Blog Posts

Montessori Moments = Events Calendar + What’s Happening:

1/22/2024

Reading Buddies - Upper el, PIII, and Kindergarten students work together!

Montessori Moments Events Calendar
Even though COVID may not continue to create significant disruptions to our school calendar events and dates, please know that all dates are tentative.
January 2024: Dr. Martin Luther King Day of Volunteerism

Conferences: Primary A, Primary B, Primary C, Lower El: Zoom, Phone, In-Person

Month of Giving to Free Little Library and Food Pantry: Upper Elementary
22-23 Primary C: Parent/Teacher Conferences (cont.) Sign-Up & Zoom Link
24 Lower Elementary Parent/Teacher Conferences Sign-Up & Zoom Link
25-26 Primary C: Parent/Teacher Conferences (cont.)
26   LAST FRIDAY 4:00 Closing: 3:00-4:00 Carpool: Whole Staff Meeting & PD No
            (early or late) AMH services available today
29-31 Lower Elementary Parent/Teacher Conferences (cont.)

February 2024: Rosa Parks Parade: Day of Friendship: Parent Visitation Week!
Parent/Teacher Conferences: Lower El & Upper El: Zoom, Phone, In-Person
Month of Giving to Free Little Library and Food Pantry: Middle School
1- 2 Lower El: Parent/Teacher Conferences (cont.)
2 Infant & Toddler & Preprimary PIN: 6:30 Meet and Greet, 7-8 PIN Meeting
5 Elementary and Middle School: Rosa Parks Day Parade
5 Upper El: Code VA Eureka Workshop at Central
5-9 Parent's Visitation Days: Watch for Info
7 Middle School: CodeVA Eureka Workshop at CodeVA
12 Upper El: CodeVA Eureka Workshop at Central
12-16 Parent Visitation Days
14 Middle School: CodeVA Eureka Workshop at CodeVA
14 Day of Friendship (watch for information)
19 Presidents' Day: Staff Professional Development: School is closed to students
20-22 Upper El Conferences
20-23 Parent’s Visitation Days continued: Watch for Info
21 Middle School: Code VA Eureka Workshop at CodeVA
23 Lower El PIN
26 Upper El: Code VA Eureka Workshop
28 Middle School: Code VA Eureka Workshop at CodeVA
28 PIII & Lower El: Peter & The Wolf: Richmond Symphony: Watch for Info
29 PIII & Lower El: Peter & The Wolf: Richmond Symphony: Watch for Info
31 Last day to RSVP Alice in Wonderland Family Meetup March 7th * elementary- middle

What’s Happening?

Infant & Toddler
Wind has blown a small cottonwood leaf into the playground. A child spies it floating through the air and rushes over to try to catch it. Every time their little hand almost has it, the puffy leaf floats just beyond their reach. A guide intervenes after a few tries and catches the leaf. Curious children approach as the guide holds their hand out for the children to see. Taking turns one at a time, children touch the fluffy cottonwood leaf, practicing their gentlest one-finger touch. After all interested children have taken a turn, the guide gently blows the leaf into the air, and the children shout with delight, “I see it!” as it floats away.

Upper Elementary
Students reach a subphylum of the chordates in the Animal Kingdom, amphibians! They each choose an amphibian of South America to study. While drawing a golden poison dart frog, a student asks for a lesson on drawing an accurate scale of the frog. The student draws a 1’ x 1’ inch grid on top of their original photo, then draws the same grid on a blank paper. Each square of the scale is studied and copied to the blank paper. By the afternoon, a 1:1 scale drawing with great detail reveals a replica of the frog! One student moves on to a 1:2 scale drawing. Students truly enjoy this integrated study of the arts, math, and science! Students begin their first book club of 2024. They are reading Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome. It is about a boy in Chicago and his love for books, his new friends at the library, and the great Langston Hughes. Students will vote on which of Langston’s works to recite for Parent Visitation Week in February.

Primary B
One cold afternoon, a group of children sits at the edge of the group time rug for a movement lesson. They begin as sleeping rabbits with their hands stretched by their ears before moving through a series of animal poses. They become tall giraffes, flamingoes balancing on one foot, seals perched on a rock, and bats hanging upside down in a cave. At the end of the lesson, children lay resting like sloths in a tree. A bell rings over each child as they sit up and acknowledge a moment of stillness before sharing oranges prepared for daily soup.

