Mrs. Lopes: New Life Is Hatching in Our Classroom

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

Last week, something truly special arrived in our classroom: eleven chicken eggs! On Tuesday morning, the children gathered around as we carefully placed each egg and began our study of the chicken life cycle together.

In the Montessori tradition, the natural world is one of our richest teachers. Watching life develop from egg to chick over 21 days invites the children into a patient, daily practice of observation—a cornerstone of scientific thinking. We now have a classroom countdown on the wall, and each day we explore what is happening inside the eggs at that stage of development. The children have been engaged, curious, and remarkably attentive.

This experience connects beautifully to Fraser Woods’ mission of cultivating compassion. Caring for living things—even eggs that cannot yet be seen or held—asks children to practice responsibility, gentleness, and patience. These are quiet but powerful lessons.

Extending Learning at Home

Talk with your child about what they observed last week and what they are watching for each day. Ask questions like: What do you think is happening inside the egg today? How many days do we have left? You can also explore simple books or videos about chicken development together to deepen their understanding of the life cycle.

 

UPCOMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Next Week

  • Monday, April 20 through Friday, April 24
    ⋅ Parent Teacher Conferences
  • Friday, April 24
    ⋅ No School – Parent Teacher Conferences

Planting, Playing and Growing with Ms. Mollie’s Class!

Posted on by Mollie Smith

Planting, Playing, and Growing

Spring has brought such a beautiful sense of rejuvenation to our classroom. The children have been fully immersed in the rhythms of the season, planting, exploring, and discovering the wonders of growth all around them. We’ve been getting our hands in the soil, learning about roots, shoots, and flowers, and watching with curiosity and care as new life begins to emerge.

Outdoor time has been especially joyful this week. The sunshine has invited us into longer stretches of play, where imagination takes the lead—turning simple moments into rich stories and shared adventures. There is something so special about watching children connect with nature and each other in these unstructured, meaningful ways.

One particularly exciting moment in our classroom was witnessing our Guppy Fish give live birth! The children were captivated, observing closely and asking thoughtful questions. Experiences like this spark such a natural sense of wonder and help deepen their understanding of the living world around them.
As we continue through the season, we look forward to nurturing this sense of curiosity, growth, and connection both in our classroom and in each child.

With Full Hearts,

Ms. Mollie and Ms. Lizette

Ms. Handibode: Sowing Seeds of Compassion

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

Maria Montessori believed that children are the key to peace and empathy among humanity—and last week, our classroom offered a beautiful illustration of that belief in action.

Flower arranging is a work in our Practical Life area, and it is far more than it appears. While it builds fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, its deeper purpose is to give children a sense of ownership over their environment and a tender way to contribute to the community around them. When a child arranges flowers and places them on a table for others to enjoy, they are stepping—even briefly—outside of their own needs and into the world of care for others. This is empathy in its earliest, most genuine form.

Last week, we also welcomed nine chicken eggs into our classroom incubator. Each day, the children learned about the development taking place inside the eggs, and the countdown to hatching created a wonderful sense of shared anticipation and responsibility. The eggs are expected to hatch in 21 days.

We also had the joy of welcoming Wilder’s dad as our guest reader last week. He shared The Berenstain Bears: The Bike Lesson and Paw Patrol: Mighty Pup Power, which sparked a lively conversation about learning to ride a bike—many children had wonderful stories of their own to tell.

Extending Learning at Home

Compassion practiced at home reinforces what we nurture in the classroom every day. Look for small moments to invite your child to contribute to the family—setting the table, arranging a few flowers from the yard, or helping a sibling. These simple acts are exactly the kind of work that builds the empathetic spirit Maria Montessori envisioned.

 

UPCOMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

This Week

  • Monday, April 13
    ⋅ Sharing Box and Flowers; Birthday Celebration, Zaki K.
  • Tuesday, April 14
    ⋅ Playground Volunteer, Sasha J.
  • Wednesday, April 15
    ⋅ Guest Reader, Sam R.

Next Week

  • Monday, April 20
    ⋅ Sharing Box and Flowers, Layla S.
  • Tuesday, April 21
    ⋅ Playground Volunteer, Sam R.
  • Wednesday, April 22
    ⋅ Guest Reader, Dhanishry N.
  • Friday, April 24
    ⋅ No School — Parent/Teacher Conferences. Please sign up for a time if you have not already done so.

Mrs. Sargeant: Pinch, Pull, and the Joy of Doing It Yourself

Posted on by Christine Sargeant

Independence is built in small moments, and last week our classroom was full of them. Most of the children have now mastered opening their own snack bags—Pirate’s Booty, Goldfish, chips—using a technique we practice together: pinch, pinch, pull. It sounds simple, but watching a child succeed at something that once required adult help is a meaningful milestone. That quiet confidence carries into everything else they do.

In the kitchen last week, the children made ants on a log—spreading cream cheese onto celery and dotting raisins along the top. This kind of practical life work is purposeful on every level: it builds fine motor control, sequencing, and the deep satisfaction of preparing something real to eat and share.

We are also so excited to share that nine chicken eggs are now incubating in our classroom! Last week, the children began learning about the development happening inside the eggs, and the countdown to hatching—21 days—has been a wonderful anchor for daily observation and conversation about the life cycle of a chicken.

