At Fraser Woods Montessori, enrichment classes—including Art, Performing Arts, Physical Education (PE), MakerSpace, and Spanish—play an essential role in supporting the whole child and enhancing the Montessori experience.

Art nurtures creativity, self-expression, and fine motor skills. By exploring a variety of media and techniques, students learn to think imaginatively and develop their unique artistic voices. Art also strengthens emotional intelligence, giving children meaningful ways to express their thoughts and feelings.

Performing Arts builds cognitive development, language skills, and spatial awareness while also enhancing memory, focus, and problem-solving. Through music, movement, and drama, students gain confidence, practice collaboration, and experience the joy of creative expression in a group setting.

Physical Education (PE) promotes health, strength, and motor development while encouraging personal growth over competition. In line with Montessori principles, PE emphasizes self-discipline, balance, and perseverance, which support students’ ability to focus and thrive in all areas of learning.

MakerSpace sparks innovation through hands-on exploration. Students tinker, build, and experiment, developing critical thinking, problem-solving, and design skills. This creative space fosters curiosity and empowers children to bring their ideas to life.

Spanish introduces students to the joys of learning another language and culture. Early exposure to Spanish strengthens memory, enhances communication skills, and broadens global awareness. Lessons often include immersive activities, songs, and games that make language learning engaging and natural.

Together, these enrichment opportunities expand the Montessori classroom by encouraging self-discovery, creativity, social growth, and cognitive development. They reflect our commitment to educating the whole child in a joyful, meaningful way.

Look out for weekly posts from each of our enrichment teachers to learn more about the experiences your child is enjoying!

 

Primary and LE: “Mi cuerpo”& “Mi Familia”; UE: “La Comida”& “Direcciones”; MS: “La Universidad y Las Profesiones”, reading, comprehension, listening and vocabulary from each topic. A general review of all we have learned to this point in this school year has been done at every level. In addition, FWM students are still working on their usual conversation such as Spanish greetings, feelings, the calendar, and description of weather, as repetition is the key to learning another language. They are continuously improving their Spanish understanding. Students from Primary, Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary and Middle School listened carefully to Spanish books and songs and participated in interactive games that were displayed during class.

Primary and Lower Elementary students started to learn names of some parts of the human body in Spanish, the lesson is called “Mi cuerpo;”: cabeza, hombros, rodillas, pies, codo, ojos, orejas, boca y manos. In addition to LE students learned about “La Familia”: padre, madre, hermano, hermana, abuelo, abuela, bebé, tío, tía, primo y primas. Using the same type of Montessori lessons such as three part learning cards and matching cards to reinforce concepts.

Upper Elementary Students are learning about food in Spanish “La Comida”and they also learned “Direcciones” (Directions in Spanish). They continue practicing their writing, listening and vocabulary through activities, worksheets, and games we used in class. The children also really enjoyed singing and participating in classroom games. Spanish Montessori Lessons were presented in class and left in their classroom to be practiced during the week in addition of some worksheets.

Middle School students also continue working year-round on their Spanish greetings, description of weather, feelings and their daily calendar that includes days of the week, months, and seasons. Students continue working the Spanish curriculum in the “Somos” program. They also focused on learning verb “Querer” (want to) and its different conjugations depending on the pronoun used. They are practicing it in worksheets, that include exercises focusing on listening and comprehension.  We are reading short stories for youth in Spanish to enhance their vocabulary, reading, listening and comprehension. Middle schoolers presented their last project of the year their “Spanish Food Presentation”. This project allowed children to expand their horizons, where they can experience the diversity of food that other countries can offer. They really enjoyed working on their project. All of them did a great job researching the dishes, history, origin, recipes and showing videos of them cooking at home and they even shared the food they prepared with classmates.

All the students at FWM are enjoying learning Spanish and I am very pleased with their progress accomplishing goals in my class.

 

Students have welcomed the warmth and sunshine springtime has brought by taking full advantage of the turf field during PE class.

The kindergartners have enjoyed having some of the middle school students help out and participate in PE classes on Wednesdays throughout the school year. A recent highlight with the middle school visitors was a game of “Leap Frog Tag.” Seeing the excitement on the kindergartners faces when the middle school students get to be taggers is awesome and brings a new level of joy to the class.

The Lower Elementary students recently enjoyed playing “Castle Pool” out on the turf. The team-based game involves strategically knocking over the opposing teams bowling pins before attacking their hula hoop castle. Watching the students work together to try different strategies while enjoying the beautiful weather was a highlight.

Upper Elementary students recently filled their “Sportsmanship Jar” for the second time this year. The class earns mini basketballs for displaying good sportsmanship, teamwork, and respect towards one another. The mini basketballs are then placed into the jar and when it’s full, the class gets to choose the PE activity for the next session. It has been wonderful to witness the Upper Elementary students make major strides in sportsmanship throughout the year.

