Classroom Matters
Teachers and students from each class have provided the content below, please enjoy!
October 2022
Primary Level
Leah & Virginia
All of the leaves are changing color
They are falling from the trees
And the wind begins to blow them
And the leaves begin to dance
La la la, la la la, la la la la la la la
La la la, la la la, la la la la la la la
Leaves are falling
All around
Falling till they touch the ground
hmm, mmm, mmmm
The joys of the season shower us all with such abundance. This can lead to endless opportunities for modeling and expressing gratitude. So please take the time to truly appreciate your surroundings and verbalize the splendor revealed after a year’s steady dedication with your child. The work that was tirelessly done by the worms, the chickens, the bees, and the farmers (to name just a few) brings us such a cornucopia of goodness to revel in and enjoy with each and every sense, and we still have so much of the season to look forward to!
October led us into the season of change. We explored patterns of animals that live outside all year around. Our regional foragers who stay put and find food all winter long, our hibernators who hide away and sleep for months, and our migrators who move someplace where food will be abundant… or so they hope! With one classroom work, students practiced hiding model acorns around the room and then faced the challenge of finding them all! Now we all understand why squirrels play such an important role in planting new oak trees!
We explored living and nonliving things in the world and how each has its place and purpose, often leading to a web of being where we can see how all things are intricately woven together, interdependent, and supporting each other. We examined the differences between naturally existing things versus human-created things. We will spend more time understanding the journey of items in our lives, from our pants to our hats, our bananas to our pasta. Understanding the matrix of the world is necessary when cultivating a sense of responsibility and compassion for the various parts of that world.
We talk about the life cycles of the seasonal stars – this month: the pumpkin. Ask your child about the journey of the pumpkin seed into sprout; sprout into vine; vine into leaves and yellow flowers; flowers into little pumpkin; little pumpkin into the “great big pumpkin growing… on the pumpkin vine!” The students could examine each part of the pumpkin with a closed dissection, eventually leading to most of the senses being involved! They saw the parts, smelled the flesh, felt the pulp, and tasted the seeds… we also listened carefully to the sound when it was a whole pumpkin, as it was cut open, and even as the pulp and seeds were pulled out and separated! And – when we sang about pumpkins… “on the pumpkin vine”!
Donyan & Linda
“The month is October
The air’s getting cold
The leaves are all changing
To red and to gold.”
We are noticing the changing leaves and changing weather. Students are using the Botany Cabinet to create autumn leaves.
We are talking about the changing weather and clothes. We are practicing zipping zippers, snapping snaps, and buttoning buttons. We encourage students to wear proper footwear, hats, gloves, and rainpants. It’s great to see students growing independent in their care!
“The month is October
And up in the sky
The geese are all traveling
And south, they will fly.”
We appreciate the sounds of honking geese as they fly over the playground. We notice the chipmunks as they scurry to gather food for Winter. Thus begins our study of hibernators, migrators, and foragers.
“The month is October
There is so much to do
Go apple picking
And pick pumpkins too!”
Parts of the apple and parts of the pumpkin are being practiced daily. We sing songs that allow us to become apple trees and notice pumpkins growing on a pumpkin vine.
We also made individual apple pies this month! YUMMY!
“The month is October
And ghosts I have seen
We’re out trick or treating
It’s now Halloween.”
We are studying parts of the skeleton and parts of the body. It’s fun to know that under all our skin is a skeleton similar to the skeletons we see around town this time of year. We save this study for this time of year to demystify the fear that might happens seeing skeletons this time of year!
As always, students are practicing letter sounds, and some are even building words and reading! Math is explored by counting apples and playing games involving adding, subtracting and number writing! Triangle boxes and cube puzzles are practiced in the Sensorial Area. Mazes are built with the Red Rods. In Practical Life, we are stirring “brews” and rolling pie dough.
We are always practicing what it means to be community members in our classroom and the world. We are looking at the world map and talking about how people came to be on our continent of North America.
Stay well and stay warm!
Extended Day
Meridith & Becca
We are about two months into the school year, and the Extended Day students are settling into their daily and weekly routines. Extended Day is an important culminating year in the Montessori three-year curriculum. Students have developed many skills needed to function independently (dressing, sweeping, asking for help when needed, etc.). This is a year in which they strengthen their executive functioning skills in various ways, such as sitting and attending longer lessons, keeping track of their belongings, and talking through conflicts with peers.
