The greatest joy for me this year is the precious time that I spend with the children and their teachers. I wish I could be in the classrooms more often. There is always something exciting happening in every room. This week I stopped by when Alex invited me to come in to watch their science project. The 9-12 students were making grape juice. The teams had to figure out how to get the juice out of the grapes, measure and strain it, and proceed with writing the details in preparation for future science recording. Cathy and Tim's preschool class was doing fish prints. They are beautiful. I have included a section of their monthly newsletter that tells how and why they are painting a fish.      

To go along with our "Sea" theme, we painted and printed with a real fish on Thursday.  Surprisingly only three friends chose not to participate in the art/science activity. We talked about the parts of a fish and explained that fish printing was an art form in Japan called Gyotaku, which means fish rubbing. We were able to show the children some examples of Gyotaku on Tim's iPad. The children seemed to enjoy painting the fish, as well as creating their unique prints. The prints turned out beautifully, showing incredible detail. Tim even made one to give to Whole Foods to thank them for donating the fish to our classroom. 

One of the ways for you to learn about the details of your child's WMS experience is to read the newsletters, attend your child's classroom curriculum meeting, observe from the observation rooms and sign up for The Journey. November 10 is the first scheduled date. Others are on February 11 and March 17. The Journey takes you on a tour of all levels of our programs. It is a morning event during which teachers explain their class goals and demonstrate some of the amazing learning materials through lessons at each program level. This is an event not-to-be-missed. To register, contact Theresa_Conaty@wmsde.org.

I will see you tonight at the curriculum meetings in 5-7 and 7-9 classrooms. 

Have a wonderful week!

Now is the time to plan how you will fulfill your WMS Parent Co-op requirement for the year. Co-op opportunities are listed at www.wmsde.org/co-op and on the main co-op board across from the library.

When parents join in the work of the community there are benefits for everyone - the children, the teachers, the staff and the parents themselves.

What are the reasons to get involved?

• It feels good.
• It strengthens your community.
• It can strengthen your family.

What does service teach your children?

• A sense of responsibility. 
• That one person can make a difference.
• The benefit of sacrifice.
• Tolerance. 

Adapted from "Community Service, A Family's Guide to Getting Involved," featured in KidsHealth from Nemours.

Please contact Laurie Orsic if you are in need of additional information about the WMS Parent Co-op commitment. 

Anne Frank with her classmates at Montessori school, which she attended from 1933 to 1941.

The Diary of Anne Frank is an eloquent and heart-wrenching account of the Holocaust, written by a remarkable Jewish girl whose faith in the ability for good to triumph over evil has inspired readers for years. While the story of her family's life in hiding from the Nazi's bears little resemblance to our lives today, the picture of her Montessori classroom above is amazingly familiar. 

Anne's classroom looks incredibly similar to the Montessori classrooms in which our children spend their school days - the work the children are doing; the way the teacher is sitting amongst them; the simple, mostly unadorned walls; the plants; children sitting on the floor with their bead chains laid out; and all of the familiar materials along the walls and on shelves. 

Her father, Otto Frank told friends: "Anne was a demanding character. She continually asked questions... When we had visitors, it was difficult to free yourself from her, because everyone and everything interested her... It was good that Anne went to a Montessori School, where each pupil gets a lot of individual attention." 

The story of Anne Frank is so dramatic, so unlike anything our children have experienced, and yet this picture of her in her beloved Montessori classroom makes us realize how similar her early life was to our that of our own Montessori children.