Last week, our classroom was buzzing with autumn excitement! The children immersed themselves in all things pumpkin—from seed to harvest—while also exploring fascinating scientific concepts that connected to their natural curiosity about the world around them.

Our pumpkin study brought together multiple areas of learning. The children discovered the life cycle of pumpkins and explored the many ways we use them in cooking. They created beautiful pumpkin artwork using tissue paper, developing their fine motor skills and artistic expression. On the math shelf, the children practiced counting small pumpkins using golden beads, making concrete connections between quantity and number symbols.

We also explored land and water forms, specifically straits and isthmuses. The children traced these formations and learned how water and land interact to create the geography of our planet. This naturally led to an exciting science experiment about states of matter—solid, liquid, and gas. Watching water transform from ice to liquid to vapor captivated the children and sparked wonderful questions about how matter changes in our everyday lives!

The sensorial area was especially popular this past week, with children using the geometric solids while blindfolded. This work helped refine their tactile sense and built concentration as they identified three-dimensional shapes through touch alone.

The kindergarten field trip was a wonderful adventure, and the children came back full of stories and observations from their experience!

We also celebrated a special birthday walk this week. Thank you to the parents who joined us for this meaningful Montessori tradition. The children loved watching the birthday child walk around our “sun” to represent each year of their life.

Extending Learning at Home

• Continue the pumpkin exploration by cooking together! Making pumpkin bread, soup, or roasted pumpkin seeds gives your child hands-on experience with measuring, following steps in sequence, and discovering how heat transforms food—all wonderful practical life skills.
• Take nature walks to observe the changes of fall. Can your child identify different land and water forms in your neighborhood? Look for puddles, streams, ponds, or where land meets water.
• Explore states of matter in your kitchen. Let your child observe ice melting in a glass, water boiling for pasta, or steam from hot cocoa. Talk about how the same substance can take different forms.

UPCOMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

This Week
Monday, October 20 through Friday, October 24: Parent Teacher Conferences
Friday, October 24: No School – Parent Teacher Conferences

Next Week
Tuesday, October 28: Pumpkin Patch on the Playground
Wednesday, October 29: Classroom Pumpkin Carving
Thursday, October 30: Primary Pajama Day, Classroom Harvest Celebration & Kindergarten Veggie Skeleton
Primary students are invited to wear their favorite pajamas to school on Thursday, October 30! Please help us keep the day fun and focused by leaving stuffed animals, toys, and other special items at home, as these can be difficult to keep track of and may be distracting during our learning activities.
Friday, October 31: No School – MSC Conference

Apples, Geography, and Growing Together

This week brought wonderful opportunities for the children to explore science, geography, and community care through hands-on learning.

Our apple study deepened as we explored the parts of an apple and the life cycle of an apple tree. The children followed an apple sequence story that showed the journey from seed to tree to fruit. During food preparation, they practiced slicing and serving apples, carefully using real tools to prepare snacks for their classmates. We also worked on manipulating scissors, an important fine motor skill that strengthens hand muscles and builds coordination.

We began exploring our home state of Connecticut, helping children understand their place in the world, starting with where they live. This connected beautifully to our geography work on landforms, where we introduced bay and cape. These sensorial materials allow children to see and feel the difference between these coastal formations, building a concrete understanding of abstract geographic concepts.

The grace and courtesy we’re witnessing in our classroom warms our hearts! The children are thoughtfully using phrases like “please,” “no, thank you,” and “you are welcome” throughout their day. These simple words create a culture of respect and kindness that ripples through our entire community.

We’re also seeing beautiful examples of mixed-age learning as older children help younger friends with their raincoats and rain boots. These moments of mentorship build confidence in our older students while giving younger children patient, caring role models. This is the Montessori classroom at its best—children naturally caring for one another.

Extending Learning at Home

• Practice Independence: Give your child time to put on and zip their own jacket, even if it takes longer
• Model Grace and Courtesy 
• Explore Connecticut: Talk about your town, nearby cities, or places you’ve visited in our state

UPCOMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Monday, October 13: No School – Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Wednesday, October 15: Picture Day
Friday, October 17: Kindergarten Field Trip to New Pond Farm
Saturday, October 18: Oktoberfest
Friday, October 24: No School – Parent/Teacher Conferences
Friday, October 31: No School – Montessori Schools of CT Conference
Weather & Clothing Reminder: Please send extra clothes appropriate for the weather in your child’s backpack. Please label all clothing items! 

