Now that spring has finally sprung (we hope!) it’s the perfect time to begin Flower Arranging. In many of the Primary classrooms, Flower Arranging is a great addition to the Practical Life area. Like all Practical Life materials, this work follows a sequence and is not added to the classroom until the children have mastered a few specific skills such as carrying a tray, pouring with a pitcher, and using scissors. As this activity adds beauty to the classroom, it also provides significant developmental benefits. Children use this work to build upon their concentration, coordination, independence, and sense of order. A child must be able to organize his/her thoughts and motor plan to complete

A feature on sharing the joys of music with your children while assisting their development If you can walk you can dance, if you can talk you can sing. —African proverb Music is interwoven into our lives. We all want to feel comfortable singing happy birthday to our friends, singing at a sporting events or religious ceremonies, and singing lullabies to the children in our lives. Music helps us feel connected to our communities through singing and dancing. For those of you who may think you are tone deaf, only 4% of the population is actually tone deaf. You can take this test if you’d like to have a better answer. If you believe you’re one of those people who can’t carry a tune, it may be ju

Pi Day is always a favorite holiday in Elementary, and not just because we love pie! This week, students enjoyed a daylong celebration of math in honor of March 14th. We started the day by learning about the number pi and its relationship to the circumference of a circle, by reading the entertaining read aloud Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi. After that, students broke into small groups and rotated through a variety of pi and math related activities. At one stop, students created pi artwork by using colors to represent the digits of pi and then following its sequence of numbers either with dots or lines. After that, they played fun math games including favorites like Blokus, Set and Equa

Snack time in Beginners is often a highlight of the children’s day. While the children are typically motivated to join snack because of the appealing food choices, snack time also offers them the opportunity to develop and expand upon an extensive array of skills. The children must use executive function skills when setting up for snack. If they bring a plate or a cup before the placemat, they will have to reorganize their place setting. Gross motor development and coordination is supported through movements such as transporting objects to the table, navigating around others and furniture, gently placing items on the table, pulling out the chair, sitting down and scooting in close to the t

Spanish, Music, Library, Drama, Art, PE, Design Lab—at NMS, we name these classes Specials, and with good reason. What’s so special about Specials? Ask your child what they like most about school. Answers might include “seeing my friends!,” “doing my work,” “having great teachers.” More likely than not, your child will also light up about Specials. The experiences they offer include... designing and building a cool project from scratch singing songs and playing Orff instruments getting active with friends in the gym creating beautiful art for the whole community to enjoy hablando y escribiendo en Español learning from our amazing story-teller and librarian, Ms. Denise performing in a play, w