Women's History Month 

Many of our classrooms are celebrating Women's History Month by sharing some highlights of our very own Dr. Maria Montessori's life and work.

Maria grew up in Italy at a time when girls didn't receive an equal education to boys. She faced prejudice from her male colleagues but she was determined. She not only became Italy's first female pediatrician, but she also later became an early childhood expert - founding schools that put into action her revolutionary educational theories and materials created by her scientific mind, ultimately changing the lives of many children for more than a century to come.

It is amazing to think that Dr. Montessori was able to develop her materials without the benefit of today’s "brain research" technology.

Although she could not view a child’s brain to see which areas lit up when they were using the materials she created, through careful observation she knew what was effective. For example, a child’s fine motor skills, shape and size discrimination, and hand/eye coordination were being strengthened through materials like the "Knobbed Cylinders".

Today, modern neuroscience corroborates the benefits of the Montessori methodology. Maria Montessori spoke of the child's “absorbent mind” being like a sponge which literally soaks up what they see and do.

Fast forward 100 years later and new discoveries in the area of neurology support her hypotheses, showing that the hands do indeed "feed the mind".

What we also love about the methodology that she developed is that it is not only effective for learning new concepts, it helps nurture a love for learning.

Discover the incredible life of Maria Montessori, the pioneering teacher and researcher.

 

Celebrating Montessori Education Week 2024

This week we celebrate the 117th anniversary of Montessori Education during Montessori Education Week. Maria Montessori (1870–1952) was by any measure an extraordinary individual.

 

Dr. Montessori believed that each child is unique, learning at their own pace. This innovative thinking shaped a new type of learning environment designed to kindle the curiosity of each learner. 

 

Fast forward to today. Dr. Montessori would be excited to learn that today’s brain research corroborates what she intuited from her own observational research more than 100 years ago, proving many of her findings to be true in the realms of education and child development:

 

“…in the first few years of childhood there are a number of critical or sensitive periods, or ‘windows’, when the brain demands certain types of input …Rich experiences, in other words, really do produce rich brains.” **

 

Montessori advocated for the importance of taking full advantage of the “absorbent mind” during the period in a child’s development when the mind is most receptive. These are what she called the “sensitive periods”. This time from birth to 6 years old represents a period of rapid growth in a human's intelligence—a time when the child is particularly sensitive to stimuli that promote the development of a certain skill.  Knowing what we now know about the brain, it is clear that the Montessori method of teaching and learning sets students up for success in every stage of their development and throughout their life.

 

 

**excerpt taken from Fertile Minds by J. Madeleine Nash

Soaring to New Heights: Hamilton Park Montessori School Middle School Program has Launched!

Over the past year and a half, HPMS has worked tirelessly to create a robust & engaging STEM program for our Middle School students. Progressive, collaborative and project based, this curriculum seamlessly integrates with Montessori philosophy, giving students hands-on experiences to learn, fail and iterate together.

Our yearly weather balloon project is a highlight of the STEM program (and a student fave!). Students build a weather balloon armed with mini cameras, onboard computing and 3D-printed housings and then send it off to space, reaching heights of 120k feet! Then, the data analysis begins so that the process can be fine-tuned for the next voyage.

Check out this film of our maiden voyage, and stay tuned for this year's recap!

Watch our Very First Balloon Launch!

Serving up more than delicious eats at HPMS

The mathematical journey in the Montessori classroom begins even before a child touches any of the math materials. Children start to build mathematical thinking in the Sensorial, Practical Life and Cultural areas of the classroom by using concrete materials to prepare the mind for abstract thinking. Each material that is found on the shelf has the goal of sparking the child’s innate love of learning in addition to having several underlying purposes. In other words, children are having fun while they are building important skills.

Eventually, as children mature and begin to think more abstractly, they will rely less and less on the concrete materials—although these materials will continue to fill the classroom with alluring beauty.

This week, Our HPMS summer camp friends decided to take math into their own hands by creating their own restaurant. They ingeniously developed all aspects of their business, including the creation of their own HPMS currency, the marketing collateral, menu, as well as roles and responsibilities (Maitre D’, wait staff, bartenders, food prep, etc.). They estimated the number of clients they would have so they could order the appropriate amount of groceries and used their math skills to manipulate the recipes for the quantities needed. And after proudly serving the HPMS teachers and staff who delighted in the whole experience, they got down to business and computed their restaurant’s profits. In conclusion? Math is fun...and tasty, too!