Spirit Day at Albrook by Mrs. Dignam “May Peace Prevail on Earth” are the words engraved on our peace pole. It is a reminder that although we have many objectives at The Albrook School, our peace curriculum is always at the center. On May 16, we had the opportunity to celebrate our school spirit. We gathered at the best place we could, which is around our own peace pole. Children and teach-ers alike wore their school shirts. At a glance, the crowd was a colorful

mosaic of pale blue, tie-dye and red Albrook shirts.

Mrs. Tarangul led the children and teachers in a variety of favorite songs dedicated to peace. Stepping Stones children through Upper Elementary sang and celebrated our school spirit. The conclusion was our school song, “We are Albrook,” written by Mrs. Marvi. After we sang, Ms. MacNeill addressed the children and thanked them for a successful school year.

Additionally, she took the opportuni-ty to thank our dedicated APA offic-ers. The children echoed the thanks with three enthusiastic cheers for the parents.

The entire school then gathered on the Building B playground for a picnic lunch. We were fortunate to have a beautiful, sunny day. To be sure, the children were all excited about the highlight of the event in their eyes: the APA provided popsicles for all.

The Albrook Almanac May 2017

Published for the families and friends of The Albrook School, Basking Ridge, New Jersey

The Albrook School ● 361 Somerville Road ● Basking Ridge, NJ 07920 ● 908-580-0661 ● www.albrookschool.org

Upcoming Events

Friday, June 2 Early Dismissal

Teacher Appreciation Luncheon

Thursday, June 8 Last day of school for

preschool and Stepping Stones

Friday, June 9 Kindergarten celebration

9:30am

Monday, June 12-Friday, June 16 Expanded Care for

Preschool and Kindergarten

Monday, June 19

Summer Camp begins

Thursday, June 22 Last day of school for Elementary students

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The Albrook School 2017 Summer Camp by Ms. MacNeill

E njoying Sunshine, Swimming, Running, Playing Soc-cer, Exploring Nature and the World, Experimenting,

Building, Estimating, Designing, Cooking….. Albrook Summer camp offers all of this and so much more.

The Albrook Summer Camp offers a wide variety of pro-grams that tap into the creative, curious young mind. Come have fun and learn in our beautiful air-conditioned classrooms, and enjoy our outdoor activities on our nu-merous playgrounds. Your child will be happy to take part in daily swim lessons. They will build fond memories ex-periencing afternoon free time in the pool with friends. The Albrook Summer Camp has two pools: a water confi-dence pool for the younger child where children are able to stand and learn to swim and a deeper pool for older children to build on their swim techniques and endur-ance.

The Albrook staff has designed unique programs for 4 to 10 year olds to engage their imagination while building confidence.

Cooking around the World offers your child an opportuni-ty to explore foods from countries and cultures around the world, through hands-on chopping, mixing, kneading and tasting.

Exploring Nature invites your child to put on his/her natu-ralist hat and explore the wonders of nature while learn-ing how to respect, embrace and understand the natural world around them. Each session will have a fun, engag-ing theme to guide hands-on learning and projects. This year’s themes include: Insects, Mammals, Birds and Woodland Reptiles.

Our Engineering Program invites all of our future entre-preneurs and scientists to have fun while learning. One session will allow children to joyfully study physics through launching rockets and hands-on experiments with force and motion. Students can also develop a love of chemistry while exploring states of matter, including solids and liquids.

Explore the World sessions provides an opportunity for the older camper to have fun while exploring materials in the classroom, researching in the Computer Lab, studying the amazing biomes of the world and the diverse cultures in the continent of Europe.

Our engaging Creative Writing Program will allow your child to engage his/her imagination while building on writing skills. By the end of the summer camp session, your child will proudly have a published masterpiece!

Your child will have an amazing time with our Fun with Mathematics session, exploring new math concepts with hands-on Montessori materials, as well as further devel-oping skills with the computer. Topics of study will in-clude: geometry, measurement, mathematical operations and problem solving skills.

We are excited to offer a sports session this year. Fun with Soccer will help your child to master basic soccer skills: dribbling, passing, shooting, while still developing teamwork and sportsmanship.

The Drama Program will allow your budding actors and actresses to enjoy and express themselves on stage. Par-ents are invited to an end of session play performance where the students will display their new acting tech-niques.

Learning should be fun, and I believe the experiences our campers will gain from the new challenging projects, ac-tivities, and age appropriate subjects will build confidence and self-esteem. Having fun while making new discover-ies about themselves and the world around them is what summer is all about! With warm weather and bright days upon us, it is time to make summer plans. You can regis-ter for The Albrook Summer Camp online through either School Speak or www.albrookschool.org. Or, if you prefer, stop by the main office to register. Feel free to invite friends to our great summer camp.

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Schoolhouse Rock Live Comes to Albrook by Mrs. Lipman

O n Friday, April 21, the elementary students performed the play, Schoolhouse Rock Live. Based on the 1970s television show,

Schoolhouse Rock, the play told the story of a nervous new teacher on the eve of his first day of teaching. This teacher was visited by an array of characters who reminded him how to teach various school subjects. The show featured fun, upbeat musical numbers about eve-rything from science and U.S. history to math and grammar. In order to make the show more meaningful to our Albrook students, Mrs. Lipman incorporated numerous Montessori elements. For instance, the song, “3 is a Magic Number” featured a giant 3 chain, and all grammar songs used representations of the Montessori grammar symbols. Students, staff, and parents all worked very hard to make the performance a success. The children definitely learned the main lesson of the show—school should be fun!

