IMPORTANT DATES:
10/29-30 Elementary - Middle School Conferences - No School or Childcare
10/30 Only - Primary / Toddler Conference Day - No School or Childcare
11/11 Veterans Day - No School or Childcare
11/23-27 Thanksgiving Break
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LIFE AT VMS: Conferences & Guidance Regarding Symptoms
by Ann Clark, Head of School
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Dear parents,
This Thursday and Friday, we are hosting parent-teacher conferences. The teachers highly value this time together, particularly during the pandemic when they have little in person contact with parents. What can you expect?
- All conferences will be via Zoom.
- The teachers will be offering a summary of how your child is progressing.
- This year, it is particularly important to consider your child’s social and emotional health, especially with the challenges of technology and the many necessary adjustments in our lives.
- Bring questions you may have and ideas of how we could provide additional support for you at home.
Our mission at VMS is to educate the whole child. We value this important partnership between teachers and parents in order to best support your child through their personal journey of learning and developing.
Health and Sickness Reminder for On-Campus Students
As cold and flu season arrives, we have the additional challenge of determining the difference between standard cold symptoms and those that may be related to Coronavirus. If your child has any cold or flu-like symptoms - including runny/stuffy nose, fever, sore throat, fatigue, headache, body aches - please keep them home and contact your health care provider for an assessment. They will determine whether a Covid test is necessary.
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If your doctor determines the symptoms are not related to Covid, ask for a note from the doctor indicating clearance to return to school. In addition, your child must be fever free for 48 hours. According to the Alameda County Public Health Department guidance, without a doctor's note or a negative Covid test, your child must wait 10 days before returning to school.
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If a test is recommended and it is negative, your child may return to school after communicating the results to your program director, Ana Suan or Gretchen Mancieri, or the VMS Covid Liaison, Angela Zellmer. If the Covid test is positive, please contact our Covid Liaison azellmer@ValleyMontessoriSchool.com
If children exhibit any symptoms while at school, we will take them to an isolation area away from the other children and contact you to pick them up. Thank you for your understanding and adherence to this policy as we work to keep everyone safe throughout the pandemic.
Respectfully,
Ann
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It's important to be safe when celebrating all holidays during a pandemic. Here is the guidance from the Alameda County Public Health Department regarding Halloween safety that encourages and suggests low risk, fun activities.
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Parent/Teacher Conferences
We hope you have had an opportunity to sign up for a parent/teacher conference. We look forward to meeting with you to discuss information and observations about your child's development. This year, our conferences will be conducted via Zoom. We will email you a link prior to our conference day FRIDAY OCTOBER 30th. As a reminder there is no school in session or childcare provided on this day.
Weather
We are noticing that with the season change, the weather is changing as well. The afternoons are mild, but the mornings are chilly on our playground. Please send your child to school with a jacket every day. This is also a good time to think about bringing some weather appropriate spare clothing to swap out with the summer clothes in your child's cubby.
Roly Poly Pumpkin
Here are the words to another fun fall themed song we have been singing in class. (To the tune “Itsy Bitsy Spider”)
The Roly Poly Pumpkin went rolling down the hill
Once it started rolling it couldn’t keep still
It rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled until it hit a rock
Then the Roly Poly Pumpkin rolled until it stopped!
(when the toddlers say “stopped” they also use the sign for “stop”)
Have a wonderful rest of your week! See you Friday!
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UN/World Cultures Day
Despite UN Day looking very different this year, we still had a wonderful day last Friday celebrating the many cultures that are represented on our VMS campus! The primary children paraded around the school for each other as well as other adult staff and elementary classes that came out to participate. It was so fun to see the many beautiful outfits worn from children around the world. In the classroom, the celebrations continued with activities such as map making, creating flags from around the world, singing songs, and showing pictures from home of artifacts and items that are important to different cultures. We look forward to the upcoming recipe book and video and thank all who participated in making this UN Day another success! In case you missed it, here are photos we shared last Friday!
Parent/Teacher Conferences
Just a reminder that we have no class this Friday, October 30. Instead we will meet via Zoom for parent/teacher conferences. We look forward to meeting with each of you to discuss your child’s development and growth so far this school year. As teachers, we enjoy this time to get to know you and your child a bit better. Especially this year, it often feels like we don’t get to interact much with the parents due to changes in the drop off/pick up procedures, so we are excited for this opportunity to talk!
Please be prepared with any questions you may have and as always, we appreciate your help staying on schedule. A Zoom link will be sent to you before Friday and you will be placed into the waiting room until your conference time.
See you Friday!
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PRIMARY DISTANCE LEARNING NEWS |
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Dear Distance Learning Parents,
Choose Love Curriculum
We are introducing children to the four units of the science based Choose Love Curriculum throughout the year: Courage, Gratitude, Forgiveness and Compassion in Action. Courage is the willingness and ability to work through obstacles despite having feelings such as fear, reluctance, or uncertainty. This also requires self-awareness and self-regulation. The children are practicing the importance of "Brave Breaths" and "Volcano Breathing". As the children practice these techniques, they will develop the ability to better identify feelings in themselves and others.
