Montessori School of Herndon Raises Money for the Philippines

The Montessori School of Herndon PTA raised over $550 for the Philippines Disaster Relief.  MSH held one of it's Spirit Days and donated all proceeds to the American Red Cross.

Typhoon Hiyan affected more than 11 Million people, displacing over 4 million and killing thousands.

Our school is full of wonderful families, teachers and staff who graciously contributed to this cause.  Thank you all!

Harvest Parade

The Montessori School of Herndon PTA held it's Harvest Parade on October 31st.  MSH students, teachers and parents had a wonderful time dressing up and parading around the MSH grounds.




There is nothing like having all of the MSH family together.  Thank you to all who helped organize and support this function.  It was awesome!

Jeans Day for Breast Cancer

The Montessori School of Herndon PTA collected $440 for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.   Our students and teachers participated in "Jeans Day" by wearing their jeans to school, and in return paying $5 or more for the uniform violation.   All proceeds were donated to the National Cancer Society.  

One small gesture can go a long way.  Thank you Students, Parents and Teachers for your participation and helping make this fundraising event successful!

Culture and Science

A Montessori Classroom offers many opportunities for young children to expand their knowledge during the years when they are motivated by spontaneous interest.  The large wooden puzzle maps are among the most popular activities in the classroom.  The child can put each puzzle piece into place by means of a little knob on its flat, shiny surface.  The introductory map of the world has a separate puzzle piece for each continent.  After working with the world map, the child can do one of six puzzle maps of continents in which each country is represented by a separate puzzle piece.  Finally, there is a map of the United States with a separate piece for each state.  At first the children use the maps simply as puzzles.  Gradually they learn the names of many of the countries as well as information about climate and products.  The maps illustrate many geographical facts concretely.  The children can see the great size of Russia and positions of Great Britain, Japan and Iceland as islands.

Mathematics

A child can learn basic concepts of mathematics in either of two ways.  He can learn by using concrete materials during the years when he enjoys manipulating equipment; or he can learn by abstract methods when he is in the elementary grades.  Dr. Montessori demonstrated that if a child has access to mathematical equipment in his early years, he can easily and joyfully assimilate may facts and skills of arithmetic.  On the other hand, these same facts and skills may require long hours of drudgery and drill if they are introduced to him later in abstract form.

After she observed that the child who becomes interested in counting likes to touch or move the items as he enumerates them, Dr. Montessori designed concrete materials to represent all types of quantities.  In a Montessori environment, a child not only sees the symbol for 1, 100, or 1/2, he can also hold each of the corresponding quantities in his hand.

Later, by combining this equipment, separating it, sharing it, counting it, and comparing it, he can demonstrate to himself the basic operations of arithmetic.  The activity gives him the satisfaction of learning by discovery rather than by being told.  Eventually he develops an early enthusiasm for the world of numbers.

The Red and Blue Rods:

In the Montessori Classroom the child's first introduction to the numbers is made with a set of red and blue rods representing the quantities one through ten.  The teacher helps the child to count the alternating red and blue sections of each rod as he arranges them in stair-like formation.

The Spindle Boxes:

The Spindle Boxes represent a parallel exercise in associating the numerals with the proper quantities.

The Numerals and Counters:

In this exercise both the symbols and the quantities are loose and both numerals in ascending order.  When placing the appropriate number of red discs under each figure, the child puts the discs in rows of two.  Each odd number has only one disc in the bottom row.  This arrangement automatically illustrates the odd and even numbers.

The Sequin Boards:

To learn the "teen" numbers, the child uses equipment known as Sequin Boards.  The boards have the numeral 10 printed nine times in a row.  The child forms the number eleven by sliding the figure 1 over the zero of the first 10.  This shows her concretely that the number eleven is made up of 10 plus 1.  Another set of Sequin Boards is available for learning the numerals 21 through 99.

The Golden Beads and Fraction Materials:

The famous Golden Bead Material designed by Dr. Montessori to illustrate the decimal system.  There are bars to represent a Unit, a Ten, a Hundred and a Thousand.  The children already know the terms "square" and "cube" from their work with the geometric material.

