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Enriching the Day with After School Activities

Childhood is a time of discovery. Young children are naturally curious, and they find wonder and joy in many things we, as adults, have come to take for granted. Children often are more open to trying new things, as everything is novel and there are no expectations of perfection. Parents can seize this opportunity to introduce their children to a variety of activities as a way of finding a new hobby, learning new skills, and for the simple enjoyment of recreation.
MCA is fortunate to partner with LEAF Approach to Enrichments, which offers many different after school activities for our MCA students to explore. Program offerings range in topics from sports to STEM, animal worlds to art, karate to yoga, and so much more. There really is something for everyone. Broadening your child’s experiences to things he or she might not normally do at home has some lasting benefits, too.

1. Enrichments might spark a new interest.
While your child might engage in familiar activities at home and on the weekends, trying a new after school activity could open the door to a new passion. As LEAF’s sessions are short, usually seven or eight meetings over the course of two months, children have the opportunity to try out something new without making a huge commitment. However, upon engaging in a new program, your child may find that one thing that really sparks his or her enthusiasm. Then, as a family, you can decide whether to pursue this interest even further.

2. They could lead to new friendships.
The after school activities offered at MCA bring together students from different classrooms depending on who has enrolled. Your child then has the opportunity to enjoy activities with children who might not be in their regular school day program, allowing them to branch out and form new personal connections through their enrichment classes.

3. Enrichments teach new skills.
Our young children are learning every day. They are developing their daily Practical Life skills of self-care, care of the environment, time management, etc. They are also expanding their academic learning and practicing social skills. Enrichments provide yet another avenue to expose children to new things that round out their skill sets. Whether it’s learning the rules of a game, the techniques of cooking, breathing exercises, or how circuits work, children in enrichment classes have the opportunity to widen their net of experiences. Exposure to new ideas and situations in and of itself is a learning opportunity, and when presented in a fun, stress-free environment, the new learning is all that much easier to absorb.

4. Enrichments are fun!
In our busy worlds, many of us forget the importance of doing something just for the sake of enjoyment. Taking time to have fun allows us to break away from the many stressors that can overwhelm us in our daily schedules. It’s important for our mental wellness to attend to our personal well-being, and teaching our children this lesson from an early age may help them to lead more balanced lives going forward. Knowing that work and play are equally valuable is something we could all benefit from remembering (and practicing!).

Registration for LEAF Approach to Enrichments for our MCA students will begin on September 19th and run through October 3rd. All registration is done online through the LEAF website, www.leafenrichment.com. Classes begin the week of October 14th and will run for a total of seven weeks. Note: Class offerings may differ across MCA campuses.

MCA’s Top 10 List for Starting Back to School

Our MCA classrooms are ready to welcome you to the 2019-2020 school year!

It seems like the summer, once again, is passing by in the blink of an eye. And while some folks are eking out the most of their remaining vacation time, many teachers have already made their way back into their classrooms to start preparing for the upcoming school year. Now is actually the perfect time for parents and children to also begin to do some preliminary planning to help ease into the start of school in September. Below are some helpful hints shared by some of our MCA professional staff of things families can do now to build excitement and alleviate any stress about the upcoming school year.

1. For Parents First: Read through your Parent Packet and complete any necessary forms prior to the first day of school.
By now, our MCA families should have received their Parent Packets filled with information about the school year, the calendar, school policies, the Parent Handbook, and much more. Included in the packet are several forms which should be completed and ready to turn into the school office on or before the first day of school. Especially important are the medical forms, which were mailed earlier in the summer and are due back to school by August 26th. The State of New Jersey has very specific requirements about what schools must have on file before any student may enter the school building. Reading through this information and completing the necessary paperwork ahead of time will help parents be prepared for that first day of school.

2. Adjust activities at home.
One of the wonderful things about summer is the opportunity to have some ‘down time’ which often is missing from September through June as children’s days are filled with their time at school, which is often followed by after school enrichment activities, sports, homework, and very little ‘down time’. If the house rules for summer allow for more screen time—television viewing, computer games, etc. —it’s probably a good idea to trim those hours now. Instead, consider initiating a reading time (perfect for when parents are preparing dinner—children can read aloud while you cook or look at books silently nearby until supper’s ready). Or, engage as a family in a few more activities that require more concentration and focus—a large jigsaw puzzle, card games, or even art projects. Helping children return to tasks that need their full attention will help them when they enter or re-enter the classroom.

3. Start easing into a “school day” morning and evening routine.
A few weeks leading up to the first day of school is a good time to begin adjusting your family’s morning wake up times and evening bedtimes, which may have become a bit lax during the summer months. Knowing how early your family needs to get up to get through all of your necessary morning activities makes starting each school day so much easier. From brushing teeth and getting dressed to having a nutritious breakfast and making the morning commute, some families benefit from doing a ‘test run’ a few times to see if they can accomplish their morning rituals and arrive to school on time.

