March Madness

St Patrick on the hunt

Now that the Easter Eggs have been eaten we decided to look back at all the activities of March and share them with you.

The cooking crew!

Early in the month we went on a much-anticipated visit to our friends in The Glebe Montessori Primary School in Celbridge. Some of the teachers from The Glebe had come to visit us a week or two before and they invited our senior class to come and have a cooking class in their kitchen with their senior class. We could not wait and on the 11^th March with our teachers Ashley and Katie we got on a bus and took a trip to The Glebe.

On the bus to The Glebe

What a fantastic day, we cooked, we ate together, we laughed, and we got a tour of the school and especially the gardens with rabbits and chickens. Taking our lovely freshly laid eggs we went to the kitchen and got started.

Rolling our thumbprint cookies

Many hands make light work (and great memories) and we had lots of help from our new friends and their teachers.  At the end of the cooking we all went to the communal area where we sat together at huge tables all laid out, and we ate together. It felt a bit like Hogwarts and we loved it! Such an amazing experience for all involved.

Enjoying the feel of the dough

Montessori promoted “wider horizons” in the 6-12 group, by which Dr Montessori meant showing the children the world outside their classroom walls, both physically and metaphorically. Not only giving them a chance to use their classroom learning in real and vital situations but understanding the implications of our actions in the wider community. Demonstrating to these young people why responsibility, tolerance, honesty, dependability and empathy are so important. It also gives them opportunities and situations in which to hone these skills that will be vital to the next generation.  Being in a close community like Hedley or The Glebe our children can only experience so much, but connections like these between schools is essential. Thankfully Montessori teachers are a very gracious and connected group but such sharing and friendships between schools isn’t always possible due to geography and transportation costs so we are in an enviable position with our friends in the Glebe. We look forward to returning the hosting very soon.

Being responsible and cleaning up.

To thank our friends in the Glebe for the wonderful day the senior students made a photo book with personal thank you essays and poems, and sent it to them to commemorate the day. The students of the senior class in The Glebe emailed me with some lovely comments also; here is a sample of both schools observations.

A Special Day Out by Anna from Hedley Park.  
Hello I am Anna. Yesterday I went to The Glebe Montessori School. It took a long time on the bus. The Glebe school was cool. They had one rabbit and six hens. I made a chocolate mousse and some other children cooked jamcookies. They had eight goldfish.  They were very nice to us. I had a lovely day at The Glebe.

Getting started.

I enjoyed having the company of another school and we had fun.
Luke Aged 10 from The Glebe

I enjoyed talking to the children from Hedley Park and cooking with them.
Killian Aged 11 from The Glebe

It was really fun having another school over and it was really enjoyable.
Kerri McCarthy Aged 9 from The Glebe

Looking a lot like Hogwarts

The school trip by Scarlett from Hedley Park. 
I went to the Glebe school yesterday. When we arrived at the school the teachers showed us around.  We went into the classrooms, we stayed in the 6-9 classroom. We met some new friends they were very nice. We went outside and had a snowball fight. It was really fun. We then went inside to cook. We chopped some onions and grated the garlic. Then we put tomatoes, beans and sausages on the pan and mixed it all up. Next we cleaned our work space and got a mixer out. We got lots of butter, sugar and flour, we made some delicious cookies. We also made lemonade. When the cooking was finished we sat down and ate lunch together. I wish the day could start all over again, it was the best day ever!

Waiting for the bus back to school

I thoroughly enjoyed my day cooking and dining with Hedley Park. - Callum Age 11 from The Glebe

I had fun meeting the children from Hedley Park. Ben  Age 10 from The Glebe

I had great fun cooking with them and I liked their hats. -  Ethan Age 10 from The Glebe 

A graffiti artist Leprechaun

The next day we had yet more excitement, we had a secret visitor! Our leprechaun friend from last year had returned and was looking for his lost teddy.

