News Archive

Montessori Buzz – March 2, 2021

Dear MA Families & Friends,

Camp Discovery Registration update

Thank you to the Toddler and Casa parents who have registered for Camp Discovery 2021. An update on the two camps:

  • Adventurers Camp (ages 4-6) is full! 
  • Explorers Camp for our Toddler students still has a few spaces in each session.

If you wish to be added to a waitlist for any of the full sessions, please complete the online registration form through…

FYI: Our March CHF Event is moving to April

As noted in the March newsletters on the Parent Portal, our annual CHF event that kicks off our March Break will move to April 9, the Friday before our week off.  

Junior High – Special Guest: Biliqis

Written by: Maitlyn Hsia and Layan Daher 

This Monday the junior high students were privileged enough to be joined by Biliqis Abdul-Qaadir, an athlete, activist, and motivational speaker over Zoom. She is the all-time highest scoring high school basketball player, male or female, in the state of Massachusetts and is most noted for having worn a hijab while playing…leading to her incredible story. This highly anticipated visit came about because of the Personal World study guide that all junior high students have been working through (if you have a junior high student hopefully they have told you about it!). Each adolescent can create a vision of their choosing and present to the class. Junior high student Layan chose Bilqis as part of her vision because she is such a strong and influential woman and role model in Layan’s life. With the help of Shawn, they made it possible to have her join our community. She has been recognized by Barack Obama at the White House and the night before joining us, she appeared on Sportsnet. This amazing woman now lives in London Ontario! Prior to Bilqis joining us, the junior high students had watched Life without Basketball, a documentary centered around Bilqis’ impactful story which helped prepare the students for their encounter with this inspiring woman. She voiced her struggles and willingly answered all questions with great detail. She truly made everyone’s day with her uplifting story and her tips on working hard and standing up for what you believe in as well the importance of  standing up for others. The ultimate takeaway messages from the visit were to be a good person today and leave that legacy of appreciation and kindness every time you have discourse with another person. Subsequently, the students shared a conversation about her message and it was agreed upon by all that she was undeniably a strong, interesting, and well-spoken person. She has made a positive impact on so many lives and will continue to do so. She is very much a part of history and one that reminded us all that several forms of oppressions that live on to this day must continue to be fought against in order to create a better tomorrow. She is an inspiration not only to young Muslim girls, but to all of us.  To learn more about Bilqis, watch the trailer for the documentary here: Life Without Basketball – Trailer

Junior High – Special Guest: Leroy

By Abeti and Gabe C

For the month of February the adolescents of Junior High, alongside the teachers, have been doing lots to celebrate Black History Month. Every morning the two community meeting moderators have been playing a song performed by a black artist, on top of that we have also been spotlighting a Canadian black history trailblazer and recognizing their accomplishments and contribution to the history of black people in Canada. To further celebrate Black History Month two Junior High students contacted black history expert Leroy Hibbert and asked him to come to the class and further educate us on issues surrounding black history and racism. We decided to ask Leroy to join us because as a part of our Personal World class we were encouraged to make a vision and he is a very inspiring person. All of us made these visions to educate our classmates on world problems that mean a lot to us. One of the many things that Leroy told us is why black history month is in February. We chose to have black history in February because the man who signed the legal document to end slavery, Abraham Lincoln, has his birthday on February 12. So we decided to honour him by dedicating this important month to him. In conclusion the junior high class has done a lot to recognize the black pioneers who have helped shape Canada but are often intentionally overlooked in discussing the history of our country. 

Photos from the Week

Montessori Week in …

Casa 4

Last week in Casa 4, we thoroughly enjoyed celebrating International Montessori Week.  In addition to chatting all about  the lifelong work of Maria Montessori, we explored a number of material extensions, and completed a number of crafts including making a necklace with colours which correspond to those of the coloured bead stair.

Westmount Casa

It’s been quite the inspiring week!  We have reminded ourselves of how truly fortunate we are to spend our days in this peaceful place of learning!  There is so much that goes on each day that is unspoken but both amazing and important! The children listened with great intent as we read the story of Dr. Maria Montessori and how this type of school came to be.  This week, after each child purposefully chose their favourite piece of work, they were asked to draw it through their eyes.  We decided to make a little booklet that each child can take home and hopefully it will continue to inspire them, as well as others to continue to grow and learn. Cheers to Montessori! 

Lower El 1

To conclude International Montessori Week, the LE1 students worked as a team to build a Montessori puzzle. Each student was responsible for recreating one piece of the puzzle.

Find more Montessori Week photos…

On our Social media feeds: 

Science in Junior High

“Grab your lab coat and put your thinking cap on! Junior high students are following their curious minds and the scientific method to investigate questions they have in the realm of Plant and Soil Ecology. Students decided on a topic, completed a proposal and started their experiments this week. We have students exploring a variety of topics including hydroponics, tilling, biodiversity and even gravity! Thanks to a shared initiative with NASA and Let’s Talk Science, a Canadian charitable organization, we have students participating in a national, blinded experiment involving tomato seeds which has sojourned on the International Space Station. Does space affect a seed’s integrity, if so how and why? Stay tuned to find out what our adolescents discover through the power of observation.”   

MA in the Community

Miss Marty’s Phoenix Session – this Friday

The historic Aeolian Hall has a subscription program – The Phoenix Sessions; for $20 a month, patrons can get exclusive access to incredible performances, including this Friday’s performance by our very own Marty Kolls. Find all the details of the membership here: https://aeolianhall.regfox.com/the-aeolian-phoenix-sessions-march 

From the Community

New decision-making tool from the Health Unit

Bookmark this site for future reference: https://www.healthunit.com/covid-19-schools

London Public Library Newsletter 

Did you know you can sign up for the London Public Library newsletter? Here’s the link: https://www.londonpubliclibrary.ca/page/newsletter

Growing Chefs! Ontario Newsletter

https://mailchi.mp/30da1b356223/growing-chefs-ontario-january-2021-newsletter-4432889?e=3d90a74239

New CHF youth-led Philanthropy Group seeks parent input 

This message is being shared on behalf of the Children’s Health Foundation Youth Philanthropy Group. This is a team of 15 passionate youth (14-24 years of age), who are learning about philanthropy, and have been tasked with putting together an end of the year event to raise funds for the Children’s Health Foundation. For their inaugural year they have decided to designate funds from their end of the year event towards Child and Adolescent Mental Health initiatives at the Children’s Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre. 

In order to raise funds for the Children’s Health Foundation, they have decided to host an exciting drive-in movie theatre event this Spring that we hope you will be able to attend!

To help the Youth Philanthropy Group gauge interest and optimize this event, we are asking if you might take a few minutes out of your day to complete a short survey linked here. Please note that it is completely anonymous and responses will be used for nothing other than making event decisions. Thanks for your input! Link to the survey: CHFoundation Drive-In Movie Night Survey

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