Blog

Mrs. Sargeant: A Peek at the Week

Posted on by Christine Sargeant

On Tuesday, the entire Primary level gathered in the gymnasium for a Diwali celebration. Diwali is a five-day festival that is observed around the world, and its rituals vary by region. Diwali represents new beginnings and the victory of light over darkness, good over evil. It is the triumph of righteousness, knowledge in place of ignorance. Homes are brightly illuminated with diyas (candles) and oil lamps, and people decorate their homes with rangoli. People also often wear new fine clothes and jewelry and celebrate with family and friends.

Ms. Paromita and Ms. Hema, along with several parents from our community – including some of our very own students’ Moms -were dressed in traditional Indian attire and provided our children with a wonderful opportunity to experience the beauty of Indian culture. A few students from lower and upper elementary read a book about Diwali.  Our children were mesmerized by the sights and sounds! Ms. Paromita danced to Indian music in her gorgeous attire, and the gymnasium was decorated with beautiful and meaningful items related to Diwali.  The children were able to taste traditional Indian food and decorate diyas to take home. We are so grateful to all who shared their culture!

Earlier in the week, we celebrated Ms. Tima’s birthday. She was delighted to receive so many wishes, flowers, and cards. Hayes’ Mom even baked a delicious coffee cake, which we shared as a group, as Ms. Tima blew out a candle and made a wish. We had a lovely week in the classroom.

Wishing everyone a week filled with peace and love. -Christine & Fatima

This Week in Upper El

Posted on by Karen Sankey

In the Montessori story of the human being, there are three gifts humankind has been given that distinguish us from the rest of the animals – a mind with which to think, a heart with which to love, and hands with which to work. These gifts are given to us to know, love, and serve our world and ourselves. Maria Montessori felt that this was the cosmic task of our species. This is the basis upon which human work ought to be founded. (Lecture, University of Madras, 1940.)

The following is an excerpt from The Coming of Humans.

Human beings have a different kind of love than other animals. Other animals can love as well, but humans don’t only have one kind of it. We have the kind of love that two people share – the kind where people may be in love with each other – but we also have a different sort of love. Humans have love at a distance. We can even love someone we may never see. We may help others that we hardly ever know, just because they’re human beings. This love has an origin, and the origin is in the depths of time, when at some point in the past, people began to care for one another in a way that went beyond what other animals do. Our capability to love is our second gift. You and I and any other human can show our love for others. When something terrible happens to other people, we can support them in some way by giving them something – even if it may be that we will never know them, never know who they are, never meet them. We can do this without ever even expecting thanks. That’s a kind of love for others that other animals don’t have. We have that transcendent kind of love, when we choose to use it. 

Over the next two weeks, we will wrap up our study of early humans with lessons and discussions about fourteen cultures of modern humans who lived in Europe during the last 40,000 years: the Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic Ages.

I want to extend a special thank you to the families and Paromita, who contributed to our beautiful Diwali celebration this week. We enjoyed the Diwali stories, dancing, and delicious food!

Mrs. Wilson: Diwali Presentation

Posted on by Cynthia Wilson

On Tuesday, November 12th, Ms. Paromita and a few students from all grade levels gave a presentation about Diwali, the Festival of Lights celebrated in India and other countries. The children listened to a story read by one of the students and then enjoyed a Bollywood-style dance performance. Afterward, the children had the opportunity to taste an Indian sweet called Gulab Jamun. To further explore the theme of Diwali, the students later in the week colored a diya lamp using dot markers. Thank you to Ms. Paromita and the children and their families for gifting us this beautiful experience.

In addition to learning about the fall season, the children are exploring topics related to cooking. With Thanksgiving approaching, they are learning cooking-related vocabulary through activities like object-to-picture matching for cooking utensils and sorting mini forks, spoons, and knives. They are also practicing how to set a table as part of their practical life lessons.

For this week’s food tasting, the children tried pomegranate. They waited patiently as I opened the fruit and removed the seeds. Everyone seemed to enjoy the juicy, tiny seeds, making it a fun and educational experience.

Ms. Handibode’s Happenings: Diwali Celebration

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

On Tuesday, the entire Primary level gathered in the gymnasium for a Diwali celebration. Diwali is a five-day festival that is observed around the world, and its rituals vary by region. Diwali represents new beginnings and the victory of light over darkness, good over evil. It is the triumph of righteousness, knowledge in place of ignorance. Homes are brightly illuminated with diyas (candles) and oil lamps, and people decorate their homes with rangoli. People also often wear new fine clothes and jewelry and celebrate with family and friends.

Ms. Paromita and Ms. Hema, along with several parents from our community, were dressed in traditional Indian attire and provided our children with a wonderful opportunity to experience the beauty of Indian culture. A few students from lower and upper elementary read a book about Diwali.  Our children were mesmerized by the sights and sounds! Ms. Paromita danced to Indian music in her gorgeous attire, and the gymnasium was decorated with beautiful and meaningful items related to Diwali.  The children were able to taste traditional Indian food and decorate diyas to take home. We are so grateful to all who shared their culture!

