Thanks to Debra Rosenzweig, Shoshana, Karen Blumberg and Ben who are taking charge of the garden surrounding the Hilltop sign down on Guilford Street! We so appreciate your hard work and vision!! If you'd like to help them out, email Debra.

Also, a BIG thanks to Steve Betit, grandfather to Talia and Matai, for donating the most awesome item to Hilltop! We will always think of you, Steve, when we're cookin' up the dogs!

After many years of observation, Dr. Montessori identified Sensitive Periods (now also known as Critical Periods or Windows of Opportunity) as successive short periods of time when certain aptitudes for specific knowledge or skills show strongly.  This knowledge and these skills are acquired effortlessly and without fatigue.  These sensitivities last only for a time and do not recur.  The knowledge and skills can be learned later but it requires a lot of effort, will, and the learning period will involve fatigue.

During the toddler years, the Sensitive Periods presented at different points include Language and Movement.  Our job as teachers is to identify these Sensitive Periods in the children and link them to materials or "works" that will allow for the acquisition of knowledge or skill from the Period.  It is also to allow children the freedom to use the works without arbitrary interference.  For example, a child isn't interrupted during a work to allow another child to use it or to have his diaper changed.  The time to work is deeply respected.

The Practical Life and Language areas of the classroom support the Sensitive Periods. In the photographs below Mazin demonstrates a Practical Life activity - clearing his used glass and dish from the snack table.  This activity fulfills his need to practice large and fine motor movement and coordination when we he carefully carries the breakable objects from the table to the dish cart.  In the other picture Uri uses a Language work - matching water transportation vehicles with similar matching picture cards.  This activity feeds his innate desire to enrich his vocabulary and practice using the language he's already acquired.

Enjoy the long weekend and be well.

Ellie & Hannah

 

Last Tuesday, the Middle School visited the village of Harrisville, New Hampshire. The mills in Harrisville have processed and spun wool since the early 19th century. The Harris family built the first mills and eventually the Colony family from Keene bought up and expanded the mills beginning in 1850. The last of the mills closed in 1970 after years of economic challenges.  To preserve the textile heritage of the area, John Colony moved some of the machinery into a new smaller mill down river and continues to card and spin high quality yarn that is sold regionally.  

 

We were fortunate enough to tour the mill with John and some of his experienced employees. The machines and the technology are exactly the same that have been used for generations and it was easy to imagine oneself in this very old New England economy and tradition.

 

Earlier in the day we toured the village with Linda Willett, the executive director of Historic Harrisville. When the last large mill closed in 1970, a group of people formed Historic Harrisville to help preserve and renovate the buildings for new industry. Forty-five years later the village is home to numerous businesses and artist studios and maintains the architectural heritage of its beginnings.  We discovered that the design and materials used in a building tell us a great deal about the people who lived and worked there.

 

Harrisville is truly a lovely and bucolic place today but it is not hard to imagine when life was regulated by the ringing of the mill tower bells and the clang of carding, spinning, and weaving machines filled the air. Students had the opportunity to try and capture that history through roaming the village and cemetery, painting a scene of their choice, and climbing into the shoes of a millworker by writing a letter home or to a loved one relating their imaginary life in a New England mill town.  

 

We talk to John Colony

Paul describes our goals of the day

Josh and Mira draw in the Harrisville cemetery

Colony Mill #1

 

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