STEM curriculum

2020/05/11 by Natalie

A Virtual STEM Challenge in KM

Two Kindergarten Montessori Students Display their STEM Challenge final products — Two Kindergarten Montessori Students Display their STEM Challenge Cup Towers

Last week, RMS’ Downtown Kindergarten Montessori students recently completed their first-ever virtual STEM Challenge (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). Our Kindergarten Montessori students were tasked with building a tower made out of plastic cups, as high as possible. Virtual STEM Challenges are great activities that can be done at home, with children of all ages.

All of our Kindergarten Montessori students were proud of their accomplishments. This virtual STEM activity provided our students with an opportunity to interact with their classmates and teachers, virtually!

In addition to this, the Kindergarten Montessori STEM challenge provided students and teachers with a sense of normalcy during a challenging time. Students shared their STEM Challenge successes with their friends and teachers, with their friends! This is also a great activity to try at home with your children.

For ideas on other STEM activities to try at home, click here:

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More details about Rowntree Montessori Schools‘ approach to education can be seen by clicking here .

2020/05/04 by Natalie

RMS STEM Fair 2020 Goes Virtual

Rowntree Montessori Schools (RMS) STEM Fair 2020 Goes Virtual

A photo collage of some of our student's recent STEM Fair project submissions — RMS’ STEM Fair Went Virtual for 2020

RMS STEM Fair 2020

On Thursday, April 23rd, 2020, RMS’ annual STEM Fair went online for the first time! Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the physical closure of our school campuses, our traditional, in-school, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Fair was held completely online this year.

Using 21st Century Skills during RMS STEM Fair

While using their 21st Century Skills, RMS students from grades 1 to 8, shifted their focus away from an actual “in-person” presentation and a 3-D Model/Prototype and used their savvy tech skills to create their STEM Fair projects. Students used various programmes such as Google Slides and Drawings, Powtoon, Storyboard, and Adobe Spark videos to present their STEM Fair projects to the online judges.

STEM Fair Judging Went Online This Year

Even though our schools are physically closed, students had their STEM Fair submissions judged virtually, through Google Meet, by RMS parents and outside community members who were invited to be our online STEM Fair Judges.

The competition at this year’s STEM Fair was tough, but our students were up for the challenge. Students used their creative digital presentation skills to demonstrate their Global Urbanization solutions to their classmates and judges.

After the initial student presentations were made, the top three STEM Fair submissions were chosen by the judges. In the past, students made presentations to the judges and answered any questions they had in person. This year, the judges “met” with our finalists in Google Meet, where students were available to answer any questions they had about their STEM projects.

RMS STEM Fair 2020 A Huge Success!

The 2020 Rowntree Montessori Schools’ Virtual STEM Fair was a huge success! We would like to congratulate all of our students, and especially our STEM Fair Award Recipients. RMS is very proud of our students and our STEM Fair finalists. We can’t wait to see which world problems you will solve in the future! A special thank you to our teachers and judges who put the extra effort in to make this year’s STEM Fair a great success.

To learn more about Rowntree Montessori Schools’ STEM curriculum and different STEM projects our students have worked on over the Academic year, please click here.

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More details about Rowntree Montessori Schools‘ approach to education can be seen by clicking here .

2020/03/03 by Natalie

A Cross-Curricular Approach to Black History Month

Black History Art by RMS Students — Students Display their Black History Month projects

Applying School Lessons to Real Life

In a busy school with a complex curriculum, the ongoing challenge is to ensure that the students understand that everything that they learn is important. In addition to this, we try to teach our students how to apply what they learn in school, to real-life. One way to both find such efficiencies and deepen our students learning is by engaging in cross-curricular teaching and learning. We celebrate Black History Month each February, and instead of simply making posters and morning announcements, we have encouraged our students to highlight the achievements of African-Americans (and Canadians). Students use technology and other skills that they have learned at school to do this.

This year, our Grade 3 classes put their engineering skills to the test by designing a pop-up stage (see below) and by using videos linked through QR Codes to share their Black History Month stories. You can scan the codes below (using a QR-enabled smartphone camera or a QR-scanning app) to see some examples of the students’ work. Through one project, the students have learned about history, inclusion, and public speaking. In addition to this, students used two key components of STEM: Engineering and Technology.

QR Codes for Black History Month – Pop Up Stage

To learn more about Rowntree Montessori Schools (RMS), continue browsing our website and ideally drop by any of our welcoming, friendly and family oriented campuses for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm. If you prefer, call to book an appointment for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm.

More details about Rowntree Montessori Schools‘ approach to education can be seen by clicking here .

