School Partnership with Montessori Lancaster in Mérida, Yucatán

School Partnership with Montessori Lancaster in Mérida, Yucatán

We are happy to announce an exciting new partnership with Montessori Lancaster in Mérida, Yucatán in Mexico. We have been diligently working for two years to identify and partner with an established Montessori school in Latin America to provide children and adolescents at both schools an opportunity to connect with peers across cultures.

As part of our capstone experience, our Adolescent students will be traveling to Mérida this spring to meet students at our sister school for the first time. Throughout the school year, our Adolescents have been diving into a deeper understanding of the Spanish language and cultures in Latin America. 

Our Sister School Committee is led by Sra. Ale Equivel Castillo, our Dual Language Guide, and comprised of staff members committed to establishing a global partnership where our children and adolescents can establish lasting relationships across cultures. We thank all members of our Committee including Natalia Torres (Toddler Dual Langauge Assistant), Fernanda White (Lower Elementary Dual Langauge Assistant), Sylvia Glassco (Dual Language Director and Director of the Adolescent Program), and GiGi Gould (Advancement Assistant). 

Ale has worked to establish a partnership with Lancaster Montessori in her own hometown of Mérida. She visited the school during a recent trip to Yucatán and I felt in love with the staff and the school. Lancaster has a large Adolescent Program and we are looking forward to visiting their class in the spring for a seven day trip. Our students will have an opportunity to get to know the Adolescents at Lancaster. They will also be visiting Chichén Itzá, an ancient Mayan city named one of the new seven wonders of the world, and venturing into the local community for several cultural experiences!

Fall Adolescent Odyssey to East Hill Farm

Fall Adolescent Odyssey to East Hill Farm

In early October, our Adolescents ventured to East Hill Farm in New Hampshire for an immersive Fall Odyssey trip. The Farm is located at the base of Mount Monadnock on 150 acres where they raise heritage breed cows, goats, and pigs along with horses, sheep, chickens, and other farm animals.

Our students worked with the farm staff to accomplish morning and afternoon chores including goat milking, collecting eggs, cleaning stalls, grooming, and feeding the animals, along with preparing their own meals. They also attended workshops on cheesemaking, mycology, and candle making as well as classes in caring for each of the types of animals. The mycology workshop was a favorite – the students searched the woods to identify, dissect, and explore various types of mushrooms. They learned about the benefits of fungi in our natural environment and how to incorporate them into meals. The Adolescents were eager to learn about animal husbandry, sustainability, and farm-to-table concepts.

Odyssey travel offers many benefits to our students. It invites them to step out of their comfort zones by spending time away from their families and stretching their independence. In a new environment, students learn to care for and rely on each other. They bond through new experiences, such as caring for farm animals and learning how to make cheese. Finally, Odyssey offers lots of unstructured time to be together and build community, which will strengthen our connection for the rest of the year and beyond.

2023 Winter Enrichment Update

2023 Winter Enrichment Update

Scroll through this post to see what our students have been up to in our Enrichment classes this winter.

Art Enrichment

Ms. Jackie Dorr

This semester Lower Elementary students have been learning how to blend oil pastels while studying the anatomy of the earth. 

Both Lower and Upper Elementary students have been studying the artist Kimmy Cantrell. Kimmy Cantrell is a contemporary artist from Atlanta who makes beautiful, colorful works of art out of clay. His subject matter usually consists of faces. After studying his artwork, the students have created their own scratch art boards out of oil pastels and black paint and are so excited to etch their abstract faces so we can put them on display in February to honor black history month!

After studying the works of Ted Harrison, a Yukon-based artist, the Adolescents created their own abstract Winter landscape inspired by this artist. The students used line and shape to create the layered landscapes, working from the bottom to the top to enhance the sense of space. We also experimented with mixing tints to create a variety of values to paint in each of the landforms. The Adolescent Community also enjoyed a visit to the American Visionary Art Museum.

Physical Education

Ms. Bryana Huston

In Physical Education class, our Children’s House friends are learning about the values of sharing and using kind words like, ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ with one another when engaging in physical activities.

Our Elementary students are focusing on sportsmanship, offensive/defensive skills, and different sport elements as we dive into team sports such as basketball and scoop ball.

