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Wouldn't we all love to have a road map to prepare us for the next big transition in our lives? That’s what our TK students have tried to create for preschoolers who are about to make the big leap to TK and kindergarten. They worked as a group to make an enticing hand-drawn map of the kindergarten yard. Last Friday the entire Room 7 class visited the shared Rooms 1 and 2 yard and unfurled a giant scroll, featuring their artistic renderings of fun places to play on their yard.

A few weeks ago, when North Italia (a new Walnut Creek restaurant) opened next door to the Cheesecake Factory, all four administrators, Ivy, Vince, Warren, and I, slipped away for a pre-grand opening lunch. David Overton and his wife, Sheila, greeted us warmly. David is the CEO of the Cheesecake Factory Inc., which has purchased North Italia. I’ve been familiar with the high standards and caring attitudes David tries to imbue in his wait staff, and that day, it was like watch

“Proud Momma” was the title of a text I received this week from the parent of a fourth grader. To my surprise, it contained only a piece of artwork, a pencil drawing created by her daughter, a self-portrait of her with her friends. They were sitting, facing away from the artist, on a bench with their arms draped lovingly around each other’s backs. I immediately got why this mom was so proud. I had interviewed her for my book, The Best Things Mothers Do, and I understood that

Mornings aren’t always easy. In spite of our gentlest intentions, things sometimes go awry. Frustrations can sizzle like bacon frying on the stove. A question hovers over our morning routines: “How can we help children to start the day with good cheer?” In Room 7, the teachers (Mses. Indi, Izzy, and Natalie) have created instantaneous morning mood lifters for their kindergarten class. Instead of having their children repeat “here” when they take roll call, the teachers pose a

Are thinking and solving puzzles a form of play? Fifth grade teacher John Murphy is convinced they can be, and he loves to offer “brain start-ups” to his students, the equivalent of engaging them in a game of Frisbee or freeze-tag, only mentally. The “start-ups” aren’t part of their math lesson, they’re just fun, but they can infuse fractions and decimals with delight. Recently he asked, “Which is greater, the number of people on earth now or seconds since the Declaration of

Preparing Soon-to-Be Graduates for Middle School and Beyond Terry answers a student’s question about his biography project. Every Meher School graduate has special memories of their days at our school. For some it’s a group of friends or a teacher or a class, or maybe just happy hours spent in aftercare. But one memory they all share is the fifth grade biography project. Spanning weeks of in-class and at-home work, it’s the most challenging project they’ll do while at the sch

“The sun was out and a rabbit was under the sun and an acorn was under the rabbit—a Christmas acorn.” So begins the exciting first page of preschooler Finley’s first book, A Hundred Acorns. As the book continues, the story’s protagonists, the acorns, face dangers: a ghost, a storm in a rain forest, and falling boulders. The plot finally resolves as the acorns escape and glimpse the magical presence of a sloth. Finley was extremely proud of his eight-page literary accomplishme

Izzy introduced her students to ultraviolet light by stamping her hands and theirs with “invisible” ink (ink visible only under UV light) and shining the UV flashlight on them. “The children came up to me all day during breaks to see if the ink was still there,” she says. “Did you wash your hands?” is a question asked throughout the day in preschool, TK, and kindergarten, often followed by “Did you do a good job?” But how’s a kid to know if they really did a “good job”? TK te