Montessori Matters

February 18, 2022

Montessori Education Week

Montessori Education Week

Sunday, Feb. 20 through Saturday, Feb. 26 is designated Montessori Education Week in recognition of the educational philosophy and method developed by Dr. Maria Montessori almost 115 years ago. There are about 50 Montessori schools in South Carolina and our state has one of the most active Montessori associations in the U.S. The SC Montessori Alliance represents and advocates for public and private Montessori schools in our state. Montessori schools have been a part of the Palmetto State’s educational landscape since the late 1960s and Montessori School of Anderson (MSA), founded by Karen Holt, came on the scene in 1973. Over the years, MSA added one program at a time, and in 2007 MSA became the first Montessori school in SC to offer a high school program. Next week we celebrate our good fortune to have a premier Montessori school in our community. We are going to spend the week celebrating our Montessori roots and community! Our schedule for Montessori Education Week follows:


Tuesday 2/22: Celebrate Dr. Montessori - We’ll celebrate Maria Montessori (M²) on this “2s day” (2/22/22) Tuesday in different ways - pair with a friend, wear pink for the pink tower, etc.! Be creative and double the fun!

Wednesday 2/23: Celebrate MSA - Let’s celebrate our school by wearing our MSA attire or our school colors - blue and white!

Thursday 2/24: Celebrate Teachers - Let’s celebrate our Montessori guides by wearing yellow in recognition of the light they ignite in each child for lifelong learning!

Friday 2/26: Celebrate Students - We will celebrate the best part of Montessori - OUR STUDENTS! Dr. Montessori said, “The child is both a hope and promise for mankind.” Wear green this day, the color of hope, in honor of our students. This will also be “Visit-Up Day” for our rising students. They will get to see what the next step of their Montessori journey will look like.


Have a wonderful holiday weekend!


Dr. Dana Hill

Montessori Education Week

Dates to Remember

February 18 - Student holiday, all regular programs closed - extended care available IT-PR

February 21 - President's Day, all regular programs closed - extended care available IT-PR

February 23 - Last day for the online Scholastic Book Fair

March 1-31 - National Nutrition Month

March 2 - Primary's Dr. Seuss Day celebration

March 11 - Early dismissal

March 14-18 - Spring Break

March 21-25 - Spring Conferences

Powdered Infant Formula Recall

Powdered Infant Formula Recall

Please see this notice from the FDA about a recall of certain powdered infant formula products produced at a facility in Michigan. See the link to determine if your products are affected.
Powdered Infant Formula Recall
Scholastic Virtual Book Fair

Scholastic Virtual Book Fair

Were you looking for a particular book that was sold out or unavailable at the in-person fair? Miss the shopping window? Just want to get even MORE books? The MSA virtual book fair is still available with thousands of books to choose from! There is free shipping available for orders over $25, and 25% of each purchase returns to the school in the form of Scholastic rewards that can be spent on books, classroom supplies, and even furniture at the end of the year.


If writing serves to correct, or rather, to direct and perfect the mechanism of speech in the child, reading assists in the development of ideas and language. In brief, writing helps a child physiologically and reading helps him socially.


Maria Montessori

The Discovery of the Child, p. 231

Scholastic Virtual Book Fair

Valentine's Celebrations

Students across the campus were excited to see the high schoolers outside their classrooms delivering Singing Valentine's this Monday! After delivering the songs, notes, and treats all day, the high school students celebrated with a piñata. You can see some photos of the day's festivities below and many more at this link.
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Singing Valentines

Writer's Workshop

The Lower Elementary class split into groups for a writer's workshop on Valentine's Day. They had the chance to illustrate and describe their stories to their friends and each friend was able to ask a question about the story when they finished.

Upper Elementary Wordle

The Upper Elementary students played their own version of Wordle as a fun spelling exercise this week!
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Eighth Grade Project Presentations

All of the hard work practicing writing at the lower levels comes in handy during the major milestones in the upper school: eighth grade projects and senior projects. Both projects involve researching a topic of interest, presenting that information to an audience of peers, teachers, and families, and creating something to show during the presentation. They represent a culmination of the work the students have performed throughout their time in the MSA middle and high school levels. This year's eighth grade projects included:


Melina: "Dreams"

Sophia: "Subconcious"

Xander: "Virtual Reality"


The students did a wonderful job researching, preparing, presenting, and answering audience questions! Some photos of the presentations are below, and more can be found in this gallery.

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Heart-Shaped Fabrics

Students in Mrs. Ponder's Lower Elementary Fabrics class learned how to create these beautiful heart designs for their Valentines last week.
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Wintry With a Pop of Color

Mrs. Ponder's Upper Elementary Fiber Arts class created the following pieces using wintry colors of gray, black and white with pops of color. Attention was given to variety of textures and means of stitching to attach items to the canvas. Click this album to view more photos of the projects.
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Chambers of the Heart

Continuing with their Heart Health Month studies, these Primary students in Mrs. Patch's PE class had a lesson about the four chambers of the heart last week. The students thought the chambers looked like jellyfish!
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Kids Heart Challenge

MSA students have been studying heart health this month in PE. To culminate the month, they will participate in the Kids Heart Challenge from February 28-March 4.
Kids Heart Challenge

Random Act of Kindness Day

On Random Act of Kindness Day, this Primary Two student offered snack to his classmates in a random act of kindness.
Random Act of Kindness
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