News&NotesMAY 2012

DEARBORN HEIGHTS MONTESSORI CENTER

Accredited by the National Association

for the Education of Young Children

DHMC’s annual cultural festival is takingstudents—and their families—on a new

journey this year…to ancient India! Please join us Thursday, May 24 from 3:30

to 8:30 p.m. for “Impressions of India,” fea-turing student-created entertainment, educa-tional presentations, and more—all focusedon the Harappan and Mughal civilizations of ancient India.

India is a new destination in our rotatingcultural festival cycle. It replaces Rome andjoins the ancient civilizations of the Vikings,Egypt, China, Mesoamerica, and Greece.

“India would have been part of the six-cycle rotation when we began the cultural festival 30 years ago, but there was a shortageof research books for the children,” explainsfestival founder and DHMC art teacher LynnManwell. “Since it’s a basic principle of Mon tessori education that the child does hisor her own research, we had to chooseanother culture. Over the past 15 years,though, more multicultural material hasbecome available at the student level—theyfinally caught up with us!

“The Harappans were the earliest civiliza-tion in the Indus Valley, and there are

remarkable ruins to be seen,” she adds.“Using some great videos on YouTube, wecreated an overview for our students.”

The cultural festival gives students frompreschool through Middle School the oppor-tunity to explore the featured civilization in depth. Cultural elements are incorporatedinto all areas of the curriculum—math, sci-ence, geography, language, art, and culture.

Students spend weeks preparing for thefestival, and their hard work will culminate ina daylong event that includes theatricalperfor mances, music, dance, and food. In theclassrooms, students will share with visitorsoral pre sentations, reports, dioramas, andmany other engaging efforts. On stage in thegym, third-graders will act as representativesof the Hindu Pantheon as sixth-graders perform the play The Enchanted Anklet.Middle Schoolers will handle tickets, adver -tising, and technical support for the play.They’ll also operate the Madhava Market(madhava can be translated as “of the spring-time” in Sanskrit), which will offer refresh -ments and a craft market.

We hope you’ll join us on our inauguraljourney to ancient India!

Cultural festival first: Come discover ancient India

Going green. Exploring Michigan. Cook -ing favorite foods.

These are just some of the intriguingthemes on tap for students enrolled in ournine-week summer program, which beginsMonday, June 18. Designed for childrenaged 18 months to 12 years, each level—Toddler, preschool, lower elementary, andupper elementary—offers a broad range ofactivities designed to meet the children’s

academic and developmental needs. Chil -dren are surrounded by their friends, whereit’s safe, fun, and creative!

Our Montessori summer program keepsthe academic ball rolling through a learning-is-fun approach. With hands-on materials and theme-related projects, academics suchas math, language, art, and technology stayexciting and vibrant. Weekly themes focused

Themes make summer learning fun

IMPRESSIONS OF INDIA Inspired by their studies of ancient Indiafor our upcoming “Impressions of India”cultural festival, art classes have beenincorporating elements of the cultureinto their projects. Here, fourth-graderMadeleine Hermann made a batik workby sketching the image on wax paper.She transferred the image to a sheet ofpaper, creating a waxy impression. Shethen painted the image with watercolors.

continued on page 4

2 NEWS & NOTES

In this season of music pro-grams and arts-infused cultural

festivals, I thought it would be apropos to share some researchabout these often-underappreci-ated curriculum areas. Whenschools must make budget cuts,the arts are often the first to go.It is regrettable that children willmiss out on exposure to the plea -sures of visual art, music, dance,and drama, but even more of aloss in light of mounting evi-dence that study of the arts con-tributes to academic achieve-ment and student success.

Critical Evidence: How theArts Benefit Student Achieve ment,a 2006 publication of theNational Assembly of State ArtsAgencies, summarizes the resultsof numerous studies that sub-stantiate the value of arts edu -cation. Two publications fromthe Arts Education Partnership,Making a Case for the Arts: Howand Why the Arts are Critical toStudent Achievement and BetterSchools (2006) and Music Mat -ters: How Music Education HelpsStudents Learn, Achieve, andSucceed (2011), offer additionalfindings. Some highlights follow.

