Summit Block Party: Reconnect with friends new and old and celebrate the start of the school year together! Hosted by the Summit Montessori Parents Association (SMPA) 

Friday Morning Meetings: Once or twice a month, classrooms gather in the Marino Community Room for a school assembly. Generally,  Upper Elementary students run  the show and each gathering features a different theme. Students may learn about an upcoming celestial event like an eclipse, hear a short report from students about a recent field trip, or read a story about an inspirational peacemaker like Martin Luther King, Jr. These meetings are for students, but parents are welcome to join with advance notice.

Halloween Party: A chance to showcase your costume, safely trick-or-treat on our playground, and play thematic games together. Hosted by the Summit Montessori Parents Association (SMPA) 

Community Coffees: Throughout the year, join us for coffee and conversation around a variety of themes. Connect with other caregivers across the levels and strengthen ties to Summit.

Community Education Nights: Summit often invites visiting professionals to run educational sessions for faculty and caregivers. Attending these gives you insight into your child, their development, the challenges of modern parenting, and more. Past themes include: positive discipline, parenting from a neurodiversity perspective, parenting with identity in mind, and understanding anxious behavior

Grandfriends Days: An invitation is extended for each child to welcome a special non-parent adult in their life to shadow them for part of the morning work cycle. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, neighbors, family friends, etc. gather to learn about Montessori and experience the Summit classroom.

Community Lit. Circle: This Summit book club led by the Upper Elementary students is both engaging and informative. Pick up a copy of one of the many books featured and read it on your own time. Come prepared to discuss and reflect on the book’s themes and see how our Upper El. students engage with novel study.

Book Fair: Browse the shelves and pick up a new title for your home library at the annual book-raiser hosted by SMPA. The fair’s open all week, but you won’t want to miss the evening family fun event! Proceeds from the fair support building Summit’s libraries.

Annual Auction and Family Fun Day: A highlight of the school year! Everyone is invited to this annual themed event featuring entertainers, food, crafts, and a chance to support Summit through a live and online auction.

Rising Up/Graduation Ceremony & End of the Year Picnic: Every family joins in celebrating the end of the school year with a ceremony that highlights our graduates followed by a lively potluck picnic that features the Kona Ice Truck! 

Back to School Nights: Each level hosts an informative evening session designed to orient caregivers to the school year, covering everything from classroom-home communication and student schedules to special events and changes to the environment. Every family is expected to have one adult present.

Curriculum Night: Each year, the teaching team presents a different strand of the Montessori curriculum and how it evolves from Beginners through Upper Elementary. Deepen your understanding of the Montessori curriculum, developmental changes in your child, and how a Summit education prepares students for the world ahead of them.

Parent/Teacher Conferences: Twice a year caregivers and classroom teachers sit down to discuss individual children and their progress in the classroom. As a key component of the school-home partnership, it is expected that every family attends both conferences. The October conference establishes goals for the year ahead. The January conference is accompanied by a mid-year written progress report. A second final progress report is delivered in June. Caregivers are also always encouraged to set up time to discuss children’s progress at any other point during the school year.

Community Coffees: Each Community Coffee highlights a different theme, and from time to time the theme may relate directly to the classroom experience. Examples of past coffees include: meeting the learning team, understanding Montessori assessment, spotlight on math materials, etc.

Parent/Child Work Night: Let your child be your guide to the classroom and see first hand how they interact with materials. Demystify the checkerboard or the knobbed cylinders they’ve been talking about at home. Children’s House through Upper Elementary students will select several curricular materials to work on with you in an after-school setting. 

Classroom Observations: Watch for opportunities to sign up and observe in a classroom at your child’s level or the one ahead. See first hand how the teaching team and prepared environment support student independence and learning and follow it up with a conversation to unpack your observations.

Project/Science Fair: The elementary Montessori cultural curriculum is on full display in this evening of individual projects. Lower Elementary students share their research projects on animals, landmarks, and countries of study, while Upper Elementary students complete and share their findings of scientific experiments or inventions. 

Children’s House Spring Tea: The culmination of the Grace & Courtesy and Practical Life curriculums, the Children’s House Spring Tea is a cherished tradition. Each Children’s House child will invite one adult to tea where they will greet their guest, take their order, and serve them tea and light treats. Note that there is no school that day for Children’s House students  - they will attend only their tea time on this day. 

Senior Project Night: Prepare to be wowed by Summit’s sixth grade students as they share their year-long passion projects with the community. If you are wondering what the results of a Montessori education are in the long-term, this annual event is a great place to start. 

Kindergarten Author Celebration: Kindergarten students share their illustrated and published stories by reading them aloud to caregivers and guests. As a result of their year-long literacy studies, children emerge into confident and proud authors and celebrate with sweet treats! 

Mystery History Day: While caregivers don’t attend this event, it is a favorite Elementary tradition. Each child researches an individual from the past or present centered on a particular theme. They will take on this persona for the day, opting to dress up as their historic character, share their research, and then parade their costumes through the school. 

Parent/Child Work Night: Let your child be your guide to the classroom and see first hand how they interact with materials. Demystify the checkerboard or the knobbed cylinders they’ve been talking about at home. Children’s House through Upper Elementary students will select several curricular materials to work on with you in an after-school setting. 

Grandfriends Days: An invitation is extended for each child to welcome a special non-parent adult in their life to shadow them for part of the morning work cycle. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, neighbors, family friends, etc. gather to learn about Montessori and experience the Summit classroom.

Children’s House Winter Concert: Songs of the season led by Summit’s music teacher are shared by the Children’s House community. A great way to kick off the start of winter break.

Community Lit Circle: This Summit book club led by the Upper Elementary students is both engaging and informative. Pick up a copy of one of the many books featured and read it on your own time. Come prepared to discuss and reflect on the book’s themes and see how our Upper El. students engage with novel study.

