SWIMS January Newsletter 2026
Mark Your Calendar
January
1st…Happy New Year!
5th…School resumes.
16th…Half Day Dismissal – Happy MLK, Jr. Holiday! Celebrate your dream!
11:30 – 11:45 am dismissal: Bumblebees & Sunflowers Toddler Classes, Ladybugs and Turquoise Early Childhood Classes
11:45 – noon dismissal: Ducklings & Owlets Infant Classes, Chickadees & Tadpoles Toddler Classes, Bluebirds EC Class, Wasatch/Evergreen Elementary and Bridgemont Secondary School Classes
19th…MLK, Jr Day – No School!
23rd…Half Day Dismissal – Utah Montessori Council Annual Conference
11:30 – 11:45 am dismissal: Bumblebees & Sunflowers Toddler Classes, Ladybugs and Turquoise Early Childhood Classes
11:45 – noon dismissal: Ducklings & Owlets Infant Classes, Chickadees & Tadpoles Toddler Classes, Bluebirds EC Class, Wasatch/Evergreen Elementary and Bridgemont Secondary School Classes
February
12th…Party Day for Bluebirds, Ladybugs and Turquoise Early Childhood Classes!
13th…Party Day for Infant, Toddler and Upper School Classes! All classes attend at regular times.
- Infants and Toddlers (3 – 18 months) celebrate during normal class time. Valentines are optional.
- Early Childhood (3- 6 years) celebrate during the morning. See below for names for Valentines.
- Elementary, Middle School & High School (6-15 years) celebrate during the afternoon. See below for names for Valentines.
See class sign-ups for special snacks and supplies needed.
13th…Half Day Dismissal for Presidents’ Week Holiday (aka Ski Week)
11:30 – 11:45 am dismissal: Bumblebees & Sunflowers Toddler Classes, Ladybugs and Turquoise Early Childhood Classes
11:45 – noon dismissal: Ducklings & Owlets Infant Classes, Chickadees & Tadpoles Toddler Classes, Bluebirds EC Class, Wasatch/Evergreen Elementary and Bridgemont Secondary School Classes
16th – 20th…No School – Presidents’ Week
School Bulletin Board
Happy New Year! We begin the new year with warm memories of the celebrations of December, looking forward to the long winter work periods ahead, affording time to assess each student and celebrate their progress. In the Lower School we often see infants making literal strides in large and fine motor development, toddlers becoming progressively more independent in independence, ec students enjoying the endless variations of the sensorial materials leading them into math and language, as well as the extensions of art, music, science, history and geography. In the Upper School students are spending time each day on math and language skills also with extended blocks of time for art, science, history and geography and their civic and entrepreneurial projects. The quiet days of January are where we often see significant progress.
Thank you for completing re-enrollment for the 2026-2027 school year. You should have received a confirmation. Class assignments will follow in the spring. If you have not yet received a confirmation, please email bruce@soaringwings.org. Most classes, including Enrichment, are full but Waiting Lists are still short if you have not yet completed re-enrollment.
The whole school will assemble on the 16th for our annual March on Washington led by the Upper School. Students will learn about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his dream and consider their own dreams. Wasatch will construct a Washington Monument and we will gather there to express our dreams, hear speeches recited by Evergreen and join together in songs of peace. This celebration will end in singing “Imagine” by John Lennon. We see just enough letters to the editor in the Park Record by our alumni to know this may begin a lifetime of freedom of expression.
On the 23rd and 24th of this month our school will host the state Utah Montessori Council Annual Conference in Salt Lake City. Emily Squadroni is the UMC Director who has brought in speakers from across the country featuring Andrew Kutt, a national Montessori leader who never fails to inspire. We are honored to be able to host Andrew. Every member of our faculty will be involved in putting on the conference with a few of our talented teachers presenting workshops as well. This is not only a professional development event for our entire faculty, but very much like a family reunion with our colleagues from the Montessori community.
Administrative Notes
We on the Admin Team, Bruce, Leah, Leith, Emily & Duna, get to talk to you in conducting tours, Open Houses and Parent Events, but the rest of the time we step back and let the teachers take center stage, very much as teachers step back in the classrooms and let the students take ownership. So, here are a few notes about what’s going on in the “back of the house” as we think of our work.
Leith Strachan has been putting his recently competed Master’s in Business Creation to use in innovating a series of instructional videos to help with orienting families and faculty. There is so much to say about “The Montessori Way,” so many books to read, so many courses to take – and the field never stops growing. But what if we had a series of short videos that you could access on the school website so you could take in small bites at a time? We’re about to find out.
Emily passed her dissertation proposal and is now in the data collection phase with Leah and Duna hot on her heels. Brace yourself for the surveys that are about to come at you! Emily’s topic is complexity theory in leadership, Duna’s is teacher life satisfaction and Leah has a different brilliant idea each time you ask her!
Bruce is the eternal student, always reading and researching. He is paving the way for the next addition to the school – two additional classrooms to house our growing Upper School. And he is investigating possibilities for expanding our science and arts programs…stay tuned!
We all enjoy working side by side with teachers and learn from one another. One model for our business is a labyrinth style with each level of the school in close supportive contact with one another but all employees circulating and mingling, exchanging ideas and discussing at our daily meetings. Just like students in a classroom everyone on faculty has ownership and a voice in the workings of the school.
