22 Intrepid Hikers for Friday Morning's Walk to Work.

May 16, 2014

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Next week at Hilltop

Notes from the Head

Grandparents and Special Friends Day

Next week at Hilltop

Monday, 5/19

Spanish CH & LE 3 - 4

Ultimate Frisbee 3 - 4:45

Tuesday, 5/20

Fire & Stone 3 - 4

Gardening 3 - 4

Mt. Biking MS 3 - 4:30

Wednesday, 5/21

LE Workshare 8:30 - 9

Bagel Lunch

Ultimate Frisbee,

Bement at Hilltop 3:45 - 5

Thursday, 5/22

Parent Coffee & All School Gathering 8:30 - 9:15

UE Museum 2 - 2:50

Tennis 3:15 - 4:30

Drum Circle 3 - 4

Friday, 5/23

Grandparents & Special Friends Day 8:30 - 12

Early Dismissal 12:00

Next year's dates on the website calendar!

Moving Up Days

K and 3rds

Tuesday, May 20 10-11:30

Friday, May 30 9-12:30

6ths

Tuesday, May 27 10-12

Monday, June 2 8:30-1

Notes from the Head

Hilltop Montessori School DOES Arts Integration!!!!

Time and again, important components of the Montessori approach, developed one hundred years ago, are proven to be beneficial in a modern context. One of these is the benefits of integrating arts into other components of the curriculum. Arts integration is something that Hilltop Montessori School does amazingly well.

Read more of what Tamara has to say about arts at Hilltop, here.

email Tamara

Grandparents and Special Friends Day

We are willing good weather for next Friday, May 23 when we welcome grandparents and special friends to our campus!

Children's House and Elementary families should have received an email from your class reps soliciting food for the big day. This is always a great time! We need some volunteers for that morning to help with greeting, and food preparation.

Any takers? Email Amelia.

Hilltop Multi-family Tag Sale and More

Only 2 weeks away till our spectacular Multi-Family Tag Sale! Whoop whoop. Word is spreading of our treasure trove of good deals! This week, let's focus on the garage - Don't be afraid, it'll be okay. Take a deep breath and dive in, you'll feel so good after you do. Remember the Tag Sale is on Saturday, May 31- $25 per table. Rain date is the next day. (Again, willing it to be a nice day!!!) We'll have food, fun and by the end of the day, extra cash in our pockets!

Email Amelia to reserve a space.

Baseball Update

Wow! Our little baseball player is almost to second base! We're up to $1700!! Only a few more weeks to sell tickets. We'll be selling on the Common after the Heifer Stroll and drawing our winner. Plenty of tickets available to sell. See Amelia.

Speaking of the Heifer Stroll...

We'll be parading again this year. We're partnering with Integrated Solar - they've got some fun float items for us to carry and we'll be making some more pieces to include. Stay tuned for more details of how you and your child(ren) can be involved. The Strolling of the Heifers is June 7th.

Development Update

I think it's safe to say that a good time was had by all who attended last evening's cocktail party! If you were unable to attend, click on the video below. It's a short film telling the Hilltop story and our plans for finishing our campus -- The Final Mile.

Please help us spread the word and pass on this link! Arts Barn Registry

Way to Go Week!

Bike to School Day

The Power of Solar

This month, we not only covered Hilltop's electricity use but we also earned our first credit from

Green Mt. Power Company!

SummerFun at Hilltop Weekly Camps June 23 - August 1

Camps are filling up. Have you signed up for the ones you wanted?

SummerFun brochure and registration for summer 2014 available here.

Hilltop's SummerFun camp program offers the perfect balance of creative learning and fun recreational activities in the fields, woods, and water of our sprawling 43-acre campus for students ages 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12.

Birch Room

It was wonderful to see so many parents enjoying work share on Monday morning with their children. We enjoyed our time together chatting and sharing lessons.

Thank-you to all who participated in the Children's House playground improvements. They are absolutely fabulous!

Thank-you to Seth Harter for #11 and the extra 1-100 board tiles!

Keep this Date Open! Older's Celebration- Tuesday June 10, 12-1pm Children's House Porch

Willow Room

Spring is a time of great change with the budding trees and blossoms outside and the return of migratory birds.

It is also a time of change for our classroom. On Thursday we welcomed Jonathan and Rebecca to Willow Room. The children were excited to meet Jonathan and visit with Rebecca again.

