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Mrs. Lopes: A Look at Our Week

Posted on by Amanda Lopes


“So in the child, besides the vital impulse to create himself, and to become perfect, there must be yet another purpose, a duty to fulfill in harmony, something he has to do in the service of a united whole.” ~ Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind

Maria Montessori believed that children are the key to peace and empathy among humanity. This important belief is a foundation in our Montessori classrooms, beginning with practical life lessons and continuing throughout childhood and beyond. I’d like to share how a “simple” lesson can provide the mechanism from which children in the classroom learn, practice, and express their empathy and love for their community.

“Flower arranging work has a more important indirect aim than simply admiring nature’s work of art. It is an opportunity for little hands to contribute to the beautification of the environment. It is a tender moment when a young heart lays down a symbol of friendship, love, and peace on a table for someone else to enjoy. It is a brief yet integral step outside of oneself and one’s own needs. -The CHILD Centered Blog

Flower arranging is only one of many classroom works and activities sowing the seeds of compassion and empathy in your children. Please remember that compassion in your home helps your children do the same.

Have a peaceful week,

Amanda and Heather

Mrs.Wilson: Busy Little Birds

Posted on by Cynthia Wilson

This week was full of exciting activities for the children!

We began the week by working on a special auction item for Springfest. Each child had the opportunity to create a unique clay slab. Using a special ball, they rolled an imprint design into the clay, then traced their hand around the pattern. That’s all we can reveal for now—the final piece is a surprise! We hope to see you all at Springfest to share the big reveal. Sara and I are really looking forward to seeing everyone there.

The children were also introduced to our bird sound lesson. In this activity, they match bird figurines to photos, then use color-coded buttons to hear each bird’s call. They’re learning about common backyard birds like the Robin, Cardinal, Indigo Bunting, Warbler, Woodpecker, Oriole, and Blue Jay. The sounds are a big hit—they’re especially fascinated by them! While we were outside, we were even lucky enough to spot a hawk in the tree, calling out to us.

Another exciting moment this week was discovering that our sunflower seeds had sprouted over the weekend! The children were thrilled to see how quickly the seedlings popped through the soil and how tall they had grown in just a few days. We’re all hoping for consistent warm weather soon so we can transplant them outside.

We had a very special guest this week—Roscoe’s big sister, who joined us in sharing an alphabet sound book with the class. The children were in awe, sitting so peacefully and attentively as she read and sang through the alphabet. What made it even more special was that she also used sign language to show each letter as she went along. The most heartwarming part? This entire visit was her idea—she coordinated it all herself because she was so excited to do something meaningful for the children. It was such a beautiful and inspiring moment for everyone!

Happy Birthday to our friend! Thanks for sharing your favorite book and cupcakes with us!!

Food Tasting: The children had the chance to explore and taste zucchini! First, they sampled it raw and seemed to enjoy its fresh, crunchy texture. Next, they tried it cooked—sautéed with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Thumbs up for zucchini!

Love and Light,

Cynthia Wilson

Ms. Mollie: Chilly Spring Days!

Posted on by Mollie Smith

 

With the chilly temperatures this week, we enjoyed the process of creating art together! Mrs. Reed, our in-house artist and art teacher, helped our classroom create a modern piece of art for our school’s auction item! Each child explored and chose colors that they wanted to include in our project. They got to smear the paint down to create a colorful background. When it was finished, the children were very happy because they could look and see who made swivels, swirls, and big lines.

As always, we worked hard between creating works of art and, of course, our favorite baking. Our zucchini bread was back by popular demand!

With Full Hearts,

Ms. Mollie, Ms. Lizette and Ms. Anabel

Middle School: Week in Review

Posted on by Michelle Lamb

We had a great week in Middle School! Students began spring sports after school and their last rotations of Community Service with their younger peers. Students are also working hard on their set for Finding Nemo, Jr.! You will find below important announcements:

  • PLEASE ENSURE your MS student(s) have fully charged laptops at the start of the school day. 
  • Tues., 4/8-Thurs., 4/10: CTP-5 Testing will take place in the afternoons.
  • Wednesday, 4/16 @ 2 pm: MS Science Fair grades 6, 7, & 8
  • Thursday, 4/17: Grade 8 will spend the full day at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk. Please pack a lunch.
  • Friday, 4/18: No School
  • Friday, 4/25: No classes- Parent/Student Conference Day (Sign-ups posted in MyFWM!)
  • Friday, 4/25 @ 9:30-12:30 pm: ALL CAST musical rehearsal (students can step out for their conferences)
  • DUE May 1st: MS TRIP:  REQUIRED Med form  AND Medical Authorization forms submitted.

