February 12 & 15
Mid-Winter Break
No school - pre-registered child-care will be available. Drop-ins will not be accepted.
February 15
2021-22 Re-enrollment Deadline
Re-enroll by this date to secure your child's space for the 2021-22 school year. Contact Paula Sharpe for more information.
February 17
Deadline to Submit 5th COVID Test Results to Nurse Kathy
Results must be sent to nurse@wmsde.org by 4 p.m. in order for your child to attend school on Thursday the 18th.
February 24
Virtual Admissions Open House
Noon
March 3
Virtual Admissions Open House
Noon
Deadline to Submit 6th COVID Test Results to Nurse Kathy
March 5
All-Staff Professional Day - No School or Child Care
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2021-22 Re-enrollment Deadline - Monday, February 15
Thank you to everyone who has already re-enrolled for the 2021-22 school year. By committing to our school, you are supporting our teachers by allowing us to plan for the coming school year and offer contracts on a timely basis.
All re-enrollment contracts are due on Monday, February 15 (please note that this is an update from the previously mentioned February 12 deadline). Please submit your child's form through our online re-enrollment system to secure their spot for the 2021-22 school year. After February 15, classroom spaces will be made available to new families.
Please contact Paula Sharpe if you have questions or did not receive a re-enrollment letter via email. If you prefer to use a hard copy form for your child's re-enrollment, please contact our admissions team to have one sent home with your child.
If you are NOT planning to return next fall, please notify Paula as well. Thank you for your help with informing our planning for the fall!
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Wear Red Tomorrow for Chinese New Year & Valentine's Day |
Lunar New Year is observed in many countries on several different dates. In China, it is a spring festival that begins on February 12 in 2021 and lasts 15 days. At WMS, we will celebrate Chinese New Year on Thursday, February 11, with a physically-distanced outdoor musical parade by students in the 6-9 Program. Students in other levels will get to view the parade from outdoor locations around the campus.
All students and staff are encouraged to join the fun by wearing red to school - in honor of the Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day!
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Upcoming Local Activities for Families |
Ages 4-19 - Registration open through 2/25
Opportunities for ALL ages, from toddler through adult - submissions due on March 1.
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Required COVID-19 Testing - Results Due on February 17 by 4 p.m.
We continue to be grateful for your efforts to keep our community safe through COVID-19 testing every two weeks.
Your child's next test results are due on Wednesday, February 17, at 4 p.m. in order for your child to attend school on Thursday the 18th. Results must be emailed to Nurse Kathy at nurse@wmsde.org as soon as they become available. If you are sending a screenshot, please include the date tested.
Please note that many test sites will likely be closed on Monday, February 15 due to the President's Day holiday - please plan to get tested before then to ensure that your results are received by the 17th.
Upcoming required due dates are as follows:
- Wednesday, February 17
- Wednesday, March 3
- Wednesday, March 17
You are still welcome to have your child tested more frequently and may forward the results to Nurse Kathy.
A few tips:
- Please plan to test at regular intervals to remain on schedule.
- You are strongly encouraged to pre-register, but can still be tested without an appointment at the state locations. If you don't have an appointment, plan for a longer wait time.
A few reminders:
- Doors and windows continue to remain open during the school day for improved ventilation, and students are still spending time outdoors. Please dress your children in multiple layers.
- Be sure to check the status of your child's masks regularly. They should be fitting snugly without gaping and should not be falling below their nose.
- Be sure to send in multiple mask changes for the day. With temperature changes from inside to outside, condensation often forms and masks often become damp during the day, requiring a change. Be sure to wash reusable masks after each use.
Thank you, and please contact Nurse Kathy if you have any questions!
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Upcoming New Castle County Testing Events
Thursday, February 11
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Wilmington University Athletic Complex - 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Friday, February 12
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Thomas Edison Charter School (indoor walk-up) - 2-6 p.m.
Saturday, February 13
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UD Star Campus - 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
(Please visit this page to confirm that there have been no changes to the schedule above before going to your testing location.)
Permanent Test Sites and Other COVID-19 Testing Options
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CLASSROOM NEWS - As seen on Bloomz
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Last week was fun and productive! The children were excited to use some of the new Valentine's Day work on the Practical Life shelf when they returned from the snow days. We also spent time outside exploring in the snow and making snow angels. We read the book Love Is You and Me and talked about Valentine's Day. Some of the children have practiced "rainbow writing." They used different colored markers and formed big lines at the easel while tracing the letters in their names. They were so proud to see their finished products!
