Author: Cathy Bachman

Butterfly Release

Written by Cathy Bachman on July 19, 2023. Posted in Announcements, Community News.

Our toddler program has been so excited about our special summer project: butterflies. Over the past few weeks, we have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to teach our littlest friends about some other little friends… insects!

When the weather started warming up at the end of the school year, those teaching in our Stars and Moons class observed a multitude of students who were especially interested in our bug friends. Children were fast to point out any ants or rolly pollies they found, and many friends chose to spend their outside time digging for worms. Over the last few months, our students have done an exceptional job demonstrating their growth with how they treat our creature friends, learning to never squish them and instead practicing looking only with their eyes. As teachers, we always want to nurture and guide any interests that students naturally gravitate towards, and as such, our summer butterfly project was born.

Miss Brookyn has spearheaded this fun summer activity, taking time during circle everyday to teach the children about butterflies and the metamorphosis process. The students in our Dandelions class have been so excited to learn about the insects and watch them evolve from caterpillar, to chrysalis, and eventually a butterfly. Students were all invited to name their own caterpillar, and have been very hands on and inquisitive as we watched our fluttery friends grow.

On Friday morning, we reached the final chapter of our butterfly journey, as it became time to release our sweet painted ladies out into the world. Our toddler class was joined by our infant program and a few families as we thanked the butterflies for their time in our class, and bid them adieu. The children showed enormous excitement seeing the butterflies fly around and explore the world, and have been talking about them non stop since! We are so thrilled to have had this opportunity to dive in deep and really explore the fixation these kiddos have with bugs, and cannot wait to see how this interest will present itself for the duration of our summer camp program. Thank you to those who came and joined us, it has been so lovely to have children and families alike involved with this! If you see any painted lady butterflies around our school, be sure to give them a wave and tell them the toddlers love and miss them.

FMSL Teachers are the BEST!

Written by Cathy Bachman on May 15, 2023. Posted in Announcements, Blog, Community News.

For Teacher Appreciation Week, we honored our teachers with flowers, snacks, sentiments, donuts and bagels, lunch and gift cards. Our Parent School Alliance organized the teacher recognition involving many parents for provisions, setup and delivery, and involved the Montessori Education Foundation to provide a catered lunch.

These wonderful people are personally and professionally prepared each day to serve as guides to our students. They prepare themselves and the classroom daily to model peace, grace and courtesy, provide interesting lessons, assess the success of their instruction, adjust for differing interests, mediate classroom issues and celebrate the child. These teachers are phenomenal in their year-long care and support of their students.

Parent Education-Healthy Boundaries

Written by Cathy Bachman on April 5, 2023. Posted in Announcements, Blog, Parent Education.

Please join us Wednesday April 19 at 6:30 PM for the April Parent Education night. This event will highlight the Healthy Boundaries Curriculum in use at the school and how to carry on conversations at home, and will include the importance of understanding emotions as it relates to the curriculum.

This will be an in-person event.

Presenters are Jennifer Taylor our School Nurse and Amanda Bywaters our Student Support Coordinator. There will be a Q&A session, books and resources available for parents viewing and snacks!

Professional Development Days

Written by Cathy Bachman on March 22, 2023. Posted in Blog.

Our March Professional Development days last week provided our staff with a wonderful opportunity to all come together at the same time to learn and engage with each other. We focused on bringing much needed training on policies and procedures to our staff. We had a large focus on the Health, Wellness, and Safety of all members of our community as well as the Student Support training. This policy will be available soon on our website so look for it. All staff also had the opportunity to deep clean and organize in their classrooms and prepare curriculum and end of year items for the remainder of the school year.

Our priority task was sharing our new Risk Management Policy with the staff. We continued with Part B of our Creating A Culture of Safety: Child Abuse Prevention in-service training. Infant and Toddler staff learned more about using sign language in their classrooms. All other teaching staff had training on new Student Support observation forms.

All of us benefited from training from Nurse Jen who switched roles with our teachers and stepped into the educator role to provide training on medical response protocols during our PD days. We started off discussing the staff and student Incident/Accident forms and how to assess for concussion symptoms and continuing to observe for new or worsening symptoms.

We went through the classroom emergency backpacks and discussed the purpose of each of the first aid items and how to use them. Nurse Jen provided a demonstration of how to provide first aid for wounds before having everyone partner up to participate in a scenario where everyone had a chance to wrap each other’s wounds. We also discussed participation in the Stop The Bleed training as part of our CPR and First Aid training requirements.

Nurse Jen wrapped up her training sessions with our extended day and new teachers to review Medical Action and Support Plans and provided training for how to respond to situations such as Asthma, Anaphylaxis, and Epilepsy in the school setting.

During these days we also enjoyed some service project work. Outside we started garden bed preparation, turning over the soil and planting flowers and early vegetables. We also contributed completed fleece blankets for Project Linus.

Fun Run – April 11, 2023

Written by Cathy Bachman on March 5, 2023. Posted in Blog.

15th Annual Fun Run Fundraiser 2023

The Fun Run is our primary fundraiser for our school’s nonprofit, the Montessori Educational Foundation.