Here’s what went on in some of the MS classes this week:

Humanities

6th grade Humanities classes wrapped up their learning of Mesopotamia. Focusing on the Sumer people, students completed guided research and art. With Ms. Sara, students explored writing in ancient Sumerian cuneiform using clay, a stylus, and an alphabet key. Next, they shifted to the civilization of Ancient Egypt. Terminology, geography, and a historical overview of the society provided the foundation for this unit. The class also began their next novel, <em>The Egypt Game</em> by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. This mystery set in the present day sets up our continued exploration of Ancient Egypt, including mythology, religion, leaders, social structure, architecture, and practices.

7th grade Humanities classes continued their powerful European leaders unit this week. After completing their World War I study, they reviewed world political economic systems before focusing on Russia during WWI. Poor leadership, heavy losses, and a challenging economy led to the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, setting the stage for our new class novel, <em>Animal Farm</em>. Students are reading this allegory while concurrently learning the events they parallel in Russian history. The class is enthusiastic about this current unit and novella.

8th grade Humanities classes continued their exploration of the colonies. They have been focusing on New England this week, in particular, the Puritans and Massachusetts Bay Colony. Daily life, government, architecture, and religion have been covered. They will also dive into the Salem Witch Trials and discuss this dark time and its implications on the colonies and future society. At the end of the week, students worked on their Expert Projects. At this point, research should be complete, and expert interviews should be just about complete. Students will be drafting their papers next.

Math

The Pre-Transition class wrapped up Chapter 6 this week. The week began with calculating percentages of a given quantity. Then, they dove into the Order of Operations. Students learned the acronym PEMDAS and practiced applying the order of operations to solve problems. The week closed out with multiplying fractions and mixed numbers and, finally, multiplying positive and negative numbers. This class will review Chapter 6 on Monday and take the Chapter 6 Test on Tuesday, April 8th.

The Transition class concluded their learning of Chapter 6 this week. This class can now use properties of lines and angles to determine angle measures. They are also experts at using the Triangle-Sum Property to find measures of angles. They ended the week by learning to calculate the distance between two points on a coordinate plane. This class will review Chapter 6 on Monday and take the Chapter 6 Test on Tuesday, April 8th.
Algebra closed out Chapter 6 this week! After learning all about formulas for lines, such as slope-intercept, slope-point, and standard form, this class can now convert across all three! They also learned about the line of best fit and how to graph data on Google Sheets to create a scatter plot. The week wrapped up by becoming experts at graphing linear inequalities. This class will review Chapter 6 on Monday and take the Chapter 6 Test on Tuesday, April 8th.
Students in the Geometry class are now experts in Polygons and Symmetry after completing Chapter 6! This week, they focused on properties of trapezoids, learned how to calculate a shape’s rotational symmetry, and now know the properties of various types of triangles and regular polygons. This class will review Chapter 6 on Monday, and take the Chapter 6 Test on Tuesday, April 8th.

Science

All students began working on their projects for the Middle School Science Fair this week! Students were asked to choose a topic related to their current science subject this year. Students chose topics, researched their topics with the purpose of gaining knowledge about their subjects, narrowed their findings to a testable question, and, finally, developed their hypotheses. At this time, all students have completed this work. Please be sure to ask your students what they will be investigating!
A guide for the Science Fair has been posted to Google Classroom and is available to all middle school students. If you would like to know more about the project, please ask your student to show you this guide, and, as always, feel free to reach out to Ms. Pickard with any questions.

April Family Connection Newsletter

Posted on by Karen Sankey

This month’s Family Connection Newsletter from the American Montessori Society focuses on the Montessori prepared environment. The Montessori prepared environment is a thoughtfully designed learning space that caters to the unique needs of each child, emphasizing simplicity, order, and beauty. It promotes independence and self-motivation, allowing children to choose their activities based on personal interests and developmental stages. Key features include:

1. Freedom: Children select their own learning experiences, cultivating a sense of ownership.

2. Beauty: The environment is visually appealing and well-organized, encouraging exploration.

3. Exposure to Nature: Interactions with nature deepen children’s appreciation for the world and enhance their learning.

This environment is essential for fostering children’s independence, exploration, and growth, with educators and caregivers playing a vital role in maintaining it.

