A kind, gentle North Austin community school
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, […]
One of our favorite Montessori quotes is “The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.’ ” Last week we welcomed back our young students from Winter Break, including three new faces to our class roster. Despite the time […]
We had a wonderful time this morning at our family sing-along. Special thanks to Mrs Laura for the wonderful work preparing our young scholars for the songs. Happy Holidays to all! Student art on our door for the holidays! Spinning dreidels while everyone else sings “Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel…” We’re sad to say goodbye to one […]
Earlier this week, one of our parents visited school to talk to our little students learned about Hanukah. We learned all about the story of the lights, and we lit all eight candles on two (yes, two!) menorahs.
The past few weeks we have been learning our colors en espanol. So far, we know well rojo, naranja, amarillo y verde. Makes for some nice Christmas tree collages, eh?
We regularly add items to our Amazon Wish List, and even though we do the “adding” it’s still a surprise when they arrive. Big thanks to everyone who shops for us. Check out our latest addition to the classroom: Five rollers that each form 16 different words for our young readers!
Thursday afternoon, a giant, yellow inchworm was found in our school. The four and five-year olds who found it reported that it had 75 yellow segments, two antennae and a blue tail. It may also have been surrounded by butterflies and dragonflies, but sources disagreed on the identity of the flying insects. The witnesses also voiced […]
An often overlooked aspect of the Montessori Method is the control of error built into many Montessori works. The design of the work is such that the child learns from their mistakes. By so doing, the child must work through corrections until success is achieved. After repetition of these tasks, the young child is able […]
Getting ready for our Day of the Dead discussion/celebration, this morning we decorated our calaveras…. full-body style.
Special thanks to a parent volunteer for coming on Friday to help our young students carve some special, spooky HMS pumpkins. We learned a lot about seeds, being careful and “pumpkin goo.”
Last week, we installed a “Painting Glass” on the playground. This lets our young students be creative in a fun environment. They are able to use large brushes and, when done, wet the glass and squeegee off the paint–a lesson on the temporary nature of life’s moments.
One of the domains of a Montessori classroom is Practical Life, in which students learn and practice day-to-day skills such as pouring, buttoning, sorting, cleaning and more. One such skill is washing objects. To go with the season, our current washing work is a skull. This morning Khuloud demonstrated the steps involved (see photo below). Parents, […]