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!

The Primary students have started a long unit on learning how the human body works. This past week included the study of respiration and circulation. After having studied nutrition and digestion in the previous unit, we knew that the body needs nutrients. We learned that oxygen has needed nutrients as well as food. The lungs and heart work together to bring oxygen to the blood.

Works on the shelf helped us explore respiration and circulation including puzzles, a stethescope, models and a science experiment using balloons to see how our diaphragm pulls air into the lungs.

Upper Elementary has been studying Astronomy. They shared some of their favorite work with their Primary partners. Students demonstrated day and night with the Tellurium sun and earth model, showed them simulated solar systems, stars, and galaxies using Universe Sandbox, helped them match three-part cards, and read books to them. They loved answering their partners’ questions about the universe.

Primary’s continent studies moved to Europe! We have been talking about France—the land of croissants, baguettes, famous art and artists, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and the Tour de France.

France has so many visually exciting aspects that the children dove right into exploring. They have been assembling puzzles of famous monuments and using a punch of the Eiffel Tower. One of our most popular works has been the bicycle that we mounted on blocks so that children could ride the Tour de France in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. They have been so excited to don a maillot jaune (or yellow jersey), helmet, and gloves and ride with all their might. We have had a child on the bike non-stop!

We have also been studying the children’s author/illustrator Hervé Tullet, who happens to be from France. Tullet’s books have fun interactive games that the children have come to adore. We made a collaborative sticker dot collage a la his most famous book, “Press Here.” We also learned basic color theory with the help of the book “Mix It Up.”

Last on our study of France was an Art History lesson about ballet. On Friday, we were thrilled to have a student from the Upper Unit, who happens to be a ballerina, visit our classroom. She talked about studying to be a ballerina for the last six years. She shared all of the different roles in the ballets that she has performed. So far, she has been on stage in The Nutcracker six times and has danced in other classic ballets like Coppélia and The Sleeping Beauty. We ended the visit by learning some of the positions of arms and feet used in ballet. The children all loved learning the movements and dancing around.