Project/Science Fair: The elementary Montessori cultural curriculum is on full display in this evening of individual projects. Lower Elementary students share their research projects on animals, landmarks, and countries of study, while Upper Elementary students complete and share their findings of scientific experiments or inventions. 

Children’s House Spring Tea: The culmination of the Grace & Courtesy and Practical Life curriculums, the Children’s House Spring Tea is a cherished tradition. Each Children’s House child will invite one adult to tea where they will greet their guest, take their order, and serve them tea and light treats. Note that there is no school that day for Children’s House students  - they will attend only their tea time on this day. 

Night of the Arts (NOTA): A night of artistic expression from Summit’s Kindergarten through Upper Elementary students is on display at NOTA. Through a visual arts gallery and stage performance, come appreciate the work students have done under the guidance of Summit’s music and arts teachers. 

Senior Project Night: Prepare to be wowed by Summit’s sixth grade students as they share their year-long passion projects with the community. If you are wondering what the results of a Montessori education are in the long-term, this annual event is a great place to start. 

Kindergarten Author Celebration: Kindergarten students share their illustrated and published stories by reading them aloud to caregivers and guests. As a result of their year-long literacy studies, children emerge into confident and proud authors and celebrate with sweet treats! 

Rising Up/Graduation: Every family joins in celebrating the end of the school year with a ceremony that highlights our graduates followed by a lively potluck picnic that features the Kona Ice Truck! 

Summit Block Party: Reconnect with friends new and old and celebrate the start of the school year together! Hosted by the Summit Montessori Parents Association (SMPA) This event is also a great time to sign up for volunteer opportunities throughout the school year - look for a chance to share how you want to be involved at Summit!

Materials Committee: Any Thursday morning during the school year, caregivers are welcome to join the Materials Committee to help cut, laminate, photocopy, and otherwise provide direct material making support to the Summit faculty. Drop by once, give a month of Thursdays, or become a regular fixture at the Materials Committee - whatever works for your schedule. It’s a great way to see first-hand what kind of work is on the shelves of our classrooms. 

Admissions Open House: Serve as a parent ambassador at one of Summit’s admissions Open Houses. Share your excitement and enthusiasm for the school with prospective families. 

State of the School: Think of this event as a progress report on the school itself. Hear directly from the Head of School as they share an overview of the school’s current situation, highlights and achievements, challenges the school may be facing, and an outline of future goals and priorities. The event is presented online.

Volunteer Work Day: Bring your gardening trowel and rake, your enthusiasm, and be ready to get dirty as the community comes together to tackle a range of jobs around campus. You might find yourself cleaning up the perimeter of campus, re-organizing a playground shed, raking mulch, or building a new piece of playground equipment. Families are welcome to come together, there’s work for everyone!

Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast: Summit relies on the generosity of volunteers in so many ways, big and small. If you’ve chaperoned a field trip, organized a bake sale, set up an event craft table, laminated cards, sat on a committee, or otherwise served the community, this event is a way for us to say thank you! The annual Maria Montessori Award is also announced at this event to the volunteer who has shown exceptional service to Summit Montessori School.

Day Trips: At every level, children get out of the classroom and into the real world in age appropriate ways. For Beginners, they may venture as far afield as the Summit nature path on campus or to visit a Children’s House classroom as they prepare to transition to a new level. Children’s House students go off campus typically twice a year - always in the fall to go apple picking and again in the spring on another local trip. Lower and Upper Elementary classrooms typically go on two or three field trips that tie to the cultural curriculum such as area museums or nature centers. They may go by bus or utilize public transportation.

Overnight Trips: In Upper Elementary, the Montessori program encourages the natural progression of development as children start to form their own identity apart from caregivers, develop their independence, and hone advanced practical life skills. Overnight field trips allow them to do so gradually with close supervision and a supportive community. Every year, they attend an off-site, two night trip to Outdoor Classroom, a nature-based program designed to foster team building and self-discovery in the outdoors. Sixth year students will venture further afield on the Senior Trip, a four night stay at a location of their choosing as they explore a social justice issue the cohort is passionate about.

Transition Events: As your child approaches a developmental transition, learn more about what you can expect from them and from Summit at a transition event. These occur for children moving into age 3, age 5, age 6, and age 9 which correspond to Children’s House, Kindergarten (within the Children’s House program), Lower Elementary, and Upper Elementary.

Curriculum Night: Each year, the teaching team presents a different strand of the Montessori curriculum and how it evolves from Beginners through Upper Elementary. Deepen your understanding of the Montessori curriculum, developmental changes in your child, and how a Summit education prepares students for the world ahead of them. The overview that starts this evening covers one curricular strand from Beginners through Upper Elementary, allowing you to see what’s ahead for your child in that area of study.

Next Schools Night: Admissions professionals from a variety of area middle and secondary schools offer their insight on the transition between Summit and a next school, talking about the admissions process, how Montessori students are prepared in comparison to traditionally  schooled children, the transition for Montessori students, and highlight Summit graduates thriving at their next schools. This event is typically held every other year.

Montessori in the Long Run: Your decision to pursue a Montessori education for your child has short and long-term implications for their growth and trajectory in life. Montessori in the Long Run highlights our Summit alumni and their parents at various stages of the alumni trajectory allowing you to hear directly from them what they value about their Montessori education. This event is typically held every other year.

Events Spotlighting Older Children: Most events at Summit are open to all caregivers, regardless if the students sharing their work are at your child’s level. It can offer you great insight on later levels of schooling to attend an event geared towards families with older children. Project/Science Fair, Night of the Arts, Senior Project Night, etc. allow you the chance to both support students at Summit and get a better sense of what might be ahead for your own.