sama national newsletter · member feedback - celebrations 6 member contribution: shan ellis 7...

Newsletter September 2012 page 1 of 12

SAMANationalNewsletter

Tel: 041-367 4936 Postal address: PO Box 5338, Walmer, Port Elizabeth, 6065

Fax: 086 561 8774 website: www.samontessori.org.za

Cell: 072 609 5979 e-mail: [email protected]

Letter from the President By Charl du Toit

Message from the President 1

Obituary – Renilde Montessori 2

Host Schools 2013 2

Member Contribution: Cane Lake 3

Conference 2013 5

Precious Moments 5

Member Feedback - Celebrations 6

Member Contribution: Shan Ellis 7

Regional Meetings - Kwa Zulu Natal 7

Vacancies 10

Classifieds 11

September was not only the month to celebrate the

passing of winter, but also our heritage and we had

the wonderful opportunity to relax over a long

weekend. Great things are also happening in SAMA

at the moment as we are restructuring, re-branding

and revisiting our priorities.

We listened to you at the Knysna Conference, went

back to the drawing board and hope that you will be

just as excited as we are when you see what we

were up to over the past few months. All this will be

revealed and discussed during the extension of the

AGM Meeting in Johannesburg on the 13th

of

October. For those of you who are unable to attend,

we appeal to you to exercise your right to vote by

proxy. Fill in your proxy vote form, previously sent

by email, and either return to Irmgard Pringle, SAMA

administrator, or give to the SAMA EXCO member in

your area (details on pg 10). Sharon Caldwell, SAMA

CEO, will keep you up to date by circulating the

necessary documentation regarding the meeting. I

encourage you to read all documents and give input

where you feel necessary.

In this issue we will focus on the indoor/outdoor

flow while celebrating the joys of spring. Montessori

was very clear on the preparation of the

environment, not just inside, but outside the class as

well. My children love to sit outside under a tree

while they do their work and I often find that when

they work outdoors their work is completed with

more creativity.

For me, the most important task of the Montessori

Adult is to prepare the child for life- by not just using

the classroom- but the whole environment of the

child.

“The foundation of development and growth lies in

the progressive and ever more intimate relations

between the individual and his environment; for the

development of individuality, and of what is called

the freedom of the child, can be nothing else than his

progressive independence of the adult, realized by

means of a suitable environment in which he can find

the necessary means of evolving his functions.” Maria Montessori; The Secret of Childhood; Orient Longman, Hyderabad,

India, 1995 p199

Regards,

Charl


Obituary - Renilde Montessori 1929 – 2012

by Kym van Straaten

Renilde Montessori, the youngest grandchild of Dr. Maria

Montessori, passed away peacefully at her home in Mansilla Spain

on Friday, September 14, 2012. She was an exceptional woman

who played a visionary role within the Association Montessori

Internationale (AMI) and helped take Montessori to new heights.

Her vision and initiatives within AMI took Montessori outside the

realms of the classroom with the Educateurs sans Frontières

programme. Renilde was consistently involved in the AMI

organisation including being an AMI Director of Training in Toronto,

the General Secretary of AMI from 1995 to 2000 and AMI President

from 2000 until 2005.

As Montessorians we have all benefitted from her life and work.

Her passing is a loss to us all and her passion, enthusiasm and love

for the spirit of the child will truly be missed. We send heartfelt

condolences to her family at this difficult time and hope they will

find refuge in knowing that her life has inspired so many others.

Call for Host Schools for 2013, We invite member schools in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Gauteng North (Pretoria), Gauteng South

(Johannesburg), and Kwazulu Natal to become host schools for their region. These schools will host the Quarterly

SIG meetings for SAMA members and non-members.

CRITERIAFORSAMAHOSTSCHOOLS

1. Large enough venue to accommodate between 20 and 30 people.

2. Have sufficient parking, chairs, cups, whiteboard/flipchart for speakers. 3. Well equipped, and well prepared environments.

4. Maintain SAMA School Membership for at least one full membership before becoming a host school.

5. Have no unresolved grievances against the school or head of school. 6. The Host School will still be required to pay child levies and individual members of staff will need to pay

their own full membership fees. It is recommended that all staff members of the Host Schools are members of SAMA.

7. At regional meetings, the Head of School does not pay attendance fees for the meeting. However, individual staff members who may attend will be required to pay either member or non-member rates,

whichever is applicable.

THESPECIFICSERVICESTOALLSAMAHOSTSCHOOLSWILLINCLUDE:

• Complimentary school membership fees for the host year • Complimentary Head of School membership (currently R240 per year).

If you are interested kindly notify us by sending an email to [email protected] or phone the office at

041 367 4936.


