Hilltop Montessori School's mission is for students to practice responsible independence in a caring community of curious, critical learners and thoughtful citizens.

Next Week: September 10 Clothing Swap, 4-6pm September 9-12 MS Upland Odyssey September 12-13 UE Pinnacle Trip 2019-20 School Calendar one page calendar here or the website calendar here

Upcoming Dates: September 19 Back to School Night and Community Gathering September 24 Picture Day! September 25 Picture Day (again)!

Picture Day

This year we are doing school pictures a little differently. Schoolhouse Pictures will be coming Tuesday, September 24 and Wednesday, September 25 (with a makeup day Wednesday, October 23) to take photos. Photos will then then be available directly to families via a unique, private access code that will enable them to register for an account directly with Schoolhouse Pictures. Each family's code and detailed information as how to register, view, order, and pay for pictures will be handed out within the next week.

It's Tick Season!

In response to the growing health threat of tick-borne illnesses in our region, HMS is establishing a policy to limit exposure to these little buggers. We will be spending a great deal of the next two months out on our playground, in HayTown, and Upland, and we will be following this procedure, which has been recommended to us by the Institute for Wilderness and Emergency Medicine .  Student Preparedness Long pants tucked into socks are recommended as the best preventative for tick bites when spending lofty amounts of time in the woods or tall grass. Light colored clothing makes seeing ticks easier. Students may also choose to bring their own tick repellent, although DEET is not as effective as once thought.  Daily Practice We recommend supplying your child with tick and bug spray, but should you need it we have Tick Shield by Cedarcide available at the front desk, which is a biting insect spray that is a “chemical-free control of ticks, flees, bedbugs, mosquitoes, mites, flies, chiggers, no-see-'ums, ants, and others.” Its only active ingredient is cedarwood oil at a 20% concentration, which is known to both repel and kill ticks. Tick Removal and Reporting In the event that a tick is found embedded in a student, a staff member will remove the tick using tweezers. The tick will be saved and taped to an incident report giving the time, date, and location of the embedded tick. Saved ticks may be sent to a lab for testing. We recommend the Tick Report website from UMass Amherst. You can read more information on tick-born illnesses, etc from the State of Vermont here .

Toddler and Children's House Drop Off

Look for the Flag! Our drop off and pick up locations are weather dependent. To better notify you of the plan for the day, we now have a flag system: When the red flag is up = drop off / pick up is inside at the front lobby. No red flag = drop off / pick up is outside at the gate of the playground.

Toddler Program

What a wonderful start to the school year! Thank you parents and caregivers for supporting the success of our orientation schedule. The mornings for new students are so helpful in setting up a rhythm for their days and routine for their activities. The schedule also allows the returning children a bit of time to ease into the school year with their familiar friends before joining the new children at the end of the week. Here are a few photos of our first week together. Some returning students enjoying a stroll and some building in Haytown. The end of the week brought a birthday celebration all together for Meiyi’s 2nd birthday. Dumplings and fruit salad for snack, and lots of opportunities to practice serving oneself.  Looking forward to next week! Ellie, Sarah & Françoise

Children's House

Welcome to new and returning families! Our learning environments are beautifully prepared with specific design for the beginning of the year. As teachers, we maintain this environment, adding and shifting materials based on needs, skills, and development of the children. The beginning of the year is a time to focus on the basics. Our returning children know this well, though some reminders are needed. Those who have begun their Older's year are tasked with helping to provide some of these reminders and modeling for younger students. During this time, new children learn to:  - Navigate through the classroom (walking, moving carefully)  - Choose appropriate and purposeful materials - Learn where each material "lives" on the shelf - Use work mats (rugs) and organize their work space - Wash hands and use the bathroom - Sit and attend at group times - Use the snack table These basics, when practiced, allow the child to have full and complete access to the classroom and all of its resources. Slowly, but surely, the child then knows which materials to choose independently to develop their skills. This is also an important time to build a positive relationship with each child. This includes trust, listening, and seeing the teacher as a guide and resource. We are grateful to all who came to our new family meetings last week. We hope that this helps to build the same trust with you, that we seek from your child. There will be several opportunities throughout the school year to continue to develop our relationship and we hope that you feel comfortable reaching out directly to us if questions arise.  Thank you to all for your flexibility and understanding in regards to the orientation days this week. Having the time with the new and younger children helps immensely to accomplish the above. It also has allowed our returning children to re-acclimate to their classroom without the fatigue that may come with jumping from summer into a full and busy day. We know that it takes tricky schedule maneuvering to make it work, but the benefits are very worth it for your child and for the peace and settled nature of our classroom!    We look forward to a wonderful year, full of learning, kindness, independence, and community.  Sincerely,  The Children's House Team: Cheryl, Mariam, Jonathan, Rebecca, and Annie

Lower Elementary

It's been an active week for the Lower El students, as they came together to practice the routines, activities, and games of our classroom. For more than half of the students, it is all new. It's been fun getting to know our new community members, and spending time with our returning ones.  The History of Math, one of Maria Montessori's "Great Lessons," was presented on Wednesday. Students learned that math is the common language of the human race, and that the peoples of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, Greece, Rome, India, and the Mayan civilization contributed to the creation of a number system.  We are well aware of how challenging navigating the traffic circle may be for our new families. We appreciate your patience with this new routine. If your child is not yet at the stage where they can buckle themselves independently, we request that you park your car in the parking lot to help with pickup.  Have a wonderful weekend! We hope to see many of you at the Green Mountain Camp picnic tonight! Sincerely, Kerstin, Patrick, and Amelia

