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January 2008 News
Enrollment Intentions Due Monday, February 4
Parents of students already enrolled at Peaceful Pathways Montessori must turn in re-enrollment contracts and applications by this Monday. After this time enrollment will be open to the public and your child's space may be filled by another child.
A Visitor in Elementary
A wise man named Caspar came to visit our elementary classroom and talk about meeting Jesus. He explained what it was like to grow up and become part of the Magi and how the Magi traveled to seek out the star over Bethlehem. The children got to ask him questions about his travels and they also enjoyed seeing what myrrh is. There were many other facts the children learned as they listened to Caspar's talk.
Working Hard in Primary
Here are some photos from one of our primary classrooms this month. The children are concentrating and really getting along so well. We have nearly reached the half point of our year and it is so fun to see what the children have learned.
Math is everywhere! Here are students identifying, dividing, sequencing, and adding numbers. The third photo is a student sensorially putting together a model of the trinomial equation . Math becomes so exciting and hands on!
Punching work and using the metal insets builds the strength in the fingers to prepare for writing.
Matching up letter sounds and taking time to read a book on tape are enjoyable language works.
And now some photos from elementary this week . . .
Here a student has decided to take a close look at some sprouts under a microscope.
Here a student is taking time to arrange musical notes on the music staff.
Parts of the Frog
There is a new work in the Elementary room. The student have all enjoyed a new work brought in by a classmate. It shows all the inside parts of a frog. The students have enjoyed taking it off the shelf and naming the organs that are found inside the frog.
It's Snowing in Elementary
It may be record warm temperatures outside but inside elementary we are talking about SNOW! We read the book "I Am Snow." Inside the book are directions to make tissue paper snowflakes.
We tried our hand at making the snowflakes with the tissue paper in our classroom.
It was exciting to open the snowflakes up and see our creations!
Then we talked about how snowflakes/crystals all have six sides. We counted the sides on our snowflakes and then looked at some photos of real snowflakes. We used the identification chart to see what our snowflakes looked like.
Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday
There will be NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 21 in observation of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. Here are the books that were read in the Elementary Classroom to remember Dr. King:
The children also watched Dr. King's famous speech.
The Science Behind the Genius Discussion
On Thursday, January 17 and 24, 2008 Peaceful Pathways will be hosting a two part discussion and video presentation of Angeline Stoll Lillard’s lecture on her book “The Science Behind the Genius” at our Children’s House Campus (corner of Route 47 and Route 126) at 7:00p.m.
The sleeve of her book explains: “Traditional American schooling is in constant crisis because it is based on two poor models for children’s learning: the school as a factory and the child as a blank slate. School reforms repeatedly fail by not penetrating these models.
One hundred years ago, Maria Montessori, the first female physician in Italy, devised a very different method of educating children, based on her observations of how they naturally learn. Does Montessori education provide a viable alternative to traditional schooling? Do Dr. Montessori’s theories and practices stand up to the scrutiny of modern-day developmental psychology? Can developmental psychology tell us anything about how and why the Montessori methods work?
In Montessori, Angeline Stoll Lillard shows that science has finally caught up with Maria Montessori: current scientific research provides astounding support for her major insights. Lillard presents the research concerning eight insights that are foundational to Montessori education and describes how each of these insights is applied in the Montessori classroom. “
Everyone interested in education, at all levels should attend this discussion/viewing. This evening may be especially helpful to parents who are considering Montessori elementary. This discussion is open to the public. Please call or email the school to RSVP for this event.
