Hilltop Montessori School's mission is for students to
practice responsible independence in a caring community
of curious, critical learners and thoughtful citizens.
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Next Week
Sunday, December 15
- Parenting for Racial Justice Workshop
Monday, December 16
- EL Knitting, 3:15-4:30
- MS Basketball, 3:15-4:30
Tuesday, December 17
Wednesday, December 18
- EL Knitting, 3:15-4:30
- MS Basketball, 3:15-4:30
Thursday, December 19
- All School Gathering, 8:45am
- UE Museum, 2:00-3:00
- K-LE Basketball, 3:15-4:15
Friday, December 20
- UE Museum, 8:30-9:15am
- Elementary present making, 10:00-11:00
- NOON DISMISSAL
- Cookie Swap, 12:00-1:00
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Upcoming
NO SCHOOL
12/23/19 - 1/3/20
WINTER BREAK
Students back to school on Monday, January 6th
First Mountain Day
Thursday, January 9th.
Please return liability release forms by Wednesday, December 18th.
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Parenting for Racial Justice Parent Event
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We welcome everyone to join us on
Sunday, December 15th from 1-4pm, at the Parenting for Racial Justice Workshop!
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Notes From the Head of School
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Every year, we participate in state programs and apply for grants that help to support our school activities. We’ve gotten notice of three successful grant application awards!
- We received a “School Safety and Security Grant” from the state for almost $24,000! This has been two years in the making. Kegan applied for this last year, but independent schools ended up not being included. This year they were, so we re-applied, and got the award! These funds will be used to install an upgraded intercom and door locking system based on state recommendations in relation to notification and perimeter security. If you would like to know more about it, please consider joining the Buildings and Grounds Committee meeting on Monday, Dec 16th at 3:15 in the Arts Barn kitchen, or contact Kegan.
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- We also have just been awarded a “New England Grassroots Environmental Fund Grow Grant” for $2,625 to support the work of developing the sacred circle garden in the lower field. The Elementary programs have helped set the site and worked to build soil. This grant will allow us to continue to develop this garden project in a way that connects with the narratives of POC farmers and indigenous land tending practices. This project is in direct alignment with the H.794 Ethnic and social equity studies bill recently passed in Vermont and puts our students in direct relationship with the land and allows them to learn and experience the many contributions of non-colonizer narratives to our communities and culture. This is also an opportunity for our students who experience marginalization and oppression to see themselves reflected in empowering and liberating ways in the curriculum. We hope that this space will also be a beautiful resource for parents and community members in months and years to come. For more information, or to help with implementation of this project, please contact Amber.
- We have also been fortunate to receive a grant of $10,000 this fall from the Kahn Mason Foundation. Throughout the years, this foundation has supported our school in offering an amazing variety of art education to all program levels. Our integration of the arts not only grows students who view themselves as artists, musicians, and performers but has been proven to help children learn and retain academic skills and information. This year part of the grant funding is being used to bring Sandglass Theater’s production of "Rock the Boat” here to engage our students in the development of this show.
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In deep gratitude to Emily Mason and Wolf Kahn,
picture here at a Hilltop event a few years ago.
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New Artwork for the Lobby
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We are so excited about the new oil paintings by
Artist Stephen Lloyd
! Stephen Lloyd and Cecil Maxfield (Finn Bernbaum in UE's godparents) graciously donated this gorgeous piece to Hilltop, where it will hang in the front lobby of the main building. We are grateful for this beautiful art installation, it is such a perfect addition to the lobby. Thank you so much!
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Laylani does a language work.
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Maisie uses the nesting dolls.
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Jody works with the hole puncher.
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We're busily moving along, working on staying warm and healthy!
As we move onto next week and the holiday season, take a moment to pause and reflect. We are so fortunate to have our most basic needs met. So many in our community do not have these basic needs met -- including many children.
Next week, you will see boxes outside of the Willow Room, seeking basic supplies to be donated to the Groundworks shelter at the end of the week. If you can, involving your child in this process can also be impactful. We have begun by discussing basic needs: shelter, clothing, food, clean water, and love.
As mentioned on their
website
, they are looking for the following specific items:
- Non-Perishable Basic Foods
- Tuna
- Peanut Butter
- Pasta & Sauces
- Dry Milk
- Soups & Crackers
- Rice and Instant Potatoes
- Canned Fruits and Vegetables
- Juices
- Cereal
- Canned Protein such as Beans & Meats
Thank you for your kindness and we are wishing warmth and health to all.
Warm Regards,
Children's House
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LE Authors complete the finishing touches on the final drafts of their option pieces.