The SAT and arts learningMultiple independent studieshave shown that increased yearsof enrollment in arts courses arepositively correlated with higherSAT verbal and math scores.High school students who takearts courses have higher mathand verbal SAT scores than stu-dents who take no arts classes.Arts participation and SATscores co-vary—that is, theytend to increase linearly: Themore arts classes, the higher thescores. In 2005, students whotook four years of arts course-work outperformed their peerswho had a half year or less of artscoursework by 58 points on theverbal portion and 38 points

on the math portion of the SAT.An analysis of 10 years of SATdata revealed that students whotook four years of arts courses inhigh school earned the highestscores on both the verbal andmath SAT, but overall, studentstaking any arts courses scoredsignificantly higher than stu-dents who took no arts courses.Of these students, those whotook music courses earned thehighest math and second-highestverbal SAT scores.

Six categories of benefitsThe research compendium Criti - cal Links (Deasy, ed., 2002) doc -uments more than 65 distinctrelationships between the artsand academic and social out-comes. It identifies six majortypes of benefits associated withstudy of the arts and studentachievement:

1. Reading and languageskills. Certain forms of artsinstruction enhance and com-plement basic reading skills, lan-guage development, and writingskills. For example, dance hasbeen employed to develop read-ing readiness in very young chil-dren, and the study of music hasprovided a context for teachinglanguage skills. The relationshipbetween drama and the develop-ment of literacy skills amongyoung children is well docu-mented. Studies have shown thatwhen children have the opportu-nity to act out stories, theirunderstanding of the story (read-ing comprehension) improves,the quality of their own narrativewriting increases, and they aremore motivated to learn.

Musical training develops theregion of the brain responsiblefor verbal memory—the recalland retention of spoken words—which serves as a foundation forretaining information in all aca-demic subjects. Music students

who were tested for verbal mem-ory showed a superior recall forwords compared with non-musicstudents. Students who studymusic also surpass non-musicstudents in assessments of writ-ing, using information resources,reading and responding, andproofreading. These gains con-tinue to increase over time.

2. Mathematics skills. Musicinstruction helps develop thecapacity for spatial-temporal rea-soning (the ability to understandthe relationship of ideas andobjects in space and time),which is integral to the acquisi-tion of important mathematicsskills. Because of this, complexmath processes are more accessi-ble to students who have studiedmusic. Students involved ininstrumental music do better in algebra, a gateway for laterachievement. Mul tiple studiesconfirm that students who takemusic classes in high school aremore likely to score higher onstandardized mathematics testssuch as the SAT. One explana-tion is that musical training inrhythm emphasizes proportion,patterns, and ratios expressed asmathematical relations.

3. Thinking skills. Thinkingskills (sometimes referred to ascognitive skills) is a broad termthat refers to the operation ofvarious thought processes.Reasoning ability, intuition, per-ception, imagination, inventive-ness, creativity, problem solving,and expression are among thethought processes associatedwith study in the arts. An inter-esting study of high school stu-dents showed that those whostudied dance scored higher thannon-dancers on mea sures of cre-ative thinking, especially in thecategories of fluency, originality,and abstract thought. In anotherstudy, 162 children, aged 9 and10, were trained to look closely

In memoriamWe extend our deepest

sympathies to the family of staff member Pat Pearce, who passed away Saturday,April 21. Pat, who was with

DHMC for nearly eight years,worked as an assistant in ourday care program and mostrecently in our Toddler pro-

gram. She was very dedicatedto our school and loved work-

ing with the little ones. Shewill be greatly missed.

Thank you to…Cole and Amber Stockinger’sfamily, for donating books for

use throughout the school.

FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

In defense of the arts

High school

students who take

arts courses have

higher math and

verbal SAT scores

than students who

take no arts classes.

NEWS & NOTES 3

at works of art and reason aboutwhat they saw. The resultsshowed that children’s ability todraw inferences about artworktransferred to their reasoningabout images in science.

Working memory is the abil-ity to mentally hold, control,and manipulate information inorder to complete higher-ordertasks, such as reasoning andproblem solving. Young childrenwho take keyboard lessons havebeen shown to have greaterabstract reasoning abilities thantheir peers, and these abilitiesimprove over time with sus-tained training in music.

