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 2024-2025 opens December 15, 2023.
Every family should have received an email from enroll@mcsslc.com by December 15, 2023 called Enrolllment for {your student} for 2024-2025 explaining how to complete the re-enrollment process for the 2024-2025 school year. The email was sent to the same parent/guardian who filled out the application and enrollment forms previously.
Re-enrollment should be completed by January 16th. That is when open enrollment starts for new families. We wish to preserve our current families’ spaces by enrolling your children first. 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 2024-2025
The tuition increase this year is 5% across all programs.
If you are considering the Extended Day option, we encourage you to sign up sooner rather than later. Staffing is based on those who have selected this option during enrollment and we cannot guarantee space for later schedule changes.
Terms and Conditions updates include use of cameras in the classroom, a rate change in the parent participation replacement cost, and an additional PSA Fee. We also anticipate enforcing the charge for lost access cards and fobs in the coming academic school year.
If your child will not be returning for the 2024-2025 year, please email enroll@mcssl.com to indicate your decisions. Alternativlyl, 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.
We are delighted to invite you to the 2024 Foothill Montessori of Salt Lake gala “Fund Their Future”. All funds will go toward school scholarships promoting diversity in our school.
Come dressed for an evening in the Roaring Twenties. Your ticket includes plenty of hors d’oeuvres and drinks, a live dance band and a Photo Booth print. Raffle, silent and live auction items will embellish the fun.
Please email gala@mcsslc.com with any questions or for sponsorship and donor opportunities. Accepting in-kind and monetary donations, please use the Donate Now button to send a donation.
As part of our Native American Heritage Celebrations, our school was blessed to have two Native American dancers, Carl who is Hopi and Kayden who is Navajo, come to tell us stories about their culture and dance for us. Even the Infants and Toddlers were entranced. One message that was given to the children was how important it is for us to be kind and respect our people, our earth, trees and plants and animals.
A number of our family members, who were onsite when the program began, decided to join us and seemed so happy to have had the opportunity.
Kayden was the valedictorian of Highland High last year – the first Native American valedictorian ever in the Salt Lake City area. She speaks Navajo fluently. Both of the dancers were amazing and happy to come back in the future. We are grateful to our community friend Harry James for recommending Carl and Kayden. What a wonderful way for all of us to start our day.
Last week all of the Montessori classes worked on projects to decorate the dinner tables at the Sarah Daft Home for Thanksgiving. Students decorated pumpkins with flowers, leaves, feathers, acorns and other beautiful items for the centerpieces and made colorful leaf rubbings on paper for decorative placemats.
Teachers Joshi, Carson and Amanda delivered the items last Friday and set up the decorations on dining tables. They looked very festive! Employees and residents at Sarah Daft home were so excited and grateful for the decorations.
The students enjoyed making these items and learning more about the Sarah Daft Home through a flip book Amanda made with pictures from the home, including their dining room where the items would be set up. FMSL will continue to be involved with the Sarah Daft Home and plan to set up some in-person visits and activities. In December, we will be making decorations for the residents’ doors.
We are celebrating the change in the weather with lessons on assessing the temperature and practicing bundling up. Prepare your family with gathering up the jackets, hats, gloves and boots. Look for our Winter Clothing Exchange comming soon in November.
Our seasonal activities included the Book Fair, Halloween Carnival, and Halloween Parade.
We hope that your fall celebrations are equally awesome!
Jack-o-lantern photo courtsey of Jacob, Uinta student.
You may have heard our Art Studio referred to as a ‘TAB’ Studio. So what is TAB? TAB (or Teaching for Artistic Behavior) is a choice-based approach to Arts Education that regards students as authentic artists and centers their interests and their ideas throughout the artmaking process. Rather than present to students a pre-planned project with a desired outcome, my responsibility as an Art Guide and TAB educator is to create the opportunity for our students to explore their own interests and ideas – to grant them freedom within limits.
