We love hearing from former Abintra students and learning where they are now. In the coming weeks we'll be sharing updates from Abintra alumni! Today we're featuring Anna Zeitlin, Abintra class of '01. "Abintra fueled my curiosity and gave me the drive to pursue my areas of interest." Anna Zeitlin - Artist, Milliner, Designer Anna poses with hats from her Fanny and June line. Anna graduated from Abintra in 2001 and went on to attend Hume-Fogg Academic High School in Nashville. She received her Bachelor's degree from Columbia College Chicago, where she studied film and video. During her college career, Anna also studied abroad, spending time at Dublin City University and Paris American Academy. You can now find Anna working as an art gallery assistant or designing and making hats for her line Fanny and June. Her handmade hats have been worn on the TV show Nashville , on the runway, and at Steeplechase (Nashville's version of the Kentucky Derby).

The hum of activity often turns into a buzz as children are thinking, planning, collaborating, researching, and working.  On any given day you can see individuals pursuing their interests, while pairs and small groups of students work together to complete research on common interests. Several students are currently working with fractions - equivalents, adding and subtracting like fractions, and multiplying fractions by a whole numbers.  Some students are learning to draw a floor plan of the classroom by sketching a rough draft, filling in the measurements, and drawing a scale model on graph paper. Individual and collaborative research is varied:  the bearded dragon, ancient China, the margay, poisonous snakes, Ireland, and building shelters like early humans.                          We are looking forward to warmer weather and being able to explore the biology of the campus.

The Sylvie Stewart Coin Drive has been taking place during the month of March at Abintra. Children are encouraged to bring in loose change to support the Tuition Assistance Fund. Each classroom has a collection jar so students can see the coins collected. This fundraiser was created by former student Will Stewart in memory of his sister, Sylvie, an EC student who passed away from brain cancer in 2000. The guides have shared the Sylvie Stewart story with each classroom in an age-appropriate way so the children understand what their coins support. Early Childhood students have  received lessons on counting money and have been involved in the process of keeping up with their totals.    We appreciate those of you who have contributed to the coin drive thus far, and would like to especially acknowledge a former student (whose sister currently attends Abintra) who spent a weekend afternoon selling cookies outside of a fire station to raise mo

   Handwriting is an important part of Montessori language arts curriculum. In Lower Elementary, writing is taught through a logical, step-by-step process. Because children differ in their level of coordination and small muscle development essential for writing, they progress as their mastery permits. Students have instruction, practice, and opportunity to improve their writing skills so they can feel proud of neat and quality writing work. The Montessori early childhood curriculum provides preparation for handwriting, such as exercising the pincer grip and practicing mechanical skills of handwriting through several exercises including gripping Knobbed Cylinders, moving the Number Rods, tracing the Sandpaper Letters, and using the Movable Alphabet. Students in Lower Elementary add exercises that require increased dexterity, including pin punching continents, which helps strengthen the hand for controlled writing. Lower Elementary students use pencils with g

A young Early Childhood student works with the Knobbless Cylinders, a Montessori material that allows the child to distinguish size, depth, height, and width, and prepares him/her for base 10 numeration.

Abintra has had an exciting month full of talented visiting artists! The  Nashville Opera  visited us and did their wonderful performance of   The Billy Goat Gruff . We also had a visit from the  Soul Singers of the United Lands .  These four artists performed songs from and shared information about their homelands of Croatia, Nigeria, Taiwan, and Uruguay.  During a cultural unit about the Native Americans, Early Childhood B students identified, discussed, and drew different symbols used by tribes from the Great Plains, Plateau, (brown paper) and Southwest (gray paper).    Early Childhood and Lower Elementary artists enjoyed creating pottery today with Abintra parent Caroline of  Caroline Cercone Pottery . To integrate their classroom studies of the Second Great Lesson, Coming of Life, Lower Elementary artists created fossil art. Lower Elementary students are learning their parts and songs for  Stone Soup  which is a short mu