Our classroom has been buzzing with biology work lately. We bring the study of nature to the children with genuine enthusiasm, offering presentations and experiences that feed their growing curiosity. Elementary children have a powerful need to explore living things, to observe their characteristics, and to begin asking how and why life functions as it does.

Each grade level has taken on its own exciting focus in our exploration of biology. The first graders have been eager to learn about the external parts of the frog, using illustrations and models to observe how each feature supports the animal’s way of life. The second graders have moved into wider classifications, exploring the kingdoms of life and defining the distinct characteristics of different animals. They have been working to differentiate vertebrates from invertebrates and identify the traits that link various animals together. Their studies have also included a closer look at body functions in animals, while the third graders have expanded this work by examining the body functions of plants, comparing how different organisms meet their needs for survival.

At the elementary level in Montessori, biology unfolds through Cosmic Education, inviting children to look closely at the details of life and then lift their gaze to the larger patterns that shape the natural world. Classification becomes a meaningful tool in this process. It helps children discover the balance that exists on Earth between living and nonliving things, and between human beings and other cosmic agents. Our goal is to spark wonder and gratitude through the cleverness of nature, helping classification create a sense of familiarity with the unfamiliar. This way of organizing the living world becomes an important part of the development of a global citizen who feels connected to life in all its forms, both familiar and new. As we classify and explore all living things, we hope to inspire admiration for the diversity that exists, encourage more questions and research, and support the child’s growing identity as both an explorer and a steward of the Earth.

Our Lower Elementary classroom has been buzzing with curiosity and meaningful work as the children dive deeper into two big areas of study: Fundamental Human Needs for our second and third year students, and Timelines for our first year learners. Each of these lessons plays an important role in helping children understand themselves, others, and the world around them.

Our older students have been continuing their exploration of the Fundamental Human Needs—a key component of the Lower Elementary Montessori curriculum. Through stories, activities, and discussion, they’re learning that all humans across time and cultures share the same basic needs: things like food, shelter, clothing, defense, and transportation, as well as spiritual and cultural needs such as art, music, and community. In the Montessori classroom, this work helps children begin to understand why humans make certain choices and how different civilizations have met the same needs in different ways. It invites empathy, global awareness, and a growing appreciation for people throughout history. Our second and third year students are enjoying comparing different cultures and time periods, and beginning to see the interconnectedness of human life.

Meanwhile, our first-year students are continuing their lessons on time—an exciting introduction to understanding history from a personal perspective. After learning about the history behind the days of the week and months of the year, and making a month-by-month timeline of their lives, they are now beginning their year-by-year family timelines. In our Montessori classroom, timeline work is concrete and visually rich. All of this groundwork lays the foundation for understanding larger historical timelines later in both Lower and Upper Elementary. By starting with their own story, children discover how time passes, how they have grown, and how they fit into the greater human story.

This week in Lower El, we shared “The Story of Numerals” (the Fifth Great Lesson). This story appeals deeply to the reasoning of the elementary child, who is eager to understand the origins of ideas and the human stories behind them. Rather than presenting math as a collection of fixed rules and symbols, the story traces the development of numeration through history, showing that mathematics is a human invention born of creativity, problem solving, and the needs of daily life. Early humans counted stones, made marks on cave walls, tied knots in cords, and used tally marks to track many necessary things for survival, such as food, seasons, and trade. As societies grew more complex, so did their number systems, including the Mayan base-20 system, the Mesopotamian base-60 counting system, the Greek numerals based on their alphabet, the Roman numerals in Europe, and many others. The children learned that all cultures have developed systems of counting, each uniquely suited to the needs of the people who created it. Numbers are not simply symbols; they are a language invented by humans to communicate ideas. Understanding mathematics this way helps children see that the work they do with numbers is connected to real people throughout history, people who observed, experimented, and collaborated to make life more organized and understandable.

