Exploring the outdoors and the wonders of nature is a core element at our school, be it for toddlers in our toddler community to children in our 3-6 nursery classrooms to children in our elementary. Thanks to access to large gardens and woods nearby, our children are brought closer to nature.
To learn more about the importance of access to nature for future generations and how this will help us to become better stewards of planet earth, we recommend that you read the Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv.
Our 3-6 class particularly enjoy the singing and story telling activities that we do at circle time. Here are some of our favourite books that we have been reading this term.
Well done to our narrators, all of our foxes, owls, snakes, mice and of course our Gruffalo for our Gruffalo musical show!
We had a wonderful all-school trip in a coach to the Musée Marmottan Monet and the newly renovated Jardin d'Acclimatation which included a lovely picnic, a Monet workshop where we painted our own Monet gardens and fun in the park.
Children in our 3-6 class and 6-12 class are learning about different emotions.
Both positive and negative emotions are normal. Our emotions tell us something about ourselves and our situation.
As we grow up we become more skilled in understanding our on emotions and our feelings as well as starting to recognise how others feel. This is called empathy. These skills can help us to build better relationships with others, know our needs and understand ourselves.
Children in our 3-6 class have been busy working across all the different areas of the Montessori curriculum - including activities and material provided in the practical life, sensorial, literacy, numeracy/mathematics and knowledge and understanding of the world areas of our classroom.
We had a surprise visitor to our 3-6 class. Hetty the Hen (we weren't sure what to name her) was rescued from the road near the school. She was admired quietly by all of our pupils until we were able to track down her owner.
Many families wanted to know if she found her way home. We are happy to announce that she was brought back to her hen house safe and sound. Her owner was very grateful to the pupils of our 3-6 class for taking such good care of her after her escape. THANK YOU!
We had a wonderful carnival day which included a parade based on this year's annual theme of "The Arts". After walking around the village of St Nom, we enjoyed lots of delicious pancakes cooked by our pupils in our 6-12 class. Well done on making all your gorgeous costumes!
Congratulations to all our stars who appeared on stage for our annual Winter show. It was enjoyed by all. We hope you have a wonderfully festive time.
Thank you to all parents who made some wonderful food for United Nations day.
We thoroughly enjoyed visiting the world through our taste buds!
The children especially loved this Italian trio of pasta!
Children had fun carrying out a scavenger hunt last week. We found lots of interesting things in the forest that we then discussed in class.
Our 3-6 and 6-12 classes had a wonderful day out in the Domaine de Marly exploring the many statues in the royal park. We got the chance to become living statues ourselves which was great fun.
Our pupils are excited to use our new kitchen area in our 3-6 class which was completed over the Summer.
The children have been particularly enjoying preparing snacks in the kitchen area and having easy access to our table laying cupboard.
Welcome to all our new and returning pupils in our 3-6 and 6-12 classes! We are looking forward to an exciting and enriching new school year.
What a memorable botanical-themed end of year show. We enjoyed the dancing, singing and beautiful costumes of all of our pupils in both our 3-6 and 6-12 classes. You were all wonderful!
A magnificent day welcomed us for our annual sports day and picnic. Thanks to all the mums and dads who helped out as well as our amazing athletes in the sack race, egg and spoon, running race and other races. Mums and dads ran extremely well too!
Our 6/9 class pupils had an oxygen filled day exploring flowering trees at an Arboretum near Versailles. They're looking forward to sharing their discoveries in class this week. Thanks to all parents who helped carshare for this outing.
Children in our 3/6 and 6/12 class explored the farmland, farm equipment and agricultural techniques of yesteryear when they went to visit the Forest & Countryside school last week. We finished the day making our own bread which was enjoyed by all! Thank you to parents for accompanying us.
We had a wonderful carnival day which included a walk around our local village in our plant themed costumes. A big thank you to all parents who helped make such wonderful costumes! Thank you also to our 6/12 pupils who all made crepes in the afternoon.
We had a lovely day out in the forest last week. Claire gave us things to find on a list which she said was called a scavenger hunt. We walked to the forest which is a 10 minute walk from our school. We found lots of acorns, Y shaped twigs, different coloured leaves and lots more.
