At the beginning of each year, all of our classrooms from Children’s House to Elementary, select a country to study. During the entire year, the students study the culture, geography, and history of their selected countries.

On International Night, their classrooms are transformed by decorations, artifacts, music, food, costumes, research, artwork, and shows to represent and celebrate their chosen country.

Countries represented on International Night 2013 will include: France, Egypt, Russia, Austria, Germany, Turkey, and Israel. New this year, our toddler class will also be participating by representing Algeria.

Over the years we have seen this celebration grow and evolve into a spectacular event. Behind the festivities and celebration of International Night, however, lies the important message of tolerance, peace, and the interconnectivity we all share as global citizens. These themes provide the impetus for all of the activities and studies that the children engage in throughout the year.

Because of this festival’s popularity and limited space, this free event is open only to enrolled families, alumni, and faculty.

The research, reported in January’s edition of Psychological Science, demonstrates that young children develop complex thinking skills such as planning, monitoring, task switching, and controlling attention much earlier than previously suggested.

What does this mean for parents and educators? The structure, experiences, and socialization of a child’s early environment is an important component to shaping these higher level cognitive skills. According to the report, “…these results show that knowledge is necessary for using thinking skills, as shown by the importance of early vocabulary, but also inhibitory control and executive function skills are important contributors to children’s analytical reasoning development.”

Findings such as those in the report emphasize the importance of an enriched social and academic environment that serves to address more than the traditional ABCs of a standard preschool curriculum. The goal of any childcare program should be to teach children “to learn how to learn” and how to think and act independently.

Considering the Montessori approach was first introduced in 1907, it is a resounding testament to Dr. Maria Montessori’s insight that many of the findings and educational strategies supported by modern research are routinely employed by Montessori schools worldwide. As with any successful philosophy, Montessori education continues to grow, develop, and improve. However, it is always a great moment when new research supports what we have been doing everyday in the classroom for many years!

Read the full article in Science Daily.

The tournament will be a warm-up to prepare our team for the Wake County Chess Championship on February 10th and then the NC State Chess Championship on March 2-3.

The New School Chess Club boasts some of the best scholastic players in the state of North Carolina. The team, coached by International Master Jonathan Schroer, has enjoyed a host of successes in various prior events and has continued to grow and improve tremendously.

To participate in this event, please complete the registration form on our chess webpage.

Last year The New School Montessori Center hosted its first ever fall festival. We established a tradition in which the school celebrates, with our community, a shared vision of the vibrant growth of our school and our town. The 2011 festival was a huge success. Not only did everyone enjoy a memorable evening of fun and entertainment, but we also used the proceeds from the event for important school improvements.

On Friday, October 26, 2012, we will be continuing our tradition as we host our second fall festival, “To the Rescue.” The festival will feature carnival game booths with prizes, bouncy houses, train rides, and performers such as magician Wayne Anderson and Across the Pond DJ, Kate Steiman. If you work up an appetite bobbing for apples, Barry’s Cafe will offer mouth-watering dishes hot from the grill. This local caterer gets rave reviews from customers not only for their food, but for their work supporting local fire departments. A great fit for our “to the rescue theme!” For the adults, we will also have several vendor booths representing local businesses to browse.

Part of the school’s mission is to foster a love of nature and a sense of individual and global responsibility in our children. What better ambassadors for such a life lesson than endangered big cats? We feel teaching them about issues such as endangered big cats and empowering them with the knowledge they can have an impact is an essential part of their development as global citizens.

Each class from Children’s House through elementary have selected a big cat from the top ten most endangered list to study and create a project based on their research. This research will be presented at our school’s booth at the festival.

In light of our theme, we are partnering with the Carolina Tiger Rescue. The Carolina Tiger Rescue is a local non-profit wildlife sanctuary located in Pittsboro dedicated to protecting large cats rescued from abandonment and abusive captivity. A percentage of our proceeds from the festival will go to help with CTR’s mission.

Our partnership is also great news for our sponsors and vendors. Now they will benefit not only from our marketing, but news of their support will reach CTR’s wide fan base of over 16,000 people in the area.

We really need your help to make this event a success. To become a sponsor, vendor, donor, or volunteer, please visit our fall festival sponsor page at: http://www.montessoricenter.org/community/fall-festival-3/fall-festival-sponsors.

See you at our festival!

New School NC chess champ is featured on the front page of the Holly Springs Sun (click for full size image)

The TNS Chess Club was represented at the NC Championship by Aiden, Carter, Sydney (K-1 team), James (K-3 team), and John and Kenan (K-5 team).

We were particularly thrilled for James who achieved a perfect score to become NC State Scholastic Champion in the kindergarten through grade 3 section, making the front page of the Holly Springs Sun!

This was all on the heels of our successes at the Wake County Chess Championship. The K-1 team, consisting of Aidan, Carter, Sydney, Oliver, Alex, and Landon, took home the second place team trophy. A particularly significant victory since half or our team had never played in a tournament before.

Our K-5 team, consisting of James, Kenan, and John, also took home the second place team trophy. Again this was especially impressive since, in team chess, the teams can be any size, and the top four players’ scores are tallied. Our K-5 team, with only three players, needed every single point they scored!

Article in the Holly Springs Sun describes the success of The New School Chess Team at the NC Scholastic Championship (click for full size image).

