April (Spring!) Newsletter 2021
Happy spring, everybody! As sad as we are to see this short winter come to an end, we could not be more excited to welcome spring with open arms! Read on for more information about what we are studying in our classrooms, plans we’re making as we look to the future, and important dates to mark on your calendar. Thank you for taking the time to look this over and, as always, please reach out if you have any questions!
Re-Enrolling with MMCH…
As we look ahead, it might be hard to think about where we’ll be when we kick off the 2021school year. So much has changed and evolved in the world since we came back together in August of 2020, and often it still feels like there’s still so much left to learn... But if you take a moment and think about the best environment for your child’s early-education experience, we hope that you’re keeping MMCH in mind. Whether your child is embarking on their Kindergarten year (if your child turns 5 before October 15, 2021), or is among our youngest and newest additions to our community, we can promise to provide a safe, loving, and supportive environment. With certified and experienced Montessori teachers (Toddler and Primary), who are trained to have a keen and observant eye on your child’s developmental needs, we can also assure families that your child will have the opportunity to learn and thrive at their own pace in a rich, nature-based, child-centered educational setting.
Kristie, our fearless Toddler teacher, was inspired to write a blog post for you all to offer some insight she’s gained as she transitioned from being a MMCH parent to also being an MMCH staff member. We hope you’ll take a minute to read her thoughts and observations, and that her words might offer you all, the parents, some inspiration as you make decisions about the future. You can find Kristie’s blog, A Letter to Parents from a Parent and Staff Member, on our website along with other helpful blogs like Montessori Kindergarten at Maine Mountain Children’s House, Montessori Through the Years: The Importance of the 3-Year-Cycle, and more.
If you are hesitating to re-enroll due to concerns about affordability, please take a moment to contact Bethany about potential tuition support either from our MMCH scholarship funds or the Child Care Subsidy Program funded by the State of Maine. The importance of high-quality care for our young children is finally getting the attention it needs from government officials, thus providing more financial support to both families and childcare settings then ever. It is part of our mission that all families feel they have access to the programs we offer.
This Month In Our Classroom...
With the onset of spring-like conditions, we are embracing the natural world around us (per usual!) and incorporating the current zoology and botany conditions into our classroom. What do we mean by that? Well, after wrapping up our study of dinosaurs and reptiles during the month of March, we are now embarking on the fascinating study of amphibians and insects that are just emerging as the temperatures warm. We love learning about their transitions through metamorphosis and even have a song about Metamorphosis! We are also learning about flowers - the various types that we commonly see in Maine, as well as their parts. This way the children can use the correct scientific names for the some of the botany they observe around them and then communicate that with others!
As most of you have heard, we had quite the scare with some paper wasps in the outdoor classroom when we first opened it up (yikes!). We are looking forward to using this as a great learning opportunity to know why all the different types of bees and other insects are so important to the natural world, even if we find them a little scary. Understanding the things that frighten us or make us feel uncomfortable is an important part of being a more peaceful person.
Last Month In Our Classroom...
The children are in full spring mode as they shed their layers to enjoy the warm weather - admiring the buds on the trees, caring for the sprouting flowers, and listening to the birds chirping! Though the children LOVED the squishy mud puddles that used to cover our yard, the staff isn’t too sad to see them soak back into the ground. The sensorial experience was pretty amazing, but our floors and washing machine sure took a beating! Fortunately, many of the children have rain suits (ahem, mud suits...) and families through the years have been quite generous in offering us old suits that no longer fit their children. Also, Ryan McDougall (Silas and Luna’s Dad!) donated a few NEW rainsuits to the school last month and we put them to good use! Thank you Ryan!
As you may remember, we also started to open up the outdoor classroom and make some plans for our Sam’s Community Gardens here in our yard, as well as in various locations around the community. We started seedlings on top of our cubbies and in our bay windows (thank you Kristie!), and we’re getting to witness the life-cycle of the seed as it happens in real time. Keep an eye out for more information about our Annual Garden Day coming up the first weekend in June - It’ll be here before we know it! So far, we’ve only used our outdoor classroom space to do some yoga and search for insects (and other invertebrates!), but we are excited to move lesson materials out there now that it’s warmer.
Our Toddlers have really settled into a great rhythm together and enjoy visiting and working with their friends/siblings in the Primary classroom during the morning work period. Sometimes our Primary students will go into their room as well, and it’s provided an opportunity for our youngest friends to get a sense of how to interact with each other and the materials. This has been an opportunity for modeling in the purest sense, and has had a huge impact on the social development of our children. We had two Toddlers transition to the Primary classroom mid-year, and we were psyched to see the melding and natural flow between these two spaces. We all know that change can be very difficult for young children who are still gaining a sense of the world around them, so we were pleased to find a way to make this change a little less abrupt than it may have been otherwise. We hope to continue this model for years to come!
Connecting School and Home
In our last newsletter we added a section called “What Is My Child Up To All Day?!” to help parents have a better understanding of what their child is learning while here at MMCH. The “cultural” portions of our classroom are really the focus of what we offer here at MMCH and includes a broad range of lesson materials; from physical and political geography to the passage of time on earth, and from botany and zoology materials to art lessons. The lessons in this area are used to introduce new language, to help children learn to compare, sort, and classify, and to give us a sense of where we are in the world (universe!) and how we connect with and/or affect all other things around us.
Here are some great conversation starters you could use over the coming weeks:
Chart Credit: Santa Ana Unified School District.
I hear you know how to speak french! Would you like to tell me how you’re feeling today in french?
(you could say, “comme ca va?”)
“Bien” means “good” and the children like to say this with a thumbs up!
“Comme-ci, comme-ca” literally means “like this, like that” and is meant to imply “neither good nor bad” and the children say this with their thumb out to the side
”Mal” has a negative meaning such as “wrong” or “badly” and the children say this with their thumbs pointed down. (Pssst...the children LOVE the drama of being able to say “mal” when asked at circle time, but they often can’t say it without cracking a smile so it’s hard to tell...)
How is your outdoor classroom looking this spring?
Is it ready for you to work in it?
I wonder what types of plants you’ll grow in the raised garden beds?
Have you been able to see any insects? Where did you find them?
Do you bring lessons out there or just explore?
What animals are you studying in the zoology section of your classroom now that
you’ve moved on from dinosaurs and reptiles?
Are amphibians a type of vertebrate? What about insects? Do they have backbones?
What are some types of amphibians? Have you been able to see or hear any outdoors lately?
What about insects? Have you seen any in the yard or outdoor classroom? What do they look like?
Wants/Needs for the school:
Classroom Materials Wish-Lists:
Child-size bike helmets
Outdoor toys/equipment
Potting soil & larger sized pots
upcoming dates/events:
Friday, April 30th: Re-Enrollment period ends
Saturday, May 1st: Open Enrollment/Summer Enrollment begins
Wednesday, May 5th: Early Release Day - pick up at 12:00pm
Friday, May 21st: Spring Tea, 3:00-4:00pm (rain day will be Friday, June 4th)
Monday, May 31st: Memorial Day - NO SCHOOL
Saturday, June 5th: Sam’s Community Garden Day !
thanks for reading! take care of yourselves & each other,
Bethany, Dani, Jess, Kristie, & Misse