Equally important is establishing a healthy bedtime which ensures your child has adequate sleep for the busy hours spent at school. It’s not always easy to settle down for bed when the sun still hasn’t set in the summer, but even easing into a bedtime routine of listening to soft music or reading a few books in bed helps with this summer to school year transition.

4. Consider creating a family calendar.
One family activity you might consider is to create a school year family calendar. Many dollar stores sell wonderfully large calendars which you can customize with your own important information. After looking through the school calendar, mark important dates on the family calendar. Invite your child to decorate special event days with their own illustrations, or color-code the days of the calendar according to school days and days off from school. As children see some of the exciting activities that await them each month, their excitement about school may grow and override any nervousness they may be feeling about that first day.

5. Visit with friends.
Some of us have the best intentions to reconnect with friends and family during the summer when we think we have more time to get together only to find that we’ve blinked and haven’t had a chance to do so! If your child hasn’t seen neighborhood friends or former classmates over the past few months, now is a nice time to reconnect. If you know some of the children who will be in your child’s class for the upcoming year, having them come together at a local playground might be enough to spark that joy of returning to school to see old friends and make some new ones, too.

6. Attend “Meet the Teachers Day”.
If you’ve created a family school calendar, then you’ve marked the date for “Meet the Teachers Day” already! At MCA, parents and children together visit their new classroom, receive their lists of necessary school supplies, and meet their teachers face-to-face.
Meet the Teachers Day is followed by a “Phase-In” (see your Parent Packet for details), aimed at helping to alleviate any separation anxiety and providing the children with a smooth transition into their new school environment. Meet the Teachers Day is just one part of the orientation to school where the children acclimate both socially and emotionally to being apart from their parents and begin to take part in all aspects of their classroom community. At home, use your child’s teachers’ and classmates names in conversations, and begin to initiate conversations that are related to school.

7. Take your child shopping for school supplies.
Allow your child to get excited about going back to school by bringing him or her with you when you go shopping for any needed supplies or a special first day of school outfit. Giving your child the freedom to pick out his or her backpack and lunch box will also create a sense of ownership around these items, which will inherently point your child in the direction of being responsible for his or her things. Now is also a good time to remember to label all items with your child’s name.

8. And while you’re shopping, consider making a grocery list for lunches!
Sometimes planning for mealtimes is the most stressful part of a busy school or work day. Get a jump start on this and together with your child, create a list of things your child would like to have packed in his or her lunch each day. Creating a one or two week schedule of meals that can rotate may alleviate any of the issues your family may have regarding food. Keep in mind your school’s nut-safe policies, your child’s personal tastes, and what is important for a healthy lunch that will sustain your child for the afternoon.

9. Separate your anxieties about separation from your child’s.
Whether this is your first child heading off to school or your fourth, it is normal for parents to have some hesitation about leaving their children in the care of others. As parents ourselves, we at MCA know the internal struggles of sending our children off to school. We also know that our children will thrive and grow in their school settings, and that our children’s schools are nurturing, safe, and enriching places for our children to be!

In order to assist our children in making a smooth transition, it is important for us, as parents, to put forth a positive attitude and send our children off with a big smile, a brief hug, and assurance that we are looking forward to sharing stories about each of our days when we meet again after school and work. Your positive attitude helps your child sense that you believe he or she will be able to manage the school day just fine, and that positive attitude just might be contagious!

To help you maintain a smile before you say goodbye, take some time to reflect on the successes your child has exhibited in play groups or at other times when you were not right by his or her side. And be confident that should your child need some extra support, the teachers at MCA will help you both through this new transition and with becoming comfortable with a new school routine.

10. Consider starting a new ‘last day of summer vacation’ or ‘first day of school’ family tradition.
Again, using your family calendar, mark something special to do on the day before school starts or for that first day of school. Maybe it’s a special outing to a favorite nature spot, an end of summer ice cream treat, or a family splash in a pool. Or perhaps it’s a first day of school dinner picnic in the park, ride to a favorite bookshop to purchase one new book for bedtime, or an evening walk around the neighborhood in pajamas. Whatever you decide, make it something that will bring about a heightening happy anticipation to the start of school.

We can’t believe that the summer is almost over, but we are anticipating another wonderful school year ahead!! The MCA school calendar is filled with fun activities for everyone, starting with our Welcome Back Coffee. We hope you’ll mark your calendars now for our Parent Workshops and our highly anticipated night with guest speaker Dr. Robert Brooks, author of Raising Resilient Children, which was the featured selection for our MCA Parent Book Club last year. Our teachers are preparing their classrooms, just as your family is preparing for the new school year in your own way. To all of our new and returning MCA families, we look forward to seeing you in September!