Extending Learning at Home

Invite your child to make their own snack at home using the pinch-pull technique, or try making ants on a log together. Let them spread, place, and prepare as independently as possible—resist the urge to step in! You might also ask your child what they observed about the eggs last week and what they are looking forward to seeing as the days count down.

 

UPCOMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

This Week

  • Monday, April 13
    ⋅ Lucia — Flowers, Food, and Sharing Bag
  • Tuesday, April 14
    ⋅ Ortner — Recess Volunteer
  • Wednesday, April 15
    ⋅ Sasha J. — Guest Reader

Looking Ahead

  • Friday, April 24
    ⋅ Parent/Teacher Conferences. Time slots are available throughout the week — please sign up if you have not yet done so.

Middle School: Week in Review

Posted on by Michelle Lamb

It was an active and focused week in Middle School. Props for the Musical are being designed in Makerspace, and the sounds of rehearsals of both spring concert songs and Willy Wonka songs are filling the hallways. When walking by the classroom, students are engaged in labs, books, and their classwork. This is an excellent time of year to get through material as our brain is focused with the weather inviting body breaks.

Coming Up:

  • Be on the lookout for communication regarding medical forms required for the MS trip!
  • 8th Grade Expert Presentations: Wednesday, 4/22 @ 6 pm
  • MS ARRIVAL BEGINS AT 8 am
  • MS Flower Schedule

Humanities

This week in grade 6/7 Humanities classes, students reached the halfway point of Animal Farm by George Orwell. In addition to daily discussions regarding plot, they simultaneously learned about the Russian history that is being depicted in the novel. They covered the Russian Revolution of 1917, propaganda, the Bolshevik party, and the following people: Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin. Students are starting to make guesses about who/what in history represents characters in the novel. This will be an activity next week.

Grade 8 Humanities class spent some time this week on history and also their expert projects. First, students interpreted and answered questions from Thomas Jefferson’s notes regarding apportionment when deciding government structure in the new United States. Then, they learned about the time in the states following the American Revolution, which saw the newly drafted Articles of Confederation not work the way they hoped. Coupled with fast-growing populations in the states, it necessitated a new doctrine for the country. The Constitutional Convention aimed to create this.  Students will pick up with the Constitution next week. Additionally, 8th-grade students delivered their expert presentations for a first round of feedback. Some were even able to revise and deliver a second time. It is exciting to see these months-long projects come to life!

Science

Middle School students continued working with the lessons from the Discovery Education e-book. This week, 6th and 7th graders continued working on their understanding of changes of matter. They worked on a hands-on project called Mystery Bottle. Students were able to see how water changed its state from liquid to gas and store it in capped plastic bottles. They got two bottles: one was left on the counter, exposed to cool down at room temperature, and the other was submerged in a bucket of cold water. Students worked on formulating the experiment’s hypothesis, recording data, and using their critical thinking skills to come to a conclusion. They were able to see that as the water in the bottle cooled down or lost heat energy, the shape of the bottle was being compressed. This was due to the water molecules being condensed and needing less space, causing a drop in the internal pressure. After 15 minutes, when the observation ended, the plastic bottle was completely compressed as a result of the higher atmospheric pressure than the enclosed system pressure.

On the other hand, 8th Graders continued learning about Cellular Respiration and Fermentation and their importance in our lives. This week, they were learning how the process of fermentation works. They worked in a virtual laboratory to investigate how yeast works and what its function is when making bread. In this virtual laboratory, they had a mission: to solve why a bread recipe turned out flat in the Rocky Mountains (at a higher altitude and lower atmospheric pressure). Students had to test variables such as the amount of sugar, water temperature, and altitude. They had to run multiple trials to find the best conditions for the fermentation of the dough. In addition to that, they had to find a scientific explanation with their evidence for all the multiple possible reasons that could cause the bread to be flat. All these lessons are supported by classwork, videos, readings, and explanations in class as well as weekly science articles where students can practice their critical thinking to answer the questions.

Math

Pre-Transition: This week in Pre-Transition, students began Chapter 7. They reviewed key division vocabulary, including divisor, dividend, quotient, and remainder. Students also refreshed their understanding of multiplying positive and negative numbers, revisited related division facts, and reviewed the rate factor for multiplication.

Transition: This week in Transition, students began Chapter 8. They reviewed multiplication as repeated addition and were introduced to variables. Students also practiced combining like terms and applying the distributive property. In addition, they explored conversion rates and reviewed multiplying positive and negative numbers.
Algebra: This week in Algebra, students continued building their understanding of slope. They have learned how to calculate the slope of a line given two points, graph linear equations in slope-intercept form, determine the x- and y-intercepts of a linear equation, and identify the slope of a line from a coordinate grid.
Geometry: This week in Geometry, students began Chapter 6. So far, they have explored reflection symmetry and the theorems associated with reflections. They have also studied the properties of isosceles triangles and practiced related proofs. In addition, students were introduced to angles inscribed in circles and will continue developing this understanding next week.
Algebra II: This week in Algebra II, students wrapped up their learning of matrices and showed off their knowledge on the Chapter Assessment. Then, they dove into Chapter 5, learning all about compound inequalities.