A very exciting Extended Day milestone that occurred a few weeks ago was that each child received their own work folder containing their Math and Language books. The work folders are symbolic of the student’s increased maturity and ability to be responsible for the work that they complete. The books help them track what work they have done and what comes next, and the students use them daily. Additionally, we have started writing practice twice a week, in which they work on proper number and letter formation. The students have taken writing practice very seriously, paying slow, careful attention to how each number is formed.
Another feature of Extended Day is that the students are now trusted to have specialty teachers for Art, Spanish, Music, and PE. This privilege comes with the responsibility of continually following the rules and respecting others, in spite of transitions to other teachers and spaces.
With the end of October came a celebration of pumpkins. Specifically, we learned about the parts of a pumpkin, hammered nails into a pumpkin, drew faces onto a pumpkin, polished gourds for decorating our classroom, and – best of all – baked pumpkin seeds. All the students tried a pumpkin seed, even if they weren’t sure if they would like it, and many came back for seconds!
Junior Level
Melani & Cindy
This month has flown by! We’ve been very busy, and lessons are being given in every curriculum area. Students are developing independence and practicing using their Red Work Folders to make work choices. They are completing work cycles without the assistance of teachers. Older students are helping younger students, friendships are developing, our community is forming, and Peace is palpable.
We completed our study of The Coming of the Universe, Galaxies, Stars, and Planets, and our studies have landed on Earth. We’ve looked at both the Layers of the Earth and its Atmosphere. The study of the Earth offers a deep dive into Biomes and animals and people of the Biomes. Card material, Puzzle Maps, and Settera (an online interactive map application) are ways students learn about continents, countries, land and water forms, and political lines.
Students are exploring the evolution of animals and plants. The first years study External Parts, the Second year’s Body Functions, and Third Years delve into Classification, learning Latin names and nomenclature. Soon, we will begin the beloved journey through the Timeline of Life.
Everyone has successfully moved through the math skills review and are challenged with daily practice and new concepts. The third years have completed a study of fractions and have jumped into Division excitedly using the Test Tubes to divide to the millions!
Younger students are writing to 1000 in a book of 100s and honing skills in abstract, dynamic Subtraction. Multiplication on the Checkerboard and the study of multiples on short and long chains fill rugs on the floor. Many students are using the Stamp Game and Golden Mat to solve Addition and Subtraction equations. It is a wonderland of math, with each child working their way through at a pace comfortable to them.
Our Spelling program is in full swing, and the students are completing weekly Spelling lessons. Each week a new concept is given, and there are five days of exercises to support the concept. Every day, each child writes a sentence and symbolizes and colors the function of words using Montessori Grammar symbols. This exercise encourages many lively conversations about words!
We continue to discuss our ‘identities,’ and each child finds their unique self in each activity.
Science Experiments are fun and engaging. For example, students have learned about Deposits, Suspensions and Solutions, and Saturated Solutions. Crystals are growing in jars on the counter, and the Volcano, or Chemical Reaction, is an ongoing favorite.
We had our first Buddy meeting on ABR day. Buddies galloped around the Field Of Dreams together, having fun eating apples and participating in different activities. There were masks with red lips, drumming, reading, chalk art, and giant bubbles floating across the pond.
On Halloween, Cindy brought in different species of apples grown by a local farmer. We had an apple tasting! The ‘flavor discovery’ supported the study of adjectives as we all described the smell and taste of each unique variety. Juicy words filled the whiteboard, and our list of descriptive words was long.
Please plan for approaching COLD weather. It is a different biome on the hill, and we go outside in all weather! Providing winter wear that students can zip independently and completely dress themselves supports their independence and keeps them safe. Take notice of layering boots with snow pants that cover ankles and snow mittens and coats that cover wrists. Thank you so much for your attention and participation.
We look forward to seeing each of you and having the opportunity to chat with you about your child at parent conferences! It is so fulfilling to be back in a three-year model, and watching the students develop and grow is continually inspiring.
In-joy these last days of fall,
Melani and Cindy!
Deb & Karlem
As the last of the leaves fall off the trees and the weather continues to be spookily warm, our classroom feels more and more settled every day.
We continue to spend the early mornings focusing on spelling books and math lessons for the different levels. Math lessons with materials happen individually or in small groups, and the students continue to practice until something clicks and they make the move to abstraction. Math facts in addition and multiplication are also a big focus for the students.