We left him a message and he replied

 

Over the week preceding St Patrick’s weekend his antics got more mischievous and the children really got into the fun. Setting traps, hunting clues, counting the golden coins on the tree and leaving Paddy O’Leprechaun messages on the computer. Each morning everyone was in high spirits to discover what funny prank or message was left for us.

We are craftily getting ready for St. Patrick’s Day.

 

 

 

On the Friday before St Patrick’s Day we set off on a treasure hunt to find the man himself. Led ably by our representative of St Patrick we followed clues around the park, stopping for a song a poem and even a bit of a celli until we found Paddy and got our reward.

At last we find O’Leprechaun

Just when you think we couldn’t possibly fit in any more excitement Easter was upon us!  A holiday we all love as its filled with our favourite thing, chocolate!

Bake Sale Wonderland

To get us in a sugary mood on Friday we had a wonderful coffee morning and bake-sale, with the added pleasure of an Easter Bonnet competition. The coffee morning raised €350 euro for additional upgrade to our equipment which is just amazing, and a huge thank you to all the bakers and buyers for their generosity. We had a really serious spread of delicious cakes, coffee and hot chocolate. When all was done and dusted we were also able to help the homeless of Dublin by donating 6 large bags of edible goodies to the Fr. McVerry Foundation an all round fantastic result.

So I think you will agree that we marched a huge amount of fun, learning and experiences into the month. I for one cannot wait to see what the rest of the spring term has to offer, especially with Open Day on the horizon!

The Bonnet Brigade

Stay tuned for more news on that very soon!

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Gong Hei Fat Choi and Thank you!

Land of the Midnight Sun

It’s February already! Where does the time go? Well we can tell you the first half of the term may have passed in a flash but we squeezed so much work and fun into the first 6 weeks of the year.

More new materials

Where to begin! Firstly we’d really like to thank everyone who came to our coffee morning last term, the funds you generously raised contributed to the purchase of our new materials.

Replacements for materials that have been loved so much we needed to get new ones and many advanced and new materials to extend our learning.

Even more new materials

Some of our new materials

Everyone is so excited about the new work., students and teachers alike. It’s wonderful to hear the children exclaim, “I cant wait to start my work” or “I love this school so much” as they do every morning. Over hearing one young student tell his classmate “I’ve told my mother a million times I love Hedley Park” as he counts to a million with the new maths materials is so heart-warming. We are so lucky to have the wonderful students, parents and staff to make up the place that is Hedley Park.

Looking back at the work we have done in the last month, it is almost overwhelming when you see it all together. Over the course of the month the children work at new group projects and that work is displayed in their classrooms, this is only the tip of the iceberg. They also work on individual pieces in their own books and much shelf work, which does not create “display” but leaves the student with a lasting love of independent learning and self-discovery.

Parts of the river display

Our senior class have been working on not one but two group projects this month. The first was on the topic of rivers; they created a wonderful 3D wall display on the parts of the river and are creating individual booklets on other land and water formations.

Pin pushing our landforms

 

Carefully pin poking each land and water form out, illustrating, labelling and gluing into their booklets. Exploration with the land and water form materials really serve to concrete this in the minds of our students.

 

The careful use of these materials brings a wonderful moment of zen amidst the buzz and hubbub of an active classroom.

A moment of zen

The second group project was in preparation for our favourite annual event , Chinese New Year. Everyone chose an aspect of Chinese history, which they researched and summarised in their best penmanship.

Our Display.

Creativity to the fore each student made his or her own Terracotta Warrior and Lai See for good luck! They even got to use authentic wolf hair brushes to decorate their Lai See with calligraphy during Mandarin class with Evan.

Our Lai See

I love how each year the celebrations and project work reflects the individual interests of the children in the class, this year a wonderful Lego Great Wall was built! It being the year of the snake we had representations of the serpent in cake and in majestic art form.

Year of the Snake Cake

Of course on the final school day before the celebrations we all gathered for a Chinese banquet as guests of the senior class. It was lovely to share food and wish each other Gong Hei Fat Choi!

