Message From the Director
Dear Families,
Next week the school is closed for spring break. Enjoy your children/adolescents and the slower pace of the days without school. If you are traveling, please be safe.
Please mark your calendar for March 28 from 6:15-7:30. The faculty will be offering a parent education event that will focus on the Cultural Curriculum, one of the most misunderstood areas of the Montessori environment.
While Language and Math are major and essential components of the Montessori environment, cultural lessons remain an equally important and vital part of the student’s day. Incorporating Cultural lessons into a student’s educational experience enables them to enrich their understanding of the world and begin to understand their place within a global society. Often times Montessorians refer to this understanding as "Cosmic Education." Dr. Montessori wrote, “The child will develop a kind of philosophy which teaches this unity of the universe; this is the very thing to motivate his interest and to give him a better insight into his own place and task in the world and at the same time presenting a chance for the development of his creative energy.”
The Cultural curriculum refers to an integrated study that includes History, Biology, Geography, Physical Science, and the Arts.
Giving students the Cultural lessons and skills needed to make discoveries about our world is responsive to developmental curiosity. By introducing lessons about the intricacies of our world early and throughout their education, students are exposed to concepts like political geography, Earth science, physical science, biology, zoology, physics, and engineering, and are able to speak to these concepts at a young age.
Cultural materials are designed for each developmental level and become more complex as the grades progress, so that a student revisits a concept many times, but through materials and lessons most appropriate to their current cognitive ability. This process, known as scaffolding, is a form of learning where students are provided with the necessary support and guidance to progress from one level to the next.
Please join us and expeirence, first hand, the beautiful Cultural materials. Childcare will be available. Look for a Sign Up Genius link after break.
We will see the children on Monday, March 18.
Warmly,
Brenda
FACTS Parent Alert System
Sometime during spring break, Toni, WRM Office Manager, will send a text alert using our new FACTS Parent Alert System. We are excited about this new system as it allows us to send out communications via Text, Email, and Voice Messages. We will ONLY be using the alert system as a means to reach parents in the case of an emergency. I wanted to give you an example
of what Parent Alert will look like:
WR-TX This is a Parent Alert from White Rock Montessori: To ensure you are able to receive our alerts, please text the word START to 31706 from your mobile device. Any text alerts from our school will begin with WR-TX, and calls will show from 214-324-5580. Text STOP to end.
Please note if you text STOP you will be unable to receive Parent Alert Emergency messages from the school. This new system is much faster, easier for us to create messges, and tied to our Student Information Database.
Walkathon!
Book Study
Please remember our book study of the book, The Gift of Failure,
begins the Monday after break, March 18 at 6:30 in the Middle School environment. If you haven't picked up your book yet, please see Toni at the front desk. I can also send it home with your child if you just let me know. Here's a recap!
4 sessions; Monday, March 18 will be the first meeting
6:30-7:45 in the Middle School environment
Please read the Introduction and Chapters 1 & 2 for our first meeting.
Please come to the first session with two "ah-ha's" and two essential quesions ready to share.
See you there!
Ferguson Road Cleanup Last Saturday!
I am very proud of the White Rock Montessori community. We had approximately 35 people from our little school (the most of any group) and everyone worked very hard to clean up St. Francis Park and the neighboring water shed. Great work "Team Connie"!
AMS Family Connections
Access the March AMS Family Connections
here. This month the articles are about the Reasoning Mind of the Elementary Student and Music Educaiton in the Montessori Early Childhood Classroom.
Good Neighbor Program at
Tom Thumb
Earn money while you shop at Tom Thumb!
Our Good Neighbor Number is: 2881
Thank you!
DAA (Diversity Awareness & Advocacy)
Link to the DAA Curriculum on our WRM website:
https://www.whiterockmontessori.org/diversity
White Rock Montessori’s Diversity, Advocacy and Awareness curriculum is proud to recognize March as activism month.
White Rock Montessori is proud to recognize the inherent and meaningful activism built into Montessori education and the commitment to being a champion for advocacy at our school. By definition, activism leads us to bring change to our community through policy or action. In the month of March, we acknowledge that every day is an opportunity to show up for each other and our surroundings to create the safest and most equitable environment for us all. We invite you to engage your children in conversation about the importance of activism and the ways in which we all benefit from a community that supports and honors the lived experiences and needs of one another. Check out these resources with tips to support your current activist adolescent
, tips on ways to engage your children in activism
, and Empowering the Next Generation through Civic Engagement.
"Peace cannot exist without justice." -Dr. Maria Monessori.
Join us for March DAA Coffee Chat on Thursday, March 28 at 8:45. See you there!
YMCA Spring Sports Sign Up
Last day to register for White Rock YMCA spring sports is March 14. Visit the White Rock YMCA website
for more information.