I hope you find the article educational and useful for your family.

Have a wonderful week ahead!
Karen Sankey

This Week in Upper El

Posted on by Karen Sankey

This Week:

  • CTP5 Standardized Testing: For Upper El, this is a practice test and we do not report scores. Students will be using school iPads during testing – there is no need to send their devices for testing.
  • Nature’s Classroom cost is $383 per student this year. If your child will be attending, please send a $100 deposit by Friday, April 11.

We had a wonderfully busy week in Upper El, filled with engaging work and activities. The students tackled individual math and spelling lessons, and they also participated in group lessons in biology, geometry, grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension.

In biology, our focus was on photosynthesis. We are currently examining the release of oxygen by an aquatic plant and look forward to a sunny day next week to complete our experiment. In geometry, we continued our lessons on finding surface area, with one group concentrating on squares and the other on the lesser sectors of circles. This week in grammar, we explored different types of adverbs and the words they modify.

In art class, students worked together on the set for their upcoming musical, Finding Nemo! They also enjoyed a delightful Book Buddies session with their kindergarten friends, which is always a great way to connect and share a love for reading. It was a week full of learning, creativity, and fun!

Mrs. Sargeant: A Peek at the Week

Posted on by Christine Sargeant
Last week and this week, we celebrated some friends’ birthdays in class. We have four more friends to celebrate with this month! We love to have parents join our class as we celebrate your children. It is customary in our class for each family to bring some photos of the birthday child – typically one per year of life. It’s easiest for the children to view the photos if they’re displayed on a piece of posterboard or taped onto a piece of paper. We’d love it if you’d bring a snack to share with the class and a favorite book of your child’s for you to read to the class as they’re enjoying the special birthday snack. Be prepared to answer lots of questions about when your child was a baby. Their classmates are always curious to learn when their friends began walking, talking, jumping, etc. Thank you for taking the time to come in and share with us.
This week, we’ve been discussing different types of rocks and minerals. The children enjoyed using a magnifying glass to examine them. Orange juicing has also been a big hit- a huge thanks to Divya’s mom for purchasing the juicer for our class. Thank you to every one of you for supplying us with the food for practical life activities. The kindergarten students have been enthusiastically working on their animal research projects this week.
Looking forward to the week ahead!
Christine & Hailey

Mrs. Hood: The Magic of Color Mixing!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

This week, we continued our exploration of the colors of the rainbow, diving into the magical world of color mixing! Our focus was on the color orange, and the children were amazed to discover that combining red and yellow creates this warm, cheerful hue. At the easel, they observed this transformation firsthand, blending the colors and watching different shades of orange emerge on their paper. It was a joyful experience filled with curiosity and creativity!

To extend this learning, we tied our color studies into nutrition by recognizing fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy foods by their colors. During snack and lunchtime, the children were excited to share the colors of the rainbow they found in their food containers. This activity not only reinforces color recognition but also highlights the importance of a balanced diet. You can try this at home by encouraging your child to identify the colors on their plate and talk about the benefits of eating a variety of colorful foods!

In addition to colors, the children have been fascinated by zoo animals! We’ve talked about the difference between pets and wild animals, and some of the class favorites include the lion, elephant, zebra, cheetah, and giraffe. The children have enjoyed learning about their habitats, characteristics, and unique features.

As we soak up the last cool days before spring is in full bloom, we’ve been spending extra time outdoors exploring nature. Watching them run, jump, and observe the changing environment has been a delight, and we look forward to fully embracing the beauty of springtime in the coming weeks!

This week, our food-tasting lesson introduced the children to plantains. The children were definitely intrigued by this fruit, which looks like a banana but tastes quite different. They sampled both soft and chip-style plantains, discovering a new flavor that many of them enjoyed.

To wrap up our week, we engaged in a magical Sensorial art project using food coloring, cotton swabs, dish soap, and milk. The children watched in awe as the dish soap reacted with the fat in the milk, causing the food coloring to swirl and dance. Their expressions of wonder were priceless! To preserve this moment, we placed watercolor paper onto the surface, capturing beautiful and unique prints of their milk art.

Thank you for sharing in our adventures… we can’t wait for more fun ahead!

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Patty