Cobham Montessori School

Newsletter W/C 10th March 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

NOTICES

Plea for Magnet Key

Throughout the building we have locks on our cupboards (to keep the children safe from accessing what is inside). These locks are operated by magnets and we have misplaced them both, making it tricky for us to get into the cupboards! We were wondering if either of them had accidentally gone "visiting"; could we ask you to check bags and at home just in case? The magnet keys look like this.

Lunch Envy!

This week there has been a lot of lunchtime conversation about sweets and chocolate, focussing on. 'Why can ........ have chocolate every day - That's not fair!' Our message about healthy eating focusses on eating a balanced diet of nutritious food and saving less healthy treats for special occasions. When a child has a lunchbox treat once in a while, it is a great joy for them. An everyday treat becomes less special and fuels much debate!

Coffee Morning

Thank you to all of you who were able to attend the Coffee Morning, it was a wonderful opportunity to gather together and explore the Montessori approach to Mathematics. We talked about how we approach maths as an area of exploration which helps the child develop their powers of reasoning and how our aim is to facilitate the child's own discovery rather than to teach methods of completing a particular calculation.

The very brief video below will give you an idea of how little we might offer in a 'lesson'. The hands-on material fosters the child's real experience of the topic and, in a later lesson, we go on to support the child to derive the formula for the area of a trapezium, using what they have already experienced about equivalence.

https://www.risingtidemontessori.org/elementary-geometry/v/wzp6mwdbw9xkn3p46732a4995fed4m?categoryId=626832399e812347fbe63508

Diary Dates

Friday 4th April - 11.30am approx. The Elementary children will hold a brief poetry recital before breaking up for the holidays.

Friday 16th May - Whole School Trip - please make a note of the date if your child doesn't normally attend the Children's House on Fridays. Timings and details are yet to be confirmed but expect a return to school by 3.15pm, so a slightly longer Friday for the Children's House.

Thursday 10th July - Elementary overnight camping trip. Full details to follow but please let us know if you have any concerns about your child attending an overnight trip.

THIS WEEK IN SCHOOL

Children's House

This week in the Children's House, we welcomed a parent visitor who read two beautifully illustrated books to the children - 'Little Chefs' and 'Little Rescuers'. The children enjoyed the stories and illustrations.

The children this week have been practising self-portraits. They have enjoyed looking at their image in the mirror and looking for all the small and big details in their faces. 'I have two lines on my neck!' 'Under my tongue, I have blue lines, look!'. We hope you are enjoying our very own Self-portrait window. Who is who?

The children have been introduced to the harp, plucking one string at a time. We have been enjoying lovely melodies. 'I have one at home. It's called lira.'

This week, we have read 'Wow, said the Owl' by Tim Hopgood and 'It's Great to Keep Calm' by Jordan Collins.

At yoga this week, Miss Hayley started the session singing the Lumberjack song, which all children love. This week's story was about a bear who loved honey and got stung by a bee. He had to learn how to control his anger. They ended the session by playing a colour game. Miss Hayley named a colour, and the children had to pose in that colour. Yellow: 'I'm thesun' 'banana'. Red: A child standing as tall as she could. 'I'm a Red Rod!'

The children havebeen introduced to many Sensorial Games, which allow them to work together and, at the same time, keep refining their senses and practise new vocabulary. 'Bring one thicker'

We didn't have time to cook this week as some Elementary children came to the Children's House to measure our lung capacity. All the children enjoyed the test and were amazed by their results. 'I had porridge for breakfast today, this is why!' Their results went from 300 to 1000 ml.

We discussed Holi, a Hindu celebration of Colours, Love and Spring.'I know "holly"; it's a type of plant that comes on Christmas, and it has prickles.' We showed the children how people throw colourful powder in the air. 'Look, their faces are rainbow!'.

At Sports, the children warmed up by playing 'bib attack'; they had to stand still when tagged. Then, the children continued practising their dribbling, and to finish the session, they played 'shark attack'.

Snapshot of the week

A child sharing news:

'Yesterday I went to the zoo with mummy, daddy and baby.Saw a giraffe. Then a frog, then a gorilla… but we didn't see dinosaurs.'

Talking about healthy eating:
Ch1: I eat vegetables every day
Ch2: You can eat one sweetie every day.ONE is OK.

Ch1: I went to the dentist yesterday. He says NO sweeties. Look, my teeth are white!

A proud moment

Ch: Miss A, I've been shown 'flower engine'

Elementary

We had another week of excitement surrounding completion of Big Work. Following many months of research, we were treated to a presentation about snakes The team had created a game, matching different species of snakes to their habitats and the audience participation made for a very engaging presentation. The careful planning of the presentation identified that there were more snake cards than Elementary students, so some of the Children's House were invited to attend to ensure all ran smoothly! It was evident from the presentation just how much information the team had assimilated and their enthusiasm was infectious. During the week, other students started thinking about how to present their own research topics with more variety than the default options of creating a poster or book.

Some of the Elementary and Children's House friends have teamed up as 'Reading Buddies' and held their first joint reading session with their buddy on Friday. This gives the younger friends a chance to practise and develop confidence in their reading as well as paving the way for their transition to the Elementary class, forming relationships with their future classmates. For the older friends, it is a great boost for self-esteem being able to pass on hard-won skills and an opportunity to develop a patient and nurturing attitude to those less accomplished than ourselves.

We had been noticing how much of our fruit is ending up uneaten in the compost bin. This led to a discussion about wastefulness and how we can be more mindful of the planet's resources. We have decided to add the challenge of a weekly budget for snack, also drawing attention to seasonality and food miles.

In sports, we are continuing with street hockey and seeing some good development of ball control and teamwork in the matches.

In our Peaceful Communication we are trialling a slight change to the Marshall Rosenberg 4-step model. Instead of using

When you... (Observation of what is happening), I feel .... (name the feeling) because (......name the need) and I would like ....( what action we would like to happen).

We have shifted to an 'I Statement':

I feel .......(name the feeling)when (observation - without using 'you' if possible)because (......name the need) and I would like ....( what action we would like to happen).

This seems like a tiny difference, but using 'when you' as the opening to peaceful communication can be perceived as language of blame and create a defensive attitude, rather than inviting open-hearted dialogue which helps find solutions.

We will need scooters for Wednesday and Friday next week - collection will be from Painshill on Wednesday.

Kind regards,

Yvonne