Once again, Maple Tree Montessori welcomes author Chick Moorman to kick off our open enrollment season. “Parent Talk” will be held on Saturday, February 28th from 1:00 – 4:00 in the afternoon. Chick is a funny, insightful and inspiring speaker who engages his audience in an experience of parenting that is both practical and thought provoking. We are delighted that he is able to come and speak at our school. Although his workshops are often priced above $50.00 per person, we are offering this event free of charge. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity…and invite your friends and family to attend!

Maple Tree Montessori’s first ever Celebration of the Performing Arts was a wonderful sharing of joyful, funny, relaxed and confident performances. Our goal was to provide a low stress and fun experience for our performers and their parents. A first time for most of our students, we wanted to build confidence and excitement about their abilities and about sharing their emerging talents with an audience.

The skits that were done by the Drama class were very well chosen and presented with talent, humor and focus. The students were confident and enjoyed their first stage experience. Thank you to Aric and Nicole for all their hard work and encouragement…these students loved being on the stage!

 The Suzuki Violin students were also very focused and played their violin’s with confidence. They showed us all how well they have been attending and practicing with their new insturments. The notes and postures were done very well, especially considering that they have been so recently introduced to the violin. The students were very proud of their abilitiy and we thank Jessica for her gifted teaching and Jackie for all her support during lessons and during the performance.

Lower and Upper Elementary Montessori Music students shared the joy of singing and dance. They were delighted to perform and showed ability and confidence as well as demonstrating just how much they enjoy music. Julie works with them every week and they are also developing a strong base in rhythm, notation, and an appreciation of music on many levels. Thanks, Julie!

Thanks also to all the parents who support us in this expansion of our curriculm to include these important expereinces for our children. Practicing, costumes, cookies, as welll as attending and ejoying our wonderful performers on the stage…all of these are important contributions to a succesful show! Thank you!

Maple Tree Montessori Academy is pleased to invite you to attend our first ever Celebration of Performing Arts. This exciting event will be held at the Hartland Music Hall on Tuesday, December 9th at 7:00 pm and will feature performances by our Suzuki Violin students, Music and Dance by our elementary students and skits performed by our Drama Class. All families and friends a welcome and performing students should arrive a just little early.This is a celebration of our expanded programs, giving our students a slightly formal opportunity, a beginning experience of performing on a real stage. There will be no formal dress rehersal and the show itself will be conducted in a relaxed manner appropriate to the experience of young children and first time performers. We are looking forward to sharing their progress with our entire school community.

THANKSGIVING FEAST

Wednesday, November 26th…Primary Class Thanksgiving Feast Day. All family and friends are welcome to attend. Morning Class Feast is 10:00 – 11:30. Afternoon  Class Feast is 2:00 - 3:30. There is NO regular Primary Class and NO Day Care on the Feast Day! Elementary students will be having class at their normal class times. The Primary Class children having been working hard to prepare the food for this event and we all look forward to sharing it with the people that we are most grateful for…such as you!!

We had a beautiful day on Saturday and we all enjoyed the opportunity to work on our Children’s Habitat Project. A split rail fence now defines our Prairie which was dug and planted with native grasses and wildflowers. The Prairie will be reclaimed in stages throughout the next year, but we are already seeing animals and children enjoying our efforts. Trails in the woods were cleared and the debris from deeper areas removed to allow the children to explore our habitat safely. Thank you to all the hard workers; 

Rick, Naomi, Vivian, Malcom, Uncle Joe, Jackie, Jay, Caden, Petra, Katharina, Franziska, Mitch, Mindy, Canyon, Colbie, Breck, Robin, Favrile, Aaron, Joey, Logan, Deb and Steve…on behalf of all the children, I thank you!

I would like to invite all families to watch for our next work day, sharing a feeling of purposeful community and contribution makes the work a delight…the more the merrier!!!

Sue

We are planning several events for parents to attend during this coming school year. Please mark your calendars for the following events:

October 7th…6:00 – 8:00 p.m. – Savor the Season will be presenting an informational evening about Nutrition and Organic Foods. Leza will be hosting this event which will also include an optional $7.00 dinner fundraiser for the Children’s Habitat. Reservations for the dinner plate are recommended! Also, Jackie Adams has arranged for samples of an upcoming fundraiser  of Certified Fair Trade chocolates, coffees and teas to be available at this event. Sounds too good to miss!

