We had a wonderful time at our Halloween party last week! We began the day with our schoolwide costume parade and our class party, complete with delicious snacks and the film City of Ember. After lunch and recess, we had a great time carving our pumpkins. We ended the day by cleaning our classroom. We will enjoy some roasted pumpkin seeds in class this coming week. Thank you to all of our families who generously donated food for our party!

Upper El Community Service

Every month, upper el students participate in a fantastic community service project, making sandwiches for the St. Vincent DePaul Mission in Waterbury. It’s an excellent way for kids to give back to the community while learning about the importance of helping those in need. Parents are incredibly supportive and donate all the necessary ingredients, from bread and meat to cheese and condiments. On sandwich-making day, the excitement is contagious! The students work in teams, stacking up the ingredients, and making sure each sandwich is delicious and ready to go. It’s not only a lesson in teamwork but also in kindness and responsibility. After all the sandwiches are assembled, they’re neatly packaged and prepped for delivery to the soup kitchen. It’s heartwarming to see the kids take pride in their work, knowing that their efforts can make a real difference in someone’s day. This monthly tradition has become something special for our class, reminding us all of the importance of community and the joy of helping others! We will begin our community service this month. Look for an email this week from Nora with all the details and an opportunity to sign up to help through donations or volunteering on sandwich-making day.

Upcoming Events

• Thursday, November 13 – Upper El Sandwich Making for St. Vincent DePaul Mission

Fostering independence and ownership among students is a crucial part of Montessori education, especially in fourth and fifth grade when kids are really beginning to figure out who they are and what they love academically. On Friday, our upper elementary students had a fantastic experience with student-led conferences, which were truly uplifting and eye-opening.

The core idea behind these conferences is to empower students to share their own progress. When they step into this role, they take on more responsibility for their education and strengthen the bond between their learning and their families. This approach aligns with where fourth and fifth-year students are developmentally, as they become more actively engaged in their educational journey.

Leading up to the conferences, students prepared by writing self-reflections. They evaluated their learning goals, identified their strengths and weaknesses, and looked ahead to the rest of the year. This self-discovery process encouraged them to dive deep into their academic experiences.

UPCOMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

This Week

Thursday, October 30: Halloween Celebration – Children may come dressed in costume and bring a pumpkin to school for pumpkin carving. We will carve pumpkins, have a costume parade, and share some yummy treats. Thank you to all who are contributing Halloween goodies!

Friday, October 31: No School – Montessori Schools of Connecticut Conference

We had a rich week of learning across all subject areas. The children worked with purposeful concentration on writing, biology, geometry, and grammar lessons.

Writing

Our writing lesson focused on using the “because” clause to make writing more interesting and sophisticated. We practiced adding reasoning to our statements, which helps us explain our thinking more clearly. This technique naturally strengthens writing skills and the ability to articulate ideas.

Biology

In biology, we learned about how animals get their nutrition and the various bodily processes involved in this nutrition. The children explored ingestion, digestion, absorption, excretion, egestion, and how different animals have adapted unique systems for obtaining the nutrients they need. This sparked incredible conversations about the interconnectedness of body systems.

Geometry

The fourth-year students learned about congruence, similarity, and equivalence. They manipulated materials to discover how shapes can be the same, similar, or equal in different ways. The fifth-year students worked on finding the area of a trapezoid by cutting the height in half and multiplying by the sum of the major and minor bases. Watching them work through this process showed the beauty of the mathematical mind at work.

Grammar

Fourth graders learned about three types of adjectives: descriptive, article, and numeral adjectives. They practiced identifying these different types and understanding how each serves a unique purpose in our language. Fifth graders learned about the past perfect tense and when to use this verb form to show that one action was completed before another past action began.

Literature Circle

On Tuesday, we started our second session of literature circle. The children exchanged books with each other, and the excitement in the room was palpable as they discussed their reading assignments and prepared for their new roles. You will find the assignment, along with copies of each role sheet, posted on your child’s dashboard.

UPCOMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

This Week
Friday, October 24: No School – Student-Parent-Teacher Conferences

Next Week
Thursday, October 30: Halloween Celebration – Children may come dressed in costume and bring a pumpkin to school for pumpkin carving. We will carve pumpkins, have a costume parade, and share some yummy treats. Keep an eye out for an email to sign up and bring a snack to share at our party.