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2020/02/21 by Natalie

RMS Helps Create Engineers

Nurturing Tomorrow’s Achievers Since 1969

Our AHA! Moments take place in our classrooms, every day!

Rowntree Montessori Schools focuses on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and our curriculum will help develop tomorrow’s engineers. Our students are constantly tasked with various STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) challenges where they are engaged in researching, designing, and constructing their own bridges. This STEM challenge is designed to be a contest and creates friendly competition amongst students.

Recently, our grade 5 students used the Engineering Design Process to help design truss bridges. One student, Sidhant, won the challenge by building a truss bridge that held 47 Math textbooks; a new school record! Check out the photo below. Our students are constantly impressing us with their creativity and talent, using the Engineering Design Process.

A student with his truss bridge — A student shows off his Truss Bridge that he developed during a STEM Challenge

A New Record at Rowntree Montessori Schools for the tallest truss bridge, holding 47 textbooks, by Sidhant.

To learn more about Rowntree Montessori Schools (RMS), continue browsing our website and ideally drop by any of our welcoming, friendly and family oriented campuses for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm. If you prefer, call to book an appointment for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm.

More details about Rowntree Montessori Schools‘ approach to education can be seen by clicking here .

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2020/01/31 by Natalie

Pizza as an Educational Tool

Brought to you by Rowntree Montessori Schools

Nurturing Tomorrow’s Achievers Since 1969

Our AHA! Moments take place in our classrooms, every day!

At Rowntree Montessori Schools, our younger students benefit from using Montessori materials to enhance their daily learning, and all RMS students are regularly engaged with sophisticated educational technologies. But sometimes, the simplest everyday items can make for the best teaching and learning tools. The pizza has become such a tool at Rowntree, and not just because recycled cardboard boxes make for great STEM building materials! Pizzas make for terrific real-world examples for fractions and pie-graph lessons in Mathematics, and our students also use pizzas as a way of learning step-by-step instructions and food-based vocabulary in French class. These happy Grade 5 students had just finished an oral presentation in which they described their perfect pizza and explained to their classmates how their pizzas were made.

To learn more about Rowntree Montessori Schools (RMS), continue browsing our website and ideally drop by any of our welcoming, friendly and family oriented campuses for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm. If you prefer, call to book an appointment for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm.

More details about Rowntree Montessori Schools‘ approach to education can be seen by clicking here .

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2020/01/21 by Natalie

The Grade 2s are “A-Buzz” About Bees

Brought to you by Rowntree Montessori Schools

Nurturing Tomorrow’s Achievers Since 1969

Our AHA! Moments take place in our classrooms, every day!

The Grade 2s are a-Buzz about Bees! At Rowntree, 21st Century teaching and learning takes on many forms across the various grades. In Grade 2, we made use of AR Codes and tied them into STEM. Our commitment to cultivating a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Mindset ensures that our students are focusing on real-world problems and proposing solutions using innovative educational technologies. Our Grade 2 students were recently studying how bees can be an indicator of the health of our urban environments: more bees is a good sign while fewer bees could mean trouble. The students decided to lead a public service campaign by posting QR code-enabled “bee facts” throughout the school hallways. By scanning the dozens of QR codes with their Chromebooks (parents were able to use their phones), Rowntree students learned about why bees are so important to a healthy environment. Our students are certainly focused on making their world a better place, and they are learning how they can use technology to achieve this goal!

Please click here and here to listen to two of the “bee facts” or scan the QR codes below.

Another QR code to tell a story about bees

To learn more about Rowntree Montessori Schools (RMS), continue browsing our website and ideally drop by any of our welcoming, friendly and family oriented campuses for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm. If you prefer, call to book an appointment for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm.

More details about Rowntree Montessori Schools‘ approach to education can be seen by clicking here .

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2019/12/20 by Natalie

Incorporating New and Traditional Methodologies in our Kindergarten Programme

In our balanced and integrated Kindergarten programme, Rowntree students benefit from the best of new and traditional methodologies. By combining the principles of Maria Montessori with both more traditional approaches as well as 21st Century teaching and learning, we can lead our students on an educational journey that we believe will prepare them for success in school and in life. This student has used available materials to creatively build 3-dimensional solids (a cube, in this case) in a lesson that has been reinforced with Montessori activities, on an interactive whiteboard, and with pencil-and-paper tasks. Our multifaceted approach is designed to engage and excite various learning styles and allows our students to achieve success across different contexts. Early STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) lessons encourage students to act as young engineers as they work to solve simple real-world problems using basic household materials. The foundation built in our Kindergarten classrooms leads seamlessly into our Elementary programme in which cross-curricular problem-solving of real-world problems is supported by a robust delivery of both traditional and 21st Century skills. Rowntree students of all ages are being nurtured and prepared today for success in tomorrow’s academic and occupational world.