Our Adolescent community is focused on building different volleyball skills, such as volleying, serving, and improving aim using different volleyball techniques.

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Music Enrichment

Ms. Jackie Dorr

Here are some third-year Children’s House students who are excited about playing rhythms on the drum set during music class!  These young musicians are working on developing a sense of rhythm and pulse.

These Lower Elementary students are practicing their rhythmic foundation through a game of dominos.

The Upper Elementary music classes have been intensely listening to and studying the piece Carnival of the Animals by Saint Saens. We’ve been discussing different ways that music can portray an animal without using any words. What’s the tempo of the music? How fast or slow does the animal move? What kind of sounds does the animal make? Are the pitches you are hearing in the higher or lower register and why? What kind of atmosphere is being set up by the music? After the lecture, the students were tasked with breaking into small groups to create their own musical compositions that portray a specific animal. At the end, the students will come together, perform for one another and guess which animal each piece is representing. (Stay tuned for the video!)

The Adolescents have intensely listened to and studied the piece Carnival of the Animals by Saint Saens. We’ve been discussing different ways that music can portray anything without using any words. What’s the tempo of the music? How does the music make you feel? Are the pitches you are hearing in the higher or lower register and why? What kind of atmosphere is being set up by the music? After the lecture, the students were tasked with finding a piece of music that they really connect with and figuring out how they can portray that piece of music through art!

In addition, the adolescents have been recently really excited about learning how to play the drumset. On Wednesday, Jim Thomas is coming in to give a drum workshop!

Spanish Enrichment

Sra. Rebecca Dufendach

In Spanish for Children’s House we are learning our numbers from one to ten using our hands and songs. This week we began to sing the following song of the five little ducklings, or los cinco patitos and if you would like to practice with your child you can learn it here. We are also learning la ropa or clothing and if when you dress your child you can say pantalones or pants and camisa or shirt, it helps reinforce our lessons in their daily routine. In reading and writing we are practicing our vocabulary in cursive and some special characters found in Spanish including the ¿ and the accent marks á, ó, and é.

In Spanish for Lower Elementary we are learning about different forms of transportation. We discussed all the different ways we traveled over the break, whether by car or carro, bus or autobus, boat or barco, or airplane or avión. We then focused on the barco and following student interest, learned about the building of the Panama Canal. We set up some water dioramas to learn about how the locks for the canal function. Then we folded our own boats to work with our simulation of the opening of the locks or se abre la puerta or closing of the locks or se cierra la puerta.

Building on our sentence analysis work, in Upper Elementary we are able to begin reading novellas or short stories. The cuentos take place in Colombia so we are learning about some of the cultural background of this coffee producing region and its wildlife. We begin by reviewing the character and plot development from the previous chapter and then dive into reading the piece at hand. Then we break into different stations according to student preference, either sentence analysis, noun work, verb conjugation, or story maps. With this work we are not only developing our Spanish pronunciation but building a solid foundation in Spanish grammar.

In Adolescent Spanish this month we prepared our Viaje or student-led field trip presentations. Each pair of students researched an objective for our trip. The only requirement is that it must be related to the Spanish language or a Spanish-speaking country. Each pair prepared their presentations and speeches fully in Spanish but were not allowed to use any text on their slides. They worked with language and images to convince Sylvia and Andrew that their destination deserved funding. With feedback and some follow up questions by their guides, the students worked to clarify their budget, inclusion, and location specifics pertinent to their destination. Finally, it was decided that the restaurant Mezcal, presented by Drew and Layla, merited support. We will be traveling there in the coming month following our lessons on the specifics of ordering food in Spanish.

Media Lab

Ms. Sherry White

Lower Elementary students visit the library each week to work on keyboarding skills through
typingclub.com. This resource teaches correct finger-to-key movement across the entire keyboard. The student experience is designed to be clean, straight forward, engaging and fun. It is a highly effective tool that helps students at all skill levels improve their typing ability through guided lessons and engaging assessments. Students are provided with continuous feedback on their progress every step of the way and are motivated to repeat each lesson over and over to master each step prior to proceeding. Students are provided with an optional virtual key board and virtual hands on their typing interface to assist them when using the correct fingers when they are practicing each lesson. The carefully designed lessons include instructional videos, educational games, cross-curricular content, and other interactive experiences.

