As part of the province’s early learning initiative, the school hosted a talk by Dr. Joe Parent on Thursday, May 27, 7 PM via Zoom. Dr. Parent shared insights from his book,  A Walk in the Wood: Meditations on Mindfulness with a Bear Named Pooh offering delightful stories with Winnie the Pooh and his friends for both parents and children to explore together.

Our goal in Literacy is for children to acquire what Montessori termed as Total Reading. She felt that fluency in reading entailed not only knowing how to read words on a page but also interpreting the meaning of the text so as to connect with the imagery and feelings related to the whole psychological and emotional environment of a story. Bonding with your child in a journey that immerses your family in such a new world is incredibly powerful and leads to experiencing how words can be transport you into new realms.

In our Montessori classrooms, students act out text prompts found in our Reading Card materials. They also write their own stories and act those out as well. We encourage parents to extend their children’s creativity and understanding of text in the same way at home!

A Walk in the Wood: Meditations on Mindfulness with a Bear Named Pooh was gifted to all Casa families (ages 3 to 5) as a keepsake with thanks to funding from the Ministry of Education’s Ready, Set, Learn program to support early literacy initiatives.

Thank you to all families who attended the talk! We hope you enjoyed it. Below is the recording: