We survived camp in spite of hiking in the pouring rain, finding an unexpected scorpion in the shower, crossing a swinging bridge, and a slight stumble that ended in stitches! A few favorite experiences were a night hike where we listened for animal sounds, a vulture swooping over our heads, catching a baby salamander, and petting an eastern box turtle and corn snake. A good time was had by all!
This week the 3rd grade students will be at Camp McDowell Wednesday through Friday. Everyone is anticipating a fabulous time learning together in the great outdoors! First and second grade students are looking forward to having their turn at camp when they become third graders. While the older students are away, 1st and 2nd grade will follow the regular school schedule and enjoy their lessons with Ms. Genie. On Monday, we were invited to a fascinating presentation of historical figures in upper elementary at their Wax Museum. The students enjoyed this educational time learning about individuals from history who have made significant contributions in our world. The students’ homework “math-a-daisies” were beautiful! We could tell that a lot of time was spent on these fun math equations. Pictures are posted below.
This week’s schedule has been very different, but we’ve had a lot of fun activities to enjoy! Monday, we viewed the solar eclipse with special glasses, Tuesday, we enjoyed a matinee performance of The Lion King, and Wednesday, we had fun laughing along with Junie B. Jones at the Birmingham Children’s Theater. Next week will also be an unusual week as the 3rd-graders will be gone to Camp McDowell Wednesday through Friday. 1st & 2nd grade students will have a normal schedule. Don’t forget the community performance of The Lion King at the school tonight at 6:30. You won’t want to miss this entertaining performance with delightful songs, incredible scenery, and marvelous acting!
April is a very busy month here at Bruno Montessori, so please be sure to check the school calendar and your email for information about all the upcoming events.
Third graders visited upper elementary last Friday morning. This was a fun opportunity for them to experience what school will be like as an upper elementary student!
Yesterday, April 8th, we went outside to view the solar eclipse. The school ordered special glasses for the safety of the students. The clouds kept us from having a clear view at times, but we enjoyed the part we did see! The next total solar eclipse that occurs in the contiguous states will be in August of 2044.
Please remember to sign up for a conference to discuss your child’s progress if you have not done so already. Conference times are available Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons, April 10th – 12th. School will dismiss early at 1:00 on Thursday and Friday. We look forward to meeting with everyone!
On Wednesday morning, April 10th, lower elementary will be going to the children’s theater to see Junie B. Jones. We’ll be back at school in time to eat lunch.
The school will present The Lion King on Friday, April 12th at 6:30. Please be sure to come see this wonderful program that students have been practicing!
Last week in class, students continued their work with syllables and plurals. In addition, they had lessons on how to read political maps and the parts of a seed. First-graders continued to practice prepositions, static and dynamic subtraction, and subtracted fractions with common denominators. Second-graders worked on adverbs, multiplied fractions by a whole number, and repeated subtraction for division. Third-graders continued their work with conjunctions and division and multiplied fractions by whole numbers.
The beautiful spring weather has given the students many enjoyable days of recess and P.E. They have appreciated the opportunity to observe new life on the playground. Some students enjoyed discovering beetle larvae underground, while others watched the male and female cardinals at the birdfeeder. Inside the classroom, we celebrated Pi Day by engaging in lessons about circles. Students measured the circumference and diameter of various circles to see how close they could get to the 3.14 ratio. They also strung beads to represent the first 10 digits of pi and tied them into necklaces. In addition, they proved pi with the Montessori geometric circles.
We had a special Ramadan presentation on Friday, March 15th that explained the celebration of this Muslim holiday and the different ways families celebrate. Beautiful lanterns were given out to students and everyone had the opportunity to try dates! Both lower elementary classrooms were presented with Ramadan calendar boxes that suggest a good deed to practice each day of Ramadan. Thank you to Maria’s and Zamaar’s families for teaching us about your traditions!
On Wednesday, March 20th, we had a special visit from Kaden’s parents to discuss the Easter holiday and the family traditions their family celebrates. Each student received an Easter egg with a poem and a treat. Kaden’s dad read a story explaining the Christian meaning of the holiday. Thank you to Kaden’s parents for sharing the story of what Easter means to their family!
Please remember, the school is closed next week for Spring Break. We hope you all enjoy time with friends and family! We’ll see everyone on Monday, April 1st.
Although this week was a short one, students have accomplished a lot in the classroom. There were many moments of peaceful work during the morning work cycle when students focused intently on the jobs they had chosen. The following article was written by Paula Lillard Preschlack from The Montessori Foundation. It can be found in its entirety at https://www.montessori.org/author/paula-lillard-preschlack/
In the Montessori educational approach, the development of concentration is foundational. Maria Montessori recognized, as early as 1906, that developing one’s ability to concentrate was essential to all else and, therefore, she began her work with this end in mind.
Daniel Goleman, Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi, and other scientists, psychologists, and educators recognize concentration as a deep, engaged state in which the heart rate slows, the brain becomes active in measurable ways, and it synthesizes information. The personality becomes calm, self-controlled, and powerful. Csikzentmihalyi coined this state as “flow,” and Daniel Goleman calls it “attention,” or “focus.” When people are intensely interested in what they are doing and able to shut out external stimuli, we can say that they are fully concentrating. Concentration can also take on the quality of being acutely aware of one’s surroundings and sensorial information, while simultaneously giving focused attention to one chosen thing. We call this being “mindful.” In a Montessori classroom, both the intense concentration that shuts out external stimuli and the subtle awareness of all that is around you (mindfulness) are being developed. In the classroom, a child flows from one state to the other throughout the day, responding to an environment that encourages both of these states. The Montessori environment encourages these states with long, uninterrupted work periods of up to three hours.
With this important goal of developing concentration, Montessori set out to develop materials that would not only attract the child’s attention but help him to build organization in his mind, learn about the real qualities of the world around him, and explore the minute differences in qualities so that he could see further details and categorize them in the wealth of information he discovers. Montessori pointed out that the child’s entire personality is transformed by this growing ability to concentrate, as he becomes more and more in control of his own mind and body. Over time, a calmer, more clear-thinking personality emerges.
Outside of school, parents can support this amazing development of concentration by being aware of how sensitive young children are to their surroundings: Be as ‘present’ and ‘mindful’ as you can when you pick them up from school; leave the phone ringer off and tucked away when you are with your children; give them your attention and take the opportunities to be aware of the smells, sights, sounds of nature around you as you walk slowly to your car; talk with your children in the car, pointing out the changing colors of leaves on the passing trees, the weather of the sky; sit down at your table to eat together and take your time; steer the conversation to the ‘here and now’ rather than a list of activities that will follow. We cannot force concentration, but we can create conditions for it to develop. As a parent, if you feel you cannot create ideal conditions for concentration, then make safeguarding against the obstacles to it your main goal. The most common obstacles to avoid are constant interruptions and televisions/screens/electronic toys.
Montessori — through her scientific observations of children — was able to point out how important concentration is for optimal development and the creation of an educational approach enhances it in every way. She had no brain-imaging machines to prove the psychological phenomena she was seeing, but we certainly do today. And we can see the way our children become their best selves when they are able to concentrate on what they are doing. With concentration, not only are children more successful in their tasks and skill development, they also become more aware of (and empathetic to) those around them. Montessori told us:
“The first essential for the child’s development is concentration. It lays the whole basis for his character and social behavior. He must find out how to concentrate, and for this he needs things to concentrate upon. This shows the importance of his surroundings, for no one acting on the outside can cause him to concentrate. Only he can organize his psychic life. None of us can do it for him. Indeed, it is just here that the importance of our schools really lies. They are places in which the child can find the kind of work that permits him to do this.” (The Absorbent Mind, 1967.)
