Welcome, Parents!

I hope that you find this site to be easy to access at any time, on your cell phone or laptop anywhere, to view images of your children, share with grandparents and family, and to learn more about the Montessori Method. The first week of school was a very special transitional week for your child as we offered a variety of lessons on how to best utilize the studio and how to take care of our environment. We especially focused on the “ground rules” of the classroom, along with some very fundamental Montessori lessons to refresh everyone’s memory and to introduce material to our new students.

Last Week’s Schedule

Upon arrival each morning, children gathered for a circle time and joined in on some easy sing-alongs. Everyone also had a chance to “check in,” where they took turns listening to each other share about recent events.

Once everyone checked in, I offered some general lessons with colorful and conversational powerpoint images to review the ground rules and to get a visual for caring for our environment. The images make for great discussion questions to help bring awareness and appreciation to the safe and tidy environment that we have provided in our studio.

Below are just some of the various samples of imagery that we discussed to help add some visuals to our ground rules. If you get a chance, review these images with your child and see what they can remember and explain. I was so pleased with everyone tuning in and getting involved. We truly had some great class participation and thoughtful answers during the first week of school.

You get the picture. I’ve previously become a geek for putting together Powerpoint lessons (not just for students, but for training our teachers, too!). I just love this approach, since I can focus on specific areas of our studio as well as immediate discussion topics to help with the current needs and interests of our students on a variety of subject areas.

After large group lessons, we had snack time together. While they ate, we talked about caring for our lunch area, including lessons on grace, courtesy, clean up, and compost. Our students also learned about our self-serve snack area that will be offered during work cycles, along with pouring water from a pitcher, dish washing, how to clean a spill, and so forth.

Lots of lessons this week! I went over a good number of material to show how we can best utilize and organize our “work” by creating our own personal space with rugs, table mats, and table tops.

During transitional periods such as cleaning up after lunch, our students would gather and  look at books while waiting for the rest of their peers to use the restroom, clean up, pack containers in their lunch boxes, etc.

That’s Anisa in the center background of the above photo. She has jumped in quickly with the flow of our studio and has been very helpful with applying important concepts of the Montessori Method. With her Montessori background, she has learned to approach kids in a gentle and nourishing way, she has a great awareness of the little details that we look for in teaching lessons, and she is also able to multitask and juggle many responsibilities at once. I am definitely feeling more at ease about temporarily leaving during the maternity leave, knowing that we have such wonderful teachers who truly care about the education of our students and creating a nurturing and safe environment for them to grow in.

Work Cycles

Later in the week, our students had the opportunity to have a work cycle and practice utilizing the material on their own. Read more about our work cycles (also located in the “Extra Extra” section) if this is your child’s first year here in our Primary Studio.You may have noticed Luke helping students out in some of the above photos. He was one of our students who graduated last school year, and we are very proud of him with all of the things he has learned over the years with us. He’s reading, writing, solving simple math equations, loves science, etc., but more importantly, he is a thoughtful and creative child with a big heart when it comes to caring for himself, others, and the environment. Occasionally, our graduated students will come join us for a day or so while they are off from school, and we ask that they help out other students. It’s always a joy to stay in touch with graduates, and our current students truly appreciate their help.

About the Blog Photos

If you did not see your child in the above photos, I always like to mention, please don’t take it personally or get too concerned! I always have lots of photos of each child and it’s time consuming to sort through them. For the blog, I normally choose work cycle photos at random or I use certain photos to show a specific topic or material from a recent lesson. It doesn’t mean that your child isn’t staying busy! As many of you know, I always have plenty more to sort through that I will share with you during parent teacher conferences. I try to be mindful to show each child at least once throughout the blog post. Either way, it’s still helpful for you to go through the blog photos with your child to give them the opportunity to tell you more about their classroom, their peers, the things that keep them busy, etc.

Wrapping Up the Day

We often ended the day with an art activity where the kids might be encouraged to draw about activities that they did this summer, etc. All in all, everyone was very excited to be back at school, and all of the kids seemed happy and eager to learn. We were really impressed with how attentive everyone was overall, considering how long many of them have been off from school. Each child did their best to tune in and listen to lessons that will benefit them for future work cycles. They seem to have a good understanding and appreciation that learning the “ground rules” will benefit them in many ways. We look forward to watching them begin to take pride in their role of caring for the environment.

Learn the faces and names of all of our students by going to “The Cast” on the homepage toolbar, and as always, go through the list with your child to help them get familiar with new faces. If your child had a late start to the school year, they may not be listed yet, but we will be sure to add them in as soon as we get the chance!

Have a great week, everyone! I will continue keep you posted on our progress in the Primary Studio. I love to hear from parents that check into the blog and are making use of it, so please, periodically comment below to let us know that you stopped by! If you have any personal comments or concerns, please reach out via email.

Warm wishes for a happy school year,

Angelique

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