Montessori Newsletter
April 4th, 2025
Dear Timberwolves Families,
Thank you so much for taking the time to join us for our recent Parent-Teacher Conferences. Your presence, insights, and continued partnership mean the world to our school community and play a vital role in your child’s growth. During conferences, we are often asked: "What can we do at home to support what happens at school?"
As educators, it is second nature for us to offer traditional academic recommendations—reading together every night, practicing math facts, and reviewing spelling words. Helping children achieve academic milestones is a core part of our craft and extensive training. However, as Montessorians, we view education as a holistic journey of guiding the whole child. Beyond academic practice, we invite families to focus on five key supports at home:
Teach Respect for All (Especially Elders): Guide your child to treat everyone they encounter with respect—particularly their elders, who bring wisdom, care deeply, and have fully developed minds dedicated to helping children grow into their best selves. Remind them that respect doesn't require agreement or getting along; it's okay not to like someone, but it is never okay to disrespect them.
Say "No" and Stand Firm: A clear, firm "no" creates essential boundaries and helps children feel safe. Constant negotiation creates confusion and instability. In our classrooms, we use the gentle boundary: "The answer is no, and it is not going to change no matter how many times you ask the question." Bringing this consistent clarity into the home reinforces security and trust. Do this with a calm, but serious tone and voice level.
Provide Opportunities to Care for the Environment: In our classrooms, children take active pride in maintaining their space every single day. Extend this practice home by giving your child meaningful, daily responsibilities that contribute to the family unit. Working together to care for your shared environment fosters genuine independence, accountability, and belonging.
Model Healthy Screen Habits: Screens are part of our daily lives, but genuine human connection requires intentional boundaries. Make it a habit to put screens away when eating together, talking, and caring for one another. True listening and presence are deeply nourishing, and we all need that human connection.
Embrace the Struggle: Struggle is the foundation of real learning. At school, children are taught to persevere and work through challenges to solve problems independently—and we encourage you to resist figuring it out for them.
- If they are bored, let them sit in boredom.
- If they are having a tantrum, offer them calm time and space with little interaction or attention.
- If they don't know what to do, offer a couple of suggestions and tell them you trust them to figure out what best meets their needs at that particular time.
Stepping back allows them to build authentic resilience, self-confidence, and independence.
The above concepts start and end in the home environment. Thank you once again for your trust, dedication, and ALL that you do every day to support your children and our school community.
Warmly,
Tracy
“Fish-losophy” Friday
Within an authentic Montessori Erdkinder (Adolescent) setting, young adults take on real-life responsibilities essential to sustaining a working farm. Navigating these daily practical tasks offers meaningful opportunities to develop vital STEM competencies and tackle authentic problems. The farm also operates as a student-run micro-economy. We don’t have a farm on our campus. However, raising and caring for our sturgeon each fall gives our adolescents the opportunity to care for animals that a farm would provide. Students take ownership of the daily care of our fish and the quality of its environment. The purposeful work of raising the sturgeon fosters confidence, independence, and practical life skills needed to become active, contributing members of society. Until now, our students have not had the opportunity to integrate this pseudo-”farm” work with the business operations a farm usually entails. However, we’re hoping to change that!
The adolescent students generated a (long) list of potential names for our sturgeon, then voted to reduce the list to five finalist names: Fish, Jonafin, George Harriswim, Stur-fin-ley, and Aragorn. We’re inviting the whole school community to help name our fish (and raise some money for our spring Chicago trip) with a change-drive vote!
How it works:
From Monday 11/16 through Monday 11/23, there will be jars in the front hall, each labeled with one of the five finalist names.
Students, staff, and visitors will be invited to drop spare change into the jar of the fish name they like most.
After voting closes on 11/23, the name on the jar containing the most money will be bestowed on our sturgeon!
Vote early, vote often!
Reminders
Picture retakes: Picture retakes are on November 20th. If your child was absent on Picture Day, you can bring them to school to have their picture taken. Sign in at the Office and stay with your child until their photo is taken. To have your child’s photo retaken, return the original set in the envelope that was sent home or reorder online. Please make sure your child knows they need to retake their photo.
