Happy Birthday Maria Montessori! Happy Birthday My Little Zo!

Today my daughter celebrated her sixth birthday with the Montessori tradition of circling the sun represented by a candle, while the class sang to her. It is a beautiful tradition. Today we celebrate the life of Dr. Montessori as well.

Summer Camp

This year's summer camp theme was "To be a frog in Monet's garden." The children learned about Monet and other impressionists, as well as about the life cycle of the frog. We painted in both the indoor and outdoor classrooms, and watched three bullfrog tadpoles sprout legs and turn into froglets and then into full fledged frogs, which we released into our little lily pond.

Each Friday we had "messy paint day" and let the kids paint with their hands and feet, as well as with brushes. It wasn't exactly the style of the impressionists, but fun just the same! Afterwards the kids ran through the sprinkler to clean off. It was a really fun camp. The students and teachers had a blast!

Duct Tape Festival

We participated once again in the Duct Tape Festival. Some of our students, as well as the school's owner, Karen Stewart, and her family's ducks got to ride on our red wagon in the parade. Nugget, the duck sitting in the front, thought she was the honorary queen of the parade!

We also had a booth at the festival where kids could pet the ducks and grind corn to feed to them.

Kindergarten Field Trip to Cleveland Botanical Gardens

Right before the school year ended the kindergartners took a field trip to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. In front of the Hershey Children's Garden is a quote imprinted in the cement that pretty much sums up everything we our trying to preserve for the children at our school.

"Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, water bugs, tadpoles, frogs, mud turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb. Brooks to wade, water lilies, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hay fields, pine cones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries and hornets. And any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of education."

Luther Burbank 1920

The kids had a blast on the field trip. They especially loved the Children's Garden. They have a fountain to play in, a tree house to climb, old fashioned water pumps, and a cool garden with some unusual containers - boots, tubs, tea kettles, bikes to name a few. If you haven't taken you kids here, you should!

They also had fun finding and photographing plants beginning with each letter of the alphabet, which they made into a book for the school. Some of the kids also had butterflies perch on their fingers when they released butterflies in the glasshouse! It was a very fun day!