Our Adolescents’ Visit to the Mexican Cultural Institute

Our Adolescents’ Visit to the Mexican Cultural Institute

For Spanish enrichment, the Adolescent Community visited the Mexican Cultural Institute of Washington, DC this month. We have been studying the murals and researching the themes and iconography chosen by the artist Roberto Cueva del Río. Our tour of the Institute was completely in Spanish, a fact that certainly challenged our students’ linguistic abilities. Students composed two questions in Spanish about their sections of the mural that depicts the history of Mexico from the pre-Columbian through the early twentieth century. In the next month, we will review video taken from the tour and work to translate and understand their experiences.

The Adolescents’ Microeconomy Work

The Adolescents’ Microeconomy Work

In the third plane of development, the task of the Adolescent is to prepare for economic independence. Just as children in the first plane of development ask, “Help me to do it by myself” and children in the second plane ask, “Help me to think by myself,” Adolescents ask, “Help me live by myself.”

To meet this need, Dr. Montessori envisioned Adolescents participating in and managing small businesses (called “Microeconomies”) in order to experience economic activity in their community. This work provides “an opportunity to learn both academically and through actual experience what are the elements of social life.” (Maria Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence, Appendix A). Thus, the Microeconomy functions not only as a way for students to generate funds for their projects and trips, but as an integrated curriculum that provides the opportunities for real-world, experiential learning.

At Greenspring, our Adolescents learn that economies can be based on production and exchange, capital, services, or even reciprocal relationship and community. They explore different economic models and consider the full life-cycle impacts of an activity before selecting it. What are the impacts on affected populations of people? The environment? What systems does the activity reinforce or work to break down? Microeconomy projects are large, and require both collaboration and division of labor. This is another way that the adolescents practice working together. As Michael Waski notes, “teamwork is the superpower of the adolescent.”
This year, the Adolescents began the year engaged in a compost microeconomy, where they began providing a service to their community and the environment. They created lessons to teach the other classrooms how and what to compost, which provided moments of growth for many of our students. They enjoyed collecting pumpkins to compost in early November, which led to both cooking and preserving pumpkins to eat, as well as ideas for a possible pumpkin patch in the spring.

Next, the Adolescents researched deer-free fencing to enable more ambitious gardening projects. Their hard work paid off! They have successfully grown seedlings of tomatoes, basil, kale (and more). 

The Adolescents recently collected donations of bicycles in need of repair. They refurbished the bicycles and held a bike sale. The profits from the bike and seedlings sales will go towards the Adolescents’ upcoming Odyssey trip.
One of the key outcomes of Microeconomy work is what Dr. Montessori referred to as “valorization of the personality.”  This is her term for an Adolescents’ process of realizing they are useful and capable of great effort. Participating in real economic activity also serves a first step towards economic independence and allows them to measure the worth of their activity against an external standard.
Adolescents “…derive great personal benefit from being initiated in economic independence. For this would result in a “valorization” of his personality, in making him feel himself capable of succeeding in life by his own efforts and on his own merits, and at the same time it would put him in direct contact with the supreme reality of social life.” (From Childhood to Adolescence, p. 65)

Montessori observed that there is more than the intellect that requires nourishment during Adolescence. She saw the importance of adolescents having opportunities to be useful to their peers, to be valorized through their own labor, and to join in the actions of society.
Adolescent Igniting Voice on Social Justice Topics

Adolescent Igniting Voice on Social Justice Topics

In December, students in the Adolescent Community began their research by asking adults in their lives about social justice topics. They then participated in a speaker series, hearing from Greenspring parents Michelle Siri, Jen Brock-Cancellieri, and Jay Roy as well as Ximena Reyes Torres and Juliana Glassco, on social justice issues including the wage gap, ban the box (employment access for the formerly incarcerated), human trafficking, and national and global initiatives to fight hunger.

After that, the Adolescents selected a topic that is important to them, researched it, and created a presentation about what they’ve learned. Take a moment to watch their final presentations on environmental justice, the opioid crisis, fast food impacts, neurodiversity in schools, the gender pay gap, and police brutality. This work integrates data analysis, research, thesis-building, using supporting evidence, and presentation skills.