V olume 2, Issue 8 | June 2016
Message from Matt Simberg, M.Ed.
It has been a successful and enjoyable school year, and we look forward to what next school year brings. I wanted to take some time to share with you the things that we have to look forward to and our enrollment numbers. We have about 7 toddlers, 18 primary children, and 22 elementary as of today. There is the distinct expectation that we will have between 50 and 60 students total for next school year, which speaks volumes about our program since we started with 16 last school year and we have done minimal marketing. Thank you for spreading the word about our school and for being such a supportive community. We are working on plans to establish a Parent Association and be more active in providing Parent Resources for you. Regarding classroom setup, we will begin switching out white shelves for lower, natural, wooden shelves. In terms of staffing, we may shift a few people around according to their strengths and the needs of the school with your children in mind. I'm also in the process of continuing to interview candidates for different levels. There is a lot to consider in lieu of our continued growth, strengths, and the vision and mission of the school as a whole. As soon as we make official hires and changes, I will send out an update, probably along with Back to School information. We will continue our paperless initiative and keep the website, social media and transparent classroom updated as much as possible, so please stay connected. Also, we are constantly looking for the right location for our present school to land. A survey was sent out and we appreciate hearing your responses as I am looking at properties locally and up to the Medford area. Thank you for taking a moment to fill it out, if you have not done so already, please do so I can have a better idea of what your thoughts are. Again, thank you for your supportive and honest comments. We hope you all have a wonderful summer and I look forward with anticipation to another awesome year.  

Photos/Videos
We do our best to capture the memorable moments that your children participate in throughout the year and present them via video and/or slideshow galleries on the password protected Parent Portal of our website. We hope to be able to provide a more formal yearbook as we grow and have more parent involvement to help. In the meantime, please visit our gallery pages and enjoy these new videos!
Toddler/Primary Update

This past month (May), the children created beautiful Mother's Day gifts.  We worked on what fossils are and told stories about the layers of the earth. So many children are  doing great with their reading!  We discussed the types of birds and why penguins can't fly. We also discussed the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Arctic Ocean. W e discussed why the sea is so salty. We also learned about sharks and the tectonic plates in the deepest part of the ocean. The children  have been observing caterpillars all over the school property. We discussed the stages of the butterfly larva and why some caterpillars eat certain types of leaves.  The children created a green house after learning what they are. They planted corn and watched it rain inside our green house. The children p ainted ocean scenes and focused on making clouds and waves. They also  painted tulips using  wet on wet watercolor, then they painted decorative designs on top.  We discussed going on vacation and the camping trip including what people do on a camping trip. The children  wrote detective stories with the older students. We discussed who, what, when, where, and how in a story. The children thoroughly enjoyed  having picnic lunches outside once the rain subsided.  Also we made yearbooks and had children sign them. Overall, it was a great year.

Ideas For Keeping Learning Going All Summer

Here is a great list of ideas for things to do this summer to keep learning going. These ideas were shared by Austin Montessori School.


Elementary/Adolescent Update

I feel like this school year flew by. It was such a great year, and it was an honor being a part of all of your children's education and lives. We had many good times and laughs. I really look forward to seeing all of your children and more in September. 

Some highlights for next year: We are planning on adding yoga to our Friday afternoons (at no additional cost), continuing in our daily interactions, lessons, and hopefully more going out activities. 

After having conferences and having conversations with parents about music, I'm looking into adding to and adjusting that program as well. I'm also hoping to do a 2 or 3 day school-day team-building experience for the Upper Elementary Children the first week of September. Furthermore, I'm looking into the school being able to pay for it, so it will not be an added expense for the parents. I'll be sure to send information about that in the summer. 

Regarding the STEM program, thank you to all the parents who provided their feedback. I wanted to provide some clarification. This will be an extracurricular activity needing 2-3 adult volunteers. Depending on the final amount of positive responses, the school is going to help pay for the cost to offset children who are not participating due to financial reasons. I hope this clarifies any confusion or concerns. 

Summer reading and school work suggestions will be emailed as of June 17, 2016. Enjoy your summer, and I look forward to hearing about all of your children's highlights!
Calendar Highlights

Here are some upcoming important dates. 
  • June 20th - First day of our summer program

Click Her for our Google Calendar.
 Montessori Seeds of Education | (609) 832-2546 | i[email protected] | www.montessoriseeds.com
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