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 24 Picture Day for TP & CH September 25 Picture Day for LE, UE & MS September 26 First Day of Horseback Riding Parent Meetings 5pm-7:30pm

Upcoming Dates: October 11 Grandparents and Special Friends Day October 13 Putney School Harvest Fest October 14 No School, Indigenous People's Day

Parent Night

The Year Ahead in Your Child's Classroom All Programs, All Parents Thursday, September 26

Learn about the upcoming year, curriculum topics, expectations, and building student-parent-teacher relationships. Parents play such a critical role in their children's education! This evening will provide: greater understanding of academic work and social development ways for you to be involved in your child's education and create consistent expectations and experiences. In addition, we will have an all school mixer and “milestone announcement” gathering in-between the meeting times. Toddler Program, Children's House, and Lower Elementary 5-6 pm Program Meeting Teacher presentations in classrooms ALL SCHOOL 6:00-6:30 pm Join us in the The Arts Barn to meet the Board and hear our milestone announcement!   Upper EL and Middle School 6:30-7:30 pm Program Meeting Teacher presentations in classrooms

We’ve staggered the meetings to allow for attending across programs to some extent and enable those with younger children to have an earlier evening. We realize that some families will still have children in programs that meet at the same time. If scheduling requires you to miss one, please feel free to contact the teachers and get any information you might have missed. Childcare provided. Please sign up at the front desk.

Safety Reminders for All!!!

Help us keep our community safe! Please mind all traffic signs and drive slowly through our campus; children and adults of all ages could be in your path, so please be mindful, aware, and cautious when driving to and from school.

A Note from the Business Manager

Hello Hilltop Families, I would like to take a moment to thank everyone for all your efforts in keeping your account current. It is greatly appreciated. Please feel free to contact me any time you have any questions or concerns with your account. I am at my desk consistently from 8am to 4pm. It has been brought to my attention recently that families are not clear about what specifically they are being invoiced for. If you follow these steps you will be able to view the entire invoice with a description of your service: 1) In your email click on "Review and pay" 2) On the next screen there is a section on the left of the screen to input your payment information. On the upper right side of the screen is a miniature version of our invoice. 3) If you hover your cursor over the top half of that invoice you will get an option to view, download or print the invoice. (see below) 4) If you click view you will see exactly what you are being invoiced for.

I hope this helps clarify the billing for you. Please contact me with any issues that may arise. Regards, Deb Lagoy, Business Manager ( dlagoy@hilltopmontessori.org )

Picture Day

Please look in those backpacks!  Flyers were sent home with students this week with important picture information. Each student has received a unique access code that will enable families to access their pictures privately via the Schoolhouse Picture website. Each sibling has a different code! Once the pictures have been taken, the only way to access them will be online with these access codes. Please follow the easy 3 step instructions on the flyer to create a private online account. Visit the website here to create your account now. If you have any questions about picture day, please contact Roselle . As a reminder, dates are as follows: Tuesday, September 24th - Children's House & Toddler  Wednesday, September 25th - Lower El, Upper El, and Middle School (makeup day Wednesday, October 23)

Peace Day

International Peace Day has been celebrated at Hilltop longer than anyone can remember. "What does peace mean to me?" is always a relevant question to ask oneself! The peace curriculum at Hilltop is a defining factor of who we are and our belief in teaching responsible future world citizens. Peace Day also marks the introduction of Peace Buddies - older children are matched with youngers as mentors for the year.

Lower Elementary

The days in Lower El have been busy, with the reinforcing, and practicing, of routines, and the start of a series of cultural and science lessons. Our new class is full of sweet and enthusiastic people, helpers, hard workers, and curious learners.  Ask your child about: What they remember about the “Coming of the Universe” Great Lesson What is a solution? a mixture? Can you name one of the six kingdoms of life? What is a vertebrate? An invertebrate? *What are we? Is a snake a vertebrate, or an invertebrate? Who is your Peace Buddy? Have a wonderful and warm weekend. Kerstin, Patrick, and Amelia

The teaching team gets started at the International Dyslexia Conference. Below are photos from the past week of learning happening both inside and outside:

Upper Elementary

Below are some photos from the past two weeks in Upper Elementary, punctuated by our fabulous overnight trip to the Pinnacle. Thank you to all drivers and shopping chaperones who helped make this trip possible, as well as to Amelia and Kegan who joined the UE teachers on the trip. We have started in on the topics and themes that will be the foundation of our work in Upper Elementary this fall: Community Building Peace Education Literature Groups and Seminar US History (including before there was a United States) Cultural Studies/Science Climate Change Writers Workshop Math Technology Integration  Electives We look forward to seeing you at next Thursday’s Parent's Night where we will be sharing more details about these topics with you, along with the nuts and bolts of life in the classroom. Meanwhile, enjoy these photos of the past two weeks and have a great weekend!  Tom, Jen, and Marco

Middle School

Where has the Middle School been all week? Our building has been empty; we've been in the woods! Each day, we set out from campus loaded with readings, journals, pencils, and plenty of food and drink, and arrive in Upland ready for a little singing and morning circle. Science classes, literature seminar, and art all happen in the woods. Students have discussed forest carbon sequestration, wrestled with the ponderings of Henry David Thoreau, and begun work on their identification art projects. In addition, folks took steps to expand our bread oven structure, identified ferns with visiting forester Lynn Levine, and made daily observations on their research plots. When we're in the woods, time seems to disappear, and we are absorbed by the natural rhythms around us. We are always surprised to find it's time to pack up and head back to campus at the end of the day. We'll be visiting the woods regularly for the next month and a half as part of our forest ecology and climate study. As this newsletter goes to press, the Middle School is making its way downtown by foot and bicycle to take part in the Global Climate Strike at Pliny Park. Exploring what it means to be an activist is an important component of our climate change curricular focus this year.

HMS Community

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)

Community

13 EXCHANGE STUDENTS IN OUR AREA THIS YEAR! They are here! All 13 have arrived safely and are happily getting used to everything our area has to offer--and their new language, new culture, new food, new home, new family, new classes, new friends, new sports and even new weather! Say hi and welcome to (from left to right, back row): Arturo, MEXICO; Thibaut, BELGIUM; Guilia, ITALY; Wanda, GERMANY; Bennet, GERMANY; Bela, BRAZIL; Ariel, SPAIN; Alec, GERMANY; Yayhe, SOMALIA and (from left to right, front row) Gabriel, BRAZIL; Isa, SPAIN; Lena, AUSTRIA; Pat, THAILAND. Thank you to all who are hosting! You are making a difference!

THREE HOST FAMILIES STILL NEEDED (at Brattleboro Union High School) Three of these students are here with gracious "welcome families". These are families who believe strongly in the value of international exchange, but who can't host for the entire year. The three are Ariel (SPAIN), Arturo (MEXICO) and Gabriel (BRAZIL). They are doing great at BUHS, and are anxiously looking forward to having their own family. The deadline is coming soon! If you are interested,  see their details! And if you can host (for the rest of the fall semester OR the rest of the year), please  contact Jill .

Positive Discipline That Works! When: September 24, 6pm-8pm Where: Education Conference Room at the Brattleboro Retreat Cost: Free to WECEC member and families in their programs. All others $8 If you are a parent looking for concrete, common-sense tools and techniques that you can start using today with your children - than this is a training you won't want to miss! Professional educator, author, and presenter, Scott Noyes, will walk us through eight parenting techniques that show us how to effectively use positive child management skills and avoid using punishments, come join us for this evening workshop, you'll learn a lot while having fun! Scott's trainings are always fast paces, humorous, and memorable!