The Montessori Message

The Montessori Message

Category Archives: Extended Day Programs

Summertime Fun

14 Friday Jul 2017

Posted by Lisa Lalama in Camp Montessori, Extended Day Programs, Wilmington Montessori School

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camp, camp montessori, summer, summer slump

Photo - Kids in the Woods
This week at our school’s summer camp, there are some old familiar faces. Some campers attend other local schools and visit us only in the summer. They spend time getting reacquainted with Wilmington Montessori School, the outdoors and each other. There are others who are with us most every season of the year. It is fun to watch them all come together, enjoying their time, recalling summers past and anticipating what they will do this year: how it will be the same and how it may be different.

Summer is a time for most of us to slow down, to look around and see what’s new, and to enjoy the familiar summer routine – a routine typically quite different from the school year. We hear so much about “summer slump” and losing the hard-fought skills that were acquired during the previous nine months of school that we sometimes forget what summer is all about. It is the time to relax a bit more, catch up with friends and explore. Summer for all of us is much like the camp experience for children. What were your summers like as a kid? What did you look forward to? As you continue to read with your children, play games and perhaps practice some math facts, I hope you find some fun and relaxation in the long days of summer.

Reading Aloud

06 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by Lisa Lalama in Extended Day Programs, Learning, Wilmington Montessori School

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learning commons, library, read aloud, reading

screen-shot-2016-10-05-at-8-14-17-pmAs September has come to a close, so have our daily read alouds in the WMS Learning Commons. As you may know, the past month featured many WMS friends reading to the children each day. Our special guests included Board members, grandparents, parents, staff members and, yes, even dogs. The children enjoyed the great pleasure of singing a song to get started and hearing about favorite characters in literature. Each day was a little different – though the routine remained the same.

heather-siple-read-aloud-019Reading aloud is one of the most important things we can do for children. Read alouds offer the opportunity for children to experience books they may not be quite ready to take on by themselves. The characters come alive through the different voices, expressions and mannerisms that the reader brings to them. Children learn how a book “sounds.” Most of us can’t recall how we learned to read. What we know through research is that reading is multi-faceted. Children move from learning letter sounds to forming words by grouping letters together to eventually reading fluently rather than plodding along word by word.

Know that as you read that favorite book to your children one more time, they are gaining more than simply a familiar story. They are experiencing the joy of the written word, the beauty of illustrations that support the story, and the wonder of reading.

Making a Difference

22 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by Lisa Lalama in Camp Montessori, Extended Day Programs, making a difference, Wilmington Montessori School

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Mark Bomgardner, meaningful work, meaningfulness, teachers

Mark BomgardnerMany years ago, I worked with women who did not have the opportunity to finish high school due to difficult life circumstances. It was interesting work and I loved helping these women gain the knowledge and skills needed to get jobs and move on with their lives; it was meaningful work. What I was never quite certain of was their perception of the work we did. Did it matter? Did we make a difference?

Several years after I left that job and moved to Delaware I received a card from one of the women I worked with thanking me for helping her and letting me know how she has moved on in her life. She let me know that I did make a difference in her life, just as she did in mine.

Earlier this month, one of our Extended Day teachers passed away. By remembering Mark Bomgardner we recognized the difference that he made in our lives and the lives of our students. People honored his memory with stories, speaking of his influence on their lives. What we know is that his life made an impact on those people and many others who were not able to be there but shared stories through Facebook and our website.

Many people in education do the work they do because they want to make a difference, for a child, a family, a school or society in general. What we may not know is exactly how we do that or who we influence. We do the work anyway. September is quickly approaching. We will be influenced by faces new and familiar. We will work together and try to make a difference for each other as we begin another school year.

Camp Montessori

29 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by Lisa Lalama in Camp Montessori, Extended Day Programs, Teachers, Wilmington Montessori School

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alumni, camp, camp montessori, leadership, staff, summer, teachers, Wilmington Montessori, Wilmington Montessori School

11406322_882218155184772_2541703417757660321_o 11425105_882218055184782_1028187084652779400_oWilmington Montessori School is open all year long. Summer brings Camp Montessori, and camp brings familiar and not-so-familiar faces. Each summer we have the privilege of hosting returning campers and camp staff. We renew friendships and become reacquainted as we catch up on the past year’s happenings. One thing that distinguishes Camp Montessori is our returning alumni. Former students return as campers in seventh and eighth grades, but they also come back as Leaders-in-Training (LIT) and Assistant and Lead Camp Counselors. In fact, about 75 percent of our summer-only camp staff consists of WMS alumni/past students! This is truly an opportunity for their WMS experience to come full circle. We know how important a role school plays in creating the workers of the future. At Camp Montessori, we get to see it play out each day during the summer. It’s an opportunity for alumni to see their school in a different way and a chance for their former teachers to see them as an older grown-up version of the child they knew “back when.” Everything we do at WMS prepares children as life-long learners and contributors to their world. Camp Montessori is a natural next step in this process.

Professional Development & Lifelong Learning

23 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by Lisa Lalama in Camp Montessori, Extended Day Programs, Learning, Montessori Education, Teachers, Wilmington Montessori School

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3-6 classroom, AMS, collaboration, connections, curiosity, lifelong learning, teachers, Wilmington Montessori, Wilmington Montessori School

During the past week, several of our staff members attended workshops to extend their learning. Professional development is a closely held value at WMS. Our teachers, extended day and camp staff, and administrators all participate in professional development throughout the year. It is an opportunity for them to learn, wonder, connect and consider their practice in a different light.

Our primary goals are to do the best job we can at educating children to be citizens of the world, to develop a passion for learning and creating. Inspiring the adults in the community is key to these goals.  In the past few weeks, staff members have attended workshops about autism spectrum disorders, writing with kindergartners, marketing, communications and admissions at independent schools as well as the American Montessori Society annual conference in Philadelphia this March. Learning is not for children only. It is for each of us, no matter our role at WMS.

Though we have attended these workshops and have many more to come over the summer months, what really matters is that we are on a continual learning path. We meet regularly in cohorts within the school; we belong to associations and connect with people who are doing similar work. We share ideas and learn from others. Lifelong learning is a goal for everyone at WMS.

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