The Summit Express
A community newsletter
May, 2009
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| The Final Five Weeks |
One month from today,
the children will be gone. Now, I know
that the positive way to think about this is that one month from today, summer
vacation begins. But the fact is that a
number of us will work most of the summer - and will have to do so without the
festive whimsy and wisdom of your children illuminating these halls. So, as the countdown begins in earnest, I am
soaking in the pleasure of their company.
They are the reason I have
chosen education - and yet I will be working in this building for eight weeks
with no one else here but adults - and what fun are they?! Here, in quick capsule
form, are some things that might or might not have already made it to your calendars.
Thursday, May 14
9:00 Host & New Family Breakfast
3:30 Collective trip to see our children's work
at Amazing Things - 160 Hollis Road,
Framingham.
Friday, May 15
12:30 Animation spectacular in Upper Elementary
Wednesday, May 20
8:45 Final Summit
Montessori Parents Association Meeting
11:30 Spanish Lunch Trip for Upper Elementary
Thursday, May 21
2:15 Third Year Presentations - Lower Elementary
Friday, May 22
10:15 Cute and Cuddly Police Dogs Visit Summit Montessori
Monday, May 25
No School for Students
Memorial Day
Friday, May 29
12:30 Simple Machines visits Lower Elementary
3:30 Community Picnic -- Come one! Come all!
Thursday, June 4
6:30 Night of the Arts (K-6) -- A
fabulous, celebratory evening. All families welcome to attend!
Temple Beth Am
Sunday, June 7
6:00-8:00 SMPA Sponsored Natick Ben & Jerry's Fundraiser for Summit
Thursday, June 11
8:15 Final morning begins
Dismissal
time varies by classroom -- you
will be notified by your teachers.
Here's to a great finish to a great year, and thank you.
Rich Eyster
Head of School |
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A Spring Celebration
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Some of the most adorable and proud moments of the year in our Children's House occurred just a couple of weeks ago during the annual celebration of Spring Tea.
For those not familiar with the tradition, our students practice for weeks in preparation to welcome family and friends in for for this special day. Not only do they use real china for service, but they also spend the days immediately before preparing all of the food that will be served, tidying up the classroom, decorating, and simply building up the excitement and confidence for the big morning.
Each student gets to invite one special person to share tea together. Our Children's House friends take their guest's unique order (sugar? lemon?), gather everything they'll need, and carry the tray full of goodies back to their guest. As you can see below, the students are very proud to show off their perfect pouring form.
 For those of us Spring Tea first-timers, seeing the Children's House students dressed up and so confidently presenting their guests with tea and snacks was a real wonder. The mood of both mornings was bright and lively, and the accomplishment of all in the Children's House is one we hope they will remember for quite a while - perhaps until their next Spring Tea.
Written by Kate Remsberg
Photographs by Macy Robison and Stefanie Landgren |
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| A Night at the Derby!
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Big hats and hobby horses gathered in grand numbers at the Sandy Burr country club on Saturday, May 2nd in celebration of the annual Summit Montessori auction. Current Summit families, friends, faculty, staff, neighbors, and alumni parents came back to enjoy and take part in this exciting event that fell on the very same day as the 135th Run for the Roses - more commonly known as the Kentucky Derby. While Mine that Bird didn't include Wayland as part of his victory lap that evening, teachers, staff, members of the Board of Trustees, and parents all participated in our own races to the finish, complete with a rose for the lucky winners.
New to Summit's auction committee was the introduction of an online auction. Open to anyone with access to the internet, the online component of this year's fundraiser, presented through cMarket, included great prizes like ski trips & lift tickets, golf outings, sporting event tickets, and restaurant gift cards graciously donated by local businesses and Summit families. Through the bidding of Summit families and plain strangers, the online auction helped Summit to raise over $7,500 - a great accomplishemtn, especially for our first time out of the gate!  On the actual auction night, both silent and live items were up for bid. Live auction items included Red Sox tickets with the added bonus of getting to sit in the Spanish broadcast booth, Boston College football tickets, and a golf package to the beautiful Hyannisport Golf Club on Cape Cod. But the most sought after prizes were the reserved prime Summit Montessori parking spot, and the chance for a son or daughter to be Head of School for a day. Although we're still tallying the final numbers, we're happy to report that this year's auction raised twenty-five thousand dollars!
