A kind, gentle North Austin community school
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 […]
Maria Montessori tells us to “Respect all the reasonable forms of activity in which the child engages and try to understand them.” So when our teachers recognize that some of our young scholars need some down-time, even on the playground, we respond. The photos below show the kids’ appreciation of their teachers’ efforts.
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….
With the awesome help of two of our parents, we now have a lovely new garden in the playground, surrounding our spritely young oak tree. In the spirit of the idea that you will take care of what you create, the students planted all of the new plants! One more from Friday, when we took […]
This morning, we let the butterflies go! Once we brought the aquarium outside, all five of them spread their wings and put on a show which the children enjoyed watching. After letting them acclimate to the air for a few minutes, Khuloud removed the top but they didn’t fly right out. They seemed to want […]
Many thanks to one of our fantastic moms for helping our budding artists make celery-print Valentines last week!
Photos courtesy of Dorte.
Many thanks to one of our wonderful parents for sharing a story with our students this morning, and helping with a craft to illustrate it. First, we read about how Peter woke up on a snowy day and went outside to play. Then, each student made a 3D illustration based on the Peter’s fun day.
This morning we had a visitor–one of our Grandpas–and he shared his rock collection with us! There were lava rocks, crystals, fossils and even a meteorite!
Tuesday, Feb 16: We released the butterflies to nature this morning, and all five flew away! Saturday, Feb 13: While at school this afternoon, Rick noted the last butterfly has emerged! It’s the smallest of the five. Wednesday, Feb 10: This morning we arrived to the third butterfly and the fourth, the smallest one yet, secretly and […]
As any teacher at any level knows, one of the keys is to find ways to interest the students in the topic at hand. Who doesn’t love panda bears? For many of our students, our pandas help bridge from counting out loud to counting objects to “labeling” the sets with the number. For pre-school age children, […]