First Annual Presentation Day

Sam and Ben's school, The Montessori School at Star Creek, had their first annual presentation day last week. Sam is in the Primary program and Ben is in The Nest.

Sam is very interested in math right now. He is currently focusing on learning his teens.

The Montessori program facilitates the independent learning of skills, moving from the concrete to the abstract learning process. In this exercise, Sam first slides the 1 - 9 cards in over the 10s on the board. Then he uses the beads to reinforce the concept of 10 + a number.

Next he transfers his work to paper. He colors the pictures of the beads on his paper to match the beads on his mat. Then he writes or traces the corresponding numbers.

His finished paper, complete with his name (he wrote himself without tracing).

Since Sam started TMS, I've been amazed how the kids sit in a circle and do their own work while staying very well behaved.

The other half of the classroom is made up of tables. They have a good balance of circle time and table time.

When we first arrived for Presentation Day, the kids had a play on the stage in the gym. They had been practicing for several weeks and even made their own costumes.

After visiting Sam's room, we were off to the music room for a sing-a-long with Ben's class.

They showed us some of the songs and activities that they do with the babies during their weekly music class.

We didn't get any non-blurry pictures of Ben. He was moving the whole time. We had a blast though.

While we were at the school with a camera, I figured I'd snap a few pictures of the rest of the facility for the blog. Here is the library.

This is the backyard of the school. There is a creek with lots of trees that separates the school from our neighborhood. That's a spray-yard on the left. They'll be using that in summer school. There is a nice sidewalk path around the school. The babies get loaded up in a stroller for four and taken for walks around the school. There is lots of green space for picnics. They just had one last week for Earth Day and we'll have another in May for Field Day and the last day of school. There is a music circle on the front right with drums and other percussion instruments. If you enlarge the picture you may be able to see the garden beds and playground equipment beyond that. Of course every school has to have playground equipment, but the garden beds are really neat. They have gardening day once a week.

This is one of Sam's favorite rooms - the computer lab. They come here once a week during normal school hours, but Sam gets to go every day since he is in the after care program.

The kids especially love the SMART board. They have interactive lessons and the after care kids get to play games on it.

This is the art room.

This is the science room.

This is the big fish tank between the lobby and the science room. All the kids and babies love to watch the fish.

I can't say enough great things about this school. The kids love it. We love the teachers.