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We want you!

If you’re a current parent who does drop off and pick up every day, you know how quickly things are changing across the street at the site of our new home. If you aren’t at the school as often – here’s the quick update. Late this summer we began the process of clearing the brush on our property at 33-35 Eliot Street, in preparation for building a new home for Eliot Montessori. After years of planning, we’re finally seeing tangible progress, but we need everyone’s help to maintain our momentum. We received permission from the Conservation Commission and the Natick Historic District Commission to complete the clean-up and all the brush and diseased trees were cleared and new grass was planted. We’re also beginning restoration work on the interior of the Tavern building and we hope to have fully useable space by the beginning of 2009.

As we begin this project, we want to include every member of our community – the teachers, the parents, the alumni and especially the children. There are so many talents hidden (and not) in our families – our new home can only benefit from tapping into them. Most importantly, we’re looking for your creativity – how would your family like to be involved? Would you like to lend your design expertise? Would your children like to give us a rendering of what they’d like to see in a new school? Do you have a middle-schooler who would like to, once and for all, find out who Peletiah Morse was, and why he built a tavern? Do you have ideas about how we might expand our marketing efforts to attract more students, including those interested in a Children’s House? Are you an alumni family with a special memory we might be able to capture to help us connect our future with our past? Do you have ideas for a science project on that wonderful land we’ll soon be calling home?

We want our new home to be filled with the same energy, commitment and spirit of the Eliot community. Please tell us about your ideas and share your talents and those of your children. It’s ultimately their school and we want them to be an integral part of the process. We look forward to hearing from you and utilizing your skills as we continue our plans for our new home.

Laurel Lyle
President

TRUSTEE NEWS

The September meeting of the Board of Trustees: reviewed our current enrollment, reviewed the updated budget, approved the financial audit, discussed the status of our accreditation (including the AISNE Self Study report), reviewed admissions activities and a new Strategic Marketing Plan. Whew! However most of the three hour marathon was dedicated to discussing the new permanent home activities and plans. Here is a brief summary on the three most time-critical items: budget, accreditation and permanent home.

Budget: Because of reduced enrollment (105 students, below June forecasts), the budget has been adjusted to reflect lower income projections. This is in stark contrast to the balanced surpluses of recent years.

Accreditation: October is the month when all of the hard work of the faculty and the board comes together before the visiting auditors. The resulting AISNE Self Study is a remarkable document that captures how EMS lives up to its mission statement.

Permanent Home: We received permission from the Natick Historical Commission to allow us to clear the land across the street. The clearing has been completed, the area graded, and grass planted. We discussed the relative merits and concerns of several ways we could create a new Children’s House –including ongoing discussions with Natick Montessori. We discussed the growing uncertainty around our ability to obtain any kind of lease or lease extension from the Town of Natick for the brick building. We discussed the impact of the growing economic downturn on our ability to raise the necessary capital through fund-raising and financing but believe we have the wherewithal to go forward with our building plans.

Jay Pasco-Anderson
Secretary

EMPA NEWS

Dear Eliot Families,

The chill in the air confirms that we are well into Fall! October has been quite a full month for EMPA. The Innisbrook fundraiser has gone extremely well. We look forward to telling you soon about the enrichment programs we will be booking for the students as a result. At our EMPA Committee Meeting, on October 24th, we examined some of these options. The fall Parent Reception was a wonderful evening, attended by many members of our community – parents, teachers and administrators. It was a beautiful night and those who joined the event enjoyed great conversation, food, and even a Red Sox win at the end. (Unfortunately, EMPA could not do any more than that!).

Two important traditions mark the end of October:

On Monday, October 27th, EMPA hosted Grandparent and Special Friend Day. This is one of Eliot’s most well-attended events of the year. Grandparents and friends had a delightful morning at the school that included refreshments, student performances, classroom visits, and photographs of grandparents with their grandchildren. We had another great day this year.

October 30th is the first official day of the Eliot Book Fair. The fair runs from October 30th-November 3rd, and gives the community a great chance to do some early holiday planning by purchasing books from the Wellesley Booksmith. The school benefits by receiving 20% of the proceeds – a win-win event!

November is a quieter month for EMPA, as all parents start gearing up for the holiday season. (Yes, it is hard to believe!) Lower El and K parents should watch your News & Notes and e-mail for notice about the morning Coffee. We will let you know where to go when our hosting details are confirmed. Also watch for the wrapping paper deliveries, which should take place close to Thanksgiving.

We are looking forward to organizing some new events in the coming months. There are some great ideas in our wonderful community at Eliot, and we welcome all input. Thank you, in advance, for helping out in any way that you can.

Regards,

Laurie Davis and Ruth Calka
Co-Chairs, EMPA

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Dear Parents,

This is such an exciting time to be a part of the Eliot community—as we see our plans for a new home begin to take shape, I’m reminded about why we’re here in the first place. It’s that ‘magic’ that makes Eliot so special—the way our teachers treat every child as an individual, and stimulate each child to reach their highest potential, every single day. It’s really the teachers and the community that are the foundation of the school – a new facility will provide more opportunities to make that magic grow – but it’s the fundamental, day-to-day learning, that really makes us want to keep our children here.