Chinese Buffet – Eating together

The senior class also presented their individual animal projects to the junior class. Each student chose an animal that interested them and researched using ipad apps, the internet and the many many books available in the school library. Interesting facts are written out in their best handwriting and photos printed and compiled to create a beautiful display.

Our Animal Projects

Each student then presents to their peers and the junior class and answers questions after the presentation. The confidence gained by the students in such presentations is undeniable, and for those who are seniors in the class you can see the benefit of such presentations in their research and public speaking abilities. Essential experience for self-study and self-reliance as they approach secondary school.

Working with grammar symbols

Language arts are a very popular study subject at the moment in the Senior class and among the new materials the grammar symbols are being put through their paces in an almost never-ending cycle. From student to student the learning is being inspired and promoted, it is enchanting to see them work on something and then teach their classmates their findings. It really is peer learning at its best.

Geographical study is also au current at the moment with jigsaw maps and flags being pored over in great detail. Whether alone or in company the thirst for more information is being quenched in the senior class.

Working with the whole world

The junior class have also been hard at work with their group projects. January has seen them working on dairy foods and the cow, a project that incorporated, language, numeracy, science, culture and lots of fun. They studied the phonogram “ow” with the word cow, they identified and categorised food products in dairy and non dairy, they studied the parts of the cow and created handwriting samples on many delicious dairy products.

Parts of the cow

They also studied “the land of the midnight sun” in their geographic and cultural exploration of the arctic. A fantastic “frieze” of the vocabulary and iconry of the frozen continent, hung over their large map and individual continent plates.

Arctic Map and images

Inspired by our new jigsaw parts of the penguin the junior class have created a large parts of the penguin display and individual ones that they are rightly very proud of.

Do you like my penguin

Love was all around in the run up to Valentine’s day, love for their practical life work, love for their parents, love for each other and love for the new materials that are inspiring them to keep asking “can I take more work off the shelf”. As a teacher in such a class it is a joy to see the children motivate each other and themselves, find joy in learning and joy in sharing their learning.

Loving to work together

Europe Display

Last but by no means least our tiny learners in the reception class who have conducted a tour of the continent of Europe. In their educational travels they have spent time studying Picasso’s abstract art pieces, and tried their hand creating their own. They also continued their study of the beautiful French language, and made a magnificent Tour Eiffel. While they made colourful “escargots” I’m not sure tasting them would have been as popular, that said our adventurous reception class are always open to new tastes!

Spring Display

With the change of season to Spring the reception class have created a vibrant display of all things spring, including gorgeous hand print ducks and ducklings, richly coloured springtime flowers and very cute cows.

Our reception class love literature, nothing is more enjoyable than reading a book together or exploring our library alone. With that in mind they chose two current favourites Jungle Book and Giraffes Cant Dance.

Giraffes Can’t Dance

The free painted giraffes are adorable I think you’ll agree and the emotions of the giraffes throughout the story as depicted by the students is a perfect conversation point at circle time or even at home to help our youngsters label the emotions that they feel through out the day.

Finally don’t forget to ask about the poem of the month, “Pitter Pater Raindrops” and I’m sure you will be entertained by the rendition at the dinner table or in the car!

As usual there are just so many photographs of our beautiful work that we can’t fit them all in the text, so here is a gallery so you don’t miss out on any. Enjoy!

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Winter 2012 – Science Snow & Sparkle

The Kind Christmas Tree Board

The winter season is well upon us and the Christmas spirit is alive and well in Hedley Park Montessori school.

The children are deep in character for their Christmas extravaganza, and all I can say is, even though snow may be forecast for this week. On the 18^th December “the sun will come out ……..” and it wont be “a hard knock life for us” … what can I say, we will offer you “Annie” excuse to get in the Christmas mood and “wear a smile”. For parents looking for tickets, please talk to a member of staff. Our rehearsal is today Monday 10th (see Facebook page for details) for children from junior infants upwards.

