SWIMS April Newsletter 2025
Mark Your Calendar!
April
1st…Mandatory Parent/Faculty Meeting 6:00am.
Just foolin’!
1st – 3rd…Spring Photos! Photographer Emma Thongrit will be on campus to photograph all students individually and as a class:
Tuesday April 1st
Owlets Infant Class, Sunflowers Toddler Class, Wildflowers & Ladybugs Early Childhood Classes
Wednesday April 2nd
Ducklings Infant Class, Chickadees Toddler Class, Turquoise & Bluebirds EC Classes.
Thursday, April 3rd
Tadpoles & Bumblebees Toddler Classes, Wasatch/Evergreen Elementary Classes & Bridgemont Secondary Class.
Register for Sibling Sittings Here
Photos are typically ready for purchase with 2 – 3 weeks.
4th…Happy Birthday, Ashton & Tiffany!
11th…Happy Birthday Soledad!
11th…SWIMS Earth Day Celebration – No School!
All families are invited to come enjoy our Earth Day Celebration, “Human Impact.” Each class offers nature-themed activities for children of all ages to explore. 3rd year early childhood students will be presenting their capstone Ancestry Reports, Wasatch/Evergreen Elementary students will be presenting their Science Fair and Invention Convention projects. Bridgemont Secondary Class will present a recycled art project entitled “The Lost Continent of Atlantis.” And every class is preparing special activities for your family to enjoy. Bring your family to explore how we impact our planet.
Families A-M 9:30 – 10:30
Families N-Z 10:45 – 11:45
3rd year EC students, Wasatch/Evergreen students 9:00 – 11:45am.
Overflow parking at Matt Knoop Park to the south and along Shadow Mountain Drive.
Join us to celebrate our planet and her people!
12th… Happy Birthday Senali!
13th…Happy Birthday Jillian!
14th – 18th…No School – Spring Break!
23rd…Happy Birthday, Agnes!
25th…Happy Birthday, Amanda & Paulina!
27th…Happy Birthday, Laura & Dejah!
May
6th…Family Day Celebrations! Details from teachers soon.
7th…Happy Birthday, Bruce!
23rd…Half Day
26th…No School – Memorial Day
30th…No School – Closing Ceremonies!
Join your child’s class for a simple, sweet closing to the year with special accolades to graduates (those who have completed their work at each level and are moving to the next class).
Owlets & Ducklings Infant Classes, Bumblebees, Chickadees, Sunflowers and Tadpoles Toddler Classes 9:00 – 10:00am
Bluebird, Ladybug, Turquoise & Wildflower EC Classes, Wasatch/Evergreen Elementary and Bridgemont Secondary Classes 10:30 – 11:30am
Overflow parking at Matt Knoop Park to the south and along Shadow Mountain Drive.
June
2nd – 6th…Summer Break, No School
9th…Summer School starts!
School Bulletin Board
The snow is all but gone. but don’t put away those boots and snow pants yet – there will still be some muddy, slushy days ahead. It has been a beautiful winter and we are excited to think that we may see grass, leaves and flowers again soon!
The Irish dancers brought so much joy to our St Patrick’s Day Celebrations that we are planning how to incorporate more authenticity into our cultural immersion celebrations. Next up is Africa so please let us know if you know of a performing group from the continent who doesn’t cost much!
Teachers are putting the final touches on our last few celebrations of the year – Earth Day, Family Day and Closing Ceremonies. Earth Day invitations will appear soon, Family Day will follow and we are just beginning planning our traditional Closing Ceremonies in the classrooms. These ceremonies are simple and sweet. Please let your students’ teachers know how many of your family to expect on May 30th. See the calendar above for times for each class.
Our faculty keeps racking up the diplomas with Eden and Hollis having completed credentials in Early Childhood and Upper Elementary. Millie and Dejah are just getting started. Leith’s master’s degree hooding ceremony is coming up in May. And Leah, Emily and Duna are preparing their dissertation proposals. Almost every teacher is working on some further credentialing. Apparently learning is kind of addicting for this crew. 71% of our teachers hold or are completing graduate degrees. And our faculty continues to attend and present at workshops and conferences, with several lately sharing what they learned at the American Montessori Society Conference in Denver in March. We are happily planning to take a crew to the International Montessori Congress in Merida, Mexico in May of 2026! Spring is a celebration of the progress we’ve made over the winter and the adventures yet to come.
Educational research indicates that the rise in mental health concerns for our youth may be related to the decrease in unstructured play over the past 70 years. The invention of tv brought children indoors more and adults often feel that they must keep children indoors where they are safe. But children develop resilience and resourcefulness when they are solving their own problems, especially when this play experience involves attachment to nature. Dr. Peter Gray of Boston College suggests that neighbors arrange for children to go outside together with an adult present, for unstructured play at least once each week. As our parents used to tell us, go outside and play!