Primary A
A child matches geometric puzzle pieces to the correlated insets. A beautiful book, still wearing its book jacket, rests in a child’s lap. Ten graduated pink cubes, and corresponding brown prisms are being used to construct a complicated design. Two friends are proudly managing their snacks all by themselves. A child has placed the different-sized jars with lids in a sequence from smallest to largest and is testing to see which of the small items will fit in which. There is also an animal lotto game in full swing. As the children match the cards, they call out the animals’ names. The room is humming with vocabulary words; the names of geometric shapes and animals, as well as descriptive words used by the children as they work.

Pre-Primary
A child selects a number puzzle from the work shelf. They remove each number from the puzzle before putting them all back in place. When they're finished, their hand rests on a number that has caught their attention. “Three.” They position their hand to hold up three fingers. “I'm gonna be three soon on my birthday!” They pause to figure out how to put one finger down. “Now I'm two.”

Lower Elementary
The children are gathered around the ‘sun’ (an illuminated, shining yellow glass globe) and listening to the story about The Life and Death of a Star. Several children have built a few of the elements on the Bohr Diagram board and contributed information about how stars create the elements that makeup everything. One child who recently learned to crochet states they will crochet the sun and maybe some of the elements and make puppets out of them. The children all agree that this is a very good idea, indeed..

Primary C
As a younger student enters the classroom, they report that they can smell snow. “I can smell the snow. It smells so yummy!” A third-year student is quietly reading a book about Easter Island. They say to themselves, “Wow, those statues are giants! How do you say giant in Spanish?” They are told the word is “Gigante!” The student quietly practices the word “Gigante.” A second-year student notices a change in the classroom. After they receive assurances that they can see if they like the change, the student takes a book that has been moved to a new location to the table and gives the group a smile and a thumbs up.

Middle School
Three students work together on a prokaryotic cell material. They are introduced to the idea of a single-celled organism and how all the organelles work together to create Life. When trying to distinguish between the purpose of the cell wall and cell membrane, one student suggests that the cell wall is similar to a physical boundary between countries, and the cell membrane is similar to the border where supplies come in and out because the cell membrane has protein channels that take nutrients in and out of the cell. The students then decide to write about the metaphor of a country to a cell and its organelles. The nucleus is the government, and the cytoplasm is the citizens….

PAC Corner!
Pancake+ Heaven is just around the corner on Saturday, March 2, 2024, from 9:30-11:00 a.m. There will be (even more!) pancakes, delicious treats made by CMS families, a raffle from items donated within our community, and loads of fun! More event info including the raffle sign-up sheet, ticket sale details, and potluck food and volunteer sign-ups coming soon to an inbox near you.

Speaking of Pancake+ Heaven, if you are interested in helping us manage the raffle (think managing collecting donations and making signs to post at the event for each item--all V-hour eligible), we would love to hear from you! Please email us at [email protected] to connect.

Our next outdoor work day of the year is Saturday, March 16, 2024, from 10:00-11:30 a.m. (come any time during that time and please feel welcome to stay as long as you can). ALL are welcome! No special experience needed! Reminder: Outdoor workdays are V-hour eligible AND super fun. Please meet at the main campus. (Child-sitting for parent volunteers available thanks to our lovely CMS teachers. If you plan to bring your child with you to the work day, pretty please include that information here!).

Our next PAC Meeting is Wednesday, March 20, 2024, from 5:30-7:00 p.m. at the main campus. We will focus on finalizing details for PAC's support of school's Continent Days and the end-of-the-year picnic, and all are welcome to attend (attendance is V-hour eligible). The first half hour will be catching up and mingling and the last hour will be pure PAC business. Please let us know at our email address below if you have any questions.

If you are interested in getting involved in PAC, please reach out to us at any time at [email protected].

September 18th, 2023

9/18/2023

Montessori Moments = Events Calendar + What’s Happening: 7/28/23

Your emails are important to us. If you need to communicate with Central, please generate a new email with a label in the subject line. Central does not monitor this email for responses. Please do not respond to this message.

