Art and music classes have been working together to prepare for the upcoming winter concerts on December 3 and 10.
Upper and Lower Elementary students have been using their art time to create stage props for the concerts. Huge boxes have been transformed into many interesting things. A favorite of the boys has been a large cauldron made from chicken wire, newspaper and lots of tape. We made homemade paper mache' and had a messy good time creating the cauldron.
Lower elementary students have been creating winter scenes to add to this large piece of art that will be displayed at the winter concerts.
Other happenings in the Montessori art room include printmaking with leaves. Lower elementary students used leaves to create beautiful prints. They also painted the negative space with watercolors. In combination with their study of European culture and music, Lower El students were also introduced to the work of artist and architect, Friedensreich Hundertwasser. He was from Austria and his artwork had a childlike, playful style. Take a look at the students' work that was inspired by Hundertwasser.
I look forward to seeing you at the winter concerts where you will see all of this fabulous artwork created by our talented Montessori art and music students.
Be inspired!
Katherine Gwynn
- Promote a sense of pride and ownership in the classroom environment.
- Enable children to interact with real-world objects, mastering the use of tongs, juicers, tweezers, rakes, basters, and other implements they'll encounter for the rest of their lives.
- Enhance physical coordination, promoting both large and small muscle development.
- Build independence and self-esteem by providing toddlers opportunities to care for themselves.
- Convey a sense of trust between caregivers and children, communicating that we see them as capable and worthy of using the real tools, kitchen devices, and other household items they long to explore but are often forbidden.
- Allow children the gratification of completing a defined task from start to finish.
Elementary and Middle School students at Greensboro Montessori School work and play hard in their physical education classes. Lower Elementary works out 1 day a week for 55 minutes, Upper Elementary works out 2 days a week for 50 minutes and Middle School works out twice a week for 55 minutes. Early in the school year, each class starts off with a fitness evaluation. In this evaluation, we test each student's 1) resting heart rate, 2) muscle strength with push-ups and sit-ups, 3) cardiovascular levels with 1/2 mile or 1 mile walk/jog and 4) flexibility with the sit-n-reach test. The first test is a benchmark for the year; then each student will do a retest before Winter Break and again before summer break.
So far this fall we have completed units on soccer and football. In soccer, students, practiced all the foot skills associated with that sport. Soccer is still the favorite sport of every class - Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary and Middle School. We then moved into a unit about American football. To keep all the students interested, we changed it up and converted the game of ultimate frisbee to ultimate football. Students got plenty of practice with eye hand coordination skills, team work skills and had a fast moving game to play at the same time. This unit worked in conjunction with the Middle School after school sports program All of the age groups are getting to develop their skills towards the big goal of playing on the middle school flag football team.
Occasionally we take a break from the schedule and work on our teamwork skills with a good ol'game of floor hockey or kickball.
Duncan Page graduated from Greensboro Montessori School in 2011 after 11 years as a GMS student. He attended high school at the Early College at Guilford and this fall enrolled in the NC State University program for electrical and computer engineering. Visit the Early College at Guilford homepage.
Duncan and two classmates from NC State were top performers in a recent global online programming contest known as IEEEXtreme, ranking 2nd in the U.S. and 24th in the world. IEEEXtreme is a global challenge in which teams of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Student members compete in a 24-hour time span against each other to solve a set of programming problems. IEEE, the world's leading technical professional association for the advancement of technology, conducts the programming competition.
Click here to read more about the competition.
Duncan is the youngest three siblings all of whom are Montessori alumni. Duncan's older brother, Griffin, is a senior at NC State studying Computer Science, and his older sister, Courtney, completed her master's degree in Historical Archaeology from Eastern Carolina University and now works as the lab manager for Blackbeard's - Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck, which draws together some of the leading scientists around the nation to collaborate and use the latest techniques in the science or preservation. Duncan's parents, Judy and Brian Page, live in Greensboro.