Mindfulness is a practice we use in our classroom every day. We are using the Mindfulness curriculum designed by Mindful Schools and practiced across the country in many different school settings. The curriculum is structured to present a concept each week for intentional practice, which builds on concepts presented previously. Within this structure, mindfulness is defined as "paying attention to what is happening in the present moment." Mindfulness can help us pay attention to many things, and can help us calm down when we are angry, sad, frustrated, or in the midst of any difficult emotion.  This practice can also help us feel happy and help us focus on our tasks. The first lesson was having a mindful body, keeping still, and listening to the sounds in the environment. The second lesson was on mindfulness of breathing, paying attention to the rhythm of our breath, and finding an anchor place in our body for our breath to return to when our mind beg...

“I believe that acquiring a new language happens best through JOY.” One of the stories that Lower Elementary students are working on is La Selva: The Jungle .  We looked at the Africa map, listened to some African music, made masks and drawings, and then  performed a play. One of the favorite things in Lower Elementary is to identify and summarize the main point and significant details of a story.  The students also like to predict what will happen in the story. Middle Elementary students have finished the novel Las aventuras de Isabela .   This novel has high frequency vocabulary and grammatical structures.  This story takes place in Guanajuato, Mexico, and the students had a chance to see pictures of the city.  I asked the students how many places they recognize in the story and which places they would like to visit. Students  summarize and draw the story. The students chose one ...

Early Childhood artists learned about the work of the most international prestigious Spanish architect and designer,  Antonio Gaudi . They viewed several pieces of his work including his stained glass work.  The students designed their own version of a stained glass out of melted crayon shavings.  "The New Year is off with a bang with our Early Childhood musicians! We began with discovering new rhythm and tonal patterns. The children are successfully playing Mouse  Mousie  as their duple rhythm ensemble piece. It's played on resonator bars for melody and a variety of percussion instruments to layer complementary rhythms. This year, I'm consistently introducing triple meter activities during each class in a variety of new songs. Its important that the children continue to experience the success they have earned so we are sure to maintain and revisit our previous material. Their creativity and ability to express themselves through music and movement is gr...

Handwriting is an important part of our Language curriculum, which includes speaking, writing, and reading.  At Abintra, we teach the cursive method of writing from the beginning.  Cursive writing corresponds developmentally to the physical and mental needs of the EC child.  Children in a Montessori environment learn cursive in steps.  They begin learning how their sounds correspond with written letters with the Sandpaper Letter lessons, tracing each letter with the first two fingers of their dominant hand and verbalizing the sound the letter makes.  Then they create the same letters in a sand tray, increasing their sense of touch while connecting the shape of the letter to its sound. Next, the letters are written on a chalkboard. After practicing many times with the chalkboard  or whiteboard, the child is introduced to paper and begins to learn how to write in cursive with fluid movement.  The final step in the sequence is to write o...

Our production of "Alice in Wonderland" was a delightful success.  The children were amazing in their ability to memorize their lines, entrances and exits, and blocking. They were unanimously supportive of each other, providing lines when someone forgot, reminding each other of where to be and when to be there, making sure that they had their props, and creating their costumes and props. Several who had asked for "little" parts expressed the desire for a larger part next time. This intense work helped them to bond with each other in a more empathic way. Numerous studies have demonstrated that students engaged in drama often experience improved reading comprehension, maintain better attendance records, and are generally more engaged in school. Drama contributes to a student's understanding of the work being performed and can help develop a better understanding of other works and of language and expression in general, including story recall, re...

How to stretch a single lesson into hundreds of interesting activities. Caroline Cercone, a Nashville potter and Abintra mother, collaborated with Lower Elementary students on a recent tile project that depicted a story in Spanish.  Each student prepared a sentence in Spanish with an illustration, which they transferred on a clay tile using sgraffito: a technique scratching directly into clay or through a layer of slip with a pointy tool. They learned about the American studio potter Jan Edwards who loves to travel  and draw.  She uses her travel sketches as the beginning of her work  when drawing on pots and tiles using sgraffito. What a wonderful journey for all of us! Middle Elementary and some Lower Elementary students are knitting beautiful items. They all look forward to the last minutes of Spanish class to listen to music or our Spanish novels while they knit or weave.  One of the projects is to knit squares to make blankets that will be donat...

As Early Childhood artists learn about the  Caribbean  in their class, they created Molas:  Folk-art from Panama.  They learned about layering, adding details, focusing, and what molas are used for. Early Childhood artists learned about the different layers of the rain forests in South America and created these rainforest collages.   Early Childhood artists brighten a gloomy day by painting rainbows in the sky. Early Childhood A  artists created self-portraits to contribute to the school-wide collaboration of this years yearbook cover. Early Childhood B artists learned about the portraits of Frida Kahlo and created their self-portraits inspired by her work. I'm so proud that all of my Early Childhood musicians returned from their Winter Break remembering their rhythm patterns and our ensemble piece. Their focus has strengthened when each of them are on the melody instrument. It's difficult not to wander to your neig...