All 5 of our administrative team spend time observing classes, coaching faculty, children and parents and supporting the Montessori community in our revolution in education as many in the Montessori movement have called it. Rather than the factory model of education that still prevails in our country decades after it was useful, we are onto something that results in peaceful, joyful and productive citizens of the Earth. And we are thrilled to be a part of it!
Lower School Lowdown – News from our Infant, Toddler and Early Childhood Classes
Infant & Toddler Impressions – News from Ducklings & Owlets Infant Classes, Bumblebees, Chickadees, Sunflowers & Tadpoles Toddler Classes
Coming back to school after a two-week break requires a little re-normalization. But this time it will go much more quickly than it did in the fall, usually taking only a few days instead of a few weeks for everyone to feel comfortable in the routines again. The warm hugs, smiles, and exciting challenges will soon have everyone working with great concentration and joy again.
It helps to keep your home routine as consistent as possible with our school routine. Be on time and remember that we will all be more tired the first week or two as we adjust back into our school days. Establishing a place by the door where your child will find their jacket, boots and back pack plus time allowed for getting ready will send them walking into class with confidence.
This month we study winter, looking closely at snow (when we have some!) and what plants, animals and people do in winter. Snow ice cream is a favorite project this month!
We will also study fishes in January with specimens to observe in class and a look at the needs and and adaptations of fishes. If you have any fish-related books to share this is a good time to send them to school. And a trip to the Living Planet Aquarium would be a terrific snowy day outing with the family this month!
Excellence from Early Childhood – Every Day in the Bluebirds, Ladybugs & Turquoise Classes
While December brought the merriment of celebrating traditions around the world and the self-control of practicing the songs and dances for our Winter Celebration play over and over again, January is a time of long, quiet work periods in ec classes when students and teachers are enjoying watching the academic progress unfold. 1st year ec students are starting to pull their heads up from Practical Life and notice what else there is to do, moving into academics with work habits, concentration and fine motor skills ready for a challenge. 2nd year students are feeling confident, having mastered many of the foundations the ec classes offer. They are ready for some longer lessons with more steps added and more abstraction. And 3rd year students are masters of the classroom, savoring the long work periods when they explore every detail of the materials that explain what they will be learning in language, math, history, geography, science and the arts for the rest of their lives.
In January we look at Frida Kahlo, Ansel Adams, Winter, South America, Fishes and Eric Carle. So much to learn, so much to create! We culminate the fish lessons with a fish print project. If you have a whole fish in your freezer to contribute, please let us know!
We recommend providing a variety papers, stickers, drawing tools, paint, scissors and ribbons so your student can make their own Valentines. But in order to do so, start early and just make a few at a time. Or convene the whole family for a Valentine production line and make enough to send to grandparents and cousins! Children who can read and write can add names to their Valentines:
Bluebirds: Annabelle, Arden, Avery, Beau, Brody, Daisy, Emery, Emily, Hunter, Jack, Leo, Levi, Louise, Peter, Rumi Grace, Sasha, Sebastien, Siana, Sophia, Susie, Theo, Laura & Sarah
Ladybugs: Alexander, Beatrice, Elizabeth, Elliott, Elouise, Ezra, Harlow, Hazel, Julian, Kimberly, Mallory, MJ, Moshe, Oliver, Rolf, Stellan, Vesper, Wyatt, Kassidy & Kara
Turquoise: Alec, Arthur, Asher, Beckett, Bobby, Colton, Declan, Eleanor, Finn, Hadley, Haessly, Merritt, Railey, Riley, Sierra, Tatiana, West, Will, Winter, Wolfe, Annie & Gretta.
Updates from Upper School – News from our Elementary, Middle School and Secondary School Classes
Elements of Wasatch & Evergreen Elementary, andBridgemont Secondary School Classes
Watching the big kids take the lead in December events is such a treat. There were celebrations of Diwali, Los Posadas and Hanukkah and endless rehearsals for our Winter Celebration, “A Winter Dream.” These students were in charge of acting, choreography, building sets, creating props, cueing each class and keeping the play moving on schedule. While they were at it they set up shop with their entrepreneurial projects. Thank you for supporting them generously! The profits will enable them to plan a fabulous trip this spring to learn something new.
All the rehearsals, edits, choreography, costumes, creating of sets and props, memorizing of lines and acting details were fabulous for student confidence and sense of being a part of something bigger than themselves.
For your Valentine making pleasure-
Wasatch/Evergreen: Beatrice, Benny, Brooklyn, Charlie, Colt, Eliyah, Emily, Jacey, Juliet, Levi, Lola, Luna, Nora, Rafael, Sienna, Vicky, Audrey & Nicky
Upper School’s weekly field trips include community involvement such as helping out at the Food Pantry. In 2025 students raised funds to support our “adopted” Navajo Grandma, Frances Bahe through the winter, collected over 400 pounds of food for the Utah Food Bank, helped organize donations at PC Christian Center and at Adopt-a-Native Elder and helped collect an enormous donation of clothing and housekeeping supplies for the families of Peace House. Students also donated funds to Recycle Utah, the Summit County Library and Swaner Nature Preserve from their Children’s Planet Fund supporting the Earth and her children.