 None of this would have been possible without the tireless workof Diane Michelson, Mary Ann Ciampa, Kate Poitras, Kate Saunders, Michele Pierce, Chantal Coudray, Traci Barasci, Yun Scollard, Cary Hewitt, Sherri Melamut, and Brian Poitras. This special group of people worked through the dead of winter planning, soliciting donations, creating and sending invitations - all in order to make the night as successful as possible. Thanks also extended to those who lended a hand in the days leading up to the big night, those who helped set up, and those who stayed late to clean up. And last, but certainly not least, a special thank you to our auctioneer, NECN meteorologist, Mark Rosenthal. Necklaces of roses for all!
Written by Kate Remsberg
Photography by Macy Robison and Mary Ann Ciampa
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In the Know in Upper El.
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Penelope plays a very interesting role in Homer's Odyssey. As the wife of the traveling Odysseus, Penelope is bombarded with suitors trying to replace her long disappeared husband and fends them off by telling them that once she's finished weaving a shroud, she will marry. By weaving all day, and unraveling her work all night she is able to fool those persistent potential husbands for 20 years until Odysseus finally returns from the Trojan War. Not surprisingly, these days Penelope is a name associated with weaving, but also with cleverness and quickness of mind. Although she might not spend much time weaving, Summit's fifth grader, Penelope, is as clever and adroit as anyone I've met.
 Penelope has been a student at Summit since she was in first grade. In that time she has come to find that her interests lie in the art world - particularly in drawing and writing. Although she enjoys drawing virtually anything, her favorite type of drawing is Manga - the Japanese comic/cartoon form. She even has a favorite Manga illustrator: Rumiko Takahashi. I've seen some of Penelope's artwork during the course of the year, and can definitely tell that anime has influenced her style. And the big bright eyes of this particular style of animation match Penelope's own. There's no doubt she's anxiously looking forward to the Upper Elementary's animation workshop at the end of this week.
While speaking to her, I get the very strong sense that Penelope's much older than she actually is. Her answers are quick, but thoughtful; smart, yet almost stingingly sarcastic at times; and her wit is advanced, yet she still manages to be warm and playful. It's almost as if she knows something we don't. And at least in my case it's true: Penelope is fluent in Italian, and all I've got in my Italian arsenal is 'ciao'. Both she and her younger sister, Children's House student, Anastasia, speak fluent Italian - talking with either of them long enough, you can pick up a faint accent. Both also travel annually with their family to visit grandparents in Italy - not your everyday sightseeing summer vacation, to be sure. But through these trips, Penelope has developed a very strong connection to the land of her family. She even mentioned a strong interest to return to Italy for college.
While her sights are overseas for the future, her current location has allowed her to flourish -- all signs indicate that Penelope has had a great year. Her favorite memories span from the very beginning of the year at Nature's Classroom, and have culminated in the recent Upper El. sleepover at Summit. The Upper El. class was blessed with a beautiful Friday afternoon of games and food, followed by a night of stargazing, movies, and very little sleep. I've heard conflicting reports, but Penelope can at least confirm that the girls weren't asleep before 1:00 in the morning. They deserved to run a bit wild, though, after all the work they put into the Science Fair projects they finished just the week before.
One of the words that Mr. Andy used to perfectly describe Peneleope was 'connected.' Although generally that means that Penelope can give you the skinny on everything happening at Summit, I know he meant it more seriously than that. In a different sense of the word, I found Penelope to be especially connected to the Montessori method. When asked what she would take with her when she moves on after Summit, Penelope so intelligentl y said that she feels confident in taking abstract concepts to a concrete level. Her specific example was being able to do multiplication on paper as she would with the Montessori materials. But her ability to recognize one as abstraction and one as concrete is something that she'll find useful until long after she graduates from college - in Italy, remember.
