Maria Montessori believed that music is a natural component of a child’s development. The integration of musical theater into Montessori classrooms helps children become more outgoing, take on leadership roles, and gain confidence as they read and deliver their lines. In addition to the benefits of being involved in musical theater, participating in immersion week together with other Elementary students creates a very strong sense of community and of working together toward a common goal.

We are hard at work keeping up with our lessons and practicing for the upcoming play. We met with our director, Miss Linda, this week and learned the choreography for two of our songs. The children had a great time learning and practicing the moves. We also had the opportunity to get on stage and run through some scenes and songs. Everyone is very enthusiastic and all have done a great job learning lines and songs. Next week we will start our immersion week on Monday morning. Children will be completely immersed in preparations for the play. We are looking forward to our final product next Friday, but we are thoroughly enjoying the process along the way!

We enjoyed seeing all of the grandparents and special friends today. The children eagerly shared their work with their guests and the room was full of wonderful energy. Grandparents’ Day is an event loved by all.

We enjoyed our field trip to the Eli Whitney Museum this week. We learned about magnetism and ecosystems. The children got to use their hands and their creativity to make a magnet project while learning about the ecosystem of a butterfly. They learned what butterflies need to survive as well as the dangers to them, including predators, loss of habitat, and insecticides. The children learned how magnets work; magnetic fields, and the opposing ends of a magnet. They made their pendulums work by turning the magnets over to make the predator, city, and insecticide repel and the flower garden attract the butterfly. We had a wonderful trip. It is always great to experience learning outside the walls of our classroom. Thank you very much to David, Liz, Magda, and Jenna for accompanying us on this trip. Your help is much appreciated!

There is such a great sense of community in our school. Within the class, the children love just spending time with one another. Each F day we have community building time at the end of the day. The children play games, build with blocks, and get creative with friends. They work with different classmates each week and, as a result, many friendships are being cultivated.

Outside of our classroom, relationships are formed as well. This week we visited the Upper Elementary and Middle School Science Fair. The projects were amazing! Upper Elementary students worked with sound, light, and magnetism and Middle School students’ projects focused on environmental conservation; each of the topics were relevant and important to Lower Elementary students as well! The older students were very knowledgeable about their topics and did a great job presenting to us, giving the younger students a glimpse of what the coming years hold for them.

We had a fantastic field trip to the Wolf Conservation Center! Our morning started with an educational segment inside. We learned about the differences between wolves and coyotes, foxes, and dogs and where current wolf populations live in the United States. We learned about the decline of wolf populations and how wolf conservation centers like the one we visited are helping to repopulate wolves. We also learned about the important and positive impact wolves have on nature and their role in keeping a healthy balance in the environment.

We then moved outside to the wolf enclosures to continue learning. We met the four ambassador wolves, Zephyr, Alawa, Nikai, and Atka. We learned about what they eat and watched as our guide fed them. We also learned why wolves roll in scents and got to see this behavior first hand.

This was a valuable field trip because it was incredible to get such a close look at wolves and it educated the children about the importance of conservation. Thank you to David Lam, Maria Fuller, Karen Widdows, Kianna Manns, and Elizabeth Sankey for helping out on this trip!

We have had a fun and busy week in Lower Elementary. This week the Third-year students gave a lesson to the class about The Months of the Year. We learned about the names of the months and their origins. The names are based on Roman gods, goddesses, and rulers and on Latin words.

Second-year students learned how to read and use common protractors. They also learned to construct angles with their protractors. They enjoyed transitioning from the Montessori protractor to the common protractor.

We are all excited about our upcoming musical! Each morning we gather together with Upper Elementary and practice songs and lines. It is such a lovely way to start our day! The children are doing a wonderful job learning their parts and they are very enthusiastic about practicing.