Parent Notice Jan 12, 2012

Details

Published on Tuesday, 17 January 2012 21:21

Corvallis Montessori School

January 12, 2012

Parent Notice

Happy New Year! We have all had a busy and wonderful start to the second semester. 

This month, there have been new children starting in the toddler house, children transitioning from the toddler house into the primary program, as well as new students in the primary program this semester.

Anonymous Donation

We received a generous donation of $22,000 over the winter break. You can imagine our delight when Sarah opened the envelope containing a check for $22,000 and, I have to admit that, it took a few seconds for us to fully realize what we were looking at. The donation is intended to help with improvements at the school as well as materials for all classrooms and the Cedar room.

This could not have come at a better time owing to the various building improvements we have been making since the summer and, during the winter break, we remodeled the toddler house bathroom so that the children would have both a lavatory and sink to accommodate their height. Eldon Kohler did a lovely job with the bathroom and we continue to appreciate his workmanship. 

Dorothy and Pat kindly donated the automatic faucet so that the toddlers had the same faucet as the primary children.

The generosity of this donation is deeply appreciated. 

Thank you so much for making the many improvements at CMS possible.

Donated Time and Expertise

Much appreciation goes to Niddy Lindsley, Ahson Saeed, Paul Bausch and John Paul Broad for helping with the school's computers and networking set-up during the winter break.

OSU kindly donated more laptops and computers so that the school now has 4 desktop computers and 4 laptops. The existing computers are now faster and everything is wireless. 

This is a huge improvement for Sarah and the staff as the system is faster and more reliable. $1,000 had been designated from the annual pledge to go towards making our system wireless. The cost of materials to make this improvement cost $250 saving the school $750. This was a lot of work and all of us appreciate your time and expertise.

New Cubbies for the Ginkgo Students

We, now, have beautiful new cubbies in the commons. Kirk Shimeall worked late into the early hours of the morning over many days during the winter break to build cubbies for the elementary students. Thank you so much Kirk, both children and adults love the cubbies and what a difference they make to the commons!

The Maple room cubbies were, also, built by Kirk. 

We are so lucky to have many talented and generous parents at our school.

Accreditation Visit

Carol Alver will be visiting our school on Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 6th and 7th.. As the primary and elementary programs are up for re-accreditation this year, consultants will be visiting the classroom and reviewing our classroom schedules.

The teachers are busily improving their classrooms in preparation for Carol’s visit. The primary teachers will be taking an in-service day on January 30th to spend time on their rooms. Although there will be no class that day in the primary rooms, the elementary classroom, toddler house, and Cedar Room will be open. If you need to reserve space in the Cedar that day please notify Sarah. Thank you.

Implementing the Montessori Philosophy at Home – Tuesday, Feb. 7th 

Carol Alver will be giving a talk for parents on Tuesday, Feb. 7th from 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.  on “Implementing the Montessori Philosophy at Home”.

Parents from the Montessori schools in Albany and Philomath have also been invited to attend.

Carol Alver graduated from the U. of Wisconsin with an undergraduate degree in Education and Human Services and a master’s degree in Supervision and Thanatology (the study of death and dying, including the medical, psychological, and sociologic aspects of it.) She completed her Montessori Primary training at the Washington Montessori Institute in 1965 and began teaching Montessori at the D. C. Society for Crippled Children that same year. That class was comprised of various diagnoses including cerebral palsy, autism, Down ’s syndrome, spina bifida, aphasia and various degrees of both physical and mental disability.

In 1968 she moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where she administered and taught for four years before opening her own school in 1972. In both of these schools, approximately 1/3 of the children had special needs. That same year she became a workshop speaker for the North American Montessori Teachers Association (NAMTA) and continues to give workshops for Montessori teachers. She was president of NAMTA for 8 years and vice-president for 12. In 1978 she began consulting for Association Montessori Internationale and continues in that capacity at the present.

Carol also trained Hospice Volunteers for 13 years and worked with terminally ill children and/or children suffering from grief and loss. She taught a course on Children and Grief and a course on Prejudice, Stereotypes and Value Systems at Key West College.

She volunteered as a Guardian Ad Litem for 13 years ― working with abused, neglected and abandoned children. She served on the Board of Voices for Kids for 9 years ― which supports the Guardian Ad Litem program. Currently, she works as a Hospice volunteer at the nearby nursing home and volunteer at the Free Medical Clinic, which serves the working poor.

Toddler House Discussion

There will be a talk for parents from the toddler house to learn about guiding toddlers towards independence and to talk about lessons, music, and art in the toddler house. We hope to see you in the commons for this talk/discussion on Wednesday, January 18th from 3:15 p.m.– 4:15 p.m.

Auction  - Friday, March 2nd 

The auction committee is in over-drive for the month of January preparing for the upcoming auction. Please fill out your “TAKE 5” forms and return them to Sarah by January 25th. This gives you two weeks to ask five people for donations. Some parents may feel uncomfortable asking for donations so you might want to go with another parent to request donations. If you need any ideas of where to go or whom to ask, please talk to Chris Singer. You may reach him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Elementary Talk -  Jan. 26th  (6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.)

 Parents interested in sending their child/ren into the elementary classroom next year are invited to attend a talk on “Montessori for the Elementary Child” in the Ginkgo room on Thursday, January 26th.

February AMI Conference

The CMS staff will not be going to the AMI Refresher Course in February as previously planned. Therefore, school will be open on Friday, Feb. 17th and Feb. 21st.