October 2025
Peek Inside Lower Elementary
BLACK BEAR
Dear Families,
We are so thrilled to see another joyful and productive month go by! October finally brought cooler weather, and with that, more time to extend work into our environment outdoors.
We hope your October break offered a chance for rest and resetting. The children have returned with fresh energy, and it's been beautiful to see them reengage with the classroom community and their work.
The children continue to get busy with follow-up of lessons, creatively producing extensions to reinforce their knowledge. We’ve seen dioramas, charts, going outs, sewing projects and much more!
We are so grateful to our wonderful parent volunteers who poured their time, creativity, and love into creating our class auction project! Your dedication helped bring a beautiful vision to life, and the children were so proud to be part of it. We invite all families to preview the auction projects from each class in the gym on October 28, from 7:45 to 8:45 AM. Thank you for helping make this such a meaningful experience for our community!
Ms. Laura continues to help nurture and beautify our outdoor environment, sharing her care and knowledge with the children. Ms. Carmen remains attentively tuned into the needs of our community, offering Spanish language immersion and cultivating a love for sewing among the children.
Parent-teacher conferences are going wonderfully—it’s such a meaningful time to touch base with each of you. Thank you for taking the time to connect with us and for sharing in your child’s Montessori journey.
As always, we deeply appreciate your trust and support.
Warmly,
Ms. Rebeca & Ms. Carmen
COYOTE
Dear Coyote Families,
As October comes to a close, our classroom community has grown even closer. The children are moving with greater purpose and independence, caring for their environment, and growing in respect for one another. It’s beautiful to see how their sense of responsibility and joy in learning continues to blossom.
In language, the children have been exploring the power of words through storytelling and reading. Many have been inspired to write their own research projects, share them with friends, and illustrate their ideas with care and creativity. In math, there has been a deepening interest in long division, fractions, least common multiples and the geometric solids, with older students taking on the role of guide to help younger classmates.
Our cultural studies this month focused on the interconnectedness of our world. The children have been sharing stories about places that are special to them. These lessons have sparked wonderful conversations about belonging and stewardship.
As you may know, I am taking a short medical leave returning after Veteran’s Day. During this time, Ms. Bonnie will guide the classroom alongside our wonderful assistants, Ms. Maria and Ms. Dalia. Ms. Rebeca and Ms. Brook are also supporting with math, science and reading help. The children already have strong relationships with them, and our daily routines will remain consistent and peaceful. I am confident that the classroom will continue to thrive in its harmony and sense of purpose.
Thank you for the warmth and understanding you have shown. I hold deep gratitude for this community and the care that flows between home and school. I look forward to returning soon and hearing about all the children’s discoveries in my absence.
With peace and appreciation,
Ms. Samantha & Team
Peek Inside Upper Elementary
FALCON
Dear Falcon Families,
We have had such a full and exciting month in our classroom! October has been buzzing with learning, creativity, and hands-on exploration. The children have shown so much enthusiasm as they dive into new projects and build on their skills each day.
Math
Students are continuing to strengthen their math fact fluency and are becoming more comfortable completing their follow-up booklet work with independence. Depending on their level, some groups have been exploring square roots, polygons, geometric solids, and introductory algebra concepts.
Language & Reading
In writing, the children are working hard to build strong paragraphs and are learning how to revise and edit their work thoughtfully. In reading, they have started their own book journals—recording key vocabulary with page numbers, noting important character information, and writing chapter summaries to reflect on what they’ve read.
Science
We launched our first dissection activity of the year with owl pellets! The children carefully used tools to extract and identify bones to determine the owl’s diet—this was definitely a favorite for many! Other students are studying states of matter and observing how temperature can change them.
History
We are continuing our exploration of early peoples of the Americas, including the Aztec, Inca, Algonquin, Pueblo, and Iroquois cultures. We have also begun discussing early European exploration and what travel by ship was like in the 1500s.
Music & Art
In music, we have been learning about Johann Sebastian Bach and practicing rhythm through clapping patterns. In art, the children created beautiful sugar skulls for our Dia de los Muertos altar — a colorful celebration of culture and remembrance.
Going Outs
We enjoyed a wonderful Going Out to Agritopia Farms, where students made basil salt and learned about Victory Gardens. We also experienced a virtual performance from Trio Guadalevín, which connected perfectly with our studies of early American cultures.
Class Projects
We are putting the final touches on our country research projects and can’t wait to share them with you next month! Our auction project — a hand-embroidered pillow — is now complete, and we are so proud of how it turned out.
We hope to see you at the auction on November 1st! Thank you for your continued support and partnership. We are grateful for everything you do.
Warmly,
Ms. Emily and Ms. Carla
ROADRUNNER
Dear Roadrunner Families,
We started October off with a field trip to Agritopia's Farm. During the field trip students learned about clearing out sunflower beds, how to make basil salt and how food was rationed during the World Wars. Students also tried tomato jam; however, the consensus was that strawberry jam tastes better. We were able to practice crossing a main road as well as walk a fairly long distance together as a group. It was pleasing to witness how students communicated, verbally and non-verbally, to complete the walk safely and successfully.
Students have been working diligently on their country research projects. Each student is taking the information they gathered in August and September and creating paragraphs. We've explored the writing process deeper and have introduced peer editing. While writing can pose as challenging, everyone has stepped up to the challenge and have been producing beautiful, well thought out work.
Students have had the opportunity to choose their own partner/s and books for Book Club. We are focusing on character development, setting, vocabulary words and chapter summarization. Walking in our room around 12:45p you could hear a pin drop - students are engrossed in their novels and afterwards carry deep conversations about their books. There are a handful of students who are already on their second book and need to make a trip to the library!
Our class have been busy taco bees getting ready for Taco Tuesday (October 28th from 10a-1p!) Every student has had a say as to how the event should be run and what's on the menu. The creativity has been inspiring and we can't wait to serve up some delicious tacos (and of course, Ms. Juany's famous mac and cheese!)
We want to offer a massive thank you to our parent coordinators! They have worked endlessly to help our class create an incredible class project as well as gather items for our class basket. We hope everyone can attend the Esperanza Gala (November 1st!)
I appreciate all the continued support as Lauren is out taking care of her sweet baby. We've had the opportunity to spend a bit of time with Harmony and patiently await Ms. Lauren's return.
Warmly,
Ms. Catie and Ms. Juany
