“Hello, bonjour, buenos dias … hello to all the children of the world!”

It’s already the end of the school year!  Each child accomplished so much in the 10 months!  A great example is how the older children made maps of the continents, countries—and territories or provinces—learning the names and the flags.

There were so many new things to be discovered, explored, and mastered through the activities chosen on their own—to be done independently, in pairs, or in groups.  The school theme of the year, “communication and collaboration,” took place every day in the classroom.  Each child studied about their world and about the rich variety of countries that they and their classmates come from.

On May 11th, the annual Montessori Family Picnic was held in a large public park, called Shinrin Koen or better known as Negishi Park.  All the Montessori children with their families spent the time playing among the green nature and picnicking on the grassy knoll. The many families mingled and had fun from morning to early afternoon.  The weather turned out to be a lovely early-summer’s day.

For Mother’s Day on May 14th, the children made a bead bracelet for their moms.  It took a lot of concentration. The set of beads chosen were either of the large or small variety, depending on what size the child preferred working with.  A colored card was provided for each child to draw their mom.  Moms loved their cards and bracelets.

Montessori Sports Day was held on May 19th in the school gymnasium.  The children were divided into four colored-teams and worked in stations. Prior, they were able to practice here for a few days.  This will be the last time to use the current gymnasium for Sports Day, as a new sports-cafeteria complex will be rebuilt in its place.  This happens to have been the same facility that Ms. Mimi and Ms. Sallie used when they were students.

This school year, the children in our class represent nine different countries: Canada, China, France, India, Japan, Pakistan, Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The children learned who came from which continent, from which country.  The maps and flags they look at in the classroom are real to them, as they relate to their dear classmates.  The world in which we live becomes a closer place.  The children can apply the knowlege of their geography to make it real whenever their dads and moms go on business trips, or the families go take a personal excursion. Geography is one of the popular areas of learning in our Montessori classrooms.

 

Life cycle of a butterfly: The children learned about the life cycle of a butterfly, and made a 3D craft of the four stages in the life cycle.  They learned a big word, “metamorphosis” —the change into different forms: from egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, to an adult butterfly.

“Look!  A real white butterfly is on my finger!”

Our last day of school was on June 2nd.  The parents and some grandparents gathered in the classroom before dismissal time, to present to the students moving on to first grade, a smock-shaped photo card from all their classmates, and to say farewell to Iris, who will be moving to Germany.

Montessori Completion ceremony was held on June 5th in the Montessori Fine Arts auditorium. Congratulations to the nine children going to first grade.  They cover the range in time spent with us: some for three years, some two, for some just one and some for a few months.

There were 27 students in total who completed the Montessori program, nine from each of the three classes.  Hope they will remember all the fun times they had in Montessori.

The Senior Graduation: The Senior (12th grade) graduation ceremony was held on June 3rd in the Fine Arts Auditorium.  This year there were 36 graduates, five of whom started their education from our very own Montessori classrooms.  Two of the Senior graduates,  Naoko and Helena, were in Ms. Mimi’s class (with Mrs. Almoula back then).  The two girls started Montessori as morning children, and were in the same classroom for three years.  We wish the Senior graduates all the best in their future endeavors, as they leave Saint Maur to commence a new chapter in their global world.

Have a safe and relaxing summer vacation, wherever you may be.  Thank you for reading our class blogs this school year.