Nursery winter wall

On the big day itself (18^th December) there will be an arrival schedule for each class group that will be communicated to you in the coming days. With our play housekeeping done let us fill you in on all the work we’ve been doing throughout November.

Polar Insulation experiment

Starting with our senior class who got into the spirit of Science early in the month and have brought a scientific method to their studies in all subjects since.  They looked at Arctic insulation with a very hands-on experiment to show how polar animals keep warm.

Does a flame burn oxygen?

Then a look at another side of that coin with an experiment to prove that a flame burns oxygen, this was fascinating as they got to witness the vacuum created by the flame as it burned the available oxygen and the water rose to fill the void generated.

In a further experiment, that took a little more time to witness, the senior class also created their own crystals along a line of thread. It was fascinating to watch the frosty looking crystals spread along as we progressed through the week.

Growing crystals

The senior students also took a scientific look at leaf structure and types with some leaf rubbings and parts of a leaf analyses.  It is this sensorial approach to learning that the students have hones through their years in Montessori education that allows them to perceive the finest details of each leaf structure, identifying leaf types by touch alone, and internalising and synthesising this knowledge to build on their schemes of the natural world.

Leaf Structure Studies

They got into the seasonal spirit with some lovely language arts display work, both as gaeilge and as bearla.

Snowman creative writing

In English language arts they created original stories from the starting sentence “My snowman came alive today and he…” very creative an imaginative stories are on display on the walls. In Irish language arts they completed their Crann Nollag focloir sheets.

Crann Nollag Focloir

In a little bit of arts and crafts the class created gorgeous winter fir cone owls. I’m sure you will agree each is a very unique size and personality, but make a wonderfully unified clan en-masse, reflecting the class group itself.

Fir cone owl group

Another art moment took the class to a practical life exercise that helped them count down the days to Christmas day. They made a Santa with a numbered beard, each day they cut a little strip off with that days date until they have trimmed the beard in full and Santa is on his way!

Cutting down to Christmas

Handmade Cards

Finally taking their place as the elders of the school, the senior class lead the school in creating wonderful Christmas cards and Yule logs for the sale of work at our fundraising breakfast last week.

It was wonderful to see the admiration in the younger students working with their older schoolmates and in turn the care and attention shown to the younger student by the senior students.

Creating a community

This really is the essence of a Montessori environment, younger children learning from and aspiring to the elder students, and the elders assuming responsibility and learning through teaching the younger. It was wonderful to see and experience.

Parts of a Reindeer

While all that was going on in the senior class the reception and nursery classes were not falling behind in their winter learning. The Reception class also took a scientific approach to the season with their “parts of” displays.

Montessori created a wonderfully scientific and sensorial approach to learning about botany and the animal kingdom in the early years. “Parts of” jigsaws allow the child from the earliest experience to become aware of how the parts of something come together to create a whole.

Parts of a Robin

Once the child has sensorially internalised this, they can move to connecting the names of each part. This serves as the first stepping-stone to further study and dissection of the unique characteristics of each aspect of the natural world. The Reception class chose the seasonal emblems of Robin and Reindeer.

Independent learning Robin

The robin is a standard of Montessori part of study, but the reindeer is a lovely departure to inspire the students to look further than the materials to hand and a commendation to our staff who love to encourage the students to pastures of new learning.

Independent learning reindeer

The beautiful winter tree display with migrating birds leaves the room cheered to brightened the darkest winter spirit and serves to house the parts of labelling work that the students undertook either by handwriting each label (if they are at the writing stage) or cutting the appropriate labels (if they are at the reading stage) and identifying the parts during independent work. It is this independent work at the child’s level that is vital to the Montessori class, each contributes the work at their stage and all work comes to form the class board, no one feels in front or behind as each contribution at that students level is vital to form the whole and leave the student feeling accepted as an individual part of the unified class community.

