​"Being able to choose the right school for a child is a very important and impactful choice in a person's life. I am beyond grateful that my parents chose to send me here for the last 9 years" - Kaitlyn M -

A Note from our Executive Director

Recently I took a group of students, who are in my art appreciation class, to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. With all of the social media and horrible events in the world, this outing, with these students, re-ignited my love and appreciation of the importance of Montessori and the beauty in nature.

Although, not all of these students grew up at AGBMS, they have been here long enough to have learned the importance of peace, responsibility, self-control, compassion, and self-direction. I will give you a few examples:
  • We were visiting the gardens to take photos of examples of the Fibonacci Spiral in nature - and there is no better place than CBG to find amazing examples of this!
  • We traveled through the gardens to various locations, always mindful of the peace and tranquility we were experiencing.
  • The beauty of the rose gardens, the bonsai exhibit, the dahlias, sunflowers, lisianthus, eucalyptus, zinnias and so much more...
  • Here is what some of them expressed:
    • This was the best field trip ever, it was so calm and relaxing and peaceful. I hope we can come again.
    • One of the young men said, "Ms. Debra, I thought this was going to be boring, but it was amazing! I loved it so much. My aunt is a photographer and I can't wait to show her the pictures I took!"
    • One of them explained use of the garden map and described, with enthusiasm that their is so much more to see and he hopes we can come back and explore more times in the future. And, because I am a member of the CBG, we were able to enter and park free of charge. 
    • After visiting CBG:
      • The students were provided a surprise for lunch at Portillos. 
      • During lunch, they exhibited the best of the best - good manners, graciousness, politeness, and respect along with their many... 'Thank you so much!" in appreciation for this surprise.
      • While there, we were approached by a young man with special needs who introduced himself, first to Kim and myself. He told us he was there to assist with anything we needed and just to ask him if we wanted something. Then he moved to the tables with the children and here again introduced himself. The students responses were priceless:
        • Thank you Rob!
        • It's so nice to meet you. 
        • I hope you have a good afternoon, we appreciate you introducing yourself.
        • Without exception, these children were gracious, respectful and acknowledged him with respect; my heart was filled with joy and admiration of each and everyone of them. 
This trip brought me back to so many reasons I do what I do. Thank you to all of you who have had a hand in 'raising' and 'guiding' these young people over the years. We are all blessed. 
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Nymphaea 'Wood's White Knight'
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Chrysanthemum "Spider Mum"
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The Nymphaea ‘Detective Erika’
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Dihilia
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Dahlia Fibonacci Spiral in Nature
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Rose
From Chicago Botanic Garden

"The Chicago Botanic Garden opened 50 years ago as a beautiful place to visit, and it has matured into one of the world's great living museums and conservation science centers. Every year, more than one million people visit the Garden's 28 gardens and four natural areas, uniquely situated on 385 acres on and around nine islands, with six miles of lake shoreline. The Garden also has a renowned Bonsai Collection." ​https://www.chicagobotanic.org/
​Debra Trude-Suter, PhD, Executive Director
Chief Education Officer
The spindle box develops early counting skills and develops the association between quantity and the number symbols 0-9. Importantly, it teaches the concept of zero. The wooden box has ten numbered compartments into which the child counts the corresponding number of tactile wooden spindles. 
Montessori Ten Board with Beads teaches a child to associate the quantities and symbols. 
The Pink Tower helps a child build a concept of size in three dimensions. This includes working on visual perception, and awareness of dimension, both leading to an understanding of size in the environment. The Pink Tower also helps develop a child's fine muscular coordination. 
​Montessori birthday celebration. In the Montessori birthday walk the child walks around the sun the number of times as they are years old while holding a globe. Everyone sings a song while they walk and stories of their year are told between laps. 
Sandpaper Numerals are used to give children a tactile feeling of the written representation of quantities as they trace the numbers with their fingers. It also helps develop muscular memory in preparation for future writing.
The Moveable Alphabet is part of the Preschool Language Curriculum, and one of the purposes is to prepare children for writing, reading, and spelling. The child's use of the material progresses from single words, to phrases, and eventually to stories helping them to symbolize their own thoughts, and begin to write creatively.
The Montessori Tracing Board helps to build fine motor, writing, drawing, creativity, concentration and focus skills. #montessoritracingboard #whymontessori #agbms
The Color Bead Stairs is a way to visually represent number values; making abstract concepts more concrete so that children can better grasp mathematical principles. #montessoribeadstair
*redirect to: https://www.agbms.org/agbms-curriculum.html#/