St Patrick on the hunt

Now that the Easter Eggs have been eaten we decided to look back at all the activities of March and share them with you.

The cooking crew!

Early in the month we went on a much-anticipated visit to our friends in The Glebe Montessori Primary School in Celbridge. Some of the teachers from The Glebe had come to visit us a week or two before and they invited our senior class to come and have a cooking class in their kitchen with their senior class. We could not wait and on the 11^th March with our teachers Ashley and Katie we got on a bus and took a trip to The Glebe.

On the bus to The Glebe

What a fantastic day, we cooked, we ate together, we laughed, and we got a tour of the school and especially the gardens with rabbits and chickens. Taking our lovely freshly laid eggs we went to the kitchen and got started.

Rolling our thumbprint cookies

Many hands make light work (and great memories) and we had lots of help from our new friends and their teachers.  At the end of the cooking we all went to the communal area where we sat together at huge tables all laid out, and we ate together. It felt a bit like Hogwarts and we loved it! Such an amazing experience for all involved.

Enjoying the feel of the dough

Montessori promoted “wider horizons” in the 6-12 group, by which Dr Montessori meant showing the children the world outside their classroom walls, both physically and metaphorically. Not only giving them a chance to use their classroom learning in real and vital situations but understanding the implications of our actions in the wider community. Demonstrating to these young people why responsibility, tolerance, honesty, dependability and empathy are so important. It also gives them opportunities and situations in which to hone these skills that will be vital to the next generation.  Being in a close community like Hedley or The Glebe our children can only experience so much, but connections like these between schools is essential. Thankfully Montessori teachers are a very gracious and connected group but such sharing and friendships between schools isn’t always possible due to geography and transportation costs so we are in an enviable position with our friends in the Glebe. We look forward to returning the hosting very soon.

Being responsible and cleaning up.

To thank our friends in the Glebe for the wonderful day the senior students made a photo book with personal thank you essays and poems, and sent it to them to commemorate the day. The students of the senior class in The Glebe emailed me with some lovely comments also; here is a sample of both schools observations.

A Special Day Out by Anna from Hedley Park.  
Hello I am Anna. Yesterday I went to The Glebe Montessori School. It took a long time on the bus. The Glebe school was cool. They had one rabbit and six hens. I made a chocolate mousse and some other children cooked jamcookies. They had eight goldfish.  They were very nice to us. I had a lovely day at The Glebe.

Getting started.

I enjoyed having the company of another school and we had fun.
Luke Aged 10 from The Glebe

I enjoyed talking to the children from Hedley Park and cooking with them.
Killian Aged 11 from The Glebe

It was really fun having another school over and it was really enjoyable.
Kerri McCarthy Aged 9 from The Glebe

Looking a lot like Hogwarts

The school trip by Scarlett from Hedley Park. 
I went to the Glebe school yesterday. When we arrived at the school the teachers showed us around.  We went into the classrooms, we stayed in the 6-9 classroom. We met some new friends they were very nice. We went outside and had a snowball fight. It was really fun. We then went inside to cook. We chopped some onions and grated the garlic. Then we put tomatoes, beans and sausages on the pan and mixed it all up. Next we cleaned our work space and got a mixer out. We got lots of butter, sugar and flour, we made some delicious cookies. We also made lemonade. When the cooking was finished we sat down and ate lunch together. I wish the day could start all over again, it was the best day ever!

Waiting for the bus back to school

I thoroughly enjoyed my day cooking and dining with Hedley Park. - Callum Age 11 from The Glebe

I had fun meeting the children from Hedley Park. Ben  Age 10 from The Glebe

I had great fun cooking with them and I liked their hats. -  Ethan Age 10 from The Glebe 

A graffiti artist Leprechaun

The next day we had yet more excitement, we had a secret visitor! Our leprechaun friend from last year had returned and was looking for his lost teddy.

We left him a message and he replied

Over the week preceding St Patrick’s weekend his antics got more mischievous and the children really got into the fun. Setting traps, hunting clues, counting the golden coins on the tree and leaving Paddy O’Leprechaun messages on the computer. Each morning everyone was in high spirits to discover what funny prank or message was left for us.

We are craftily getting ready for St. Patrick’s Day.

On the Friday before St Patrick’s Day we set off on a treasure hunt to find the man himself. Led ably by our representative of St Patrick we followed clues around the park, stopping for a song a poem and even a bit of a celli until we found Paddy and got our reward.

At last we find O’Leprechaun

Just when you think we couldn’t possibly fit in any more excitement Easter was upon us!  A holiday we all love as its filled with our favourite thing, chocolate!

Bake Sale Wonderland

To get us in a sugary mood on Friday we had a wonderful coffee morning and bake-sale, with the added pleasure of an Easter Bonnet competition. The coffee morning raised €350 euro for additional upgrade to our equipment which is just amazing, and a huge thank you to all the bakers and buyers for their generosity. We had a really serious spread of delicious cakes, coffee and hot chocolate. When all was done and dusted we were also able to help the homeless of Dublin by donating 6 large bags of edible goodies to the Fr. McVerry Foundation an all round fantastic result.

