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Ms. Mollie: Cozy Days

Posted on by Mollie Smith

This short week has been packed with so much fun! While there is no such thing as improper weather, just improper clothing……we definitely had two days that were just too cold! The children were able to run, play, and get lots of energy out in the gym! The classroom book nook was a very popular spot this week. It provided that cozy feeling of “snuggled up with a good book.”  Our classroom books are rotated out frequently, often following the holidays or a season, giving the children more exposure to the world around them. I love the, “I am” books for children, the simple books give us insight to a variety of humans who have changed our world.  The book I Am Brave gave a little glimpse into Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s life and legacy, and most of all, his bravery.

Our weekly baking was making a loaf of banana bread with extra shredded carrots! The children absolutely love to bake each week, its a time where we come together both to mix, bake and to share food at the table with one another, most importantly its giving us connection. Once the weather gave us some better temperatures, we could finally go outside and play in the snow! Our walk to the field gave us the opportunity to enjoy, as one child said, “all the blue colors” and a variety of different birds. The children were so happy to play outside in the snow. I was able to pull them in the sled, and the pure joy and giggles were infectious!

With Full Hearts,

Ms. Mollie, Ms.Lizette and Ms. Anabelle

Performing Arts

Posted on by mkirk

December was an extremely exciting month in performing arts!  Students put in so much hard work rehearsing for their Winter Concert! The show was a smashing success!! It was so wonderful to see the joy on the students’ faces while they were sharing the gift of music with their friends and families. I could not be more proud of each and every student! Bravo to all!

In primary classes, students continue to develop their musical ears.  We have been doing a lot of call-and-response singing! This really helps students to hear different intervals and rhythms.  Primary students have also been composing short four-beat rhythms using popsicle sticks for our eighth and quarter notes. Students also really enjoyed our acting game, “This is the sound,” where after a call and response from the teacher, they had to “wake up” in an imaginary place and show what it would look like if we were really there.  We have “traveled” to Alaska, the moon, under the sea, and many more places using our imaginations!

In Lower Elementary, students created their own short plays! Students were given the title “The Day the Music Stopped!” and they had to create their own characters and short scripts. All of the students were so creative and had so much fun with this project! Lower Elementary students continue to develop into young musicians as well.  They are doing a wonderful job with their rhythms and ear training.  Using the scale with solfège, students are able to hear and echo many different intervals and melodic patterns.

Upper Elementary students are also doing an excellent job in performing arts class!  They have been working on a readers’ theater project called “The Case of the Big Bad Wolf.” Students are working on their character acting, vocal projection, and diction with this project! Upper El has also been working hard on their music theory skills.  Using the music we are working on in class, students are becoming great rhythm and note readers! Upper El also continues to work on their vocal techniques such as breath support, vocal placement, and how to know when to use their head voice or chest voice for certain notes.

In Middle School, students are continuing to grow as amazing musicians and performers! In music theory, students are becoming more comfortable recognizing the notes on the staff as well as following a melodic line with their voices. I am also very proud of all of the progress students in middle school have made with their vocal techniques.  They are all using all of the tools we have learned in class to sing with a strong and healthy voice. Another project we completed in our drama portion of the class was writing and performing short commercials for made-up items.  We had the talking calculator, shapeshifter, unbreakable water bottle, and many more! Students had to come up with a catchy commercial that would sell these items.  They were hilarious! They have also been very excited to work on their student-written play! It is amazing to see how creative all of these students are! I am so excited for the immersion weeks that are right around the corner!

Mrs. Hood: Highlights of our week!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

This week brought a special milestone as we celebrated the first third birthday of one of our students in the classroom! It was a joyful occasion marked with smiles, singing, and a sense of togetherness.

We also introduced a beloved new addition to our classroom: a baby doll named Simba. One of the children came up with the name, and the rest of the class eagerly agreed, demonstrating wonderful teamwork and cooperation. Simba has quickly become a favorite, offering the children an opportunity to practice nurturing behaviors like feeding, reading, singing, and cuddling. These sweet interactions allow the children to develop empathy, patience, and social-emotional skills while learning the importance of caring for others.

In the art area, the children explored a new challenge: using scissors. This activity requires focus and fine motor skills, and it has been rewarding to watch their confidence grow as they successfully cut strips of card stock. This is a wonderful step toward developing hand strength and coordination for future skills like writing and crafting.