Just as Montessori classrooms are prepared environments for student learning to occur, the FMSL Art Studio is intended to function as a prepared art-making environment for our school’s young artists. Art materials are organized into areas of the studio such as Drawing, Painting, Collage, or Printmaking and will be made available to students gradually throughout the school year. Each week, Art Studio begins with a group lesson during which students receive instruction on art materials, techniques, concepts, and/or art history. Students then have the opportunity to apply this learning to their own art-making during studio time.
Teaching to the “Artistic Behaviors” prepares students to engage in every step of the art-making process and helps them find success along the way. This process begins with exploration and play, followed by observation and idea generation, developing a plan, applying knowledge of art skills and processes, creative problem solving, sharing their artwork with their community, and self-evaluation or reflection. In addition to teaching concrete art skills, TAB aims to nurture within students the skills required to think like an artist: curiosity, imagination, critical thinking, adaptability, perseverance, storytelling, and so many more invaluable qualities, all of which are transferable to other subject areas and to life endeavors outside of the studio.
For children any change in their routine can be upsetting. The younger the child the more difficult it can be to deal with any changes. Our Guides really appreciate when families share this information with them so we can be as supportive of the child and their needs. Often times parents are surprised at what constitutes a big change for their children so here is a good list to go by:
Every Child:
Separation or Divorce
A parent dating someone new
A parent becoming engaged or getting married
A parent going out of town
A parent coming home from out of town
In split households – a change in who will pick up the child
Prolonged family illness or a major medical diagnosis (grandparents and close family members included)
A family member or pet dying (grandparents and close relatives included)
Moving to a new home
An upcoming vacation
A change in extracurricular activities (includes the addition of tutors)
An upcoming change in schooling plans
Any addition or change to the child’s care team (nannies, babysitters, etc.)
Any illness the child has experienced
Infants and Toddlers
Any time a child’s sleep routine has altered
Any time a child’s bowel movement routine has altered
Teething
Family illness (this can make a lot of difference to a child’s day)
Vaccinations
Changes in the food routine of the child
Early Childhood Students
The loss of a favorite blanket or toy
A forgotten school item or rest time item
A change in the child’s sleep routine
Any event that was particularly hard for the child such as vaccinations, doctor appointments, or being scared by a movie
A friend or family member moving away
A family member or pet getting sick or having an accident (grandparents and close relatives included)
Our own Ruby Chouldjian presented Cooking in the Montessori Classroom at the UMC Fall Conference this past weekend. Sharing her love of cooking, Ruby set up multiple stations to engage her audience: pancake, smoothie, and slicing were a few of the stations.
Practical Life: Practical Life is one of the areas in a Montessori classroom. The works are applicable for all ages, even infants, and vary depending on what the child can do at each stage of development. The work can start with something as simple as pulling up pants or washing hands and can as complicated as baking a dessert, or even planning for a Montessori Market in the elementary or middle school years. These exciting everyday tasks that are visibly part of the human world are empowering for students to master.
Food Preparation: Food preparation and cooking are fun works/activities in a Montessori environment. The Guide can choose to create group or individualized food stations. The children may choose to work on their own or invite a friend to work with. Examples of works: transferring with tools, setting up, grading, pressing, washing, spreading, and slicing.
Benefits of food preparation.The food preparation tasks, which increase in complexity as a child ages, help children practice motor skills, such as pouring, twisting, and squeezing as well as help develop their pincer grip, coordination, and finger and hand strength.
Benefits of cooking with children: Lessons, problem solving, independence, order, sequence, coordination, cognitive development, creativity, cultural studies, science, math, language, sensorial, healthy eating habits, grace, and courtesy. It also allows children the opportunity to socialize, communicate, and most of all have fun!
The International Day of Peace was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1981. It was declared a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace.
Foothill Montessori of Salt Lake celebrated International Day of Peace in our Greenspace. Our Infant Teacher, Carmen, read the book I Am Peace by Susan Verde. Our Head of School Catherine Mathews led us in singing Light a Candle for Peace while incorporating sign language. Our Upper Elementary students headed up our Peace walk around the school with their hand crafted rainbow-winged Peace Dove.
This week the students spent time creating their own unique peace rock and peace flag. The peace rocks were placed in the front of the school with a sign inviting the greater community to take one home with them. We started this tradition last year, as a way of sending out messages of peace.
