Dear MCS Parents, We are so excited to welcome you to the 2020 - 2021 academic year. When we were classroom teachers we always loved the start of the school year- we poured our heart and souls into creating wonderful prepared environments for our students to return to and would get so excited for all of the potential and possibility that a new academic year could bring. This year in our new roles of school directors the love and energy is no different. 2020 has already presented many challenges and, while we do not know what the future has in store, we are so happy to see our parents, students and staff showing great resiliency and adaptability in this unique time. Thank you for all the support you have given in the shifting of many policies and procedures as we navigate through this pandemic.  As you know, our administration has undergone...

What do we mean when we say we want to raise “successful” children? Too often, especially around this time of year, that conversation centers on college or the kinds of academics and activities that lead to college. “Success” is hard to measure, and those external markers make for comforting milestones along the way. Comforting, but dangerous. Because when checking off the achievement box is what defines success, it’s too easy to forget that it’s the qualities in our children that might lead to those accomplishments that matter — not the goals themselves. Achievements, from the A on the science project to the letter of acceptance from Big U, can be the gold stars for parents. They’re the visible signs that we’re doing something right, and that makes it tempting to push our children forward, just a little (or maybe a lot) by stepping in when it looks as if they might...

"Children will be smarter, better able to get along with others, healthier and happier when they have regular opportunities for free and unstructured play in the out-of-doors."—American Medical Association, 2005 Spring has arrived! I can't help but be excited by the thought of sunshine, hikes, water and fresh air! This article written by Jane M. Jacobs, M.A., a Montessori Educational Consultant at Montessori Services spoke to me in considering how outdoor time is such a powerful tool for our children. In the article, Jane offers a variety of ideas for making the best of your outside time with your little one.  Enjoy! Were you told to "go out and play" when you were a child? Now, as a parent, do you give your children the same instructions? Perhaps not, but even for the urban, over-scheduled family, there are ways to give our children more opportunities to explore the outdoors. For centuries it...

  Spring cleaning? It's that time again to bring in all of your children's gently used clothing that is too small, or unworn and swap it for something that fits. Please drop off your gently used items in the bins located in the MCS gymnasium. You may drop off items March 16th - March 20th.  Then, during school hours, March 26th and March 27th, you may come browse the tables in the gym. Clothes will be separated into size and style. If you are looking for volunteer opportunities, please contact the office, as the Green Committee would love help sorting, folding, and displaying the clothes.   

Your child’s education in Montessori is different – so different that it makes you shake your head in wonder and say, “Is this something my child is really learning?” As parents we want our children to excel at reading, writing and math. Yet their Montessori education leads them through strange and esoteric materials. (At least they are foreign to most adults.) Why would a three year old need to be versed in geometry? Fine, a nice circle, a square and maybe a triangle but what purpose for an isosceles triangle, parallelogram or a rhombus? Then if that is not enough esoteric learning, your child moves on to the botany cabinet. How many three year olds need botany? They are introduced to leaf forms like spatulate, orbiculate, sagitate and reniform. Most of us adults can’t even pronounce them let alone know what they are. If that is not enough diversity in the...

Marcus tongs plastic cubes in the Toddler Suns classroom. This work develops small motor coordination, prepares the hand for writing, and encourages control of movement and independence.   Kenzee places pictures on the Timeline of Life in the Lower Elementary Oquirrh classroom.   Margaret presents the Checkerboard to Rebeka and Mary.     Bobbi engages with the Long Chains, used for skip counting, squaring and cubing work, in the Lower Elementary Oquirrh classroom.    Rebeka and Corey analyze a square in the Upper Elementary Uinta classroom.     Mindy gives husband, Aaron, a knitting lesson.   Melissa identifies and analyzes the Seven Triangles of Reality.    Jeff researches Land Forms as part of the Lower Elementary Geography curriculum.   Margaret shares a lovely extension of the Pink Tower, a very popular and well recognized piece of Sensorial material which refines visual discrimination, preparing the child for further reading and mathematical work...

