Weekly Newsletters

Sometimes Montessori is criticized for not allowing children to be creative and sometimes for allowing too much creative freedom. Perhaps that contradiction comes from how we think of creativity. What exactly is it and what does it look like when children are creative in our CMS classrooms? The loose definition that comes up in a google search is "the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work". Dr. Montessori differentiated between imagination and imitation. Imitation is very visible in the first plane of development, as young children try out things they are seeing around them. Imagination truly kicks in during the second plane when the child becomes capable of imagining things that aren't around them or don't actually exist in the current time. This is reflected in the big work of the elementary level. What is most apparent in our Montessori classrooms every day is the second part of the definition - original ideas. When children have the freedom to explore and try things out, they often find a path less traveled which is quite wonderful to see!

Reflecting & Taking Stock Last Friday was Conference day - an important event on our school calendar. I'm happy to report that we met our goal of 100% participation ! That is a strong statement from our parent community regarding the high value you have all placed on education. We are truly grateful to have such a committed and supportive parent body at CMS. Conferences are a good time to pause and reflect on things your child has done and also to look ahead at what is next to come. In the business of our day-to-day activities, we don't always take the time to marvel at the amazing capacity kids have to learn and to take stock of what they've accomplished and the progress they've made and continue to make. We're glad to collectively take a moment for this!

What a Great Festival! While the temp stayed a bit on the warm side, we had a great time at last Saturday's International Festival. Thanks to everyone who helped to make this event outstanding! It's wonderful to have our whole community come together for a fun celebration. One of the most important things, I think, is the way this event highlights student work. From the amazing table displays and reports to the creative items made by Nova students, it was a great example of what Montessori students spend their days doing!

See you Saturday! Looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday morning for our annual International Festival. We'll gather in the Courtyard starting at 10am to see the cultural displays, shop at the Nova Microeconomy sale, and enjoy some music with Marshal. Every child attending gets a passport and collects stickers as they visit each classroom's table. We have a prize for them after they get their stickers! CMS Board members will be joining us at the passport table so please stop by and say hello to them. Friendly reminder that dogs need to stay home Saturday - just humans please! Bathrooms will be available in the new Library in the yellow building.

"All children are by nature antifragile. Just as the immune system must be exposed to germs, and trees must be exposed to wind, children require exposure to setbacks, failures, shocks, and stumbles in order to develop strength and self-reliance." Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation , p. 93

"The children of today will make all the discoveries of tomorrow. All the discoveries of mankind will be known to them and they will improve what has been done and make fresh discoveries...The future generation must not only know how to do what we can teach them, they must be able to go a step further." The 1946 London Lectures, p. 137 Maria Montessori passed away in 1952, well before the advent of anything "digital" in the world. However, she did speak quite eloquently to preparing the child for the future. Here are a few key points in the Montessori approach to consider: Montessori is development based and focused on giving children what is appropriate for their developmental stage. The child's work is purposeful and the Montessori materials give the clearest visual representation possible for the concept, without alot of extraneous stuff. Real world hands-on experiences are still the best foundation for learning. To be creative thinkers and innovators, children need freedom to explore, experiment, and make connections. When we consider the above factors we can see about where in the child's educational development it is appropriate for them to begin to use digital tools. At CMS, as with most AMI Montessori schools, this is around the upper elementary age - but with scaffolded access and guidance. We continue to ask...Is this the best tool for this purpose? Are there other resources available that could provide a better experience? Is use of digital technology supporting their development in a positive way? I hope you will consider reading or listening to Jonathan Haidt's book The Anxious Generation (and joining our discussion group tomorrow!). This is an important topic that all educators and parents should be considering.

Arrival is at 8am. To get the most out of the school day, its important that your child arrive on time. Greeting friends and walking to class together starts their day with a smile and helps children feel like a valued part of the community. Arriving late, conversely, feels like walking into a party that is already underway. Especially for our younger students, whose whole day can be disrupted by arriving late. On a more practical note, the car line ends at or before 8:20. Since Guides are on their own in class while Assistants help with the car line, it is important that they return to their classroom as soon as possible. If you arrive at 8:20 or later, expect to wait in your car in front of the office until administrative staff is able to receive your child. If you have a scheduled appointment and know you will arrive late, please email the office at attendance@community-montessori.org and let us know when you expect to arrive. Thanks!

LAST CALL FOR ENRICHMENTS Sign Up for Fall Enrichment classes closes tomorrow Sept. 25th so be sure to register now! Classes begin next week. We have a great selection for students in Children's House and Elementary levels, including science, chess, sports, and art. Sign up HERE and call us in the office if you have any questions.