As a new classroom project, we have started a temperature weaving on the loom. Students will look up the average temperature daily and pick the assigned color for that range to add a line to our loom weaving. This project will be a visual representation of the change in temperature during the school year and a fun, hands-on, collaborative project to which all students will contribute!
Some of what we have learned in the past month:
- Galaxies, Stars, and Constellations! Students are learning about a star’s composition and life cycle and studying the different constellations in the night sky. There is much to do to explore this theme, from drawing constellations to completing constellation pin maps to researching and writing about the myths that led to the naming of the different groups of stars.
- Biomes! Younger students are being introduced to the concept of a biome and all the elements that characterize it – water, soil, animals, plants, and temperature. The older students are delving into the different biomes and really trying to understand how each combination of features makes the landscape unique. This will eventually lead to the older students writing research papers on different cultures and how they’ve adapted to their environments.
- Science Experiments! Following the Coming of the Universe lesson, students are working on various science experiments set up for them on the shelves. They can work alone or with a buddy, pick up the materials, read the instructions, do the experiment, and fill out a follow-up worksheet describing their process and observations. This experience allows the students to have a hands-on approach to science and observe some of the natural laws that govern our universe in an exciting and fun way.
- Identity and Diversity! We have been covering identity lessons that help students see themselves and their uniqueness more clearly while understanding the wide diversity in the classroom and beyond. Most recently, students drew their families and shared the pictures with the rest of the class. We have also been slowly covering how people arrived in the United States and giving students an important history lesson on how the country was built. Finally, we describe indigenous people, colonizers, enslaved people, migrants, and refugees and how they each make up the fabric of our society.
- Picturing Writing! Students have been busy playing with words and creating beautiful works of art. Lions have been exploring techniques to depict weather patterns and start an introduction to poetry. Other students have been trying out painting techniques that showcase the light at different times of the day and using descriptive writing.
- STEM! We introduced a STEM Challenge for students – working in groups of three students from varying levels. They used a Zometool to build a structure supporting as many stacked books as possible. Students showed their creativity in this challenge, and we could see how their ingenuity allowed them to discover engineering principles independently. This activity was an exciting opportunity to collaborate and play while using their problem-solving skills for a real-life challenge.
We look forward to connecting with you during conferences and getting a chance to delve deeper into your students’ work in the classroom every day!
Becky & Sophia
October is upon us, and our students are energized by the changing weather and the exciting autumn holidays. Within the big embrace of our school community, our classroom is bustling and connected. We have been doing some tremendous social-emotional work this month as students develop their skills of empathy, compassion, leadership, and allyship. With some encouragement and nudging, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years are all stepping into their independence and beginning to feel pride and agency within the three-year Junior Level environment. We have also introduced our peace tray this month as students work through conversations about fairness, inclusion, and self-control. As a teacher, it is incredibly gratifying to see students using their voices in this way, as well as opening their hearts and ears to listen to others.
Our students have transitioned into a morning routine of independent spelling in the last two weeks, followed by a math choice. The math works in rotation are Infinity Street, the Golden Mat, Checkerboard multiplication, and even some Test Tube division. During spelling, students incorporate Montessori grammar symbols into their written sentences by identifying and symbolizing nouns, adjectives, articles, verbs, prepositions, and adverbs.
We have started our Time of Day Books, and the kids are joyfully expressing themselves as writers, poets, and illustrators! Our Time of Day lessons include conversations about juicy descriptive language, poetic sentence structure, similes, and personification. Meanwhile, the student’s watercolor illustrations of each time of day inspire their accompanying poems. Everyone in the community loves admiring each other’s gorgeous paintings!
We are still exploring the early universe in History, focusing on stars, galaxies, and planets. The students proudly created a watercolor Galaxy Gallery, and many are working on detailed Solar System posters coming your way soon. Other cultural works that have been keeping students busy this month include The Cosmic Mat, Stellar Nucleosynthesis (The Birth and Death of a Star), The 5 Kingdoms of Life, Chordates and Non-Chordates, and Biomes of the World.
We can’t wait to connect with you about your children at our upcoming zoom conferences!