Summertime Reading Buzz

by Alex Chiu

Summer is a wonderful time for storytelling and reading together. Long car rides to the beach, lazy Saturday mornings in bed, and twilight evenings on the back deck are ideal moments to listen to books on tape, share memories and stories, or read with your children. But what types of books should you read? There are so many delightful choices available – both the familiar titles parents will remember from their own youth and many brand new and equally engaging options which seem to come on the market daily. Consider this quote from Dr. Maria Montessori: “Travel stories teach geography; insect stories lead the child into natural science; and so on. The teacher, in short, can use reading to introduce her pupils to the most varied subjects; and the moment they have been thus started, they can go on to any limit guided by the single passion for reading.” So, it doesn’t really matter what you choose!

As their children’s first and most influential teachers, parents are instrumental in opening up new worlds for their children, particularly through the sharing of books. As you read together, invite your child to ask questions and share thoughts and ideas related to the book. Ask open-ended questions or help your child discover connections between what is in the story and your child’s own experiences. Encourage active engagement with others by having your child relate the plot or information from favorite stories with friends, neighbors, and relatives.

With summer in full swing, we thought we’d share a few titles specifically related to geography (including maps and different places or experiences from around the world) and insects, as featured in Dr. Montessori’s quote. Geography and insect themes can promote many summer adventures. These certainly are two areas that lend themselves especially well to the summer months and often become a springboard for other points of interest. Adults may provide the first selection of books to enjoy together, and then based on the children’s responses, parents may offer more similar suggestions or veer off on a different path.

When diving into the ocean of books offered at your local library or favorite bookshop, follow your child’s lead as he or she shows a special curiosity about a character, topic, or genre. See where your summer reading adventures can take you this summer. It could be miles away to discover faraway lands and cultures, or right to your very own backyard where you can delve into the world of the creatures that crawl and fly about. Wherever you go, we wish you happy reading, happy exploring, and a very happy and safe summer!

A Small Sampling of Books Related to Geography and Culture

A Country Far Away by Nigel Gray
A Single Pebble: A Story of the Silk Road by Bonnie Christensen
Katie in London by James Mayhew
As the Crow Flies: A First Book of Maps by Gail Hartman and Harvey Stevenson
Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney
Flat Stanley’s Worldwide Adventures by Jeff Brown
Smart About the Fifty States by Jon Buller
Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey
Vanilla Ice Cream by Bob Graham
Where on Earth? by Helen Abramson

A Small Sampling of Books Related to Insects

A Butterfly is Patient by Dianna Aston
Bee and Me by Alison Jay
Bugs A to Z by Caroline Lawton
How to Survive as a Firefly by Kristen Foote
Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni
Insect Detective by Steve Voake
Step Gently Out by Helen Frost and Rick Lieder
The Big Book of Bugs by Yuval Zoomer
The Disgusting Critter Series by Elise Gravel
We Dig Worms! By Kevin McCloskey

*Note: Several authors have used the same titles for different books, so pay special attention to the complete titles and/or author names above to ensure you find the right book!

Sewing Up the School Year

By Fiorella Benson with Alex Chiu

As the 2018-2019 school year comes to a close, we are delighted to share a special photo blog featuring a special end of the year project from one of our MCA classes which beautifully illustrates how skills gleaned from across the Montessori curriculum come together “seamlessly” with stunning results!

The students in one of our MCA classes have been working on a new extension of the Montessori Constructive Triangles, using a sewing machine and their hand sewing skills to make their very first quilt. The children deepened their knowledge of the different shapes they can make with triangles, while learning about symmetry, patterns, and how to design a quilt. This hands-on approach to geometry also gave the children the opportunity to work on a fiber arts project, improve their fine motor skills, develop a sense of order, promote independence, and deepen their concentration. It was an empowering experience for the class to work on this project as a team and to realize that each one of them could thread and operate a sewing machine independently.

The creative process involved the following steps:

Working with the Constructive Triangles and Extensions
The children first created different shapes and patterns with triangles. They worked with the Constructive Triangles and worked on different extensions, such as tracing, coloring, and gluing triangles made out of construction paper.

First Stitches
The children learned how to thread a sewing machine and practiced sewing a straight line, while leaving a ¼- inch seam allowance. They also practiced putting the right pressure on the pedal.

Patterns and Symmetry
The children explored the different shapes and patterns present in a finished quilt, and then proceeded to create their own design as a team. We talked about symmetry and how you can use the same pattern at the top and bottom, or at the right and left side of a quilt.

Sewing Half-Square Triangles
Each child learned how to sew a half-square triangle, which is a square made from two equal right triangles. Then they sewed them together following the pattern they created for their quilt.

Putting the Pieces Together
Once again, students used the sewing machine to put their half-square triangles together.

Hand Tying the Quilt
The students quilted their project by hand, using a tie stitch that runs through the three layers of the quilt and is secured with a few knots.