- Hillary McDonald, Room 3 Lead Teacher
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For such a short month, the students in Room 4 certainly have lots to do in the classroom and to look forward to! This Thursday, we'll be celebrating the Lunar New Year. Last week, a few students helped to make a birthday card for WMS. There are lots of new activities on the shelves for students to explore, themed with exotic animals children might only encounter at a zoo. Books we've been enjoying include The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner, Honey... Honey... Lion! by Jan Brett and Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae.
- Leanne Callaway, Room 4 Lead Teacher
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In January, we introduced Bee-Bot into our classroom. It is a programmable robot that teaches directional language and early programming. We have been using the Red Rods from our Sensorial materials to build a maze and now we are learning how to move Bee-Bot through it.
In the Practical Life area, we have added more complex work that requires following multistep directions. For example, the polar bear scrubbing material requires students to take a pitcher to the sink, fill it to a marked line, carefully carry it back to their workspace, scrub the polar bear, and complete many more steps in the clean-up process. Activities like this build coordination through both fine motor and gross motor movements. They help build concentration as children focus on the task, often repeating it many times.
- Jocelyn Hall, Room 17 Lead Teacher
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Last week, we learned about tally marks. We asked the children to think about what their favorite season was. Knowing that some children can’t read yet, we encouraged them to look at the picture clues and beginning sounds of each season to help them figure out what the words were. These are strategies that we teach the kindergarten students to use while trying to read books during guided reading.
After each student and teacher made a tally mark under their favorite season, we counted up the marks. We discovered that summer had the most tally marks and spring and fall tied for the least. The words "most," "least," "same as," "greater than" and "less than" are math words we use each day.
- Betsy Haas, Room 18 Lead Teacher
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Lower Elementary (6-9) Program |
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Lower Elementary students are working to develop research and presentation skills, taking articles they read in their guided reading groups and then creating presentations to share with the class and with parents through Bloomz. Younger children read an article in Scholastic News about voles' burrows, learned how to search for photos of voles and vole burrows on the internet, put them into an iMovie presentation, and finally added narration. Our older students took on some challenging articles from National Geographic Explorer, choosing one topic from the article to create a Google Slides presentation. In addition to finding pictures to match their ideas, they practiced creating a topic sentence slide with details that fit within that specific topic. They shared their presentations about whale sharks and space exploration. Little by little, we'll build our skills both in researching and then in presenting our information in effective ways as we dive into more topics in the future.
- Melissa Connelly and Carol Lettich, Lead 6-9 Teachers
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Virtual 6-9 Program Highlights |
Students in the virtual 6-9 class are continuing to learn about simple machines. Last week, students took "virtual bites" of an apple after cutting it with a knife to decide what items we used were wedges. We decided that the knife and our front teeth were both wedges to cut the apple!
Last week, the class also took time to celebrate WMS's 57th birthday, along with the rest of the WMS community.
- Emily Kofke, Lead Virtual 6-9 Teacher
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Upper Elementary (9-12) Program |
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To conclude their studies of the American Revolution, 9-12 students were tasked with creating a final project, which could either be a Power Point presentation, physical model or skit about one of the major events they learned about. The presentations were fantastic, and they even created a walk-through museum in the hallway to share their work with other classrooms!
- Allie Colflesh, Lead 9-12 Teacher
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Last week, each Middle School student researched an area of interest related to the Labor Movement (women, children, minorities, labor unions, modern day movements, etc.) and created a “one-pager” to synthesize and make connections to what they learned. We continue to explore the topic of minimum wage through our reading of Nickel and Dimed, and we will be gearing up for a debate related to these studies in the near future.
This weekend, Middle School (and sixth-grade) students will begin participating in the Montessori Model UN through Zoom, collaborating with students from around the world!
- Mandy Balanetsky, Lead Middle School Teacher
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The Wednesday Weekly shares WMS news and events that are relevant to the families in our community.
Please send submissions to wednesday-weekly@wmsde.org by 4:30 p.m. on the Friday prior to the issue in which you wish to include your information. Content may be edited for length and style and may be held for a future issue due to space constraints.
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WILMINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL
WWW.WMSDE.ORG
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Copyright © 2021, All Rights Reserved. |
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