Mark Your Calendar

 Sept. 3             NO SCHOOL—Labor Day

Sept. 4-7          Class photos all week

Sept. 5             Maple/Walnut Class Picnic, 5:30 pm, Bryan Park Henderson Shelter

Sept. 7-9          6^th Grade Turkey Run Camping Trip

Sept. 11           Board Meeting, 6:00 pm, Main Building

Sept. 12           Sycamore Class Picnic, 6:30 pm, Bryan Park Henderson Shelter

Sept. 14           Hickory NO SCHOOL—Youngest Group Parent/Teacher Conferences

Sept. 15           Lunch and Aftercare October Sign-ups Open

Additional Important Items

Sept. 17           Student Make-up Photos—correction from earlier announcements

Sept. 22           Fall Festival, 11:00 to 3:00, Lower Playground

Family Fun Walk/Run, 10:00 am—For All BMS parents, children, and family members! Enjoy a pleasant morning walk or run around the school grounds and the Y, raise funds for BMS and receive a free BMS gift!

Maria Montessori Remembered

Born in Italy on August 31, 1870, Maria Montessori was a physician and educator as well as an advocate for women’s rights and peace education. She is arguably best known today for the child-centered educational method that bears her name. She opened her first school—the Casa dei Bambini, or Children’s House—in Rome in 1907.

Montessori’s early medical practice focused on psychiatry, and she developed an interest in education and educational theory. Her studies led her to question the teaching methods of the time, and she seized the opportunity to improve them, through observation and experimentation, in 1900 when appointed co-director of a new training institute for special education teachers. Many of the children made unexpected gains, and when Montessori opened that first Casa dei Bambini, for poor, urban children, she further developed her ideas, designing the learning materials and classroom environment with which we are familiar today.

For the rest of her life, Montessori worked to spread the word about her philosophy and method, and about the efficacy of the child-centered approach to learning and education. She also became a strong advocate for women’s rights, and, as she lived through the devastation of two world wars, she was compelled to add peace education to her curriculum in an effort to prevent such wars in future generations. She believed deeply in the child’s potential for peace and making a better tomorrow. Montessori passed away in Amsterdam in May of 1952.

–information from the American Montessori Society. Read more here: https://amshq.org/Montessori-Education/History-of-Montessori-Education/Biography-of-Maria-Montessori

Montessori wrote extensively on education, and many of her works are available in our Parent Library, located in the Main Office. Please feel free to check out one or two of her books.

Some favorite Montessori quotes from faculty, staff and others here at BMS:

“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.”

“The child’s development follows a path of successive stages of independence, and our knowledge of this must guide us in our behavior towards him. We have to help the child to act, will and think for himself. This is the art of serving the spirit, an art which can be practiced to perfection only when working among children.”

“Whoever touches the life of the child touches the most sensitive point of a whole, which has roots in the most distant past and climbs toward the infinite future.”

“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.”

“Now, what really makes a teacher is love for the human child; for it is love that transforms the social duty of the educator into the higher consciousness of a mission.”

Bench Building Opportunity

BMS is looking for an experienced woodworker willing to remove ALL the hard plastic composite 4×4’s on the benches on the lower playground (some are intact and others broken) and replace them with sanded and sealed new wooden 4×4’s. If you’re interested, please email Karen for more information. This is a fairly big job, so we’d be happy have this count as ALL TEN volunteer hours for the year.

Picture Days

Next week are Picture Days! Right now, the schedule is as follows:

Sept. 4             Sycamore Class

Sept. 5             Maple and Walnut Classes

Sept. 6             Hickory Class, both AM and PM

Sept. 7             Magnolia and Sweet Gum

Sept. 17           Student Make-up photos

Mark Your Calendar

 Aug. 25           September Lunch and Aftercare Sign-ups Close

Aug. 28           AM Hickory Picnic, 5:30, Winslow Woods Shelter

Sept. 3             NO SCHOOL—Labor Day

Sept. 4-7          Class photos all week—details to follow

Sept. 5             Maple/Walnut Class Picnic, 5:30 pm, Bryan Park Henderson Shelter

Sept. 7-9          6^th Grade Turkey Run Camping Trip

Additional Important Items

Sept. 11           Board Meeting, 6:00 pm, Main Building

Sept. 22           Fall Festival, 11:00 to 3:00, Lower Playground Fun Walk/Run, 10:00 am

Lunches and Aftercare

Lunch and Aftercare sign ups opened on the 15^th and, more importantly, close on the 25^th, at 11:59:59 pm. This year that deadline is firm. Thank you in advance for setting alarms and otherwise ensuring your child is signed up for the lunches and care needed for the month.

