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 30th, 2018

Upcoming Important Dates: Friday, November 30 Kids Night Out Friday, December 7 Winter Sports Forms are due  Thursday, December 20 8:45 am, Lower El Author's Tea Friday, December 21, Noon Dismissal 8:30 - 9:30 am, Upper El Museum Cookie Swap, details below

Notes from the Head of School

This past Tuesday was an unexpected mess! As you all know, we follow what the local school district (WSESU) calls regarding school delays or closures. Their superintendent has access to the road crew who is out on the streets/highways and knows the latest actual and predicted conditions. I am now on the Robo Call list to get the phone call for the district (A new improvement!). Within minutes of word of a delay or closure, Lauren and I update the school calendar on the website and send the group email to parents (the same list that gets the newsletter) and staff. We then also notify WTSA and WKVT for their website and broadcasts. There is often a lag time before they update their information so you can follow the WSESU posting when in doubt.  So, in the case of potential bad weather please rely mainly on  email  or the  Hilltop Website Calendar  for info. Also, if you hear of WSESU closure before you get the word from us, we will be following that.  This last one was unusual with the call changing from delay to a closure in the morning as the weather and road conditions changed. It is hard to plan for all circumstances, but please know that we: follow the WSESU calls (except for rare, exceptional circumstances) will get the word out on the calendar and by email within minutes of us knowing there might be a lag with WTSA and WKVT And, if things are unsafe where you are, use your own judgement about coming in. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me . Stay safe! -Tamara

Winter Sports!

Winter Sports sign up is in full force. Families of children in Kindergarten thru 8th grade need to sign up now. All the paperwork is available in the lobby until next week and forms are due back Dec 7th . If you have any questions, please email the front desk .

Cookie Swap and Raffle Donations

Save the date! Friday, December 21st Our Annual Ginormous Cookie Swap and Snowflake Tricky Tray Raffle! For our new families, the day before winter holiday break we ask each family to bring in a big batch of their favorite (nut free) cookies. We lay them all out on a line of tables. Then, we sell empty boxes and customers get to select a fabulous array of cookies that are sure to impress. 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! Or host a cookie party...Friends + Cookies + Party = FUN! Hang out with friends as you get your holiday baking done! We also collect small items from friends, merchants and crafters, like gift certificates etc. for a modest "tricky tray" raffle. We sell raffle tickets and you choose the item you'd like to win and place your ticket in that item's jar. 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!

Project Feed the Thousands

We had a visit from Rose and George Haynes who co-founded the Project Feed the Thousands in 1994. Rose and George were warmly greeted by our students at our All School Gathering this week as they explained the project and it's importance. We have established bins in the foyer of the main building to collect non-perishable goods and personal items. 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.

Toddler Room

Snow has come early this year and the toddlers couldn't be happier! Wonderful opportunities come with winter weather and we've been making the most of it. Sledding on gentle hills near the elementary swings, taking walks - beginning with short ones - just to the entry of the Haytown Highway (wooded path through school property) and back, and, of course, learning to put on and take off their winter gear.  Stay with us here, it's really true! Children can be shown how to take off their boots, coats, snow pants, hats, and mittens and put them away on a boot tray, hooks or a mitten tree. Over time they learn to do it all independently! Some prompting or help may be needed for zipping up a jacket or pulling snow pant bottoms down over boots, but when given time and space to do it solo, it's a joyful experience! Not to mention, helpful for adults, too!

To support your toddler's independence at home, keep these things in mind:  Is your child's gear toddler friendly? Zippers that slide easily, snow pants that aren't too, too long, and boots without laces? Would adding a ring (similar to a key ring) to a zipper pull make grasping it a little easier? Does the coat have a loop or hood for hanging? Do you have places to put away the gear accessible to the child? A low hook, a mitten tree or spot near a wood stove or vent, a boot tray or clear space on a waterproof surface. While it's nice to have extras on hand, store them instead of keeping them out. Too many coats and other extras are hard for children to keep track of and can be visually overwhelming. Bring out the extras when the "first string" winter gear is unusable.  Provide a low seat, bench or stool for the child to sit on while putting on boots, especially.  Only offer the help really needed. Begin the zipper, but encourage the child to continue pulling it up. Point out the loop on the coat, but allow the child to hang it up.  Pause before jumping in to help. Often children will happily figure out how to do it even if it looks like a struggle to an adult.  Remember the golden rule of Montessori educators: either talk or do but not both at the same time. While showing a child how to put on a mitten, for example, slowly go through the actions without any language. Children cannot process both at the same time.  Enjoy watching your toddler grow in confidence and competence! Enjoy the weekend! Ellie, Marco, Sarah and Amanda

Children's House

It seems like the snow is here to stay, and with it, all the extra snow pants, mittens, scarves, hats, and other items the children need to be well prepared for outdoor play. Many items look similar, so please make sure to label all your child’s gear, and to double check that you have the right set before you go home! And don’t forget to restock your child’s extra clothes box :-)  With the arrival of the cold and flu season, we are also encouraging children to use their water bottles instead of fountains. You can help us by making sure your child has a labeled water bottle that is brought home and washed each night with their lunch containers.  Thanks so much for taking the extra time to make sure we’re ready to work and play even on the coldest winter days! -The Children’s House teachers

Eleanor tests how hard the snow is.   Hard at work in the snow!