If you’ve been at Eliot for awhile, you know that we, like most independent schools, try to keep our tuition down and create a purposeful gap between what tuition funds and what the school needs to operate every day. As most other similar schools, that gap at Eliot is 10%, which we hope to meet through our Annual Fund. New parents may find this strange – if you’re already paying tuition, why are we asking you for more?

The answer is that an Annual Fund accomplishes a number of things, for you and for the school. First, any gift you give to the Annual Fund is fully tax-deductible, unlike your tuition payments. Second, we understand that we have a very diverse community with very different resources, and the Annual Fund allows each family to give what makes sense for them, that year. That diversity is a critical part of making Eliot such an amazing place, and one of the sparks for that ‘magic.’ Finally, the Annual Fund is an opportunity for each family to make a tangible difference in continuing that ‘magic’ – every single gift, large or small, makes the connection between all of us stronger and helps ensure that our children continue to benefit from those magical teachers and their magical ideas.

I hope you’ll join me in supporting the Annual Fund, at whatever level is comfortable for your family. And please don’t stop there – please share your skills, your energy, your talents this year as we create a new home for our children. As I said earlier, it’s the faculty AND the community that makes Eliot so special – and every member of our community has an important role to play. I look forward to the opportunity to work with all of you this year, and I could not be more grateful for the chance to be a part of such an incredible place.

To give to the Annual Fund, simply return the pledge envelope you received in the mail or contact Gail Cirillo, Director of Development, at (508) 655-7333 Ext. 126 or email gcirillo@eliotmontessori.org. We are grateful for every gift, regardless of the amount—the generous spirit of the Eliot community is an important part of what makes our school so special.

Laurel Lyle
President, Board of Trustees

ADMISSIONS NEWS

We offer a warm welcome to the Early-Manchester family, the Ducharme-Sardegna family, and the Mason family, who joined us after the school year began! Elias Early-Manchester joins the Middle School, Sophia Sardegna joins Mr. Cohen’s Class as a Third Year, and Philip Mason joins Mr. Cohen’s Class as a Second Year.

Chet Manchester and Anne Early
5 Crehore Drive
Newton, MS 02462
(617) 795-0930
anneearly@mac.com

Mark Sardegna and Janet Ducharme
86 Walnut Street
Natick, MA 01760
(508) 653-1518
janducharme@mac.com

Paul and Ocllo Mason
50 Dutton Road
Sudbury, MA 01776
(978) 440-8002
ocllo@comcast.net

KINDERGARTEN NEWS

From Mr. Feinstein's Class
	Calvin Smith
	Ryan Dretler, Nicole Murray, Maddy Peng
	Emory Koeppel

LOWER EL NEWS

From Mrs. Green's Class

About Fall Field Day...

UPPER EL NEWS

Constructive Triangles

Constructive Triangles II is an application of much geometry curriculum that students have studied thus far. In this unit, students have ample opportunity to investigate angles, triangles, and polygons, as well as congruency, similarity, and equivalence. This work is a great precursor to studying area of polygons.

The connections to the math curriculum are elegant. In the Upper El., students are learning about fractions. Here, students experience in a concrete way, fractions of a whole, equivalent fractions, and to a lesser degree addition of unlike denominators. By the end of the unit, students prove the Pythagorean Theorem concretely, which prepares them for more abstract work in our Middle School.

The matrix below shows the terminology and the symbols:

This is an example of equivalent shapes.
	This is an example of similar shapes.
	The aim of this presentation is to give the child a sensorial introduction to the Theorem of Pythagoras. The regular hexagon formed on the short leg of the right angle triangle plus the regular hexagon formed on the longer leg of a right angle triangle together equal a regular hexagon formed on the hypotenuse of the right angle triangle. This picture is the sensorial proof.

Diwali This year, Diwali ( pronounced –Divali) the Hindu Festival of Light falls on Tuesday, October 28th. At Diwali, Hindus remember their gods, light up their homes with colored lights and rows of oil lamps, wear new clothes, eat sweets, light up firecrackers and greet friends and family by saying “Happy Diwali”. Light is seen as the triumph of good over evil and of happiness over sadness.

MORE UPPER EL NEWS

MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS

SPANISH NEWS

Spanish Care of Self Posters
By: Sridhar Rangan, Evan Lyle, Elias Early-Manchester

This trimester the level two middle school Spanish class created posters in Spanish encouraging other students to take care of themselves and the environment. This theme goes along with the mission statement and Montessori education. A couple examples of the posters are cubre el estornudo, cover your sneeze, and limpia los zapatos, wipe your feet. The posters will be placed in various places around the school.

SPECIAL EVENTS