Building New Opportunities A publication of Sedona Charter School Enrichment Specials K-8 Tuition-free Montessori School Classrooms Without Walls Writing: SCS Staff and GC members Welcome to the Snack Shack! Photos: SCS Staff and parents The Suzuki Philosophy Design & Editing: Jane Cathcart Sights From Our Old-Fashioned Picnic academic excellence … personal growth … small school environment Roadrunner We want to take the opportunity to thank Patrons only concert in February, and you will receive 2 free tickets and reserved our parents, students and staff for working Our strings program is unique in around all of our construction these past seating at our winter and spring concerts in that we incorporate the tenets of several months. While not ideal, we are all the 2018-2019 school year. Suzuki Philosophy into our methods of doing our best to enjoy this new progress And for those of you who may have a teaching stringed instruments. In despite the inconveniences it may cause. tendency to worry, please don’t! The sharing the origins of the We are happy to announce that our tiny playground will be rebuilt across the parking philosophy and its basic principles, home for teacher KC O’Connor was lot as soon as the workers complete the we hope to help you and your completed in September and KC is Performing Arts Classroom. It is their final children progress through their enjoying her new home. Thanks to job on campus and the final piece of the musical journey. everyone who worked on the new deck and puzzle to get campus life “back to normal.” Dr. Shinichi Suzuki was a the clean-up. With one down and two to go, We already have violinist, educator, philosopher and we are moving right along to say adios to amazing events humanitarian who based his approach to music our workers and hello to two great new after school events education on the belief that, “Musical ability is student spaces. planned for the not an inborn talent but an ability which can be classroom. We are developed. Any child who is properly trained Work continues on our Performing Arts proud to announce can develop musical ability, just as all children Classroom (PAC) with an anticipated that after receiving develop the ability to speak their mother tongue. completion date very soon. We are so grants and being The potential of every child is unlimited.” excited to be watching this dream come to a sponsored by the After realizing the implications of children the reality. We expect a great space for our City of Sedona, the world over learning to speak their native students to continue to master their stringed Parangello Players language with ease, Suzuki began to apply the instruments, play out their creativity and have exclusively chosen Sedona Charter basic principles of language acquisition to the gather for all school events. Now that the School to offer two after school workshops learning of music. In future articles we will building is nearly complete, it’s time for the for just $65 each throughout November and explore ideas of Parent Responsibility, Loving amenities. If you are looking for a place to Encouragement, Early Beginnings, Listening, spend your charitable dollars, we still need December. They held an ice cream social on Constant Repetition, Learning with Other about $10,000 to purchase chairs and campus last week to introduce these Children, Graded Repertoire and Delayed equipment for the space. opportunities to our students. Reading as they relate to playing a stringed Donations of $500 or more qualify for our Creating Joy through Dance Expression instrument. Patron's will meet Mondays and Wednesdays after In the meantime, save the Circle. Your school with a performance at 7 pm on date for our upcoming Winter name will be December 19th. Empowering Vocal Strings Concert at the Sedona on the wall Performance will meet Tuesdays and RRHS Performing Arts at the entry Thursdays with performances scheduled Center, Wednesday, of the PAC; December 8th at Sedona Sings and December 5th. Please make you will be December 22 at Tlaquepaque. Check the sure your children are invited to a school office for more details on how to PRACTICING every day! special enroll in these exciting opportunities. Integral to Montessori core is the In Amy T’s Computer Special, students inclusion of enrichment programs that are learning how to log into different stimulate children allowing them to learn academic accounts such as: Renaissance while playing and exploring creative Place, Study Island, and Typing Club. outlets. We call these classes Specials. On Their first task was to master the spelling Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and of their first and last names and then Thursday afternoons students participate in memorize their username and password. Art, Music, Physical Education and Students are also learning appropriate Cooperative Musical Chairs where no-one Computers. Each Special is designed to computer etiquette. They are learning how to leaves the game, but the chairs are slowly build community and connections between safely carry a computer and how to properly removed compelling students to work students and staff, reflecting the passion of plug it into the dock in numerical order. Our together to keep from falling off the each of our teachers. third years are logging into Renaissance Place, remaining chairs. practicing math or taking reading/math tests as Katarina’s Art class is portrait drawing. well as logging in and out of Typing Club Students are learning about the importance Students began by learning how to draw a without assistance. of stretching and heart/brain health in Amy face shape and how to divide the face into A’s PE Special. They enjoy playing with the sections to help with placement of the eyes, KC’s Music/Singing class is learning how to parachute and learning how to work together nose, mouth and ears. They practiced follow musical cues and memorizing songs. as a team to accomplish their goal. Students sketching one another and even Katarina. Students have mastered Light a Candle for are honing their coordination skills using Now the students are working on self- Peace and can sing it while simultaneously bean bags and hula hoops, moving in large portraits. After a lesson on primary and signing in sign language. Our first years have groups without bumping into each other and secondary colors and how to blend and use learned the Continent Song and take turns catching. At the end of each PE Special, pastels, students will complete their self- leading it. Second years completed musical students participate in group games like Mr. portraits with pencil and enhance them with pastel pictures, adding special touches to each Fox, Freeze Tag, Bean Bag Scramble and pastels before mounting them on colored other’s drawings. Third years are building Flip the Hoop. paper for display. Stop by our classroom community and teamwork through fun and check-out the finished projects. activities. They especially enjoy playing Maria Montessori was a proponent of distractions, and even field trips and viewed them as a necessary daily expectations of extension of the elementary classroom. the classroom, free the According to Ottawa Montessori School’s students to explore, website, “Based on her observations, enjoy, play, and work children at the second plane of together in new ways. development (elementary-age) begin to At our October fall camp out, the students find the walls of the classroom too were extremely successful in these confining. They require a wider endeavors. They demonstrated great skill at environment outside the home and planning, packing, practicing, cooking, classroom and wider social contacts to playing, working, and exploring. We had an satisfy their educational needs. In addition amazing time hiking, exploring and even to classroom materials and contacts, stargazing in Catalina State Park in Tucson. children at the age of six or seven begin to The students showed a tremendous amount yearn to explore physical and social worlds of teamwork, even Girls on the Run 5K of a larger scope. Outings present the world pitching in to help set as a classroom and allow children an up their cohorts’ tents. Saturday Nov. 10 opportunity to acclimate to their wider Each activity further physical environment and culture.” built our UE Ft. Tuthill County Park Real world skills such as meal community into more preparation and planning, working unified team, where collaboratively, and identifying plants and students enjoy Flagstaff animals are just a few of the skills that learning from and students are engaged in outside of the interacting with one Registration: 8 am classroom walls. The removal of another. Stretching: 9:30 am Our day at the Biosphere, the earth’s largest outdoor science laboratory, filled us Race Starts: 10 am with awe as well. We explored the earth’s biomes and asked many questions about how we can help our environment. Be sure to ask your child about his/her favorite activity from this awesome outing! An important part of our Montessori Middle School community is the micro- Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it, I wash my mouth out with economy (ME). The micro-economy is a chocolate. – Rita Rudner student-run business that helps to instill practical life skills in accounting, finance, Hello Everyone, marketing, and business planning, as well as In the past two newsletters we discussed oral and written communication. In addition, the importance of diet and sleep to improve the ME assists in the development of a strong student performance. In this newsletter we work ethic among our Middle School students. will discuss something that many don’t At the beginning of this year, our students realize has a big impact on academic decided to open a snack bar for the Middle to create sales.