4. Social skills. Arts activitiespromote growth in positivesocial skills, including self-confi-dence, self-control, conflict reso-lution, collaboration, empathy,social tolerance, and the abilityto grapple with moral dilemmas.Research evidence demonstratesthat these benefits apply to allstudents, including those whoare educationally or economi-

cally dis advantaged. Participationin the arts helped students avoidor change negative perceptionsof other groups or individuals.Improved student behavior andattendance rates were attributedto school arts programs. Learningin the arts helped studentsdevelop the sense that they canbe agents of their own learningand that they can make a posi-tive change in their own livesand in their surroundings. Itcontributed to their sense of self-efficacy and self-esteem. Manyarts activities are highly collabo-rative. Members of an orchestra,band, dance troupe, or theatercast must manage their own per-formances in relation to those oftheir colleagues in order for theoutcome to be successful, andmany lessons in human relationsare learned in the process.

5. Motivation to learn. Thearts nurture the motivation tolearn by emphasizing activeengagement, disciplined andsustained attention, persistence,

and risk taking, among othercompetencies. Participation inthe arts is also an importantstrategy for engaging and moti-vating students at risk of drop-ping out and for those with special needs. For one group ofstudents where school had beena place of failure and frustration,the experience of success in thearts was a revelation that learn-ing matters. As a result they weremore willing to do the hardwork of learning. In anotherstudy, students at risk of not suc-cessfully completing their highschool educations cited theirparticipation in the supportiveenvironment of arts classes,where constructive criticism wasmore readily accepted, as theirreason for staying in school.

Perseverance is the ability tocontinue toward a goal whenpresented with obstacles. It isdeveloped and strengthenedthrough music education, andstudents involved in music les-sons surpass their peers on tasks

IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAThese samples of mehndi work were created by elemen-tary art students. Mehndi is a temporary skin decorationdone in henna. For these paperinterpretations, students tracedtheir hands and decoratedthem with an Indian designusing a fine-tip black marker.

Students

involved in music

lessons surpass

their peers on

tasks measuring

perseverance.

4 NEWS & NOTES

Themes make summer learning funcontinued from page 1

on social studies topics come alive through in-house presentations,field trips, and hands-on work. For instance, during “Go Green”week, summer campers will learn ways to reduce, reuse, and recycleat school and at home. During “Pure Mich i gan” week, students will discover all the great things our state has to offer, from amazingautomobiles to foods such as cherries, apples, and maple syrup. “It’sNutritious and Deli cious” week will find students channeling theirinner chef to cook up favorite recipes.

Elementary campers will take part in art and physical educationclasses. They’ll visit van Gogh, meet Matisse, and discover Duchamp,among other artists, and will create their own works of art along theway. Gym time will offer tennis, soccer, football, hockey, and manymore team-building sports and games, in which everyone will havethe opportunity to play and learn.

Fridays are water days for all levels, rounding out the learning with time to splash and have a ball with friends.

The program wraps up with a family cookout on Friday, August 17. Students, families, and staff are invited to a picnic lunchto share all the great summer happenings at DHMC.

Summer brochures and registration forms have been sent home(and are available on our website, www.dhmontessori.org, under“Our Programs”). If you have questions or need more infor ma tion,please con tact summer program director Heidi Gauger.

Don’t let the academic ball pass you by. Enroll in our summerprogram today!

measuring perseverance, whichhas as its foundation motivation,commitment, and persistence.Student attentiveness is alsosharpened through experiencewith the arts, particularly music.The ability to pay attention—visual focus, active listening, and staying on task—is essentialto school performance. Earlychildhood training in instru-mental music improves attentionabilities, which are reinforcedand strengthened throughoutadolescence. Attentiveness is an essential building block of engagement, a competencyneeded for success in school and the workforce.

6. Positive school environ-ment. Learning in the arts iscomprehensive in the true senseof the word. All three commondefinitions are applicable: n Integration of the arts as a critical component of theschool curriculum affords stu-

dents a complete and well-rounded education. n The benefits associated withstudy of the arts are inclusive ofall students. n An arts-rich learning environ-ment can have far-reachingeffects that extend to the entireschool community.

The arts help create the kind of learning environmentconducive to teacher and student success by fosteringteacher innovation, a positiveprofessional culture, communityengagement, increased studentattendance, effective instruc-tional practice, and school identity.

Educating the whole childIn addition to all of the above,arts education helps childrendevelop the motor skills they willneed to write, use a computer,and perform other physical

activities essential to classroomlearning. Research shows thatthe parts of the brain associatedwith sensory and motor functionare developed through musicinstruction, and musicallytrained children have bettermotor function than non-musi-cally trained children. The phys-ical skills of a dancer or artist aredeveloped in similar ways.

