CONNECTIONS
8 | June 202 5
UPCOMING E VE N T S
Larysa i Eliza
Lots to do at Pines this summer!
If you are at Pines for the summer or not, we invite you to:
• Come decorate the Float!
• Freeze some of the 100’ s of ice pops needed!
• Come ride in the Parade!
• Come welcome our Ukrainian guests!
• Come do all four!
Here are some of the highlights for the next two months a t Pines.
June
2nd Primary, Lower, Upper Elementary begin Summer Semester 19th Juneteenth- School CLOSED
July
3rd Decorate the Pines 4th of July Float
4th Independence Day- School CLOSED
4th Kingwood Civic Club 4th of July Parade
7th- 28th Ukrainian teachers come BACK to Texas!!
Photo from last year’ s fun!
CONSTRUCTION
This going up so quickly!
You are going to notice that all sorts of different work will be going on at the same time!
Pretty soon we will not be able to see inside the building as the very last of the exterior steel is almost in place.
HVAC, pumbling and electrical are being roughed in and the walls and brick will go up!
By the marquee and across the street you will see digging. We need to have a piece of equipment to support the water main installed there and the ramp in front of Toddlers was ripped out to make way for an ADA ramp! Improvements are all over the campus!
Plans for the backyard are con�nuing as we will use your generous proceeds from The EVENT !
CONNECTION S
Connec�ons and reconnec�ons.
We said some bitersweet good-byes this past May. Lovingly smooshed in the middle is Ms. Kahkashan. Just about 100 current and past Ms. K students flooded the backyard with hugs and laughs! In this photo are high school and college students. Email well wishes from those who couldn’t make it this day came as well.
The faculty made with Ms. K laugh at receiving a poster of her riding off with Tom Cruise for her re�rement!
Ms. Lupe was treated with daily surprises as every classroom on campus took turns coming to the Front Office to hug on her and wish her well in her re�rement.
We were very lucky to have you both with us!
CONNECTION S
Graduating Class of 2025
We cannot think of more a wonderful way to end the school year then sending off five, confident students into their abundant futures! With a combined forty years at Pines themes of connec�ons, support, and laughter emerged from their speeches. Parents, grandparents, siblings, and teachers from throughout their �me in Montessori showed their support.
6th and 7th year students watched on for their turn is coming very soon!
Priscilla, Sydney, Emily, Lily and Olivia
4 th of July Parade
Mark your calendar
Thursday, July 3rd
Decorate our 4th of July Float and/or
Thursday, July 4th
RIDE in Parade
Each year we decorate a float in the Kingwood Civic Club's 4th of July Parade.
As we parade along Lake Houston Parkway to Kingwood Drive and onto Kingwood High School, we are “famous” for passing out freeze pops to the parade goers.
Who decorates this float?
We do!
The day before the parade we will have a potluck style cookout and float decora�ng social right here at Pines!
Come if you can and bring something to help make the cookout complete: hot dogs, buns, chips, drinks, potato salad, an easy dessert, etc.
Thanks to Ms. Mayra… we own a grill!
Just an informal, fun social as we decorate.
Wednesday, July 3rd at 6:00 pm
4 th of July Parade
Freezie Pops
We need all we can get!
PRO TIP: If you are freezing large quan��es, they freeze much beter in a single layer. A�er they are frozen you can stack them up. If you put the net bag of pops straight into the freezer only the pops on the outside layers will freeze and the ones on the inside will s�ll be juice. Sadly, we speak from experience.
O n I nde p e nde nce Day
We also invite you to join us to ride on, walk, or stroll along with the Pines float on the morning of July 4th and hand our freezie pops! How the parade looks.
You will park your car wherever you can near Creekwood Middle School and walk around the floats un�l you find us! We try to line up on Rivers Edge Trail off of Sandy Forks. The parade begins at 10:00 am. You should try to find us at 9:30 am. The parade will move slowly so you can always hop on and off as we go.
Strollers, bikes, wagons, dogs, etc - all are welcome! Dress in a Pines shirt, or your Red/White/and Blue. We will have coolers of freezie pops but we can ALWAYS use more! If you are coming to the parade, please begin freezing these at your home now and bring them in a cooler to our float.
KITCHEN CONNECTIONS
INGREDIENTS
Mixed fruit (to decorate your tart)
Crust:
Fruit Tart
Cream Cheese mix:
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 4 Tbsp vanilla Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 graham crackers
• 2 Tbsp butter
DIRECTIONS
Crust:
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
1. Crush the crackers into fine crumbs, melt butter and add it to the crumbs.
2. Transfer the mixture into a greased 6-inch pie dish or a bowl using your hands.
3. With some pressure, pat the crumbs down to the bottom of your bowl to make the crust compact.
Cream Cheese Mix:
1. Stir the cream cheese until smooth
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir again until it reaches a creamy consistency.
3. Pour your cream cheese batter into the pie dish and keep it in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
Fruit Mix:
1. Wash, dry and cut up your favorite fruit
2. Decorate your tart.
TEACH I NG AT PINES
Describe your teaching background.
As a mother of young children at the �me I was looking for a part �me job so I could be on the same schedule with my children. There happened to be a Montessori school nearby and it was there that I started as an assistant in a toddler room.
How did you learn about Pines and what made you stay?
I first worked at a Montessori school in Atascocita and then and a friend called me and asked if I would be interested in coming to work at Pines. I applied and got the job. Later, I was excited to learn that Pines offered the opportunity to take the Montessori training to become a cer�fied Montessori teacher. I gladly took the offer, got trained and have been at Pines since then! That was over twenty years ago.
Why do you teach Montessori?
Ms. Jessica has been teaching at Pines for 23 years in Primary
When I first started working in a Montessori school, I did not know anything about the Montessori approach nor the educa�onal meaning of the work that children used throughout the day. It started with the inner desire to learn and understand the proper use of those materials that assisted children in learning about different areas of life, for example, I wondered how could beads or thousand cubes teach a child to count.
What do you find the most rewarding in your job?
One of my favorite parts is watching children a�er a lesson has been presented to them, par�cularly, watching children learn and apply the knowledge they have just learned.
Ilovethis “Igotit”moment!
Also, just seeing the joy children show about the way you have taught the lesson.
What would be some of the best prac�ces for parents to follow at home?
One of the aspects that we always stress is independence.
Encourage children to do things on their own, let them know that they can do it.
Set up the environment, provide simple house responsibili�es that would promote and keep developing children’s independence outside of school as well.