DOBSON MONTESSORI SCHOOL NEWS
October 19-23
WHAT IS MONTESSORI?
Montessori education fosters strong academic skills but just as important are the building blocks of independence, responsibility, and moral character. In the Montessori classroom, the child is guided to make good choices because it is the right thing to do, not because they wish to be rewarded or fear punishment. If a child breaks a dish or spills a drink, they are shown how to use a broom and dust pan to sweep up the pieces or a cloth to soak up the spill. We learn to hold the door open for others, apologize if we hurt someone’s feelings, pick up scraps of paper on the front lawn…all because it is the right thing to do. When we take our Dobson Montessori students on field trips, the hosts always comment on how well-behaved, polite, and inquisitive our students are compared to other schools.
KINDERGARTEN
Learning skills to promote independence is a goal of Montessori “Practical Life” activities. This week, students will practice tying a shoelace and learn to put on a hoodie and a jacket. Loading our backpacks at the end of the school day is getting more efficient! We will learn to set a table and how to care for plants by carefully cleaning their leaves with a spray bottle. During mentoring, we will plant our organic garden with vegetables and flowers. Next week, on Tuesday, October 27 we will go on a field trip to Mother Nature’s Farm. Students will pick a pumpkin to keep, enjoy the spider web crawl, straw bale maze, human hamster wheels, visit farm animals, go on a hayride, try out the pedal carts, bull roping arena, corn pit, playhouses, tube slide, and tire mountain. Parents are welcome to join us. We will pay for the children, but adults will pay their own $17 admission. No siblings. If you can help by chaperoning, please see Ms. Leslie.
PRIMARY
Our “Caldecott Books” students will share their personal history stories with the class on Monday. Please make sure your child is prepared with a true story about a relative from their personal history. Interviewing the person by phone or in person is part of sharing the oral history tradition. A form to help with the information was sent home before the fall break. We will read The Little Island and create our own book about a special place where we observe the seasons. After sharing Joseph Had a Little Overcoat, we will use fabric scraps to create our own story of how a coat can have many lives. On Wednesday, we will go on a fun field trip to Mother Nature’s Farm. Students will pick a pumpkin to keep, enjoy the spider web crawl, straw bale maze, human hamster wheels, visit farm animals, go on a hayride, try out the pedal carts, bull roping arena, corn pit, playhouses, tube slide, and tire mountain. We will return to school for lunch. If you can help by driving, please sign up with a room 2 teacher. We will pay the admission for students, but parents will pay their own admission. No siblings.
INTERMEDIATE
On Monday, students will go on a field trip to the IEEE Evans Science Center for a full day workshop. They will participate in “Sail Away” by working with a team of professional scientists to build boats and test their designs in fun competitions. Make sure your student is on time as we will leave promptly. Our “Physics” study continues in the classroom with experiments about sublimation, properties of matter, and pressure. We will explode a soda bottle by adding water to dry ice. Why did it go KABOOM?! Students will learn how airplanes fly and do their own experiments with drag and lift to compete in a paper airplane contest. Next week, on Monday October 26, students will present their own physics experiment to their classmates. Make sure to practice your demonstration at home.
UPPER DIVISION
As a “Botany” project, students are making seed collections and creating a plant journal. There will be a project check on Monday; students need to bring at least 7 pages of their plant journal to school. Final projects will be due on Monday, Oct. 26. This week, students will plant our school organic gardens with herbs and vegetables which will be used in their hot lunch program. We will learn about fluid transportation, food production, photosynthesis, and respiration. Each student will endeavor to grow a sweet potato using a rooting technique. Are your bean and corn plants growing? If not, you can try again with fresh seeds this week. On Tuesday of this week, we will go on a field trip to Gammage Auditorium at ASU to see “Hasta La Muerte”, a production that celebrates the traditional Day of the Dead with poetry, songs, dance, and music.
HIGH SCHOOL
Our class begins a three-credit college course this week, “Healthful Living”. We will be given a step counter by the school so we can measure our activities through the coming weeks and set goals for physical and emotional well-being. In US History, students are focusing on the westward expansion and the Civil War. For Filmmaking, students will draw a genre out of a hat and film an original 2-4 minute movie. The screenplay will need to be typed in correct format and submitted by Thursday of this week. On Tuesday of this week, we will go on a field trip to Gammage Auditorium at ASU to see “Hasta La Muerte”, a production that celebrates the traditional Day of the Dead with poetry, songs, dance, and music.
CARAMEL APPLE POPS AND COFFEE CAKE MUFFINS
Fall is in the air and our students are selling Caramel Apple Pops for $3 on Tuesday of this week. On Thursday, they are baking Cinnamon Coffee Cake Muffins for $3. All funds go to support their end of the year study trip.
FALL PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES
Time to sign up in the office for your fall parent teacher conferences. By working together, we can provide the best education for your child. We are excited to share your student’s progress in the program with you.
STAR WARS FAMILY EVENT!
Because a new Star Wars movie will be released in May ’27, we are hosting an epic family event throughout the year! Your ticket buys you entrance to showings of the three original movies with dinner and snacks included as well as raffle tickets to win your own light saber. The grand finale will be a special private screening of the new movie when it opens in May…we have reserved an entire Harkin's theater at Chandler Mall just for our school families and their guests.
Don’t miss out! See Trevor or stop by the office now if you haven’t secured your seats. The showing of the first movie, Star Wars IV: A New Hope is this Friday, October 23 at the Guild of the Vale at 7 PM! This is the version as it was first released in theaters; no CGI, no added effects, and Han shoots first! See attached brochure for all the details!