TO DONATE TO GAIL SUPANICH MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FUNDThe school community has created a labyrinth to honor Gail Supanich, the former Head of School at PVMS. We described the plans to Gail in Fall 2010 and showed her the area where we imagined that the labyrinth would be located on the playground. Gail said that she loved the idea, remembering the Montessori connection to labyrinths. We built the labyrinth on an area of the playground that allows for quiet time for children to walk the labyrinth and to enjoy some reflective moments.In the Children's House Montessori environment, a child often creates a walking labyrinth using a traditional Montessori material, the Red Rods. After ordering the Red Rods from longest to shortest, he/she will begin to build a labyrinth by laying the rods end to end in a circular pattern. After removing his/her shoes, a child may slowly and carefully walk through the Red Rod labyrinth he/she has designed.Other children may join in, but soon learn that there is only room for one child to walk through the single path at a time, so patience and waiting is required. An outdoor walking labyrinth is a more complex version of a child's Red Rod labyrinth and creates a connection for a child to his work at school and to real life applications in his community. Gail headed PVMS for approximately 30 years and was instrumental in creating the high quality program at Pioneer Valley Montessori School. Gail believed that it was very important for the school to become accredited by AISNE (Association of Independent Schools in New England) and AMS (American Montessori Society) so that parents could be assured that their children were receiving a high quality education. All donations to this fund will be used for emergency scholarship funds so that students can finish out a school year, after a job loss or other family crisis. If you would like to make a donation to the Gail Supanich Memorial Scholarship Fund, you may send a check to the school or donate with a credit card or Paypal by clicking the button below. |