Lower Elementary 1- Devin Veselenak, Lead Teacher

Each year, Lower Elementary 1 celebrates Healthy Heart Day with the help of parent and family volunteers who join us for an afternoon of engaging, hands-on activities focused on caring for our hearts. As a meaningful and science-based approach to Valentine’s Day, students explore fascinating facts about human anatomy and learn how the heart functions as an incredible and essential organ.

Through movement, observation, and discussion, children deepen their understanding of what it means to keep their hearts healthy - physically, thoughtfully, and intentionally. 

Montessori Lessons Night: A Hands‑On Parent Education Event

During the second semester, our Elementary and Middle School students take part in a special tradition: Montessori Lessons Night. This event gives students the chance to share a core Montessori material they enjoy working with and to present the lesson they have practiced in the weeks leading up to the evening.

Families are invited to rotate through classrooms to observe student presentations across all levels. This engaging event has been both well attended and enthusiastically received in past years.

Montessori Lessons Night offers a unique window into the curriculum, allowing families to see firsthand the materials and work their children experience each day. It also provides an opportunity to visit classrooms at other levels, giving parents a preview of what lies ahead as students transition to the next level.

We look forward to welcoming you to this meaningful celebration of student learning and Montessori education.

Last week, our Middle School students took the stage for a Music Showcase that looked a little different from a traditional elementary performance—and that was by design. In addition to singing together as a choir, students were given the opportunity to choose how they wanted to participate based on their interests and strengths. Some performed instrumental and vocal solos or small-group pieces, while others contributed behind the scenes by creating stage decorations, designing program brochures, managing stage crew responsibilities, and helping organize the event.

This student-choice model fosters confidence, leadership, teamwork, and creative problem-solving while teaching valuable skills such as event planning, project management, and collaboration. Most importantly, students developed a strong sense of ownership and pride in their contributions, leading to increased engagement and excitement around our performances. We are incredibly proud of the creativity and dedication they brought to this year’s showcase.

Lower Elementary classrooms 1 and 3 visited the Urban Ecology Center on Friday morning to explore the hidden stories of urban wildlife. Students became nature detectives as they searched for tracks, scat, and other clues to discover which animals had been active in the park. They also looked high and low for animal homes, learning how city creatures live and thrive in their habitats. (Lower Elementary 2 and 4 will have their turn on February 20th.)

During the visit, students learned that animal tracking involves observing signs such as prints, fur, and chewed plants found in mud, sand, or snow. By asking questions like who, what, where, when, and why, and using tools such as field guides and plaster casts, students strengthened their scientific thinking, observation skills, and appreciation for the outdoors.

Follow-up classroom activities will include independent research and the use of zoology nomenclature to connect the field trip experience to their ongoing studies. Students will also have opportunities to explore the MSOW grounds, applying their newly learned tracking skills to identify signs of wildlife in their own environment.

World Language Presenters Visit Children’s House Extended Day

During a recent Friday World Languages session, Children’s House Extended Day welcomed guest presenters Paras and Nim Bhavsar, along with their son, Sihnaad Bhavsar (UE2). The family introduced students to Gujarati, an Indo‑Aryan language spoken primarily in the Indian state of Gujarat. With more than 60 million speakers worldwide, Gujarati is one of India’s most widely spoken languages and ranks as the 26th most spoken language in the world.

Students were fascinated to learn that Gujarati contains nearly twice as many sounds as English and is considered easier to learn because it is spelled phonetically—words are written the way they are spoken.

The Bhavsar family also shared the rich musical tradition of the tabla, a pair of Indian hand drums known as the dayan (right drum) and bayan (left drum). Paras and Nim guided the children in counting rhythmic patterns on their fingers while Sihnaad demonstrated the rhythms on the drums. Paras added vocal percussion, using traditional syllables that mirror the sounds of the tabla.

Sihnaad has been performing with a professional group since the age of four and continues to practice for thirty minutes each day after school, inspiring students with his dedication and talent.

Session II Pokemon Club Enrichment Class- Huong Tran

Students pictured below gave a thumbs up when asked if they enjoyed learning the Pokemon Card Game! Practicing social, math, and strategy skills while learning to play with Pokemon Trading Cards was a big hit.

 Session II Advanced Perler Beads- Gina Viola, Art Specialist

 Students worked on a variety of complex and 3D Perler Bead designs throughout the class, and had a free day the final day of the six week session to create whatever they wanted using their new skills.  

Session III Scrapbooking Part 2 -Jennifer Michaels, MSOW Lower Elementary Paraprofessional 

Students turn favorite moments into lasting keepsakes in this hands-on scrapbook class; Learning to summarize events and tell their stories using both words and images. Each week, children bring photos from a recent event and transform them into creative, personalized pages. By the end of the course, every student leaves with a completed scrapbook—an artistic celebration of memories, storytelling, and design skills

Auditions - same as last year, we'll have two days of vocal auditions and one day for dance. Vocal auditions split into 30 minute groups of 6 students each (we can add slots once original batch are nearly full), all students must attend the full dance audition afternoon. 

Callbacks - TBD, only students who need to be seen need to attend, but that notification won't come until the 25th... for perspective, we haven't needed this in any past year.

Production Team Meeting - only for the parents in charge of various production areas (costumes, set, sound, etc.). 

All parents of musical participants will be expected to volunteer in some way and/or donate to the concession area. The musical is a large-scale event and many hands make light work. Volunteering may be as little as supervising a rehearsal dismissal car line, selling concessions, selling tickets, or it may mean taking on a larger role like playbill design/t-shirt distribution/costuming/set building/sound/lighting etc. A sign up will be available in late February.

Each year, we honor our MSOW dads (or a special guest if dad cannot attend) with a morning celebration of donuts, fruit,  and coffee in the MSOW gym. Children join their dads for breakfast and then return to the classroom. This is a very popular event. A 'Muffins in the Morning with Mom - or a Special Guest' is scheduled on May 7th.

We will need some help making Donut Date great!  Volunteer to help with Donut Date HERE

Here are a few photos from last year's Donut Date event