Ruffing Montessori A Green School
A Whole School for the Whole Child
Home News Forms Map/Directions Contact
Classroom News
Quote

  • Toddler Community
  • Children's House
  • Lower Elementary
  • Upper Elementary
  • Middle School

On April 30th, the toddllers enjoyed an Asian Hot Lunch. Purposeful work and fun were had by all that could attend. From slicing carrots, shelling edamame and preparing egg omelets for fried rice; the children enjoyed all that the meal had to offer. Eating was just as much fun if not more so. We thank the Theodos family for providing a look at Asian cuisine. We also thank our parent helpers. We look forward to doing many more meals in the coming school year. Click here to enjoy photos of the event.

On March 31st, family members were invited to join their child in the exploration of practical life. Many toddlers took this opportunity to show their grown up how we serve snack, clean up after snack, and care for the environment. Other toddler children chose to work with lessons; language, manipulatives, and art. Practical Life areas of interest were wood polishing, mirror polishing, washing tables, sweeping the floor, loading the dishwasher, and washing dishes at the washing stand. A fun and informative time was had by all. Click here for photos. Terri and Meredith

We had a wonderful time exploring different art mediums with our parents at our parent child class in February. It was both fun and messy! Mixing colors with finger paints was a favorite activity of the morning. We also used real clay. Real clay is stiffer than play dough and helps build dexterity in the fingers as a preparation for writing in Children's House and Lower Elementary. Click here for photos.

Hi Everyone! Thank you so much to all who attended our most recent parent child class on music. It was great to see some dads and grandmas this time. We sang songs, played instruments, and danced to music. The children especially enjoyed showing off some of the work they can do before music class began. Click here to see photos of the event.

Hi Everyone! Our first hot lunch was great. The children enjoyed chopping up the vegetables they brought in to make our salad. We had cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, and tomatoes. We also sliced apples and made pasta from scratch. It was a very busy morning and we worked up big appetites. Thank you to our moms and dads who helped make this activity a success. Click here for photos of the fun! -Stacey and Terri


Click here for pictures of Natalie's class picnic.

 

More from Dixie's Classroom - Check out some pictures from Dixie's class. We celebrated Earth Day in style this year. We baked mini-cupcakes and frosted them to look like the earth. Thanks so much to Phillis and Monika for your help. We also began our garden. We planted snap peas, broccoli, swiss chard, and lettuce. We send out a big thank you to Martha for guiding us in this project.

The children in Dave and Lisa's class visited Hildur Jonsson's (Vala's mom) art exhibit at William Busta Gallery in downtown. Click here to see them doing a variety of activities according to their interest and ability ranging from listing the colors and shapes they see to stories they write based on scenes they imagine in the paintings.

From Dixie's Classroom - We are off to a great start. The children are enjoying friends and work. Click here to see pictures of children working in Dixie's class.

 


Judson Park - Our Wednesday morning destination.
As they have in years past, students in the two Upper Elementary classes have been traveling to Judson Park to participate in the Eden Alternative this fall with Francine Barnett. The Eden Alternative is designed to make life for the Judson residents more interesting and enjoyable by adding plants, animals and children. Our wonderful children each work with one or two residents of the Bruening Health Center Wednesday mornings, engaging them in conversation as they help with a seasonal craft project or help decorate the bulletin boards and hallways. We have planted bulbs, painted picnic benches, set up Christmas trees, made welcome folders for new residents, and completed many other projects. This week we made Christmas ornaments.

Service is an important component of each student's experience at Ruffing, and this opportunity to engage in intergenerational projects with a resident at Judson teaches many lessons in patience, respect, kindness and having fun with an older person. Click here to enjoy pictures of the students at work.

 

Middle School Science - Students have begun their study of magnetism and electricity with a unit on static electricity. There are several introductory labs shown here, including students setting up a set of metal pie plates on the van de Graaff static generator, creating sparks moving to a discharge ball, activating a small gold-leaf electroscope, and using a static box. Most of the photos show students after they have placed a hand on the van de Graaff generator, standing on an insulating plastic stepstool, allowing their hair to pick up the strong negative charges. The repulsion among the charges causes the striking effect you see here, as each strand of charged hair repels its neighboring strands. Click here to view the photos.

 

 

.