|
|
Hilltop Montessori School's mission is for students to practice responsible independence in a caring community of curious, critical learners and thoughtful citizens.
|
|
Newsletter / Friday, November 2, 2018
|
|
Upcoming Important Dates:
Tuesday, November 6
Wednesday, November 7
- 7:45am-5:00pm, Upper Elementary 4th and 5th grade field trip
to MFA in Boston
Thursday, November 8
- 7:00-8:00pm, Middle School Love/Hate and CV Performance (All are invited to hear these thoughtful and honest renderings of self.)
Friday, November 9
- 9:00-11:00am, Lower Elementary field trip to Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center (Drivers needed! Please contact us if you can help.)
Monday, November 12
- No School (Teacher In-Service Day / Veterans Day)
Thursday, November 15
- 3:00-4:00pm, Lower El Workshare
- 6:30-8:30pm, All School - Parent Information Night: Executive Function at School and Home, Arts Barn
Friday, November 16
- 8:45am Lower Elementary Author's Tea
- 2:00pm Upper Elementary Author's Tea
|
|
THANK YOU for helping us reach 100% participation of our current families for our Annual Fund!
This astounding outcome sends a strong message that our parents, board of trustees, faculty and staff are committed to Hilltop Montessori School and all the hard work that is done here each day. Thank you so much.
What a tremendous week of food, fun and fund raising! Thank you to all the parent representatives for your support with creative daily email blasts to parents.
Huge appreciations to all the parents who volunteered time and energy to help with party planning and executing the fabulous Annual Fund Halloween Party.
The creative energy and vision that was implemented on Friday was simply amazing (and super cool!). A very special thank you to Jay Cook for his funky Halloween tunes and to the following folks who helped with set up and clean up: Marta Bernbaum, Kegan Refalo, Jade Harmon, Jennifer Armstrong, Kathryn Flanagan, Kathryn Einig, Jennifer Betit Engel, Rosie Wojcik, Angela Yang-Handy and Rebecca Fontaine.
A very special appreciation to our Middle School students who assisted with hosting, games and clean up: Ava Rosenzweig-Davidovits, Hazel Handy, Ilona Shaoul, Marian Wojcik and
James Burke.
Thank you to the Upper Elementary students and to Kegan and Milo for the vision and assistance with the large scale bead frame created during the UE electives and giving the campus a festive feel.
And mostly, thank you to each family for your support!
Now, an update on the challenges.
Challenge 1: The first program group to get 100% participation!
We had a tie! Each family in the Lower Elementary AND Birch Room will receive a delicious batch of homemade treats for each family, at a date determined by our bakers in the near future.
Challenge 2: NEW family participation!
All 23 new families will receive a Hilltop travel mug or water bottle (your choice)! New families were also entered into a raffle to win a delectable assortment of Tavernier Chocolates! The winner is (insert drumroll…) Anna and Gil Rosenberg (new to Lower EL). Congratulations!
Challenge 3: Families to double their contribution!
To date, 5 families have doubled their contribution. We need 15 more families to get the challenge donation of $1,000 to Groundworks Collaborative. The good news is we still have time. If you are interested in doubling, please contact Roselle. Hilltop, we can do it... Let's support Groundworks!
Challenge 4: Getting to $50K, $60K, $70K . . . and then $90K
We have raised $20,500 from our current constituency. We are well on our way to reaching our challenge of $50,000, $60,000, $70,000…Our next step is to reach out to our grandparents, alumni, alumni parents and friends. If we can raise $50,000 from our community of families, friends, grandparents, alumni and alumni families, we have some VERY generous grandparents who will donate $10,000 to the Annual Fund! AND, for each additional $10,000 we raise, they will give $5,000 up to $20,000! Now, that is a challenge that we will work to meet!
|
|
The school community loved the performance of dancers from the Inner Mongolian Arts University. We thank Sarah Grasso (UE Parent) and Jesse Riemenschneider of Leland & Gray for helping to connect us to this enriching experience that was enjoyed by students and teachers alike!
|
|
We are fortunate to have Marco, a native Spanish speaker, teaching in our toddler classroom! He has incorporated Spanish songs to encourage children to clean up the classroom in preparation for Circle Time and to wash their hands. Some families have asked us to share the lyrics to those tunes so they might join in when their children break into song at home.
The Clean Up Song
(to the tune of Barney the Dinosaur's
Clean Up, Clean Up
)
Limpia, limpia
vamos todos a limpiar.