Connection and Community….
We are happy to be partnering with New Light Baptist Church for National Night Out which is an annual community-police awareness-raising event, on Tuesday, August 1st from 6:00-8:30 p.m.  The development and maintenance of positive relationships between a community and the police seems to be the primary focus of this event. Gun management is also a critical need and directly related to the safety of our neighborhood children and families.
Although the school cannot speak for each Central staff member, we have historically advocated for reasonable gun management policies. Please take a moment to read the information below and imagine a way that you might be part of the solution.
This data is not recent. We can extrapolate that the numbers of child victims of gun violence in and out of school are even more dire.
Pew Research - Gun Deaths Among US Kids Rose 50% in Two Years
CNN - More US school-age children die from guns than on-duty US police or global military fatalities
Below is an excerpt from a message Anita sent out to our school community in 2019.
In my opinion, it is disingenuous for politicians to call upon teachers to protect children in school. Armed trained police are not able to protect themselves in police stations. Military personal are not able to protect themselves on military bases. An armed, trained army sniper was not able to protect himself at a Texas shooting range. Police and military in heavily armed venues have been killed by shooters. Presidents of the United States of America have been shot while surrounded by highly trained, well armed, secret service agents. As we have sadly learned, safety drills, armed school resource officers, and police cannot protect children.
We need a societal change. We hope to promote, in our small way, conversations that will help our nation realize the goal of disrupting the PATTERN of school violence and our social acceptance of these events that are so terribly alarming.

Central Montessori School does not take a position on gun ownership. We advocate for safe schools for children and teachers which are anchored to the community. The action items below are reasonable and can be implemented within established protocols.

Mental Health Care for Children
Schools with appropriate funding can

Establish bully prevention training for all teachers before certification
Provide pediatric screening for childhood depression
Create smaller middle and high schools

Gun Reform
With political will these items can be realized and implemented

Background checks for all gun sales
No guns before 21
Reduce size of magazine clips capacity
Stop sales of automatic and semiautomatic weapons/firearms
National registration of firearms

Please Note: Millions of people deal with mental illness. They live full lives and contribute to our society in positive ways. Very few act out by killing people. Some shooters have not been identified as mentally ill.

The table below provides research information indicating which mitigation efforts might be effective in reducing gun violence and childhood deaths.

Mitigation Effort
Might Help
(mixed results)
Helpful?

Older age requirements to buy guns
Yes

Ban on buying large -capacity magazines or ammunition-feeding devices for semiautomatic weapons

Yes

Licensing process

Yes

Background checks
Yes

Open carry/more guns = more deaths by guns

No

More police on campus and more drills

No

Take guns away for a time
Yes

Funding for research

Yes

We appreciate your participation and support of this effort.

Of course, we hope that you will join us for our National Night Out event and if so inclined, reach out to your elected representative and tell them that we need their help. If you need help finding your current elected officials, please use this website for a list!

Central will assign a V Hour for each contact you make to an elected official.

Events Calendar
Even though COVID may not continue to create major disruptions to our school calendar events and dates, please know that all dates are tentative.
Montessori Moments Events Calendar
September 2023: School Year 2023-2024 Begins! Go, Buzz Bees, Go!
Parent & Teacher Conferences: Infant/Toddler and Preprimary
Month of Giving to Free Little Library and Food Pantry: Upper Elementary
18-22 Infant and Toddler Parent & Teacher Conferences
21-22 International Day of Peace: Teachers and Students Observe
22 Primary PIN Event (What for Info)
25-29 Preprimary Parent & Teacher Conferences

What’s Happening?
Infant & Toddler
A pint sized archeology professor (toddler) sits on the mulch, surrounded by a group of students, eager to participate in this daily workshop from the worm-excavating master. The “professor” uses their foot to break into the mulch, creating a circle of exposed dirt. Using two hands, they frantically dig into the dirt, scraping away handful after handful of mulch and dirt until they find the “artifact” they’re looking for….a real, live worm! Carefully picking it up and placing it in their palm, the “professor” holds it out for the group to see. “Worm!” the group shouts, almost in unison. One observer, eager to get their hands in the dirt themselves, follows the proper method of plopping down into the mulch, using a foot to start their dig, and then gets straight to the messy work of digging for artifacts (worms). Seeing their protégée following all the proper steps, the “professor” sits back, claps, and laughs with delight.

