Summer camps are in full swing! Our activities include swim lessons at the Louisville Rec Center, climbing at Movement gym, flooding our very own sandbox, making clay projects, learning Spanish, hearing our storytellers, creative movement and more. I’m not sure, but I think the sandbox and water combo might be one of the favorites – they’ve mastered basic plumbing by using the pipes to divert water to various areas where it’s needed!
Spring is full of celebrations at MMS. Spirit Week, including crazy-hair-day, backwards-clothes-day, and more, was followed by our 46th annual Moving-Up Ceremony. That was a wonderful family pot luck followed by songs, sung and signed by the children, and several musical selections from our angklung band. The angklung, an instrument from Indonesia, has eight tones that can be separated allowing each band-member to play a tone. After the children performed, we quickly trained five parent volunteers who performed Beethoven’s Ode to Joy so nicely that the parent audience was actually able to identify the song! To finish our celebration, all the children got to walk over our bridge symbolizing their move up to new and ever-expanding levels of development. It was a wonderful, and often emotional, morning of community, appreciation and joy!
Happy Birthday MMS! In April Mapleton Montessori School celebrated 46 wonderful years of service to the child. We had a fun fair with face painting, spin art, crown-making, bean bag toss (with prizes) and nail polish. And we wowed everyone with our very own hot dog roller! It was a great evening, lots of mingling, making new friends, and, of course, cupcakes with a resounding rendition of Happy Birthday Dear Maple, sung by all!
After a week of below-zero days, 45º seemed absolutely balmy for our Valentine’s Day Family Social! We had a great turnout for our BYOM (bring your own mug) event. The children made special snacks and we had hot chocolate in our “new” thrift store 10- quart coffee maker; seems to be perfect for hot chocolate!
Linda’s class made butter by shaking milk for a good long time! And what goes better with butter than fresh baked bread – so Rob, my husband, brought in his fresh-baked rosemary bread and the children had their snack – yum!
Francie’s dad Aaron, a Skratch Labs chef, came in to finish the pumpkin job he’d started in October. With his help, the pumpkin he’d frozen was turned into gnocchi, made by the children. Aaron was so organized and patient with the children it was a joy to see! Thank you Aaron!
A new Tonka truck became a lesson in civic responsibility and voting; should the truck be donated to the Share-a-Gift box or kept for our sandbox? We voted and, almost unanimously, the sandbox won! Iris, Nash and Hank are ready to give the truck its first run in the sand!
The Children’s Annual Thanksgiving Feast was a bountiful success. The tables were arranged end to end so all the children could sit together while they feasted on the goodies they’d made the day before – applesauce, corn muffins, sautéed carrots and gnocchi, of course!
It was a crisp and sunny day as families gathered to watch all our MMS students, now princesses, animals, astronauts, super-heros and more, march around the trike path for our annual Halloween Parade. (And actually, the “march” was more like wandering down the path, as they took in all the various characters attending school that day!)
In October we had our Back to School nights where children bring their parents to school to show them their favorite lessons. We had a Mom’s night and a Dad’s night and everyone was excited to share and learn about what goes on during a typical day in the life of a Montessori child!
Our first Family Social included our Yonana Bar – delicious ice cream made only with fruit! Children played, parents mingled and everyone enjoyed Yonana ice cream!
We started our summer replacing the ash trees that we lost to the city-wide emerald ash borer infestation. With grant money, we were able to purchase 3 pear and 1 linden which seem to be doing very well! As Davey Tree was planting, we were prepping; all staff took the belay-review course at Movement Gym to be ready to belay our campers. Some children scamper to the top without a moment of hesitation! Our swim lessons at the Louisville Rec Center are well organized and allow children to relax and learn while having fun.
This spring we had several special events. First, we got a woodchip topping in January. The children waited patiently as they watched the woodchips get blown into the playground. When all was ready, they were given the green light; you can see their delight in the video. Needless to say, it was a fun experience! Then, in February we had our Valentine Family Social. The children made special treats and hot cocoa and everyone had a great time sipping and socializing at pick-up. In May we got our playhouse remodeled (by my son Drew) and we celebrated 45 years at our annual MMS Birthday Party. With games, prizes and food donated by ABO’s Pizza and Nicki Thebault (Francie’s mom) of Skratch Labs, and the children (who made tons of hummus!) a good time was had by all. We finished our year with a wonderful picnic and moving up ceremony. Each class prepared songs to sing and we had a rousing performance by our Angklung Band. At the end of our ceremony, each child walked over the bridge to signify their moving up in our school, to be mentors for younger students in the fall.
We finished our year with a wonderful picnic and moving up ceremony. Each class prepared songs to sing and we had a rousing performance by our Angklung Band. At the end of our ceremony, each child walked over the bridge to signify their moving up in our school, to be mentors for younger students in the fall.
On the Monday of Thanksgiving week, the children started preparing muffins, kale chips, apple crisp and squash that they would share the next day at their Annual Thanksgiving Feast. Luckily, the weather cooperated and, with sun and mild temperatures, we were able to feast outside. Each class talked about things they are grateful for. At the top of Linda’s class’s list: MMS and their school buddies. At the top of Angelarose’s class list: family, dog, cat, school, friends and lastly, toys!
Halloween brought some colder weather but that didn’t stop our Halloween Parade; we made one long chain of adorable costumed children and looped through the two classrooms about a dozen times. At first it was a bit shaky with the younger children not really understanding that they were supposed to go into the “other” classroom but after a few loops, they had their rhythm! After the event the costumes went home with the parents (whichever staff member thought that one up deserves a medal!) and we continued on with our day in a fairly “normal” fashion.
Wes Sheeter’s grandmother Amy Haywood delighted us with song at our November Family Meet-up. Amy, a two-time Parent Choice Award Winner for children’s music and story recordings, is the founder of Music Kids, a preschool music program; she also writes children’s songs and stories. All the songs were new to us but that didn’t matter because Amy has a wonderful way of bringing everyone into the song. We look forward to having her back!