Member Contribution: Indoor-outdoor systems that work.

By Cane Lake

I was very fortunate to do my AMI Montessori full-

time course upstairs at the Inanda Montessori

Training College in 1983, run by Strilli Oppenheimer

and Claire Collecott. Downstairs was a well-run

preschool with amazing staff, which had free indoor-

outdoor flow. I observed some wonderful ideas and

activities.

William would bake bread in the kitchen, with a

small group of children every morning, and they

would cut and prepare fruit for snack time. He would

then move outside to do constructive activities, such

as gardening and caring for the animals. Any child

could wander outside and William would involve

them in feeding the animals, or cleaning the animal

pens with a hose. He would guide them to do

gardening including raking up leaves, digging,

weeding and planting.

I would often look out of the huge window from the

training college upstairs and see children trundling a

wheelbarrow across the lawn filled with leaves to

put on the compost pile.

Snack was served on the covered patio and children

would come outside when hungry and help

themselves to the freshly baked bread, using little

knives to put on a variety of spreads. When finished

eating, they would wash and dry their plates in the

basins provided.

This was not supervised by adults but rather

controlled with a certain number of necklace tags

hanging on an inside hook. The number of tags

determined how many children could go outside and

eat at one time. If there were no more tags on the

hook, then you would have to come back later.

At the end of the day, an exciting teacher, Paul, from

America, would tell and act out a story to the

children who would be sitting outside on the lawn.

Years later, I was very impressed while observing at

Michelle Graham’s Montessori preschool in

Newlands, Cape Town, I saw a hat stand outside with

child-sized gardening tools. They could go out to

tend to their own painted tyre garden that they had

planted with their parents one Saturday morning.

One child was weeding and another was watering

using a small watering can. They always had to put

on a hat before going outside. There was also a

compost heap to add their fruit and vegetable peels,

which they had cut and prepared for snack time. I

saw a child clearing leaves out of the drain (furrow)

running along the ground with a small hand shovel.

Another was sweeping. Michelle and I had studied

together at the Inanda college and it was exciting to

see how well the school ran.

The Honeycomb Montessori Preschool in Constantia,

Cape Town, at which I taught at for three years, had

a wonderful obstacle course for exercising gross

motor movements, as well as a vegetable patch.

Children were excited to eat healthily when they had

participated in growing their own food and they

learnt that carrots come from the ground and not

Pick n Pay!


At the Children’s Studio Montessori Preschool, in

Harfield Village, Cape Town, which I ran for two

years, science experiments (volcanoes etc.) and

nature activities could be done outdoors.

Birdfeeders also hung outside and unwanted bread

crusts were fed to the birds.

When I was teaching at Auburn House Montessori

School in Kenilworth, Cape Town, the preschool class

would wander in during their playtime, to observe

my junior primary class working with the materials.

Some of them would join in – one of them never left

(he was very bright and felt more stimulated with

the older ones). Therefore going to ‘big’ school

wasn’t so scary and unknown.

The outdoor environment can be as constructive and

educational as the indoor environment. Recycling

can also be done (they can get out their anger and

frustration by crushing tins). Children can go outside

to wash cloths and hang them on a small child-

height washing line. They can scrub tables or chairs

outside. They can paint on an easel and draw on a

huge painted blackboard on the wall. It is preferable

to have someone outside to work with the children

to do these activities – whether an assistant, or

people wanting to do their practical hours with

children (university students studying occupational

therapy/sports), or grandparents willing to donate

their time and skills and passion.

I remember while doing my studies we had to come

up with our own two Practical Life activities for our

file. Late one night, I had cheekily written up the

activity of picking up dog poo. It turned out that

Strilli Oppenheimer marked my file, and she laughed

and said that they had a poop scoop activity at their

Montessori preschool in Sandton!

Thanks to Pru Ramsey, Montessori Mentor, I now

lecture adults of all ages, at the Professional Child

Care College in Mellville, Johannesburg, who work at

many different types of preschools in Gauteng (a

few of them Montessori schools), and I try to

motivate them to set up and extend as many

different activities outdoors as possible, that

incorporate nature, art, practical life, science,

sensorial, maths, language, and drama. I tell them

exciting stories about different ideas I have seen at

various Montessori schools, and a few of them go on

to do Montessori training or to use Montessori ideas

in their schools.

© Stepping Stones Montessori School

© Stepping Stones Montessori School

South African Montessori Association


Conference 2013 - Call for Speakers

Share Your Knowledge and Grow Montessori in South Africa

SAMA are constantly on the lookout for new speakers and topic ideas. Our goal with all the conference

events is to deliver helpful, practical and authentic Montessori based information to participants.