Thank you for the delicious food that you brought for United Nations day that all the pupils shared which helped us to celebrate the cultural and ethnic diversity of our school families! We hope you have a restorative and fun Autumn half-term holiday with your loved ones. Nous vous souhaitons de très bonnes vacances de Toussaint!
In keeping with our theme on the 'life of plants', children in our 3/6 class visited a local garden where we were able to do some digging and watering in order to ready a vegetable plot for the Winter. We also visited a compost heap, studied trees, found an apple tree, then cut up and tasted apples. Our class is looking forward to returning to the garden to plant some vegetables when frosty days comes to an end!
Pupils in our 6/9 class had a beautiful day out last week visiting Versailles and the King's Gardens. We not only got the opportunity to visit the gardens but also to taste edible flowers as well as an assortment of other interesting plants and herbs!
Pupils joined in a peace day circle to celebrate peace day last week. Members of our elementary class recited poems to our younger pupils and created peace day trees to help us to remember the importance of us contributing to growing peace in the world.
We had a wonderful last day of school and were treated to a fabulous show by all of our pupils around the theme of water. A big thank you to all the teachers and parents who helped with the staging of the show! We hope you have a wonderful Summer holiday with your loved ones. May you find blue sky and only water you can swim in!
A wonderful day was had on Saturday by our families who came to join us for our annual Family Sports Day and picnic. Well done to all the runners, sack race jumpers and egg and spoon race lovers as well as the mummies and daddies who joined in all the races. We had such fun!
Merci mille fois à toutes les familles qui sont venues célébrer l'anniversaire de notre école. Un grand merci particulièrement à tous les membres de notre Comité d’Organisation et aux parents qui ont fabriqué les jeux et tenu les stands, et à tous ceux qui ont apporté à manger afin d’assurer une journée pleine de sourires pour nos enfants.
Thanks so much to all the families who came to celebrate the anniversary of our schools foundation on Saturday. The sun was shining on all of us, for which we are so grateful. A big thank you in particular to our Organising Committee and to all the parents who made games and hosted the stands and those that brought yummy food for us all to enjoy.
Children in our 6-12 class went on an exploratory field trip to our local forest which is a short walk from our school. They explored the terrestrial habitat of the forest as well as the freshwater habitat of a pond which was teeming with both animal and plant life including frogs and lizards.
We had a wonderful day celebrating St Patrick's Day. Children in our 3/6 class ate shamrock cookies and made special green St Patrick's Day hats.
A big thank you to Anita who has been showing us how to explore our creative voices in art classes this year. Pupils have been exploring a wide range of mixed media throughout the year including work with papier mache, screen printing and creative work inspired by hieroglyphics.
Thank you to all parents and pupils who made a big effort to create some magical water themed costumes for our school's carnival day.
We were able to crown some kings and queens on Friday as we tucked into the 'galette des rois' which is celebrated in January.
Galettes were shared in both our nursery and elementary school, and many crowns were also made!
Love live the king! Long live the queen!
The Eco-Ecole initiative which was launched in September continues to gain momentum with the pupils from the 9-12 class evaluating their personal water usage. Here are some photos showing the results of some of their research into the area of water consumption and how to reduce our use of water.
We had a wonderful Christmas show. Thank you to all the teachers, pupils and parents who helped to make it such a special event. From the "12 days of Christmas, to the poems and the "Manif" to the snowflakes from our 3/6 nursery class who sang beautifully.....everyone had a wonderful afternoon. Now it's time for you to have a wonderful Christmas break with your families. We also want to take this opportunity to wish you a very happy new year!
We really enjoy making birthday cakes at school to help us celebrate birthdays in our 3/6 class (with teacher help of course). Chocolate cake is definitely one of our
favourites!
Last week, we had a wonderful time sitting together for our special Thanksgiving lunch which is traditionally celebrated in North America.
We ate cranberries, turkey and sweet potatoes as well as sweet corn.
We read a story about Thanksgiving and made some Thanksgiving crowns out of feathers and sequins.
We've all been busy at work this Autumn term in our Montessori classroom. Here are some photos of just a few of the 100s of different materials that we have available in our
classroom.
Children in our 3/6 class and elementary 6/9 class got their hands stuck into clay last week.
Artistic creations for the end of school year Christmas market are currently in production.... keep your eyes peeled!
