A kind, gentle North Austin community school
Every morning we prepare for our work time with a brief yoga session. Some are surprised that these active, wiggly, questioning 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds can sit for a few minutes of quiet breathing, movement and stretching. But clearly these kiddos themselves understand the rewards because they ask for it daily! After our early […]
Recently two of our older students, a 5- and a 5 1/2-year-old, have been enjoying working on embroidery together. And by recently, we mean, the past 6 or 8 weeks. They have done a few other Montessori works here and there, but sewing has been their main focus. It’s been long enough that we teachers […]
In early August HMS teachers returned, with our annual ritual of preparing the classroom for a new school year. With this unending heatwave we have also re-organized our normal daily schedule to accommodate the blistering afternoons. We’re used to spending the end of our school-day on our lovely playground, but this month we’re enjoying the […]
This spring when we began studying desserts a conversation was started among kids and adults. What we thought might be a few weeks’ study of food and nutrition was lengthened by the children’s enthusiasm and curiosity about cuisines and cooking and the stories that accompany our food choices. At first, we brought in pies and […]
In search of a theme that truly excites these young ones, what better than cakes, cookies, pies and ice cream!
Springtime is such a wonderful time of year – on the playground and inside our classroom.
All year long, we’ve been expanding our outdoor classroom, and this month was no exception. We’ve brought outside a full compliment of Practical Life materials for kids of all ages. These activities, such as pouring water, spooning rice, watering the flowers and sweeping (both practice and actual) are things that we do every day. These […]
“But what do humans do?” Khuloud asked during today’s lunchtime discussion about the sun and trees and what they “do.” After a moment to reflect, a 5-year-old responded “To not pollute the Earth!” Dr Maria Montessori spoke often of a Cosmic Education. She believed that we are all one, that the whole planet–plants, rocks, animals, […]
Monday might be his holiday, but today MLK would have turned 92. In honor of this event, and so that our young students might be aware of why Monday is a holiday, this morning we read a book about him, Martin’s Big Words (by Rappaport and Collier). (Note: for our ages, the story is abridged, […]
Our holiday materials are back It’s December, and that means cooler weather and new works on our shelves. After a month of smashing golf tees into pumpkins and learning the parts of a turkey, now we’ve moved on to cutting out snowflakes, learning the parts of a snowman and sorting wreaths and candy canes. but… […]
This morning everyone arrived in costume for some Halloween fun with witches & skeletons, turtles & sharks, Batman & Violet, and even a unicorn and an entomologist! We can’t lie, we missed our usual costume parade, Sing-a-Long and Parent Social and other fun from yesteryear, but kids love their pretend play and of course costumes […]
This fall, enjoying the outdoors is our #1 prevention tactic against “the virus”–as the children call it. As such, it seems appropriate to use this space to discuss just how our playground operates. This post is not about is how, little-by-little, we’re bringing our Montessori academic materials outside–that’s an on-going, still-evolving structural change to be […]