Friday, October 31: No School – MSC Conference

Have a wonderful weekend!

Karen

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” -Jane Goodall

We had a fantastic time at The Adventure Park earlier this week! It was the perfect first field trip of the year, providing real opportunities for the children to bond, encourage, and support one another outside the classroom. While helping each other on the high ropes course, I observed the children engaging in teamwork naturally. They challenged themselves to tackle courses with intimidating elements, cheering for one another and offering encouragement during difficult moments.

Overall, field trips are incredibly beneficial for children. They allow them to practice grace and courtesy, both with each other and the people they encounter outside of Fraser Woods. These outings help develop resilience, courage, and independence, while teaching children about our interconnectedness with nature and the world around us. Additionally, field trips offer opportunities for children to apply their knowledge in real-world settings and help them cultivate responsibility, manners, and cooperation.

Student-Parent-Teacher Conferences

At the upper elementary level, students are involved in their own parent-teacher conferences. They prepare ahead of time by reflecting on the weeks leading up to the conference, identifying both their strengths and areas for improvement. At the conference, they will share their work and their reflections with you. If you have not already signed up for a conference, please use this link to select your time. If you don’t see a time that works for your family, please reach out to me directly. I am happy to set up a time that works for you. Conference sign-ups close on Friday, September 17. 

Upcoming Important Dates:

• Tuesday, October 7: Field Trip to The Adventure Park at the Discovery Museum in Bridgeport. We would love to have parent volunteers on this trip. If you would like to join us, please reach out.
  • Please sign your child’s waiver here.
  • Bring a bagged lunch that day.
  • Dress in layers and wear sneakers (no open toed shoes or Crocs).
• Thursday, October 2: No School – Yom Kippur
• Thursday, October 9 @ 8:30: October Birthday Breakfast – Read about birthday breakfasts and view the year’s schedule here.

We had a great week in Upper El! We began the week with a writing lesson focused on sentence variety. We learned to identify four different types of sentences: declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory. In geometry lessons, the fourth graders explored six different types of quadrilaterals, while the fifth graders learned how to find the area of an acute triangle. In grammar, the fourths studied common, proper, and collective nouns, and the fifths focused on the agreement between pronouns and verbs in the present, past, and future tenses. The whole class examined an evolutionary strip and reviewed the common and taxonomic names of familiar animals in biology. In history, we began our lessons on humans’ closest relatives by discussing where we, as humans, fit in. We took a logical approach to determine the relationships between humans and other living animals.

This week, we launched this year’s Book Buddies program with our Kindergarten students. Each Friday morning, the Kindergarteners join Upper Elementary students for thirty minutes to read and be read to. This year, we have nineteen Kindergarten students, and each Upper El student is paired with a Kindergarten student to mentor throughout the year as our little friends learn to read and develop a love for books. Our Upper El students did an excellent job selecting books that were just right for their buddies. They showed patience and kindness, and each student felt a sense of pride when the half-hour session concluded.

We look forward to seeing you at Curriculum Night on Thursday at 5:30. Please take some time to review the slideshow that Jill will be sending. The evening will follow an Open House-style format, allowing you to explore some Montessori materials while learning about our school day and what to expect this year.

Welcome to a new school year, Upper Elementary families! We had a fantastic first two weeks filled with getting to know each other, sharing experiences, and learning together.

This week, we began our small and large group lessons. In history, we are exploring humans’ closest living relatives and how humans fit into the classification of life. In biology, we will study the vital functions of animals throughout the year. We kicked off our biology lessons by examining the classification system and the five kingdoms of life.

In geometry, fourth-year students learned about the seven types of triangles, while fifth-year students focused on calculating the area of parallelograms. In grammar, fourth graders explored common and proper nouns, and fifth graders began their study of verbs, starting with pronouns and simple tenses. Our writing lessons began with an exploration of the difference between a sentence and a fragment. All students are already working hard and collaborating with friends on independent work and other assignments.

We’ve also enjoyed setting our routines, selecting classroom jobs, and playing on the field, playground, and in the outdoor classroom woods.

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday, September 25, at 5:30 PM for Curriculum Night!