What: Admissions Information Meeting When: Thursday, January 15th from 6:30 - 8:00pm Where: Montessori Community School Who: Parents interested in learning more about Montessori Community School. Open to the public. Sorry, adults only - no childcare provided. The teachers and administration of Montessori Community School would like to invite you to learn more about our program. During this hour and a half long presentation we will introduce our programs, administration and staff. And, you will have the opportunity to visit each of our classrooms and meet and greet with the teachers. We look forward to sharing our approach to education and the Montessori method. Montessori Community School serves children aged 18 months through 8th grade and we offer an extended day program, 7:30am - 6:00pm. Montessori Community School's mission is to provide a rich, individualized educational experience, which guides and nurtures the natural unfolding of the whole individual and inspires a lifetime love...

 This year's Winter Camp has been themed around a Winter Wonderland. Students have had many creative arts and craft activities. One of the favorites was the Snowy Owl Pinecones pictured above. Students also got the chance to play outside with their friends. Blowing bubbles in the snow made for a great learning activity. The students loved chasing, popping, and watching the bubbles float to land on the snow- Would the bubbles freeze, or not?Also, learning about some of Winter's greatest wonders and works of art, the Northern Lights, students created their own beautiful art using the aurora borealis as inspiration.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” --Margaret Mead When Annie Guerrero, mother of an MCS Upper Elementary student, came to us in October and presented her idea to screen an extreme skiing movie in order to raise funds to offset the losses from the flood, we loved her suggestion but had no idea where to begin. We were busy moving the classrooms, settling them in, communicating with parents; Robyn, the Head of School, was knee deep in choosing new tiles and cabinets, carpets, and baseboards. Fortunately, without much help from us Annie took her idea and saw it through every step of the way until it was realized on Wednesday, December 3.   Annie’s main goal was to provide MCS with a fundraiser at no cost to us. She and her husband Ryan Carlson began...

 Montessori Community School is celebrating Dia de los Muertos this week by creating beautiful candy skulls, key chains, and other festive artwork. We have three altars set up in our lobby to celebrate the lives of people we love and admire.  Dia de los Muertos assures that the dead not be insulted by mourning or sadness. Instead, Dia de los Muertos celebrates the lives of the deceased with food, drink, parties, and actifities the dead enjoyed in life. The holiday recognizes death as a natural part of the human experience, a continuum with birth, childhood, and growing up to become a contributing member of the community.  On Dia de los Muertos, the dead are also a part of the community, awakened from their eternal sleep to share in the celebrations with their families and loved ones.  We give a special thank you to all those involved in our Spanish program and for the wonderful...

  Montessori Community School has been raising money for the COEEF and have supported several girls in the program for over 10 years.  We are currently supporting seven young girls.  It is a pleasure to share this opportunity to further support the COEEF program with our MCS community.

Hello MCS Families, Things are coming together nicely here at the school. We are still working out some details but are really looking forward to the students return on Monday. Again, we can not express enough our appreciation for all of the offers to assist. And, we want you to know that the teachers at the school have worked tirelessly to prepare temporary classrooms, to support one another, and to keep the energy positive and uplifting. Our teachers are amazing! We are looking for an old washer and dryer that can be used to clean our mops and some carpets that were submerged in water. Please contact the office if you are getting rid of any old machines that the school could use temporarily.Thank you to all who attended Parent Teacher Conference last week. We were so excited to launch our online record keeping system, Compass, which will allow you to...

 Margaret and Laura trying to keep more mess out of their beloved Uinta classroom!   Ruby has been a most wonderful photographer and documenter!   Brandi feeling overjoyed about the set up of the temporary Lower El classroom at the church.  Laura in the new Uinta and Arches space.             Joshi displays some of the Arches work that survived the flood.    Look at the beautiful mural in the background! Bonnie has been hard at work.     An energetic and helpful MCS student cheers for the churches offer of space.     Kay and Lorena setting up the Magnolias temporary classroom in the Toddler Moons space.    Kate and Cinthya hard at working helping their fellow teachers set up and clean up.   Dear MCS Families and Interested Community Members, WOW!  The outpouring of love and concern is truly incredible. A huge thank you to our enthusiastic staff who have assisted in the clean up, transport, and set up of new classroom space.  We are very excited to get...

Dear MCS Parents, We wanted to share a quick update about how things are progressing here at the school.  Most of the staff have been here cleaning, taking inventory of damaged or ruined materials, and moving materials in preparation for Monday.  There is a lot of cleaning to do still before the materials can be taken to the church (our official temporary location) and the classrooms there prepared.   Thank you again to all who have offered to come to the school to help.  There are already a lot of staff who are here trying to work around the cleaning staff so we do not feel we can direct many more hands.  Thank you for the kind offers. We have been informed that there are families who are still looking for child care for their children.  If you are willing to help in this capacity please let us know and we will try...