FALL ENRICHMENT SIGN UP IS HERE ! Children's House and Elementary students can sign up now for After School Enrichment classes. We have a great selection this fall. From science to art to lego robotics, there's something for everyone! Registration is open now through September 25th. Classes start the week of September 30th. The registration form has more details for each of the specific classes offered so please read and sign up today. Call the office if you have any questions.

Last Call Everyone! Placemat orders close this Friday at 4pm so order yours now! Our Community Placemats are a great way to kickstart dinner conversations about your child's day at school! Order a placemat (or two!) and see all the children that make up your child's Community at CMS. Our placemats are custom made and personalized, with a photo and first name of every classmate. It's a great way to help your child learn everyone's names and get to know them yourself too.

September is here and students are beginning to settle in. Having consistent rules and predictable routines helps children feel secure and enables them to make independent choices throughout their day. Equally important is establishing the bonds of community within our classrooms and across the school as a whole. To help with this, we are offering our first ever Community Placemats!

Maria Montessori was born on August 31st, 1870 in a small town in Italy. It's thanks to her work that we have Montessori schools today. Students this week have been hearing about her life story. It's a fun math challenge to subtract 1870 from 2024 and discover how long ago she lived. Cheers to Maria!

We're off to a great start! Students came back ready to go and we've jumped right in to lessons and Montessori work. For most, its a mixture of new presentations alongside past favorities with perhaps a little refreshing and reminding also in the mix.

Welcome back CMS families! We have been busy preparing for the start of the school year and are super excited to have students back on campus. We had a great turnout last night for CMS 101 and the Casita and Children's House Orientations. Tonight, elementary and adolescent families have their turn. As you know, we have returning and upper level students starting Thursday. New students in lower levels have staggered starts over the next two weeks. Some fast facts about CMS for all our quantitative types.... We are starting the year with 229 enrolled students Our students range in age from 1 year up to 15 years We have 11 Montessori classrooms and 3 rooms for extended hours programs on our 18 acre campus We have 41 school-year employees + 4 dedicated substitutes This is our 43rd year providing authentic Montessori education in Georgetown!

SUMMER CAMP IS A WRAP! Today is our final day of Summer Camp. It's been a fun time with many memorable moments. A big THANK YOU to all our summer staff. You guys have been awesome! It's always fun to have Montessori alumni students bring their energy and enthusiasm to camp. Our Camp Coordinators did an amazing job thinking up creative and fun activities for the kids to enjoy. That's a wrap! 

THANKS FOR A WONDERFUL YEAR! We are wrapping up the school year this week with a flurry of activity, community, and fun! From the Nova trip to elementary field day to moving up gatherings in Children's House, students at CMS have been making the most of our last month of school. Can you believe Thursday is our last day? It's been a great year and we are so grateful for getting to spend this time with the amazing students we have in our school community.

THE BENEFITS OF COMMUNITY The Montessori approach considers the whole child and at CMS we look for student engagement cognitively, physically, and socially. The circles of connection, which start of course at home with the family, extend to individual students, the class group, and throughout the whole school. There's many ways every day that students at CMS benefit from the supportive community we work hard to establish at school.

This is Teacher Appreciation week at CMS and we are so happy to celebrate the hard work and dedication of the amazing people who work with students on our campus every day! A big thank you to the Class Ambassadors group for organizing a week-long celebration for our staff, with daily treats, breakfasts, and lunch. An even bigger THANK YOU to our incredible CMS staff!

MONTESSORI'S PLANES OF DEVELOPMENT If you've been at CMS awhile you've definitely heard us talk about the planes of development. I know - but they are so important! They are top of mind right now, as we head into our last month of the school year. Some of our CMS students will be "moving up" - which is our way of saying they're transitioning from their current plane of development into the next one. Let's review!

Individual and class photos are available now! We were fortunate to have the wonderful photographers from TANJABUL out this Spring to capture our amazing students and staff! Order your favorites by clicking on the link sent to you via email! The Gallery closes on May 7th.

ALL KINDS OF GOING OUTS An important skill for children to develop is the ability to apply things they've learned to new situations. These "transferable skills" are key for critical thinking, problem solving, and so many of the soft skills that are valuable in our lives. In Montessori, one of the ways that students develop these skills is in "Going Outs" and those can happen in many different ways. Throughout the school year, students in Upper Elementary and Adolescent classes, venture off campus to extend their learning in exciting ways, such as visiting Southwestern University to learn about Chinese language. Other times, the Going Outs are for community service, such as when Nova students help out at Simple Sparrow farm.