The children are introduced to the decimal system with 3 basic experiences.  First they build quantities with the bead material.  The teacher starts with simple numbers.  She say, for e.g., "Bring me 5 Tens and 7 Units."  Eventually the children enjoy accumulating large quantities on a tray, such as 8 Thousands, 4 Hundreds, 3 Tens and 7 Units.

In the second exercise, the children find cards to represent the numbers the teacher gives them orally, such as 8 Tens and 3 Units.  Finally, the learn to combine the numerals on the cards with the corresponding quantity of the bead materials.  The children learn to translate the numbers, such as 7 Tens and 1 Unit into 71.

Language Arts

Many of the sensorial exercises, by their very nature, are a remote preparation for academic learning.  For example, the child who has learned to listen carefully will be able to perceive subtle differences in the sounds of the letters.  Of equal importance to language, skills are the geometric materials, which help the children to concentrate on different shapes.

Learning to write

To be able to write, a child must develop a two-fold skill.  He must commit to memory the shape of the letters and their corresponding sounds, and he must develop the muscular skill necessary for using the pencil with control.

For a child to try to acquire both aspects of this skill at the same time is often discouraging and frustrating.  It is extremely difficult for him to try to learn the path for making the letters at the same time that he is trying to learn how to move the pencil with control.

The materials which Dr. Montessori designed offer the child the opportunity to learn the shapes and sounds of the letters in a way that is completely independent from his perfection of the motor skill.  The child, therefore, in the Montessori classroom learns to write not by writing, but by performing a number of purposefully structured activities which prepare him both indirectly and directly for facility in handwriting.

Learning the shapes of the letters with the Sandpaper Letters

The child meets the alphabetical symbols by using the Sandpaper Letters.  Each letter of the alphabet is outlined in sandpaper on an individual card, the vowels on blue and consonants on red.  The teacher shows the child how to trace the letters with two fingers following the same direction in which the symbol is normally written.

Use of this material gives the child a three-fold impression.  He sees the shape, he feels the shape, and he hears the sound of the letter which the teacher repeats when introducing it.  The fact that the letters is made of important step in learning to write.  The repetition of this exercise fixes the path of each of the letters in the child's muscular memory.

Learning the sounds of the letters with the sandpaper letters

In a Montessori classroom, the child learns the phonetic sounds of the letters before he learns the alphabetical names in sequence.  The phonetic sounds are given first because these are the sounds he hears in words.  The child first becomes aware of these phonetic sounds when the teacher introduces the consonants with the Sandpaper Letters.

Perfecting the Motor Skills with the Metal Insets

The child in a Montessori Classroom learns to control a pencil by filling in outlines, an activity which does not weary her because she enjoys it.  To make the outline, she uses equipment known as the Metal Insets.  Each inset represents a different geometric shape.  After selecting a figure and tracing it on paper, the child fills in the outline with a colored pencil of her own choosing.

At first her strokes are erratic and often extend beyond the outline.  By degrees they become more accurate and uniform.  Progress in muscular control can be noted by comparing the child's designs from week to week and from month to month.  Eventually she makes more intricate designs by superimposing two or three other shapes on the original figure.  When colored, this effort resembles a stained glass window.  Crayons and paint are not used for this activity because the purpose is always pencil controlled.

Sensorial

A young child can remain unmoved by a myriad of sensory impressions in her everyday environment.  What she needs is not more and more impressions buy the ability to understand what she perceives.  The Montessori Sensorial Materials help the child to distinguish, to categorize, and to relate new information to what she already knows.  Dr. Montessori believed that this process is the beginning of conscious knowledge.  It is brought about by the intelligence working in a concentrated way on the impression given by the senses.

Pink Tower:
                       Size in three dimensions is introduced to the child by the use of the Pink Tower.  This is a series of ten pink cubes graded in size to form one centimeter cubed to ten centimeters cubed.  The child builds a tower beginning with the largest cube and ending with the smallest cube on top.

