Augsburg Park is a small, private, authentic Montessori school serving families from Richfield, Edina, South Minneapolis and Bloomington.  We are located a short drive from the Crosstown Commons, near the intersection of highways 62 and 77 (Cedar Ave.)

We are accepting applications for the 2010-2011 school year.  Contact Sinead at 612.869.8155 for information or to make an appointment to visit.  Have a joy-filled Summer!

Please join us on the evening of Thursday, March 25th from 6-8pm.

Come visit out beautifully prepared environment, laid out and enriched to give the very best experience to each child. Learn about the Montessori method of education, and explore the beautiful materials which enable each child to develop a true life-long love for learning.

Teachers  will be available to answer all your questions about how the Montessori philosophy is applied to early childhood education, and what it’s like at APMS.  Come work with the materials, have a snack, and visit with our gerbils! Contact Sinead with any questions.  We hope to see you there!

With the delightful weather we’ve experienced this Fall, has come more opportunities for outdoor exploration.  We recently took advantage of an unseasonably warm afternoon to visit the Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield.    The children thoroughly enjoyed the trip on the city bus-entertaining all the other riders on the way there.  

At the nature center, we rolled a few logs in search of miniature wildlife, uncovering a really huge spider as well as some ‘roly-poly’s’ (wood lice), worms, insect larvae and other mystery insects.  The children had been reading lots of books about spiders and discussing animal life-cycles, so they were very excited to see so many actual examples in real life -and doubly excited to see the adults scurry away from the giant spider!

We ended the afternoon at the newly installed exploration and play area.  The staff at Wood Lake have done a beautiful job of incorporating all kinds of gross motor activity while maintaining the natural feel of the area.  There are opportunities to climb, build, balance, swing, jump, hide and imagine.  We look forward to exploring it in other seasons -we’ll keep you posted on our findings!

Now the child can begin to write.  Using the symbols to encode sounds, the child builds words.   This is writing!  Beginning with short, phonetic words, moving rapidly to longer, more complicated sentences, the child uses this new skill to describe, journal, and document the world.

How wonderful to learn in this way! To build a language for yourself, unencumbered by expectations!  Free to explore the rules, to use this magical tool to express yourself more fully!   The child in the Montessori classroom learns these skills at his own pace, joyfully absorbing the sounds and symbols of his own language.  Effortlessly moving from oral to written expression.  This joyful self-discovery comes with no effort from the child – he is born with an innate need to explore, understand, do.  When given the freedom to fulfill this need, the child is at once peaceful and alive.

Come watch us at work!  See for yourself how the Montessori environment enables each child to learn for himself, at his own pace.

This past spring the children at APMS undertook a daunting project.  Since so many of our families were beginning to plan their kitchen gardens, our classroom was abuzz with talk of building beds and starting seeds.  Our little friends decided to offer to start the seeds for all the families, and tend for them until it was time to plant.

The process started with a survey of all the children in the class, asking what kinds of plants they usually grow in their garden, and what kind of plants they like to eat.  Once they had a list, we selected seeds and began to plan when to start the planting.

Ben and Nate’s  family loaned the class a three-tiered seed starting plant stand, and we were ready to go:

Once the calendar was drawn up, the children waited until the first date -a full 10 weeks before the last projected frost date!

As you can see, we were plenty busy before the snow had even melted outside! The children were very excited to watch their new seedlings grow, and attended to the daily duties of watering, rotating, and moving the cart into the sunshine with great gusto!

Once the seedlings were ready, we sent home lists of what plants were ready, and families submitted their orders.  We had 12 varieties of tomatoes, most of them heirloom! Peppers, herbs, eggplants and flowers -we ran the gamut!

Orders were filled, and gardens started in most of the children’s homes.

Since we had a large number of plants left (we started with about 900 seedlings!) we decided to offer them for sale during the Richfield City Garage Sale.

Some of the families have already made Salsa and canned the produce from their garden.  Sounds like we had bumper crops all around! What a delightful way for the children to bring their work home, and share with their families!  Thanks to all the friends and families who purchased plants, and thanks to the children who worked so hard to make this happen.

We’ll be posting more pictures of the harvest as it happens -we’re already looking forward to repeating this project next Spring!

Thanks to all the families for your enthusiasm and support -a strong sense of community and fellowship is vital in a school.  The children feel like part of one big family!

Here are a few pictures of some of the many things that went on during the past school year…

Observation Schedule

The best way to learn about Augsburg Park Montessori School is to visit our classroom. Observations offer families an opportunity to get a glimpse of what life is like in a Montessori classroom. Since we only accommodate one family at a time, these visits are scheduled by appointment only. Adult visits are offered Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 9:30, mid-October through the end of March.

During the summer, appointments can be made to visit the classroom at any time.  To schedule, call Sinead at 612.869.8155