THE POWER OF NATURE I hope all of you got to experience the total solar eclipse in some way yesterday! Despite the clouds, it was a pretty amazing event. A great reminder of how we are connected to nature and the world around us, even when we don't feel like it sometimes. Today may be an "inside day" at school with the rain and mud preventing outside play. Tomorrow, however, is another day! I hope you all have saved the date and are planning to attend the Good Earth Celebration on Friday, April 19th after school from 3:15 to 5:15. We'll have the ever popular petting zoo, tractor rides and will again be releasing ladybugs in the Courtyard. It's a great event for connecting with nature on our beautiful campus this Spring.

NO SCHOOL MONDAY SO WATCH THE SOLAR ECLIPSE! No doubt you've heard that central Texas is prime viewing for the total solar eclipse on Monday! CMS is actually closed on Monday for Conference Day but, given concerns about travel during the eclipse, Guides are offering alternate times for conferences so everyone can be home that afternoon. Please be sure and check with your Guide so you don't miss out on this important check-in for your child's progress this year. In Georgetown, the eclipse will begin at 12:18pm, with the time of totality from 1:36 to 1:39pm. The partial eclipse will continue until 2:58pm. f you are planning to view the eclipse with your child, please do so safely and make sure your child (and yourself) are wearing appropriate glasses! Join Southwestern to see the event through telescopes. If your child wants to learn more the NASA website has lots of info, including: The Solar Eclipse happens when the moon passes between the sun and earth. An eclipse can only happen at New Moon The eclipse comes during NASA's Heliophysics Big Year. Check out other sun-related activities on their website There won't be another eclipse until 2044 so figure out how old you will be then!

How do we measure progress? What does mastery actually look like? With Spring Conferences just around the corner, we are collectively taking a moment to consider these questions. For Guides in every classroom level, the job of assessing and tracking a child's progress and growth is deeply intertwined with their daily work of guiding children through the Montessori curriculum. In training programs for Montessori teaching certification, we learn to incorporate daily observation and the importance of record keeping. The Montessori materials are brilliantly designed so that they reveal the child's understanding and skill in their use and practice with materials in the classroom. Elementary and Adolescent students also add in student journaling and regular conferences with the guide as a way of assessing progress.

REMINDER - EARLY ENROLLMENT ENDS FRIDAY! Enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year is now open for current families ONLY. This early enrollment opportunity allows our existing students first dibs on spaces for next year. Parents will need to create an account in School Cues to complete the process. The re-enrollment period ends March 22nd.

Enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year is now open for current families. Parents will need to create an account in School Cues to complete the process. The re-enrollment period ends March 22nd.

MONTESSORI TOOLS - SCAFFOLDED LEARNING The Montessori approach is very much a sequential learning system. Skills are built over time through a variety of activities and experiences. Everything in the prepared environment has a purpose and in some way contributes towards our larger goals for the child. In the Children's House, for example, writing preparation begins with activities like painting and polishing that prepare the hand and help the child develop their grip. When they are introduced to writing numbers or letters, the first activity is on a chalboard which has a big open space. Next they work on paper, still open but a smaller space. Later, they will move to writing on lined paper, where the space is smaller and more defined. But when the child tackles that challenge, they are able to focus on touching the lines because the skill of forming the letter has already been developed.

THE MONTESSORI TOOL BOX - THREE PERIOD LESSON Last week we looked at the #1 tool in every Guides tool box, which is observation. I hope you took a minute at home to observe your child! Now let's take a peek at another tool Guides use every day in their work in the classroom - the three period lesson. Dr. Montessori developed this as a universal standard to guide how we present new information to children. The first period or stage is a brief demonstration of the concept. In a language lesson, for example, "this is a triangle". In math work, "this is how we do division". The second period is typically the longest of all. Here the child, with guidance as needed, works with materials to explore and gain understanding of what we introduced. The final or third period is a check of understanding. In the language lesson, we might ask "what is this?" When the child responds "a triangle" then we know they are ready to move on with the next lesson.

THE MONTESSORI TOOL BOX - OBSERVATION One of the most important tools that Montessori Guides have in their tool box is observation. I'm sure all of you have heard how we "follow the child" and perhaps you've wondered exactly how we go about doing that. It's a good question! Observation is the key. In the classroom, Guides are continually observing the children throughout the day, usually informally but on ocasion, they will sit in a chair (as I do) and just watch. There's so much to be learned through this that I would call observation the MVP for Montessori classroom staff.