So I think you will agree that we marched a huge amount of fun, learning and experiences into the month. I for one cannot wait to see what the rest of the spring term has to offer, especially with Open Day on the horizon!

The Bonnet Brigade

Stay tuned for more news on that very soon!

Land of the Midnight Sun

It’s February already! Where does the time go? Well we can tell you the first half of the term may have passed in a flash but we squeezed so much work and fun into the first 6 weeks of the year.

More new materials

Where to begin! Firstly we’d really like to thank everyone who came to our coffee morning last term, the funds you generously raised contributed to the purchase of our new materials.

Replacements for materials that have been loved so much we needed to get new ones and many advanced and new materials to extend our learning.

Even more new materials

Some of our new materials

Everyone is so excited about the new work., students and teachers alike. It’s wonderful to hear the children exclaim, “I cant wait to start my work” or “I love this school so much” as they do every morning. Over hearing one young student tell his classmate “I’ve told my mother a million times I love Hedley Park” as he counts to a million with the new maths materials is so heart-warming. We are so lucky to have the wonderful students, parents and staff to make up the place that is Hedley Park.

Looking back at the work we have done in the last month, it is almost overwhelming when you see it all together. Over the course of the month the children work at new group projects and that work is displayed in their classrooms, this is only the tip of the iceberg. They also work on individual pieces in their own books and much shelf work, which does not create “display” but leaves the student with a lasting love of independent learning and self-discovery.

Parts of the river display

Our senior class have been working on not one but two group projects this month. The first was on the topic of rivers; they created a wonderful 3D wall display on the parts of the river and are creating individual booklets on other land and water formations.

Pin pushing our landforms

Carefully pin poking each land and water form out, illustrating, labelling and gluing into their booklets. Exploration with the land and water form materials really serve to concrete this in the minds of our students.

The careful use of these materials brings a wonderful moment of zen amidst the buzz and hubbub of an active classroom.

A moment of zen

The second group project was in preparation for our favourite annual event , Chinese New Year. Everyone chose an aspect of Chinese history, which they researched and summarised in their best penmanship.

Our Display.

Creativity to the fore each student made his or her own Terracotta Warrior and Lai See for good luck! They even got to use authentic wolf hair brushes to decorate their Lai See with calligraphy during Mandarin class with Evan.

Our Lai See

I love how each year the celebrations and project work reflects the individual interests of the children in the class, this year a wonderful Lego Great Wall was built! It being the year of the snake we had representations of the serpent in cake and in majestic art form.

Year of the Snake Cake

Of course on the final school day before the celebrations we all gathered for a Chinese banquet as guests of the senior class. It was lovely to share food and wish each other Gong Hei Fat Choi!

Chinese Buffet – Eating together

The senior class also presented their individual animal projects to the junior class. Each student chose an animal that interested them and researched using ipad apps, the internet and the many many books available in the school library. Interesting facts are written out in their best handwriting and photos printed and compiled to create a beautiful display.

Our Animal Projects

Each student then presents to their peers and the junior class and answers questions after the presentation. The confidence gained by the students in such presentations is undeniable, and for those who are seniors in the class you can see the benefit of such presentations in their research and public speaking abilities. Essential experience for self-study and self-reliance as they approach secondary school.

Working with grammar symbols

Language arts are a very popular study subject at the moment in the Senior class and among the new materials the grammar symbols are being put through their paces in an almost never-ending cycle. From student to student the learning is being inspired and promoted, it is enchanting to see them work on something and then teach their classmates their findings. It really is peer learning at its best.

Geographical study is also au current at the moment with jigsaw maps and flags being pored over in great detail. Whether alone or in company the thirst for more information is being quenched in the senior class.

Working with the whole world

The junior class have also been hard at work with their group projects. January has seen them working on dairy foods and the cow, a project that incorporated, language, numeracy, science, culture and lots of fun. They studied the phonogram “ow” with the word cow, they identified and categorised food products in dairy and non dairy, they studied the parts of the cow and created handwriting samples on many delicious dairy products.

Parts of the cow

They also studied “the land of the midnight sun” in their geographic and cultural exploration of the arctic. A fantastic “frieze” of the vocabulary and iconry of the frozen continent, hung over their large map and individual continent plates.

Arctic Map and images

Inspired by our new jigsaw parts of the penguin the junior class have created a large parts of the penguin display and individual ones that they are rightly very proud of.

Do you like my penguin

Love was all around in the run up to Valentine’s day, love for their practical life work, love for their parents, love for each other and love for the new materials that are inspiring them to keep asking “can I take more work off the shelf”. As a teacher in such a class it is a joy to see the children motivate each other and themselves, find joy in learning and joy in sharing their learning.

Loving to work together

Europe Display

Last but by no means least our tiny learners in the reception class who have conducted a tour of the continent of Europe. In their educational travels they have spent time studying Picasso’s abstract art pieces, and tried their hand creating their own. They also continued their study of the beautiful French language, and made a magnificent Tour Eiffel. While they made colourful “escargots” I’m not sure tasting them would have been as popular, that said our adventurous reception class are always open to new tastes!

Spring Display

With the change of season to Spring the reception class have created a vibrant display of all things spring, including gorgeous hand print ducks and ducklings, richly coloured springtime flowers and very cute cows.

