A Fun Week

 It was a fabulous week. We had an excellent field trip to Aldridge Gardens.  Ms. Mac demonstrated many propagation methods. Each child brought home three types of propagation.  Later in the week we did a taste test of all the vegetables in our garden.  Each vegetable was ranked by each student as salty, sour, bitter, sweet or savory.  I was impressed by how many students tried all of the vegetables. We also had our first guest speaker since Covid began: Jackson's father!  He gave a wonderfully child appropriate talk about the Christian traditions of Easter. To round out our week we held a Lower Elementary egg hunt.  You can imagine how much fun they all had shrieking around the playground looking for their three eggs.  Have a wonderful holiday weekend.  See you all next Tuesday.

Peace

   In our modern world, it is so easy to get sucked into conflict – online, on the news, with our family and friends. It is important that at a very young age, we begin to learn how to settle our differences and appropriately handle strong emotions.  Peace education is a major component of the Montessori classroom. Adults model peaceful and respectful behavior, and because Montessori classrooms are composed of mixed age groups, older students serve as role models for younger children. At Bruno Montessori we are blessed with an exceptionally beautiful environment.  We have variety of beautiful trees, open fields, a pond and plenty of wide open space.  This outdoor environment is oftentimes conducive to peacefulness.  Within the classroom there is a peace corner or peace table, at which two students can go to resolve a conflict or a single child can go to calm down and feel peaceful. One strategy is the use of a peace rose. Children learn to take turns holding the peace rose while speaking about how they feel. They stay at the peace table until they have heard each other and resolved their conflict. With very young children, adults model and coach the children with words they can use. Older students can do this independently. At the Elementary level, when the imagination takes off, students enjoy role playing and solving problems in small groups.  Each day in Lower Elementary begins with a peace ceremony.  A candle is lit and a quiet peace greeting is passed around the group.  We hope this sets the tone for the day for each student. Peace is very important in the Montessori learning environment.