Primary B
During group time, the children talk about ways in which they have the power to help keep their classmates healthy. They each take turns either watching their friends work while keeping their hands by their side and their bodies “nice and straight” (less surface contact) or walking through the classroom with their hands behind their back. The adult thanks each one of them for their efforts and they move on to lunch. Later in the day, two children play a rhyming game. “Bring me something in the classroom that rhymes with tower.” The children think through possible options. “Flower!” one of them exclaims. They walk around, locate a flower, set it in the fetching basket and present it. They continue this game until one of them gets called to the pick up gate.

Pre-Primary
A student enters the classroom, restores their bags and looks around with a furrowed brow. The student is using one finger to point at each letter of their name written above their hook. The child says, “I’m trying to spell my name.” With a bit of help, the child slowly says the name of each letter symbol in their name as they move their finger across the letters. The child repeats the sound each letter makes and then flashes a huge grin before heading off to wash their hands before getting started with their day!

Primary A
As calm music plays, students get their rugs, unroll them, and sit calmly. A student who wants to be a volunteer movement and mindfulness teacher starts doing a butterfly pose. Their friends open their legs and touch foot with foot, they are quiet and pretend to fly too. Students stand up on one foot trying to balance their body and raise their arms as high as possible for Volcano Poise. They count one to ten after they are ready for the next position. Another child leads now and the group start by laying down on their back. Soon they lift their legs up and move them up and down to the count of five. The next position is The Alligator. All the students lay down on their tummy and lift their heads. What a great way to move inside on a really hot day.

Elementary & Middle School
Eight students are participating in a Capoeira lesson (Brazilian martial arts). They are learning the important vocabulary and chants and are accompanied by a tamborine. Special thanks to our parent volunteer for coming in weekly to lead our Capoeira lessons! It’s a summertime time tuesday which can only mean one thing…..Tacos! Four students prepare their infamous taco recipe! Tomatoes are being chopped and they practice speaking en Español while prepping, “las tomates y las cebollas”. After the martial arts lesson, the chefs start inviting up students to have their afternoon taco snack! Buen provecho!

Primary C
Three children are using the equilaterial triangle box. They are tracing and cutting out the smaller triangles that they use to build a larger equalitaeral triangle. Other friends move closer to watch the lesson and the students’ careful work as they trace, cut, and glue the isoscolese, scalene, and smaller (baby) equilateral triangles onto black paper to make mini posters. A group of children are using the sandpaper letters to practice their very first cursive writing strokes. After their ‘car’ fingers are able to stay on the sandpaper letter ‘roads’ without wrecking, they use a marker board and finally paper to trace and copy these beautiful letters. Two of the children realize that some of these letters are in their own names!
Central’s Little Free Library and Pantry
Thanks for helping us give back to our neighbors. A neighbor who depends on this pantry for food has posted a request on the pantry asking that donations include food containers that someone without a home, kitchen, or can opener can manage. We ask that donations contain only foods within the expiration date. All foods should be as healthy as possible. We can do this!
Month of Giving
Books for Little Free Library & Food for Little Free Pantry
Please feel free to send your donations in with your child. Individual classrooms will collect these items and the front office will manage them. Older students will help us keep our pantries stocked with your generous gifts. Your child (and our neighborhood community) benefits from your modeling of giving to others. It inspires them and helps them see how they themselves can help others. This is a very big deal.