Our reception class love literature, nothing is more enjoyable than reading a book together or exploring our library alone. With that in mind they chose two current favourites Jungle Book and Giraffes Cant Dance.

Giraffes Can’t Dance

The free painted giraffes are adorable I think you’ll agree and the emotions of the giraffes throughout the story as depicted by the students is a perfect conversation point at circle time or even at home to help our youngsters label the emotions that they feel through out the day.

Finally don’t forget to ask about the poem of the month, “Pitter Pater Raindrops” and I’m sure you will be entertained by the rendition at the dinner table or in the car!

As usual there are just so many photographs of our beautiful work that we can’t fit them all in the text, so here is a gallery so you don’t miss out on any. Enjoy!

Andrew Clarke RIP

It was with great sadness yesterday that we learned of the tragic passing of Andrew Clarke (16) a graduate of Hedley Park Montessori School.

Andrew began as a baby in our nursery back in the mid 90′s joining his big sister Sarah May who was in the prep school. The children and their parents, Derry and Sallyanne became a big part of our family here at Hedley. Even after they outgrew us and moved on Andrew, Sarah May and the family kept us up to date on their successes.

We keep our Hedley Park boys and girls close to our hearts even when they become grown women and men, and we are always so proud of their accomplishments. Andrew was a keen and talented race car driver and a loyal friend to all in Clongowes Wood College where he was in 5th year.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Sallyanne, Derry, Sarah May and their extended family and many friends.

The Kind Christmas Tree Board

The winter season is well upon us and the Christmas spirit is alive and well in Hedley Park Montessori school.

The children are deep in character for their Christmas extravaganza, and all I can say is, even though snow may be forecast for this week. On the 18^th December “the sun will come out ……..” and it wont be “a hard knock life for us” … what can I say, we will offer you “Annie” excuse to get in the Christmas mood and “wear a smile”. For parents looking for tickets, please talk to a member of staff. Our rehearsal is today Monday 10th (see Facebook page for details) for children from junior infants upwards.

Nursery winter wall

On the big day itself (18^th December) there will be an arrival schedule for each class group that will be communicated to you in the coming days. With our play housekeeping done let us fill you in on all the work we’ve been doing throughout November.

Polar Insulation experiment

Starting with our senior class who got into the spirit of Science early in the month and have brought a scientific method to their studies in all subjects since.  They looked at Arctic insulation with a very hands-on experiment to show how polar animals keep warm.

Does a flame burn oxygen?

Then a look at another side of that coin with an experiment to prove that a flame burns oxygen, this was fascinating as they got to witness the vacuum created by the flame as it burned the available oxygen and the water rose to fill the void generated.

In a further experiment, that took a little more time to witness, the senior class also created their own crystals along a line of thread. It was fascinating to watch the frosty looking crystals spread along as we progressed through the week.

Growing crystals

The senior students also took a scientific look at leaf structure and types with some leaf rubbings and parts of a leaf analyses.  It is this sensorial approach to learning that the students have hones through their years in Montessori education that allows them to perceive the finest details of each leaf structure, identifying leaf types by touch alone, and internalising and synthesising this knowledge to build on their schemes of the natural world.

Leaf Structure Studies

They got into the seasonal spirit with some lovely language arts display work, both as gaeilge and as bearla.

Snowman creative writing

In English language arts they created original stories from the starting sentence “My snowman came alive today and he…” very creative an imaginative stories are on display on the walls. In Irish language arts they completed their Crann Nollag focloir sheets.

Crann Nollag Focloir

In a little bit of arts and crafts the class created gorgeous winter fir cone owls. I’m sure you will agree each is a very unique size and personality, but make a wonderfully unified clan en-masse, reflecting the class group itself.

Fir cone owl group

Another art moment took the class to a practical life exercise that helped them count down the days to Christmas day. They made a Santa with a numbered beard, each day they cut a little strip off with that days date until they have trimmed the beard in full and Santa is on his way!

Cutting down to Christmas

Handmade Cards

Finally taking their place as the elders of the school, the senior class lead the school in creating wonderful Christmas cards and Yule logs for the sale of work at our fundraising breakfast last week.

It was wonderful to see the admiration in the younger students working with their older schoolmates and in turn the care and attention shown to the younger student by the senior students.

Creating a community

This really is the essence of a Montessori environment, younger children learning from and aspiring to the elder students, and the elders assuming responsibility and learning through teaching the younger. It was wonderful to see and experience.

Parts of a Reindeer

While all that was going on in the senior class the reception and nursery classes were not falling behind in their winter learning. The Reception class also took a scientific approach to the season with their “parts of” displays.

Montessori created a wonderfully scientific and sensorial approach to learning about botany and the animal kingdom in the early years. “Parts of” jigsaws allow the child from the earliest experience to become aware of how the parts of something come together to create a whole.

Parts of a Robin

Once the child has sensorially internalised this, they can move to connecting the names of each part. This serves as the first stepping-stone to further study and dissection of the unique characteristics of each aspect of the natural world. The Reception class chose the seasonal emblems of Robin and Reindeer.

Independent learning Robin

The robin is a standard of Montessori part of study, but the reindeer is a lovely departure to inspire the students to look further than the materials to hand and a commendation to our staff who love to encourage the students to pastures of new learning.