Our food-tasting adventure this week featured avocado. While some children were hesitant at first, many discovered they enjoyed its flavor!

To end the week, we enjoyed a fun group sensory experience: painting with ice! The children were fascinated by the cold texture of the ice and delighted in using it to create colorful, freeform art.

As always, our story time has been filled with laughter and engagement, with some of our favorite books this week including The Itsy Bitsy Snowman by Jeffrey Burton, Winter is Here by Kevin Henkes, What Can You See in Winter? by Sian Smith, and the class’s most popular pick: Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin, within others.

We’re so proud of the growth and enthusiasm your children bring to our classroom every day, and we look forward to more meaningful experiences together next week!

Have a great long weekend,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Patty

Middle School: Week in Review

Posted on by Michelle Lamb

What a week! Middle School held their annual Math Carnival on Friday for families and students and finished writing the 2025 Middle School Play, Set in Stone.

Announcements:

  • Tuesday, 1/21- Thursday, 1/30: Middle School Immersion –*Additional information below*
  • Thursday, 1/30: Middle School Play at 7 pm in the Gym
  • Tuesday, 2/4: MS Field Trip to the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT. Students will leave school at 9:30 am and return by 1:30 pm.

Math

This week in Middle School math, students engaged in an exciting blend of critical thinking, creativity, and hands-on learning. After designing and refining their own Math Carnival games, they took the opportunity to test each other’s creations. They collected data to calculate experimental probabilities and analyze the results. The experience provided a valuable hands-on application of math concepts, allowing students to connect theory with practice in a fun and interactive way.

The week ended with the 5th Annual Math Carnival, a lively event where students showcased their hard work and math skills. It was an afternoon of friendly competition, laughter, and learning as Lower Elementary and Upper Elementary students played the carnival games.

A heartfelt thank you to all who attended and supported our Middle School math students. Your presence helped make the event successful and created lasting memories for everyone!

Humanities

Students completed week two of playwriting. Their original script, Set in Stone, is ready for final editing and will be finalized for the start of Immersion Week 1 on Tuesday.

Immersion Weeks involve turning the script that students created over the last two weeks into a full production. This includes creating the set and props with Ms. Reid and Mr. Frisk, working with Mrs. Kirk to block the scenes, memorizing lines, learning how to run the tech for the show, and moving the set and props on and off the stage as needed for each scene of the show. During the first week, students will be blocking the show until lunch and then continue with classes in the afternoon. During the second week, rehearsals will run the full day leading up to a performance for students on Wednesday, 1/29, during school and a final evening performance on Thursday, 1/30, at 7 pm.

*Be on the look-out for additional communication about the show in the coming week.*

Science

6th grade:
This week in science, students learned how to find the epicenter of an earthquake using data from three seismic stations. Students learned how to interpret seismograms in order to calculate the distance between P-waves and S-waves and how to use that knowledge to calculate the distance of an earthquake event from a seismic station. Once students knew the distance of an earthquake from each station, they were able to use triangulation in order to locate the epicenter of an earthquake event.  Students enjoyed acting as scientists and appreciated the real-world application of our work.  This will complete this unit.  Once students return to science class from immersion week for the play, they will begin a new unit on Earth’s Systems.
7th grade:
This week marked the class’ introduction to atomic structure and the periodic table.  Students learned the basic components of an atom – protons, neutrons, and electrons.  They talked about how the number of protons, or the atomic number, of an element determines its identity. Students learned how to find the number of electrons in each atom and also how to find the number of neutrons.  The class finished the week by touching on ions and isotopes.  Students will continue this topic after the play.
8th grade:
Students worked hard this week learning about the cell cycle and cell division as well as the role it plays in every living organism. The class touched on the difference between asexual and sexual reproduction and dove into a deep study of asexual reproduction. Students learned how cell division occurs, complete with the steps of the cell cycle, including interphase, mitosis, and cytokinesis.  The class also learned what chromosomes are and how they divide during mitosis.  This brought up many questions about cancer and genetics, which were worked through in class.  When the class returns from immersion weeks, they will return their attention to cell division, but the focus will be on sexual reproduction and meiosis.

