The path had begun years ago, but COVID expedited our emphasis on spending time on our playground.
Category: Success
Dia de los Meurtos
At HMS, we regularly talk with children about death as part of the natural life cycle. After all, the children have seen dead bugs, some have had pets die or have even experienced death in the family. Death is a part of life so this is not a topic that we shy away from when […]
Spooky new materials are on the shelves
We routinely change out the materials on our shelves. With the turn of the calendar and the change in the weather, this weekend the teachers were busy making new works. The children were eager to try out the new materials, including a variety of counting works, coloring calaveras, basting water into pumpkin molds and the ever-popular […]
Birthdays as History Lessons
Like many Montessori Schools, we go out of our way to celebrate birthdays. We do so in a way that emphasizes the passage of time a child’s life. The children discuss how the Earth goes around the sun each year, getting an idea of their place in time. Essentially these are among the first History and Science lessons […]
New Year, New Works
This new school year has brought with it some brands new works on our shelves: flowers and dinosaurs. With the help of our awesome parent community who brought in some cut flowers, we are happy to offer a flower-arranging tray for our students. To complete this multi-step work, they are asked to choose from the available […]
Friends help friends
One aspect of Montessori that differentiates it from mainstream schools is the multi-age classroom. At any given time, about 1/3 of the students in our classroom are in their third year at HMS. In fact, a Kindergarten student is in her fourth year with us. Thus, in our classroom, when a child asks a teacher for help it […]
Springtime is here
Springtime has arrived, both on our playground and inside the classroom. Bugs are on the shelves and blue and yellow (ahem, green) paints are on the easels. Art class has been outside several times, “baby” loquats and peaches are on the trees, butterflies flit around the playground, and flowers tend to come into the classroom. […]
Love for Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is a popular one for children. We started a few weeks ago with various heart-shaped materials on our shelves (why do we rotate our shelves?) and discussions of what and who we love. This week, students brought in their homemade Valentines to the school, and, like past years, the holiday culminated with our […]
The Differentiated Classroom
Visitors to HMS marvel at the varied activities going on at the same time. This morning we noticed these two age-appropriate activities happening at the same time. To the untrained eye, these may seem two different activities, but what is going on is simply that children of different ages have different abilities. It is well-known […]
Back to Work
After a break from the classroom for the holidays, this morning the students were eager to get back to their Montessori works. As usual after breaks from school the children arrived to find the usual Montessori materials on the shelves (middle and bottom photos), mixed in with some new items to work with (top photo).
We ❤️ our Camping Trips
A few years ago (maybe it was in our first year?) our parents suggested that we get together for a school camping trip. With Khuloud and Rick both being avid campers, it was a go. That first trip at Mother Neff State Park was such a joy that it became an annual occurrence. And then, […]
How do we develop such young readers?
We’ve seen it again and again–the young child of just 1 or 2 years old who really, REALLY wants to read. They eagerly watch the older children in our classroom. They look at picture books and say they they are reading. All of our little students are so eager to read books, but it takes […]