January 15
K-8th Grade Families Only: Deadline to Submit Request to Change Learning Option
January 17
Deadline to Submit COVID Test Results to Nurse Kathy
Results should be sent to nurse@wmsde.org by 5 p.m. in order for your child to attend school during the week of January 18.
January 18
Child-Care Day
January 19
Elementary & Middle School Parent Q&A
6-6:45 p.m., Zoom (Use the school's regular password)
Toddler & Primary Parent Q&A
7-7:45 p.m., Zoom (Use the school's regular password)
January 20 & 22
Virtual Primary Classroom Visit
9:30-10 a.m.
For current toddler parents whose children will be entering preschool in the fall of 2021
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Opportunity to Change Learning Option for Students in Kindergarten and Up - Friday Deadline
Families with students in kindergarten through eighth grade should have received a message from Paula Sharpe last week, offering the opportunity to change your child's learning option from on-campus to home learning or the reverse. If you would like to keep your child's current option, you do not need to do anything. If you would like to make a change, please submit this form by THIS Friday, January 15. Any changes will be in effect starting on February 1 and continue for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year. Please contact Paula Sharpe with any questions!
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2021-22 Re-enrollment
Now Open
All current WMS families should have received an email about re-enrollment from Paula Sharpe yesterday! 2021-22 re-enrollment forms are due by February 15. To ensure your child’s placement for next year, it is important that we receive your re-enrollment contract and non-refundable/non-transferable deposit before this deadline. After Monday, February 15, 2021, remaining spaces in our programs will be available to our waiting list of new applicants. In addition, a fee will be assessed if re-enrollment occurs after February 15, 2021.
Please contact Paula with any questions regarding re-enrollment or if you would like a hard copy of the contract to be sent home with your child! We look forward to another wonderful school year with your family!
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Parent Q & A Sessions - Tuesday, January 19
Head of School Lisa Lalama and Assistant Head of School Sarah Williams will hold two 45-minute Q & A sessions for parents on Tuesday, January 19.
Elementary and Middle School families -
6-6:45 p.m.
Toddler and Primary families -
7-7:45 p.m.
Feel free to send Lisa or Sarah any questions in advance. We hope you are able to join us!
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MLK Day Service Opportunity |
In observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a day "on" instead of a day "off," we invite our families to participate in an at-home school-wide service project: making Go-Bags of non-perishable lunches for the Friendship House.
Click here to view information to about assembling Go-Bags. Bags can be returned to school and will be delivered to the Friendship House by WMS staff.
There will be drop boxes at all three school entrances on Tuesday through Thursday of next week (January 19-21) for collecting the Go-Bags. If you decide to support this project, we encourage you to work with your children to collect and assemble the items!
If you have any questions, please contact BrendaRose Simkin for more information. Thank you for your support!
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COVID-19 Testing - Results Due Sunday, January 17, at 5 p.m. |
Thank you all for your help with our safe return to campus this Monday - we really appreciate your efforts to get your children tested for COVID-19 and promptly submit your results to Nurse Kathy!
To continue to monitor our community for any potential post-holiday surge, we will be requiring weekly testing for students and staff for the duration of January. Your child's next test results are due on Sunday, January 17, at 5 p.m., in order for your child to attend school during the week of January 18. Results should be emailed to Nurse Kathy at nurse@wmsde.org.
A few tips:
- Please plan to test every six to eight days to remain on schedule.
- We suggest testing early in the week (by Wednesday), as results may be delayed due to high volume.
- 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.
Upcoming Events
Wednesday, January 13
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Middletown High School - 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
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Price's Run Park (Winchester Park walk-up) - 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Thursday, January 14
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Wilmington University Brandywine- 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
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Wilmington University Athletic Complex - 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Friday, January 15
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Delaware Park - 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Saturday, January 16
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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. Weather-related cancellations are possible.)
