Infant Program News

10/14/2010
Infant

Students from Costa Rica to visit GMS November 11th - 21st


Each spring, GMS 8th grade students culminate their studies with a 10-day trip to Costa Rica. This is a true immersion experience that integrates many aspects of their studies at GMS.  Our students stay with Costa Rican families from our sister school, the Summit School Montessori in Coronada, Costa Rica. Together, GMS and Summit School students travel throughout the country and experience the rich culture of Costa Rica.  Activities include saving sea turtle eggs at the Los Tortugas Turtle Reserve on the northern Caribbean side of the island, exploring the active Arenal Volcano, and zip lining through the canopy of a rain forest. In addition, they visit museums and nature centers, and spend a day at a scout camp participating in community building activities. The trip ends in a school dance hosted by the parents of the Costa Rican students.  Best of all, friendships are formed that last for years.

On November 11th, eleven students from the Summit School Montessori will travel to Greensboro for a ten-day stay in Greensboro.  The students, who will be accompanied by the owners of the school Yen and Roselyn Carvajal and their two children, will live with GMS middle school families during their visit.  In preparation of the Summit School Montessori students visit, GMS middle schoolers have been busy planning a number of activities to share with their Costa Rican friends so they can experience the full flavor of the Triad area.  Activities will include time in the classrooms at GMS, a visit to the GMS Land Lab in Oak Ridge, a visit to the Morehead Planetarium, a day at the N.C. Zoo, ice-skating, a visit to the Natural Science Center and a dance which will include both current middle school students and all the GMS students who have travelled to Costa Rica on the 8th grade field trip in the past.

This will be the third time the Costa Rican students have visited The Greensboro Montessori School and it is the largest group to visit to date.  Our entire school is excited to meet and spend time with the Costa Rican students and have a chance to use their conversational Spanish skills.



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12/16/2009
Infant

Car




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3/24/2009
Infant

Movement Opportunities in the Infant Program
Learning Motor Skills in a Carefully Designed Environment

The GMS infant program environment is set up to maximize the infant's gross and fine motor opportunities. Infants have a sensitive period for movement. They are born with an innate desire to move and master control of their bodies; it requires no instruction from caregivers.


The GMS infant environment includes climbing structures, low gym mats and pillows, a pull up bar, and shelves to allow the infants to pull up and stand when they are ready. Our outdoor environment includes a low sand box for climbing in and out of , a tunnel for climbing through, and a low bridge for climbing over.


We also include many fine motor activities for the infants who are ready for them. Objects for grasping, holding, and shaking are placed near a non-mobile infant, while posting, nesting, and stacking work is available on the shelves for the mobile infants to choose.

Infants’ natural movements are never restricted by placing them in containers such as bouncy seats, swings, or walkers. They are never put into a position they cannot get into and out of themselves. Infants roll onto their stomachs when they are ready to be on their stomachs, and infants crawl onto the climber by their initiative alone.

By providing developmentally appropriate movement opportunities and maintaining a safe environment that does restrict the exploration of the infants in the classroom, motor development is allowed to unfold naturally and at the infants’ own pace.

Maria Montessori wrote: When mental development is under discussion, there are many who say, 'How does movement come into it? We are talking about the mind.' And when we think of intellectual activity, we always imagine people sitting still, motionless. But mental development must be connected with movement and be dependent on it. It is vital that educational theory and practice should be informed by that idea.


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Infant

GMS Pare


Congratulations to Andrew McLardy, dad of Andi in Claudia and Zahara's class for qualifying for the 2010 PGA Tour!  Andrew finished tied for 23rd at the PGA Tour Q-School event in West Palm Beach, Florida on Monday.  We wish Andrew good luck on the PGA Tour!



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