Week of Sept 29–October 3

UPCOMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
Wednesday, October 8: Our Class Photo Day
Monday, October 13: No School
Thursday, October 17: Kindergarten Field Trip to New Pond Farm – More details to follow soon.
Weather Note: Mornings have been chilly while afternoons warm up significantly by recess time. Please dress your child in layers they can easily remove and manage independently.

This Week in Our Classroom

The children have been delighted to prepare and serve banana slices to their friends this week. Watching them carefully slice, arrange, and offer snacks to their classmates showcases the heart of practical life work—building independence, fine motor skills, and community care all at once.

Fall has arrived, and our students have become Fall Detectives! During our outdoor time, the children search for clues that the season is changing. They collect brown and red leaves, notice cooler temperatures, and observe how the trees on our beautiful campus are transforming. These nature walks connect the children to the rhythms of the natural world and support our Montessori philosophy of living in harmony with the earth.

Our classroom travels have taken us to North America this week. We’ve been exploring the continent using our puzzle maps, and the children are excited to learn about New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey—our home states! We also introduced land and water forms this week, starting out with island (land surrounded by water) and lake (water surrounded by land). 

The magnet work has been drawing tremendous interest! Children of all ages are naturally attracted to magnets (no pun intended), and we challenged them to be detectives, testing which classroom objects are magnetic. The children can now confidently use the vocabulary words “magnet,” “attract,” and “repel” as they explore this scientific concept.

We started our week learning about living and nonliving things. The children had fun pointing out living and nonliving things around the classroom. We would say, “This is living, it grows, eats food, and drinks water and breathes,” or, “This is nonliving, it does not grow, it does not eat or drink, and it does not breathe.”

We have definitely entered the fall season. The leaves are changing color and falling to the ground. The children observe autumn leaves as they use their senses to explore the colors of leaves, the scents of the season, and the textures of the leaves. We also learned about deciduous trees and evergreen trees. Evergreen trees are trees with leaves that stay green all year round. Deciduous trees have leaves that turn brown, yellow, or red in the autumn and fall off.

As the weather gets colder, please make sure to send in an extra set of weather-appropriate clothing for school.

Have a wonderful weekend

Ms. Rhodora & Ms. Anabel

We continue our study of the Solar System with great emphasis on the planet Earth. The planets are introduced in relation to their position in the solar system, along with an explanation that each planet revolves around the sun. The children walked around the ‘sun’ (a candle representing the planet) in relation to how far or near the planet was to the Great Star, which helped them grasp the concept of ‘orbit’ and understand why certain planets are hotter and others colder.

The children explored color using a variety of materials. With the metal insets, they experiment with form and color, using colored pencils to fill and shade the traced shapes. The children experienced the magic of mixing two primary colors using colored water to make secondary colors. Most children also discovered that combining the three primary colors will make brown!

The Montessori birthday walk was celebrated by one of our friends this week. The children loved seeing the candle as a representation of the sun. Thank you, Ms. Becca, for helping celebrate this birthday and sharing the delicious snacks!

Your children’s smiles and laughter warm both our classroom and our hearts!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Rhodora & Ms. Anabel

We welcomed a group of fabulous children to FWM! The children are off to a great start. Your children arrived with hardly a tear and are now busy settling in, making friends, and learning routines. Each day, they find their locker, hang up their backpacks, put on their indoor shoes, and put their snack and water bottles in the classroom.

It is no small thing to place your child in someone else’s care, and we have felt deeply honored to be a part of your children’s learning journey. Watching each child grow in their independence, curiosity, and confidence has been one of the greatest joys of our work.

Our days were filled with giggles, questions, stories, and small moments that made a big impact. These little learners have taught us just as much as we hope we’ve taught them.

As we head into summer, I wish you and your families time to rest, play, and soak up every sweet moment together. Thank you for a wonderful year.

Warmly,

Marissa & Sue

As the school year comes to a close, our classroom is full of quiet pride and joyful reflection. Each child is moving forward in their journey – our youngest are now confident explorers, ready to welcome new friends next fall. Our second year children have found their rhythm and will return as leaders, eager to guide with gentle hands and kind hearts.

And our Kindergarteners – how beautifully they’ve grown. With grace and strength, they’ve stepped into their roles as mentors and models, showing us what it means to care, to work hard, and to lead with joy. Now, they spread their wings and move on to Lower Elementary, ready for new challenges and adventures.

Watching each child grow at their own pace, in their own way has been the greatest gift. We will miss our graduates dearly, but we send them forward with love and confidence, knowing their roots are strong.

Have a great weekend,

Marissa & Sue