Parent education evenings As a service to parents and as a forum for discussion, we are launching parent education evenings. We start with an evening on Independence in Montessori and at home (19th of March) and on protecting our children from sexual abuse (25th of April, in collaboration with the Fundación RANA)

Casa extension To continue to improve the school's facilities, we have enlarged our Casa classroom by 30 additional square metres. The children and teachers have been enjoying

their new space which includes new toilets, a new wet area and a new cloakroom.

School blog To keep you updated on your child’s life in school, we have relaunched our school blog. We will keep on posting pictures, videos and useful information throughout the school year. You can access it through the Parents’ corner on the school’s website or directly at www.montessorimallorca.org/parents/school-blog/.

Remember, the parent’s corner is protected with a password (mariamontessori).

Newsletter Number 8

March 9th, 2018

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CASA

Winter Term

Casa has had an interesting Winter Term. Despite the cold we wrap up warm and go outside for some fresh air. The class has been plagued with an inordinate about of bugs this term, so we urge you as parents to please nurture your little ones and if they are sick keep them home so that it minimizes the rest of the class falling sick and helps them get better much quicker.

Fire Brigade

We had an amazing Field Trip to visit the Fire Brigade at Palma Airport, complete with watching the firemen dressing up in full gear, how to slide down the fire pole...haha…and holding and directing the fire hose.

This was followed by having a tour round the airport and the protocol of going on a journey complete with each child being weighed to decide if they are able to travel as luggage and the tags they need. We all had a really fun day and maybe have a few prospective small budding fire people for the future!

Chinese New Year

This term we have celebrated Chinese New Year in the class, making necklaces with the Dog symbol in Chinese, building red Lanterns and talking and reading about what happens in another continent. We have also been working on Our Solar System, who wants to be an Astronaut, which planet comes where and simple knowledge on each one and the Big Bang and how our Universe started…complete with weird creatures coming out of the primordial soup! ;)

Lower Primary

Cosmic Education

Since January the children of Lower Primary have been working with many of the cultural lessons known by Montessori as the Cosmic Curriculum. Within this curriculum the children have been working closely with the first two lessons. The first, The Coming of the Universe and the second, The Coming of Life. These lessons lead to many paths the children may follow such as studies in astronomy and biology, the opportunities are vast and diverse. My role as the guide is to spark the children's imagination so that they are encouraged to explore these topics in more depth.

“Cosmic Education is intended to help each of us search for our cosmic task as a species and as individuals. To do this, we must un-derstand ourselves in context. It is only against the background of our place in the universe, our relationships with other living organ-isms, and our understanding of human unity within cultural diver-sity, that we can attempt to answer the question, ‘Who am I?’” (Michael & D’Neil Duffy, Children of the Universe: Cosmic Educa-tion in the Montessori Elementary Classroom.) The second plane of development (age 6–12) is full of wonder and awe as children discover answers to some of life’s most basic questions: Who am I? Where do I come from? Montessori’s Great Lessons attempt to give children the keys to discovering more about the universe and life on earth.

Love

Our classroom adopted a theme of love during the month of February with a daily routine of sharing a heart with children in the classroom. Each day two children wore a felted heart pinned to their clothes all day, at the end of the day the children shared their kind words with the group during our daily community meeting. The comments were honest and heartfelt. It was a pleasure to hear the children engaging in this dialogue with one another. We extended the heart to our dear friend Benito on the last day of the month and it was clear the children have a sincere respect for all of the adults who help to make our school a beautiful environment for learning. During these afternoons we heard comments such as, "Something I like about --- is --- is always such a good friend, something I like about --- is --- is always working so hard in our classroom, something I like about --- is --- has such a nice smile, something I like about ---- is --- is so good at playing football, and something I like about --- is --- is always so nice to me."

Peace education

As we look ahead into our last month of the term we will complete the work with Maria with The Story of a Seagull and The Cat Who Taught Her to Fly, a moving, uplifting and life-enhancing story with a strong environmental theme by Luis Sepúlveda.

Stay tuned for updates about this project and our first going out together as a class!

Upper Primary

Science

We have carried out a wide range of science experiments, in groups, with partners and individually. The children have learnt how to investigate and record in a scientific way.

So far, they have investigated how colours impact people’s views of emotion, found out if age, gender or height has any bearing on how high you can jump, inflated a balloon using the CO2 created due to a chemical reaction, grown crystals, made a lava lamp and found out how light can be refracted.

The Periodic Table

Going to the UN

Our older children are working hard on their projects for the Montessori Model United Nations Programme. They have learnt about a range of world-wide issues and need to think about ways to solve them, whilst representing our host country of Bolivia. They will travel to Rome in May to meet with other children from around the world, present their ideas in a short speech and then debate their viewpoint and try to reach a resolution – just as the UN has to!

Focus on Bolivia

Our other children have researched and learnt about Bolivia, answering a range of questions that they thought of themselves, such as ‘are women respected there,’ ‘what do they eat’ and ‘do they have a good economy?’ Also, they have now begun a written personal project of their own choice which they will orally present in the summer term.

Carnival 2018

Sant Antoni 2018

PRACTICAL ISSUES

Montessori Week

Dear parents, we are happy to announce our upcoming Montessori week from the 19th to the 22nd of March. The goal is to familiarize parents and the larger school community with the Montessori pedagogy.

The week will start with a session lead by Gabi, Lyndall and Jo on independence in the Montessori context on Monday evening exclusively for parents. The rest of days you will be able to see your chil-dren work in their Montessori prepared envi-ronments.

Model United Nations

We are starting an initiative to help our Upper Primary children raise funds for their interna-tional adventure at the Montessori Model United Nations in Rome. We count on your support!

School Blog

We have just launched our school blog! Watch videos (thanks, Pilena!) and pictures of life in your children’s classroom at www.montessorimallorca.org/parents/school-blog/ (password: mariamontessori)

FAMILY FRIDAYS Dearest Parents, From Friday the 9th of March we will con-tinue our “Family Fridays” afternoons from 13.30pm at school. We will be selling snacks/cake and refreshments and hope you will join us to meet other families from the Montessori School of Mallorca. This will continue bi-weekly until the end of the school year. On ‘Family Fridays’, Upper Primary will of-fer information about their upcoming trip to Rome for the Montessori Model UN and have different initiatives to collect money for their trip as well. We have decided to put in place a rotation for families to provide a snack/cake or re-freshment for the ‘Family Fridays’. This means each family will only have to con-tribute max twice a school year. We en-courage your corporation on this initiative, as we hope to continue to further the so-cial bonds between the families at our school. Families will be informed on the Monday when to provide a snack/cake or refresh-ment on the following Friday! The Parent Association of the Montessori School of Mallorca (AMYPA)

19th - 22nd of March Montessori Week

To book the time you want to visit, please contact your child's lead teacher.

19th of March, Monday, 6.30pm Independence in Montessori and at home

(First Parent Education Evening) in Upper Primary classroom

25th of April, Wednesday at 6.30pm Let's protect our children from Child Sexual Abuse

(Second Parent Education Evening) in collaboration with the Fundación RANA (Red de Ayuda a Niños

Abusados, www.fundacionrana.org)

DATES AND TIMES