A kind, gentle North Austin community school
Our students have had several examples of the circle of life recently. Death can be a topic that adults hesitate to discuss with children, but in truth it is all around us. In October, we had several examples. Our students carefully planted a small garden of broccoli and kale. But one morning last week we […]
Many thanks to one of our moms who came to school this morning to help our students work with pumpkins out on the playground. Everyone had the chance to draw or stamp on a pumpkin, poke holes in it (“carving”) and/or scoop out the gooey meat and seeds. Fun times!
A couple of weeks ago, we received 10 caterpillars for our classroom. In a little over a week, they had each made their chrysalis, only this year the butterflies emerged much more quickly than they did last year. Several of them emerged from their cocoon during the school day while the curious students were able […]
Yesterday Mrs Laura stayed a bit longer than usual and joined the students on the playground for an extended music class. It was even more kinesthetic than usual, with versions of “High and Low,” “I’m a Little Monkey,” and “You Walk and You Walk and You Stop.” And, for the first time our younger students […]
Dr Maria Montessori’s curricula have been used in schools for over 100 years. One of the main concepts behind of her ideas is control of error; the material design sets the child up for success–and growth–through small, acceptable failures. After 2 years in our classroom, our students are so accustomed to accepting new challenges and learning from their […]
One of the popular themes so far this year has been our “Air, Land or Water” materials. Part of our Montessori Science curriculum, these works can come in a variety of forms; check out two of them here.
Many thanks to one of our creative dads for our new water work. These mobile green ramps (“slides” to the kids) are fun for all. We have learned about water flow and the children quickly figured out how to conserve the water and recycle it to create the “waterfalls.” The older students are interested in […]
Our classroom is warm and dry, and busy as always. But we still love to go outside! On this spring’s un-sunny days, we like to have fun in the mud… mudplay from Highland Montessori School on Vimeo.
A popular topic among many of the older students last week was the planets, so true to Montessori our teachers followed that interest and we got out some of our spacey books and materials, and the students created some of their own. They are still busy with them this week!
Montessori schools have big closets. Well, ours is a shed, but the point is that we have more available for children in storage than is actually out on the shelf. Of course, there are some always-available Montessori classics like the pink tower, counting rods, continent maps, and sandpaper letters, but much of our classroom is in […]
Children love to construct, and to de-construct. This is part of the imaginary play in which every child engages. In a Montessori classroom, the building materials are specially-designed to promote future success in math and reading. The blocks and cylinders are built at proportional increments. A child working with these materials will intrinsically become acquainted with […]
Our little scholars have returned from Spring Break and went right back to work. Our teachers couldn’t help but notice that the children themselves must be feeling the Spring Fever, as their choices of works seem to reflect the warm breezes that we are feeling outside….