WAUWATOSA MONTESSORI SCHOOL

Hello Montessori families!

We are excited to share that our school is continuing to implement positive behavioral interventions and support through our Grace and Courtesy team! The Grace and Courtesy team was created two years ago to help promote a positive school climate by clearly teaching and reinforcing expected behaviors. Our goal is to help every student succeed by recognizing positive actions, promoting consistency, and providing support where needed in order to help create a safe, respectful, and caring learning environment for all students. Along with this, our team also promotes monthly virtues—such as respect, optimism, and thankfulness—to help students build strong character and social skills. Students are recognized for showing these virtues at our monthly assemblies. We held our first Grace and Courtesy assembly this Thursday to recognize students who showed our September virtue of respect and to introduce the virtue for October which is empathy. We appreciate your support in encouraging these positive behaviors at home as well. Thank you for partnering with us to support positive behavior and character development at home and at school!

To learn more about Grace and Courtesy from a Montessori lens, see the parent education portion at the bottom of the newsletter!

Have a great weekend!

Elizabeth

Calling all chili connoisseurs! 🌶️🥣

Join us for the Packers-Bengals game at 3 p.m. on Sunday, October 12 in the WMS parking lot! We’ll have plenty of tailgate fun with lawn games and snacks available for purchase. We’ll also be hosting our first ever chili and dessert cook-off. Click here to sign up to participate in the cook-off, volunteer or bring some games.

Parent / Teacher Conferences will be held on October 16th and October 17th.

Please click the link below to sign up for a time slot with your child's teacher.

Parent / Teacher Conference Signup

Due to conferences, there is no school on Thursday and Friday!

While you are in the building, please stop by the Lost and Found!

We are happy to announce we are fully hired at Wauwatosa Montessori! We hired a choir teacher, Ms. Kim Thompson, and parents of students in 4th-8th grade received an email about how to sign up for choir! We are so happy to have Ms. Thompson AND to be fully hired!

We have also hired Jen Jacobs to be a long-term sub for our Special Aid assistant position!

WMS community, we are gearing up to start the planning process for our next all school read and corresponding literacy night! These are highly anticipated events with our students and would love to have more people join our planning committee! It is a flexible commitment with only a few meetings in person and most communication done via email in between. It is a fantastic way to get more involved in the school for an event that brings so much joy to both students and parents alike! If you are interested in joining the committee, please use the sign-up genius below to mark your interest so we can get you added to all communication. Thank you!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0949AFA623A4FB6-58986659-allschool

Calling all chili connoisseurs! 🌶️🥣

Join us for the Packers-Bengals game at 3 p.m. on Sunday, October 12 in the WMS parking lot! We’ll have plenty of tailgate fun with lawn games and snacks available for purchase. We’ll also be hosting our first ever chili and dessert cook-off. Click here to sign up to participate in the cook-off, volunteer or bring some games.

Take the night off from cooking 🍝

Swing by the new Noodles & Company off Mayfair Rd. (864 N Mayfair Rd,

Wauwatosa, WI 53226) before or after conferences on Thursday, October 16 to grab dinner and say hi to other WMS families! 25% of sales between 4-8 p.m. will be donated back to the Wauwatosa Montessori PTSA. Make sure you mention the fundraiser at checkout or enter code GIVING25 for online orders.

Car decorators and volunteers needed! 🎃

Let your creativity flow as you think up your decorations for Trunk or Treat! This is our most popular family event of the year. Trunk or Treat is scheduled for Friday, October 24 from 5:30-7 p.m. in the WMS parking lot. Sign up here to decorate your trunk or volunteer!

Save the Date: Montessori Marketplace - Saturday, Nov. 15 🛍️

How it works: families bring gently used items to donate — and browse for new-to-you treasures to take home. More details to come, but start setting items aside to donate! Items to consider:

👉 Kid and teen clothing (no adult clothing, please)

👉 Sporting goods and outdoor gear

👉 Sports team apparel

👉 Books and art supplies

👉 Toys & games

IMPORTANT DATES!

October 12th - Our First Fall Tailgate
October 16th and 17th - No School - Parent/Teacher Conferences
October 16th - PTSA Noodles Fundraiser
October 24th - Trunk or Treat
October 31st - All School Dress like a book character day
November 7th - PTSA Book Study - The Anxious Generation
November 10th-14th - Upper Elementary Students at NCI!

