October Newsletter 2026
Dear Parents,
Autumn has finally arrived. It is such a gorgeous time of the year. 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. Th 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.
Friday, October 9th Oktoberfest.
Unlike the Bavarians we shall have a small “Oktober Fest” in October at the preschool. The Bavarians celebrated from the19th of September. Should your child/children own a Dirndl or Lederhosen, a chequered blouse or shirt, an apron or anything Bavarian looking please let them wear that on Friday. We shall listen to Bavarian music and make pretzels.
On Thursday, 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.
This year Halloween is on a Saturday
We thought that the children would be rather upset, if we didn’t have a party at preschool, so we have decided to have a little party on Friday, October 30th. This means the children can come dressed up and we shall offer spooky artwork and a spooky kind of sports lesson. We would be happy if you could join us at 2.00p.m. for our trick-or-treat-tour around the building.
Your help is needed!
On the first page of the Beokiz book which the children get when they leave the preschool a small introduction of the child is required. This is information the parents need to supply. Maybe you could send me a few words about your child and a couple of pictures (birth, family, special events…) via email.
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 dress your children accordingly.
And now last, but definitely not least a huge
THANK YOU
To Rama (Ananya’s Dad) who donated and installed a new computer for us all!
During our ‚nature month‘ we look forward to beautiful walks in our neighbourhood and many projects with leaves, acorns, chestnuts, beechnuts and berries and two wonderful small parties (Oktober Fest & Halloween).Have a happy October!
Your Montessori Team
August/September Newsletter 2026
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: Anna, Caecilia (Lotti), Clara, Cleo Malia, Johanna, Lore, Josse and Louis and, to our “oldies”: Alisa, Amani, Ananya, Arik, Carl, Cleo, Julius, Liam, Mads, Maya, Milina, Rayén and to you all!
August is 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 theme of the month is “All about me”. It will involve the drawing of self -portraits, naming body parts, weighing and measuring, talking about our feelings and senses with lots of games and finger-plays involved with this theme.
The topics in September will be “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.
Jill, the music teacher, will also teach us a couple of lovely sunflower and apple songs during her lessons (Tuesdays 10:00-11:00), which we will hopefully all remember and sing at circle time together.
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.
The first parent evening will be on Tuesday, August 25th 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.
On their first day, the new children will need a pair of house shoes and a change of clothes in case they have a little accident. For the sports lesson ( Mondays 9:30 – 10:30) they will need a pair of ballet shoes (Schleppchen) with rubber soles – not the traditional ballet shoes with leather soles as they are too slippery.
Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Nina and Mia, but will hopefully be able to have Ruth (a former student) working with us soon.
We look forward to a busy, warm August and 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 2026
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 watering the flowers, splashing in the pool and playing in the sand/mud making wonderful mud cakes. We also spent a little time practising the play for our summer party. We were so lucky with the weather this year on the day of our party. It was just perfect – not too warm and not too cold. We enjoyed the party immensely and hope you did too. The ‘overnighting children’ were very good and slept sort of soundly from 11:00 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. and the food you prepared for us all was once again delicious!
July’s theme is “transportation” as many families will be travelling during the holidays and we have already started to decorate the entrance hall with boats. Trains, cars, caravans, planes and bikes will follow soon.
On Monday, July 13th we will take a boat across the Wannsee to Kladow and go to a lovely playground there. We shall leave the preschool at 9:00 o’clock, take the 285 bus, then the S-Bahn and then the ferry – lots of various kinds of transportation .
Slowly the room is becoming emptier and emptier, as the children are leaving for their summer vacation. Lots are going to ‘big school’ and we need to say Good-bye’ to Levi, Anuda, Adele, Carla, Luisa, Olivia, Clara, Sreenidhi, Nikias and Tilda. We enjoyed having them here with us. Naturally we expect visits now and again!
A very special ‘thank you’ to Josie and Valentina who were parent representatives in the past term and a pleasure to work with.
The last day of the school term will be Friday, July 17th
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 12th and we look forward to a happy new term together.
We hope you all have a wonderful relaxing holiday in Berlin or elsewhere.
Postcards are appreciated!
Newsletter June 2026
Dear Parents,
Last month our projects simply didn’t seem to work out the way we had hoped. Forest day was so rainy-, that we postponed it. The following Wednesday was also rainy and so it continued. Then the tragedy with the caterpillar eggs. Unfortunately the butterfly project died a terrible death, as the package was delivered to the post station. I didn’t realise it was the caterpillar parcel and picked it up too late. Fortunately the children never asked about that project and I didn’t have to confess my mistake. I only hope that this month things will work out better!
The children spent a lot of time in the garden during the nice weather period. As it got cooler and rainier they were busy making ladybirds and bees which can be admired in the hall and on the bulletin boards. Although we normally start a new topic each month we still have a lot of ‘insect talk’ to discuss so we will keep to the project for a little longer before we move on to fish. May was so full of holidays, that it came and went faster than we had hoped, as we wanted to do sooo much before the summer party, which is coming closer and closer.
This month our field trip will be to peacock island. The next 10 days the weather forecast shows a lot of rain, so we shall just spontaneously (1-2days notice) decide when we will go.
Lisa has returned back to work after being away on her maternal leave. We presently have so many teachers (Anusha, Madalena, Lisa, Nina, Mia, Veronica and I) that we have the opportunity to do lots of individual work with the children, which is absolutely wonderful.
A short reminder: On June 26th the preschool will only be open until 1p.m.
And now to the most exciting topic for everyone – the SUMMER PARTY!
On Friday the 3rd of July 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 the games will begin! This years Summer party theme will be “Under The Sea”.
At ~6:00 p.m. we shall start our barbecue. Please add something you would like to bring for supper to the list. After dinner we shall say our good byes to the parents and children who will not be overnighting and then proceed to go on our scavenger hunt. When we return we will prepare our sleeping quarters and get ready for bed.
We invite whoever can make it to come next morning at 8:30a.m. for breakfast (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 and their cuddly toy.
Have a wonderful June,
The Montessori Team
May Newsletter 2026
Dear parents,
Welcome to beautiful May. This is not only a month with gorgeous blossoming trees and flowers in bloom, but also a month of holidays especially as we have Ascension Day and Pentecost coming up .
Our main topics this month will be parents and insects.
We shall talk all about what wonderful things parents do for us and why we are so happy we have them. Then we shall talk about various kinds of insects and last but not least we shall make lots of lovely insect-art. We hope for some nice warm days so we can go for small walks through the forest in search of insects hidden under leaves or between the bark of trees. Naturally we shall take our insect glasses along so that we can bring back and identify the more interesting specimens. As the weather will not be so nice tomorrow we shall postpone our forest day by a week and have a sport lesson instead.
Kerstin (Conor’s Mum), has kindly donated a butterfly farm and I have sent in the order for the caterpillars which go with it. We hope they will arrive soon. We have never done this before so it will be very exciting for all of us.
Now is the time for planting the seeds of summer flowers and Tom (Amani’s dad) kindly gave us seeds and soil, so we shall spend more time 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 working
materials from the “Montessori room” the nicer it gets outside.
We will have a parent evening on Tuesday, May 19th at 8.00 p.m. at the preschool. The topics will be: Summer party, overnighting, meals, and any other topic you may like.
A quick reminder that the preschool will be closed for Ascension Day 14th and 15th of May and Pentacost, May 25th.
On Friday, June 26th the preschool will only be open until 13:00 due to Lisa’s wedding. I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
Have a lovely May and don’t let the May bugs bite!
Your Montessori team