The story also introduces the evolution of the decimal system and the essential role of zero. Far from being a simple placeholder, zero represents a breakthrough in abstract thinking that took centuries to conceptualize and accept. Its development opened the door to advanced mathematics, record keeping, and evolved communication. When children hear how zero emerged and spread across cultures, they begin to appreciate math as a living and evolving achievement rather than something static and fully formed.

By presenting numeration as a human journey, the lesson inspires gratitude for the countless individuals who contributed to our current number systems and reminds students that mathematical progress continues. It reframes math work in the classroom as part of a much larger narrative, making it more meaningful because it connects to human history and ingenuity. Many children had a great time exploring and working with Roman and Egyptian numerals as follow-up work. Through this great lesson, math becomes not just an academic subject, but a story of human adaptation and survival, one that students can imagine themselves continuing.

Speaking of gratitude, our hearts absolutely overflowed this week with all the acts of kindness and the tremendous showering of love we received for our birthdays. The day began with the warmest greetings, thoughtful cards, beautiful flowers, and so many sweet surprises, each one making us feel so special and celebrated. It ended with the biggest and most unforgettable surprise of all: the children’s performance of their own version of “Here Comes the Sun,” rewritten as “Here Comes the Fun,” filled with heartfelt lyrics and kind words about their teachers. Their joy, creativity, and love brought happy tears to our eyes and truly touched our hearts. We are so grateful for your incredible children and for the privilege of teaching them each day. We wish you and your families a very happy Thanksgiving and hope you enjoy your time together with loved ones.

This week, we had the wonderful opportunity to welcome a parent visitor, Jennifer Mills (Elinor’s mom), who is also a Navy veteran. In honor of Veterans Day, she offered an engaging and thoughtful presentation for the children. She explained the purpose of Veterans Day, shared her experiences serving in the Navy, and introduced the different branches of the military in a way that was clear, accessible, and captivating. The children were so enthusiastic to hear all she had to share. They asked insightful questions and were truly engaged. We are so grateful that she took the time to visit and share her expertise with our community.

This week, in geometry, the children explored new concepts while strengthening their foundational skills. The first graders worked with polygons, reviewing their names and the meaning behind those names. Using the box of sticks, they created both regular and irregular polygons and quickly noticed how the symmetry and equal side lengths of regular shapes distinguish them from irregular ones. The second graders were introduced to angles for the first time. They explored what an angle is and learned to identify whole, straight, and right angles. Meanwhile, the third graders continued their work with fractions, using concrete materials to understand how fractional parts combine as they learned to add fractions and were excited to move on to subtracting fractions next.

It was a full and exciting week of hands-on learning, meaningful discussion, and joyful discovery in our classroom! 

Our class had an exciting field trip this week as we explored the fascinating world of light! From the moment we arrived, the children were engaged and curious, ready to dive into hands-on discovery.

We began our morning with a science demonstration that introduced us to some of the amazing ways light behaves. The children learned that light is all around us—both visible and invisible—and they were fascinated to discover the differences between ultraviolet and infrared light. Using special tools and visual aids, they saw how UV light can reveal hidden patterns and how infrared light helps us see heat. The children were also amazed to learn that light is actually a rainbow made up of many different colors that blend together to form what we see as white light.

Our day concluded in the Light Lab, where students had the chance to put their knowledge into action. They experimented with additive color mixing, combining red, green, and blue lights to create new colors—including white light! The children also had fun testing out optical illusions, discovering how our brains sometimes interpret light and color in unexpected ways. They moved from station to station, experimenting with lenses, prisms, and mirrors. They were especially intrigued by the section on rods and cones, the tiny cells in our eyes that help us see color and light. Many children were surprised to learn that these cells work together to help us perceive the full range of colors we see every day!

To make the week even more special, the children also enjoyed learning about Diwali through a beautiful presentation shared by teachers, staff, students, and families. They listened to stories, saw traditional clothing and decorations, and learned about the meaning of light in this joyful celebration. Thank you to everyone who helped make this a fun and memorable experience for the children!