Give Now

Our goal this year is to raise at least $3500 total, with 80% family participation. Our students have the unique opportunity to raise pledges for the following Service Learning Projects:

The Children of Ethiopia Education Fund (COEEF) – Specifically, the COEEF program sponsors girls in Ethiopia so they can attend school.
Adopt-a-Native Elder Program – Allows us to reach out to one another, share our gifts, and mend the broken circle of our relationship with the Land and the Native Americans who hold it in sacred trust.

Each class will have a time on April 11 from 9:15-11:15 AM to run laps on the field (and through a bouncy house). Snacks and water will be provided and we hope some parents can come to cheer the kids on. Stay tuned for a schedule of when your child’s/children’s class will participate. In addition, watch for a SignUpGenius next week regarding volunteer opportunities.

Please help to make an impact by:

Helping your child to set a goal to raise a certain amount.
Helping your child tell family and friends about the Fun Run. You would be surprised how many friends, neighbors and grandparents are eager to support such worthwhile causes.
Helping your child actively participate. (For example, earning money by doing extra chores at home. Then, in turn donating to this charitable event.)
Attending the event and join the students as they run or cheer them on from the sidelines.
Volunteering to help at the event. Look for a sign-up genius being emailed in the next week.

We look forward to this exciting Service Learning experience and hope all of our families will participate with enthusiasm.

Thank you for your support!

2023-2024 Academic Calendar

Written by Cathy Bachman on February 25, 2023. Posted in Blog.

Please find the 2023-2024 Academic Calendar here.

Peace Rocks Highlighted at the UMC Conference

Written by Cathy Bachman on February 1, 2023. Posted in Blog.

This weekend much of our staff attended the 20th Utah Montessori Council conference. The conference is for our Montessori teachers to share ideas, learn, socialize and be inspired. Schools were invited to share their peace project and our Amanda was invited to speak.

Amanda shared our Peace Rock story and arranged a Peace Rock Project display at the UMC conference. “This past fall, our staff and students (infants through upper elementary) painted peace rocks. Each class placed them in front of our school during our Peace Parade on International Day of Peace. We placed signs inviting the greater community to take a rock of peace. The idea was to spread messages of peace into our community.”

Amanda’s display featured rocks painted by our staff and students and information about our peace project. She invited the UMC attendees to make a peace rock or take one decorated by our school staff and students.

Re-Enrollment for 2023 -2024

Written by Cathy Bachman on January 19, 2023. Posted in Announcements.

We are happy and honored that you have entrusted us with your child’s education and look forward to continuing that relationship for the next academic year.

Re-enrollment for 2023-2024 is now open!

Every family should have received an email from enroll@mcsslc.com on January 17, 2023 called Enrollment for Returning Student explaining how to complete the re-enrollment process for the 2023-24 school year. The email was sent to the same parent/guardian who filled out the application & enrollment forms previously.

Open enrollment for new families begins in the near future. We wish to preserve our current families’ spaces by enrolling your children first. Re-enrollment needs to be completed by February 15th. After this date, spaces will be opened to new families and your child’s placement will no longer be guaranteed.

Enrollment details to note for 2023-2024

The tuition increase this year is 5% school wide.
If you are considering the Extended Day option, we would encourage you to sign up sooner rather than later. As of this year there is one fee for both early and late care Extended Day. Staffing is based on those who have selected this option during enrollment and we cannot always guarantee space for later schedule changes.
Registration and enrollment for Summer Camp 2024 will be conducted in late fall 2023.

If your child will not be returning for the 2023-2024 year, please email enroll@mcsslc.com to indicate your decision. Alternatively, log into FACTS Family Portal and click Apply/Enroll -> Enrollment / Re-enrollment and click the button “Will Not Enroll.”

If your family has elected not to return to FMSL next year, we recommend that you wait to relay that information to your child until closer to the end of the academic year. It has been our experience that children who are told in advance of such a change often lose their focus for the balance of the year, and begin the process of separation long before the change is imminent.

We understand that educational decisions are the result of a thoughtful, intentional process and we appreciate our families taking the time when they are considering re-enrollment for another school year. Do not hesitate to contact us at enroll@mcsslc.com if you have any questions or need assistance in this process.

Carsen Ireland: New Wasatch Extended Day Teacher

Written by Cathy Bachman on January 12, 2023. Posted in Announcements, Blog.

Carson was born and raised in Utah. He has always had a passion for understanding the world around him and has found much love for travel and getting to know new environments, people, cultures, and language. He loves communication and is always looking for better and more productive ways to relate to others. Carson has a background in mindfulness, meditation, and Nada or Sound yoga. Prior to substitute teaching he found his passion for education through working with youth in special needs programs. Outside of teaching he enjoys music, reading, yoga & meditation, and hiking with his dogs. He is excited to grow with the community.

Wishing You a Joyous Winter Break

Written by Cathy Bachman on December 23, 2022. Posted in Blog.

It has been a busy week with holiday programs, classroom sing-a-longs and potluck events.

Capping off this festive week was the staff Sweater Contest in which there were 3 categories to compete: Ugly, Gorgeous and Festive. There was some strategy in category selection, but the winners are: Carson for the Ugly Sweater, Elise for the Gorgeous Sweater and Karla for the Festive Sweater.

We do hope that you enjoy fun family time and look forward to more growth and education in the new