Reception class Winter Tree

The nursery class proved themselves, as ever, an art and craft phenomena. The scale and amount of projects and displays they create are astounding. It brings great joy to the class and their teachers to fill the room with wonderfully creative and bright display boards. November saw them on a literature exploration with Elmer the Elephant as the face of their sound of the month “e”, the elephant handprints are just exceptional!

Elmer the Elephant.

They threw a party with the Gruffalo, on the party menu was scrambled snake, roasted fox and owl ice-cream and if that didn’t tickle your taste buds then the Gruffalo cake was sure to please the discerning palates of the nursery community.

Gruffalo Cake

I loved the Dr Seuss like rhyming words on the board, it’s a fantastic way to open the student’s ears to the sounds in words, and vital to inspire the word building that they are embarking on.

Gruffalo Party Display

Annie Enright’s ‘The Kind Christmas Tree” took us on a journey of empathy with the birds to whom the kind Christmas tree gave homes to, a wonderful way to begin a conversation about the spirit of the oncoming Christmas season, being kind to others. The footprint robins are so cute and I’m sure when they go home they will make wonderful Christmas tree decorations for years to come.

Arctic Art

The continent studies in the nursery this month was the Arctic and Antarctica. The students filled the walls with penguins, polar bears, ice caps, walruses and puffins. They had lots of experiential fun with the Arctic sensory box.

Arctic Sensory box

A sensory box allows the student to explore the colours, textures, sounds, smells and even tastes (depending on) attached to the topic. Small imaginative play items allow the child to construct meaning and explore the subject matter at hand in their own way.  The sensory box was very popular and we will with the aid of the students create more on further topics of study.

Jack Frost nipping at your nose.

The seasonal theme of winter was also explored and illustrated in the displays and circle time talks on aspects of the season.  Jack Frost and the words that describe his work was illuminated on one, another depicted an igloo and winter scene snow globes, while paper cut snowmen was the icing on the cake for me. They really have created a “winter wonderland” of seasonal art.

Nursery papercut snowmen

With the season of winter well underway, we begin to decorate our classrooms for the Christmas festivities and we are looking forward to sharing all our holiday handiwork with you soon.

Lots of love

Students and Staff of Hedley Park.

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Spring Notes: Leprechaun hunt, Afterschool Activities and Open Day Invitation!

Gathering the clues to find our leprechaun

What an eventful March and April we have had at Hedley Park. Lots of news and events to share with you, but before we talk about all that has happened let us just remind you that this Saturday (May 12^th) will be our annual summer Open Day. From 10am to 1pm you are very welcome to come and say hi, view our students work , classroom environments and ask any questions you may have. Current students and their family and friends will be there, as will any past students wanting to catch up with favourite teachers to share the news of their past years endeavours. So make your way to town for brunch and pop in on Saturday to see all the exciting display boards and ask our students all about their work.

Back to our spring catch up; March was a hectic month the centrepiece of which was our fantastic St Patricks adventures. Beginning early in the month we set our Leprechaun trap, but we did not plan on him being so crafty.

Day after day we found Larry had not only eaten the snack we left to tempt him but he had played with our shelves, left us notes, used our toilet and even left us a video message!! Still we could not catch him.

Leprechaun’s love Jam and Nutella on crackers!

 

On the day of our St Patricks walk we knew the time running out and our excitement was growing, finally we would catch Larry and find our pot of gold! We had an early and impromptu Irish dancing lesson and ate slices of our rainbow cake. Then with an enthusiasm even the rain couldn’t dampen we set off to look for Leprechaun clues. We looked high and low, around all the wonderful monuments in Merrion Square and yes, we did find our very own Hedley Park Leprechaun.

Finding Larry

Daffodil cupcakes

But that wasn’t the only thing happening in Hedley Park, March 23^rdsaw ourDaffodil Day commemoration and the preschool class made fantastic daffodil cupcakes to mark the day.  We also learned about the chicken lifecycle by creating a lovely display board, just in time for the Easter break.

