Enrichment
Nurturing the Whole Child
Music, movement, time in nature, trips off campus and weekly Spanish classes — these are among the ways that a North Shore Montessori education nurtures the whole child. We are fortunate to have an array of part-time educators who bring their expertise and passion to enrich our classroom experience. Beyond our campus, we are blessed with a natural ecosystem to explore, as well as historical, literary and cultural resources within a short drive or walk!
Music Appreciation
Through a partnership with Zach Field Drums & Music, we are pleased to offer drumming classes with Kevin Dacey. A performer based out of Boston, Kevin earned his Bachelor of Music from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Kevin demonstrates and performs during his percussion lessons, instructing the children in the principles of rhythm, notes, sound and beats. The students in Children's House, Lower Elementary and Upper Elementary meet with Kevin weekly, performing on both buckets and hand drums.
Boston-area musician
Steve Kercher
is also a member of our musical enrichment team. A graduate of Berklee College of Music and a long-time educator on the North Shore, Steve teaches musical theory and voice to Children's House, Lower Elementary and Upper Elementary. The UE students have the added benefit of learning ukulele from Steve, who is trained in voice performance, song-writing and Classical guitar.
Arts Appreciation
Children's House, Lower Elementary and Upper Elementary students are given the opportunity to incorporate art into just about every work they choose. As an example, when a child symbolizes grammar, the child uses colored pencils and a shape stencil to study the parts of speech and advanced sentence analysis. Artistic elements are included in math studies, too. When a child uses the squaring and cubing chains one through ten, colored pencil, paints and inks are available to record their skip-counting on long strips of paper. For geography studies, puzzle and balsa wood continent maps are traced and painted. Beyond the daily work cycle, there is a dedicated block of time for weekly art lessons that each lead teacher plans and executes. The children create sculptures with clay, paint on canvas, fashion friendship bead necklaces, draw using oil pastels, sew books, and study the works of famous artists.
Physical Education
At , we make lots of time for free play! We are also fortunate to have Eric McCaslin, co-founder of KinFitness, offering a fun and challenging outdoor gym class. Eric is an ACE Youth Fitness Specialist and NSCA Certified Personal Trainer with more than a decade of experience. While teaching weekly classes for Children's House, Lower Elementary and Upper Elementary, Eric instills the value of physical activity at an early age and keeps it fun!
Spanish Enrichment
Children's House and Lower Elementary participate in weekly Spanish lessons, while Upper Elementary students receive twice-weekly lessons taught by a native-speaking Spanish teacher.
Science Education
We are proud to partner with the Gulf of Maine Institute, the Mass Audubon Joppa Flats Education Center and independent science educators and naturalists. Through our field trips, integrative projects, including gardening and habitat restoration, we help students learn about, connect with, and become stewards of the natural world.
North Shore Montessori School is also among a handful of area schools helping to protect Blanding's Turtles, a threatened species in Massachusetts. We've partnered with naturalist Mark Irving, a volunteer with the
Parker River Clean Water Association, to guide us. Both the Lower and Upper Elementary classrooms are head-starting six hatchlings over the course of the school year. In June, the turtles will have grown to a healthy size before being released to their natural environment in Groveland and Georgetown. Weekly, the children weigh the hatchlings using a scale in grams, and measure their carapace and plastron using a caliper in millimeters. The students also take turns feeding the turtles, monitoring the water's temperature, and caring for the tank and filter. Blanding's Turtles are named for Massachusetts naturalist William Blanding, who discovered the species in the early 1800s. Loss of habitat is the turtles' biggest threat.
Field Trips & Going-Out
At North Shore Montessori School, we enjoy traditional all-school field trips to a local orchard for apple picking in the fall and a maple sugaring field trip in late winter. But that's not all! The Lower Elementary children take bi-weekly walking field trips to Rowley Public Library. There, the youth librarian has prepared two read-alouds and an activity. Thereafter, the children browse and borrow books for research and reading for pleasure in the classroom and at home. LE also extends its learning through field trips to Wenham Museum, Strawberry Banke Museum in NH, and Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary.
Upper Elementary enjoys regular field trips connected to their Math, Language and Cultural studies. More recent visits have included the Custom House Maritime Museum in Newburyport, Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's K-12 programs. Annually, the class travels to Wellfleet to assist in the rescue of stranded sea turtles in Cape Cod Bay. UE students also participate in two trips, in fall and spring, for team-building purposes. These trips have included canoeing on the Ipswich River, as well as an overnight stay at
Nature's Classroom. All fees are covered through tuition.
Parent Reviews
"They have tons of outdoor time where they make fairy houses, make up games together, and have the chance to problem solve social situations. It’s the childhood I always dreamed of for my child and I couldn’t be happier!”
- Angelica (NSMS Parent)