Limpia, limpia,
vamos a limpiar!
The Handwashing Song
(see video to listen)
|
|
Pinpon es un muñeco,
muy guapo y de carton,
se lava las manitos,
con agua y jabón!
|
|
Marco is also a wonderful musician and regularly plays instruments and sings Spanish songs with the children at Circle.
WANTED: tiny spoons, forks and knives that are toddler sized. We used to have a large collection of them in the Toddler Room, but over the years they have disappeared. If you have any sculling around your kitchen to donate or return, please bring them in!
|
|
Enjoy the weekend.
Ellie, Marco, Sarah & Amanda
|
|
This week, the Children’s House classrooms celebrated the season of Halloween with a variety of activities. These included carving and decorating pumpkins, making art with Halloween themes, and listening to stories with ghosts, spooky panda bears, and a little old lady who was “not afraid of anything.” In the Willow Room, a little ghost named Georgie also surprised children by appearing in different places in the classroom throughout the week. He was a little shy though, so everyone had to be calm and carefully working before he showed himself in a new place!
In the Birch Room, the children read the story of Hannah’s collection, and talked about collections the children and teachers had at home. Cheryl brought in a collection of her own to share, and there will be a sign up sheet next week if your child wants to bring one as well!
|
|
Cheryl's hedgehog collection
|
Jonathan shows off the Willow Room's finished jack-o-lantern.
|
|
Simone and Allie make pumpkins together.
|
Sylvia and Mazin introduce you to Georgie
|
|
Welcome to Bay, who joined the Birch Room this week!
|
|
Children's House Boots Missing!
(The same thing happened to a similar pair last year and the boots had a name and number in them. They later turned up at a thrift shop!?)
If you have them, please return them to the school.
This is what they look like:
|
|
Our poetry study is underway. We began with a few different versions of an "I Am" poem, which served as a nice get-to-know-you exercise. In their grammar lesson, Olders were introduced to the diamante poem. The following types of poems will be introduced and practiced soon:
- list poems
- odes
- shape poems
- acrostic poems
- advice poems
- haikus
In addition, we will be exploring alliteration, repetition, onomatopoeia, and how to create interesting line breaks. Older folks, and anyone ready and willing, will try their hand at simile and metaphor. We will be showcasing our peoms at
8:45am the Authors' Tea on Friday, November 16th.
BEEC Field Trip: Next Friday, November 9th,
we will leave for BEEC! We are still in need of two or three more drivers. Please contact both
Kerstin
and
Patrick
if you are able to drive, and let us know how many people your car can hold-with and without boosters.
Workshare - 3pm Thursday, November 15th
- Join the Lowere Elementary students and teachers for the first workshare of the year. From 3-3:30 students show a parent/friend their works, then from 3:30-4:00 teachers meet with parents to go over a portion of the curriculum.
Enjoy your weekend!
Kerstin, Patrick, and Amelia
|
|
Hazel and Charlotte practice their math facts together.
|
Oona builds numbers using the checkerboard.
|
|
Henry draws flags from around the world.
|
Uri practices addition using the stamp game.
|
|
As you know, cultural topics in the Upper El this year include animal physiology, early civilizations for our first and second year students, and U.S. history for our olders. Recently all three topics have moved forward into new and applied work.
The “vital functions of animals” studies has taken us through exposure to the digestion, nutrition, respiration, and now structural support systems of different animals. Students continue to compare how animals of different phyla meet these needs. Dissecting owl pellets this week garnered much interest. Within each owl pellet is one (or more) complete rodent, mole or vole skeleton. After some careful sorting, the students will assemble a complete skeleton on paper.
The study of ancient Egypt has nearly drawn to a close as we prepare for next week’s visit to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Our Friday “weighing the mummies” ritual continues: Since creating our apple mummies and burying them in various types of salt solutions, we “excavate” a new group of our samples each Friday and weight them to discover how much water has been extracted by the salt over time.
Our sixths are thick in the study of how the U.S. Constitution was designed to create a balance of power among the three branches. These topics could never be more relevant. We look forward to the group sharing their information with the class next week via their “three branches skits” -- an annual feature of Upper El student work.