Happy late birthday to Ms. Genie! As many of you know, Ms. Genie’s birthday is on leap day, so this year she had an opportunity to celebrate on the actual day of her birthday. This was an extra special birthday for Ms. Genie as she celebrated her sweet 16!
Thank you for joining us for Parent Night last week. The children were so proud to demonstrate how they use the beautiful Montessori materials and to show parents what they have been learning this year.
We also had a visit from Dr. Denny last week. Students thoroughly enjoyed examining the different types of braces and retainers. Thank you to Dr. Denny for teaching us all about the importance of taking care of our teeth!
In the classroom last week, first graders continued their work with suffixes and verbs. They had a new lesson on using apostrophes to show possession. Second and third graders also continued extension work on suffixes. While the second graders diligently practiced using adverbs, third graders continued to work on reflexive and intensive pronouns themselves. Everyone proceeded to work on estimation and fractions, as well as receiving new lessons on measuring perimeters. A favorite work in the classroom last week was the life cycle of the frog. The students enjoyed matching the model of each stage of a frog’s life to the cardwork that explained the changes that occur during that stage.
Please remember there will be no school this Friday, March 8th as it is the weekend of the annual AMS conference.
Maria Montessori believed that Cosmic Education helps children become aware of our unity with other humans and with the world around us. The more awareness we have, the more we are connected as people, sharing common goals for our growth and progression. Essentially, human unity in diversity is the goal of Cosmic Education. It is through the understanding of interdependency and connectedness that the Montessori method teaches peace education, a pillar of Cosmic Education. Peace comes from genuine harmony among people. Unity, peace, and harmony are goals that we have been focusing on in the classroom for the past couple of weeks. The students are learning to work together as a community to bring peaceful work periods back into the classroom. We have had several classroom discussions to share ideas with one another on how best to approach this goal. Please invite your child to share their thoughts with you on how they can do their part to make the classroom more peaceful.
Last week, Ms. Genie introduced the continent of Australia to the students. They are enjoying creating maps and performing research to learn more about this captivating continent. Students are continuing to practice addition and subtraction of fractions and memorizing the multiplication facts, while some are working on converting fractions to decimals and percentages. Language lessons have included work with prefixes and suffixes for all grades. First graders are learning the function of the verb, second graders have been introduced to adverbs, and third graders have been working with reflexive and intensive pronouns. In addition, we discovered some amazing civil rights leaders and athletes during Black History Month.
It has been a busy month with discussions and celebrations of Chinese New Year (Thank you to Kaden’s parents for sharing their knowledge and traditions!), Mardi Gras, Valentine’s Day, and President’s Day!
We’re looking forward to seeing everyone for Parent’s Night next Tuesday, February 27th, from 5:30 to 6:30!
Ms. Genie and Ms. Stefanie
What a wild week. All two days! It was a fast and furious week with Martin Luther King Jr. Day and two weather days. Mrs. Genie created a wonderful short work plan for us. We gave lessons on triangles by angles, grammar, and more. The kids were able to use microscopes to look at various slides. One contained algae from our own pond. We discuss the powerful work of Dr. King on Thursday. On Friday, the kids presented their science projects. What a blast! All the kids worked so hard. 🙂
January 3rd-January 12th
It has been so wonderful being back in the classroom with the kids! Last week, we wrapped up some lessons that had been given before this break. This past week, we hit the ground running with lots of new lessons. In cultural studies, Mrs. Genie taught a history lesson on various New Year’s Day traditions from around the world. I presented a lesson on microscopes. Next week students will have an opportunity to view the water from our very own Bruno pond. Some students started their research projects on Africa. Don’t forget that on Friday, the children will present their science projects. Hope to see you all there!
The pictures from this week highlight the beauty of the multi-age classroom. In these photos, you will see how working together best supports learning. This builds a sense of community as well as offers an opportunity for our children to become leaders. Leadership instills confidence and helps children solve problems creatively, work in a team, and work collaboratively with others. As we often say, “Teamwork makes the dream work!”