Independent learning reindeer

The beautiful winter tree display with migrating birds leaves the room cheered to brightened the darkest winter spirit and serves to house the parts of labelling work that the students undertook either by handwriting each label (if they are at the writing stage) or cutting the appropriate labels (if they are at the reading stage) and identifying the parts during independent work. It is this independent work at the child’s level that is vital to the Montessori class, each contributes the work at their stage and all work comes to form the class board, no one feels in front or behind as each contribution at that students level is vital to form the whole and leave the student feeling accepted as an individual part of the unified class community.

Reception class Winter Tree

The nursery class proved themselves, as ever, an art and craft phenomena. The scale and amount of projects and displays they create are astounding. It brings great joy to the class and their teachers to fill the room with wonderfully creative and bright display boards. November saw them on a literature exploration with Elmer the Elephant as the face of their sound of the month “e”, the elephant handprints are just exceptional!

Elmer the Elephant.

They threw a party with the Gruffalo, on the party menu was scrambled snake, roasted fox and owl ice-cream and if that didn’t tickle your taste buds then the Gruffalo cake was sure to please the discerning palates of the nursery community.

Gruffalo Cake

I loved the Dr Seuss like rhyming words on the board, it’s a fantastic way to open the student’s ears to the sounds in words, and vital to inspire the word building that they are embarking on.

Gruffalo Party Display

Annie Enright’s ‘The Kind Christmas Tree” took us on a journey of empathy with the birds to whom the kind Christmas tree gave homes to, a wonderful way to begin a conversation about the spirit of the oncoming Christmas season, being kind to others. The footprint robins are so cute and I’m sure when they go home they will make wonderful Christmas tree decorations for years to come.

Arctic Art

The continent studies in the nursery this month was the Arctic and Antarctica. The students filled the walls with penguins, polar bears, ice caps, walruses and puffins. They had lots of experiential fun with the Arctic sensory box.

Arctic Sensory box

A sensory box allows the student to explore the colours, textures, sounds, smells and even tastes (depending on) attached to the topic. Small imaginative play items allow the child to construct meaning and explore the subject matter at hand in their own way.  The sensory box was very popular and we will with the aid of the students create more on further topics of study.

Jack Frost nipping at your nose.

The seasonal theme of winter was also explored and illustrated in the displays and circle time talks on aspects of the season.  Jack Frost and the words that describe his work was illuminated on one, another depicted an igloo and winter scene snow globes, while paper cut snowmen was the icing on the cake for me. They really have created a “winter wonderland” of seasonal art.

Nursery papercut snowmen

With the season of winter well underway, we begin to decorate our classrooms for the Christmas festivities and we are looking forward to sharing all our holiday handiwork with you soon.

Lots of love

Students and Staff of Hedley Park.

Click to view slideshow.

Reception Class Haunted City Scene

Refreshed after our midterm break we are back to school to get stuck into our practicing for the Christmas play, working on our winter projects and of course counting the days until the holiday season.

Before the midterm we had a frightful amount of work done and lots of good-goulish fashion fun at our Halloween events.

Fruits of our day at Pine Forest

Our reception and senior class enjoyed a trip to Pine Forest art centre for a morning of outdoor fun and art and craft. Some of the results of their creativity were displayed on the foyer walls. Everyone had a great day and enjoyed the bus journey and exploring the grounds of the art centre.

The nursery class worked on their sound C for cat, as we use phonetic sounds to assist the child later with word building and reading please feel free to ask our teachers Magna & Lisa for the phonetic sound of each letter so you can follow along at home. They made midnight black cats to reinforce the starting sound in a visual way.

C for Cat

Art took on another “body” of meaning with some fancy foot and handprint pieces to add to their ever-increasing art portfolio. Hand print trees and foot print ghosts adorned the walls as footprint witches flew on their brooms lending a spooktacular air to the nursery walls. I have to say my favourite are the freestyle Frankensteins made from geometric shapes and displaying some great scissors skills from the children in the class.

Nursery Halloween Display

The poem of the month “Flutter Flutter Little Bat” I’m sure was recited many times over at home as they really enjoyed learning it and absorbed it so quickly.

Hibernating Hedgehog

Finally the nursery children were continuing their seasonal nature studies with some adorable leaf filled hedgehogs, made from the leaves collected on our many walks around the beautiful Merrion Square as we soaked up the changes Autumn brings to our wonderfully appointed natural playground!

Reception class took to the Halloween decorations with their unending enthusiasm, led by Aoife and Katie the students created a Skeleton display, cutting shapes to form their interpretation of a skeleton, then with some creative writing they wrote “My bones like to…. “

My bones like to …..

Personalising each of their bony portraits! Montessori believed that subjects should not be taught in isolation, but that the child in choosing a project or work would naturally come into contact with art, literacy, maths, science, geography, history & culture. None of these subjects are experienced in isolation in the everyday world therefore it is natural for the child to absorb all subjects and utilise their learning to scaffold further discoveries. In our classroom environment we ensure that projects and lessons are undertaken with this in mind, and it can be witnessed in the boards and work displays around the class.

Spooky stencils and handwriting.