Wishing everyone a week filled with peace and love.

Michelle & Maria

Performing Arts!

Posted on by mkirk

It has been another wonderful few weeks in the performing arts room!  All of the students are having so much fun with all the singing, dancing, acting, and instrument playing! All classes are working on their repertoire for our Winter Concert.  They are very excited to learn all of our music and movement for this performance! In addition to learning the notes and rhythms, each level of students in performing arts is also focusing on how to connect emotionally to all of the music they will be sharing with our audience in just over a month!

In Primary, students continue working on their steady beat skills with many new rhymes and songs.  One of their favorites has been “Chop Chop Chip-pity Chop,” where students keep the steady beat while “chopping” their vegetables for our imaginary soup! They also really enjoyed the song “Punchinello,” where students get to take turns making up silly dance moves for the class to follow.

Lower and Upper Elementary students have been learning about how the piano is made up of patterns of notes. They are able to identify the keys on the piano and start to place those notes on the musical staff. Both Lower and Upper Elementary students are also really enjoying playing their favorite drama game, Wax Museum. They have also been doing hard work on their musical ear by listening and echoing different intervals and patterns in solfège.

In Middle School students have continued their music theory work.  They are becoming more proficient at reading a musical score and identifying the notes in the treble clef.  A highlight of middle school performing arts over the past few weeks was our pantomime project performance!  Students did an amazing job with these projects and the Lower and Upper Elementary students really enjoyed coming to watch their performance and guess which fairytales the students were acting out!  Since these were pantomimes, the middle school students really had to use their acting skills to tell their stories to the audience, and they did a wonderful job!

Ms. Marissa: Weekly Update!

Posted on by Marissa Frisk

On Tuesday, the entire Primary level gathered in the gymnasium for a Diwali celebration. Diwali is a five-day festival that is observed around the world, and its rituals vary by region. Diwali represents new beginnings and the victory of light over darkness, good over evil. It is the triumph of righteousness, knowledge in place of ignorance. Homes are brightly illuminated with diyas (candles) and oil lamps, and people decorate their homes with rangoli. People also often wear new fine clothes and jewelry and celebrate with family and friends.

Ms. Paromita and Ms. Hema, along with several parents from our community, were dressed in traditional Indian attire and provided our children with a wonderful opportunity to experience the beauty of Indian culture. A few students from lower and upper elementary read a book about Diwali.  Our children were mesmerized by the sights and sounds! Ms. Paromita danced to Indian music in her gorgeous attire, and the gymnasium was decorated with beautiful and meaningful items related to Diwali.  The children were able to taste traditional Indian food and decorate diyas to take home. We are so grateful to all who shared their culture!

In the classroom, we were introduced to a new way of working with our Sensorial materials. We added blindfolds! Covering our vision adds a whole new component to activities like the cylinder blocks, the pink tower, and the geometric solids. Students found it so fun and quite challenging to complete these tasks without seeing. The classroom was filled with lots of laughter while the children practiced. What a fun game!

Have a lovely weekend.

Marissa & Sue

Mrs. Lopes: A Look at Our Week

Posted on by Amanda Lopes

On Tuesday, the entire Primary level gathered in the gymnasium for a Diwali celebration. Diwali is a five-day festival that is observed around the world, and its rituals vary by region. Diwali represents new beginnings and the victory of light over darkness, good over evil. It is the triumph of righteousness, knowledge in place of ignorance. Homes are brightly illuminated with diyas (candles) and oil lamps, and people decorate their homes with rangoli. People also often wear new fine clothes and jewelry and celebrate with family and friends.

Ms. Paromita and Ms. Hema, along with several parents from our community, were dressed in traditional Indian attire and provided our children with a wonderful opportunity to experience the beauty of Indian culture. A few students from lower and upper elementary read a book about Diwali.  Our children were mesmerized by the sights and sounds! Ms. Paromita danced to Indian music in her gorgeous attire, and the gymnasium was decorated with beautiful and meaningful items related to Diwali.  The children were able to taste traditional Indian food and decorate diyas to take home. We are so grateful to all who shared their culture!

This week we concluded our unit on the solar system.  I’ve included the lyrics for the song we have been singing to learn all the names of the planets as well as a video we watched with fun facts about the planets.  Thank you to our guest reader this week, Regine Hooper-Campbell!

The Planet Song

I know the planets, how about you (3x)
Let’s sing this song together,
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars
Jupiter and Saturn among the stars
Uranus and Neptune are up there too
All spin around the sun it’s true.

The Solar System Song on YouTube:

Wishing everyone a week filled with peace and love.

Amanda & Hema