And speaking of skits, we had an impromptu visit last week from some of history’s old friends: Plato showed up one morning to laud the contributions of ancient Greece, only to be upped by a Roman soldier seeking to best him by reviewing Rome’s feats of engineering. The students will have to settle this argument with their newest unit of study. Sketching a Greek or Roman artifact next week at the MFA, following our Egypt tour, should give us more clues about these early societies.
In other news, Becky from middle school is now working not only with one of our olders in math, but also holding a brief “math fact” club each week to introduce fun math games that bolster student retention of the facts. We have created
a
take-home sheet on the topic
(math facts). One side suggests low-stress games that can be played with the family; the other side has a systematic program for cinching the memorization of multiplication facts.
Next Wednesday, our sixth grade will have a regular school day, with a few special events planned.
The fourth and fifth grades are meeting at 7:45 a.m. in the parking lot of the school ready to depart for the Boston MFA (lunchbox and water bottle in hand). Pick-up time for the day is 5:00 p.m. See details in your emails.
Finally, we look forward to hosting all of you at our first UE Author’s Tea on Friday, Nov. 16 at 2:00 p.m. (This is the Friday prior to Thanksgiving, and the day after our parent information night on Executive Function).
Our hearts go out to all communities affected by violence, divisive and hurtful rhetoric, voter suppression, misleading news, or other new policies that challenge the spirit of democracy and civility in our country. In the midst of this, it is inspiring to be working with your intelligent, curious, creative, funny, sometime quirky students. Every day we witness multiple instances of peers helping one another, often from our olders to our youngers: showing how to open a new folder on the computer, coming up with a concluding sentence, finding a DQ, math work, applying a new shading technique in art. Thank you for sharing them with us!
|
|
Students dissect owl pellets.
|
Talia and Lucas practice knitting in an elective.
|
Iris uses the distributive law to multiply a binomial by a monomial with bead bars.
|
Students discover common multiples using bead bars on the “Tom stick”.
|
|
Ciana tests forces needed in a first class lever.
|
Kiersten and Parker work on their lamp project in an elective.
|
Plato and a Roman gladiator make a surprise visit.
|
Photos from the Halloween party that we didn't have...
|
|
Seventh graders recently engaged in their first health "mini-project" of the year. They were tasked with the job of reflecting on who they perceived themselves to be and how they think the world perceives them. Categories they considered: Interests/hobbies, personality, ways they cope with stress and anxiety, gender, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, religious background, stereotypes, political affiliations, family structure, friend group, socioeconomics, strengths, areas of challenge, body image, and so many more. After thoughtful drafting, students drew themselves, literally or symbolically, filling their "bodies" and the area outside with these perceptions.
The middle school students are continuing their reflection and discovery of self in the writing of Love/Hate poems and Curriculum Vitaes. Students will be reciting these thoughtful and honest renderings of self in the Arts Barn Theater next Thursday, November 8 at 7pm. All are invited. Please come!
|
|
A special thanks to all of the Hilltop Soccer Community that came to the end of the season Jamboree.
The soccer teams had a festive afternoon with games against the parents for each team.
It was exciting to see participants from K-8 families interacting with their parents for an eventful end of season match.
It was nice of the students to let the parents win! A great time was had by all and there were no injuries!
We look forward to another great soccer season together next year.
Thank you everyone.
Mace, Kevin and Matt
|
|
The next KNO is on November 30. To sign up or to learn more about KNO, visit our
website
. If you have any questions, just write us. We have only 30 spots, so don’t wait. Sign up now!
|
|
Parent Information Night, Nov. 15
|
|
Hilltop Families are Active(ist)!!
Two Hilltop mothers (one current and one past) are running for office this year. Emilie Kornheiser and Sara Coffey, both recent graduates of the “
emergeVermont: Women Leaders for a Democratic Future
”, are running for seats in the Vermont House of Representatives.
Emilie Kornheiser
, mother to Solomon in our Middle School, is running for District 1 representing Brattleboro.
Sara Coffey
, mother to Izzy who graduated from our Middle School in 2015 and Daniel who graduated in 2017, is campaigning to represent Guilford and Vernon.
We are proud of our connection to these strong and active women who are working to make a difference in our community.
|
|
Hilltop Students Perform in
Peter Pan and Wendy
|
|
This is the last weekend to see Hilltop students (Abby, Kiersten, Parker and Finnegan) performing in
Peter Pan and Wendy
. It is a hilarious jaunt through the ever jaunty story. Friday at 7pm and Saturday at 2 and 7pm.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