WINTER DAYS - EMBRACING THE SEASON If you've been in Texas while, you are probably used to the variety of weather we can experience in any given month. January had days that were super cold, some that were sunny and nice, and some that were rainy and gray. Movement and fresh air are so important to human health and well being. Whatever the weather, our CMS students find ways to move their bodies and enjoy the season. It's also important for children to have opportunities to experience the world in a variety of ways. The Casita backyard on a wet chilly day is a different experience from what it's like on a warm and sunny day. When Elementary students have PE inside on a rainy day, they're challenged to use and think about the space (and their body) differently. It's an opportunity to be creative and develop resilience. That being said - we sure are enjoying the sunshine today!

As quickly as January has flown by, believe me it won't be long before summer is here! Summer Camp at CMS will run this year from June 3rd to July 26th so sign up now and start making your summer plans! CMS will host the Casita and Children's House camps. The YMCA will be back to host the Elementary camp - it was so fun last year! Sign up for Elementary camp is thru the YMCA and will be available soon. In addition, our Adolescent Guides will offer some weekly camps for students in Upper Elementary and Adolescent classes. Check the sign up for more info!

KINDNESS WEEK IS HERE This week is the Great Kindness Challenge, which is put on by the Kids for Peace organization. CMS students and staff have discussed ideas and all week long we will be focused on kindness - to ourselves, to others, and to our world. How can you help? Ask your child what their class is doing for kindness week Read Guide emails about projects the class is doing and participate if you can Gather your coins! Send them to class with your student, if their room is doing that, and if not bring them in the car line on Friday when Nova students will be collecting  What are those coins for? CMS is participating in the " Kind Coins for Kenyan Kids " campaign. For every $50 we collect, we sponsor a child to attend to the Kids for Peace School in Mikei Kenya. Let's challenge our community to see how many kids we can sponsor!

We are happy to be back and to see the sun today! It was a relief to get through the seriously cold temps we had the past few days without any major mishaps or building issues. I hope all of you fared equally well at home. For those dealing with broken pipes or power outages, please let us know if we can do anything to help! Students were well bundled today and had a brief time outside. Looks like tonight will be another hard freeze but the rest of the week looks to be very pleasant!

For many of us, the start of the new year is a time to set new goals around health and wellness. Losing a few pounds, eating better, exercising more...sound familiar? There's a lot of research on the effects of physical activity, including better sleep, stress reduction, less risk of heart disease and more. For children, physical activity is also linked to improved focus and cognitive performance. Lucky for us, Dr. Maria Montessori intuited the link between movement and the brain in her earliest observations of children. She wrote "Children develop their brains as well as their bodies through movement, and in the process of concentration, self-discipline, and perseverance with an active interest, the foundations of character are laid." For most adults, physical activity means exercise and we have to schedule it and have the right gear. But for children, physical activity is woven into all aspects of their daily life (although the right gear sometimes helps!)

Happy New Year! Happy New Year to you all and welcome back! Hopefully everyone had a relaxing and fun-filled break and are ready to get back to learning. Our CMS staff members had a positive and productive work day today and are eager to see students on campus tomorrow. We're excited to hear all the stories...

Wishing you all a lovely holiday season! CMS will be closed for Winter Break from December 16th thru January 2nd. Classes resume on Wednesday, January 3rd.

It's hard to believe its the last month of 2023 - time sure flies by! We have been lucky to enjoy some really lovely weather these past few weeks and CMS students have been taking full advantage of the sunny days and pleasant temperatures. It's a joy to see our students taking learning outdoors!

I hope you all had an enjoyable Thanksgiving break. It was so nice to see all our students on Monday, and they must have eaten well too as many seemed to return much grown! We have just three short weeks before Winter Break begins and there's alot to pack in so buckle up and enjoy the bustle!

CMS is closed next week, November 20 - 24th, for Thanksgiving break!

Thanks for a great festival this year! We had so much fun at the International Festival on Saturday! The weather was lovely and it was so nice to see everyone having fun in the Courtyard, kids and adults alike. Thanks so much to all the students, guides, and volunteers who helped with the festival and table displays - really nice job everyone!

The weather for Saturday looks great - 78 degrees and sunny! It's the perfect day for a festival and I hope to see everyone there. We will set up in the Courtyard, just behind the arrival and departure pavilion. The festival starts at 10am and wraps up around noon. Children collect a passport when they arrive and, as they are visiting and taking in each classroom's country display, they collect a flag stickers for every country. The Nova community will have a Microeconomy table with hand-crafted wares that are sure to be great holiday gifts. We are Paypal only this year, no cash please. The Book Fair will wrap up on Saturday so those who'd like to browse should stop in from 10 to 11am. Music with Marshal will wrap up the event with some global tunes. Looking forward to it!