THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS. School can sometimes be perceived as boring, but a lot of people forget that learning can be tons of fun. Montessori students in the Chippewa Valley are reminded of that frequently, and especially through a new program called Fun Fridays. (Photos via Facebook)

Valentine’s Day at the Chippewa Valley Montessori Charter School was not just a day of heart-shaped candies and crafts. For the school's four- to eleven-years-olds, February’s "Fun Friday" was in full force.

“A ball of worms, COOL, I want to hold that,” said one fifth grade boy, who describes it as “feeling like spaghetti.” Other children crowded around Raymond Petke, residential vermicomposter (AKA worm farmer) and his containers of worms crawling around in dirt. Petke explains to the children that the worms get together and form a ball to keep warm in such frigidly cold weather as we have in Wisconsin.

In the next classroom, Sarah Vitale, a professor of hydrogeology at UW-Eau Claire and one of the school children’s moms, is busily showing her charges how to create a water filtration system using a cut-off plastic bottle, cotton balls, activated charcoal, sand, and gravel. Stopping by a short time later, the students are running muddy water through the filtration system, watching as the water gets clearer each time it's filtered. Oohs and aahs erupt.

Never doubt the power of two moms putting their heads together for the good of the children at their school. Two years ago, the Chippewa Valley Montessori Charter School Governance Board President, Sara Meeks, and Partnership Coordinator, Virginia “Gin” Winter, came up with a program idea called Fun Fridays.

The concept came directly from the west side Eau Claire school's teachers, who offered feedback explaining they wanted to host speakers in their classrooms but couldn’t necessarily find the time to do so in addition to the required curriculum and classroom planning. The purpose of Fun Fridays is to expose the students to topics outside the typical curriculum and provide parents, guardians, and community members an opportunity to connect with its students during 30- to 60-minute presentations, one Friday afternoon a month.

Guest speakers can share their favorite hobby, talk about their occupation, explain cultural traditions, conduct science experiments, read a book, craft with the students – really, whatever interests them. Fun Fridays programming has taken place on the second Friday of the month this past October, November, January, and February, with March and April activities coming up next.

As Gin and I walk up and down three flights of stairs to survey what’s happening in each classroom, we visit the classrooms of the first, second, and third graders.

In one room, we find children squawking like chickens at the request of Jerissa Koenig, early literacy outreach librarian from the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, as she reads Wake Me Up in 20 Coconuts by Laurie Keller aloud to them.

Learning about gardening and canning and drying.

Plotting the schoolyard garden.

In the Montessori school's library, students are exposed to coding of Sphero Robots, brightly colored lighted robots moving around the floor, as directed by the code students are keying into their iPads.

In other classrooms, the children learn how to diagram gardens in the schoolyard and food preservation via canning and drying; a surgical nurse at Mayo Clinic, Jessica Ridgeway, is showing students some of the instruments used during surgery, while at least three students raise their hands to describe their own experiences with past surgeries; Hannah Koschak is demonstrating how to make a bead blessing key chain; Nichole Smith is describing what the Iditarod is like, with the students ending the session by going outside to play out what each mushing dog's roles would be in the great race. Those are just some of the activities held for the Feb. 14 Fun Friday.

"Practicing" for the Iditarod.

Sara and Gin coordinate 12 presenters for each of the 12 Montessori classrooms every month. So far, students have also enjoyed learning about topics including sculpture art, geocaching, Japanese culture, beekeeping, First-Aid, martial art Hwa Rang Do, Hawaiian culture, band and orchestra instruments, and much more.

Fun Fridays slots are fully booked through the end of the 2024-25 school year, but if you would like to participate in the program next year, please contact Gin at vwinter@ecasd.us.

The Chippewa Valley Montessori Charter School is a free, public charter school within the Eau Claire Area School District located on the west side of town. For more information, visit www.ecasd.us/CV-Montessori-Charter-School/Home.