Upper Level
Terry & Andrea
October always flies by so fast as daily routines are established, and energy goes into lessons and assignments. Most students have a good sense of how to use their schedule and planner and are successfully managing their workload. Some come to this naturally; others after years of purposeful effort. For additional support, some students are working with a daily and weekly plan as well. We have daily practice of organizing our cubbies and accordion folders. Everyone’s ultimate goal is to manage their time and belongings independently to meet due dates with their best quality work.
The last weeks in our Cosmic Curriculum have been immersed in studying the Native Americans of New York State, complemented with an amazing visit from Perry Ground of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Tribe. He brought in many objects to show us how the ancient Haudenosaunee met their fundamental needs from the resources in the environment. Our third years also researched aspects of the two major Native groups living in our state and presented their findings to the younger students. They also led our class in learning about the United Nations with information on the purposes and makeup of this peace organization.
In Human Biology, students have learned the basic organelles found in a cell and what they do. Then models of cells were constructed. Currently, we are examining the properties of the cell membrane, looking at the concepts of diffusion and homeostasis. Be sure to ask your student about our experiment with the egg.
Math work continues in many avenues. Various groups are working on applying proportions to real work situations, multiplying fractions using cross-canceling and long division, as well as divisibility rules. Geometry work for the third years has focused on parts of a circle as well as the concepts of similarity, congruence, and equivalency. Younger students are exploring the seven types of triangles and angles created by a transversal. Drawing/making a model and making a list are our latest strategies for solving word problems. We also had our first pass at team Math Olympiad challenges.
Our first field trip will be happening for our elder students as they visit Ithaca College to view the creation of the Mandala by the Tibetan Monks.
Students are taking on more jobs in the classroom. We have added a meteorologist to remind us of the weather so we can be appropriately prepared with outerwear. Our correspondent will bring us some current events each week at our Class Meeting on Thursdays, and our DJ is selecting three new songs to support us in making our transitions.
A Halloween tradition in Upper Level is to visit the “Mysteries of Harris Burdick” by Chris Van Alsburg. It contains a series of thought-provoking pictures which are used as prompts for crafting stories with twists that create suspense. There is such delight in sharing these stories and hearing how each student approaches the images in such unique ways.
In our Personal Journal work, we have shared thoughts about leadership and constructed personal affirmations. Our class officers have taken on the responsibility of running our Thursday Morning Meeting, so deftly orchestrating our discussions.
We are looking forward to having our first parent-teacher conferences with families. It is always wonderful to reconnect with returning parents and establish a relationship with our new families. Our third-year students are expected to participate in their conferences and will be preparing for this. The focus of these connections will be to share how the transition to this year is going from both family and teacher perspectives. In addition, it is a perfect time to set goals for the year.
See you soon – Terry and Andrea
Ms. Badsha & Ms. Cassy
Dear Seneca Class Families,
October has been full of new routines, excitement, and connections. Earlier on in the month, students had the opportunity to connect with their younger buddies on the Field of Dreams. It was beautiful watching students walk hand-in-hand and laugh with glee. Social connections took center stage this month as students worked collaboratively during subjects related to the Cosmic Curriculum, Math, or Language Arts projects.
In Math, students continue to work on +, -, x, and ÷ operations, fractions, ratios, and proportions. Students are building confidence and their application skills by engaging with Montessori materials. Students are deepening their knowledge of problem-solving in Math Strategy lessons. Students are encouraged to continue practicing their multiplication facts, which helps them in fraction and long-division concepts. Teachers have been tailoring lessons according to the current needs demonstrated by students. We have been designing lessons in the form of small groups, one-one lessons, and differentiated work assignments.
All three age levels have engaged in Writer’s workshop lessons in Language Arts. Students have been learning how to write book reviews, five-paragraph essays, and suspenseful “Harris Burdick” stories. Please check in with your student about this assignment to get all the spine-chilling, hair-raising details from their narratives! Additionally, students are currently working through their novel-study unit. Each novel was carefully selected to inspire dialogue about the present and historical events. The first-year students are currently reading “My Side of the Mountain.” The second-year students are reading “Number the Stars,” and the third-year students are reading “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.”
As part of our Cosmic Curriculum lessons, students were introduced to the power of the great river within our bodies – the circulatory system. We are currently studying the parts of the cell and their functions. Students are also putting on their cartography hats to study the topical and political geographies of New York State and the continent of Africa.
This is just a snapshot of our very busy month! We look forward to sharing more with you during parent-teacher conferences and cannot wait to share all the growth we are observing!
