October Newsletter 2025
Dear Parents,
Autumn has finally arrived. Nature is showing itself from a most beautiful side. We often have fine weather in October and go on walks whenever we can. Finding chestnuts and acorns gives us the chance to do lots of sorting and counting activities and we look at the shapes of the leaves and learn their names. Leaves are everywhere. The time for collecting red, yellow and brown leaves and making autumn collages with interesting pieces of nature the nearby forest has to offer, has begun!
.In keeping with the season we will be talking about hibernation of squirrels, hedgehogs and other animals and about the birds that prefer living in warmer climates during winter.
The colours that will dominate the artwork will be orange, brown and yellow but will change into orange and black, the closer we get to Halloween. Towards the middle of the month we shall be busy making ghosts, bats, spiders and jack-o-lanterns. We shall draw them, trace them, cut them out etc.
On Wednesday, October 22nd we shall go to the “Elfi Wiese” to find pumpkins. This is normally an exciting field trip for the children, as they always have great fun looking for the pumpkins in the fields. The joy in their faces when they have been successful is a pleasure to see.
The cooking project this month will be pumpkin soup after we have carved a Jack-o-lantern out of a biggish pumpkin.
Our Halloween party will be on Friday, October 31st.
The preschool will be open from 9.00 – 14.00
We shall not have a certain topic. The children and you can come dressed up as you like. Preferably spooky – but not too spooky so as not to frighten the children and please no complete face masks.
A list for a special snack for the party will be hanging on the door a week before the party.
As the weather in autumn can also be quite nasty please remember that we will go out every day, may it be windy, cold or rainy, so please, please dress your children accordingly.
During our ‚nature month‘ we look forward to beautiful walks in our neighbourhood and many projects with leaves, acorns, chestnuts, beechnuts and berries and a wonderful party.
Have a happy October!
Your Montessori team
September Newsletter 2025
Dear Parents,
It is the start of a new school year and we hope you all enjoyed your summer holidays.
A big welcome to our newcomers: Cleo, Carl, Carla, Olivia, Adèle, Mun Mun, Maya, Milina, Yago, and to our “oldies”: Levi, Arik, Alisa, Julius, Amani, Ananya, Anuda, Mads, Nikias, Carla, Luisa, Rayén, Sreenidhi, and to you all!
September is generally the settling-in-month for our newcomers, the month in which the children get to know each other and routines are established. A lot of time is spent working individually with the children, showing them how the materials are used.
The topics this month are “sunflowers” and “apples”.
The first theme involves the drawing of sunflowers, tracing and cutting them out, handprint sunflowers and sunflower collages.
We shall talk about what you can make out of sunflowers and taste some sunflower seeds and – bread at circle time.
The second theme will also involve drawing, tracing and cutting out.
On Thursday September 25st we shall go to some gardens (Laubenpiper) to look at the beautiful sunflowers and to pick a few apples in Annie’s garden. We shall then go to the neighbouring playground and shall be back at the pre-school by 12:30.
As a cooking project we plan to make apple sauce – lots of hand/eye co-ordination is involved in the chopping and fine motor skills are strengthened. At circle time we shall sing lots of apple songs.
The first parent evening will be on Monday, September 29th at 8p.m at the preschool. We hope many of you can make it as it will be the first parent evening of the new school term and it is always nice to meet and introduce the old and new parents.
As a few parents have asked for the holiday calendar I have added it in the attachment.
October 9th our partner Kita has organized a first aid course. Should any of you like to join in please let me know. The cost for the course is 45 Euro. Unfortunately the training will start at 4:00 p.m. in the Lissabonalle 6, 14129 Berlin, so we shall have to close the preschool at 15:30 on that day.
We look forward to a busy, warm September, during which we can spend lots of time out- doors in our atrium garden and to a happy new school year.
Your Montessori team
July Newsletter 2025
Dear Parents,
The July newsletter is always such a sad one because it is time to say “good-bye!” to our ‘big ones’, which is probably why I have postponed writing it. But how could the summer break start without the last letter of the term?
June got off to a nice hot start, so that we could spend lots of time outdoors in our garden enjoying the wonderful weather. The children have been gardening and watering the flowers, splashing in the pool and playing in the sand/mud making wonderful mud cakes. We also spent some time practising the play for our summer party. Speaking about that, let’s get to the most exciting topic for everyone – the SUMMER PARTY!
On Friday July 18th there will be no preschool in the morning. We look forward to welcoming you all at 4:00 p.m.. At approximately 4:30p.m. the play will start. After the play there will be a small snack (juice and biscuits) and then the games will begin!
At 6:00p.m. we shall start our barbecue. Please add something you would like to bring for supper to the list if you have not already done so. After dinner we shall say our good byes to the parents and to the children who will not be overnighting and then proceed to go on a scavenger hunt. When we return we shall prepare our sleeping quarters and get ready for bed.
We expect whoever can make it to come next morning at 8:00a.m., but definitely the parents of the overnighting children (please also sign up on the breakfast list). As we probably will all be tired from the night before, school will end at 10:00 a.m.
The overnighting children will need:
- a sleeping bag or blanket
- an “Isomatte” or mattress of one kind or another
- night wear
- their cuddly toy
After the summer party our monthly topic will be “the beach”.
The last day of the school term will be Friday, August 1st.