The arts, more than any otherdiscipline, integrate mind, body,and spirit. They are languagesthat all people speak—that cutacross racial, cultural, and eco-nomic barriers—and they pro-vide the means for every studentto learn. They are an essentialpart of DHMC’s commitmentto educating the whole child.

IMPRESSIONS OF INDIA Art classes have been incor-porating elements of ancient India into their projects. Here,lower elementary art students started with paper figures andthen made traditional Indian clothing for them.

NEWS & NOTES 5

Grandparents visit schoolGrandparents and other special people in the lives of our Toddler and preschool/Extended Daystudents were the guests of honor at DHMC onMay 4. Grandparents’ Day brought smiles to all as the children invited their guests to do Mon tes -sori work. Above left: Extended Dayer JoshuaLiparoto and grandma Giovanna pause for aphoto. n Above right: Toddler Oliver Kurtz guidesgrand parents John and Judy Newton in a paper-cutting work. n Left: Helga Jackson and grandsonKonner Kubica (preschool) identify animals andvehicles for the Land, Air, and Water work. n Below left: Mary Assel and granddaughterRhiana Ankouny (preschool) fill in the hundredboard. n Below right: Preschooler Yaseen Khaliland grandma Abla Essa solve a puzzle together.

6 NEWS & NOTES

An evening with DadToddler, preschool/Extended Day, and

elementary students invited their dads orother special guests to school for Dads’

Night on April 19. This fun evening gavestudents the opportunity to share their

classrooms and Montessori work with theirguests. Clock wise from right: Second-grader Maya Liljegren with dad Aric.

n Sixth-grader Luma Qashou with dad Ali and sister Suha, fourth grade. n First-grader Owen Moline-Freeman with dad

Lee Freeman and sister Aliyah Moline-Freeman, sixth grade. n Sam Harajli with

daughter, Alyssa, fourth grade.

NEWS & NOTES 7

IN THE NEWS

Ann DeVore wins Top Teachers Award Congratulations to Middle

School teacher Ann DeVore,winner of a 2012 Top TeachersAward from Metro Parent Mag azine ! Of hundreds ofsouth eastern Michigan teachersnominated by Metro Parentreaders, only five were selected as Top Teachers. These “educa-tors who put the ‘excel’ in excel-lence” are featured in the May2012 issue of Metro Parent. As of this writing, the copies in our lobby were nearly gone, so if you weren’t able to pick oneup, be sure to check out the article on Metro Parent’s website,www.metroparent.com.

Staff is grateful forAppreciation Week We send a big thank you to ourparents for their generosity dur-ing Staff Appreciation Week,which was May 7–11. Teachersand staff thoroughly enjoyed thebreakfast, lunch, dessert potluck,yummy goodie bags, and otherspecial treats. Thank you to:n Event organizers MelissaPerkins (Ethan and Isaac’s mom),Roslyn Reeves (Sarah andSophia’s mom), Laura Fransen(Jack’s mom), Kirste Moline(Aliyah and Owen Moline-Freeman’s mom), Kelly Gallagher(Kelsea, Evan, and alumnus Kyle Kernosek’s mom), TamaraHunter (Zharia and Addison’smom), Kerri Wright (Isabella’smom), and Kathrine Horan(Sarah’s mom).n All the volunteers who helped

with drop-off coverage, food set-up, cleanup, decorations, serving,and more: Denise Abdullah(Kassim and Adam’s mom),Paula Byrne (Patrick andMolly’s mom), Heather Cadena(Christopher and Matthew’smom), Wisam Dabaja (Jolie’sdad), Renee Despres (Roseva’smom), Evette Dukes (TrinityHearns’s mom), Minna Fakih(Hannah and Mayssa’s mom),Kalvin Harvell (Lillian’s dad),Denise Hodgins (Cara’s mom),Zeena Hourani (Claire andHannah’s mom), DeavonHunter (Zharia and Addison’sdad), Claudia Iyer (Monica and Victor’s mom), JasmineJeffers (Shadé Patrick’s mom),Christine Juergens (Claire andWilliam Stephens’ mom), GregKernosek (Kelsea, Evan, andalumnus Kyle Kernosek’s dad),Sonya Kowalski (Grace’s mom),Mary Kosch (Abigail’s mom),Jen Kubica (Kennedy, Karl, and Konner’s mom), Robert

Meehan (Maggie, Marta, andRobert’s dad), MadhumitaMohanty (Sonali’s mom), BillPavlich (Katherine’s dad), Vikki Prince (Kael and NoleLigon’s mom), Joan Remski(Ben and Sam Clifford’s mom),Margherita Rodriguez (Luis’smom), Melissa Russo (Dominic’smom), Krysty Sagnia (Marquis’smom), Ken Shamus (Allison’sdad), and Nada Taleb (Adamand Ava Rahal’s mom).n All our parents who con-tributed in some way to thiswonderful week for the staff!