Dear MCS Parents, Thank you all for your ongoing support. We are grateful for all of the offers of help and assistance. The cleaning crew is still here and they are asking that we stay out of their way while they clean, sanitize and move furniture in preparation for the building repairs. We appreciate everyone's willingness and ask for your continued patience as we determine our needs. If/when we determine that there is a way for parents to assist us we will let you know. At this time we have been told that it will take possibly up to 8 weeks for the Lower Level to be repaired and able to accommodate the children. We have been most fortunate to secure temporary classroom space for the Lower and Upper Elementary students and the Middle School students at the All Saints Episcopal Church with whom we share a parking lot. Staff are...

Early Childhood students receive their first lesson of the 2014 - 2015 school year in the Outdoor Classroom. They had the opportunity to explore our Outdoor Classroom area, located on near the northeast corner of our school building. Nature plays an important role in the development of the whole child. Works of gardening, raking, weed pulling, and other outdoor tasks assist in this development. The Outdoor Classroom is rich in science lessons, such as bird watching and naming, insect and leaf investigations, and rock classification. Early Childhood students explore the basic nature of land, air, water, and the creatures that inhabit those spaces.They also learn about the needs of plants and animals and creating homes for these creatures. 

 Montessori parents have often voiced concerns about creativity in a Montessori classroom. They just don’t see it. The concern is very similar to the fact that they also see few “academic” papers coming home. They don’t receive many brightly painted pictures to adorn their refrigerators. And so naturally wonder if a Montessori classroom is giving their child an opportunity to express their creative side. As concrete and hands on as a Montessori classroom and a Montessori learning experience are it requires a good measure of faith to await the outcome of a Montessori experience. Every Montessori teacher (and parents too) for the last one hundred years have often held their breath waiting to see the fulfillment of this amazing process. And then they exhale with great relief and satisfaction. After a while you no longer hold your breath because you know it is going to work – and even better than you...

Montessori Community School is offering speech, language and hearing screenings on Tuesday, September 9th.  The screenings will be a brief measure of your child’s speech and language skills in order to determine if further speech and language, or hearing evaluations are needed. The speech and language screening will take approximately 10-20 minutes to complete.  After the completion of the screening, we will identify if there are concerns regarding your child’s speech and language skills or hearing.  A note will be sent home with your child regarding the results of the screening and if further assessment is warranted. You might consider having your child’s speech, language and hearing screened if your child shows one or more of the following: Your child has a difficult time learning and using new concepts and vocabularyYour child has had chronic ear infectionsYou and others have a hard time understanding your child’s speech.  Your child’s speech is...

What’s the Big Deal about Table Washing? Edward Fidellow www.crossmountainpress.com Many parents are attracted to Montessori because of its tremendous reputation for giving their children a great academic education. Parents are willing to spend impressive amounts of money to give their children this academic advantage. But as often as parents are impressed with Montessori excellence, they are a little bewildered that their children come home excited about mopping floors, doing dishes and washing tables. (This is what successful people hire others to do.) So there is a real disconnect between what you want, what you are paying for and what you think you are getting. How then does Montessori get this academic reputation if all you are seeing for six months or a year is table washing and practical life? Montessori success is not built on its finished academic product but on its sure foundation. So what kind of academics comes...

  Forms can be found on the credendza by the stairs. Please fill out the forms and turn them into the office. Space can be limited for some classes, so it is to your advantage to sign up soon. Payments must be remitted prior to classes starting. Click on the link below to access pdfs of each registration form.Studio-Class-Forms.pdf Studio Classes have started this week. Please finalize this first session of classes as soon as possible. Karate- Tuesdays and/ or Thursdays, 3:45 - 4:45   Broadway Kids- Mondays, 3:00 - 4:00 (Elementary), 3:30 - 4:30 (Early Childhood)   Ballet- Every other Friday, 3:30 - 4:15   Functional Fitness for Kids- Tuesdays, 3:45 - 4:45   Cooking with Kids- Fridays, 3:35 - 4:20 (Class full), 4:30 - 5:15 (Space available)   Zumba Kids Jr.- Wednesdays, 3:30 - 4:15   *Note: If your child is not in aftercare, but wants to participate in a studio...