Thanks to all the parents, students and teachers for the wonderful Thanksgiving Feast we had a The Montessori House School on Tuesday.  Parents joined us on Monday to help prepare the Feast, and on Tuesday to finish cooking, serving, eating, and clean-up.  We at in the morning (South AM students), at mid-day (East classroom students), and in the early afternoon (South full-day and PM students).  No one went hungry!  The goodies included roast turkey and stuffing (and gravy), mashed potatoes, corn casserole, pumpkin pie, pumpkin smoothies, and more!

The students made popcorn turkeys to take home (see below).

Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday and will be ready for school on Monday!

Ms. Maria does NOT recommend swimming in the Hudson to her students.  Her black greyhound, Ivy, can’t walk by this beach cove along the Hudson without taking a dip — spring, summer, fall, and even winter!  If you see her there, stand back after she leaves the water — when she shakes herself dry, even 6 feet of social distance may not keep you dry!

Many Montessori House students have met Ivy and Madeline — Ms. Maria’s two dogs.  Ivy’s the black greyhound and Madeline’s the shaggy, black and white mixed breed (poodle and Havanese, perhaps?).  All three (Ms. Maria, Ivy and Madeline) love to hike the trails along the Hudson in the Palisades Interstate Park.  This adventure took them about 3 miles south from the Alpine Boat Basin along the Shore Trail to the best waterfall in the NJ section of the park — Greenbrook Falls.

We couldn’t resist taking more pictures of our rabbit doe Cindy (doe is the technical name for a mama bunny) and her seven rabbit kits (short for kittens, the technical name for baby bunnies).

This year we had a mama bunny in the classroom and she had baby bunnies!  Since Montessori House children weren’t at school (due to Covid-19), we let the baby bunnies play in the classroom.

Food!  Glorious Food!

A year-end Montessori House tradition has the graduating Kindergarten/1st Grade students bring a favorite food to the All-School Party following their graduation ceremony.  Each K/1st student brings 15 to 20 servings of their favorite food — the school provides plates, napkins, drinks, and additional refreshments.

We’ve asked the K/1st families to let us know what food their graduates have chosen.  Here’s a sneak peek that we’ll keep updated as families report in:

• White pasta and
  Fruit platter with colorful fruits
• Korean rice cake (Dukbokgi)
• Fruit and veggie platter
  Cookies (from la promenade)
  Drink -maybe lemonade
• Jab Chea will include (glass Noodle, spinach, onion, mushroom, beef, carrot)
• Empanadas (from Noches de Colombia)
• Chocolate chip pancakes
  Cranberry apple juice
• Chicken nuggets and cookies
• Chicken nuggets (Baumgarts)
• Baked ziti and bagels

Friday, January 7th, 9 a.m. Graduation, 10 a.m. All-School Party

According to the Wall Street Journal, a “Montessori Mafia” showed up in an extensive study about creative business executives.  This Montessori Mafia includes Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, videogame pioneer Will Wright, and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, not to mention Julia Child and rapper Sean “P.Diddy” Combs.

Is there something going on here?  Is there something about the Montessori approach that nurtures creativity and inventiveness?

By the end of kindergarten, among 5-year-olds, “Montessori students proved to be significantly better prepared for elementary school in reading and math skills than the non-Montessori children,” according to research published in Science.  “They also tested better on “executive function,” the ability to adapt to changing and more complex problems, an indicator of future school and life success.”

Montessori methods go against the grain.This quote from  Harvard Business Review captures the difference: “When I got too old for my Montessori school, and went to traditional school, I felt like I’d been sent to the Gulag:  I have to sit in this desk?  All day? We’re going to divide the day into hour-long chunks?  Am I on Candid Camera? Am I Job?”

Mitchell Schorr is a Montessori House parent  He is also among the best known urban mural painters in the world and has painted 3-D murals in and around New York City parks for more than a decade.   He chose a stunning spring day to work with students at The Montessori House to create a mural in our playground.

You can see more of Mr. Schorr’s work at http://www.mitchellschorr.info/

(Montessori House parents can log on to the Parent Website and choose Photo Gallery to see a photo album of the children creating with Mr. Schorr.)

The Blank Canvas with Mr. Schorr, Ms. Maria and student artists.

The Mural takes shape. Creators: The Montessori House Students and Mitchell Schorr

Thanks to Montessori House Families !

We collected a record amount of in-kind food donations for the Center for Food Action(CFA)  in Englewood.

(Parents can see more photos by logging in to the Parents section of our website and selecting Photo Gallery from the left nav bar). 

Today, with the help of many parents, we had a caravan of ten (10)parent cars make their way down Knickebocker Ave. to the CFA.  The caravan carried our Kindergarten/First Grade students and our food donations, Once there, the children helped unload and also received a tour of the facility and some explanation of how their donations will help neighbors in need.

Parents had fun too! (that’s Ms. Maria running to get into the picture — she just made it, but look pretty tiny back there!)

We filled four large bins at CFA — a whole heap of food!  Here’s a bit of what we delivered:

We had the pleasure of having Olivia’s grandparents — Alan and Bonnie — perform songs on mandolin and harp on March 17.   Thanks for the lovely music!