This Friday
A gentle reminder that there will be no school this Friday, October 30. As Ana mentioned in her email, we have a built-in opportunity to meet with you regularly and feel that we are all on the same page as we move forward on the path of learning! We appreciate your candid questions, words of gratitude and most of all your partnership in this endeavor.
Have a wonderful week,
Sheila and Mandi
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Conferences are this Thursday and Friday!
You will be receiving an email to remind you of the details today from your cohort teacher. Please log on to the Zoom a few minutes before your scheduled time so you are ready to start when your teacher admits you from the Zoom waiting room.
We will be sticking to the conference schedule so if you feel you have questions that were not answered during conference time, please let your teacher know with a follow up email so your questions can be addressed.
These conferences are for parents only! We look forward to meeting with you to talk about your child!
Field Trip to the Moon!
The Lower El students took a virtual trip to the moon this week with the California Academy of Sciences. What a blast!
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Parent-Teacher Conferences - October 29-30 - School Closed
Mark your date and time for the upcoming Parent Teacher Conferences tomorrow and Friday. Plan to check into the waiting room five minutes early. The teachers will let you in as soon as we are available. The meetings are back-to-back, so we will do our best to adhere to scheduled times. We look forward to Zooming with you soon!
November Biography Book Report - Due: 11/18
For the next book report, your child should choose a Biography. It can be about the same person they chose for Historical Halloween, or someone completely different. Please find the guidelines on Google Classroom and have your child read the instructions carefully before they start reading their book.
Election 2020
With Election Day less than a week away, Americans are gearing up to elect the president, senators, and representatives of the United States! Our History studies are temporarily on pause as we explore American Civics and partake in history-in-the-making. Students have been learning about the branches of government, the right to vote, the jobs of the president, who the candidates are, how candidates campaign, some of the big issues the president will have to deal with, and more. Next week, students will be casting an anonymous vote of their own! Below you will find a few examples of student letters to adults they know explaining why they think it’s important to vote.
Dear Mom and Dad,
I’m writing to remind you to vote in this year’s elections. Here’s why I think it’s important for you to vote. First, you should vote because the founders worked hard to get the right to vote and even died for it. Also, your vote counts! Don’t think that it won’t make a difference! Our country has some big issues to consider about the economy, health care, and immigration! Finally, it’s important for everyone to vote because imagine, back in 1870, you were fighting for the right to vote. If you died and a few years after, Americans got the right, how would you feel if you watched over them not vote now?
Sincerely,
(A Fourth Year Student)
To Whom It May Concern,
I’m writing to remind you to vote in this year’s elections. Here’s why I think it’s important for you to vote.
First, voting is an important part in choosing who will run our country, our state, and our local government. You may not think that your vote can make a difference, but every little vote helps. Also, voting is very important because it is not just for who will become president, it is for other things as well such as health care, education and other things affecting our lives.
If you dislike the candidates, then I think you should vote for the best one. Finally, you should vote because it may help the whole state grow and flourish. I think that if you should try to take a little bit of your time to vote for the best candidates and think about the issue that will impact our country, state, and city.
Sincerely,
(A Fifth Year Student)
Historical Halloween
What an honor it was to be in the company of such outstanding historical figures this morning! These personalities shared their contributions to the world and how they have impacted the world we are living in today. Students enjoyed guessing each other's characters from their costumes, props and clues. See pictures below!
Upcoming Events
October 29 Parent/Teacher Conferences - School Closed
October 30 Parent/Teacher Conferences - School Closed
November 11 Veterans Day - School Closed
November 18 Biography Book Report Due
November 23-27 Thanksgiving Break - School Closed
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“My vision of the future is no longer of people taking exams and proceeding from secondary school to University but of passing from one stage of independence to a higher, by means of their own activity and effort of will.
Conferences
We’re looking forward to the next two days when we can gather together in our first remote conference of the year. We know that the format is new, but we are all getting pretty good at navigating the technology. Please join us right before your designated time at the Community Meeting Zoom meeting number.
Zoom ID: 852 6367 8911
password: 127320
Your child should be with you and can also assist with the password. Thanks in advance for helping us to stay on time! See you soon!
Pumpkins and a movie
On Tuesday, as we all prepared for both conferences and Halloween, the middle school students spent time together viewing the classic “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” during combined history and science classes. It was fun to see early American life in a new and “creepy” sort of way, and then follow it with pumpkin decorating, painting, or carving. More thrills will continue in Language Arts classes.
UN/World Cultures Day
We all missed our traditional UN Day gathering, but found the spirit of the day alive and well with students and teachers. As you can see in the image below, students attended gatherings and classes displaying the flag of a nation that held importance for them. As the day progressed we were able to incorporate this ancestry acknowledgement into interesting discussions.
Still to come: many students participated in the creation of a video which we plan on watching together. Due to some outside technical issues, we do not have it yet, but we expect it soon!
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Valley Montessori School
1273 N Livermore Ave Livermore CA 94551
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