Mrs. Lopes: A Look at Our Week

Posted on by Amanda Lopes


Children display a universal love of mathematics, which is par excellence the science of precision, order, and intelligence.”~ Dr. Maria Montessori

The Montessori math materials are visual and hands-on manipulatives, aiding in the ability of a child to understand mathematical concepts concretely. After many repetitions and when the child is ready, we introduce the more complex and abstract concepts. We teach the process first because the goal is to develop a true understanding of mathematical concepts and not simply memorization. The materials are sequenced in a way that each success a child experiences is a building block for the next concept to be introduced.

Maria Montessori believed that all children have a mathematical mind and an internal drive to understand the environment around them. We know that the Montessori math materials are exact and precise and allow the child to have positive experiences in math right from the beginning. We also know that the Practical Life activities have helped the child to develop order, concentration, coordination, and independence. Likewise, the Sensorial materials have allowed the children to recognize and extend patterns. Here’s the real secret behind the success of the Montessori math materials: the children truly enjoy them.

Hope your week adds up to one filled with peace and love.

Amanda & Hema

Ms. Handibode’s Class: Montessori Math, It All Adds Up!

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

 

Children display a universal love of mathematics, which is par excellence the science of precision, order, and intelligence.”~ Dr. Maria Montessori

The Montessori math materials are visual and hands-on manipulatives, aiding in the ability of a child to understand mathematical concepts concretely. After many repetitions and when the child is ready, we introduce the more complex and abstract concepts. We teach the process first because the goal is to develop a true understanding of mathematical concepts and not simply memorization. The materials are sequenced in a way that each success a child experiences is a building block for the next concept to be introduced.

Maria Montessori believed that all children have a mathematical mind and an internal drive to understand the environment around them. We know that the Montessori math materials are exact and precise and allow the child to have positive experiences in math right from the beginning. We also know that the Practical Life activities have helped the child to develop order, concentration, coordination, and independence. Likewise, the Sensorial materials have allowed the children to recognize and extend patterns. Here’s the real secret behind the success of the Montessori math materials: the children truly enjoy them.

Hope your week adds up to one filled with peace and love.

Michelle & Maria

Mrs. Sargeant: A Peek at the Week

Posted on by Christine Sargeant

Children display a universal love of mathematics, which is par excellence the science of precision, order, and intelligence.”~ Dr. Maria Montessori

The Montessori math materials are visual and hands-on manipulatives, aiding in the ability of a child to understand mathematical concepts concretely. After many repetitions and when the child is ready, we introduce the more complex and abstract concepts. We teach the process first because the goal is to develop a true understanding of mathematical concepts and not simply memorization. The materials are sequenced in a way that each success a child experiences is a building block for the next concept to be introduced.

Maria Montessori believed that all children have a mathematical mind and an internal drive to understand the environment around them. We know that the Montessori math materials are exact and precise and allow the child to have positive experiences in math right from the beginning. We also know that the Practical Life activities have helped the child to develop order, concentration, coordination, and independence. Likewise, the Sensorial materials have allowed the children to recognize and extend patterns. Here’s the real secret behind the success of the Montessori math materials: the children truly enjoy them.

Hope your week adds up to one filled with peace and love.

Christine & Fatima

Montessori Math Made Simple in Lower Elementary

Posted on by Ashley O'Connell

Many students are using the Small Bead Frame, Large Bead Frame, and Stamp Game in our classroom and I want to share more about how these incredible materials work. They transform abstract math concepts into hands-on learning experiences that build confidence and understanding.

  • Stamp Game: This versatile material supports all four operations—addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  It’s a set of small tiles or “stamps” representing units, tens, hundreds, and thousands.  The children use the Stamp Game to deepen their understanding of operations as they physically group, exchange, and move the stamps to solve equations. This hands-on approach helps them internalize concepts like carrying in addition and multiplication, and borrowing in subtraction. For division, children distribute tiles (representing units, tens, hundreds, or thousands) into equal groups, reinforcing the concept of sharing and remainders.
  • Small & Large Bead Frames: These frames teach operations like addition, subtraction, and multiplication using color-coded beads to represent place value. The Small Bead Frame focuses on numbers up to the thousands, while the Large Bead Frame handles millions, bridging the gap between concrete and abstract thinking. As children slide beads across the frame, they physically see how numbers grow and interact.

By blending tactile exploration with visual learning, these tools build independence, confidence, and a love for math. They turn abstract problem-solving into a hands-on adventure.