We have been having fun this term taking feeding Sam our betta fish. Known as a Siamese fighting fish, they prefer to live alone rather than as a group. They can be found in the canals, rice
paddies and flood plains of countries like Thailand and Cambodia. It seems that Sam, however, rather likes living in our 3/6 classroom.
What a wonderful lunch with had all together on Friday in celebration of United Nations Day (which takes place on 24th October). A big thank you to all parents for cooking food from all over the
world. We use this day to celebrate diversity of our own student body as well as different cultures from around the world.
Notre école est inscrite au programme Eco-Ecole. Les
établissements participant à Eco-Ecole ont la possibilité de travailler chaque année sur l’un des 6 thèmes prioritaires du programme, autour desquels le projet se développe : l'alimentation, la
biodiversité, les déchets, l'eau, l'énergie, les solidarités. Nous avons choisi L'EAU comme notre thème.
L'Eco-Ecole est un programme international d’Education au Développement Durable (EDD) développé en France par l'office français de la Fondation pour l’Education à l’Environnement en Europe (of-FEEE). Cette association aide les différents acteurs de la société à comprendre la complexité du développement durable et les encourage à s'engager dans l'action afin d'accompagner la transformation de notre société. (PHOTO: Réunion de lancement)
All pupils in both our 3-6 and 6-12 classes were treated to a trip to Gally for some apply picking fun. It was a beautiful Sunny September day. Thanks to the parents who helped with car-sharing and to those who volunteered to help us pick apples. Upon returning back to class later in the day, we also got the opportunity to make their own apple sauce!
All our pupils took part in our peace day celebration today. We made 'peace day hands' which symbolised our commitment to peace and security for all children around the world. Children in our elementary classes read poems about peace in both French and English. We then sang some songs about peace before hanging our peace day hands on the branches of one of the trees in our children's garden.
We are very much looking forward to seeing everyone for the new school year. If you haven't received the list of the school supplies during the Summer, please contact the school via our school
email address.
All the children had a wonderful end of year show focused on our annual theme of the Continents of the world. A big thank you to all the parents who helped make the beautiful costumes. Have a
wonderful Summer break!
The children had a wonderful day out last week visiting the Ecole de la Campagne et de la Forêt which is in Marly-le-Roi and which is run by ONF. The children got to study bees from a safe building which allowed them to observe the work of the bee-keeper while learning about the hives and how bees make honey. It was a sweet day for all of us as we also got to bring home some of the honey made by the bees!
What a beautiful day we had last Saturday for our Family Sports Day and picnic. Thanks to all parents who came along to join in the fun and activities....from the egg and spoon, to the sack race, the obstacle race and of course the mummies and daddies running races! Of course everyone was a winner!
Children in both our 3/6 class and also in our 6/12 were thrilled to have a visit from a wonderful musician who told us all about instruments from around the world. He also brought in his instruments from Africa which we were able to test out and make lots of noise with!
The children in our 3/6 class had a lovely day out at the Musee Promenade in Marly le Roi last week. A wonderful curator showed our class around the museum, then invited us all to carry out
a theatre workshop related to the animals we had seen at the museum. A fascinating day out.
Children in our 3/6 class had 'Worm Week' last week which included a couple of visits to a local garden.
Pupils learned about the importance of composting and how household waste can become food for worms. During 'Worm week' where they got the chance to observe worms up close and to draw them.
Children also took part in worm observations. Do worms would prefer light or dark conditions? Do they like damp or dry conditions? Do prefer eating lettuce or cheese?
The use of the colour boxes is just one of the many activities offered as part of the Sensorial work available in our 3/6 Montessori classroom.
The purpose and aim of Sensorial materials are to isolate the senses so that a child can acquire specific, clear information and then to be able make classifications related to
his/her experiences. This is turn prepares the child for mathematical work later on. Montessori believed that sensorial experiences begin at birth and then continue to develop throughout life. In
our 3/6 Montessori classroom we continue to develop and refine all of the child's senses which helps the child to develop a deep understanding of the world around her/him, encouraging her/him to
explore it even further.
Friday was a day of fun as all of our pupils were invited to hunt for chocolate eggs in our children's garden.
All bunnies returned home with an Easter basket full of lots of delicious chocolate treats.
....what a wonderful way to welcome in Springtime.
We all had a wonderful St Patrick's day at the end of March. We each wore something green to school, we danced some Irish jigs and then made some special St Patrick's Day decorations. Lots of fun
was had by all.