The peace flags have been a longtime tradition at FMSL. Annually you can see the beautiful flags blowing in the breeze along the fence in front of our school. May peace be with you on this wonderful day!
Montessori education does not strive to prepare students to be ahead for a traditional Kindergarten year, but rather looks at the whole experience for the Early Childhood student. Being in the program for the 3rd year is where all the lessons and material the child has been learning in years 1 and 2 solidifies and becomes permanent.
With two years under their belts Third Year students stroll into the classroom ready to take on the oldest sibling, protector, and leader persona. They feel so confident in their knowledge of the classroom and how to support others inside it. They can help others at Line Time to sit with a ready body, can rub backs at rest time, and care for their environments in much more complex ways. They love the chance to be given responsibility in the classroom and really appreciate the opportunity to join a Third Year meeting where leadership opportunities are discussed. The peer-mentoring role is often highly sought after in our Third Year students. They first demonstrate to the teachers their mastery of a skill, after which they have the opportunity to become the teacher for a younger or more inexperienced student. This builds such great confidence.
They enjoy making goals for themselves on a limited basis. A long list of goals is still too much for students at this age, but a short list of attainable but challenging goals they have devised for themselves can support students at this age to accomplish great things. During this year many classroom teachers opt to have a weekly check-in with Third Year students to see how they are coming along with their personal goals and if there are any new goals they want to set for themselves.
Third Year students are excited by all the more challenging lessons in Mathematics and Language Arts, as well as being ready to take on an interdisciplinary approach to the Cultural subjects. They have the opportunity to hone their reading through the classroom’s Reading Scheme and their writing skills through the Writer’s Workshop and with Research Writing. They look forward to utilizing budding math skills in the classroom using the incredible Cubing and Squaring Chains, the Golden Bead Math operations, and practicing their memorization of math facts. Work with measurement sends them out into the classroom and school to measure the length of the classroom shelves, the dollar bill, and often the length of animals they are studying about in the Geography area. They are ready to understand how their world displays the use of fractions everywhere as they begin to understand what is and is not a fraction and how their food prep gives them opportunities to work with fractions all the time. Many classrooms also integrate learning about money with miniature stores and price tags. All these give Third Years a chance to work with others, which becomes increasingly important. They are additionally becoming increasingly aware of the intricate way our world is interlaced. That we all affect each other and every living thing around us. They have great compassion for the suffering of their fellow beings and want opportunities to make a difference. They want more and more challenging Practical Life such as sewing and knitting projects, leadership roles in caring and restoring the classroom, more detailed art exploration, deep cleaning of the classroom sinks and every other surface the teachers will let them work on, laundry and ironing, wrapping a package, food preparation extensions, and woodworking projects.
Leadership Opportunities & Grace & Courtesy
Leadership opportunities are around every corner for our Third Years. They have been practicing their Grace and Courtesy for a long time and now are ready to become the expert. In fact, when given the chance they run with the opportunity to show just how much they know. They support their younger peers by demonstrating how to listen to directions, how to move in our environment, how to clean up after themselves, how to make room for others at the cubbies, how to tell what kind of voice is appropriate at different times, how to make room for someone at the line, how to respectfully say ‘no thank you’, how to walk up and down the stairs, how to show respect during daily walking the line and silence activities, how to be quiet when someone is talking, observing audience etiquette, following proper observation distance of another student working, welcoming visitors into the environment, and how to remind someone of their responsibilities in the classroom in a respectful manner. Many Third Year students are prepared not only to show how to properly follow the conflict resolution pattern, but many are prepared to become mediators for their younger peers.
Their Capstone Year takes a front row as they are eager to practice all year for culminating activities such as demonstrations of learning after continent studies and many Thirds Years participate in preparing for and serving their parents a special Graduation Meal of Thanks. They often discuss and decide on the menu as a group, prepare the food, practice their serving skills, prepare the table for their families, as well as participate in the creation of the evening’s program. As they end their year they can literally run, with a lot of coaching, a lot of the End of Year Programs for their class. They are ready to move on; to bridge into their next level of learning and are fast becoming an integral member of their social community.
