Students in Grades 1 and 2 have been working on a complex, multi-phase, student-driven project inspired by their own concerns. Students noticed litter and debris, in addition to some destruction of the habitat, on a nature walk and felt called to action. “It’s not supposed to be like this! This isn’t okay!” they proclaimed. 

Stemming from their desire to take care of our environment, students began a long term project, aptly named “Nature Rangers”, with the goal of removing litter and debri, as well as preventing litter and debri through various forms of community education, and eventually habitat recovery. 

Last week we finished up phase two of our multi-step plan; litter prevention by using signage to encourage locals to refrain from littering. 

Students designed their own signs, came up with the best way to place the signs (wood stakes), contacted an experienced community member to request a workshop on putting the signs together, looked up geographic maps on property lines for where to place the signs, gathered materials, and, finally (much planning takes much time), placed the signs in the designated “important locations”. 

Stay posted for the next, exciting phases of our Nature Rangers explorations!

Our Human Body study continued last week by looking at bones and muscles. As we learned about our skeleton, we were amazed to learn that we have 206 bones in our bodies. Our largest bone is our upper leg and the smallest is in our ear. We discovered that we could feel many bones in our bodies—our knuckles, hips, ribs, and shoulder blades. Bones give us shape and protect important organs like the brain. A skeleton, half the size of our students, allowed our class to see the bones beneath their skin. Another of the works in the classroom was a full set of human x-rays. Children took time to browse each x-ray, comparing them to their own bodies, then trace them using a light-box.

We also talked about our muscles. Stretching and releasing a partially inflated balloon helped to explain how muscles expand and contract. We learned that the muscles in our face help us smile and make silly faces. We reviewed our study of the digestive system and discovered it depends on muscles, starting with the tongue and including peristalsis. A piece of hosiery along with easter eggs to represent a bolus was a hands on way of seeing how food moves to the stomach in waves of muscle contractions.

McGuffey will be on a two-hour delay today.

In an effort to reach as many possible families in Ohio who may be impacted, the Ohio Department of Education has asked all Ohio schools to share the information below with parents by email and on our website. McGuffey Montessori is neither a defendant nor a claimant in this lawsuit.

The State of Ohio, the Governor, the Ohio Department of Education, and other state-level defendants to a class action lawsuit have reached a proposed settlement and have requested our school’s assistance in informing students and parents of the proposed settlement. A link to the settlement is below. 

Legal Notice—Doe vs Ohio

For a while now, Primary students have been asking about the buckets that are kept in the classroom’s outdoor shed; most of them were gone. Today, everything that had been missing was brought out and placed in the middle of our morning meeting. Primary teachers explained that when items aren’t put away, it shows that the work is not important. If a work isn’t important, we don’t put it out as a choice. We were all stunned to see how many outdoor works had been left out.

After a group discussion, students expressed that the items are important. They agreed they could show how important they are by putting them away when finished. A few children wondered if it would be a good idea to reduce how many loose items could be used at at time, from five down to one. Everyone agreed to try one work at a time and to talk again in the future to see how the care of our outdoor environment is working. If it’s going well, the class might decide to change how many things could be chosen. We finished our morning meeting by dismissing the students one by one to pick an item from the middle of our meeting space and mindfully place it back into the shed. As each child carefully chose something, the room was silent.

McGuffey is proud to uphold high standards for responsibility and independence. Primary students as young as three years old know they can solve problems and work together as a community to make their environment and school a better place.

As part of our study of the human body, we are grateful to have hosted a visit from dentist, Derek Ross and dental hygienist, Jaimie Ross. They told us about the proper ways to brush our teeth and how to floss. We got to practice using models and we saw how teeth fit into bone by examining real skulls. We also got to guess how much sugar is in some favorite drinks. We were all surprised! It was a wonderful reminder to brush our teeth to keep the sugar from settling in. Jaimie and Derek also brought us hard boiled eggs that had been soaked in color filled drinks like gatorade and soda. Our job was to try and brush those stains off which took a lot of work.

Thank you Jaimie and Derek!