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The UE’s cultural studies have recently taken us into the Bill of Rights, which we are just beginning to look at. The students are particularly interested in Supreme Court cases that test the limits of our rights outlined in these amendments. Should students be required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag at school, even if their religion prohibits their swearing allegiance to any object or symbol? How do you weigh the right to practice religion against the desire of the government to promote patriotic unity, especially in times of war?
As we move into our plant studies this year, we have focussed on the functions and structure of roots - adding more depth and detail to what was introduced in Lower Elementary. Fortuitous for us, Jade shared information about plants she viewed in Costa Rica, which generated great interest from the group.
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Jade presenting on her recent trip to Costa Rica.
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Recent math lessons have included equivalent fractions, decimals, rules of divisibility, and, for the olders, operations with mixed fractions. In one lesson, the sixths also looked at an interesting headline: ‘Americans Eat 90 Acres of Pizza Every Day’. If you do the math, converting acres to square feet, multiplying by 365, and then dividing that number by the population of the US, it turns out that the average American eats 5 small pizzas every year. 'The Average American Eats Five pizzas a Year’ hardly has the same impact.
At this time the sixths are working through the steps to complete a formal, five-paragraph essay on our seminar book,
Heart of a Samurai,
by Margi Preuss. They were given a choice of two essay topics about the book. However, we started this writing process by practicing with a simple and familiar topic: reasons our favorite pie or ice cream is the best! We have been affectionately referring to the three main supporting ideas, which form the body of the essays, as “bing, bang, and bongo,” color-coated on our brainstorms no less. We reviewed some of these ice cream essays in seminar, seeing that some terrific points might best fit elsewhere in the essay, or saved for a tasty conclusion. The students helped each other brainstorm ideas, examples, and quotes to support their theses about the book. We are making revisions to each step of this writing process. Avoiding simply retelling the story, and angling one’s ideas towards a main point, can truly be hard mental work! It is exciting to see the work coming to fruition, and the group supporting one another so readily. Finally, next week they will edit their papers for those exciting conventions we study in grammar: complete sentences and punctuation.
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Mark with his seminar work.
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While one group of 4th-5th is wrapping up their lit book,
The One and Only Ivan
, the other group had finished
Long Walk to Water
and is now reading a short novel by Mildred Taylor, best known for her work,
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
. All of her books are based on true family stories from the past. This short novel,
The Well
, addresses the trials of a successful black family living in Jim Crow Mississippi in 1910. The integrity embodied in the values of this close-knit family, as they respond to adversity in ways that uplift the community, is a recurring theme in Taylor’s books and a model for us today.
Meanwhile, the whole class is working through the writing process on their museum research topics. From choosing the scope of research, to taking notes, planning a few subtopics for paragraphs, generating topic sentences, then picking and choosing which info goes where (whew!), they are each advancing their skills in writing and critical thinking. Icing on the cake is producing the ways we will share our information with you at next week’s museum. The art room is abuzz with sketches, models, game boards, giant graphs, and maps.
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Caroline takes notes on cotton, her museum topic.
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Important: Please help your student ensure...
- that all their clothing, especially winter gear, is labelled.
- that appropriate, all-weather footwear is here for the outdoors, and another pair for the indoors when they come back in.
- that they remember warm layers to accommodate very cold temperatures. (Snow pants for the cold are welcome!)
Travelling with these curious and intrepid learners is such a pleasure. Come view the fruits of their labors, which range from Revolutionary War tactics, to various “plants that changed the world” topics, to the written language of the Cherokee peoples. (Come learn why it is a “syllabary” rather than an alphabet!).
Our museum is next week, Thurs. Dec. 19 form 2-3:00, and Fri., Dec 20 from 8:30- 9:00.
Present Making Day follows the museum on Friday, followed by our Secret Someone event, followed by noon dismissal.
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We broke out the knitting this week, while Tom continued
reading
Bud, Not Buddy
to the class.
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Calling all crafters! Present Making Day is approaching! On Friday, Dec 20th, after the classroom museum, we set up the classroom and invite friends and parents to help lead small groups in making craft gifts from about 9:30-11:30. Please email
Tom
if you can help. After gift making is a noon dismissal / have fun at the cookie swap.
-Tom, Jen, and Marco
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Those Who Don’t Know Their History Are Doomed to Repeat It
(and maybe even those who do)
It is often said that life imitates art but we are discovering that life in the middle school imitates and even repeats history. In the days before the Arts Barn/gym was built, middle school students were often found outside during their 45 minute lunch/recess. Now, especially in the cold months, many students flock to the gym after quickly eating their lunch for some exercise and time to clear their minds after a busy morning. These days basketball is all the rage for a majority of the students. Most everyday a competitive and rollicking game is played. The fly in the ointment is that there are students who would rather not play basketball everyday, in other words, the minority. More days than not they are willing to join in with the powerful voices of the majority and have a good time, but distinctly feel that their voices are not only heard but even squelched when they suggest other possibilities of games to play.
