We had a great turnout for our Family Skate this morning! We’ve missed this community building event the past couple of years. It’s always lots of fun and a wonderful opportunity for our Kew Park students and families to spend time together outside of school.
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
In art class today, the lower elementary students sketched animals with visual texture and they did an incredible job!
A lower elementary student using the parts of a story material to guide them in writing a story.
Wishing a very happy Lunar New Year to all of our families that celebrate!
In art class today, the upper elementary students did paper weaving inspired by a lesson on kente cloth, the colourfully patterned textile traditionally woven by hand in Ghana, as part of their study on African art.
“We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.” -Maria Montessori
The is the decanomial square. It is one of the most beautiful materials in the casa classroom and it requires a high level of patience, attention to detail and logic.
This material is attractive, precise and creating order with the tiles, placing them in sequence to build increasingly larger rectangles, is immensely satisfying.
In addition to the logical patterning the child is developing in using this material, the child is preparing for mathematics, specifically for geometry, algebra and squaring. This material makes concrete the relationships of multiplied squares for as many as ten variables.
Hammering a golf tee into modelling clay is a practical life lesson which is wonderful for developing motor skills but all great fun!
The upper elementary students created incredible projects and maps to show the different physical regions of Canada.
Our lower elementary students had a wonderful day outdoors at the Evergreen Brick Works today!
Our upper elementary students tried their hand at sumi-e, or ink painting, today in art!
All the classes enjoyed some relaxing and refreshing yoga with Antoniette from @dundas.yoga.fitness on Friday!
Kew Park students and teachers commemorated Remembrance Day in their classes this week by making poppies, reading books on peace and remembrance and sharing memorabilia and stories about war. Today we gathered to honour those who have given so generously in order that we might live the rich, free and wonderful lives we all enjoy today. We listened to the Last Post and observed a moment of silence. Upper elementary children joined the procession to Kew Gardens and participated in the Remembrance Day ceremonies there, with two of our students reading In Flanders Fields for the crowd. Lest we forget.
Last week our after school cross country club had their final run at Greenwood Park after several weeks of hard work and training to build their endurance and strength. Enthusiastic racers ran for 15 minutes, their longest run yet. Congratulations, runners!
Our teachers enjoyed an inspiring and thought provoking day of professional development at the CCMA National Montessori Education Conference on Friday.
The upper elementary students created these Japanese Notan designs as part of their study of Asian art.
Notan is a Japanese term that means “light and dark harmony/balance”. It is a design concept that looks at how light and dark elements of a composition interact.
Most of our elementary children participate in weekly novel studies. In a small group, they read aloud, discuss the text and answer comprehension and analysis questions about the novel. Besides developing essential reading skills, novel studies and discussions expose students to different perspectives, experiences, varying texts and new vocabulary.
Practical life lessons are extremely meaningful because they teach a skill that can be used throughout life while also refining motor development. Here we see a four year old doing a favourite practical life activity of sewing a bookmark using yarn. Look at those purposeful hands hard at work!
In elementary, the students practice a variety of practical life skills with their daily classroom jobs. In addition to refining skills such as dusting, sweeping, table washing, plant care, organizing and tidying, these classroom jobs encourage independence and give the students a sense of responsibility, ownership and pride for their classroom.