The Sensorial area is one that often confuses those who have not been immersed in the Montessori Method. Sensorial exercises were designed by Maria Montessori to help young children explore every quality that can be perceived by the senses—size, shape, composition, texture, loudness or softness, matching, weight, temperature, diameter, etc. The purpose and aim of Sensorial work is for the child to acquire the knowledge and language to allow her to describe her environment.

In the photos above, children can be seen sorting knobbed and knobbless cylinders by height and diameter. They are sorting tablets that range from rough to smooth. The broad stair, which has a consistent length, but varies in height and width. The trinomial cube is another, more advanced sensorial work that in addition to being categorized a sensorial work, it serves as an introduction for algebra and a preparation for the proof of the formula (a+b+c)³ at Elementary Level.

Last week in Lower Elementary, leading up to the long weekend that included Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, students spent a couple afternoons learning about the Reverend Dr. King. In mixed-age groups, students took turns reading three different books aloud to each other: I Am Martin Luther King, Jr., by Brad Meltzer, Martin’s Big Words, by Doreen Rappaport, and Love Will See You Through: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Six Guiding Beliefs (As Told by His Niece), by Angela Farris Watkins. Then, the whole class gathered together to watch a short Reading Rainbow video about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. produced last year.

Following this, during their weekly Peace curriculum time, the entire class engaged in a question-and-answer period about Dr. King. At the end of this discussion, their teachers posed the question, “How do Martin Luther King, Jr.’s messages and actions still impact us today?” and the amount of thoughtful, student-initiated responses and observations that followed was inspirational to say the least.

There are many peacemakers among our students at McGuffey, and by studying peacemakers throughout history, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we are able to encourage this spirit of kindness, connectedness, and determination to make the world a better place.

We are pleased to share that Matt completed the Lower Elementary Montessori certification in December. We are grateful for all the time he put into this important training over nine months, especially the time he put in alongside his first year of teaching at McGuffey.

Here is what Matt has to say about Montessori and McGuffey:
“Finding McGuffey and learning about the Montessori method, first by observing and then by completing my certification, has completely rekindled my love for teaching. One of the aspects of a Montessori education that I value the most as a teacher, now that I more fully understand the way it works in a Montessori classroom, is the emphasis on empowering students to “do it themselves” as much as possible. This can be found in the way that the classrooms are organized, the freedom of the two-hour work period, and the self-checking features built into so many of our materials. These pieces let us stand back and observe so that we have an even better idea of what to teach and present to each student next, in order to make the most of their abilities and interests, and it helps students learn how to take responsibility for their own success.“

This year at McGuffey, our students have had the opportunity to study Tai Chi and Taekwondo. Both are martial arts; Tai Chi (a Chinese martial art) emphasizes softness, balance, and yielding, while Taekwondo (a Korean martial art) emphasizes hard strikes, cardiovascular endurance, and strong kicks.

This fall, we practiced Tai Chi for four weeks. The students learned about the concept of “stillness in motion,” controlled breathing, and keeping a balanced body position. The students learned the initial six moves in the simplified Yang-style Tai Chi form, from “parting the wild horse’s mane” to “repulsing the monkey.”

We are currently practicing Taekwondo with the help of Oxford Martial Arts. The older students are learning some basic self-defense, while the younger students are learning about strikes and kicks while getting some great exercise.

Recently in Music class, students in Grade 1 had a ball learning about jazz. They listened to jazz and played along on drums, and they also heard a brief history of jazz and had a chance to talk about what they like about the genre. The most popular activity by far was dancing to jazz. We listened (multiple times!) to “Noodles From Scratch” and moved our bodies any way they told us to. Some students even danced out the part of noodles on the floor! It’s a fun way to get moving during these gray winter days.

After several weeks of studying color theory, students in Grades 1-8 felt confident that they understood the basic color wheel. That is, until the color changing light bulb was introduced!

This light bulb changes the way colors appear on artwork, clothing, and anything else under its reach. Students started by watching the colors change on the color wheels that they’d used during previous lessons. Next, they watched various works of art change before their eyes. Then, students explored what it would be like to color and draw under the light. We are accustomed to picking our colors by sight, so having markers and crayons change color before they hit the paper was a confusing yet delightful experience. Several students figured out how to use this aspect to their advantage, creating pictures that transformed as the color of the bulb changed. Eventually, students realized they could use their sense of smell to identify marker colors if they stuck to using scented markers.

Shaking up the basics—like our understanding and perception of colors—is a great way to experiment with art, whether that means creating new pieces of artwork or just viewing existing art with a new perspective!

2016 Shop Local cards are here! Get them at MOON Co-Op, Juniper, the Oxford Farmer’s Market and McGuffey Montessori for only $15. This year’s card features benefits including…

—5% off every day at Moon Coop
—15% off one item at Juniper
—15% off one item at Hush Intimate Apparel
—$5 day passes at Miami Rec Sports… and MUCH MUCH more! For a complete list of the discounts available, go to oxfordshoplocal.com.

Although fundraising is a critical piece of McGuffey’s budget, it is also part of our school philosophy to act responsibly as a part of our community, and to pay it forward.