Upper Elementary

What a fantastic group, and a spectacular year we have ahead of us! Upper Elementary began the week with a tradition: ushering the sixth grade into their new leadership role with a morning hike together up Black Mountain. We tried out some new activities as a kick-off to the year, including: Community-building games Brainstorming ideas about leadership in general and in the classroom Considering what we can each bring to the Upper El this year. The class as a whole has been spending time getting to know one another and the classroom, and being introduced to some of the norms and routines that will help the classroom run smoothly, from “Find Someone Who” and scavenger hunt in the room, to practicing clumping and circling up on the floor. Thursday morning it looked like a workshop as students made labels for the tabs in their new binders, some with ease, some getting plenty of help from their peers. These seemingly mundane tasks are actually a big deal as we learn to problem solve together and create the organization that will help all be successful. We also spent time sprucing up the campus by weeding, building the new compost bin on the elementary field, and spotting glass to be cleared from Haytown. Thursday afternoon we were fortunate to have a visit from musicians from the Brattleboro Music Center (BMC). We have been wanting to coordinate with this local group that shares our interest in music for many years. Heather Summerlad demonstrated string instruments and Kim Wallach showed banjo and guitar. We are working on possibly adding a strings component to the band groups that meet on Wednesday mornings as part of our regular music curriculum. If you have any question about the band groups of the Upper El music program, please contact Jay Cook ( jcook@hilltopmontessori.org). Additionally, many students seemed to develop an interest in taking music lessons. If you are interested in learning about possibly having your student take lessons after school with a great variety of instruments available, please contact the BMC directly at  https://bmcvt.org o r  (802) 257-4523. Students are coming home today with a list of items to bring for next week’s class overnight, Thursday to Friday, at the Pinnacle. More details are coming via email! Have a great weekend! See you at the picnic! Tom, Jen, and Marco

Middle School

The middle school got off to a great and busy start. During the course of the week there were conversations about everything from food to technology, the first curriculum, “Walk in the Woods”was handed out, we spent two gorgeous days in Upland in pursuit of that curriculum, built journals, and prepared for next week’s Upland Odyssey. It is going to be a terrific and transformative year!

First circle.

A crazy game of Geordie Ball to start things out right. Woodland observation.

The orange orb of Middle School joy. Questioning the forest.

Upland observation

Silent walk through Upland.

HMS Community

The Equity and Anti-Bias Workgroup will be hosting seasonal clothing, winter gear and sporting equipment swaps here at Hilltop! This is a great opportunity to connect with other Hilltop families and share resources as we prepare for the coming year. These kids grow so fast! Our first swap is planned out! Stop by anytime between 4-6pm and take whatever you need! For our first clothing swap we will be looking for character free items in wearable condition without holes, including:

Shirts Pants Sweaters Rain gear Boots Slippers Reusable lunch containers Lunch boxes Backpacks Hats Soccer cleats & sports equipment You may drop your donations off at the Hilltop Front Desk on Monday, September 9th or Tuesday, September 10th . The gym will be open for children to play while parents mingle and shop for some new items!

PARENTING FOR RACIAL JUSTICE Workshops are coming to Hilltop Montessori School this fall!     On 11/3 and 12/15 (from 1-4 pm) Angela Berkfield and Shela Linton, well known facilitators and advocates from The Root Social Justice Center, will lead parents and others important in the lives of Hilltop students, in workshops to help us understand racism and bias, and to help us see how these play out in our parenting, school, and community.  Childcare and light refreshments will be offered.  We are relying on parents to fund this event, so there is a suggested fee of $0-$250 per participant. Please use the following link as you think about your contribution, and give generously: Sliding Scale Guide. If you are unable to participate, but want to support this work, we would welcome your contribution.  Contribute Here It is preferred that participants attend both workshops and continue with the monthly discussion group that will follow during the 2019-2020 school year.  We need a minimum of 8 participants to move forward, so please call Elizabeth Fisher at (802)257-8584, or send an email to livezestfully@yahoo.com to REGISTER your interest and indicate the number of children who will need childcare. If you’d like to get a head start on reading this summer, pick up a copy of White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo. This is an exciting learning opportunity which we hope will benefit us, our children, and our school as we strive to become more diverse. I look forward to doing this important work with you, Elizabeth Fisher (UE Mom)

Congratulations Chrissy, Matthew and Jody on the newest addition to your family! Welcome to the world baby Ruth! Ruth Lee-Bachler was born on August 29th, and Jody is very excited to be a big brother!

Congratulations Heather, Mark, Eleanor and Annabel on the newest addition to your family! Welcome to the world baby Ethan!

A Note from the Horton Family We are looking for a nanny for our infant son (Ethan, born on August 22nd) for 3 days per week (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays) with a schedule from 7:30 until ~3:30 on Tuesdays and Fridays and 7:30 until 5/5:30 on Thursdays. While providing childcare for our son, we are also looking for someone who can do pick up and drop off for our daughters (Eleanor 8 years old and Annabel 5 years old) on those days and bring them to dance class on Thursdays. If this is something that you would be interested in doing/have availability for, we would love to hear from you. If you are interested in nannying for the Hortons, please contact Heather at heather.lesage@gmail.com

Community

PinProductions presents Theater for Kids THE SELFISH GIANT A classic tale by Oscar Wilde about a very selfish giant who builds a very big wall. This tale is told by two Depression-era hucksters who, through storytelling and puppetry, perform the whole show out of two suitcases. The Selfish Giant is a celebration of the power of stories! For families and children 4 and up. Disclaimer: This tale was written over 100 years ago. Any resemblance to actual events is purely coincidental. Tickets: $8 for kids and $12 for adults.  Purchase tickets in advance online here Cash will also be accepted at the door. Created and performed by Susannah Dalton and José Ignacio Vivero. PinProductions is an NYC based theater company. You can visit their Facebook event page for more information.