Shaving Foam Painting

 

 

Our afternoons have also been really fun packed. Lots of arts and crafts, gloop making and shaving foam painting being two on offer, and enjoyable games like musical chairs not to mention freeplay and dressing up. All of these allow us to work together and enhance our creative and imaginative capabilities. Children learn much about themselves during freeplay sessions, creative outlets, social play and personal projects give the child a fuller understanding of themselves and others.

Dressing up Fun

Our eager and interested teaching staff supervises the afternoons in Hedley but the children’s interests and wishes are the controlling factor. Allowing the children this freedom to decide what they spend their free time doing gives them a sense of empowerment and personal achievement that is at the heart of Montessori holistic education.

Finally a big thank you to everyone who came along to our sponsored walk on March 30^th, thanks to your generous donations we raised enough for 3 more iPads! Now every class in Hedley Park has an iPad to research and learn on. It is amazing to see the children use them with ease and confidence. Even the reception class are giving their iPad a daily workout, they particularly enjoy using Montessorium’s intro to letters and intro to numbers,to compliment their work with the Montessori materials for sounds and numbers.

Montessorium’s iPad Apps

If you’d like to download them and use at home feel free to ask us about them at open day or next time you are in the school. While iPads will never replace the physical hands on with the beautiful Montessori materials in our classes, eLearning, confidence with computers and computer-assisted work are essential parts of the 21^stcentury child’s learning portfolio. It’s the combination of traditional hands on learning and sophisticated eLearning in a natural and supportive setting that gives Hedley Park students the winning edge.

Layering our Rainbow Cake

So don’t forget to drop in this Saturday between 10am-1pm to see our students as they showcase their work and fun class projects and meet our team of warm and dedicated teachers ready to welcome you to Hedley Park.

See you then!

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Our Seniors are Out of This World!

Solar System Collage Board

The senior class have finished their individual presentation activity for the spring semester. This time the topic was, the Solar System and the students really went to the ends of the Milky Way with the effort involved.

Each child chose a planet and had to research their planet, using the school iPad, the “regular” Internet via the in class pc’s and all the books they could find, then organise and type or write out the information on large poster sheets. Finally they each stood up in front of their peers

and teachers to present the information clearly and succinctly. The presentations were also recorded on our iPad and if you are a parent and haven’t seen them already, or have but want a copy of the video file for yourself send me an email and I’ll give you access to the secure online storage of them.

Illustrations and photos were all put to good use, as well as some wonderful typing skills and lovely handwriting and I have to

say not only did the posters give you a flavour of the planet in question but there was some real flavour of the student themselves in each presentation. (No one was left wondering who was the owner of the Earth poster!)

 

Poster presentations are a wonderful tool for learning, enhancing each individual’s preparation and research. Giving the child practice in selecting the most important pieces and summarising what they have discovered leads to focused learning and appeals to the students, visual, logical, verbal and kinesthetic learning styles. Allowing the child to prepare a poster independently heightens their ability to focus on how best to communicate and organise the information they would like to have on the poster gives them a sense of the flow of information both visually and verbally.

Of course the presentations themselves are a learning experience and our future public speakers will have no confidence issues at all. Montessori education allows for peer-to-peer teaching as a large part of the method. Children who have mastered particular task are encouraged to demonstrate the lesson to younger classmates. This creates a bond in the class and helps the younger child emulate their older classmate, and gives the older child confidence in delivering a message to one or more people.

All this amazing research and presentations was founded and furthered by the group classwork on the major theme of the solar system. The class created a fantastic collage solar system around which their presentation posters were placed, so that everyone could benefit of the research.

They also created some really interesting flip books on the planets, showing what they learned from their classmates presentations.

Finally their last art project was “far out” as they depicted themselves falling through space. Using tracings of their own hands and feet, they learned about perspective and drew their bodies falling backways! Very spacey!

Come back soon as we will be posting all the fun of our Leprechaun hunt, and news of our Easter activities. Not to mention our Open Day on May 12^th. If you are a past pupil, current parent or prospective student, we’d love to meet you and show you our great work in person.

Have an "out of this world" week!