Snow, snow and more snow...and a few eskimos too with their dog sleighs....
We prepared an Arctic adventure picture to place above our practical life activity shelves.
This project is part of our annual theme on the 'Continents'.
We are carrying on our virtual journey around the world and will be visiting North America next.
When ages are mixed, older children become guides to the younger ones, learn and teach others around them. Social development is one of the main benefits of this mixed age grouping.
Children also become sensitive to the needs of others as they get older and have role models that express concern, engage in mutual help, show empathy and share their newly acquired skills.
Here we see one of our students from our 6-12 class reading to our one of our younger students in the 3-6 class.
Thanks to all the children who put on a wonderful end of term show and wowed all of the audience with snowmen, snowflake and jingly songs as well as French poems and a reworked version of the play The Little Match Girl.
We wish all families a very happy, relaxing and joyful holiday. All of the teachers look forward to seeing you in the New Year.
"The first essential for the child's development is concentration. It lays the whole basis for his character and social behavior. He must find out how to concentrate, and for this he needs
things to concentrate upon. This shows the importance of his surroundings, for no one acting on the child from outside can cause him to concentrate. Only he can organize his psychic
life."
Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind p 202, Chap 22.
Maria Montessori's observations led her to see that concentration was, in fact, the key to the natural development of the child. She saw that concentration was not something that could be taught or enforced, but that it was, instead, a vital characteristic of human growth and a demonstration that innate psychic needs were being satisfied.
Read more about the Montessori Method.
Children in our 3/6 class love getting involved in art projects. We have been giving them the chance to show their creative skills in a number of ways this term through Autumn paintings, leaf
rubbings, pumpkin decoration, Diwali decorations, sock puppets and these fun 's' for snake pencil decorations.
Thank you to all parents and children who brought the wonderful food yesterday to help us celebrate United Nations Day.
We also enjoyed singing by children from our 6-12 group who sang The "Kids Peace song" which told us that "people come in different sizes, colours, shapes and names. Though we're different on the outside, inside we're the same".
We would like to wish all of our pupils a very relaxing and enjoyable half-term break. Please do come back feeling refreshed and rejuvenated for the second half of the Winter term
Indigenous Australian Art (also known as Australian Aboriginal art) is the oldest form of art in the world. Rock art, paintings and engravings can be found across
Australia. Dot paintings were particular used to paint stories and legends in caves. As we are exploring the continent of Oceania and visiting Australia this month
in our geography lessons, we invited pupils at school to experiment with Australian dot art painting.
We used cotton buds to help us to develop our dot art paintings. We used three traditional colours: yellow (representing the sun), brown (representing the soil), and orange (representing the
desert sand). The concentration while this work was being carried out was very impressive.
The children and staff of Etre et Découvrir would like to wish you a very happy and loving peace day!
Nous vous souhaitons une heureuse journée de la paix.
LE LIEN, le magazine de l'association Montessori de France a publié une page à propos de notre Discovery Day.
Nous vous invitons à le lire et le 'liker' sur notre page sur
Facebook.
The magazine published by the Association Montessori de France has recently published an article about our Discovery Day. We invite you to read more about this on our Facebook page, and please don't hesitate to 'like' it!
We had a very enjoyable day co-creating our school charter during DISCOVERY DAY. Children and parents were invited to imagine the school of their dreams (and the school of their nightmares) during a fun and action packed day. Children got to see a 3D printer in action and co-created their own toy, they did some yoga, a treasure hunt and participated in the fun workshops that were set up throughout the day. We also had a wonderful family picnic together.
This special collaborative day was organised through a parent who works as a consultant and brought together a wonderful team of volunteers who made it all possible. A big thank you to all involved!
Friday was a very musical day as it was the 'FETE DE LA MUSIQUE'. Each child was invited to bring in an instrument. We had the chance to listen to guitars, pianos, cellos as well as a range of other musical instruments. Thank you to the parents who came in to play for us as well as all of our children to showed off their wonderful musical talents.
We had such an exciting day last week on our field trip to Thoiry. It began with an enjoyable bus ride, then recreation as we waited for the zoo to open.
Once inside we visited the drive-through safari. Ostriches, girafes, antelopes, zebras and other species roamed freely around us.