Welcome families!

As we end our first week of the phase-in period, we couldn’t be happier and more amazed with the progress we have already observed in each of your toddlers! It has been a pleasure getting to know each new student and a true joy watching our returning students settling so beautifully. This continues to be a special time of striving to create a peaceful and welcoming environment for your child as this is an important stabilizing period where the children and Guides get to know one another.

Children have been exploring the learning environment and getting familiar with the physical space. Our environment is a place where independence, freedom, and choice of materials are the rule. The children will gradually learn how to handle this choice and freedom while respecting and caring for each other, the materials, and the classroom!

We want to thank you for all your support and for entrusting us with your precious jewels. It’s going to be an awesome school year!

Enjoy the photos!

Warmly,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria

The big highlight of this week was definitely our water day! The weather couldn’t have been more perfect! 

Our playground was set up in different stations so children could choose what they wanted to do. There was water ball basketball, fishing, boats, bubble making (of course),  finger painting, water paint roller,  and a super fun splash pad that brought so much joy and laughter to your children. After having a great morning in the sun we closed with a super yummy popsicle! 

After everything I realized that I didn’t take many pictures, but then I remembered  that it was because I was getting soaked and having a blast with all of them 🙂 I couldn’t skip the fun! 

A big thanks to all the parents and staff  that supported us in making this morning a success but specially to Mrs. Wilson and Ms. Sara for all their hard work! 

Enjoy a couple of pictures  and we hope you enjoy the nice long weekend. 

Best, 

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria

This week was quite emotional for me! After working together with the children and preparing a beautiful environment for our tiny caterpillars and quietly observing how they grew and moved and changed, then watched how they built their chrysalis and suffered changes so impressive, then being in awe of witnessing how they came out of their chrysalis and stretched their wings until they were dry, then of course, amazed when we saw them walking around the plants and drinking nectar from the flowers and fruits provided, we finally gathered together in our garden to open the glass doors and let them go. We knew they were ready to soar. 

We could almost sense their excitement as they felt the sun and the wind and immediately started to flap their wings. They knew what they needed to do. One of them soared so high up to a tree while the other ones were taking their time to get courageous and fly out of their comfort zone. I grabbed a little stick and offered it to one of them. The butterfly stood on the tip of the stick while I raised it up in the air and it was almost like the butterfly was so in awe of the world until finally it decided to fly, bringing smiles and laughter to your children, while fulfilling its purpose of being a butterfly. The other ones flew away too and we watched them moving from flower to flower and fly around until we didn’t see them anymore. 

 Then it hit me! 

I came to the realization that in just a couple of days our school year will be over and my heart became full of bittersweet emotions. As with those tiny caterpillars, we have observed and enjoyed every change in the lives of your children during this year! They have grown so much! It brings so much joy to our life just to step back and observe how independent, confident, and capable your children have become.  Like the butterflies brought so much joy to your children, your little ones have brought so much joy to us and we are so incredibly thankful to you for trusting us with them. 

On the morning of Friday, June 4th we will open the “glass doors” and let them go too! We will celebrate with a sweet and meaningful graduation that we traditionally call the Crossing Bridge Ceremony. Please mark your calendars and keep an eye for an email we will send soon with more specific information on this event. 

Meanwhile, we will continue to enjoy our time together, mastering skills in the environment, discovering the world, laughing, dancing, but above all hugging each other a little tighter and loving each other as the little family we have become.  

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria

After days of observing patiently, most of our very hungry caterpillars fulfilled their metamorphosis process and became beautiful painted lady butterflies! Children were in awe to see them stretching their wings when they emerged from their chrysalis. They also had the opportunity to observe them very closely while the butterflies used their tongues to drink the nectar from the fruit we provided for them. 

As we are waiting on one more butterfly to come out we can’t wait to release them into our garden early next week! Until we are able to do so, we  continue to enjoy watching them explore the beautiful prepared environment your children set up for them. 

Thanks to the beautiful Spring weather, we spent longer periods in our outdoor environment this week. Apart from getting strong physically while exploring, children truly improve cognitively and socially while being outdoors. This place offers such a variety of exciting stimuli!  The song of the birds, the smell of the flowers, the texture of the dirt, and more, increase your child’s curiosity and sharpen their senses. This wonderful space allows them to learn about the world, be in control, make decisions, cooperate with others, invent and follow rules, and have fun while also improving their communication skills.

We observed this week how your toddlers have started to invent their own games while playing more intentionally with the other children. It’s precious! Even though most of them are just growing in their expressive language, it’s incredible how they can communicate with each other through gestures, smiles, and gentle touch. The fact that they are so present in this stage of development make these interactions just so great to witness! 

We couldn’t be more thankful and amazed at how much each of your children have grown! 

Lastly, Mrs. Maria and I want to thank you for the love shown through the class gift and the delicious teacher appreciation lunch! We feel so honored by knowing each of your toddlers and working together with you to create the most beautiful experience for each of your children.

