One of the most important purposes of the Abintra Annual Fund is to cover the cost of special projects on campus - ideas that originate from the students and are transformed into realities that enhance the learning environment. Recent projects are the Honey House, farming tools, pottery studio, and outdoor instruments. The Honey House is our most recent addition to the campus. Built to support our Upper School apiary program, the Honey House holds bee-keeping equipment like student-sized bee suits, a honey extractor, beeswax melter, honey bottling station, and bee frames. The Upper Elementary classroom received a grant from Urban Green Labs in 2016 to fund apiary projects, but the production of the Honey House came mostly from the Annual Fund. Abintra's apiary program allows students to experience first-hand the care and keeping of bees and how to maintain healthy hives. Abintra's on- and off-campus farms provides Upper School students the opportunity to work togethe

Abintra is not unique to the challenges that other schools face, and our children aren't unique to those of their peers.  What is unique is how these challenges are faced. As board president, I always remind myself that Abintra is in the people business: little people, your little people, ours. I got a reminder at our past board meeting. I stopped for a moment when I heard one of our board members (who is also an Abintra alum ) say, "Abintra prepares you to be a human being." I asked him to repeat it so I could soak in the depth of this statement. Change is inevitable; transformation is a mindful set of choices. The decisions made by the Abintra team are mindful, and with your children in mind. Everyone who works in this community is preparing our children to meet the challenges of the future. And it starts at the top. Sherry Knott is celebrating her 25th year as a part of the community.  Over the past 25 years she has transformed from be

Abintra Admission Open House is Sunday, November 12 from 2-4 PM. Our faculty and staff are excited to meet you and share what we love about our campus community and what makes Montessori at Abintra unique. Here are some helpful tips and info about the event: The event is for adults only. Children will have the opportunity to visit their prospective classrooms further along in the application process.  Our campus is located atop a hill. Parking is available in spaces up the hill, on our two lower lots (you will see them coming up the hill), or on our additional lot next to the AT&T building. Check-in is on the Early Childhood porch under our covered pavilion. The schedule for the day is as follows: 2:00 - 2:45 - Info session time slot #1 Choose from: Early Childhood (ages 3-6) Lower Elementary (ages 6-8) Upper Elementary (ages 8-12) 2:45 - 3:15 - Guided campus tour with director Sherry Knott 3:15 - 4:00 - Info session time slot #2 The information fro

In Lower Elementary, students are hearing Spanish all through their work cycle - some lessons in math, science, and geography are conducted in Spanish. The students ask a question and I answer in Spanish. They are also starting to use Spanish words in their conversations. Children are like sponges at this age, so it continues to be a great time to be immersed in language education. Students are reading Spanish books that they will later read aloud to their friends in group.   We learn by repetition and movement. The technique we use is called TPR - Total Physical Response. It uses movement to reinforce our work with words. As I say a command, the students act it out. The group interaction keeps students engaged. Students are very interested in learning a new language and always ask for lessons. They write their own sentences using the Spanish Command cards and other vocabulary cards. Since everything is so concrete, the lessons are very comprehensible for the student