Our language arts were on display with some scarily good writing samples and some logic skills and fine motor work with our web mazes.

The group art project over the fireplace lent an atmospheric chill as it depicted a night-time cityscape haunted by friendly spooks. Of course the piece de resistance was the tableau of a witch caught in the chimney! Bravo Reception Class.

Reception chimney display

Not to be outdone the senior class followed the thread of their earlier sewing and stitching projects by weaving webs using hula hoops! These wonderfully large and evocative webs hung over the classroom and were themselves adorned with large spiders waiting for their supper!

Spiders Spinning Webs in the Senior Class

Witches Prep

The class were very busy secretly making the ingredients for our annual Witches Walk. Creating a list for our silly old sorceress who would have to lead the school on a hunt for the ingredients to ensure her safe passage back to her home for the year, the class worked steadily using their science skills and considerable imagination to make many potions and brews to get the job done.

Some of the students ready for the witches walk.

On the day of the Witches Walk all our teachers were in frighteningly good form dressed to the nines in costumes ready for all the fun. Face painting and stories, games and a party all before 11.30am when we went in search of the witch and her ingredients.

Faces Painted and ready for the party

We found her and got to work, searching high and low throughout the square stopping only to recite our poetry and sing our songs for the gathered parents and friends. Finally when all was found we helped the Witch cast her spell and lo and behold before our very eyes she vanished off for another year.

I thought this was a Witches Walk! Why are you sitting?

(Huge thank you to our photographer on the day Sharon, all photos of the witches walk were taken by her and we are very grateful)

Checking the list for the witch!

Halloween 2012 was our best yet and we cant wait to show you how we celebrate the winter holidays, Diwali, Hanukkah and Christmas!

The new school year is well underway in Hedley and we’ve all settled back to our routine of classes, play and extracurricular activities. We wanted to take a quick break and grasp the opportunity to share some of the brilliant projects we’ve working on.

Working hard, sewing our bonds strong.

Starting with our senior class who kicked off their year by creating a unique and lasting piece of community art in the form of a hessian tapestry. Working away side by side they got to know each other, accepted everyone’s contribution and had fun, the end result was a very unique piece of art that they can all be proud of.

That wasn’t all the seniors got up to, they’ve also been using their newly honed sewing skills to create fantastic maps of the physical features of Ireland stitching and pinning in the rivers of the country to individual maps.

The Shannon is sew long.

As a group they also made a larger map with mountain ranges, lakes and the largest river. They really are a creative group and the projects that they undertake allow everyone to get involved and make their unique input.

Physical features of Ireland

Another project undertaken by the senior class was on the history and civilisation of Ancient Greece. We have some serious history aficionados in the classroom this year and the wonderful leeway afforded by the Montessori method allows us to aid the children in following their interests in deep independent study. The children all went to the bookshelves the Internet and the school iPads to research and write up areas of Ancient Greece that inspired them.

Ancient Greek Study Unit

This from one of the class historians  “Ancient Greece what a cool project! It all started in class last week when Ashley read us a story about Midas. Before we knew it we were madly searching the web, and rooting through book-shelves to find out more. We learnt about the many Greek Gods. We discovered that the Greeks were great warriors and that the Greek men enjoyed great feasts and entertainment. Only the men were allowed to enjoy the feasts and act in the plays -NOT FAIR! We managed to make a really interesting collection of books and downloaded pictures to colour all on the Greeks.  Finally we all designed cool headings on the computer to stick over our beautiful handwriting.”

All in all the group have bonded nicely and are really getting down to fantastic learning supported by each other.

Hand to Hand, Heart to Heart!

Another group getting to know each other is our reception class. The old hands of senior infants are relishing their roles of “guides” showing the newly moved up junior infants the way of their new work and books. The senior infants in the reception group are very excited about going to sports on Friday while the junior infants are enjoying the wonderful on campus PE class, which focuses on coordination, balance, gross motor skills and rhythm.

Reception Class Writing samples “Moon & Broom”

The industrious students in the reception class have worked hard on their language arts creating wonderful writing samples with the seasonal “oo” phonogram.  “Spooky” writing indeed: moon, broom and boo.

Reception Class – Autumnal Art

Observing the seasonal changes with some wonderful autumnal trees, and hedgehog studies featuring a hedgehog cake! Yummy enough to hibernate on I’m sure!

However my personal favourite of their artistic creations has to be the self-portraits. Sure to be treasured for years to come.

Reception Class Self Portraits

Nursery class South America

Not forgetting the smallest ones in our group, the nursery class, who always manage to create some of the cutest project work. September has seen them on a voyage to South America, the bright pink of the Montessori continent colour scheme cheering up the dull autumn days. 

Amazon Rainforest

The toucans, iguanas and large Rainforest scene really revitalise your sun-deprived spirits.

‘b” is for butterfly

The sound of the month “b” really came to life with a wonderful butterfly board of beautiful “b”s.

With all this travel and foreign lands you would be forgiven for thinking that the smallest ones had forgotten the season but no, a gorgeous 3d autumnal scene complete with frolicking squirrels and prickly hedgehogs.

