Did you know that children who participate in music, theatre, art and dance are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement than those who don’t?  It’s true.

In a time when many schools are cutting back on their arts programs, there’s actually a lot more at stake than losing out on the opportunity to be entertained at the annual spring concert.

Study after study has shown that when arts are integrated into the curriculum, students are more motivated to succeed, develop a better memory and have a greater ability to concentrate on the tasks assigned to them.

In addition to the cognitive benefits, children that grow up exposed to the arts are more likely to form deeper emotional and cultural connections that enable them with new ways of seeing the world around them.

Ironically, companies looking to hire the best and the brightest having been touting “creativity” and “out-of-the-box thinking” as two key characteristics that they’re looking for in new hires… And yet, the traditional classroom’s standardized approach to teaching does not reward children that ‘colour outside the lines.’

At EMS, music, art, theatre and dance have a permanent place in our curriculum. We believe that self-expression and creativity have a critical role to play in our students’ overall development, and that activities like the school play help build confidence by teaching perseverance, collaboration, focus and accountability.  It’s hard work that also happens to be fun. The fact that parents get to be entertained by it is simply a bonus.

Interesting articles/videos on the subject:

10 Benefits of Arts Education

Ted Talk Video: Do Schools Kill Creativity?

“There are times when – as an educator – you have to step outside of the box and look for the lessons that simply can’t be taught from a textbook – especially when it’s a beautiful day outside!”

On one particularly lovely Friday afternoon in May, the school hallways and classrooms were quiet and empty. Outside in the schoolyard, it was a completely different story. Ms. Deborah and her teaching staff were giving a lesson… a lesson on how to skip rope.

“Believe it or not, three quarters of these kids have never played with a skipping rope, and yet there is so much that can be learned from this ‘old school’ game.” explains Ms. Deborah.

In addition to the laughter and sweaty noses, it quickly becomes apparent that the benefits of the game go beyond just the
physical (ie. fresh air, exercise, coordination & rhythm); the children are establishing rules, negotiating who goes first, compromising on the number of turns. Leaders begin to emerge. Those who quickly get the hang of it are either helping others, or ‘hogging’ the spotlight. Those who are reluctant to give up their turn are quickly called out by their peers. Without realizing it, these kids are learning the art of compromise, negotiation, and leadership. Skipping isn’t easy peasy. It takes practice, coordination and stamina. Are there are few frustrated tears? Absolutely. But with them come lessons on the importance of perseverance and humility; That it’s okay to be frustrated and that there are ways to recover from it. These teachers are well aware that their student’s lives will be full of challenging moments; moments that require skills that aren’t dependent on their academic knowledge – and that sometimes it’s the ‘unwritten’ lessons that will stay with these kids forever.

A few hugs and many High Fives later, the students and teachers line up to head back inside. The school day is over. Moms and Dads are arriving to find their children sweaty and a little bit grimy. They are also being greeted with huge grins and excited chatter about what they “learned today!”

“It’s afternoons like these that feeds my passion as an educator. 30 years of experience tells me that these children won’t remember that assignment they worked on in the classroom this morning, but they might just remember how they felt that day they skipped the afternoon away.” says Ms. Deborah with a smile, as she turns to wish her departing students and their families a wonderful weekend.

French is one of Canada’s two official languages. Learning French is also part of every province’s school curriculum – and a requirement for many public (and private) sector jobs.

If that’s not enough to convince you that French is a language worth learning, then perhaps these additional tidbits might help:

1. If you speak English, learning French is not only easier to learn, it also makes it easier to learn other languages

With the English language having French and German roots, English-speakers may find that French is somewhat easier to learn than Spanish, for example.  Once you’ve learned French, the other ‘Romance’ languages (i.e. Spanish, Italian, Portuguese) will come more easily.  Why? Because with Latin as their base, these languages share a good proportion of basic vocabulary and a number of similar grammatical forms.

In other words, it will be a lot easier to pick up el español if you can speak French.

2. French is spoken all over the world

French is an official language in 29 countries around the world. An estimated 220 million people worldwide can speak it and according to the 2011 Census, nearly 10 million of those people live in Canada (i.e. about 30% of the Canadian population.)

Outside of Canada and Europe (where French is still taught in school), French remains a growing global language.  Some studies project that by 2050, French will be spoken by over 750 million people, with a predominant presence in Africa – one of the fastest-growing economic areas of the world.

3. It’s good for the brain

Learning a second language is like a workout for your mind. In fact, people who speak more than one language have denser gray matter in their language centers than monolinguals. (In other words, the parts of the brain devoted to memory, reasoning, and planning are larger in those who speak more than one language.)

Countless studies also show that analytical, social and literacy skills are improved when growing up with several languages (i.e. it can have a positive impact on self-esteem.)

4. Opens up more doors (to travel and careers)

Need we say more?