Students, families help welcome guestsat Open Houses Our spring Open Houses broughtmany prospective families to ourschool, and we thank our stu-dents and families for providingsuch a welcoming atmosphere toour guests. The Open Housestook place during school hourson Tuesday, April 24 and Wed -nesday, April 25, giving visitorsthe opportunity to see ourclasses and programs in action.Thank you to our MiddleSchool students for greeting visi-tors and assisting with tours.Thank you also to parent volun-teers Paula Byrne (Patrick andMolly’s mom), Rob Kobel(Laura, Ryan, William, andalumnus Eric’s dad), andJennifer Kibbey (Hayden andDavid’s mom).

Ann DeVore

ALUMNI CORNERGrads make honor roll at Divine Child We are always thrilled to hear about the success of our graduates. We recently received a letter from the principal at Divine Child High School in Dearborn announcing that eight DHMC alumniachieved honor roll status for the third quarter of the 2011–2012 academic year. The GPA for thesestudents ranges from 3.5 to 5.33. They are Steven Arroyo (DHMC class of 2010), Dane Miller(2011), Griffin Miller (2009), Megan Neaton (2009), Natalie Salehi (2008), Emily Ward (2010),Christopher Wepler (2009), and Brandon Williams (2009). Way to go, grads!

DATES TO REMEMBERMay Week of May 21 Toddler parent-teacher conferences.

24 Thursday Cultural Festival: Impressions of India. 3:30–8:30 p.m. Students present the play The Enchanted Anklet at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. See story on page 1 for more cultural festival details. (No day care or latchkey 3:15–6 p.m.)

25 Friday Staff professional development. NO SCHOOL. Day care and latchkey available.

28 Monday Memorial Day. NO SCHOOL. NO DAY CARE. NO LATCHKEY.

29 Tuesday through Friday, June 1 Spirit Week (all levels, during school hours). Wraps upwith Field Day on Friday. Watch for details.

30 Wednesday Kindergarten/Extended Day field trip: Leslie Science and Nature Center, Ann Arbor. Depart at 8:45 a.m.

30 Wednesday First-level field trip: Leslie Science and Nature Center, Ann Arbor. Depart at 11:20 a.m.

30 Wednesday Middle School—Once More in May. 5 p.m. Incoming students and parentscome to the Middle School to review procedures and protocols. Summer school pack-ets distributed.

31 Thursday Middle School Legacy Project presentations. 5:30 p.m.

June1 Friday Fourth-level geological dig trip. Rock Glen in Ontario.

1 Friday Middle School play. 6 p.m. The advanced language group presents Midnight in Paris.

3–8 Sunday–Friday Upper elementary class trips:n June 3–6: Sixth levels visit Washington, D.C.n June 4–6: Fifth levels visit Chicago.

4–8 Monday–Friday Middle School class trip: Whitewater rafting in West Virginia.

11 Monday Middle School graduation luncheon.

12 Tuesday Eighth-grade graduation: 1 p.m. assembly. 7 p.m. ceremony.

12 Tuesday Last day of classes.

13 Wednesday Family Picnic. 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. on the playground. Day care and latchkeyavailable 7–11 a.m.

18 Monday Summer camp begins. See story on page 1 for details.

DEARBORN HEIGHTS MONTESSORI CENTER

466 N. John DalyDearborn Heights, MI 48127-3703

313-359-3000www.dhmontessori.org

“Repetition is the secret of perfection,

and this is why the exercises are connected

with the common activities of daily life.”

—Dr. Maria Montessori

IMPRESSIONS OF INDIA Printmaking work in the style of

Andy Warhol by Caroline deVeer,Grade 6. Upper elementary art

students each selected a design featuring an Indian god or goddess,

traced it on a foam sheet to create an impres sion, rolled a color over the design, and then imprinted it

on a sheet of paper. Come view more artwork inspired by ancient

India at our cul tural festival on Thursday, May 24. See the article

on page 1 for details.