News and School Updates
Montessori Charter School Demonstrates Hands-On Approach To Math
FCPS charter school students put fun back in math with Build It! Festival
FREDERICK, MD — On February 7, 2008 from 7-8PM, Monocacy Valley Montessori Public Charter School (MVMPCS) will hold its first Build It! Festival, inspired by the Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS) program from the University of California at Berkeley, California. MVMPCS families and students will participate in various learning station activities that emphasize construction, geometric challenges, and spatial visualization.
As the school prepares for the Maryland State Assessments (MSA), organizers hope this creative approach to geometry will reinforce understanding of shapes and relationships to structures students see in real life. The Festival will connect mathematics to direct, hands-on building experiences.
“Each BUILD IT! activity has key math concepts at its core. A portion of the MSA is focused on geometric art and concepts of symmetry, transformation and reflection,” says MVMPCS teacher Ingrid Sherwood. “BUILD IT activities mirror these concepts. Our students have been working so hard to prepare for the MSAs, we thought we’d inject some fun in the process and apply math to something creative and interesting.”
Stations include “Create-A-Shape”, “Dowel Designs”, and “Polyhedra” where families can construct three-dimensional creations using snap-together triangles, squares and pentagons. B uilding materials include pattern blocks, polyhedra, and newspaper dowels. Template patterns for folding and constructing shapes and creating tangrams are provided.
Students will also demonstrate how to solve every day math problems using Montessori materials and apply them to real world applications. According to Mrs. Sherwood, “This event meshes well with our Montessori foundation. It provides a new twist on Parent Night that engages the whole family in fun, learning and math discovery.”
MVMPCS Strings Program in the Gazette!
The following article is from the Gazette.Net -
Strings rule at county’s public Montessori school
by Katherine Mullen | Staff Writer
Bill Ryan⁄The Gazette
Phyllis Freeman teaches fourth-grader Kyle Myers and fifth-grader Brad Wurzer to play the violin at the Monocacy Valley Montessori Public Charter School in Frederick Tuesday. It is the only public school in Maryland to offer instrumental music to first-, second- and third-grade students.
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The five young violinists stood with their bows poised on the strings and their eyes trained on their teacher, Phyllis Freeman.
After listening to Freeman play a simple musical phrase of A, B, and C sharp on the piano, the third- and fourth-graders at Monocacy Valley Montessori Public Charter School in Frederick were struggling to play it by ear.
‘‘If you hear it in your head, you’ll find it in your fingers,” Freeman said on Tuesday.
The budding violinists sang the notes out loud and then picked the music out on the strings without the help of sheet music.
The charter school has offered a strings program since it opened in 2002. It is the only public school in Maryland to offer instrumental music program to first-, second- and third-grade students. Most students in mainstream public schools begin playing instruments in fourth grade.
Principal Bettejane Weiss said that students who study instrumental music organize data easier in their minds and over time, develop a proficiency in math.
‘‘Music itself is very soothing to the mind,” Weiss said.
Monocacy Valley’s students have given public performances at the Frederick Coffee Company, Dancing Bear toy shop and Barnes & Noble at the Francis Scott Key Mall.
Nine-year-old Rhiannon Talbert of Myersville said she enjoyed the experience of playing publicly.
‘‘People would watch us and then we got cake,” she said. ‘‘It was awesome.”
For 45 minutes twice each week, first- through eighth-grade students at the school learn violin or cello using the Suzuki method. This method teaches children to first decode the music, then use repetition and memorization.
‘‘For these kids, music is just speaking another language,” Freeman noted.
Students do not join the orchestra until they are in middle school and have had enough instruction. Violin and cello instruction are provided at no cost to students, Weiss said, and most students rent instruments. Teachers group nearly 70 students by skill level into 12 classes held at different times in the back of the First Baptist Church on Dill Avenue, where the school is located. Freeman and two violin teachers and a cello teacher use the space behind the rows of cushioned oak pews, framed by large stained-glass windows to instruct students.
A principal violinist with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, Freeman said all of the strings teachers at the charter school regularly perform in professional orchestras. The teachers are not Frederick County Public Schools employees, but are a part of the Maryland Talent Education Center; a private music school that serves students ages 5 to 18 in the mid-Maryland area. The center contracts with the charter school to provide music instruction, Freeman said.
McKinney Voss, an eighth-grade student at the charter school, said she has played the violin since the school opened.
The 12-year-old Frederick resident said she picked up the instrument because she heard that playing a string instrument would help her reading and math skills. Five years later, it seems to have worked in improving her spatial skills, McKinney said.
‘‘I’ve noticed that since I’ve played the violin, math is not as challenging. It seems easier to get good grades,” she said.
Mrs. Sherwood's Class Opera Makes the Paper!
Each year Mrs. Sherwood works with her primary class to produce a class opera. Every student has a role (even the 3 and 4 year olds), and they help make their own costumes and stage props. This year the students performed their version of "Stone Soup: A 'Rock' Opera" on Friday, May 25, 2007 (last year they performed in "Colorville"). The students, and of course Mrs. Sherwood and Mrs. Hattenburg did another outstanding job....they even made the Frederick News Post (click here).
FNP Staff photo by Skip Lawrence
Frederick "String Fest" Benefit Concert Benefiting the MVMPCS string program
MMCI held their second benefit concert on Sunday, May 6th to support the string program at Monocacy Valley Montessori Public Charter School. The concert included their very own string pupils in addition to stellar professional string performers. The concert was a great success and the students gave a wonderful performance. MVMPCS is very proud of their strings program. For more information on the program visit click here.
To read the write up on the concert in the Frederick News Post click here.
FNP Staff photo by Skip Lawrence - Monocacy Valley Montessori music instructor Dana Rokosny tunes a violin as students prepare for the Strings Fest held at Tuscarora High School on Sunday afternoon.
Successful Fundraising Efforts:
The hard work, dedication, and many volunteer hours by the MVMPCS community during the 2005-6 school year paid off! The school raised their annual pledge drive goal of $30,000 and both of their major fundraisers (the golf tournament and silent auction) were very successful. Thank to everyone involved with the fundraising committees for all of your contributions! Thank
you to the entire MMCI community for your support and commitment to MMCI,
MVMPCS and education choice!
Photo was taken by MVMPCS student ~ Kyle Elswick
Monocacy Montessori Communities Inc. President Leanne DeNenno and board members accepts a check from the nonprofit’s golf tournament and silent auction event organizers. The golf tournament was held on May 19 at the Glade Valley Golf Course in Walkersville, and the silent auction was held on May 20 at the Bar-T Mountainside Ranch in Urbana. All proceeds go to Monocacy Montessori Communities Inc. to benefit the Monocacy Valley Montessori Public Charter School.