Sincerely,
Badsha and Cassy
Marianne & Elizabeth
For teachers and students, October is often the first of several sweet spots in the school year. For students and teachers, this has come to fruition in a particularly welcoming way. Returning to a 3-year, mixed-age grouped classroom, after 2½ years of separation, the children have melded together, creating a stimulating, cooperative, vibrantly social community. Group projects in Human Biology, Geography, Math, and Geometry have been launched by the adults, and the children step effortlessly into the roles of leader, negotiator, task manager, and production crew. We often stand back and marvel at how naturally this has emerged and at the competency of our class to delve into the content of a lesson, create and complete a project and maintain stimulating debate about the curriculum along the way.
Socially, we have begun exploring the ideas of peer conflicts through reading children’s stories, such as Draw the Line, One, and Two by Kathryn Otoshi, during daily morning group gatherings. Two opportunities for exploring these situations result – lively in-lesson discussions and a more personal follow-up in an assigned Journal writing. As is expected among young humans, conflicts are arising on the playground, and this class is especially effective at seeking adult support to unravel hurt or confused feelings.
October has also offered two opportunities to welcome visitors. Mr. Perry Ground, an internationally known Haudenosaunee speaker, visited our school on October 14th for a full day of storytelling and informational sessions. In our morning session, Mr. Ground, a Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation member, shared some of his cultural stories, including parts of his creation story. His storytelling is generously peppered with informational tidbits on the history and organization of the Haudenosaunee Confederation. In the afternoon, we learned how extensively natural resources were used centuries ago by his people to meet their fundamental needs and had the opportunity to see examples of tools, clothing, and foods of the Onondaga. This historical focus and creation story closely align with principles traditionally taught in Montessori programs.
Evidence that life is beginning to resemble our “old times,” the EACMSI community celebrated the birthday of our founder, Andrea B. Riddle, by partnering all children with their Buddies. Elders and youngsters paired up to enjoy a range of activities Andrea would have loved – creating and observing enormous soap bubbles, sampling different types of apples, playing music, listening to stories, and applying bright red lipstick, Andrea’s trademark, to masks. Nature graced us with perfect weather for our lively festivities.
October closes with one of the most popular Upper Level traditions, reading “Harris Burdick” by Chris Van Allsburg and writing eerie stories in the style of this book. The children cheer each year as we bring out these stories and listen intently to each peer’s story of one of the book’s illustrations.
Middle School
Middle School
October flew by while the Middle School hit its full stride!
At this writing, we just finished a day of Occupations which included our second all-school buddy connection with a “Buddy Bulb Planting” activity that was facilitated by the Land Stewardship Occupations Team. Read more about our Occupations curriculum below. First, a bit of curricular overview.
Throughout the Middle School curriculum, students are reading, viewing, and listening to a wide range of media as they take in and work with new ideas and information. We’ve been up to a lot over the last month! In our Humanities curriculum, students have been exploring identity and sense of place in a variety of ways. In addition to creating thoughtful symbols that represent some values they strive to uphold, students recently brought in short stories from a variety of genres that they found inspiring to share and talk about in small groups. We have also been reading and thinking with the memoir “The Distance Between Us,” providing lots of thoughtful communication about the struggles and the gifts of being human.
Haudenosaunee storyteller and speaker Perry Ground’s visit dovetailed nicely with our Humanities studies of indigenous cultures, which we’ve pursued through readings and a viewing of a recent lecture by Robin Wall Kimmerer (author of Braiding Sweetgrass) and in Science by a close viewing of Lyla June Johnston’s TEDx Talk “3000-Year Old Solutions to Modern Problems”. These opportunities and offerings are shaping our sense of place and local history as we work to understand and appreciate the culture and history of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ (Cayuga) people whose land we live on.
October 24 marked the United Nations’ birthday. To celebrate the work of the UN, Stephen assigned students to collaborate in small groups to build slide presentations of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
In Health, we have been exploring where our food comes from and the importance of being in relationship with, and caring for, the ground beneath our feet–from the micro-fauna in the soil to the mycelium, the plants, on up to us humans and other animals–we are all connected! This work has related well to our approach in Science as students study local native plants and trees and ways to enhance our soil as we rehabilitate our compost systems–the conventional compost bin that the Middle School maintains beside our building and a vermiculture (worm bin) system with which we’re just getting started.
