We have had a fun week, full of learning! The third year students told the story of the creation of the universe to the younger students, a rite of passage for third years. They read the story and did demonstrations to illustrate scientific concepts. This is the first of Maria Montessori’s Five Great Lessons.

We completed our science lessons in preparation for hearing the story of the creation of the universe. The third year students have their speaking and demonstration parts and are excited to give this lesson to the first and second year students next week.

The children love doing group games in the classroom. One of their favorites is a pass the clap game that is done to a rhyme called “Way Down Yonder.” This is a great game that includes cooperation with each other and keeping a rhythm.

Spending time in nature is incredibly important. We are enjoying going to the outdoor classroom each week. On Monday we spent time observing nature and writing in our nature journals and then the children had time to play. They had a great time!

Preparations for the talent show are well underway. The children have shown us their acts and are working hard getting ready for their performances at Oktoberfest on October 20th. We hope you come and see them!

~Parent & Teacher Conferences are coming up!

Parent & Teacher Conferences are on Thursday, October 25^th. 

This is to a wonderful time to learn about your child’s progress; it is strongly encouraged that parents attend.  The online Parent & Teacher sign-up will be live on Monday, October 8^th – please look for more information in Monday’s School News about scheduling your Parent & Teacher Conference online.  If you are unavailable to meet with your child’s teacher on October 25^th, please email your child’s teacher directly about scheduling another day or time that week for a conference.

This year we will be spending lots of time exploring and observing the outdoors. We are learning to sketch what we see and record our observations in nature journals. We had our first nature journal time last Friday. Please don’t forget to send in bug spray!

The children have plunged into our Reader’s Workshop. They have a mini-lesson at the beginning where they learn a skill to focus on while reading. They are enjoying their lessons and reading time.

We are getting ready to hear the story of the creation of the universe, told by the third year students. To prepare, the children are participating in science demonstrations which illustrate the concepts in the story. On Tuesday Ms. Beckett gave the third set of presentations. Among the concepts illustrated were the attraction of particles and the concept of displacement. After the demonstrations, the children record their observations in science notebooks.

Elementary children love working together with their friends. Emma and Emma enjoyed some time together completing their grammar work with pronouns.

We are happy to welcome Mia, our new student, to first grade! All of the children are making her feel welcome and are helping her learn the routines.

The school year is off to a great start! The Upper and Lower Elementary students are thoroughly enjoying coming together during recess time, reconnecting with old friends. Recess consists of activities such as playing “make believe” in the woods, swings, participating in Gaga Ball, and enjoying all of the new playground equipment. Mr. Comstock will be taking students every other day on the field to participate in group sports.

Our Lower Elementary classroom consists of students that love to work collaboratively and individually. One of the beauties of work cycle is that different types of work go on simultaneously. Children can be working on a variety of language, math, geometry, cultural and spelling work. This is a supportive classroom of community learners!

The children are continuing to love their Writer’s Workshop lessons! They are learning about the steps involved in the writing process and applying this to their “small moment” stories. We are looking forward to watching them grow as writers.

We are so excited to be back at school! All of the children are settling in and enjoying reconnecting with old friends and making new ones.

We start each day outside getting some exercise and when we come in, we spend a few quiet moments meditating, preparing for our day. Our third year students are being very helpful mentors to their new classmates. They have been showing them some good first grade work and helping them with classroom routines. The children worked in small groups to write our classroom rules and they all came up with some really meaningful ideas.

Lessons are in full swing. The children are enjoying Writer’s Workshop lessons and daily writing time before they start their work cycle. They have also already started lessons in grammar, geometry, science, spelling, and math. First year students learned about nouns with Ms. Beckett and are enjoying labeling lots of objects in our classroom. Last week we ventured into the woods for a scavenger hunt. The children enjoyed being in our outdoor classroom.

We are all enjoying fostering seven baby bunnies and have welcomed their mom and her sister as our new school pets. The children are doing a great job taking care of them and love taking trips to the zen garden to see them.

We had a fantastic two days at Camp Jewell. When we arrived we started our fun by taking a trip down the giant slide. Then we enjoyed some group games on the field with our counselors Jaime, Simon, and Robert. After our games we visited the mini farm complete with llamas, guinea hens, goats, sheep, and Wilbur the 750 pound pig. After taking a break for lunch, we continued our activities with archery, climbing, kayaking and canoeing, and candle making.

Our meals were family style. Two children from each table got trays of food and each child served himself/herself. After our first meal one of our counselors explained to the children that we would be weighing the uneaten food left on our plates, called ort, and then it would be fed to Wilbur the pig. The goal was to decrease our amount of ort with each meal. Our first meal had seven pounds of ort and our last had just three. Nice work!

After dinner and some down time in our cabin we had a campfire, s’mores, and skits and songs. At the end of our campfire the children proudly sang a song from the play for their counselors.

We spent our second day at camp on the giant swing. The children got securely strapped into harnesses and after climbing a ladder and getting hooked onto the swing line they were pulled high into the air by the rest of the children until they said “stop.” When they were ready, they released themselves to swing through the air.

Our trip to Camp Jewell was a great experience for all of the children. They bonded, took risks, and made discoveries about themselves while having a great time in a beautiful place.