Middle School students have recently been enjoying the sunshine while playing wiffle ball and soccer during PE. It’s been inspiring to watch the students compete while also taking the time to work together and strategize with their classmates.

Students continue to do amazing things in performing arts! These last few weeks have been full of rehearsals, performances, and most importantly, joy!

Primary students continue to do amazing work in class. They really enjoy working on their acting skills with a game called emotional statues! They are doing excellent work on their new songs for our spring concert which is next week! I am so proud of all the growth in musicianship and confidence in these young musicians!

LE had a spectacular Mini Musical performance during our Special Friends/Grandparents Day! The students also had a chance to show their final dress rehearsal to the school community! I could not be more proud of the hard work each of these students put into their show! LE has also been working on their music for our upcoming spring concert. They are so excited to share all they have learned!

UE and MS had an amazing few weeks as well! They put their hearts and souls into the final rehearsals and show, Finding Nemo Jr.  Each and every student beamed on the stage. The confidence and sense of pride these students now have from putting on this full-scale show is something they will never forget! These students are also working very hard to show you even more new music at our spring concert! Bravo to all!

As the school year winds down, these students’ journey of creativity, curiosity, and skill-building continues.

Middle schoolers built a stomp rocket launcher and then designed and built their own rockets. They used altimeters to determine the angle to the rocket’s peak height, which we then used to calculate the altitude, with the highest rocket going 72 feet high. Of course, Upper and Lower El saw this and wanted to get in on the action, so they built and launched their own rockets as well.

Kindergarteners continue to explore handwork with sewing, knitting, and weaving, but we’ve also introduced the ChompSaw cardboard cutters to give them an additional tool and skill to use going forward. They practice using it by drawing shapes with paper and then cutting them out, with the intention of doing this with cardboard in the future once they get the hang of it.

Middle school has also begun work on the stuffies they will gift to kindergarteners at the end of the year. This has involved learning how to thread and use our sewing machines, making patterns with all the necessary colors, and working out the order of construction so that the stuffies will be as cozy as possible.

The school year might be winding down, but the work in Makerspace never does! I look forward to seeing what these incredible students can make in the weeks we have left.

“The Woods Wall” was introduced to all PE classes last month. At the end of each class, students who exhibited good sportsmanship toward their peers are given the opportunity to toss a tennis ball into a vertical tube from a predetermined distance. Making the shot earns students their picture on “The Woods Wall.” Students from kindergarten through middle school have been enthusiastically trying to make the shot, and I look forward to “The Woods Wall” welcoming new members soon.

Middle school and upper elementary students are in the middle of a handball unit. In addition to learning the rules and strategy of handball, emphasis has been placed on teamwork, communication, and sportsmanship. The warm weather has allowed the students to play the fast-paced game both inside and outside on the turf.

A recent highlight for the lower elementary students was “Pool Noodle Relays.” Each leg of the relay requires teams to add an additional student to their noodle until all team members are holding the noodle for the final leg. Watching the students communicate and effectively work together with their teammates was awesome to see. Hearing them cheer on their peers is as good as it gets.

The kindergartners all loved playing “Take a Chance.” Each student is given a bowling pin to protect and a foam ball to throw and try to knock down their classmate’s pins. After throwing their ball, students have the option to leave their pin to retrieve another ball or continue to stand guard. When a student’s pin is knocked over, they perform a physical activity (jumping jacks, bear crawls, etc.) before standing their pin up and returning to the game.

These past few weeks in performing arts have been full of music, acting, and lots of dancing! All classes have been working on their new repertoire for the Spring Concert, which will be on May 23 at 5 pm! We cannot wait to share all of our music with you. Primary students have really enjoyed the acting game “magic curtain!” Students stand behind a “magic curtain,” and when the curtain rises, they become different characters and show these characters to their audience through their actions. Students have also been doing an excellent job being music detectives with tempos! Students have been having a lot of fun identifying and moving to different tempos of music. Students have been playing many musical games and learning many new songs! Two new favorites have been “Charlie Over The Ocean” and “Bluebird, Bluebird”.

In LE, students are very excited to have added another performing arts class to their weekly schedule! Once a week, the entire LE class comes to the performing arts room to work on our mini musical! Students are singing, dancing, and acting up a storm! We will present this project on May 2nd at 10 am during Grandparents and Special Friends Day! All parents are invited to join us as well! LE has also been working hard on their rhythm and pitch-matching skills. Our rhythm and pitch exercises are getting much more advanced, and the students are doing so well!

UE and Middle School students are also doing amazing work in performing arts! It is so impressive to see how hard the students are working on putting together a full-scale musical, as well as continuing to do all their work on choral music and music theory! We have been working very hard on learning all of the music, choreography, and blocking for our show, which we will be presenting for the community on May 2nd at 7 pm! Students have been hands-on in helping create sets and props as well!