Topstitching by Hand
To give a colorful final touch to their project, the children topstitched the perimeter of their quilt by hand with running stitches.

Presenting Their Finished Quilt!

Applying the skills the children have developed over the school year to a project such as this is a wonderful way to keep those skills sharp when school is out while at the same time having some family fun and perhaps learning new skills along the way. We hope this photo feature inspires some of our MCA families to consider taking on a special family project that involves creativity, new learning, and fun this summer.

We wish you a happy, healthy, and rejuvenating summer season!

Celebrating Spring

By Alex Chiu

“Development is a series of rebirths.” ~Dr. Maria Montessori

This is the time of year when many special events start springing up on our calendars. At MCA, we again find ourselves in the midst of planning and preparing for a variety of end of the year activities that will certainly make this already fulfilling school year even more enriched and memorable.

One highly anticipated spring activity occurring in several MCA classrooms is the hands-on study of the life cycles of different living things. Students have the opportunity to witness firsthand the development of plants, caterpillars, or baby chicks. Some classes begin planting seeds in early spring and track the growth of their plants on a chart. They may experiment with different types of soil or different growing conditions and compare and contrast their results. Several of the 3-6 classrooms set up butterfly habitats and observe caterpillars as they grow, form their chrysalides, and then emerge as butterflies. Students have an up close and personal look at the anatomy of the butterfly, and they are often amazed to see the butterfly’s proboscis stretch out to collect nectar from sugar water sprinkled onto flowers which the children place into the butterfly habitat. This unit generally ends with a celebratory releasing of the butterflies on the playground, and the children keep watch to see if their butterfly friends fly by throughout the remainder of their spring school days.

Other classes welcome eggs from a local farm and care for them in an incubator. Students learn how much warmth the eggs require, and they are careful to monitor the turning of the eggs while they are in their care. It’s always a delight to see the children’s reactions as they marvel at the baby chicks when they begin pecking their way out of the eggs. The children learn about what the chicks eat, and they take great pride in how carefully they handle them once they hatch. The growing chicks are returned to the farm, and while the students are sad to see them go, they have wonderful memories of this experience. Having both the caterpillars and chicken eggs in the classroom allows the children to see firsthand how the circle of life continues during this season of rebirth. They learn about the needs of these living creatures and nurture them through their development. It’s a precious thing to see the excitement in the classrooms as the children notice the first sprouts of the plants, or the day when they first see butterfly wings stretching open, or when they hear the first pecks at the eggshells when the chicks are ready to hatch.

And just as the children learn about animals and their offspring as an extension of these life cycle studies, they take time to reflect on their own families, as well. The children prepare and plan tributes to mothers and fathers. These important family members are honored in a variety of ways, either at classroom teas or special breakfasts prepared by the children or with lovingly-made crafts kept secret until Mother’s or Father’s Day arrives. We find that parents who come into the classrooms either for spring celebrations or merely to observe the children at work really are amazed at the growth that has taken place over the course of the school year. The children are certainly changed by spring!

Spring is also a time when MCA students come together as a community to celebrate the season in song at our annual Spring Sing. After working with our Music Teacher, Mr. Vergara, throughout the year learning about matching pitch and keeping the beat to different tempos, as well as other musical dynamics, the children are ready to present their musical talents. The performance includes song selections that highlight the different types of musical learning the children have gleaned. This year’s performance likely will include songs about spring, nature, and peace, as well as a blues piece, a lullaby, and a song sung in a foreign language. The Spring Sing is their opportunity to put into practice what they’ve learned and share the joy of music with an audience.

Our Elementary students host their own annual Art Exhibit and Choral Presentation in the spring, where they, too, sing for an appreciative audience of parents and friends. After this special event, guests are invited to view art and science displays, as well as other work and projects completed by these oldest MCA students. It’s a fitting celebration of their achievements as the students take pride in showing their accomplishments to their visitors. Our Elementary classes will also perform original plays for other MCA students at our Short Hills campus. This performance is the culmination of the Elementary students’ theater work with the Paper Mill Playhouse as part of their arts enrichment programming. The Elementary Yearbook Club will also publish their school yearbooks. Yearbook distribution is a highly anticipated event, and the students enjoy looking through the yearbook to revisit memories of the past school year and sign each other’s yearbooks with special messages and summer sendoffs.

As spring is a time of rebirths which flourish all around us, we enjoy this season and delight in reflecting on the growth and achievements of our students who have blossomed in our classrooms. We celebrate the children who learned to separate from their parents without tears and those who have learned to tie their own shoes. We celebrate the children who have mastered new learning in Language or Math and the children who have taken the initiative to help someone who was struggling with their work. We celebrate these children who have learned to care for the classroom materials as well as care for family, friends, and the environment. Spring is a delightful time to acknowledge and celebrate all of this growth which has unfolded beautifully throughout the school year!