The Olders visited Lower El on Tuesday for the second of four moving up days. Everyone returned to the classroom with smiles and lots of news to share about their visit. The next Moving Up day is scheduled for Tuesday, May 20th from 10 - 11:30.

With all of the wonderful changes to the playground, we have been reminded how important it is for children to have proper footwear while playing. Crocs, cowboy boots, and fancy shoes are fun to wear but are not good for rock climbing. Please help us keep the children safe by sending sneakers with good traction for playing on the playground.

Many thanks to CH parents: Jen and Christian Engel, Ben Boyarko, Tara Davis, and Amanda Rupard for helping to make the improvements to the playground possible!

Melissa & Ellie

Avery learns the parts of a tree. Delia strings a pattern with beads.

Our class with Jonathan and Rebecca. (minus the Olders who were at PE)

Lower El

Lower El's first outdoor lunch of the year!

Studying money

We are in need of oatmeal containers, shoebox size boxes, and paper towel rolls for an upcoming art project. As part of our study of sound, students will be making their own musical instruments.

Upper El

On Tuesday the sixths visited the Yale Art Gallery in New Haven, CT. As a culmination of their year long study of US history, students reviewed the first two hundred years of US history through art. Students examined everything from furniture and teapots to miniature portraits and grand landscape paintings to learn about the changes in United States culture and politics. Students also briefly visited the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library where they saw the Gutenberg Bible and Audubon's folios.

This week we are moving into project mode in preparation for next week's UE museum. All students are editing and revising writing on their chosen research topics, which all stem from cultural studies this term. They are also creating models, interactive games, maps, posters, movies, you name it, to tell the story behind their topics. Please join us next Thursday afternoon at 2:00 p.m., or Friday morning at 8:30 for our classroom Museum to let our students present to you what they have created! Friday is also an early release day (noon dismissal).

Additionally, various groups of students are completing writing on persuasive essays, Model UN reports, and "This I Believe" personal statements. We continue to examine botany, specifically plant reproduction, as well as Vermont history.

Once again, here are the key upcoming dates:

Thurs-Fri, May 22-23: UE Museum

Fri, May 30: Pinnacle day hike for next year's class

Wed-Fri, June 4-6: Class Trip to DAR State Park

Thurs, June 12: Last Day of School

Middle School

The middle school continued our tradition of building connections to the greater community this week. On Monday, David Deen, a member of the Vermont House of Representatives and the Connecticut River Watershed Council's River Steward, spoke to us about environmental and political issues surrounding the Connecticut River watershed. Students read two articles by Mr. Deen in preparation and brought their growing knowledge of water usage and preservation to the conversation.

Every year the Training for Social Action class from the School of International Training taught by Ryland White comes to the middle school to engage in a dialogue around whatever our current study is at the time. On Thursday we had a fascinating and probing discussion about our River of Spirit study and odyssey, which broadened to examine our guiding question: What does it mean to be human? Students shared excerpts from their recently completed and beautifully insightful "What I Believe" essays and the SIT students spoke of their work. We interspersed our conversation with song and discovered the commonality of our lives and thinking despite the age and degree of education differences.

David Dean speaks to the class about the current legislative work on our watershed

The tools needed for data collection A potpourri of science labs

Aidan, mad scientist or middle school science student? Ian, return of the floppy foot.

Singing and dialogue with S.I.T.'s graduate class in social justice

Brattleboro Concert Choir

Nora and I want to invite you to the Brattleboro Concert Choir's performances of Paul Winter's Missa Gaia this weekend. The haunting sounds of wolves, whales, loons, and birds as well as an extraordinary ensemble of musicians accompany this beautiful and rhythmic Mass for the Earth on piano, bass, oboe, percussion and cello. Add in the 65 voices of the Concert Choir (this is where Nora and I come in) and the earth reverberates with joy and celebration of the earth.

The concerts are this Saturday, May 17 at 7:30 and Sunday, May 18 at 4:00 at the Centre Congregational Church on Main Street in Brattleboro. Tickets are available at the door or you can call the Brattleboro Music Center at 257-4523

Community News

Host an exchange student from Spain for the month of July!

An incredible learning experience for all! We've done it for the past few years and it's been an amazing experience for my entire family and the exchange student (of course!) The students speak English well. They come to experience our culture and practice their English. There's a stipend to cover costs. And a weekend trip to NYC that your child/ren get to go on with the exchange students! For more info please contact me, Ariel, mother of Malick in MS, at 802.246.7387 or anelson73@gmail.com

Hilltop Montessori School