For this reason, McGuffey has decided to share a portion of the proceeds with some of our favorite non-profit organizations—the Oxford Community Choice Pantry, the Oxford Farmers Market Uptown Sprouts Program, and the Friends of the Oxford Lane Library. These are organizations our students, families, and staff consider a valuable part of this community.

We also believe it is important to support our local economy, and, for that reason, have chosen a “Shop Local” theme for our card, and have sought businesses from Oxford and the neighboring communities to participate in this program.

McGuffey students, parents, and staff donate their time and talents to facilitate the production, sale, and distribution of the Shop Local card, so there will be no cost to participating businesses or our non-profit beneficiaries.

We thank you for your support!

The submission date for Box Tops is coming up! It may seem like a drop in the bucket, but most years McGuffey raises over $500 through Box Tops—that’s enough to cover the cost of a bus for two or three field trips! Think of each little box top as a dime. They really do add up.

The next submission date is March 1, so we would like to have your Box Tops in the office by Monday, February 22.

If you have a collection at home, please send them in with your child or bring them to the office. You may clip them, double check expiration dates, and count them into groups of 50… or you can send them as is. We have parents on deck to clip and count for Family Work Hours.

Our Middle School students had a great opportunity this week to take Gallup’s StrengthsExplorer assessment. Students from Miami University’s Buck Rogers Leadership Program led them through a workshop to explore their top themes or strengths. McGuffey students had a chance to ask the Miami students a wide range of questions about their own strengths, their majors and what kinds of activities they enjoy in college.

The Miami students facilitated a team marshmallow challenge that allowed our students to see how each of their strengths contributed to the process of building something together within certain restraints. Our time on campus culminated in a delicious lunch at Garden Commons on East Quad. (Apologies for the depletion of their fortune cookie inventory.)

We are grateful to the Buck Rogers leaders and Dr. Megan Gerhardt for providing this valuable experience to our adolescent students.

The Read-A-Thon is here and McGuffey’s students are excited about it! The Read-a-Thon is an annual event where, for two weeks, we celebrate the joy of the written word and encourage our students to read, or be read to. We encourage students to record how many minutes they spend reading at school or at home. The students can also get sponsors to donate money, which is used to buy new books that the McGuffey community can share and enjoy.

We encourage all parents to spend some time reading to or with their children during these two weeks. There are many tangible benefits that can come from reading with your child:
– Building a stronger relationship with your child
– Helping prepare your child for academic pursuits
– Increasing speech and language skills
– Fostering a lifelong love of reading
– Increasing focus and concentration
– Having fun

Take some time out and enjoy the event with a good book!

McGuffey is pleased to partner with Grassroot Soccer and the Miami University Women’s Soccer Team in raising money for at-risk youth around the world. McGuffey parent Jon Ralinovsky kicked off this program with a generous donation that brings Jessica Byron to us to lead the programming. Jessica, a former Miami University Women’s Soccer player, will be joined by current members of the team.

McGuffey students will be participating in skill building activities as part of PE on Friday, April 1. The activities on Saturday, April 2 are open to everyone in the community. Go to https://www.crowdrise.com/KickItHere3v3PickUP for more details.

Thank you for helping us spread the word about this great event!

This semester, students in Grades 1-3 have been studying the major human civilizations throughout history. They began in January by learning about the ways that primitive people found and made shelters, hunted and obtained food, and got from one place to another (students were quite startled to think through the consequences of not being able to travel anywhere that you couldn’t reach by foot!).

Last month, students studied Ancient Egyptian civilizations. The construction of the pyramids and the process of mummification were two aspects of their study that students regarded with the most interest, and many students used modeling dough and block templates to build their own pyramids.

As we began the month of March, our focus moved on to Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. Lots of students enjoyed building the Colosseum out of wooden blocks and marveling at its intricate shape. Several students also began working on research papers about various aspects of Ancient Greek and Roman life, such the typical diets of people in those civilizations, the large number of countries and areas that were conquered by the Greek and Roman empires, and the origins and methods of the beautiful glassworks that they produced.

Our study of civilizations will continue through Spring!

The Primary unit has been studying oceans! We talked about the different kinds of life in the ocean, and about what ocean animals eat. Then we explored the idea that the ocean has different zones. Each zone is inhabited by its own set of plants and animals, which have adapted to that particular environment. We read the book Down, Down, Down by Steve Jenkins. This book takes you from the surface of the ocean through the sunlight zone, the twilight zone, the dark zone, and all the way down to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, almost seven miles below the surface.

Students have been investigating, sorting, and counting shells. They have been “diving” in the ocean in our outdoor classroom, and exploring the wide variety of animals that inhabit the waters.

The kindergartners wrapped up the unit by illustrating their own chart of the ocean zones. They were very proud of their work!

The kindergartners are beginning a unit on woodworking! Today we explored the saw. Our first task was to gather some wood. Being budget and resource conscious, we took a trip outside to search for sticks.