January 17th…1:00 – 4:00 p.m. – “Embracing Humankind”, a diversity workshop with Julie Harrison Sporer of “One World Mind” will be our keynote event to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We will celebrate our diversity through this interactive and engaging workshop! www.oneworldmind.net

February 28th…1:00 – 4:00 p.m. – Wonderful author and parent educator, Chick Moorman will be kicking off our Open Enrollment with “Parent Talk: Words that Empower, Words that Wound”. Chick is a lively, funny, calming and engaging speaker. We enjoy him every year and are grateful to have him returning to present such helpful and inspiring practices to our parents. www.chickmoorman.com

April 21st…6:00 – 8:00 p.m. – Please join us for our celebration of Earth Day with a special presentation by our Outdoor Education and Children’s Habitat instructor, Julia Liljegren. Julia has extensive “Earth” experience and will surely inspire us to a better appreciation of our home, our habitat.

Please mark your calendar for these outstanding presentations and workshops. They are designed especially for our parents, but the public is also welcome so please share this information with friends and family!! We hope to see you soon!!

We would like to thank you for the wonderful attendance and support on Parent Night. We are so pleased with your response to the many exciting new ventures for the 2008/2009 school year. If you were unable to attend, here are some highlights:

• Savor the Season, our new hot lunch provider, presented a wonderful tasting selection of their very high quality, home cooked lunches. The food, focused on natural, local and organic ingredients, was beautifully prepared and delicious. Their presentation was highly successful and we are looking forward to many tasty meals.
• Chef Leslie Owens was on hand to discuss her plans for Culinary projects for the Elementary students, including menu planning that ties the cooking to our cultural studies and the development of culinary skills and experiences.
• Debra Babiarz talked and answered questions about the structure and curriculum for the Upper Elementary class including Community Service projects and her plans for the development of our new class on a holistic level.
• Our new music teacher, Julie Harrison Sporer, comes to us with both a music background and 15 years experience as a Montessori teacher. She recently attend an amazing Montessori Music Curriculum program and plans to incorporate ear training, music appreciation, note reading and composition as well as dance into all of our classrooms. She spoke of her love of music and Montessori and of her commitment to the child’s complete experience of both.
• Julia Liljegren comes to us with much experience in wilderness education and preservation, including children’s education at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. Julia spoke enthusiastcally about her plans for incoporating our Children’s Habitat, outdoor education and new Biome materials into a comprehensive program for connecting our children to their natural environment through both education and abundant outdoor experience.
• Aric Liljegren  was very successfully in conveying both his dramatic talent and excitement about the prospect of offering after school Drama Class to our elementary students. Aric has most recently been working with children through the drama program at The Marquis Theatre in Northville. We are all excited about this upcoming opportunity and will be finalizing the dates, times and costs very soon.
• We will also be updating our information about our Suzuki Violin classes. The classes will be held during school hours and the children will have the opportunity to lease a size fitted violin, stand and Suzuki book. The final cost of lessons is currently under review and we will notify parents very soon of the program details. If you are interested in receiving this information please email us at info@mapletreemontessori.com as soon as possible.

All of the staff are very excited about the new offerings for your children and we are looking forward to a wonderful school year. I want to also thank all of our parents for their support and especially the fundraising efforts that have allowed us to pursue some of these changes in our curriculum, Thank you!!

P.S. Our email difficulties are resolved!!

We have decided on an Upper Elementary teacher for our new classroom. Debra Babiarz has been working as an assistant in the Lower Elementary and much to our delight, has decided to take the Upper Elementary training this summer. Debra is an experienced state certified Elementary teacher. She is well known to the children and has years of experience teaching this age group. Debra is currently taking the classes at Michigan Montessori Teacher Education Center and will be doing a mentored internship this year at our school. In addition to the training program supervising teachers, Melissa Boffi will be mentoring her this year. You may remember Melissa, she came to speak about Upper Elementary earlier this year and was very well received. We are grateful to have her experience and guidance as well as Debra’s experience and enthusiasm to get our Upper Elementary program off to a great start. We are happy to offer an opportunity for parents to meet with Debra, Melissa, Lisa and Nicole. This will give you a chance to ask questions and discuss the details of this new classroom and any concerns about transitions for your child. We will be meeting at the school on Monday, July 14^th at 7:00 pm. All interested parents are welcome!

Hello, and welcome to our blog. Through this, we hope to to provide timely, relevant and interesting information to the students and parents of Maple Tree Montessori Academy. While most of the information here will be directly related to news and upcoming events at our school, we also hope to provide information that will be useful to all parents in Brighton, Livingston County and beyond.

We also welcome comments, links, and feedback through this blog and would also be happy post information on upcoming events that cater to children, parents, and families in the Brighton area.

Thank you for stopping by!