Nursery Class – Autumn Woodland Scene

Nursery class Owl Babies

Our nursery class thoroughly enjoyed reading the atmospheric favourite Owl Babies, with Percy, Sarah and Bill waiting for their Mummy Owl to return. And they furthered their learning with a study of owls including their diet and habitat.

We are all really looking forward to getting ready for our first term tradition of the Witches Walk on the 26th in Merrion Square. Even Daisy Duck is getting a jump on the celebrations in her costume!

Daisy Does Spooky

Finally we’d like to show off our own school grown horse chestnut tree. We’ve planted it and cared for it from a seedling to stand proud beside Daisy.

Our chestnut tree sapling

A lovely addition so we can witness the passing season from our own door. In case being beside one of Dublin city’s most beautiful park isn’t enough!

We hope you enjoyed catching up with all our projects and fun, and we look forward to updating you on all the fun of the Halloween celebrations and news on our upcoming christmas play rehearsals.

Thanks for reading, from all in Hedley Park Montessori School.

Here is our Gallery of September Activities and Projects:

Reception Class Walking with Dinosaurs

This years Open Day was on Saturday 12^th May and we were delighted to have so many visitors. Our students came with their families and friends and were so good at explaining all our hard work and projects to everyone. It was great to see so many new faces too, we look forward to getting to know you all better.

The students are eager to share their work with all our blog readers so here is a little recap of the projects and classwork.

Preschool Frog Lifecycle

The Preschool Class studied the lifecycle of the frog and the difference between frogs and toads. They learned the poem Five green & Speckled frogs and played the Speckled frog game. Playing games and learning poetry appeals to those that learn best through movement (kinaesthetic) and song (verbal).

We have many types of learners in our community and it is in our early years classroom that we observe the children first, to discover their learning styles. This is information that will be invaluable as they grow with us, enabling us to tailor the presentation and content of lessons to each child’s learning style.

Preschool 5 Green and Speckled Frogs

In Geography the pre-schoolers tackled the continent of North America, they learned about animals and plants native to the continent. They also created their own personal totem poles to represent themselves and made dream catchers. I love the airplane with a photo of the whole class “flying to America”.

Preschool North America

Our Science corner was very popular and we created lots of hands on learning experiences with the children to explain light and colour, wind and weather.

Preschool Class Science Corner

For many visitors their favourite part of the pre-schooler’s displays were the Self Portraits, listening to the children explain each part of the portrait to their family and classmates is adorable and the self confidence they show is a treasure to hold on to.

Preschool Self Portraits

Finally the preschool class would like to share with you their Yoga classes that they have been taking with Lisa and Magna. They have learned lots of poses and are really enjoying them all.It’s a very fun and relaxing time for all.

Speaking of relaxing, its tough being a 3year old and when the world is just getting too much our pre-schoolers have a place they can revive their sense of chi.

Preschool Relax Corner

The “Relax” Corner, has a soft mat, nice music and calming scents, plus soothing hand cream. It’s an express spa for toddlers! Namaste Pre-schoolers!

Preschool Yoga

Things were no less busy in the reception class where Junior and Senior Infants studied Dinosaurs and The Evolution of Humans.

Reception Walking with Dinosaurs

The project Walking with the Dinosaurs was really fun, each student picked one of our model dinosaurs to take home for a weekend. They named it and brought it on an adventure, took photos and made a Dinosaur presentation with the information and images. Very personal and very informative. Projects like this allow the students to express their uniqueness, the idea of the students as people in their own right is really emerging in this class, and they are encouraged to foster a sense of themselves, their abilities and individual natures.

The study of the evolution of humankind was fascinating, they learned about fossils and archaeology, making their own archaeological finds. Learning about early human kind, their tools and habitats gives the children an expanding sense of what it means to be human, what qualities we need to survive and what sets us apart. This is all incredibly important to the emerging sense of self our students have in this age group.

Reception Evolution of Human Window Display

In geography reception class explored Europe and it’s Volcanoes, specifically Pompeii. They made a giant paper volcano for the fireplace, complete with falling ash!

Their handwriting samples bare testimony to how far they have come since the beginning of the term. Again with the study of early humankind, the use of tools has been one factor that sets us apart, mark making being one of the most important. These young students have made fantastic progress with their handwriting and it is obvious these students are going to be separate from the rest!

Reception Class Volcano Handwriting

There was so much complementary work to the study themes available in the classroom, one of the ways of keeping the children absorbing without even trying is to incorporate the lessons into all the activities, art, practical life, history, creative storytelling, Aoife and Katie work hard to ensure that it all ties in making the learning is open-ended and personal to the children.

Check out the slide show at the end for more photos!

;

;

Senior Class Flat Stanley visits South Africa

The Senior Class were not snoozing on the job either, they took on some weighty projects befitting our stately seniors students!

Senior Class Flat Stanley in Australia

Flat Stanley showed us the world, as he embarked upon his travels to Hong Kong, America twice, (East and West Coast), South Africa, Amsterdam, Australia & Wexford to name but a few places!

He played things incognito by trying on various disguises, designed by the students and the seniors finally made kites of Stanley Lambchop so he could continue his adventure wherever the wind took him!