Grandparents’ Day by Ms. Hicks

G randparents’ Day is one of my favorite days at The Albrook School. Since I look forward to visiting my grandchildren at

Grandparents’ Day at their school, I know how exciting it is to see your grandchildren welcome you to their world and show you how proud they are of their work. When I approached the door to my eleven year old grandson’s class last month, I was delighted to watch him hurry across the classroom to give me a big hug for coming. It made my day!

We had many grandparents charmed when their grandchild was able to teach them for the morning. The students relished the attention and were so proud of their accomplishments.

Our Grandparents’ Day started with refreshments and then some ex-cerpts from this year’s elementary play, Schoolhouse Rock, put on by the elementary students. Then the morning ended too quickly with a preschool group sing back in Albers Hall. The smiles on both the chil-dren and the grandparents were recorded in photos as I visited each classroom. Many grandparents floated out the door as they basked in the love they received that day.

See pages 4 and 5 for more pictures from Grandparents’ Day.

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Grandparents’ Day at The Albrook School

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May 2017

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Mindfulness Tasting by Ms. Behar and Mrs. DeBue

“M indfulness” is a word we seem to hear everywhere lately. We were thrilled when it was selected as

our school goal this year. Mindfulness and Montessori seem to naturally go hand in hand. Throughout the school, we already do so many activities related to mindfulness but we now do even more. Mrs. Marvi created a booklet with some great ideas on using mindfulness in nature. In addition, the Stepping Stones teachers recently attended a Mindfulness workshop at the NJMAC conference this year so we had many wonderful ideas to incorporate into our curriculum.

(Continued on page 7)

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What grade did you complete prior to leaving Albrook? I completed 5th grade at Albrook before transitioning to Newark Academy. Did you feel the knowledge you gained at Albrook pre-pared you for the next level of your educational journey academically, socially, emotionally? What I gained at Albrook was a solid foundation in all sub-jects that has served me well academically in Middle School and I am sure that it will do the same for me dur-ing my High School career. I have become a more mature and stable person and also have a big group of friends. I consider these privileges a cause of Albrook and their unique approach to teaching. Where did your love of learning/educational journey take you? My love for learning has taken me a long way because I have skipped a grade and am eager to learn which has helped me excel in academics and chess. Albrook not only taught me academics, but has taught me a set of quali-ties: respect, determination, courage, etc. I believe that this value system will hold me in good stead in the future.

Are there any special memories of Albrook you wish to share? There are many memories from my days at Albrook that I hold in my heart. One of the main special memories in Albrook was playing during recess. We used to have a list of what we would play. Another great memory is the Frost Valley trip. Every spring, we went on a three day trip to Frost Valley in New York. We did many activities there and enjoyed being with our friends and teachers. Canoe-ing was one such activity that I enjoyed at Frost Valley. Recently, I went kayaking when I was on vacation in the Philippines. In the middle of the Philippines Sea, my thoughts wandered to my days at Albrook and my trips to Frost Valley. I was thinking that my kayaking skills are simply a result of being able to canoe well. Do you keep in touch with any friends from Albrook? I keep in touch with a few friends from Albrook. Whether it is on Instagram or meeting them occasionally, I do like to stay connected. However, it is hard to do so with differ-ent school schedules, but I try my best.

Roshan Idnani – Albrook Alum

One of our favorites in Stepping Stones is mindful tasting. We have tasted a variety of things throughout the year. Most recently we decided to taste limes at circle time. The children all had a chance to hold the lime, to feel the weight of it and note the somewhat bumpy texture. All of the children said they liked the limes and would like to taste them again, but they also noted that they liked the taste of lemons better (we tasted lemons about 2 months ago and they just loved the lemons). Mindful food tasting can easily be done at home, too. You can do it with any food, but a fun idea might be to plant some vegetables and herbs with your child and then taste them apart from a meal. Another time you can use these vegetables and herbs to cook a meal along with your child. Bon appetit!

(Continued from page 6)

“If you concentrate on finding

whatever is good in every sit-

uation, you will discover that

your life will suddenly be

filled with gratitude, a feeling

that nurtures the soul.”

~Rabbi Harold Kushner

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China by Ms. Hicks

R ecently, a young couple from Shanghai asked to tour The Albrook School and meet with Ms. MacNeill and me. Since China has

moved from a one child family to allowing a two child family, the need for more preschools has grown and will grow exponentially in the next five years. Young families have seen the need for a curriculum that in-cludes more social and emotional growth for young children. The Mon-tessori philosophy is growing at a fast pace there.

This couple has seen the advantages of the Montessori philosophy and would like to partner with a true accredited Montessori school to begin Montessori schools in Shanghai. They visited several accredited Mon-tessori schools in the United States to gain ideas to bring back to Shanghai and were impressed with the quality of Montessori at The Albrook School.