Month Classroom
September Upper Elementary
October Middle School

Montessori Moments = Events Calendar + What’s Happening:

9/8/2023

There have been some changes to September events, please review below.
September 2023: School Spirit Month! Go, Buzz Bees, Go!
Parent & Teacher Conferences: Infant/Toddler, PreprimRegistration link ary, Primary A
Month of Giving to Free Little Library and Food Pantry: Upper Elementary
12 Coffee & Conversation 10:00: High School! (4th grade up) Zoom Link
15 Lower Elementary PIN & Open House 6:30-8:00 Watch for Info
19-22 Infant and Toddler: Parent/Teacher Conferences Zoom Link
19-22  Preprimary: Parent/Teacher Conferences Zoom Link
19-20 School Portraits by Stephanie (Preprimary and Older) Watch for Info
20 PAC Meeting 5:30-7:00 pm - limited childcare available
21 International Day of Peace: Students Sing Along! Watch for Info
22 Little Kicks Soccer Session: 3 and Older Registration link
22 CVS Annual Family Flu Shot Clinic (3 years and older and their siblings and parents)
          2-6 p.m. Main Building: Please register through this Link before your visit!
25-28 Primary A: Parent/Teacher Conferences Zoom Link
27 School Portraits by Stephanie (Infant/Toddler & Makeup) Watch for Info
29 LAST FRIDAY 4:00 Closing: 3:00-4:00 Carpool: Whole Staff Meeting & PD No AMH services available today

October 2023: PAC’s Annual Chili Cook Off!
Conferences: Primary B, Primary C, Lower El (Phone, Zoom, In-Person)
Month of Giving to Free Little Library and Food Pantry: Middle School
6 RSVP for GrandDays Opens! Watch for Info
6 Primary PIN Event: 6:30-8:00 (6:30-7:00 Meet & Greet 7:00-8:00 Presentation)
7 Outdoor Classroom Work Day: 10:00-11:30 Main Campus
9   Fall Market Day: Upper El & Middle School sell, 5 yrs old & older may buy: Watch
            for Info
9-12 Primary B: Parent/Teacher Conferences (link will be sent out in October)
13 Infant & Toddler and Preprimary PIN & Open House 6:30-8:00 PM Watch for Info
16 Upper El & Middle School Science Fair
16-19 Primary C: Parent/Teacher Conferences (link will be sent out in October)
21 Chili Cook-Off  Watch for Info
23-24 Upper El & Middle School Overnight Camp Out! Watch for Info
23-27 Lower El: Parent/Teacher Conferences (link will be sent out in October)
27         LAST FRIDAY 4:00 Closing: 3:00-4:00 Carpool: Whole Staff Meeting & PD No AMH services available today
28 New trees for Jefferson Park! Watch for info
30 Lower El: Parent/Teacher Conferences (link will be sent out in October)

What’s Happening?
Infant & Toddler
A toddler walks carefully around the classroom, pushing a wooden walker shaped like a VW bus in front of them. The child carefully maneuvers around many hazards in the road - tables, shelves, other smaller wooden cars, children, etc. Before turning to avoid each collision, the child calmly and quietly says, “Beep, beep!” to let others on the road know they’re coming. After a few moments of careful driving, the child throws caution to the wind and begins to race around the room, shouting “BEEP, BEEP!” A guide approaches the child to remind them of the rules of the road and the child slows back down to the indoor speed limit.

Upper Elementary
During the first group of the school year, students take turns sharing fun facts about themselves. An ice breaker activity invites students to raise their hand if they enjoy cats, dogs, and pizza! This activity allows students to see what they share in common with their new classmates. Students observe a lesson on personal timelines. They then each take a long narrow paper, and mark an inch for each year of their life. Students practice public speaking and share their life story with the class. They are excited to begin their South American studies on the country of Peru this year!

Primary B
In the late afternoon, an older child reads to a group of younger children on the group time rug. They sit around their older friend in a circle and listen intently as they read a nonfiction story about the continents. When the story is over, the children talk about each continent and sing the continent song together. Slowly, children get up from the circle and each chooses a peaceful work in the classroom before the day comes to a close.

Pre-Primary
The students return to a classroom with new works on the shelves and new friends. Their older students are now in Primary and the class has new Pre-Primary students. The children greet each other by name as they walk in the door. They discuss the names of their new friends and question where their old friends have gone. Students show their new classmates the playground while rejoicing in seeing their ‘old’ and ‘new’ friends all together!

Primary A
A younger friend is working on a butterfly life cycle puzzle. They take all the pieces out of the wooden frame. When they are done, they start putting the 9 pieces together starting with the egg, then the caterpillar, the cocoon, and finally the butterfly. The student is excited after they are able to complete the puzzle all by themself. As soon as they restore the work, another friend is happily choosing the same puzzle. Meanwhile, older friends are working with more complex puzzles that have tiny pieces. Other students are working on counting from one to nine using beads and some colorful dots while trying to make a big triangle.