Click here to learn about Ellington Montessori School’s French Program.

The teacher begins by explaining that the class is going to be celebrating a birthday and that the earth has traveled around the sun four times since the birthday girl was born.

A “sun” is created in the center of the group (in this case, the “sun” is made out of small chocolate treats). The teacher reminds the children that the sun is at the center of our solar system, and that the earth travels around it just one time each year. The birthday girl holds a globe (which represents the earth) and she begins her journey around the “sun” – one time for each year of her life.

Once the child finishes her symbolic journey, her classmates sing “Happy Birthday” and the students share in a special birthday treat – a piece of our chocolate sun!

Our mission is to display our academic learning through the culminating activities of planning, preparing, and executing a fundraiser. The process and tasks involved help us practice and apply different things:

• Math concepts (budgeting, statement of accounting, profit & loss, recipe calculations)
• Language (collaboration, media literacy, marketing, communication)
• Art
• Teamwork
• Critical thinking and responsibility

Our goal is to raise funds which students work with to balance a bank account throughout the course of the school year. At the start of each individual fundraiser, we clearly outline our goal and use of funds. At the end of the school year, the funds are portioned out as set out in our campaign statements.”

– Katerina (age 12), Taijha (age 13), Thomas (age 12)

Although some of the tools and methods may have evolved, the fundamental tenets of the Montessori philosophy continues to hold true today. And we know that how? Because 110 years of proven success tells us so.

“Movement, or physical activity, is thus an essential factor in intellectual growth, which depends upon the impressions received from outside. Through movement we come in contact with external reality, and it is through these contacts that we eventually acquire even abstract ideas.”

Dr. Maria Montessori

Learning does not – and should not – take place solely in the classroom. Mother Nature can be a great teacher and getting kids outside to learn and play is not only good for their bodies, it’s good for their brain.

During a recent skiing lesson, our Head-of-School took advantage of a pause at the top of the hill to teach some of her Lower Elementary students about the light fog that they were seeing and feeling around them.  Not only did the children arrive home with a healthy glow to their cheeks that evening, they were able to tell their parents all about how clouds are formed!

Watch how 3 year-old Jackson and 3 year-old Aya are learning how to not only recognize numbers, but truly comprehend what the values of those numbers represent.  (Oh, and by the way, the activity they are doing is actually laying the foundation for learning about the decimal system!)

Being an educator is a tough job.  It is a chosen life-long commitment that comes with many ‘how-to’ manuals and unlimited variables.

We want our children to be successful. We want to help them along the path to success in every way that we possibly can.  In order to do that, we may need to take a step back and first ask ourselves:

     How do I define success?

     How do I define success for my child?

As parents – and educators – it’s easy to get caught in the comparison trap; Is Sam ‘behind’ or ‘ahead’ of Jack? Is 3 year-old Jessica doomed because she can’t spell her name?

The journey to ‘success’ (however you define it), is not the same for each child, and it takes brave parents and creative educators to unite as a team to help students discover their individual talents and reach their full potential. (See Related Post: Make it Personal)

Have a look at this interesting article that discusses how self-control – not I.Q. – may in fact be a better predictor of future success. Then ask yourself again:  How do I define success for my child?

Article: Teaching Self-Control Is More Important than Academics

Cursive writing samples by Ellington Montessori students ages 4 to 11

Handwriting is being dropped in public schools in favour of proficiency on a keyboard.  While we agree that proper typing skills are critical, research in psychology and neuroscience tells us that it is simply too early to declare handwriting a relic of the past.

Dr. Stanislas Dehaene, a psychologist at the Collège de France in Paris explains: “When we write, a unique neural circuit is automatically activated… There is a core recognition of the gesture in the written word, a sort of recognition by mental simulation in your brain.”  In other words, handwriting is actually good for the brain.

A 2012 study led by Dr. Karin James at the University of Indiana found that when children drew a letter freehand, they showed increased brain activity in the three areas of the brain that are activated in adults when they read and write. (The brain activity was significantly weaker when the children traced or typed the letter.)

In a separate study conducted by Dr. Virginia Berninger at the University of Washington – typing, printing and cursive writing resulted in distinct and separate brain patterns. When children wrote sentences by hand, they produced more words more quickly and consistently than they did on a keyboard. They also expressed more ideas. For example, when the children were asked to come up with ideas for a story, the ones with better handwriting showed greater neural activation in areas associated with working memory.

Bottom-line: Children not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, but they are also better able to generate ideas and retain information.

And as for cursive writing in particular? Dr. Berninger goes so far as to suggest that cursive writing “may train self-control ability in a way that other modes of writing do not”, and some researchers argue that it may even be a path to treating dyslexia. In other words, it’s not just what we write that matters — but how.

While we believe that proper typing skills are critical, we also believe that learning to write is ever more critical; So why not teach both?