- Therapy Dog: We have a new therapy dog named Bilbo that will be visiting our school on Monday and Friday afternoons with his handler, Ms. Cheryl (also a Montessori parent and secure volunteer for our community). Bilbo has met all requirements to be a school therapy dog under TCAPS board policy. He is just over a year old and is a Malti-Poo. If you do NOT wish to have your child near Bilbo, please fill out this OPT OUT THERAPY DOG FORM. This week, he came for a quick introduction!
- Does your family love to ski? Crystal Mountain has an amazing After School Program! Our school skis on Wednesdays; we would love more families to join us. Please read this for more information.
PTO would like to thank all those who helped with parent teacher conferences this year! Because of your help, we were able to provide food, drinks and snacks during the 3 nights of conferences. Thank you!
Our friends from Central Grade are doing a fundraiser and we wanted to share it with our community. Please see the flyer with the QR code for more info!
Lastly, here is the TCAPS Montessori Family Directory Link. Please feel free to add your students name if you so choose.
The bookfair was a sucess!
Happy November, Timberwolves! It’s that time of year when readers just love to snuggle in with a good book! Thanks to a very successful book fair, TCAPS Montessori readers will be seeing over $ 1,000 worth of new books added to our library very soon! We appreciate your support! Sincerely, Jen Tank, TCAPS Montessori LMP
Chicago is my kind of Town; Chicago is
It’s time to start thinking about your adolescent’s urban experience spring trip. This year they will be going to Chicago! Attached are the Letter of Intent to Attend and a slideshow with trip details. We highly encourage caregivers to go over this slideshow together as a family.
If you have any questions, next week’s conference night, on November 10, 2026, from 3:30 to 6:30, is a great opportunity to speak to guides.
On Tuesday, look for the Intent to Attend and Payment Commitment sheet and behavior contract to come home for parent signature.
1. CHS Music Department Presents WONDERLAND: Don't miss the Traverse City Central High School Music Department’s Michigan premiere of WONDERLAND! Reserve your seats today at tcaps.booktix.com to support our talented students!
Showtimes: Evening performances (7 p.m.) on Nov. 13, 14, 20, and 21; Matinees (2 p.m.) on Nov. 15 and 22.
Tickets: $20 General Admission | $25 VIP
Traverse City Area Public Schools is honored to offer veterans the opportunity to receive their high school diploma and participate in our 2027 graduation ceremonies!
Under Michigan's Public Act 181 of 2001 and Public Act 55 of 2014, the TCAPS Board of Education is authorized to award high school diplomas to veterans of WWII, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam Era in recognition of their service and sacrifice.
Eligibility Details:
WWII Veterans: Must have left high school between December 16, 1940, and December 31, 1946.
Korean War Veterans: Must have left high school between June 27, 1950, and January 31, 1955.
Vietnam Era Veterans: Must have been drafted or enlisted between February 28, 1961, and May 7, 1975, and attended a TCAPS high school.
This opportunity is available to eligible veterans who did not subsequently receive a high school diploma. Family members are welcome to apply on behalf of a living or deceased veteran.
For more information or to submit an application, please call 231.933.1722.
Spanish Class Wish List of Supplies
This link: Spanish classes parent updates will take you to updates about all the levels of Spanish: CASA, Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary and Adolescent. Find out what vocabulary your student is learning, what songs we are currently singing & what questions your student should be able to answer in Spanish.
November - December
November 17 - PTO Mtg. @ 3:30 - Front Hall
November 20 - Picture Retakes
November 24 - Early Release Day, Dismissal @ 1:12 pm (3 of 7)
November 25 - 27 - No School, Thanksgiving Recess
November 30 - School Resumes
December 10 - Early Release Day, Dismissal @ 1:12 (4 of 7)
December 17 - AC Winter Collage Band & Orchestra Concert
December 18 - PTO Faimly Game Night 5:00 to 7:00
December 22 - PTO Meeting, 3:30, Front Hall
December 23 - January 1 - Winter Break
January 4 - School Resumes
Like us on: TCAPS Montessori Facebook
School Hours: 8:00 am to 3:12 pm
Full Day Dismissal: 3:12 pm
Half Day Dismissal: 11:22 am
Early Release Dismissal: 1:12 pm