We talked about safety—always put on your goggles right after you open your toolbox, keep track of your fingers and thumbs, and never take your eyes off your work. We practiced starting a cut and then used our patience to saw slowly and methodically. We’re certain Norm Abram would agree that a patient woodworker is a good one! After cuts were made, students had the opportunity to use sanding blocks to soften any rough edges.

We will slowly make our way through the tools in our toolbox and then charge into an actual project. So far, the kindergarteners are loving this unit and are so proud of being trusted with “real tools.”

Students in Lower Elementary have been studying creative writing this semester, and they’ve recently begun producing Writer’s Workshop books. For these books, students are allowed to choose from various kinds of paper, some with more space for writing than drawing, and others with more space for drawing than writing. Students have practiced telling stories through words only, through pictures only, and of course, through the combination of both.

After students produce a first draft of a story, they submit it to a teacher, who adds editing marks. The stories are then returned to the students so they can make the suggested corrections, and then the students are encouraged to share their stories with the rest of the class! During a warm (but windy) afternoon recently, the whole class gathered in the outdoor classroom for a sharing session. Everybody appreciated and enjoyed hearing about their classmates’ characters and the adventures (and cliffhangers) that they find themselves in!

The Lower Elementary and Upper Unit classes walked to Lane Library this afternoon to attend a Skype talk sponsored by Lane and given by author Robert Paul Weston. Weston wrote the book Zorgamazoo, which has been described as “if Dr. Seuss wrote a YA fantasy novel”. Both Upper Unit classes have been listening to the book during Read Aloud.

Weston read from his book, talk about the writing process, and even explained the rhythm and meter he used. He answered many questions from our students in the audience. Thanks again to parents for rearranging their pickup schedules so we could attend this event, and to Lane for including us. It was a great experience!

On March 19 Audubon Miami Valley held their 5th annual Bird Art Exhibition. Although McGuffey students in grades 1 though 8 traditionally have the option to submit artwork, this year the kindergarteners joined in. The kindergarten class joined the first graders for two art sessions during which they created their drawings of birds for the exhibition. Participants received a ribbon and a certificate for their creative work. You can read more about the Miami Valley chapter of the Audubon Society on their website.

Did you know that each year McGuffey raises hundreds of dollars simply by families and friends linking their Kroger Plus card to McGuffey? Simply link your Kroger Plus card to McGuffey through your online account and we receive a percentage from every purchase you make, including gas! There is no cost for enrolling, you don’t pay anything at all for participating in Community Rewards.

To encourage participation in this easy fundraising program, we are offering FOUR Family Work Hours to each family that brings in an April Kroger sales receipt showing enrollment!

Each year Kroger requires you to re-enroll in the Community Rewards program, so even if you have previously linked your card to McGuffey, you will need to link it again. Enrollment begins April 1, 2016. 

Please follow the instruction below to enroll or re-enroll.

To create a new online account and register your Kroger Plus card for the Community Rewards Program:

• Start here.
• Click on “Get started. Sign up today!” in the “New to Kroger.com?” box.
• Sign up by entering your email address, password, and zip code. Select your favorite store.
• Enter your Kroger Plus card information.
• You will then get a message to check your email inbox and click on the link within the body of the email.
• Click on “My Account”.
• Click on “Community Rewards”.
• Update or confirm your information.
• Enter our code number, 80713, in the “find your organization” field.
• To verify you are enrolled correctly, you will see your organization’s name on in the Community Rewards section of your account information.
• Remember, purchases will not count for your group until after you register your card.

To re-enroll your Kroger Plus card for the Community Rewards Program:

• Start here.
• Sign in by entering your email address and password.
• Click on your name near the top of the screen or on the account tab in the middle of the screen.
• Scroll down to Community Rewards on your Account page and click “re-enroll”

Remember, this offer is only good for cards linked to McGuffey in APRIL. Questions? Need help? Please email or call Ingrid, (513) 523-7742. Thank you so much!

While we were away for break, the seasons shifted to spring! Primary has been taking note of the signs of spring around us—warmer weather, rain storms, spots of green peeking out of the ground, and many birds returning to our outdoor classroom. We also discussed the fact that spring is a time of new life for both plants and animals. This is a time when plants emerge from seeds and many animal babies are born. During studio, kindergartners took a walk through the school grounds and the adjoining woods, gathering signs of spring to bring back for our nature tray.

Later in the week, one of our parents brought us American Toad eggs and Northern Leopard Frog tadpoles. We’re excited to watch them grow and move through the stages of metamorphosis.

In this final stretch of school, as we plant our garden, we will begin our discussion of plants. We will even have some baby animals visit our classroom! These last few months are going to be very exciting for our young scientists.

As we enter the last two months of school, students begin to think about moving on to the next grade. While students are typically filled with excitement, those transitioning to a new grade band and classroom can sometimes feel anxious or nervous about the change.

Each week until the end of the school year, kindergartners will be visiting Lower Elementary and third graders will be visiting Upper. This gives them a chance to get comfortable with the students, teachers, and classrooms and experience an older classroom. Our hope is that by the end of the year they will feel comfortable and confident about moving forward!