In Science, we had our first outing using the school van. Jim had each of his Science groups hop in the van for a trip to the Sweedler Preserve at Lick Brook to appreciate some big trees and take in the anatomy of the forest there as we continued our studies of native plants and trees. It’s awesome to have such treasures nearby and the means to conveniently transport ourselves to them! This experience inspired some deeper investigation and research as students worked to finalize slide presentations on a chosen native tree, the second research project they’ve conducted so far.
In math, students are working hard to develop and solidify their understanding of algebraic concepts. Second year students are well along in this journey, representing a wide range of situations in the form of expressions and equations and exploring the many ways to solve equations from substitution to graphs and tables and the conventional algebraic steps that rely on properties of equality. Along the way, they are learning to show the process of their work beautifully in order to convey their abstract mathematical ideas clearly for themselves and others. First-year students have just finished a hefty exploration of number concepts by representing incredibly large and small numbers through scientific notation, have dabbled in the coordinate plane, and are stepping fully into algebraic ways of representing information in the context of expressions, equations, and formulas, across a wide range of contexts.
Our science studies often provide rich contexts for math applications. Students’ study of trees was enhanced by an application of the concept of similar figures (isosceles right triangles) as students learned to “measure the height of a tree with a stick!” and creating an estimate of the amount of carbon sequestered in a tree by measuring its diameter at breast height. The latter exercise took on special meaning as we pay homage to the many white ash trees on school property that are succumbing to the emerald ash borer and try to appreciate the carbon dioxide the trees have fixed in their tissue that would otherwise reside in our warming atmosphere (among many other attributes we’ve loved about those trees). Some of our first year students recently applied their understanding of surface area by measuring potential planting areas and using the spacing requirements of daffodil bulbs to determine an adequate amount of space for over 100 buddy pairs to plant over 300 bulbs on campus. When asked by an adult how they did such a good job calculating just the right amount of space to plant “all those bulbs,” the students replied matter of factly, “well, we measured and did the math”!
Upcoming trips off campus to kick off November include a hike to Ithaca College to appreciate the Tibetan Buddhist Mandala Project that Badsha’s husband, Eric Steinschneider, a professor of religion at Ithaca College, is organizing. We will follow the evolution of the mandala via webcam prior to and after our visit and are grateful to Eric for the time and expertise he shared with us on Thursday, November 3. Another trip we’re looking forward to is a day-long trip to Scranton to visit the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour, Anthracite Museum, and Steamtown National Historic Park on November 17.
In addition to a full academic schedule, Middle School’s Occupation’s curriculum hit its full stride in October. The Middle School schedule keeps Wednesdays flexible in order to engage in experiential, hands-on, collaborative work–in Montessori adolescent parlance, known as “Occupations.”
As is the case with our younger students, adolescents in our Middle School program are transformed through their Practical Life work. They value these purposeful activities as they gain real-world skills and independence. In the Middle School, Practical Life works grow in scope to become what we call “Occupations”. At this level, the student is presented with work with authentic value in the adult world–and the skills gained in an Occupation are skills that could one day contribute to economic independence in the society at large. Indeed, within EAC Middle School’s culture, occupations fulfill profound goals in service not only to the class community but the wider school and Ithaca community as well.
Students choose their occupations twice a year. This year’s occupations include food production (meal planning, test cooking/baking, and production for large enterprises such as our Community Lunches); micro-enterprise (overseeing myriad logistics, finances, marketing and outreach, customer service, pricing, projections, and so on); land stewardship and woodworking (charged with maintenance of the greenhouse, garden, compost and a variety of gardens across campus); and woodworking (building hands-on skills and creation of projects in service to land stewardship and our Cooking Team, as well as salable items). Although adults mentor, teach, and support these activities, these are not chores, not tokenistic work. Adults support students as they plan and execute tasks with a larger goal in mind.
Maria Montessori spoke frequently about the role of the adult in offering the developing young people the keys to unlock their potential within the context of Practical Life work. At each developmental stage, these keys unlock different things: the physical world for the primary child; the universe for the elementary child, and society for the adolescent. As our Occupations curriculum unfolds, we’ll report on more of the various teams’ activities. No doubt, some of our work will be announced to the entire school community soon as we share some of our creations more widely.
We’re looking forward to meeting with parents (with their students) during conferences. Students are hard at work reflecting on their experiences so far as they write their self-assessments that they will use as they lead their conferences.