Senior Class Flat Stanley in Disguise

Speaking of weather, the seniors created a very 3D water cycle display board. I love the clouds and raindrops, very lifelike! It is complete with their learning rhyme (to the tune of She’ll be coming round the mountain) being our scientific seniors they also partook in some weather related experiments; Making Rain in a Jar and The Evaporation Experiment (disappearing water).

Senior Class Water Cycle

Of course these were not the only scientific experiments undertaken, studies of the heart and blood were the “piece de resistance” of this Science inspired Open Day project work.

Senior Class The Heart

A heart dissection had earlier taken place with Ashley and was documented in photos on the wall. They learned about the components of a drop of blood, making their own replica of microscopic particles of blood, drawing their interpretation for display. Studying the parts of the heart and lots of facts about blood they even made a quiz for parents. In fact we might get a copy and put it here in case you tried to skip the test!!

Senior Class Microscopic Blood

The wonderful thing about our learning community is how well the students and teachers know each other, the projects really are a culmination of months and years of discovering what each child is already fascinated by or what even more importantly, they can develop a love for.

Senior Class Rain Experiment

The teachers on our staff prepare the topics armed with this knowledge and encourage the children with exactly the right information sparking the light of interest in each child confident that it will blaze within.

The senior class also displayed their linguistic ability as Gaeilge with their micro studies Mo Chorp and in English, with wonderful creative writing essays on display.

Senior Class Creative Writing

Of course there is lots of “all school” projects too, we don’t just stick to our classes, and many projects we enjoy come from our wonderful extracurricular classes, like ballet, music, drama, sport and new this year, Mandarin. In honour of the year of the dragon we extended our dragon project to include sample or our chinese calligraphy and phrases we have learned!

Our Chinese writing display

Now time for us to get to the park, and gear up for the summer term’s highlights of sports day and tennis camp!

Gathering the clues to find our leprechaun

What an eventful March and April we have had at Hedley Park. Lots of news and events to share with you, but before we talk about all that has happened let us just remind you that this Saturday (May 12^th) will be our annual summer Open Day. From 10am to 1pm you are very welcome to come and say hi, view our students work , classroom environments and ask any questions you may have. Current students and their family and friends will be there, as will any past students wanting to catch up with favourite teachers to share the news of their past years endeavours. So make your way to town for brunch and pop in on Saturday to see all the exciting display boards and ask our students all about their work.

Back to our spring catch up; March was a hectic month the centrepiece of which was our fantastic St Patricks adventures. Beginning early in the month we set our Leprechaun trap, but we did not plan on him being so crafty.

Day after day we found Larry had not only eaten the snack we left to tempt him but he had played with our shelves, left us notes, used our toilet and even left us a video message!! Still we could not catch him.

Leprechaun’s love Jam and Nutella on crackers!

On the day of our St Patricks walk we knew the time running out and our excitement was growing, finally we would catch Larry and find our pot of gold! We had an early and impromptu Irish dancing lesson and ate slices of our rainbow cake. Then with an enthusiasm even the rain couldn’t dampen we set off to look for Leprechaun clues. We looked high and low, around all the wonderful monuments in Merrion Square and yes, we did find our very own Hedley Park Leprechaun.

Finding Larry

Daffodil cupcakes

But that wasn’t the only thing happening in Hedley Park, March 23^rdsaw ourDaffodil Day commemoration and the preschool class made fantastic daffodil cupcakes to mark the day.  We also learned about the chicken lifecycle by creating a lovely display board, just in time for the Easter break.

Shaving Foam Painting

Our afternoons have also been really fun packed. Lots of arts and crafts, gloop making and shaving foam painting being two on offer, and enjoyable games like musical chairs not to mention freeplay and dressing up. All of these allow us to work together and enhance our creative and imaginative capabilities. Children learn much about themselves during freeplay sessions, creative outlets, social play and personal projects give the child a fuller understanding of themselves and others.

Dressing up Fun

Our eager and interested teaching staff supervises the afternoons in Hedley but the children’s interests and wishes are the controlling factor. Allowing the children this freedom to decide what they spend their free time doing gives them a sense of empowerment and personal achievement that is at the heart of Montessori holistic education.

Finally a big thank you to everyone who came along to our sponsored walk on March 30^th, thanks to your generous donations we raised enough for 3 more iPads! Now every class in Hedley Park has an iPad to research and learn on. It is amazing to see the children use them with ease and confidence. Even the reception class are giving their iPad a daily workout, they particularly enjoy using Montessorium’s intro to letters and intro to numbers,to compliment their work with the Montessori materials for sounds and numbers.

Montessorium’s iPad Apps

If you’d like to download them and use at home feel free to ask us about them at open day or next time you are in the school. While iPads will never replace the physical hands on with the beautiful Montessori materials in our classes, eLearning, confidence with computers and computer-assisted work are essential parts of the 21^stcentury child’s learning portfolio. It’s the combination of traditional hands on learning and sophisticated eLearning in a natural and supportive setting that gives Hedley Park students the winning edge.

Layering our Rainbow Cake

So don’t forget to drop in this Saturday between 10am-1pm to see our students as they showcase their work and fun class projects and meet our team of warm and dedicated teachers ready to welcome you to Hedley Park.

See you then!

