Parent Notice Apr 16, 2012
Dear CMS Parents
Much has happened at school since our last “missive”.
Firstly, with regard to finding a new elementary guide to replace Venus in the Ginkgo Room, we have decided to “grow our own” guide.
Owing to the difficulty in finding an elementary guide, as the demand for elementary guides is greater than the supply, Thomson Chuites will be going away in June to begin the elementary training in Dublin, Ireland.
Until this year, the Montessori training courses have taken a full academic year to complete the elementary course. However, this is the first year AMI has begun to offer summer courses, which take three summers to complete. There are two training centers in the US, which will begin in the summer of 2013 and 2014 respectively.
The Montessori College of Dublin is the nearest college offering a summer course beginning this summer. Apart from the timing, which suits our needs, Dublin also offers a thorough training program with high standards.
Thomson has worked in the Ginkgo room for two years and has had prior Montessori experience in an upper elementary classroom for two years.
We are delighted that Thomson will be with us for many years to offer dependable continuity to the elementary program at CMS. We shall be hiring an assistant to work with Thomson.
Registration for the Ginkgo Classroom is Monday, April 30th.
* Adele and Thomson will hold an informative meeting with returning parents following the registration due date.
Summer Program
The Summer Program staff has been meeting regularly to plan out the summer program for the children. You may view summer program options online. The content for the individual weeks during the summer program will be sent out before this coming Friday.
Registration due date for the summer program, also known as “Summer Discovery Camp” is June 1st.
Movement Program
The Primary Accreditation Consultant, Carol Alver, gave us many great ideas to incorporate into our primary classrooms in order to improve the quality of education for the children. We are steadily working towards including her suggestions in our program, one of which was to use the “Commons” as a space to do a “Movement Program” for the 3 – 6 year olds. Amaya Esgusquiza began the movement program a few weeks ago and I am delighted to say that it has been popular and successful. Amaya offers an ongoing movement program on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. The children can choose to go out to the commons for a half hour of movement when they wish. Four children can leave each room at a time by putting their “Movement Card” in a pouch in the classroom before leaving. Amaya, skillfully, records them as they enter (this is done on the hour and half hour) and continues with her program. In other words, the children choose when to go out to Movement as they would any other piece of material.
Please send a pair of shoes/slippers to be kept at school and used as inside shoes. This will help prevent tracking mud and gravel into the classrooms. All inside shoes need to be brought to school this week. Thanks for your understanding.
Volunteers Needed
Volunteers are needed to listen to children reading. If there are any parents who would like to volunteer to come into school and listen to the primary children read, please email us back an let us know. There will be an orientation meeting to guide parents on what is expected in this “noble” task.
We would like to have listeners from 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. five days a week. However, I realize that your time is precious so we will take whatever amounts of time you have to offer. Orientation date and time for an orientation meeting will be announced when we have an idea of how many parents are available to help. Many thanks in advance.