For those of you who have seen the separate Upper El. newsletter, you'll know that Penelope and a couple other Upper El. students interviewed me in November. You only need to know that because the peak of Penelope's cleverness came with my last question - did she have any questions for me? Penelope replied, not missing a beat six months after the fact, 'Nope, I've already interviewed you.' She's quick, I'll give her that.
Until next month...
Written by Kate Remsberg
Photography by Macy Robison
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Community Service Award Presented to Summit Montessori by
Parents Independent School Network
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Recently,
the Parents Independent School Network, known as PIN, chose Summit as
its recipient of their annual community service awards! PIN is
an organization committed to facilitating communication and sharing ideas
between independent schools. Each year, PIN
gives Special Recognition Awards and Grants to member schools for their
community service projects. Funding for these
awards and grants comes from PIN's annual Joan Walter Lecture Series,
which is open to the public. The
Community Service Program recognizes community service projects that best meet PIN's
published attributes which include: - Provide
on-going contact between students and the people they are serving
- Show
creativity and originality
- Encourage
making things as opposed to purchasing them
Summit
was first recognized for our efforts in the 2007-2008 school year in
our cooperation with MetroWest Big Brothers & Big Sisters and the
Children's House's work to create Birthday Boxes for the children at
the Bethany Hill School. Our awards for this year's community
service projects are due mostly to the coordinating efforts of
Children's House Director, Stefanie Landgren. She organizes, promotes,
and implements both the Square One Art fundraiser, and our monthly
donations to A Place to Turn. Square One Art was so successful this
winter that Summit was able to donate an additional $500 to A Place to
Turn. And our monthly donations to the shelter are always filled to
the brim due to the generosity of our parent community. As such, we
should feel very thankful to Stefanie for all her hard work, but also
very proud of the work we're doing to help A Place to Turn throughout
the year. Here's to the continuation of these great projects. And
congratulations to all for the recognition of this respected
organization. For more information about PIN, please click here. Written by Mary Ann Ciampa and Kate Remsberg
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SMPA
UPCOMING EVENTS AND REMINDERS
COMMUNITY PICNIC!
Mark Your Calendars!
Everyone's favorite Annual Community Picnic will be held at Summit on Friday, May 29th from 3:30
- 5:45 (Rain date June 5th). Bring the whole family - join old
friends and new for food, games, prizes, bouncy house, face painting and more
exciting activities - and a few surprises too! The afternoon promises to be terrific! And
if you want to bring a dessert, staff a game, or pitch in with other jobs, we'll
be calling on volunteers, so please let us know how you'd like to help and
contact Kate Saunders kate.saunders@verizon.net or
508-877-1123. We'd love your involvement.
SMPA, 2009-2010
Interested in participating in the
SMPA for 2009-2010 school year? Please return the form that went out last week
in the green folders to Kate Remsberg or email Kate Saunders at kate.saunders@verizon.net or
Kate Poitras at
katepoitras@verizon.net ASAP.
Nominations are currently being accepted and the proposed slate of officers
will be reviewed at the next (and last!) SMPA meeting, Wednesday morning, May
20th at 8:45am. Ballots will go out shortly thereafter. Not
interested in being an officer or a committee lead but just want to help a
little here and there? Please return the form or call us anyway! Any help is
welcomed help!
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A Place to Turn
May's Donation:
CANNED FRUIT
May will be our final month to gather donations for A Place to Turn this year.
Please
drop off any and all donations to the bin located outside
the Community Room. Thank you, as always, for your generosity this month and throughout the entire year!
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You've got questions about the Annual Fund?
We've got answers.
Those lingering questions about giving to this year's Annual Fund don't have to linger any longer. Click on the link in the Quick Links section labeled 'Annual Fund Frequently Asked Questions.' You will be directed to the Annual Fund section of the Summit website, where all of the most common questions and their helpful answers are posted.
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Summit Artwork currently on display at Amazing Things...
Be sure to join fellow Summit families as they make their way to see the entire display Thursday, May 14 at 4:00pm.
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