Currently we are looking for speakers and professionals to address current issues and share best

practices at our 2013 conference. Share your knowledge and make a difference while discussing the

latest issues and findings impacting the Montessori movement in southern Africa.

The ideal SAMA speaker:

• Is experienced and comfortable speaking in front of small and large groups, ranging from 10 –

350 people.

• Is interested in sharing their expertise, strategies and knowledge with other Montessori

professionals.

• Is willing to partner with SAMA to deliver the best possible experience for the audience.

• Is interested in engaging with attendees and is willing to facilitate open discussions.

Should you be interested or have a suggestion for a speaker or topic please e-mail Irmgard at

[email protected]

Precious Moments By PreshanieBhagaloo

At Teddybears Montessori in Emmarentia Gauteng

we do a "thank you" prayer every morning with the

children after “walking on the line” outside under

the trees. One of our precious little (because she is

tiny in build) 2 year olds said: "Thank you God for my

shoes." She bent down to touch her tiny shoes which

she had been wearing for a while now (they aren’t

new) and smiled up at us looking so grateful and

content; what a precious moment!

The things children say…

While gardening on spring day, we were

lucky enough to be part of this lovely

conversation:

Kiara: Why did you buy lots of different

flowers?

Ruth: It would be dull if they were all the

same don’t you think?

Kiara: What is dull?

Teagan: She’s a singer… you know “Adele”!

Didyouknow…

Table Mountain in Cape Town is believed to be one of the oldest mountains in the world and one of the

planet’s 12 main energy centres, radiating magnetic, electric or spiritual energy.


Member Feedback – Celebrations

Jacky Price owner of Blue Moon Montessori, Cape

Town, shares an article from her local newspaper in

celebration of Maria Montessori’s birthday. It

coincided with a blue moon that night, which is the

school’s namesake.

Taking a peek at the stars

Only once in a blue moon does a Montessori school

get to celebrate the birthday of Maria Montessori,

and witness the appearance of an actual blue moon

in the sky. To mark this auspicious occasion, Blue

Moon Montessori School in Heathfield enjoyed a

demonstration from the South African Astronomical

Observatory.

Each child learnt to make a pair of binoculars for

star-gazing, then wrote their own words for the song

“Blue Moon” and painted some blue moons.

Khoshika from Little Stars

Montessori, KZN, shares

how her school

celebrated Maria

Montessori’s 142nd

birthday - by building her

sand cakes!

Lots of fun was had by

all.

© Little Stars Montessori School © Little Stars Montessori School

At Stepping Stones Montessori Preschool the Penguin

class paid tribute to Maria Montessori on her would be

142nd

birthday by drawing a picture of their favourite

piece of Montessori material.

© Carmen Meyer

In the Starfish class, the children celebrated Spring Day by

potting pansy seedlings in beautifully decorated flower pots.

© Terri Heidman


Member contribution –Silkworms

By Shan Ellis

Spring is silkworm time! A good indoor/outdoor activity. We have taken our silkworm container to a table outside

and the children have helped clean it regularly and pick fresh leaves daily and several times per day (now that the

hundreds of worms are growing bigger!) Most of the children enjoy holding the caterpillars on their hands. A

follow-on activity to this is the indoor activity of studying the life cycle of a moth.

Having mulberry trees in our school garden enables the children to experience the seasons in a very concrete

manner. The trees are in full leaf again and we are watching with interest as the fruit develops. In a couple of

months' time we will make mulberry jam - another outdoor/indoor activity.

Regional Meetings

Regions Term 4 Dates

Kwazulu Natal

13: October 2012

Brain Development

Gauteng

North

27: October 2012

Assistance on writing school progress

reports.

SAMA Kwa-Zulu Natal SIG Term 3

By Nicky Rodseth – Montessori Life

I think having the Sharks’ final on the same

morning did not help us, unfortunately, we

had a really poor turnout this term.

However those who were able to join us

benefitted from making the inspiring

classroom materials all based on the

Olympic games.

We look forward to seeing all who couldn’t

make it next time!


Encouragement – Parent contribution As a young black woman, my first and main

experience of life is of the townships where I grew

up.

The townships are a place of origin for most young

men and women my age (not our children), they

determined our upbringing to a large extent.

We grew up knowing that it is rude to look someone

in the eye, children who are still educated in the

townships cannot look their elders in the eye (and

the beauty of the Montessori education is the

confidence it has instilled in my daughter), you did

not talk back or even voice your feelings or disagree

with an elder, you simply did as you were told and

took punishment which was unwarranted simply

because an elder thought you deserved it, even if

they were wrong you could not argue back.

