Montessori Matters

October 29, 2021

Updates

Updates

  • What an eventful week - Spirit Days and Fall Fling activities! You may have seen some previews from the week already, but there are plenty more photos below for you to enjoy. There was even a surprise “Primary Share Day” visitor!


  • Monday, Nov. 1 is our Parent-Teacher Conference Day. This is a student holiday for Infant/Toddler through Upper Elementary. (Extended Care is available only for I/T and PR.) It will be a remote learning day for Middle School and High School students. Be sure you’ve registered for your conference time slot!


  • Next week begins the kick-off to our November MSA Tigers and Gamecocks for People Bowl that will benefit AIM. Students of all ages have the opportunity to participate in this community collection. We will publish the “SCORE” over the next three weeks ($10 = 1 point). Show your support for your favorite team and stay tuned… the winner will be announced in the Nov. 19 Montessori Matters.


  • Thursday and Friday, next week, I will be attending the SCISA Fall Heads Conference in Orangeburg, SC. Ellen Weaver, CEO of Palmetto Promise Institute, will be providing an update on the School Choice Initiative that is gaining momentum in South Carolina. There is an effort to pass the Education Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) bill when the General Assembly reconvenes in January. Want to make your voice heard on school choice? You can find your lawmaker with this simple tool. Let’s do our part to make 2022 “The Year of School Choice” in South Carolina!


Have a frightfully fun and safe Halloween weekend!

Dr. Dana Hill

Updates
Dates to Remember

Dates to Remember

October 31 - Have a safe and happy Halloween!

November 1 - Conferences - Student holiday for IT-UE, Extended Care Available for I/T-PR, virtual MS-HS

November 3 - Make-up photos, Infant/Toddler whole-class photos, sibling photos

November 7 - Daylight Savings ends - set clocks back an hour

November 23 - Thanksgiving Blessing

November 24-26 - Thanksgiving Break - All Programs Closed

Dates to Remember

Nurse's Notes

As fall holidays approach, our attention turns towards Halloween safety and pedestrian safety. I am sharing safety information provided by Safe Kids and I hope that you review the information with your child(ren) so all of our MSA ghosts and goblins are safe during this exciting time of year.

Playground clothing request: With cooler weather approaching, please be sure to send a protective jacket or sweater with your child for use during recess. Our South Carolina weather is sometimes unpredictable and we want the children to be able to participate in outdoor play and get exercise during these beautiful fall days.


Fall Safety Reminder: It's ALMOST Time to Change Your Clocks and Change Your Batteries on Nov. 7th

Big picture

When it’s time to "fall back" and change the clocks on Sunday, November 7, make sure to check the batteries in all of your smoke alarms-- it could save your life.


Have a safe, healthy and spooktacular fall weekend,

Susanna Merriman, RN

Toddler Pumpkin Roll

Students in the toddler classrooms were excited to celebrate fall season this Wednesday with the annual Toddler Pumpkin Roll. Each student brought in a pumpkin, the rounder the better, and each class took turns rolling their pumpkins down the hill in the toddler playground. They had fun rolling them down the hill, chasing them down, and running back up to repeat the process! See below for photos of the toddlers at play, and view this gallery for many more!
Big picture

Primary Book Character Day

Students in Primary dressed up as their favorite book character on Friday to showcase them across campus. There were princesses, pirates, athletes, animals, and super heroes, among many more characters! To see more photos from the parade, click this link.
Big picture

Lower Elementary Biography Day

Each year Lower Elementary students get the opportunity to choose a famous artist, musician, sports star, inventor, or otherwise influential person from Penguin Random House's Who Was book series and to research that person. To culminate the activity, the students dress up and parade across campus as that person before presenting their biographical research to their fellow Lower Elementary students back in the classroom. More photos from the event can be seen in this gallery.
Big picture

Upper Elementary Pumpkin Carts

Upper Elementary students had a week to prepare and 24 hours to construct a cart capable of conveying a pumpkin across campus in a pumpkin cart parade. The students came up with wonderfully-constructed and decorated vehicles, and students and faculty across campus enjoyed seeing them in action. See this gallery for more images from the event.
Big picture

Upper School Pumpkin Chunkin'

Students in the Middle and High Schools faced off in a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) challenge in which they competed to design a device capable of launching a pumpkin the farthest. They learned about a variety of technologies capable of launching objects and the physics behind projectiles before designing their own device and projecting pumpkins on Friday. See some images from the development process and the event below, and click this link to view more.
Big picture

Parade Watching

Students and faculty across campus enjoyed watching the stream of parades across campus showcasing the characters, biography research, and pumpkin cart-engineering projects and cheering on the students' hard work. Click this link to view a photo gallery of parade-watchers.
Big picture

Spirit Week

During this week's Spirit Week, each day was given a special theme: Monday was Pajama Day, Tuesday was Around the World Day celebrating cultures around the world, Wednesday was Career Day, Thursday Dynamic Duo Day, and Friday was Character Day and included the Primary Book Character and Lower Elementary Biography Days. Photos from each day's celebrations can be seen below and in this gallery.
Big picture
Big picture

Caffeine Experiment

Students in Dr. Wilmoth's Physical Science class formed a hypothesis about the effect of caffeine. They designed and conducted an experiment to test their hypothesis and have been working on writing a lab report this week. Pictured below, the students periodically monitored the behavior of a control group of crickets fed with normal water and an experimental group fed with a mixture of water and caffeine throughout the day at the beginning of the week.
Big picture
Big picture
Big picture

Spooky Middle School Community Lunch

In celebration of Halloween this weekend, the Middle School lunch committee made a spooky community lunch this week, complete with mummies in a blanket, monster fruit, pepper-o-lanterns with brains, and pasta with meatball eyeballs. It was as delicious as it was spooky!
Big picture
Big picture
Big picture

Upper School Pumpkin-Themed Art Projects

The Middle and High School students made these spook-tacular candle holders out of clay as part of the week's spirit week festivities in Mrs. Culwell's art classes.
Big picture
Big picture

Last Week's Baseball

Mrs. Patch's PE students are transitioning into soccer this week. Here are a few photos from last week's baseball class on Wednesday.

Happy Halloween from the Yearbook Staff

Montessori School of Anderson

Montessori School of Anderson

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.
280 Sam McGee Road, Anderson, SC, USA mdabney@msasc.org 864-226-5344 msasc.org