For all of you who will be leaving we wish all the very best. Thank you for trusting us with your wonderful children. We will surely miss them and you.
For all of you who will be returning, the preschool will reopen on WEDNESDAY August 27th and we look forward to a happy new term together.
A very special ‘thank you’ to Valentina and Josie who were parent representatives in the past term and a pleasure to work with.
We hope you all have a wonderful relaxing holiday in Berlin or elsewhere.
Postcards are appreciated!
Your Montessori Team
June Newsletter 2025
Dear Parents,
At the beginning of the month of May we talked about various kinds of insects. We then had a short interruption of that topic and began to talk about parents and why we love them. The children became really excited and busy making little gifts for you before we could return to our six-legged friends and elaborately work on the insect theme again. After tracing and cutting out May beetles we made potato- and origami ladybirds and were then busy with bees, caterpillars and butterflies.
In June our topic will be farm animals.
We shall start with ‘pigs’ (my favourite) and will then move on to cows, sheep and then chickens. I’m sure Oskar can share some information about chickens, as he presently has some in his garden.
As a cooking project we shall make butter which we shall eat on the delicious fresh bread we get every day.
I think a field trip to either Domäne Dahlem or Vogelpark Teltow would be nice. We will let you know date and time as soon as possible.
Unfortunately we will have to say good-bye to Jungwook and his family, as they are moving back to South Korea. We had a good time together and Jungwook will be greatly missed. Please stay in touch.
Have a wonderful June,
Your Montessori Team
May Newsletter 2025
Dear parents,
Oops I really don’t know what happened to the April Newsletter – it must have gotlost during the Easter break. Sorry!But now to May:In May our main topics will be ‘Parents’ and ‘Insects’.
We shall talk all about what wonderful things parents do for us and why we are sohappy we have them and we shall make lots of lovely insects.Hopefully there will be many more nice warm days so we can go for small walksthrough the forest in search of insects hidden under leaves or between the bark oftrees. Naturally we shall take our insect glasses along so that we can bring back andidentify the more interesting specimens.
Forest day tomorrow!
Now is the time for planting the seeds of summer flowers, so we shall spend moretime in our garden, sowing seeds, watering them and enjoying the good weather.We won’t only be gardening in our little garden, but shall also take out other workingmaterials from the “Montessori room”.
On Monday, May 19th we shall visit our partner school “St. Ursula” in Zehlendorf. Theyare putting on a little show “Die Kinder des Monsieur Mathieu” and have invited us.We shall have two trainees this month, Noemi a “Schülerpraktikantin” and one of ourformer students and Sander who is learning to become a teacher’s assistant.We shall have a parent evening on Tuesday May 27th at the preschool beginning at8.00p.m.
And last but not least a small reminder, that the preschool will be closed on the 20thof May and for Ascension Day on the 28th of May. School will resume on Monday,June 2nd.Have a happy month and don’t let the May bugs
bite!The Montessori Team
March Newsletter 2025
Dear Parents,In February the children had fun tracing and cutting out hearts, decorating the preschool and making and sending their Valentines. We then began to decorate our preschool for carnival. I actually always hate taking down the lovely heat decorations after Valentine’s Day, as I think they make the preschool look so lovely, but fortunately carnival is also quite a merry occasion.
The most exciting topic this month will be the carnival party. It will take place on Tuesday, March 4th.During the first part of the day the children will busy themselves with carnival related artwork. Then we shall have music followed by a small snack to strengthen ourselves for the games which will follow. After a breath of fresh air we shall have lunch, circle time and quiet activities.
In March we shall start our plant theme. We shall talk about various spring flowers such as snowdrops, hyacinths and tulips. In the art room the children will have the opportunity to make many beautiful spring flowers by tracing, cutting out and gluing. I am sure you will be able to admire them on the hall wall.
The following week we shall start to get our pre-school green.We shall talk about Shaun the leprechaun who always comes to visit us on St. Patrick’s Day. He likes to play tricks on us and maybe we will catch him this year. If not I’m sure we will find his pot of gold which will either be at the end of a rainbow or hidden under an old oak tree. We shall see what we can find.
On March 17th each year, the Irish and Irish-Americans celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by the “wearin’ of the green”.It would be nice if the children could also wear green on Monday 17th.
This holiday commemorates St. Patrick who, legend tells us, went about Ireland as a missionary preaching and using the shamrock as an illustration of the Trinity. St Patrick also was credited for ridding Ireland of snakes. During the week we shall listen to Irish music and make lots of shamrock- and snake art.
On Saturday, March 15th our landlords are throwing a Pot-luck- St Patrick’s Day- Party and have invited us all to join. It will start at 18:00 hours and you are asked to bring a small something delicious to share. I know we were the mainparty guys last year, so let’s turn up in bulk and show the others how to celebrate appropriately yet again. An Irish band has been hired to bring in more joy and merriment – so please come.The cooking project of the month will be shamrock shaped waffles.
After St. Patrick’s Day we shall continue our topic, spring flowers.This month’s field trip will take us to the botanical gardens. A few crocuses are already blooming in my garden and hopefully in two weeks time we can also admire tulips and daffodils everywhere.Details will follow.
We look forward to welcoming Louisa, Carla’s little sister, who will be joining us after Carnival.Let’s hope for many lovely Spring days. Have a happy month!
Your Montessori team