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Tag: Cultural Montessori Curriculum

2018 All School Assembly

Written by Montessori Admin on . Posted in Blog.

Each year we attempt to come together as an entire school at least twice per year.  We begin each year with a gathering for International Day of Peace, where we meet on the green space to sing together before walking the campus to see the prayer flags made by each student at MCS.  Typically, our second gathering is in the gym and consists of some kind of science or cultural presentation. This year was especially enjoyable! This morning we had the pleasure of hosting Ballet Folklorico Quetzalcoatl, a local Mexican Folk Dance group, for our 2018 All School Assembly.  The group presented a variety of dances, music and costumes, all of which were delightful!

The first number was called Son Jarocho, is from Veracruz and is the main manifestation of the veracruzana party, whose origin is a mixture of Spanish airs influenced by African rhythms, executed with jarana, requinto and harp among others.  The typical attire, which we were able to see today, consists of wide and white skirt with lace, blouse with white tulle blanket, black apron decorated with flowers, necklaces, a laced fan, rebozo, white shoes and a red ribbon headdress with red and white flowers for women. The men wear trousers, guayabera, white hat and shoes, with a red scarf on the collar adjusted with a ring.

 

Among today’s numbers, several were from Nayarit, located on the coast line of the Pacific Ocean.  There are several types of Nayarit songs, all representing ancient native music, filled with theatrics in costumes and dance.  Impressively, the women danced with bottles atop their heads and the men with machetes!  The machetes were a crowd pleaser, to say the least.

Today’s dancers represented Jalisco, located in the western part of Mexico.  These songs are popular melodies that people can sing and dance to. Originating from the mix of Spaniard and Native music, the harmony is rhythmic, loud, and at contreremps, expressing the vitality that caracterizes the people from it’s region.

All in all, this cultural presentation was extremely satisfying, so much so that many of our toddlers found themselves off their seats and dancing to the beat.  While it can be a feat to gather our entire school in one place all at the same time (and even more of a challenge to find a presentation that satisfies children ages 1 to 12) we were overly pleased with today’s performance and the opportunity we had to gather together as a school.

The Story of the Universe – Adventures in Lower Elementary

Written by Montessori Admin on . Posted in Blog.

There are a lot of things for our Lower Elementary students to get excited about this time of year!  The tall slide on the playground, the Native American flute, their upcoming trip to the Utah State Fair, and math exercises using materials that span CLEAR across the Lower Elementary hallway are just a few of them.  My personal favorite, though, are the Great Lessons that start the school year.  Great Lessons are aimed at the elementary students vivid use of imagination, one of their very best attributes -wouldn’t you say,  to get them thinking about some of the big questions in life. Where did humans come from?  Why does the earth rotate?  Who made up language?

There are a total of five Great Lessons and they are used to introduce the year’s studies of history, geography, botany, zoology, science, language and math in the LE program.  Not only are they important in inspiring the child’s imagination and investing them in the importance of various subjects they can look forward to studying, but they are memorable, too!  Having the opportunity to hear these stories three different times in their LE cycle allows students to consider them from various perspectives.

Today’s story is called The Story of the Universe and our very own Diana shared it with both the Wasatch and Oquirrh class.  The lights were low as she described a time before the children existed, before she herself existed…..before there was any life at all.  Through a series of beautifully described bangs, expansions, colors, gasses turning to liquids turning to solids, formations and temperatures and one auditorily memorable POP!, she described the story of our universe.  Oquirrh and Wasatch students will follow up this lovely story with a number of experiments including Colder than Cold, Chemical Combinations of Gas, Chemical Reactions, Crystillization, Law of Gravity and many more in the coming weeks.

If you get the chance, ask your Oquirrh or Wasatch student how they are related to the universe?  Their answer is sure to involve iron!