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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Upcoming Important Dates
Thursday, December 20
- 8:45 am, Lower El Author's Tea
- 2:00 - 3:00 pm, Upper El Museum
Friday, December 21, Noon Dismissal
- 8:30 - 9:30 am, Upper El Museum
- Cookie Swap
Correction:
This week we sent an email to families of 2nd to 8th graders regarding price increases for the Mt. Snow Winter Sports program. We asked parents to write letters directly to Mount Snow if they feel strongly that Mount Snow reconsider the additional costs that have been added this year. The email provided was incorrect.
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Notes from the Head of School
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Furthering Our Anti-Bias Work
In fulfillment of the priorities set out in the Strategic Plan, we as a school are furthering our work in the areas of diversity and equity. We are applying an “anti-bias” lens to our curriculum and practices as we work to support all members of our current and future community. We have been doing this work as a staff and will soon be more directly involving parents in more of these conversations.
that details our past, present, and future activities in anti-bias work, and an upcoming parent meeting.
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Project Feed the Thousands
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We are collecting non-perishable goods and personal items in the bins in the foyer of the main building for
Project Feed the Thousands
.
All donations need to be to school before December 14th.
Thank you for supporting this important project.
Let's make a difference in the lives of our neighbors in need.
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Save the date! Friday, December 21st
Our Annual Ginormous Cookie Swap and Snowflake Tricky Tray Raffle is coming!
Please bring cookies for the Cookie Swap for Friday the 21st!
Short on time? Cookies freeze well! Feel free to drop off your cookie batches early & we can keep them in the freezer until the swap!
We are currently collecting items for the raffle. If you are interested in donating something to the tricky tray raffle, please
email Roselle
.
We will start selling tickets for raffle items on Monday, December 10th in the lobby. We look forward to showcasing all the amazing talent in our community!
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Belonging. As human beings it's something we seek out naturally. In the classroom, not only is cooking a wonderful activity because toddlers LOVE TO EAT, it's also an excellent way to help foster a sense of community and belonging. When children prepare food that will be served at snack, they are contributing and finding belonging in the group. Earlier in the week Sarah prepared banana bread with the children. On Friday, Ellie helped them make broccoli.
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Mason, Ellie and Zander break apart broccoli stalks while Harrison looks on.
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We stir-fried it in the classroom.
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When children feel safe, appreciated, and a sense of belonging, they are free to learn joyfully and contribute meaningfully to their community.
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Liam concentrates while cutting paper.
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Together, children match tools and their cards.
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Happy weekend.
Ellie, Marco, Sarah & Amanda
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Holidays are an important part of many cultures. They hold emotional value, and provide a way to connect to one another, to a community, and to the spiritual life for those who wish. They provide individuals and communities with repeated rituals that carry across time. And in places like Vermont, winter holidays can serve as a source of joy and light in a time when the world outside becomes cold and dark.
In the Children’s House, our goal in celebrating holidays is not only to experience a shared classroom event, but also to learn more about each other and about the world around us. Looking at how different people and cultures celebrate is a wonderful and concrete way for young children to explore our similarities and differences. Some of the ways in which we celebrate at school include making special food, reading stories, and introducing specific vocabulary about a holiday. We often use the holiday as a starting point for other geography lessons as well.
This past week, the children listened to stories about Hanukkah and made latkes to celebrate. They also had a chance to play dreidel games and learn about menorahs. Holiday themes were also present in the introduction of a “kindness wreath” to celebrate random acts of kindness between children, and in a variety of books about different holidays that occur this time of year. More exploration of different holidays will appear in the coming weeks.
If your family has a special celebration this time of year that you’d like to share, let us know! Have a great weekend!
-The Children’s House Teachers
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Eating latkes while Jonathan reads a book about Hanukkah
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Liam mixes the latke batter.
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Andrew shows off the kindness wreath.
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Esme and Sophie L. get an art and literacy lesson using "The Christmas Mouse".
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This has been another busy week in Lower El. Everyone is continuing their work with fractions and math facts, using fraction pieces, ten frames, and working on solving equations in their head.
Attention Parents of Olders:
December is Multiplication Fact Month. The goal this month is for all Olders to commit all their multiplication facts to memory, and we need your help! As your child is aware, many multiplication facts are simple. Anything times 0, 1, 2, 5, or 10 is fairly easy. Chances are, your child is familiar with squares (2x2, 7x7, etc.). That doesn't leave very many left. Please help your child practice, practice, and practice some more so these become second nature. The website
Times Tables in 21 Days
gives some ideas. The key is to always review and/or have a strategy before "quizzing." Thank you, and happy multiplying!
In grammar, this week's studies have focused on a review of the Noun family (article, adjective, noun), an introduction to synonyms (often known in LE as "cinnamons"), and the possessive plural case ("the books of the students - "The students' books").
In Writer's Workshop, we have begun the process of revising (revise: "to see again"). Students first practiced on several pages of bad poetry that their teachers had written, and then moved on to their own poems.
We hope to see everyone at our Author's Tea on Thursday, December 20th, at 8:45! If you are able, please bring a brunch item to share. We will provide coffee and tea.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Kerstin, Patrick, and Amelia
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Charlotte works on dynamic addition using the Stamp Game.
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Sebastian and Finn work together to complete a plural possessive layout for grammar.
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Addy and Matai practice their multiplication facts.
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Sophia and Ayla work on grammar together.
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In UE this week, the second-year students wound up their essays and portraits of the heroes they chose to study, and presented these to the class. We learned about the following personalities: John McCain (Luke), Winston Churchill (Morgon), Rosa Parks (Abby), Roberto Clemente (Mark), Ghandi (Tucker), Wangari Maathai (Cara), Alexander Hamilton (Pete), Jackie Robinson (Gabe).