*Note - our bookfair had previously been scheduled in October. It has been rescheduled for January and will coinside with Game Night!

We will celebrate our love for literacy on October 31st by allowing students (and staff) to dress up like their favorite book character. Please be mindful that we are a K-8 school, so all book characters must be appropriate for a 4 year old to witness. Students may not wear a mask or bring any (real or fake) weapons. Please make sure there are no offensive symbols, attire is not revealing or violent. If there are any issues, students will be asked to change. We look forward to seeing everyone's favorite character!

Please note, we will share more details about how our school celebrates/acknowledges holidays next week, as it is slightly different than some other schools!

Art Room Donations Needed

Hello parents, the art room is looking for donations, lots of these items you may already have at home!

Here are the things I am looking for:

Tissues

Clorox Wipes

Cleaning Spray (Kid safe)

Old Spray Bottles (Can be washed and repurposed in the art room)

Paper Towels

Rags ( Can be used, just washed first )

Sponges (New only)

Coffee Filters

Paper Plates

Paper Tubes (Ongoing)

Clean Caps (Ongoing)

Wine Corks (Ongoing)

Popsicle Sticks

Saran Wrap

Tinfoil

Ice cube trays, in particular trays with lids!

Notes : I am happy to accept donations that are off of this list, like extra paint brushes, extra paper (even if one side is printed on), fun collage paper, buttons, beads, glitter, popsicle sticks, old play dough cans, red solo cups, plastic silverware, paper bags, old wire and wood hangers, fabric scraps (consider donating cool old clothes to the art room, before goodwill etc. ) and really anything else you can thing of, including old toys!

Here is what I ask, please email me first about the donation, I will confirm its useful to the art room, and then please sort the donation so its ready for use!

Thank you,

Bea Leach

Battle of the Books (BOB)

Last Chance! Battle of the Books (BOB)

Is your student (4th-8th grade) interested in joining BOB? Permission slips are due by Monday Oct 13. The statewide Battle of the Books program is designed to promote a love of reading among our students. It encourages students to read a variety of books and remember information about the plots, characters, and settings of the books.

Battle of the Books Permission Slip

Library Information/Update

Students meet every week for a library lesson and book check out time. Your child's library day might have changed since the beginning of the year. Below is an updated schedule and how many books a student may check out. Additional books are allowed when a student is working on a project. Books must be returned or renewed weekly.

4K Tuesdays. 1 Book

5K Thursdays: 2 Books

Lower Elementary Fridays: 3 Books

Upper Elementary Thursdays: 4 Books

AP: Have their own classroom library

Please let me know if you have any questions. Most importantly, enjoy, read, read and re-read your books! Thank you.

Jenice Carolan, Assistant Librarian, carolaje@wauwatosa.k12.wi.us

Fresh Hot Popcorn every Tuesday

We will once again have the opportunity to order popcorn on Tuesdays. The price is $.75 per bag. Students order it on Tuesday morning and the Next Steps crew make the popcorn and deliver it same day. So yummy!

Popcorn Order Form

Our first Grace and Courtesey assembly!

City Hall visits AP!

Grace and Courtesy

When children enter our early years environments, it is often their first opportunity to engage in a social system outside of their home. Montessori believed this was an age when children, moving into the conscious absorbent mind, were able to interact, regulate, and even learn to negotiate with others. Grace and courtesy lessons introduce these social norms to children and help them understand the importance of respect and responsibility within their new social environment.

As we settle in new children and welcome back returning ones, we often have to go back to the beginning. After a long summer, it sometimes takes time to return to the routine and to set expectations. For true freedom to exist, there must be clear limits—and children often need to be reminded of these limits within the environment. These limits create safety and trust and lay the foundation for respect. Respect is a cornerstone of cosmic education and a guiding force within Montessori philosophy: respect for self, respect for others, and respect for the environment.

Montessori calls us to be role models in our environments—modeling not only our movements but also social and emotional learning. By role modeling, we share our expectations, reflect on our own words and actions, and embrace the responsibility of being a guide. Role modeling should be more than grace and courtesy—it’s about showing up authentically and allowing children to see that it’s okay to do the same. This is what helps create the spiritual environment that nurtures the child and allows the Montessori philosophy to come alive.

Montessori said imitation is a tool for children to better understand the world around them. So, be someone worthy of imitation—not only in our interactions with children but with everyone in our communities. This is the essence of Montessori: creating environments of social cohesion, centered around respect, where everyone thrives.