When supporting the biodiversity of our environment, it is easy to overlook the contributions of the smallest creatures that inhabit our gardens.  Insects are one of the most successful living organisms and constitute almost half of all species on earth.  Too often we kill them without realizing that they are actually our allies.  Some help decomposition by eating large amounts of dead leaves and spent organic matter while others eat caterpillars and small snails that attack our vegetables and flowers.  Our bug hotel provides lots of different habitats for different kinds of helpful creatures to live in the summer and hibernate throughout the winter.       Here are some of the materials we used to provide habitats for specific creatures: The hotel structure was made from recycled wooden pallets and off-cuts donated by Home Depot in Merrifield. Hollow stems, such as old bamboo canes, and holes drilled into blocks of...

Join Brooksfield School and LōKL Gourmet on Friday, April 22nd for fun-filled day of Earth Day activities including recycable arts and crafts, music, nature scavenger hunts, pansy planting and more!  LōKL Gourmet will be here to give out free food samplings!  The event runs from 9:30 to 11am and is open to the public!  Hope to see you there!  

  Tuesday was our third “Farm to Table” cooking adventure in the Upper School.  Our chefs for the day prepared lunch for their classmates and teachers.  The menu was our first “international” offering – Coconut beef and vegetable curryCucumber-Mint RaitaChapatti / steamed riceVanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting  All three chefs were very responsible in the cooking area, chopping, measuring, pouring, stirring and blending with care. Working cooperatively and respectfully meant that everyone was permitted to use all of the cooking utensils, even the pointy ones, and take turns working at the stove. The smells wafting up the stairs from the Upper School were fabulous as the curry simmered to perfection.  The squash we used was grown in our summer garden and we harvested the potatoes minutes before we dropped them into the pot!  Mint and onion greens, the first few herbs offered up by the gardens this spring made their...

Young children are full of energy, and are constantly on the move. When they reach the age of attending preschool or elementary school, many parents hear comments from educators that children have a hard time sitting still and doing seatwork. While some may be quick to assign a medical label, consider the possibility that the child may just be a kinesthetic learner. A Montessori school can help assess your child's learning style and adapt to it appropriately. There are 4 main types of learning styles. Reader-writers perform the best with traditional teaching methods, as they truly enjoy getting lost in a book or writing a story. Assign them a packet of worksheets and they are truly in their element. Visual learners need images, graphics, maps, charts, and other visual aids to process information. Auditory learners do best when they can hear and speak about what they are learning. Reading out loud and talking...

The Lower School helps Brooksfield’s birds transition into Spring The children in Julie and Beth’s class have been helping our wild birds as they transition into spring. Birdseed is still needed to help female birds build up strength before nesting season is upon them.  Julie’s class made two different types of feeders:  one that filled egg cartons with a combination of shortening, sunflower butter and bird seed, and the other which coated a small bird house with wild bird seed.  We hung them on the garden loom and watched the birds (and squirrels) feast.  Beth’s class spent the morning cutting up pieces of soft yarn and felt, and mixed them with pillow stuffing and dryer lint.  Then we stuffed wire balls with the soft nesting material and hung them in the trees outside the classroom window.  We’ll watch the birds that make our forest their home, take the material to build...

In art, the color green symbolizes growth and transformation. In nature, it is evident in the way fragile yet strong green stems emerge from the ground in the Spring or how green buds blossom on the trees, signs of more to come, of growth and life. For one three-year-old boy, the color green and its symbolism took on a personal meaning. It was my first year of teaching art at Brooksfield. One of my students, James, a quiet three- year- old, had a favorite color: green. Whenever I offered a colorful selection of oil pastels, he would use a green one to draw a spiny dinosaur. He would paint green mountains. He would choose green yarn for weaving projects. His artwork was usually on green paper. We all knew he loved green. A few weeks into the year, I was teaching a lesson on primary colors. We used white paper for...

Let's face it: We know that being outside provides a plethora of benefits -- but factors such as weather, busy schedules and lack of outdoor opportunities keep us from spending as much time outdoors as we know we should. Experts agree that spending time outdoors delivers a range of physical and mental benefits. According to author and clinical psychologist, Kay Redfield Jamison, time spent outdoors stimulates creativity, reduces anxiety, promotes problem-solving and leadership skills, helps children recognize patterns, increases vocabulary and improves immune systems. Brooksfield's charming five-acre campus provides an outdoor classroom where children profit on a daily basis from opportunities to engage with nature: nature walks, spontaneous outdoor investigation, art classes in the gazebo or in the garden, wildlife observation, playground time and gardening - a chance to literally reap what they sow. "On Brooksfield's peaceful trail, we ask the children to pay attention to the sounds they hear: birds, the wind,...

Your child went to a Montessori preschool. They attended a Montessori school for kindergarten. Unfortunately, your time with a quality Montessori education is running out. As a parent who is genuinely hopeful that your child will continue to love learning, approach learning challenges independently, and be able to learn at their own pace throughout their educational career, you can't help but wonder how you're going to take that Montessori style into their later years at school. Keep your child in their current school. Many Montessori kindergartens are linked to other schools, from private schools that take them through their elementary school years to other institutions. If you want to continue your child's Montessori education or maintain their current philosophy of education for as long as possible, the best way to do it is to keep them in their current school. Those schools are designed with a Montessori philosophy at the forefront and will help...

  Here in Brooksfield’s Upper School, students are busy preparing for their annual Anthropology Express!* production. Through the lens of the performing arts, a culture area is explored using scene work, movement, texts and songs. By studying traditions, myths, belief systems, relationships to landscape and cultural history, students develop heightened awareness of diverse cultures and appreciation for our global neighbors. This creative laboratory approach utilizes discussion, enactment, brainstorming and rehearsal, yielding a fully realized theatrical production each spring. Ancient Greece / Minoan Crete is our culture area this cycle, with scenes underway depicting Odysseus & the Sirens, Poseidon’s Ocean, Demeter & Persephone, and appearances by Artemis, Apollo, Hermes, and a host of other characters. Our finale includes chanted poetic text translated from The Hymns of Orpheus. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend the Upper School’s production at an all-school assembly on Thursday, May 12, at 10:30 AM. *Anthropology Express!...

Brooksfield Alumni Parent, Francine Ronis, is presenting a workshop on Emotional Intelligence.  Francine has done several mindful parenting workshops here at Brooksfield.  Her workshops are full of information and great ideas to practice at home.  Below are the details about her next workshop here at Brooksfield!  Check out her website at http://francineronis.org Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions. Some people believe the EQ is more important than IQ, however many of us never develop their EQ and don't know how. Learn the main tenants of EQ, why it's important, and how to develop a higher EQ for yourself and your child. Join alumni parent and child/family therapist, Francine Ronis for our next Parent Coffee at 9:30, February 4 at the Brooksfield School, 1830 Kirby Road, McLean, VA 703-356-5437. Admission is free, but please RSVP.