If you are having any trouble accessing either sign up, please contact Teresa Mandell, IT Manager, at it@montessori.k12.in.us.

Parent Ambassadors

By now all of you have received an email from your classroom’s Parent Ambassador, welcoming you to the classroom and offering helpful hints about the school, the classroom and Bloomington. Our Parent Ambassadors are a dedicated group of parents who are interested in building community in the classroom. They provide a valuable link for you to the school and the community, and provide one more line of communication between you and your child’s teachers. Please feel free to reach out to them with your questions—if they don’t know the answer they know who will know. And they can often provide lots of groovy ideas about Bloomington, such as the best playgrounds, what to do on a rainy day, where is the best camping, and whatnot. Do you have a great idea for a preschool playdate and want the class to come? Talk to your Parent Ambassador! Is someone in your class facing a major life event and just needs people to make dinners for a week? Talk to your Parent Ambassador! They are here to help you throughout the year, so please avail yourself of their wisdom and good natures.

Picture Days

The week of September 4 will bring Picture Days. Each classroom will have a full class photo taken, along with individual photos of each child, all during the school day. You will be able order prints of the class picture as well as the photo of your child, in a variety of sizes and finishes.

Right now, the schedule is as follows:

Sept. 4             Sycamore Class

Sept. 5             Maple and Walnut Classes

Sept. 6             Hickory Class, both AM and PM

Sept. 7             Magnolia and Sweet Gum

Sept. 10           Student Make-up photos

Please watch your emails and signs outside your classroom for specifics, updates and other information.

Mark Your Calendar

Aug. 14           Magnolia Picnic, 5:30 pm, Winslow Woods Shelter

Aug. 15           Sweet Gum Picnic, 5:30 pm, Winslow Woods Shelter

Aug. 15           Lunch and AfterCare Sign-Ups Open

Aug. 21           PM Hickory Picnic, 5:30 pm, Winslow Woods Shelter

Aug. 25           Lunch and AfterCare Sign-ups Close

Additional Important Items

Aug. 28           AM Hickory Picnic, 5:30, Winslow Woods Shelter

Sept. 22           Fall Festival, 11:00 to 3:00, Lower Playground

Thank You!

Many, many thanks to all of you who helped with the planning and working at Fall Beautification. Plants were planted, weeds pulled, branches trimmed, mulch raked and cleared, sidewalks swept, sticks and branches picked up, gravel spread, roofs cleared of debris. Walls and windows were washed, cabinets sanded, doors painted. A successful day! We are beautiful, at least until late fall.

Please remember to log your volunteer hours in the log book, located in the main office.

Lunches and AfterCare

Please mark your calendars now for the opening and closing of lunch and aftercare sign ups. Both open on the 15^th of each month and, more importantly, close on the 25^th, at 11:59:59 pm. We have in the past been quite flexible about helping parents who missed the deadline, but this year that deadline is firm. Thank you in advance for setting alarms and otherwise ensuring your child is signed up for the lunches and care needed for the month.

One more note on lunches: as you know, you have the option to set a default meal choice for your child. If your child will sometimes eat a meal that varies from a default, either please do not choose a default setting or remember to adjust by hand the meal choices accordingly before submitting your selections. We have found that parents are often making day-of adjustments to their child’s meal choice, which leaves the school with too few of one main dish and too much of another, resulting in wasted food and wasted money. The problem has become significant, and so we are now no longer able to make day-of adjustments unless it is a medical necessity, such as a food allergy.

It is our hope that we will be able to find a lunch software that offers more flexibility than the current system. In the meantime, thank you for your attention to this.

If you are having any trouble accessing either sign up, please contact Teresa Mandell, IT Manager, at it@montessori.k12.in.us.

Parent Volunteer Hours

Volunteering your time and expertise is a crucial component of our partnership with you in the education of your children. Volunteer Hours are family hours, meaning that grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, friends and your children can contribute. Helping out around the classrooms, grounds and at school events is a wonderful way to meet other families, build your child’s connection to the classroom, and make the school a beautiful and inviting place for your child to learn and grow.

Every family provides at least 10 hours of volunteer service to the school. Opportunities abound, from helping with classroom needs to office needs to gardening and landscaping needs, Board committee needs, event planning, and more. While we may contact you based on your interests and skills, act now to seize opportunities, which are noted in emails from the school, information from your classroom teacher(s), and the Parent Volunteer Opportunities binder in the main office.

Thanks in advance—it is a pleasure to work with you to make BMS a great place for all.