It seems like the Montessori Lower Elementary group has been celebrating the end of the school year for weeks! Our "Musical Show" is a culmination of the school year along with some musical presentations from the Spanish Language and the Mandarin Language classes.
Recently, in the later afternoon, this Elementary group surprised me with a wonderful poster that graced the hallway entrance to their classroom. This was my greeting last week!
CELEBRATE MUSIC!
Our Elementary Musical is based on the favorite activities of the students during the past school year, especially featuring music from around the world.
Our show was developed by the students themselves, with their own "production manager" and a "stage manager", too. They decided on just about every detail of the show, including the particular musical performance pieces and their arrangements, costumes and set design, how to spend time quietly back stage, what to do about "stage fright", and brainstorming for solutions to problems that happened to come up.
Over our recent weeks of rehearsing and refining, the students really showed their emerging skills by taking responsibility for creating their own production...their own way!
In case you missed my posts about these fun musical activities, you can click on the links below:
~ NORTH AMERICAN POW WOW: Musically Montessori: Celebrating Native American Drumming and Dance
~ CHINESE RIBBON DANCE: Musically Montessori: Celebrating Chinese New Year's Ribbon Dance
~ "DING-TAP-TAP, EUROPEAN-STYLE ENSEMBLE PLAYING: Montessori Music with Rhythm Instruments
CELEBRATE COOKING!
The end-of-the-year "Cooking Festival" was a fabulous presentation by the students in Lower Elementary! With ease and grace, the children prepared, cooked and served the following yummy international dishes:
These were whipped out in a calm, orderly and "very Montessori" manner, with each small group working on one of the dishes to be served.
Once again, the group chose the dishes for the festival from the many cooking lessons they have had each Friday during this school year. Their teacher told me that some of these children had been preparing these dishes since they were 3 year olds in Preschool!
Parents, teachers and students truly enjoyed this lovely event!
CELEBRATE ART!
In May, the Lower Elementary group created an amazing Art Show that nicely featured their creative talents and the elements of Art they have been studying. Many of the pieces were based on using the tools available in the Montessori classroom, like the wonderful geometric design insets.
CELEBRATE LANGUAGE!
The Chinese Language students will be joining our Musical Show with songs and a puppet show all performed in Mandarin. Lots of hands-on, practical application of developing Mandarin as a second language, applied in a Montessori way!
Likewise, the Spanish Language group will present some recitations and songs in Spanish as part of our Musical Show. The Spanish students have a complete Montessori program based on the hallmarks of Montessori, such as color coded phonetic word play, matching/ "parts of" cards and more!
CELEBRATE SCIENCE!
In late April, this industrious little learning community of Lower Elementary kids put on a wonderful Science Fair with each child presenting a fun experiment and exploration using the scientific method. Dr. Montessori would have been proud!
CELEBRATE YOGA!
As part of the P.E. program, the Lower Elementary Group has Yoga and Meditation class each week... and it shows! This lovely group of students use their yoga breathing techniques and stretching activities throughout the day to re-focus and replenish.
For all of us Montessori educators, it is always a joy to see the wonderful progress children make during the school year in our carefully prepared environments. End-of-the-year celebrations are a wonderful venue for documenting the growth of skills developed by the group.
TREASURES!
I am so happy to have you visiting my blog today. Hope these documentations of our end of the year celebrations have given you some inspiration for celebrating the learning that has been happening in your group throughout this year!
This post is part of the fabulous link up at Living Montessori Now, where you'll find lots of other articles and resources from Montessorians world wide. Here is the link: Montessori Monday.
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