Enjoy the pics, 

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria  

One of the pleasures of watching a child grow is being shocked out of taking the mundane for granted. The most ordinary things that we seemingly know without thinking and can do without trying are, for the child, wondrous, new discoveries and engaging, joyous challenges. This includes the everyday routines and practices of life: preparing food, dressing oneself, cleaning, habitual courtesies, and more—these are for the child new, maybe daunting, exciting tasks that are visibly part of the human world and that are empowering to master.

This week we introduced two of these all time favorite, practical life activities: mirror washing and plant cleaning.

First of all, asking a child to use a spray bottle feels to them as such a gift, and while doing so they exercise their gross motor skills; they have to rely on their sense of balance as they make big arm movements to ensure water covers the mirror and to be gentle and precise enough to wet the one leaf to be cleaned on the plant using their hands to clamp down on the spraying mechanism all at the same time. Children repeated over and over these exercises while strengthening their concentration skills and seemed so proud of themselves when finishing their whole multi-step activity!

The greater lessons of this exercise are those of self-control and self-discipline. While spraying water can be a thrilling sensory experience, the child has an opportunity to understand the responsibility of the chore they are there to perform … for example, the spray bottle is not for use on the floor, on their faces (or peer faces), but rather, to clean the mirror or to clean the leaves on the plant. 

There are great benefits in the lives of the children when they are involved in caring for their environment. We encourage you to add these exercises to your list of chores your child can do! They will be happy to help you by maintaining a sparkly space at home, while also having fun! 

Happy spring cleaning!

During the last couple of months we have been using three period lessons using different materials in our environment. Three period lessons are a fundamental approach in our Montessori environment to introducing a new concept to children. They are used to move the child from basic understanding to mastery. The three period lesson was developed by Edouard Seguin, a French physician who worked with special needs children in France and the United States during the late 19th century. He discovered ways to increase children’s cognitive abilities and believed in the importance of developing their self-reliance and independence. Seguin’s writings were a major inspiration to Maria Montessori and the source of many of her practical ideas. In simple terms, the three steps, or periods, are:

1. Naming (Introduction) “This is a dragonfly.”
2. Recognizing (Identification) “Show me the dragonfly.”
3. Remembering (Cognition) “What is this?”

It has been evident that your children have been going through a sensitive period for language showing itself as an insatiable hunger for words, and we have found ourselves giving three period lessons so often either indoor or outdoors. Lately we have observed an explosion of words and the toddlers seem very proud of themselves when being able to reach the last step of the three period lesson. We have seen a big boost of confidence and joy! It’s just amazing to watch!

If you have a couple of minutes, we encourage you to check this article  to find out more  ideas on how to encourage the expansion of your toddler language skills at home.

Enjoy the pictures of your busy little explorers this week! 

Best, 

Mrs. Hood and Mrs. Maria

“We cannot create observers by saying ‘observe’, but by giving them the power and the means for this observation and the means are procured through education of the senses” – Maria Montessori 

The grass is getting greener, the birds are chirping louder, and after a long winter, we continue to happily observe how the Earth wakes up from its deep slumber. Even though we witness this season every year, it feels so magical every time! 

Like Dr. Maria Montessori, we believe that nature is a patient teacher and that Earth is our classroom. Corresponding to how we teach children in the Montessori tradition, nature provides us with both concrete and abstract learning for students of all ages. At our level, children have experiences that introduce them to marvelous wonders by using all five of their senses to comprehend concrete things and build a foundation for understanding the processes of natural life.

This week children helped to decorate a habitat for some very special guests in our environment: caterpillars. The amazement in your children’s eyes is indescribable but we can tell you that they seem very excited about our new visitors. For the next few days your children will be able to observe the metamorphosis of a butterfly. We introduced this week the first stages of its life cycle  and children seem to be very curious about the anatomy, movement, and feeding procedures  of the caterpillars.  

In honor of Earth Day we also started the plant studies by planting a seed using a transparent container, cotton, water and of course, a seed. We chose a bean! During the next couple of days your child will observe the life cycle of a plant and since the container is transparent, they will be able to see how the roots grow first. It’s very exciting! 

As another highlight of the week, the children enjoyed their outdoor time exploring water. The calming effect that water has in a toddler’s life is just incredible to witness! Children practice their fine motor skills by pouring, scooping, mixing, squeezing, and experiencing a lot of cause and effect. As a reminder, please make sure you send some of sets extra clothes for your child as our spring adventure continues! 

Lastly, children explored asparagus for food testing this week and this vegetable was a complete hit! We hope you add it to your list of favorite toddler foods.

We hope you have a happy weekend and remember to stop and smell the flowers! Nature brings a lot of healing and, oh boy, how we need it! 

Enjoy, 

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Maria