Brown Stairs:
                        The Brown Stairs introduces the child to the difference in size-- two dimensions.  The child must place the blocks in proper graduation forming a stair - like structure.  With this exercise the teacher introduces the concepts of thickness and thinness, using the terms thick, thicker, thickest and thin, thinner, thinnest.

Red Rods:
                  The Red Rods help the child to recognize differences in size in one dimension--length.  The child is introduced to the terms short, shorter, shortest and long, longer, longest.  The equipment gives the child a sensorial basis for learning to count when he begins mathematics.

Smelling Jars:
                         The food is covered by cheesecloth or a perforated top so that the child smell it, but she can't see or feel it.  Each har in the first set has a mate in the second set.  The child combines the pairs by carefully smelling each jar.  The teacher uses this exercise as an opportunity to build the child's vocabulary by teaching her the names of the foods she is smelling.

Color Tablets:
                         The child's first introduction to color is a box containing six tablets--two red, two blue and two yellow.  They differ only in highly contrasting color.  In this exercise, the child pairs the tablets and learns the corresponding names.

Grading the colors:
                                  For the next step the child may use a box containing eight different shades of eight different colors.  The child must distinguish the intensity of the shades and place the tablets in order from the lightest to the darkest shade of each color.  Teaching children to be aware of fine differences in color is giving them remote preparation for all kinds of scientific observations, art, art appreciation, decorating, and many other meaningful activities.

Art Postcards:
                         This exercise enables the child to become familiar with the details of art while refining her visual discrimination.

Baric Tablets:
                         A box containing three sets of little blocks of wood, each set varying slightly from the other two in weight.  The blocks also differ in color, so that the child wears a blindfold while doing the exercise.  This eliminates the visual difference and enables the child to sort the blocks by weighing them on the tips of their fingers.

The Art of Listening:
                                     The art of listening carefully is a quality worth cultivating for a lifetime.  Listening attentively is a vital preparation for reading.  Montessori designed several sensorial games to help the child concentrate on a particular sound.

The Montessori Bells:
                                      Another quality of sound that is interesting to the child is pitch.  To isolate this quality, Montessori designed a set of black and white bells corresponding to the black and white keys on the piano.

The Art of Feeling:
                                  A child loves to touch.  Much of the world comes to him through his hands as he investigates everything in his environment.  He can use the sense of touch in a more meaningful way if he wears a blinfold.  This eliminates recognition of an object and challenges him to recognize something with only his sense of touch.

Bowl America's Rolling Bowling

There is never a dull moment at MSH! This week we had a very special visit from Bowl America's Rolling Bowling truck.  Our students got to enjoy a few games of bowling every day this week. MSH Teachers and Staff orchestrated a "Family Bowling Friday" which was a big hit with all of our families.   We would like to give a big thank you to Mr. John and Mr. Steve who helped make this week such an exciting one for all of us.  Even the Teachers got to enjoy a few friendly games.

Welcome to a new school year!

The 2013 - 2014 School Year has finally arrived!  Welcome new and returning students!  Our students had a wonderful week getting to know their teachers, learning the routines of the classroom, working on lessons and making new friends.  We are so happy that you are all apart of the MSH Family.  We are looking forward to a fun and educational year.

Spring Fun Fair

MSH families came together in May to enjoy the Spring Fun Fair. A little it of rain didn't stop our families and teachers from having a wonderful time. We had a train, moon bounce, swings, cotton candy, pizza and a lemonade stand run by our Elementary.

We would like to thank our teachers, staff and MSH families for helping to make this event such a great success!

Jeans Day For Multiple Sclerosis

Our first Multiple Sclerosis fundraiser! In April, MSH PTA raised over $550 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Our students and teachers were invited to wear blue jeans to school in exchange for a $5 "uniform violation" fee. All funds were donated to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society on behalf of one of our parents who has been living with Multiple Sclerosis. Way to show community and spirit MSH families!