August Events:
12th Kindergarten Galileo testing at FNM@Shaw
13th Kindergarten Galileo testing at North
13th Site Council/PTA meeting at North
26th Literacy Night at the Burton Barr Library
Greetings Faith North Community:
A warm welcome to our new and returning families! A Montessori learning environment is like no other—our main objective at Faith North is to provide carefully planned, stimulating environments that help children develop within themselves the foundational habits, attitudes, skills and ideas essential for a lifetime of creative thinking and learning. Respect and courtesy in our school is the foundation for everything that we do. August can be a time of anxiety and nervousness for both children and parents. We will do our best to ensure that each child (and parent) feels loved, respected and safe.
Our primary children have a wonderfully full year of learning ahead of them. Days will be spent not only in academics but in the beauty of socialization in a Montessori classroom community. This year the primary child will:
• Learn how to put work away exactly where and how they found it
• Discover the importance of cleaning up after themselves
• Know the importance of a friend in need
• Be respectful of the materials, the staff and each other
• Always push in a chair, walk in the classroom, roll their rugs
• Work to be self-directed and find their “work”
• Be inspired and proud of their independence
• Work on the growth of functional independence, task persistence and self-regulation
• Be immersed in social development through respectful, clear communication and safe, natural consequences
• Be exposed to a large variety of materials for the refinement of sensory perception and the development of literacy and mathematical understanding
• Find opportunities for imaginative exploration leading to confident, creative self-expression
The elementary child will be strongly motivated by social forces! This impulse helps them acquire the culture of their group. It is a period that, psychologically, is especially sensitive and might be called the "sensitive period of culture" during which the abstract plane of the human mind is organized. This year the elementary child will:
• Be exposed to the cosmic plan through the “great lessons”
• Have the ability to escape the classroom and go on numerous field trips and “going outs”
• Exercise formal operational thinking that can work with logic, premises and deductions
• Enjoy collective work
• Become increasingly decentered (the process of being able to take another’s viewpoint and to consider more than one viewpoint)
• Demonstrate self-motivated and discipline in their study and habits
• Engage in opportunities for collaborative intellectual exploration where their interests are supported and guided
• Be supported in the development of self-confidence, imagination, intellectual independence and self-efficacy
• Understand their role in their community, in their culture and in the natural world
The middle school adolescent will bring 9 years of educational independence to the forefront, building successful, organizational systems for themselves as they begin move towards higher education. The character is seldom stable at this age; there are signs of indiscipline and rebellion. The chief symptom of adolescence is a state of expectation, a tendency towards creative work and a need for the strengthening of self-confidence. They will find great work in this environment. This year the middle school adolescent will:
• Map The World By Heart
• Participate in two land labs and an end of the year adventure trip
• Work on self-adjustment and cooperation
• Study the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens
• Help create a caring, inclusive community
• Do project based learning in groups
• Enjoy electives
• Expand the understanding of oneself in wider and wider frames of reference
• Work in contexts of practical application of academics
• Engage in the development of self-expression, true self-reliance, and agility in interpersonal relationships
Stay in the loop by visiting our website, teacher blogs and interactive calendar. You will find the calendar located at the bottom left hand side of our web page.
We are honored that you have chosen our school and we are confident that this will be a wonderful year for our community.
All the best,
Susan Engdall and the FN Staff.
