July and Early August 2021: See How We Grow!

It's official folks, our first full Summer Session at CMC is a wrap! As many of us prepare for the School Year Session ahead and a few leave our community for new adventures, please join me in taking a look back at the fun and the growth we've experienced over the last six weeks.

The photos and videos below are arranged chronologically to highlight the budding and blooming connection, confidence, and independence we observed across our community as our summer unfolded.

Rita grapples with some cool new boots and Amelia builds her capacity to organize space and concepts.

Above, Hannah marshals all her emergent phonemic awareness and phonetic knowledge to write 'cone' using the movable alphabet. Below, Roshan and Yazan get a bit of extra pincer grasp practice in while using the sidewalk chalk on our brick patio one morning.

I normally don't go in for angel symbolism but this was too funny to leave out. That's my bracelet, a favorite fidget toy of the nap and rest crew before zonking out each day.

Above, Carsten and Dávid use vinegar, water, and paper towels to leave a streak-free shine on our snack buffet sneeze guard. Below, someone got "artsy" with some acorns and wood chips.

Israel practices binding things shut and together with rubber bands while Roshan watches and learns.

Hannah helps Wally stay focused on his 45 bead layout work.

The end results of matching objects to the first sound/letter of their name. Clockwise from top left: bead cube; bucket; jar; cone; color tablet; scissors; smelling bottle; number rod; pin puncher; pencil; pencil holder.

Soccer Club takes a left turn for some as they discover cones can also be worn as funny hats. Introducing the CMC Cone Heads (no relation or resemblance to the original SNL skit or cast members)!

Amelia welcomes turning five with our Birthday Walk ritual one morning.

Big jumps over (and through) a favorite little puddle:

A big thank you to Alyssa's eldest daughter Kayla for documenting a very happy session of Kidding Around Yoga on July 14th.

Our new friend Oliver strikes a funny pose as he works with two cylinder blocks for the first time.

Here's more beautiful early phonetic writing efforts with the help of our large Movable Alphabet!

The addition of a small amount of paint this summer has reinvigorated imaginative play with our collection of spare tree parts.

All the hubbub of waking up from nap and rest one day.

Rita serves herself strawberries and graham crackers one sunny Tuesday morning.

In late July, there was a real vogue for both blindfolded exploration of our Sensorial materials, above, and matching objects to the Sandpaper Letter that start their name, below.

The reintroduction of our wheelbarrow was also a big hit.

Carsten and Calvin finish up a biiiiigggg addition problem with the help of our golden beads and number cards.

New flowers and new manipulative materials brought new life to our environment throughout July and August.

Hannah does an uncanny impression of me being "in charge" of Sound Game one morning. All that Absorbent Mind stuff is no joke!

Wally, Dávid, and Carsten take play in our sprinkler very seriously one afternoon. Roshan works with the number rods to conceptualize addition in a new way.

Above, Rita experiments with an exciting new way to eat a banana. Below, Amelia experiments with writing her friend Lou's letter 'l', and Calvin prepares for his own number rod work.

If you have not had the chance to meet our new team member, Yung, in person at CMC this summer, the video below will be a great introduction! Yung comes to us with over 20 years of experience in Montessori education and is a graduate of two different Montessori training programs at the Children's House level. She will be working as the Assistant in Children's House East this fall in preparation for stepping into the Guide role at CMC when the time is right later this School Year Session.

Lou looks on as Hannah reads an old favorite (that she has memorized) and takes showing off his fancy glitter nail polish very seriously.

On the last Monday of our summer together, Amelia and her mother surprised us all with a delivery of six Monarch butterflies just emerged or just emerging from their chrysalis or pupa stage. Amelia then showed us all how to gently release the fully-emerged butterflies while we were outdoors!

The last weeks of summer also saw the return of an old favorite, the pink tower, to Children's House East. Our newest community members were quickly engaged by its many challenges!

Unfortunately, our last week together this summer also brought with it waves of heat, rainy weather, and illness. A big thank you to our whole community and especially our dedicated team for sticking it out and/or staying at home and/or making the most of a very tough week!

We don't normally find our Morning Work Cycle supportive of sleep but very little was normal about our last week of summer!

Here's the very last reading work of our busy year together. It highlights the role the green sandpaper letters (two letter combinations representing a common sound in English like 'oy' in boy or 'sh' in fish) play in common words.

Oliver looks on and offers some feedback as Calvin assembles the brown stairs with the goal of maximizing marble movement.

Little fuzzy spheres were a popular addition to Alyssa's last session of Kidding Around Yoga this year! We're hopeful we'll be able to welcome Alyssa back to CMC for another Yoga class later this School Year Session when pandemic conditions once again improve.

Lou prepares to paint one last "tree cookie" before summer is out. . . while also inadvertently impersonating a teenager working at a fast food joint!

On Thursday and Friday, we all helped to paint murals to say goodbye to our friends planning to move on to new programs and adventures with the start of a new school year! (Mia's family was still finalizing their plans for the school year on our last Friday together and we did not want her to feel left out should it turn out to be her last day with us at CMC.) We will miss all who do not return after their many weeks and months of contributions to our community, big and small!

And then - with just seven children remaining - we celebrated the end of summer some more with a 7ft, inflatable giraffe sprinkler (what else would do)!

During our final outdoor clean up, I came across some truly beautiful art work on the pavement near our fence's main gate. It made me very proud of the little community we have built at CMC over our first year of operation! We are all looking forward to forging new connections and finding new ways to support our community in the year ahead!