One of the beautiful and powerful aspects of the middle school is the desire of the community to talk things over. We have been engaged in this conversation for several months now, batting ideas around, making promises (and often keeping them) of inclusion and listening. This week there was a break down in the power structure of the majority and the tentative growing voices of the minority. Would it be possible to set aside one day of the week to be a non-basketball day when perhaps the whole court could be employed to play a different game to be determined by the group? There were times when basketball or a basketball derivative would be played on one half of the court and some other game on the other half but rarely when the full gym was dedicated to what the minority wanted to do. This proposition created great cries of not fair, why should we change? And there you have it - history repeating itself. Putting things into a historical and social perspective: if the history of oppressed peoples has taught us anything is that those with power don’t like to give up what they have and feel they deserve and that it is often a grassroots swell of support, the government (usually under pressure) and revolution that creates change. In a class community meeting earlier this week it was decided (staff was involved in this) that one day a week would be set aside as a non-basketball day. This was tried the following day and failed. More discussion ensued and the non-basketball day in the gym was attempted once again. This too fell apart with some inappropriate and alarming disrespect for and disregard to a staff member’s reminders. This was when the hammer fell (the 13th, 14th, 15th, 19th amendments and the Voting Rights Acts are good examples) and the students have lost the use of the gym (it is a privilege, not a right) until they can come up with a plan and build our trust.
There is a lot of talk about equity and anti-bias on campus these days. Words are easy but actions are so much harder. We learn by actively engaging in our history and employing that learning to our lives. It is never easy, we often can’t get out of our own way, but one has to have faith in Dr. King’s arc of the moral universe slowly but inexorably bending to justice.
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Ellie and Ally work on their
electric car charger project.
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Ava presents on solar water heaters.
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Graphic Novel production line.
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Ilona and Roxanne work on mixed media.
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Out in the community with pie.
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Annual Cook Swap and Snowflake Raffle
It's here...the most anticipated event of December!
We are currently accepting donations for our Annual Snowflake Raffle & getting ready for the cookie swap. If you would like to donate an item for the Snowflake Raffle, please contact
Roselle.
All items are welcome. What a fun way to share the talent of all our friends and families in the area, and fund-raise for Hilltop!
If you have not attended this event, there is more information below. We look forward to seeing you!
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Cookie Boxes: $10/box at the Swap
Raffle Tickets for sale at the front desk and at the Swap:
$2 each, 3 for $5, or 8 for $10;
Raffle drawing promptly at 12:30
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New England Youth Theatre proudly presents Matilda: The Musical, the final show of their celebratory 20th season. Dubbed as “Broadway’s Biggest Little Hero,” Matilda follows the story of an unlikely heroine who dares to take a stand and change her own destiny.
Playing December 12 – 22 at 100 Flat Street in downtown Brattleboro
Tickets are $11 – $15.
Tickets can be purchased at
www.neyt.org
or by phone at 802-246-6398.
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The Flying Nut
:
‘Tis the Sea-son at the
New England Center for Circus Arts
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The New England Center for Circus Arts has presented their reimagining of The Nutcracker since 2009. This year’s production, in NECCA’s custom-built circus trapezium, offers another high-flying celebration of circus joy—this time with a dose of midwinter tropical delight! Join the Stahlbaum family as their children receive a gift that starts them on a journey to strange and fascinating lands, where crabs do trapeze and flamingos dance on an oceanscape far from their wintry holiday home.
NECCA’s annual holiday production showcases more than 65 performers and brings together NECCA’s skilled youth performers, adults from the upper-level recreational programs, and international students from the school’s acclaimed professional training program. The mission of the Flying Nut is to support students through the educational process of putting a show together while strengthening the community of the school by combining the diverse cultures and perspectives that the students represent.
Alongside flying trapeze, juggling, contortion, aerial silks, and more circus arts disciplines, a teeterboard act has been added this year (launching acrobats into the air). The result is a stunning acrobatic extravaganza featuring the future stars of circus.
The Flying Nut: ‘Tis the Sea-son offers only four shows, running December 20-22 at the NECCA trapezium at 10 Town Crier Drive in Brattleboro.
Tickets are on sale now. Showtimes are Friday, December 20th (7:30pm), Saturday, December 21st (3:00pm and 7:30pm), and Sunday, December 22nd (1:00pm). Tickets are $10-$25 and are available online at
www.necenterforcircusarts.org
. For more information, call (802) 254-9780.
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