Lower Elementary
Students eagerly have their hands raised during the first morning group time of the school year. They take turns adding their contribution to the classroom constitution, stating rights that they have in our class community and responsibilities that these rights entail. One student mentions that they have the right to talk in the classroom, and other comments that they have the responsibility of using a quiet voice when talking. A third student adds that they shouldn’t interrupt anyone involved in work. The work cycle begins and a few students are learning about the origins behind the names for the days of the week. Each student has a favorite back story. They discuss, and each write down a fact. Another small group of students have an atlas and a set of cards that include flags for each country in North America. They match each flag to its country in the atlas, then practice creating a full sentence listing various countries using commas.

Primary C
An older student quietly welcomes a brand new three-year-old friend. The student kindly invites their brand new friend on a tour of the classroom “This is where you hang up your bag!” Another friend is receiving a lesson on hammering. The student observes their guide place protective goggles on their face and the guide says, “We need to keep our body safe while we use the hammer and nails.” As the guide moves through the hammering lesson the student is amazed and begins the lesson themselves.

A Special Kindergarten/ PIII Moment
While the Kindergarten students recite their First Day of School poem, a student notices an opossum outside the classroom window! All the students stop to observe their peek-into-nature moment. This observation leads to a wonderful conversation about why the possum might have been outside our window? Does an opossum have predators? Where would this opossum get its food? The students drew the opossum and their school and will vote on a name for the possum.

Middle School
In the morning work cycle, some students gather around a rug for a fractions operations lesson. As the lesson progresses, one student suggests that they increase the difficulty by incorporating their algebra studies. The older student slowly starts to manage the lesson creating problems on a board for the other students to complete. The students enjoy the challenge as they transition back into school from the summer!

PAC Corner!
PAC is excited for the 2023-2024 school year and very much looks forward to connecting with you and yours in the near future. Our theme this year is to Simplify, Grow, and Nurture our community. And to that end, we have some details to share!
Our first outdoor work day of the year is Saturday, September 9, 2023, from 10:00-11:30 a.m. All are welcome! No special experience is needed! Childcare will be available- free of cost! Reminder: Outdoor workdays are V-hour eligible AND super fun. Please meet us at the main campus.
Our first PAC Meeting of the year is Wednesday, September 20, 2023, from 5:30-7:00 p.m. at the main campus. We will be focusing on Chili Cookoff planning, and all are welcome to attend (also V-hour eligible). We are shifting our meeting times this year to mirror PIN nights in that the first half hour will be catching up and mingling and the last hour will be pure PAC business. Please let us know at our email address below if you have any questions.
Save the date! Our annual Chili Cook-Off this year will be on Saturday, October 21, 2023. Stay tuned for deliciously amazing details!
PAC Meet-ups! If you are interested in planning a PAC-sponsored and funded meet-up for your child’s classroom/age group this year, we would love to try to make that happen! We are happy to leave the details to your creativity, but we ask that all PAC-sponsored meet-ups be substance-free and inclusive for all families in the classroom/age group. If you are interested in planning such a meet-up, please connect with Natisha Knight at [email protected] to get the ball rolling.
If you are interested in getting involved in PAC, please reach out to us at any time at [email protected]
Here is to another great school year!

Central’s Little Free Library and Pantry
Thanks for helping us give back to our neighbors. A neighbor who depends on this pantry for food has posted a request on the pantry asking that donations include food containers that someone without a home, kitchen, or can opener can manage. We ask that donations contain only foods within the expiration date. All foods should be as healthy as possible. We can do this!

Month of Giving
Books for Little Free Library & Food for Little Free Pantry

Please feel free to send your donations in with your child. Individual classrooms will collect these items and the front office will manage them. Older students will help us keep our pantries stocked with your generous gifts. Your child (and our neighborhood community) benefits from your modeling of giving to others. It inspires them and helps them see how they themselves can help others. This is a very big deal.

Month
Classroom
September
Upper Elementary
October
Middle School

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