Solar System Collage Board

The senior class have finished their individual presentation activity for the spring semester. This time the topic was, the Solar System and the students really went to the ends of the Milky Way with the effort involved.

Each child chose a planet and had to research their planet, using the school iPad, the “regular” Internet via the in class pc’s and all the books they could find, then organise and type or write out the information on large poster sheets. Finally they each stood up in front of their peers

and teachers to present the information clearly and succinctly. The presentations were also recorded on our iPad and if you are a parent and haven’t seen them already, or have but want a copy of the video file for yourself send me an email and I’ll give you access to the secure online storage of them.

Illustrations and photos were all put to good use, as well as some wonderful typing skills and lovely handwriting and I have to

say not only did the posters give you a flavour of the planet in question but there was some real flavour of the student themselves in each presentation. (No one was left wondering who was the owner of the Earth poster!)

Poster presentations are a wonderful tool for learning, enhancing each individual’s preparation and research. Giving the child practice in selecting the most important pieces and summarising what they have discovered leads to focused learning and appeals to the students, visual, logical, verbal and kinesthetic learning styles. Allowing the child to prepare a poster independently heightens their ability to focus on how best to communicate and organise the information they would like to have on the poster gives them a sense of the flow of information both visually and verbally.

Of course the presentations themselves are a learning experience and our future public speakers will have no confidence issues at all. Montessori education allows for peer-to-peer teaching as a large part of the method. Children who have mastered particular task are encouraged to demonstrate the lesson to younger classmates. This creates a bond in the class and helps the younger child emulate their older classmate, and gives the older child confidence in delivering a message to one or more people.

All this amazing research and presentations was founded and furthered by the group classwork on the major theme of the solar system. The class created a fantastic collage solar system around which their presentation posters were placed, so that everyone could benefit of the research.

They also created some really interesting flip books on the planets, showing what they learned from their classmates presentations.

Finally their last art project was “far out” as they depicted themselves falling through space. Using tracings of their own hands and feet, they learned about perspective and drew their bodies falling backways! Very spacey!

Come back soon as we will be posting all the fun of our Leprechaun hunt, and news of our Easter activities. Not to mention our Open Day on May 12^th. If you are a past pupil, current parent or prospective student, we’d love to meet you and show you our great work in person.

Have an "out of this world" week!

Nursery Hearts display

Nursery pre-writing table

Starting with the nursery class, they began with the new Valentines work on their pre-writing table. These tables are a great way to hone those newly developing pencil skills. Laminating the sheets means they can wipe and rewrite as much as they want. Even better our table is red!

Size sequencing skills were used to create our sparkly valentines sun catcher chains.  This visually striking display adorned our hall lending a very festive air. I’m certain they were much appreciated when our little cupids brought them home.

Nursery Valentines Art

Nursery Valentines all in a row

All week we worked hard on our Valentines Colouring books, using a variety of mediums, from watercolour, marker and collage to name a few. Working in a group was lots of fun as we shared and giggled and then hung our work up to dry.  We also worked on our drama and storytelling skills with a Snow White storyboard and Handa’s surprise display to compliment our African continent study.

Handa's Suprise

Snow White Storyboard

Junior and Senior Infants were also full of love for everyone. Beginning with their writing table and writing samples the walls were decorated with all things pink and heart shaped.

Junior & Senior Infants Valentines writing table

Learning the old school Nat King Cole song “L is for the way you look at me” with teacher Aoife was lots of fun, especially when we could hear it and watch a video on the school iPad.

L is for the way you look at me

Our practical life shelves had a special Cupid theme thanks to teacher Katie. Sequencing, cutting, pouring and transferring even heartshaped sewing cards were on offer.

Senior & Junior Infants practical life

The scent of sugar and spice and all things nice was everywhere when we made our Valentines cupcakes too. Baking hats at the ready we set to work, taking turns to measure, stir and pour.

Sifting the flour, practical life in real life!

Of course it wasn’t just love in the air but Spring too, and our snowdrops and daffodil displays alongside our spring writing really put a spring in our steps.

Valentines Writing Samples

Valentines writing up close!

Snowdrops for Spring

Snowdrop Writing Sample

In the Senior class friendship, creative writing and beautiful sewing were the orders of the day. Our “All about me” project has helped us to see that we are all a unique and special part of the class team, and our buddy system is giving us a wonderful opportunity to show our classmates that we care everyday.

Senior Class Buddy Wall

Using our typing and creative writing skills we created Valentines poems. (I sense soon the Senior class will be writing the blog unaided, as they are very confident pc and iPad users)

Sew Lovely!

But it was our sewing skills that really impressed as we created felted hearts to display and take home.

Felt Hearts

The last day before midterm we had a Pink & Red Party. Everyone wore pink or red or both.

Some of the Senior Class

Nursery Valentines Snack

Some of the Junior & Senior infants Class and Friends

Even Daisy Duck got in on the act. We checked our Valentines letter box for cards and notes, and we had a “party” snack enjoying our valentines cupcakes and one or two other goodies.

Valentines post box

What a lovely way to start the spring midterm. We hope you had a good time and are all rested for the spring term!

Daisy Valentine

Come back soon to learn all about the Senior class’s “Deep Space Odyssey”.