Reindeers Sophie S., Kennedy, and Sylvia give Santa AJ a lift.

Welcome to Sophie L., who joined the Birch Room this week!

Lower Elementary

Lower El enjoyed the Flea Circus on Wednesday, performed by Hilltop Alum, Shoshana Bass. The students composed a group haiku in honor of the performance:                      Jumping super fast On the tightrope, gracefully A flea likes to play Everyone practiced their haiku-writing skills this week. Writing this form of poetry required us to think about syllables, rather than words, which was a good brain-stretching activity for all. Everyone, including the very youngest among us, did a fantastic job of experimenting with this ancient poetic form.  You can hear Lower El's original haiku, and other forms of poetry, at our  Author's Tea on Thursday, December 20th, at 8:45!  We hope you have a wonderful weekend. Kerstin, Patrick, and Amelia

Eko digs into his reading group activity

Addy and Matai hard at work on their reading group assignment

Fun at recess!

Upper Elementary

Typing in Upper Elementary

Traditionally at Hilltop Montessori School, we have started to use computers and typing at the Upper Elementary level. In the younger years, we want students to be writing with pencil to paper to help with the learning that occurs with the hand to mind connection. And by the Upper Elementary years, students are ready to use computers for research and for typing their final drafts of formal papers. In the past Upper Elementary students have developed their own typing techniques and by their final year in our Middle School, they have been able to “pass” the typing test given to entering high school students and “place out” of the typing course. However, we feel students could be learning typing more systematically and be learning touch typing more efficiently. As many of you know, Jaime Durham has started working part time to further integrate technology in our Upper Elementary program. One of her current tasks is to get UE students started on a learn-to-type program. This online program teaches the correct technique, while developing speed and accuracy. Jaime is meeting individually with each student to get all of the students set up with an account with an online keyboarding program, Typing Club . The program is self-paced, and students can move through it independently. If this fits with your home culture, students can access this program from home to do the drills, at least once or twice a week, for about 15 minutes each session. When they are at school, they can use their developing skills to do meaningful writing on the computer. Jaime can check on their progress in the program remotely, and when she is in the classroom with the students she will check in and work with the students on their technique. (Jaime’s time for this work is covered by a state grant and the school has paid for a group subscription to Typing Club.) If accessing the drills from home is not something that will work for your family, students will learn the skills more slowly at school. However, we will not be using school time for students to do the online practice drills. We need school time for using the Montessori manipulative materials and working with teachers in lessons and with other students on projects. This typing program is intended for individual practice at home, for those families who have wanted this type of activity. The URL for the program is hilltopmontessori.typingclub.com . Each student’s username is their first name. The password is either their first name again, or their own chosen password which they should know. Jaime can reset passwords if necessary. Jaime has met with 2/3rds of the class so far and will have all the students set-up before the winter break. Please let Jaime know if you have any questions or concerns. And on a completely different subject... The UE Classroom Museum will be open from 8:30-9:30 am on Friday, December 21st. Students will be showcasing projects from their recent research on topics in U.S. history and government, animal physiology, and ancient Greece and Rome. Also... 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 . And finally... The Upper Elementary Community Service Elective is working on the Mud Kitchen for the CH playground. They also help with preparing our campus for winter by clearing out garden beds and moving picnic tables. Thanks Cara, Iris, Luke, Rhys, and Luci (the photographer).

Middle School

In the Middle School, students receive all sorts of explanatory curricular project sheets and multiple projects are always ongoing. Some of the project descriptions are very straight forward, academic, perhaps occasionally dry. We like to believe they are always intellectually stimulating and even exciting, but I think Finn does it best in this recently introduced realm of study. Dear Poets, For the next eight weeks of school we will embark upon a full-fledged expedition into the far-reaching territories, images, emotions, humor, abstractness and simplicity of poetry. Hopefully awaiting us on the other side of this journey will be a deeper appreciation and enjoyment for this very powerful mode of expression, as well as an enhanced ability to participate in the craft as confident creators of successful verse. To be successful within the framework of the Poetry Project each of you must participate fully, not only in the class discussions, lessons, and sharings, but the timely undertaking and completion of the various course requirements that are described below. So, be open and be committed. Come prepared to learn alongside your neighbor, and to watch your poetry mature right before your very eyes, ears, hearts, and fingertips as we sift through some of the mysteries of what not only makes a poem a poem, but a good poem at that. What better way to inspire the poetic spirit than with an eloquent syllabi. Some of the course requirements mentioned above are the adoption of a guardian professional poet (and subsequent presentation that includes two memorized poems), reading aloud favorite poems in morning circle, creating an anthology of favorite poems, drafting and redrafting of original poems, creating a short film based on one of the original poems, and participating in the final Poetry Cafe on February 5, 2019 (not to be missed).

Hilltop Helpers

THANK YOU to  Hazel Pizza  for providing delicious pizzas for the students and staff every week! Yum yum! We still and always will ♡ 🍕!!

BIG THANKS to   Brattleboro Tire  for donating our Hilltop van's winter snow tires and for rotating them each year!

Looking for Hand-Me-Downs! If anyone has an extra hat, snow pants (size 4-5T), and/or boots (size 11/12), we have a Children’s House student who can put them to good use! Please bring them to the front desk. Thank you for considering this request as you get out the winter gear.

Community

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.

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.