A Letter From the Head of School

Dear Parents,

Thank you for your participation in the Parent and Child night. The Directresses were delighted to see the children share their lessons and to see you as such an attentive audience.  Some students even chose work that they had not had a lesson on yet!With mixed age classrooms the students notice what work their older friends are doing. We all love this evening!

We have almost twenty students who are finishing the Primary program. Therefore, we are planning  an Information Morning where we can discuss the transition to the Elementary classroom.  We would like to invite you to join us on February 16^th at 9:00 AM at the Chamber of Commerce . We will have both of our  Lower Elementary Directresses in attendance to answer your questions  about the  Elementary program. After you attend this meeting we suggest that you find a morning when you can come in and observe the class in action. Please sign up in the office if you are able to attend. All parents are welcome. It is never too early to look at the program.

Karen Popkin has joined our MCS teaching staff as our Spanish instructor. This year she is teaching classes each Monday and Wednesday with all of our Elementary students. Ms. Popkin is an instructor at Coastal Community College and is capable of teaching Spanish, French and Italian. We thank Ann DeCapite ifor introducing Karen to us. One of our students, Jared, who is fluent in Spanish is assisting in the classes. He has a beautiful accent and we hope all of our students will attain the very same accent. Thank you, Jared for sharing.

Just a reminder, students in the Primary and Elementary classes participate in outdoor classes with our Environmental Education Directors. On the days that the children are working in the Pavilion or working outside, it is very important that they dress to suit the weather. Of course, if it is too cold to be comfortable even in warm clothes, we do not work outside.  Mr. Addams and Mr. Patterson are doing a great job with the Environmental Education program.

On Monday evening the Planning Board will look at the plans for the new Elementary Classroom building and hopefully, put their stamp of approval on them. This will move us one step closer to breaking ground. Today when I opened the mail I found another  donation for $5000.00 from someone from out of state.. I am overwhelmed by  the far reaching support  for Project  Greenspace .

Mathematics

After the work with the numbers to ten and the concept of the unit the students move on to the Spindle Box and for the first time, the concept of zero, and the fact that there are no digits other than one to ten.

Cards and counters are individual number cards for the child to arrange in order and individual disks to count. Here the level of abstraction requires the child to demonstrate that he recognizes the numbers one through ten, knows the order of one through ten, understands one to one correspondence, and can relate the proper quantity to numbers.

Once the child has developed a secure knowledge of numbers to ten, the exciting world of the golden bead material opens up to her.

Thank you for your support of the school and of your child.

Peggy Higgins

A Night Down in Motown!

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