To learn more about Rowntree Montessori Schools (RMS), continue browsing our website and ideally drop by any of our welcoming, friendly and family oriented campuses for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm. If you prefer, call to book an appointment for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm.

More details about Rowntree Montessori Schools‘ approach to education can be seen by clicking here .

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2019/11/26 by Natalie

Exploring the Problems with Global Urbanization in Grades 1 to 8

Nurturing Tomorrow’s Achievers Since 1969

Our AHA! Moments take place in our classrooms, every day!

Over the last few weeks, our Grades 1 through 8 worked on our monthly STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Challenge. Rowntree has regular challenges throughout the year to further integrate STEM principles and apply them into the everyday teaching and learning. This year’s overarching theme revolves around urbanization and the various issues associated with growing cities. Students explored problems such as land fragmentation, habitat loss, and the effects of urban living on physical health, and so on. After brainstorming a solution as a class or group, students create a model and present using various tech tools.

For a great article on the addressing urban issues, please click here.

To learn more about Rowntree Montessori Schools (RMS), continue browsing our website and ideally drop by any of our welcoming, friendly and family oriented campuses for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm. If you prefer, call to book an appointment for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm.

More details about Rowntree Montessori Schools‘ approach to education can be seen by clicking here .

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2019/10/25 by Natalie

21st Century Learning and Coding in Grade 1

Brought to you by Rowntree Montessori Schools…Nurturing Tomorrow’s Achievers Since 1969.

Our AHA! Moments take place in our classrooms, every day!

Our AHA! Moments are special learning and teachable moments that take place in our classrooms every single day. This past week, Storm, a Grade 1 student, surprised her teacher with a good morning message using coding skills she learned in the classroom. This moment demonstrated Storm’s engagement and interest in her Computer and Technology class, which allowed her to use these newly acquired tech skills outside of the learning space. Rowntree Montessori Schools supports 21^st century learning and ensuring that our students have strong tech skills that will help them prepare for their futures. 21^st century skills not only provide a framework for successful learning in the classroom, but also help to ensure students thrive in a world where change is constant and learning never stops. To learn more about the benefits of 21^st Century Learning, please click here.

To learn more about Rowntree Montessori Schools (RMS), continue browsing our website and ideally drop by any of our welcoming, friendly and family oriented campuses for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm. If you prefer, call to book an appointment for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm.

More details about Rowntree Montessori Schools‘ approach to education can be seen by clicking here .

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2019/10/18 by Natalie

A Teacher’s View on Robotics

Over the past five years, the education sector, including teachers and students alike, have shown a lot of excitement about the introduction of Robotics from the Kindergarten to grade 12 programme.

As more schools implement Robotics programmes and take part in competitions, students have the opportunity to exhibit their skills on a regional and sometimes national level. While we agree on the importance of having Robotics teams and dedicated Robotics programmes, it is even more important that educators begin to integrate learning about robotics into the regular day-to-day curriculum.

Picture of RMS Private School student in Brampton using Robotics

When teachers are asked to integrate technology into their lesson planning, it is often a daunting task. At first glance, it seems nearly impossible to implement Robotics into an English or History lesson. That being said, the actual building and/or programming part of Robotics is only one part of the big picture. A lesson on technical writing could easily accompany a programme completed in an after-school activity or technology-related class. Additionally, a history lesson on the evolution of Robotics can be delivered concurrent with students completing other technical tasks in a different class or programme.

Technology integration is not just about using technology in every class for every assignment. The technology should rarely, if ever, dictate what is being taught in the classroom. Robots used as a learning tool in an English or Social Studies setting should compliment and/or improve the traditional curriculum. Far gone are the days when learning about a particular topic is isolated to one class. Implementing Robotics outside the computer lab or an after-school activity is a great way to promote technology integration and spice up the subject matter.

To learn more about Rowntree Montessori Schools (RMS), continue browsing our website and ideally drop by any of our welcoming, friendly and family oriented campuses for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm. If you prefer, call to book an appointment for a personal tour anytime Monday-Friday 9:30am-3:00pm.

More details about Rowntree Montessori Schools‘ approach to education can be seen by clicking here .

STEM curriculum

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Rowntree Montessori Schools (RMS) STEM Fair 2020 Goes Virtual

RMS STEM Fair 2020

Using 21st Century Skills during RMS STEM Fair

STEM Fair Judging Went Online This Year

RMS STEM Fair 2020 A Huge Success!

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Applying School Lessons to Real Life

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