Our Halloween celebration was packed with fun from start to finish! The day began with our school parade, where the children proudly showed off their creative costumes to classmates and other classes. Laughter and excitement filled the gym as everyone admired the festive spirit all around. Later, the children had a blast decorating and painting their pumpkins, each one unique and full of personality! The children also enjoyed delicious festive treats generously sent in by parents—thank you for helping make our celebration extra special!

As the weather turns colder, we would like to remind families to please send their children to school with warm clothing, including coats, hats, and gloves. We go outside every morning and afternoon, even during the winter months, so it’s important that everyone is dressed comfortably for the season. Thank you for your help in keeping our students warm and ready for outdoor fun!

And don’t forget, our class field trip is coming up this Wednesday, November 5th! Please see our previous email for more details. We’re looking forward to an exciting adventure together!

Our classroom has been buzzing with thoughtful language work lately as the children dive deeper into their Montessori grammar studies. Each child is working at their own level, exploring the parts of speech through hands-on materials that bring language to life.

Our first-year students have been focusing on nouns and articles and discovering the relationship between them. Through activities with the Montessori grammar boxes and various other concrete materials, they are learning how the words “the, a, or an” give meaning and precision to the noun they accompany. The children have also begun to explore the difference between common nouns—like city or teacher—and proper nouns—like Connecticut or Mrs. O’Connell, Mrs. Taveras, and Mr. Jake.

Meanwhile, our second-year students have been hard at work with their adjective and verb grammar boxes. The grammar boxes allow children to build and analyze sentences by selecting word cards from drawers, each color-coded to represent a part of speech. With adjectives, they’ve been exploring how descriptive words add color and texture to our language, and how the placement and choice of these words can change the meaning of a sentence entirely. Their verb work has been full of energy, as they experiment with these words and see how verbs form the action of every sentence.

The third years are also enjoying their adverb work, discovering how adverbs give even more detail by telling how, when, or where something happens. Recently, they’ve also begun their study of sentence analysis, an exciting new layer of grammar work in the lower elementary classroom. Sentence analysis helps children understand how words come together to form complete thoughts. We start by identifying the subject (who or what the sentence is about), the action (what is happening), and the direct object (who or what receives the action). Using arrows and symbols, the children visually map out the structure of a sentence, which deepens their comprehension and supports their growing writing skills.

The classroom was filled with excitement this week after we shared the fourth Great Lesson with the children. The children gathered as we told the engaging story of Communication in Signs (the story of our alphabet) and showed the children visuals of ancient writing, such as pictographs, cuneiform, hieroglyphics, and alphabet systems from the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans. Through the story, we traced the journey of how people began using symbols to communicate, turning pictures into marks, marks into sounds, and sounds into the letters we know today. The children were captivated as they learned about the evolution of the Roman alphabet and how it connects to the writing we use every day. The children were amazed to observe the connections between ancient systems and our modern alphabet.

The story naturally opened up a wonderful field of exploration into the history of language. The children were eager to compare different alphabet systems from around the world, noticing both their unique qualities and shared patterns. Their curiosity led us straight into the world of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, where they delighted in decoding and writing their own symbols. The excitement in the room was contagious as they discovered how these early signs were used to record stories, ideas, and events thousands of years ago.

As we discussed, the story of written language is truly the story of humanity’s need to connect and communicate. It helps us see how people throughout history have worked to perfect communication and explore new ways to share ideas. Through this Great Lesson, the children began to understand that language, one of our greatest human achievements, was an amazing invention and a clear result of humans using the special gifts of their minds, hands, and hearts. The incredible invention of written language acts as a bridge that connects people across time and space. The story introduced the children to the development and history of written language in a way that creates an appreciation of the simplicity and beauty of these languages.

We will continue to build on this excitement as we explore how writing systems evolved, how punctuation and spelling developed, and how handwriting styles changed through time. The story of Communication in Signs has opened a door to wonder, and the children are eager to step through it.

The Peabody Museum in New Haven features incredible exhibits on the Babylonians and Egyptians, showcasing fascinating artifacts like cuneiform tablets and ancient hieroglyphics. It is a fantastic place to visit and might be fun for the children to see these historic treasures up close.