Our sixth-years have finished the Audubon bird drawings that, for the first time ever in Upper El, were created to accompany the seminar book,
Okay for Now,
by Gary Schmidt.
We also finished up projects on owl pellets, and an experiment testing the heat conductivity of various materials.
With these works under our belts, the class has turned its attention towards their individual research for the first UE museum of the year. Students are studying a range of topics from animal fur to barrel-making to the Roman Colosseum. Please join us on
Thursday, Dec. 20 at 2:00-3:00 p.m
. or the following morning,
Friday, Dec. 21 at 8:30-9:15 a.m.
to view their projects.
Regular lessons are also ongoing. In history, the students studying ancient Greece and Rome are working on mapping important features and sites of the Mediterranean world. We also reviewed the origins and meaning of “BC/AD” and “bce/ce,” so that we are ready to place printed cards depicting important events and discoveries along a long timeline in the classroom. Roman numerals have made their way into this work as well. The Olders continue working with important Supreme Court cases, such as Brown v. Board and Nixon v. US.
Reminders:
- Students need a water bottle that lives here permanently.
- Boots and outerwear are needed for the cold, even if there is no snow.
- Utensils should accompany lunch items that need a spoon or fork (we lose a lot of our forks to lunchboxes).
- Math fact practice! Always helpful. Sometimes critically needed.
- One more: labeling of clothing would also help us get wayward gloves, jackets, and boots back to their owners. There are a lot of black snow pants in our cubby area.
And we are still
Calling all Crafters!
Every year on the last morning before winter break, the Upper Elementary classroom transforms itself into a
Gift Making Workshop
. Are you willing and able to lead small groups of UE-ers in making small craft-gifts? Perhaps you'd like to help, but don't have a project in mind. That's OK, we can set you up! The event runs from
9:30-11:30 on Friday, December 21st
, after our classroom museum has closed down and before noon dismissal and the cookie swap. Interested? Please respond to
Tom
.
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Student with their hero portraits.
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Will’s Audubon-inspired bird painting.
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Carter, Tucker, and Gabe complete a decimal addition problem.
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Ava’s and Lucas’s owl pellets, mounted
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During a peace education exercise, students categorized a series of vignettes along a continuum of supportive, neutral, playful teasing, and harmful. We are discussing how various situations affect the people involved and the climate of the class in general.
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Tom begins reading our favorite rendition of “The Odyssey” to the class.
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A group of students organized themselves to begin learning a Greek dance for UE museum using a video tutorial.
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As the semester inches towards its end in a couple of weeks, students are deeply engaged in completing a number of independent and collaborative projects. Charcoal portraits, immigration projects, poetry composition, specific outline redrafts, health projects, guardian poet research, and spontaneous projects are all in full swing. It is a time of great independence with plenteous opportunities to practice time management skills.
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Editing an interview from local law enforcement
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Young mentors in Lower Elementary
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Portrait of research subject
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Young mentor in the Birch Room
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Young mentor in the Willow Room.
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Egg shell Ornaments and Jewelry on sale in the lobby
In the Middle School, we have been trying our hand at Ukrainian Egg Dying. As a part of fundraising for our Odyssey to Alabama in the spring, we are selling earrings, ornaments and brooches all designed and handmade by our Middle School crafters! These make great gifts for family, friends, and parents.
Pairs of earrings, ornaments, and brooches are $10 each.
We will also be selling at the Cookie Swap on Friday, December 21st.
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THANK YOU
to
Hazel Pizza
for providing delicious pizzas for the students and staff every week! Yum yum! We still and always will ♡ 🍕!!
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BIG THANKS
to
Brattleboro Tire
for donating our Hilltop van's winter snow tires and for rotating them each year!
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NEYT Presents
Rags
What happens after
Fiddler on the Roof
?
NEYT answers this question in their wonderful new production of
Rags
, an uplifting musical that tells the story of Jewish immigrants during the height of the great wave of immigration flooding into America from Eastern Europe in 1910.
The show is chock-full of extraordinary musical numbers all framed within a moving and inspiring story about love, loss, courage, faith and what it means to be American. Don't miss it!
Rags
performs
December 6-8 and 13-15 at 7pm, and December 8-9 and 15-16 at 2pm
. Tickets for these performances are $15 for Adults, $13 for Seniors, and $13 for Students.
Tickets may be purchased in advance at
www.neyt.org
, in person at the NEYT Box Office, or by phone (802) 246-6398 from 12-5pm on Wednesdays. The show plays at New England Youth Theatre, 100 Flat Street in Brattleboro, Vermont.
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Memorial Art Show - Lisa Charkey, 118 Elliot Gallery
FRIDAY DEC. 7TH 2018
5.30- 8.30PM
SUNDAY DEC. 9TH 2018
12.00- 5.00PM
Join us in an appreciation for the work of Lisa Charkey (mother of '18 alum Lily Charkey). This show encompasses the work of one of Brattleboro's most beloved artists. Charkey boldly chronicles her battle with cancer in her "Cancer Journals" and "Cut up Woman" series. Also shown is the work which was inspired by her years living abroad in New York and abroad. This show is a testimony to the power of art in the face of terrific challenge, as wielded by the unstoppable force that was and forever will be Lisa Charkey.
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Saturday December 15th
Amber Arnold and Luz Elena Morey will be facilitating an embodied empowerment day retreat in the Hilltop Montessori Arts Barn. Join us for Sacred earth centered ceremony, Sound healing, and more. Nourishing Breakfast, Lunch, Refreshments, and Medicinal teas provided. There are still a few scholarships left. Please visit
https://www.sacredvibrationsoundhealing.org/retreat-registration
to sign up.
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Girls on the Run can come to Hilltop again - with involvement from our girls (grades 3-8) and volunteer coaches. More info will come in January!
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