The time we all were waiting for finally arrived! Our beautiful butterflies emerged, took time to strengthen their wings, and enjoyed the well-prepared environment your little ones created for them. Children enjoyed watching the butterflies walking around and using their long tongues to taste the fruits we provided. When the time came, we gathered together in the butterfly garden and opened the glass doors! We could almost sense the butterflies’ excitement as they felt the sun and the wind and immediately started to flap their wings. One flew high as soon we opened the doors, while the other three seemed a little shy. I grabbed a little stick and offered it to them. After a couple of seconds, the butterflies decided to fly, bringing smiles and laughter to your children while fulfilling their purpose as butterflies.

This activity always brings so many emotions for us as guides! In just a couple of weeks, our school year will be over, and as we reflect on the butterflies flying away, we realize that, as with those tiny caterpillars,  we have observed and enjoyed every change in your children’s lives during this year! They have grown so much! It has brought so much joy to our lives 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. Soon it will be time to open the “glass doors” and watch them fly, and we are so sure each one of them is going to spread their wings and fly high!

On another note and continuing our bird studies, this week, children got to be little ornithologists learning the parts of a bird (head, chest, wing, tail, and legs). They also got to observe, feel and smell the type of food birds eat and learn some names like sunflowers seeds, millet, corn, and wheat as they prepared the bird feeder for our classroom.

As a fun sensorial activity, the children worked on a little art project creating colorful binoculars, and we went for a walk, spotting some beautiful birds.

Lastly, the children enjoyed some cherries as our weekly food-tasting lesson!

Have a great weekend,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Marissa

Reminder: As the weather gets warmer, please apply sunscreen to your child before school.

Your children continue to observe patiently how our very hungry caterpillars fulfill  their metamorphosis process and become beautiful painted lady butterflies! They have already witnessed how these tiny caterpillars have grown, climbed up, positioned themselves upside down and how quickly they had made their chrysalis.

At some moments the children seem to despair a bit because the butterflies are not coming out so this has been a great opportunity to talk and reflect about the importance of waiting and being patient. The children have helped to collect nature items to decorate our glass house and prepare the environment for when the butterflies emerge. We might come back on Monday to find butterflies out of their chrysalis but we are having our fingers crossed for them to wait and give the VIP show to the children next week. Regardless of what happens, we can’t wait for next week!

To reinforce this special life cycle lesson, the children have learned a new song and since it has been loved  by your children, we want to share it with you at the end of this note, so you can rock it at home and watch your children dance to it. We hope you enjoy watching them dance to this song as much as we do everyday!

While waiting and waiting, children also had the opportunity to learn  about the life cycle of another fascinating insect: the ant! Eggs, larva, pupa and ant were some of the names they learned this week and children repeated over and over.

We also initiated our studies on birds. Cardinal, blue jay, robin, woodpecker, oriole, indigo bunting, warbler, house sparrow and goldfinch are some of the names you will hear often in our environment. We can’t wait to dig into this unit as a class!

For food tasting we explored some crunchy celery and even though it wasn’t a big favorite some children really enjoyed it! At home, I invite you to spread some sun butter on top of it and add some raisins to create “ants on a log” and watch your toddler enjoy this vegetable even more!

To all of you, beautiful mamas: Happy Mother’s day! Without you, we wouldn’t be able to do the work that we do!

Enjoy the weekend,

Mrs. hood and Ms. Marissa

“To have learned something for the child is only a point of departure. When he has learned the meaning of an exercise, then he begins to enjoy repeating it, and he does repeat it an infinite number of times, with the most evident satisfaction”- Maria Montessori – The Montessori Method

The children had a great time this week exploring and repeating some of the new materials in the environment. In a Montessori environment, repetition does not necessarily mean that the child has to engage in the same exact work over and over again. Anything that provides the child with the practice of a previously learned skill, including extensions and games, is repetition.

Dr. Montessori said, “Repetition is the secret of perfection.”

Through repetitive exploration, your children are able to look at a material from different angles and explore it, letting it become part of their understanding of the world. At the same time, it allows them to self-critique: they look at how they are doing something and make slight changes in order to perfect the action, making it more efficient. The Montessori environment is designed to support exactly this kind of learning. Children choose their own work, allowing their interests to guide them to a choice. They are drawn by desire, and that allows them to return to an activity with frequency, working with it until they have perfected it. It is, in fact, a developmental need. A common phrase you can hear in our environment is the children saying: “Again!” Dr. Maria Montessori wrote, “When a child has attained this stage of repeating an exercise, he is on the way to self-development, and the external sign of this condition is his self-discipline.”

Based on our observations, this is  just ONE of the many works your child seems VERY attracted to lately and enjoys repeating:

Amelia- Belonging picture matching – Language work

Ava- Open and close latches

Anthony- Creating new paths with the train set

Ben- Color mixing

Connor- Baby and Mommy animal puzzles

Ryder- Stackable color blocks

Hadley- Life cycle language works

Zion- Feeding and taking care of baby Molly

Everest- building with Magna tiles on the light table

Timothy- building wooden blocks

Rose- Flower arrangement

Matteo- Magnetic insect puzzle

On another note, the children enjoyed exploring mushrooms during our food-tasting lesson. They also keep observing the changes in our caterpillars, who, by the end of the week, were ready to form their chrysalis. Children also learned about the parts of an insect, and we explored the special characteristics of some of them, like ladybugs, grasshoppers, flies, bees, ant,s and dragonflies.

We also enjoyed the visit of one of our class parents; we celebrated two birthdays and enjoyed some treats together!

Enjoy your weekend,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Marissa

“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 happily observe how the Earth wakes from its deep slumber. Even though we witness this season every year, it feels so magical every time!

Like Dr. Maria Montessori, we believe nature is a patient teacher, and Earth is our classroom. In terms of how we teach children in the Montessori tradition, nature provides 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 senses to comprehend concrete things and build a foundation for understanding natural life processes.

Earlier this week, children enjoyed the visit of 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. As we start our studies about insects, we will observe a butterfly’s metamorphosis for the next couple of days! We introduced the first stages of its life cycle this week, and children seem to be very curious about the caterpillars’ anatomy, movement, and feeding procedures. Vocabulary words like egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly were introduced. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a book by Eric Carle, was the most popular book of the week.

New works have been added to the environment on every shelf, and children continue to sharpen their motor and cognitive skills.

For food tasting, we explored Kumquats this week, and it was a tangy and fun experience! The pucker faces were just awesome!

Lastly, we had a great time with the visit of Grandparents and special friends on Friday! Children felt proud of themselves and eager to show our beautiful environment to their loved ones.

We hope to see you tomorrow for the Here We Grow Gala! It’s going to be a blast!

Best,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Marissa