We owe a big thanks to Brad Dill for providing some of this content and for keeping track of our chess team’s tournaments and results. To access recent chess club news, please visit Brad’s chess club page in MemberHub.

Coach Jonathan Schroer is an International Chess Master who is very active in scholastic chess in schools throughout the Triangle area.

He believes chess is not just a game. The value of chess to help children develop strong cognitive and analytical skills has long been recognized. It has been known to help children in subjects ranging from math to music and is also a great way to learn good sportsmanship. (Read more about the benefits of chess.) These benefits provide many reasons why chess has long been emphasized not only as an after-school activity for our students, but as part of the curriculum here at The New School for children ages five and older. If you are interested in signing your child up for the chess club, please contact Jonathan.

While there is still some tweaking taking place, our school news page is up and running. You may have also noticed some quick links on the home page in addition to an important announcement bar. The calendar of events page is also a good way to keep up on upcoming events.

To further our goal of being as environmentally friendly as possible and to help cut down on costs, most of our newsletters are delivered by email. These are typically sent out once per month. The New School PTO is always very active in sending frequent updates via emails. Please keep you eyes open for these important newsletters.

As always, we welcome any feedback!

We will be offering programs for infants through Upper Elementary aged students. In addition to the regular Montessori program to provide continuity, our Children’s House students can look forward to weekly water days, field trips, visitors, arts & crafts, botany, and much more. Summer school is also a great opportunity for your kindergartener, who will joining our elementary program in the fall, with extra practice in the academic areas they will be working with in August.

Meanwhile our Elementary students will be able to explore areas such as science (including a week of animal science), outdoor adventure week, art, drama, cooking, chess, and sports. Afternoons will be filled with reading, swimming, photography, music, games, and watching select videos.

Our Summer Program runs from June 4th to August 10th. Each week of the summer schedule will be led by one or two certified teachers and either assistants or interns. Check out our Summer Program pages on the website for more program information and a list of summer teaching staff.

Download a PDF copy of the 2012 summer application form here. There are limited spaces available, so make sure to submit yours before the March 16th deadline!

Join the Boxtops website and everything you buy online for your holiday gifts will help the New School, at no extra cost to you. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!

When you shop online from your favorite brands such as Target, Best Buy and Barnes & Noble, etc., a portion of what you spend earns points. As the points accumulate, the New School converts them to much-needed funds for program enhancement and school improvements.

Please sign up and do as much of your holiday shopping as you can through the program. It’s really easy and would be a great holiday gift to the New School, without any extra cost to you. Here’s what to do in three easy steps:

1. Click here for the New School Montessori Center on the Boxtops website
2. Complete the form (first and last name, birthday)
3. Enter your email and a password. Confirm your email address.

Make sure to select The New School in the drop-down menu when prompted. Then visit the site every time you shop for gifts for your family, loved ones and colleagues. As an additional help, you can post the above information to your Facebook page or share it in an email with everyone you know.

We so much appreciate your help. Thank you for everything you do for the New School!

Happy Holidays!

This year’s picnic will be a “Bring Your Own Picnic” lunch.  Bottled water and desserts will be provided by the school.  Yes, this is a change from previous years. Remember it will be outside and it will be hot, so bring chairs or blankets for you and your family, and a tent or canopy if you have one. The playground will be open for the kids, and other games will be set up for everyone.

The highlight of the picnic is always the drawing for the Raffle Baskets.  Tickets go on sale tomorrow, Wednesday April 27 and will be available through the Friday May 6.  After purchasing your tickets, drop your stub into the jar corresponding to the basket you want.  All basket drawings will be held around 12:30 at the Spring Picnic. You do not need to be present to win. For more information about the raffle contact Katie Turner (katiepar2@gmail.com).

This year’s special raffle is a great selection of Gift Cards from various local retailers and restaurants. Tickets for this raffle will only be available at the picnic. The drawing will be held after the other baskets have been drawn.  You must be present to win the special raffle.

Volunteers are needed to plan games, set up tables, canopies, decorate, and provide a festive mood to the field!  Please contact Carolyn Kesler for more information. (tns.parentsgroup@gmail.com).

Thank you to our parent volunteers, Katie and Erin, who have been working hard on putting together these fun-packed variety baskets and to all of you for donating.

Please help support this event by helping sell these raffle tickets to friends, family, and neighbors also! Proceeds from our raffle will go toward our Field Day event for the children and toward our school beautification projects.

Raffle Baskets

Click on the links below for an image of each basket.

Sports
Coffee and Chocolate
Eco-Friendly Home
Movie and Family Game Night
Rest and Relaxation
Summer Fun
Green Garden

Click here for a list of contents in each basket (PDF File).

Each week of the summer schedule will be led by one or two certified teachers and either assistants or interns. The Children’s House Program this summer will include Ms. Jamila, Ms. Norly, Ms. Kit and Ms. Emma for varying amounts of time. The Infant and Toddler program will be run by Ms. Michelle and Ms. Sue. Please check back soon for confirmation of staffing schedules.

We are also considering the possibility of offering a summer elementary program. This program would focus on various themes such as physical education, chess, drama, music, etc. Before fully establishing the program, however, we would like to find out how many families are interested in this option. If you think you may be interested in an elementary summer program for your child, please email the school no later than April 10th.

Please click on the following link to download a copy of our Summer Information and Application form: Summer 2011