Upper Elementary: Geometry

Krista and Naomi show their geometry work. They said, "If any triangle has the same base and and the same height, they are equivalent. This is also true of parallelograms." Using this idea, they created designs using graph paper.

The Theatre...

Each year we put on a play for our parents and the other students! This year we performed the scene where Tom Sawyer gets in trouble and has to white wash a fence, but of course Tom finds a way to get the work done without doing any actual work! That Tom Sawyer...

Ben played with Samuel Clemen's pen name, Mark Twain, by introducing Mark Twain as he was dressed up as Samuel Clemen's... confused? It was fun and funny!

Here we have the group ensemble laughing and enjoying the moment.

Celena as Tom Sawyer sulking away to white wash a fence...

This year, in addition to the play the elementary performed, we were lucky enough to have the Idaho Shakespeare Festival's school touring company, Shakespearience, come to our school and perform "A Midsummer's Night Dream." It was great and the kids were so into it, at the end they asked such great insightful questions and talked about it for the next few weeks. Some of the actors were kind enough to stop in and talk to the elementary class about their upcoming play and give them some pointers. Here is one picture that shows the imaginative and fantastic set the Shakespeare crew brought with them!

Maria Montessori's 102 Year Celebration!

We had a great day! We made pasta from scratch and enjoyed a big Italian feast. Each year we celebrate Maria Montessori by celebrating the anniversary of the first Montessori School Maria opened 102 years ago.

We are so thankful for Maria and the Montessori curriculum. That being said, we also really enjoy having the opportunity to invite our parents to come into the classroom and help with different projects. We have such a great time during our community lunches. They are a lot of work but are always memorable and fun.

We are beginning to talk more as an elementary and school community about our transition over to Montessori Academy. We are really excited about the prospects this new location will bring us.

Until next time, happy weekend!

Introducing... Montessori Academy!

We are so excited to begin to prepare for our switch to a new location. In July of 2009 we will be moving to our brand new school Montessori Academy on the corner of Floating Feather and Park Lane, 1400 Park Lane Eagle, ID 83616.

There are so many great and exciting things to look forward to with this move. Better laid out classrooms, a larger playground with a basketball court, room to grow, a potential community garden, computer room, bigger library and an established relationship with the church next door so that we can use their kitchen to bake goodies for City Light Women and Childrens' Shelter and their large sanctuary for Shakespearience tours, graduation and other larger scale events.

In addition to the elementary program moving we will also be opening more preschool classrooms, so siblings can still attend the same school as their older brothers and sisters.

Check out our blog often, we will post more information about our move and as always, what we are working on in our classroom.

Three cheers for Montessori education, hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray!

We're going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo...

We went to the Zoo to see the newest exhibit, Out of Africa, it was exciting to see all the new animals and the changes Zoo Boise has made. One of the most exciting parts of the trip was seeing Eagle & Parkcenter Montessori's plague. Last year we all gathered our pennies to give to Zoo Boise so that we could help bring Africa to Idaho. It was great to see that our donations helped.
While at the Zoo we spent some time petting snakes. They weren't scary at all and felt really cool.

Here we are riding a jeep on safari through the Out of Africa exhibit. It's not the real thing, but it's still awesome!

Group shot! It was such a great day, we had to capture the moment for posterity.

Back when it was warm...

At the beginning of the school year we took a class camping trip to Bruneau Sand Dunes... It's fun to look back when it's cold outside and remember short sleeves and warm weather!

We had to climb a BIG hill to "sled" back down.














Thanks for the push George! It was nice that our parents were able to come along for the ride.





How many Eagle Elementary Montessori students can you fit in the back of Joe's van?














Even Pete came along for the camping adventure. It was a beautiful evening and we are looking forward to next year's camping trip. But until then, we have work to do and winter to enjoy.

Halloween!

Each year we celebrate Halloween by honoring people from History or by honoring other cultures. This is a great way to dress up and celebrate Halloween while still learning. We pick a someone to dress up as and then we write a report and present our costume to the class.

Kelsa and Reagan dressed up as Cave Women.

Celena and Rachel dressed as the Greek Goddess of Fertility and Brutus from Rome.

We had three Cleopatra's, Sarrah, Ms. Erin and Naomi.

Native Americans- Drew, Heather and Lydia

Astronauts and Pilots Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Amelia Erhart - Shane, Angus, Dezmo, Spencer, Abigail and Aaron.
People Born before 1900 - Einstein, Civil War hero, Betsy Ross and Laura Ingalls Wilder- Cameron, Tyler, Ben, Emily and Ms. Shannon

International Costumes - Japan, Germany, Mexico, Spain and Ecuador- Ms. Maria, Krista, Elise, Courtney, Grace and Ms. Alethea

People born in 1900s - Jane Goodall, World War II Hero, Blondie and Sean Johnson- Ms. Jody, Max, Olivia and Maddie

We had such a great time checking out each others costumes and learning about the different people and cultures. It was a great start to our Halloween weekend.