Head of School Message
A message from Miss Naomi
Dear La Crescent Montessori & STEM School Families,
As we settle into the rhythm of the autumn season, one of the most meaningful moments on our school calendar is quickly approaching: parent-teacher conferences. You should have received an email from your child’s teacher with a sign up for conferences. Or if your child is in AP, you received an invitation to a community dinner where your child will share their progress with you. Reach out to your child’s teacher if you have any questions about conferences.
In a Montessori environment, a parent conference is far more than a routine progress report or a quick review of grades. It is a vital partnership—a dedicated opportunity for the two groups of people who know your child best to sit down, compare notes, ask questions, notice patterns, and collaborate on what your child needs next.
Whether your child is thriving effortlessly, navigating a quiet challenge, or leaving you with typical daily mysteries like “I don’t do anything all day,” these conversations matter deeply. You and your child’s teacher observe the very same child, but from two distinct and valuable vantage points:
- At home, you see your child in their most intimate, authentic environment. You know if a pet has passed away, if bedtime has suddenly become tricky, or if they spent all weekend building elaborate structures in the backyard.
- At school, the teacher observes your child within a community of peers. They see who your child chooses to work beside, how long their concentration holds during the uninterrupted morning work cycle, how they navigate challenging tasks, and how they practice grace and courtesy with friends.
When we bring those two pictures together, we gain a complete view of the whole child that neither of us could see alone. At its heart, a conference offers twenty minutes to step away from the rush of drop-offs and permission slips to focus on a single, beautiful question: Who is this child becoming, and how can we help them thrive?
Our teachers are eagerly looking forward to sitting down with you. Thank you for your continued trust, partnership, and dedication to our school community.
Sincerely,
Naomi Kraus
Montessori Moment
Inside Children’s House (Ages 3-6)
Walking into Children’s House is an amazing experience! There’s a busy hum throughout the room as you see 3-6 year olds busy working on different activities at various spots in the room. When you step into a Montessori Children’s House classroom, you might see a child washing a table, another tracing sandpaper letters, and two others working together with colorful beads. It can be easy to wonder: Are they playing or learning?
The answer is both. Behind these everyday activities is a carefully connected curriculum structured across five core areas:
- Practical Life: Activities like pouring water, buttoning, and table washing satisfy a young child’s natural drive for independence while building order, focus, and fine-motor coordination.
- Sensorial: Materials like the Pink Tower or Sound Cylinders isolate specific qualities (dimension, pitch, texture), refining a child’s powers of observation and pattern recognition—skills foundational to geometry and science.
- Language: Children progress naturally from oral language to physical sound-tracing with sandpaper letters, building words with the Movable Alphabet long before their hands are ready for formal handwriting.
- Mathematics: Abstract concepts become tangible. Working with Golden Beads allows a child to physically touch and hold a unit, a ten-bar, a hundred-square, and a thousand-cube, building deep intuitive understanding of the decimal system.
- Cultural Studies: Through geography maps, plant life cycles, music, and art, children develop curiosity and respect for the natural world and global communities.
What might look like simple play is actually purposeful work. Whether building concentration through table washing or exploring division with beads, our students are developing into capable, confident, and independent learners.
OctoberClassroomHighlights
Children’s House (PreK-Kindergarten)
- We visited the fire station for Fire Prevention Week.
- CH and E1 visited Ferguson’s Apple Orchard in Galesville.
- Visitors from the La Crosse Community Theater came to promote their play Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience. They came in full costume, sang a song, and read the book Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems.
- Montessori Material Feature: The Pink Tower is one of the most iconic sensory materials in the Montessori Children’s House. Consisting of 10 solid pink wooden cubes ranging precisely from 1 cubic centimeter to 10 cubic centimeters, it invites children to build a vertical tower from largest to smallest. This material develops fine-motor control, hand-eye coordination, and natural balance as children carefully center each cube. It indirectly prepares the brain for geometry, volume, and the base-ten numbering system through hands on experience.
Elementary 1 (Grades 1-3)
- Kids work like little working honey bees during our work period from 8-11 am each day. Some students may be getting lessons, while others are working with a partner, or a couple kids playing a math game, but all are engaged in learning!
- E1 was in the news! Our class was featured in Super Star STEM on News8Now for our activity learning about Newton’s Third Law of Motion with guest teacher Dr. Alaina Webb!
- We walked to Bauers and they showed us the process of selling apples and they let us sample different kinds of apples. They also gave us apples to make our own applesauce!
- We visited Ferguson’s Apple Orchard with Children’s House.
- The cast from the play Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience came and visited our classroom. They treated students to a sneak peek of the show, led activities that sparked their interest in theater, and encouraged them to practice kindness with intention.
Elementary 2 (Grades 4-6)
- We continue to work on our new spelling curriculum. It’s amazing to see the carry over into our writing and reading work.
- Math lessons are going well and we have been doing some really big works, especially fourth graders. Seeing them use the Montessori materials to tackle complicated math concepts is so fun!
- E2 won the pumpkin decorating contest for the Fall Festival! The class will get a pizza party!
- We continued to work on our spooky stories. We have created all the characters, found the setting, and used descriptive sensory words to give more details. Our final step is to make a rough draft and then write the final copy. The students who wish to share them with their classmates will be getting the opportunity to do so.
- The cast from the play Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience came and visited our classroom. They treated students to a sneak peek of the show, led activities that sparked their interest in theater, and encouraged them to practice kindness with intention.
Adolescent Program (Grades 7-12)
- Students went on the “Voices From the Past” cemetery walk in Winona. The theme was “Winonans Just Wanna Have Fun!”, highlighting local clubs, parades, and community traditions.
- We finished Unit 1 and are now into our second “interim” of the year. Interim is a two week, elective deep dive where we take a break from our regular schedule. This “change of occupation,” as Dr. Montessori called it, helps teens take a break from their typical school schedule, continue to learn, and feel refreshed for Unit Two.
- We had two trips to the school forest! Students had a great time exploring the area, clearing trees, and helping get the area ready for our outdoor classroom.
- Some students attended the Maritime Interaction Day in La Crosse where students participated in hands-on activities and educational presentations that introduced students to the maritime industry.
- Miss Bella’s interim students got to learn all about bugs at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse science lab.
- Conferences will be held Wednesday, November 11th from 5-7pm. In AP, families have much easier access to grades through JMC and we don’t wait for conferences to connect with you about concerns or celebrations. Conferences become less about parents and teachers discussing and more about student reflection, goal setting, meta-cognition and connection with their parents. This year, students will prepare a dinner for you to enjoy, show you around their classrooms, and present a work portfolio. Dr. Montessori found that as teens care for their parents, they build confidence. Our student-led conferences are one way we meet the need for care of others in our adolescent program.
Upcoming LMSS Events
November 10, Tuesday: Letters from Home: WWII History from La Crescent
November 11, Wednesday: Picture Retake
November 11, Wednesday: AP Conferences; Community Dinner
November 16, Monday: Book Club: “Hunter, Gather, Parent”
November 17, Tuesday: A “Novel” Discussion: Having conversations about dystopian societies with your adolescent children
November 25-27, Wednesday – Friday: No School