Keystone Montessori students dance to the Miriam Makeba song "Pata Pata" at the graduation day ceremony on June 22 in El Cerrito.

Proud parents filled the main room at Keystone Montessori School on Blake Street in El Cerrito on June 22 for the 31st Preschool Graduation Ceremony for the “Snowy Egret” Pre-K and Kindergarten Class of 2012.

Here is an account of the ceremony submitted by the school.

 The theme of the program was “Children Around the World” with an opening song of “Hello to All the Children of the World.”  The graduating class of 30 students prepared an Operetta titled “The Snowy Egrets Take Flight” and performed international songs from all of the seven continents.  Some songs were sung in Spanish, French, Mandarin, and Swahili.  The songs were accompanied by Keystone’s longtime music teacher Jonathan Green and Keystone’s Director and Owner Linda Shehabi, both on guitar, and also by the children who played Orff-Schulwerk xylophones, metallophones, glockenspiels, djembe drums, and various percussion instruments.

The children also recited and gave dramatic interpretations to several short poems by Benjamin Franklin, Emily Dickenson, Nikki Giovanni, John Ciardi, and Christina Rosetti.

The ending song was a line dance to Miriam Makeba’s “Pata Pata” where all

70 plus guests stood up and joined in with the children.

 

The program concluded with the Peace Poem by Ghandi quoted in unison by the children:

I offer you peace

I offer you love

I offer you friendship

I see your beauty

I hear your need

I feel your feeling

My wisdom flows from the highest source

I salute that source in you

Let us work together

For unity and love

 

Keystone Montessori School-founded in 1981 to provide quality early childhood education serves children ages 18 months through Kindergarten and offers  a unique style of Montessori program with lower ratios and an emphasis on creativity and fun while incorporating all elements of the Montessori curriculum: practical life, sensorial, math, language & reading, science and cultural studies. For more information contact the school at : 510-236-7479;info @keystonemontessori.org;www.keystonemontessori.org.