Montessori Matters
January 10, 2020
Montessori's "Hum"
The time is coming up shortly: to decide on your child’s education for the next year. At the end of the month, you will be receiving your packet of information for next year including tuition sheets, re-enrollment forms, etc. It is also a time when we encourage you to observe your child’s current class and, if they are moving up a level, the next year’s class or classes. There is a general Open House for this purpose on Friday, January 17th from 9 – 11 am, but if you cannot make it then, other hours/days may work as well. Just give us a call at the office and we can schedule another time.
Besides the observations, we are having an information gathering night, Family, Food, and Philosophy Night, 5:30-7:30, January 28th, that will enable you to understand philosophically how Montessori works across the age groups. There will also be breakout sessions for each level. Parent conferences are not scheduled until March but you are welcome to request an early one if there are important questions you would like answered before then.
Bottom line: we all wish you could be here day to day to hear the busy hum that exists in each of the classrooms. The hum of children engaged in their work and interacting with their friends, other peers, adult mentors. And when you come right down to it, that “hum” includes two of the best predictors of a happy, meaning-filled adult life: being an engaged worker and navigating successfully relational dynamics. Montessori recognized this over 100 years ago:
“Joy, feeling one's own value, being appreciated and loved by others, feeling useful and capable of production are all factors of enormous value for the human soul.”
Dates to Remember
We hope everyone had a nice, relaxing break and that everyone is refreshed and ready for the second semester! See below for some upcoming dates and remember that you can always check https://www.msasc.org/calendar for an interactive calendar.
January 17 - Ship It Day
January 17 - Open House 9-11 AM
January 20 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day - extended day only
January 21 - SCISA Math Competition
January 28 - Food, Family, and Philosophy event on campus at 5:30 PM
February 6 - High School internships
Family, Food, and Philosophy
Join us for a night of Family, Food, and Philosophy on January 28 at 5:30 PM!
Nurse's Notes: Share the Warmth
Thank you for your generosity and support with the MSA Share the Warmth Tree. I am so honored and grateful to be part of a community that is so giving and willing to assist when a request is made to support children who have specific needs, such as the need for warm winter wear. Thank you to each of you for decking out the MSA office tree with all of the beautiful decorations of warm clothing. Anderson Interfaith Ministries was so appreciative to receive all of the donated items.
Wishing you health, safety and peace this holiday season.
Nurse Merriman
Annie JR.
Auditions were held this Tuesday for Annie JR., and the cast was published this Friday. We look forward to an immersive play week the first week of March!
Holiday Program
The 2019 Holiday Program was a wonderful celebration of winter holidays from many different cultures. The students did a great job
practicing throughout the second quarter, and it paid off as they put on an amazing program with beautiful music and choreography. See
this album for more photos from the night.
Primary Letters to Santa
Students in Ms. McAlister's Primary One classroom wrote letters to Santa and then placed them in the mailbox to mail out before the holidays. For more photos, see
this gallery from senior Abby Keenan.
Santa at MSA
Santa must have enjoyed the letters he received, because he stopped by to visit students in the MSA classrooms on the last day before the break! Students were excited to see him and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.
Click here for more photos from senior Abby Keenan and Nurse Suzi.
Elementary Gingerbread Houses
Students in Lower and Upper Elementary spent the last couple of weeks before break designing, constructing, and decorating "gingerbread" houses made with graham crackers. They got a taste of the design and engineering process by planning their design and implementing it to test if it was able to stand and support its own weight. The students did a great job on their houses and were rewarded with a trip to Grove Park Inn to celebrate! See
this gingerbread house design album for more photos of the elementary students' houses.
Elementary Trip to Grove Park Inn
Students in Lower and Upper Elementary got the chance to visit Grove Park Inn to see beautifully-crafted gingerbread houses submitted for their yearly gingerbread house-design contest after spending the past couple weeks before designing and crafting their own amazing designs. Each house had to be made of at least a certain percentage of gingerbread, and all components had to be edible. The students enjoyed seeing the creative houses! The classes stopped by Fuddruckers nearby for a meal before heading back to school.
See this album for more photos from the day and photos of all of the fantastic houses.
Van Gogh Exhibit in Columbia
The High School took a trip to Columbia before the break to visit the Van Gogh and His Inspirations Exhibit at the Columbia Museum of Art with Mrs. Culwell and Nurse Suzi. Thirteen of his drawings and paintings were on display including one of his self-portraits. The rest of the show were pieces by artists who inspired Van Gogh's art. See
this album of photos from senior Abby Keenan for more pictures.
High School Winter Trip
The High School went on a winter trip to Greenville on the last week before the break. They enjoyed breakfast at Maple Street Biscuit Company, including a surprise round of dessert biscuits provided by the restaurant! They then split into two groups and both groups were able to escape a breakout room at Breakout Greenville -- one group from an island narrowly avoiding an erupting volcano and the other group from a sinking submarine. The students then enjoyed some shopping and snacking in downtown Greenville before heading to lunch at Tropical Grille. For more photos, see
this album and
this album of photos from Abby Keenan.
STEAM Activity: Gingerbridges
Students in Middle and High School participated in their second-quarter STEAM activity before the break by designing and building gingerbread bridges. The students learned about various design and support principles behind bridge structures and put that knowledge to the test by constructing bridges out of edible components to see whose bridge could support the most weight. They competed to build the most supportive bridge as well as the best-looking bridge. Click
here for more photos of the gingerbridges.
Note-Taking in Anatomy and Physiology
Students in Mrs. Presgraves' Anatomy and Physiology class spent the first part of this week learning about both how the kidney works at the nephron level and, more generally, how to take lectures notes differently by adding color and quick drawings.
Meet Amber Lockhart, Director of Admissions (Primary-High School), College Guidance
Email: alockhart@msasc.org
About me:
I was born and raised in Anderson, and I attended MSA from Primary-4th grade. My husband and I live here in town with our two cats, Ollie and Lily. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first child, a boy named Jace, in February!
My education/experience:
- I graduated from Clemson University in 2015 with a BA in Psychology.
- I spent three years as a social worker at Richard Campbell Veterans' Nursing Home before joining MSA in August 2018.
My favorite things:
- Book/Movie - Harry Potter series, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
- Color - Purple/light blue
- Food/Snack - Potatoes
- Sport/Team - Clemson
- Activity/Hobby - Reading and snuggling my cats
- Vacation spot - Pigeon Forge, TN
- Your favorite thing about teaching at MSA - Spending my days with the high schoolers
Montessori School of Anderson
Our mission is to nurture the whole child, physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually, preparing students for academic excellence, lifelong learning and responsible, caring lives.