Many teachers at many schools around the country

still adopt these archaic methods in teaching

children. Teaching and learning is therefore dull,

lacks interaction and is very much one-sided because

of this. Yet with the Montessori education my

daughter is able to learn be taught and to teach her

teacher as well, she recently did a cultural project on

her tradition and it was a novel experience which we

enjoyed as a family, the classroom is a vibrant and

alive place where children interact without fear or

inhibition.

Lesedi (my beautiful bright bubbly 7 year old

daughter) has been at Montessori schools since pre-

school, she is currently in her second year at Village

Montessori in Lyttelton Centurion, her directress is

Elsa. A warm understanding ‘mother’ (second

mother) to the little ones under her care.

My daughter was diagnosed with ADHD, at home

she talks incessantly, is all over the place all the time

and it takes a lot to keep up and put up with her.

Fortunately, she has found love, warmth, care and

understanding in the school environment she is in,

whereas in the environment I mentioned previously

she would have been ridiculed and punished. So I

am truly grateful that there are Montessori schools

all over the world. I could not take my children

anywhere else.

Thank you

Pearl N. Nhlapo


Visual Diary – Stepping Stones Montessori

Stepping Stones Montessori pre-school is dedicated to the global Montessori philosophy and

offers a stimulating learning environment that is child- centred, culturally diverse and relaxed;

where young children are nurtured and encouraged to be environmentally conscious,

independent thinkers.


Vacancies

Gauteng South

Lotus Montessori Pre-Primary School in Gallo Manor, Sandton is looking for a Pre-School Directress(preferably

experienced), for their 3 – 6 year environment. Someone who has a passion to work with children, shows

motivation, initiative and can work with a team, to start in January 2013. Phone Veena Lala on 082 2294 770 or

send CV to, [email protected]

Plaintree Montessori Pre-Primary School in Kensington (near Eastgate shopping centre), is looking for a qualified

3 – 6 Montessori Directress (preferably experienced).Hard working, enthusiastic, driven and passionate. To start

in January 2013.

Phone Priscilla / Chantel on 011 616 7149 or send CV to, [email protected]

Mpumalanga

Nelspruit Montessori – 1st

Montessori Primary School in Mpumalanga. If you are a 6 – 9 Montessori Directress,

this is your opportunity to work in our beautiful Lowveld – Land of the Rising Sun.

Our new school is looking for an enthusiastic and dynamic Montessori Directress with appropriate Montessori

qualifications and experience from a Montessori environment. This exciting job opportunity offers a competitive

salary and allows for a wonderful career within our new school.

Your application must include a detailed CV, covering letter, SACE certificate as well as references. Please send

your application to [email protected] no later than 31 October 2012.

Western Cape

Somerset Montessori Pre-school in Somerset West is looking for a first language Afrikaans 3-6 directress to start

January 2013. Please e-mail your CV to [email protected]

Montessori Pre-school for Sale: Small,

well-situated and equipped Montessori

Pre-school in Upper Highway ,Durban

for sale.

Please email enquiries through to

[email protected]

Gauteng: Xanthe Bester: [email protected]

Kym van Straaten [email protected]

Sumaya Tar Mahomed [email protected]

Heidi van Staaden: [email protected]

Western Cape: Jacky Price: [email protected]

Jenni Petersen: [email protected]

Peter Williams: [email protected]

Kwa-Zulu Natal: Susanne van Niekerk: [email protected]


SAMA Member Suppliers

Grace Educational Equipment

P O Box 2567, George, 6530

IC Weltevreden Plaas, Glentana

Contact: Bernard Noeth

Cell 072 351 7279

Email: [email protected]

Childrens House

Official Distributors of Nienhuis and Montessori

Outlet

Montessori Materials

Tel: (021) 788 3160

Fax: (086) 619 5182


" R & D Marketing

We are importers and distributors of a complete

range of Montessori equipment. Excellent high

quality equipment. Phone us for exceptional prices

and quality

Ron and Doreen Macaulay

082 888 0696 OR 011-022-0234

e-mail: [email protected]

website: www.rdm.co.za

Wonder Edu Quip

Contact: Mohamed Amra

Tel: 0312073871

Cel:0828069121

Fax:0866578672

email:[email protected]

www.wondereduquip.co.za

Kid – Ease Montessori Supplier

Quality Educational Material at affordable prices

Anthea Henderson

Cell: 084 777 6655 or 081 471 8590


www.kid-ease.co.za

The October Newsletter will focus on developing relationships with children and giving the

child the guidance and environment to become self-disciplined.

We value your contributions so please send any interesting snippets, funnies, quotes, photos,

article ideas and questions to Irmgard at [email protected] or post them on our

facebook page.

“… it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous

movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks.”

Maria Montessori

sama national newsletter · member feedback - celebrations 6 member contribution: shan ellis 7...

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