For the safety of our community, children who do not have up-to-date negative COVID-19 test results will not be allowed to attend school. If you have any questions or concerns about testing, please contact Nurse Kathy.
Again, thank you for helping to keep our community healthy!
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In order to keep our classroom cohorts separate and limit our students' contact with additional adults, we have changed the format of our specials/enrichment programs this year. Instead of having each specialist meet with each class weekly, most of our specialists are working with elementary and middle-school students in six-week blocks, with multiple sessions each week. Spanish and physical education continue to happen on a weekly basis as before.
In accordance with early childhood licensing guidelines, in our Toddler and Primary groups, classroom teachers are leading the enrichment classes under the guidance of our specialists.
This week, we will be sharing specials program highlights from the month of December!
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Music teacher BrendaRose brought music and light to our Toddler and Primary students this December by sharing a Spotify playlist of holiday and winter-themed music for the children to dance to in their classrooms. Students in the 6-9 classes danced and learned sign language to songs about light, creating mini holiday video performances for their families.
During their first music class rotation of the year, middle school students listened critically and analytically to music from the Baroque (Bach), Classical (Beethoven), Romantic (Debussy) and Modern (Rebecca Clarke) periods of music history, and used musical vocabulary to describe form, tempo, dynamics and articulation for each piece. They also learned about scale degrees and dominant chords in different key signatures. They read syncopated rhythms and applied this to playing "Calypso Dream" and "Cumbia del Sol" together as an ensemble of xylophones, metallophones and piano.
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This December, art teacher Laurie Muhlbauer worked with the 6-9 students on "mood art" projects, which integrated social-emotional learning and mathematics with virtual art. Students began the process by recording information about their moods throughout the day for two weeks before Thanksgiving. When they returned, they created artwork by graphing the data, starting with a colored pencil draft and then creating a painting. |
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The 9-12 students and Paula Sharpe, WMS's STEAM education coordinator, were excited to start their Maker Studio work in November. The students began by learning to use the websites Canva and Google Draw to create posters about having a "Maker mindset" and Maker Studio ground rules. These design programs provided the students with new presentation skills to use during Maker Studio classes and in the classroom.
In December, students were given a variety of STEAM education challenges. For each challenge, students were given materials to use or modify. They were asked to solve a specific problem but were allowed to use their own creativity, imagination and innovation to solve it without constraints. Projects included creating shelves for an elf, making a zipline for a gingerbread person, and using scale modeling to create tiny or large cardboard gingerbread houses. After each STEAM challenge, students reflected on their work and answered questions using the video website Flipgrid. It is always amazing to hear students' thoughts, ideas and creativity during these challenges!
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This December, Spanish teacher Ana Brown provided materials and content to our Primary teachers to help them share the Mexican festival of Las Posadas with their classes. Las Posadas commemorates Mary and Joseph's journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem in search of a warm place to stay for the night. The festivities begin on December 16 and end nine days later, on December 24, symbolizing the nine months of Mary's pregnancy. Students practiced counting to nine in Spanish using Montessori materials and read the book 'Twas Nochebuena. Kindergartners also created their own Las Posadas books.
In the 6-9 Program, students learned that in Mexico, the poinsettia is called flor de la Nochebuena ("flower of the Holy Night") and read The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola. After exploring the vocabulary, students also learned about Las Posadas and created their own paper poinsettias to take home. (See photo above of some of our virtual 6-9 students with their crafts!)
In the 9-12 Program, students also discussed Las Posadas, along with other holiday traditions in Spanish-speaking countries around the world.
Our middle school students continued to focus on practical, conversational Spanish. In December, they focused on vocabulary related to daily routines and discussed differences between their own routines in the United States and those in other Spanish-speaking countries.
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Physical Education - Elementary & Middle School |
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As we prepared to bring a new physical education teacher to WMS (more news coming soon!), art teacher Laurie Muhlbauer kept our Elementary and Middle School students moving this December. Check out the photos above! |
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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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