A kind, gentle North Austin community school
Much of the time our students spend at school is focused on developing their sense of order in the world, with the aim of improving their academic self and self-confidence, but we can’t help but also notice and enjoy the extent to which children enjoy and grow outside of the classroom–on the playground. The playground is intentionally […]
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 […]
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 […]
Five of our caterpillars made cocoons last night, and that wasn’t even the most exciting thing that happened today! We also had not one, not two, but THREE special visitors! First, we had a special Halloween visit from one of our student’s Grandma’s, who came all the way from New York City to help us […]
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.
The reviews are in. This morning our students saw, for the first time, the tires that were set up in the playground over the weekend. “That’s cool!” said one. “So much to climb!” said another. “They’re buried?” asked a skeptical third. We think they like it…
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!
Maria Montessori once lamented on “How often is the soul of man – especially in childhood – deprived because he is not allowed to come in contact with nature?” In this spirit, some of our families went camping together last weekend. By all accounts, a good time was had! (Many thanks to some of our parents–and […]
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….