And, for your tax preparation enjoyment the SWIMS EIN# is 45-0949195.
Lower School Lowdown
Infant & Toddler Impressions – News from the Owlets & Ducklings Infant Classes, Bumblebees, Chickadees, Sunflowers & Tadpoles Toddler Classes
In April the curriculum takes us through Africa, birds, flowers and music. We will fill our bird feeders and watch for the return of our favorites. The red-tailed hawk family is back, as are the robins, red-winged blackbirds, ducks and geese. It won’t be long before we hear the sandhill cranes calling as they come back to make their nests in the wetlands. One of the many talents of a Montessori teacher is how they bring any study off into the classroom at a level even the youngest infant can enjoy. The “key experience” is always hearing the real instrument, followed by stories, songs and games.
The geography unit for April is Africa. This is a good month for a trip to the zoo to see the wildlife of Africa live and in person. For this unit teachers are preparing real artifacts from African countries like masks, baskets, carved animals, as well as books, songs, photos, snacks, and music.
Of course, the Great Work of the infant and toddler classes continues – dressing, toileting, washing hands, setting places, culinary skills, washing dishes, cleaning up the work space – all at the individual child’s pace. As soon as your child is walking, consider adding a small table and chair to your kitchen area along with some child-sized cooking implements like a small spreader for spreading peanut butter, cream cheese or butter on a piece of bread or toast. If you equip a cupboard at your child’s level with what they need to prepare a healthy snack, you will find that you may be able to sleep a little longer on the weekends! Go to www.montessoriservices.com or www.sprout-kids.com for ideas on how to help your child become more independent at home.
Remember to bring the family by on April 11th between 9:30 and 11:45am to explore your child’s class perspective of “Human Impact.”
Excellence from Early Childhood – Every Day in the Bluebirds, Ladybugs, Turquoise & Wildflower Classes
April brings us back to the study of Tchaikovsky, Flowers, Africa, Birds and Shel Silverstein…
Students are working to replant the greenhouses. Maybe we’ll see some flowers before those sleepy daffodils wake up! We will look at the parts of a flower, dissect a flower in class and read about The Reason for a Flower. This is good time to bring a bouquet home for the dining table and see how many you can name.
Africa is a big unit in geography because who doesn’t love the animals, the biomes, the music, the cultures and the artwork? If you have any artifacts to share, please send them to school.
We are currently without bird friends in school. If you have a bird who may enjoy a visit to school, talk to any teacher.
Shel Silverstein is the poet for April. We dare you to read The Giving Tree without crying. It can’t be done. But follow it up with Jimmy Jet and His TV Set, Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout or the Sharp-toothed Snail!
The past few weeks we have all been preparing for our Earth Day Celebration “Human Impact.” Each class has chosen an aspect of the Earth to learn about and prepare activities for your family to enjoy. Early childhood classes have chosen Endangered Species, National Parks, Recycling and Composting. Remember to bring the family by on April 11th between 9:30 and 11:45am so your child can give you a lesson!
Upper School
Updates from Upper School: News from the Wasatch/Evergreen Elementary & Bridgemont Secondary Classes
It seems as if every time you walk into the Upper School classes there is a flurry of math going on. Montessori Math is an incredible experience – the materials are beautiful and precisely crafted so you can see and feel the difference between quantities and operations. Every student has a choice each day – do I want to work on Language, Math, Geography, History, Science, the Arts or perhaps a project like working on my invention for the Invention Convention or working on the class entrepreneurial project? The math materials have such allure they are often what is chosen. The Evergreen Class has carried their math skills into a practical life experience by working on their business plan for manufacturing custom fidgets. Their new Wild Pine Coffee Shop has students learning how to make a good cup of coffee in order to finance their upcoming field trip to Moab. It’s ironic that after years of river trips to Moab when the Bridgemont Classes voted on where to meet up, with options including Costa Rica and the Cayman Islands, the winner was Moab. After some initial disappointment our students are becoming excited to welcome their online classmates to our own state IRL!
Evergreen and Wasatch are also going south, as usual. So all of our Upper School will be in southern Utah in May, along with Bridgemont classmates from around the world. There are funds to be raised, meals to plan, equipment to pack.
Dr. Montessori saw that as children proceed through each level of learning, while the teacher keeps in mind the main goal and directs the learning at each level, a foundation is laid – from manipulating geometric shapes as infants to calculating geometry and algebra effortlessly as middle schoolers. Every lesson is offered when the student is ready, not before and not after. When the student is ready for the next piece it locks solidly into place. By middle school these learners have laid a sturdy foundation including motor memory, vocabulary, and the sensory input of the finely crafted beads of glass and cubes of solid wood. The understanding of these concepts is in their soma, ready for use when needed.
