1. Sign in to your child's St. Mary's email address. It will end with "stmaryschoolswormville.org," which will allow you to access Google Meet and Classroom. The paper with the username and password was sent home, stapled to a Virtual Learning Schedule.
2. Find the Classroom links and codes. These were sent via Remind, and are also on the Contact Info & Schedules page of this website. We have codes for Montessori Children's House, Spanish, and PE. The information for Music is coming! 3. Make copies of the worksheets that came home, if at all possible. Please resist letting your children use the worksheets until seeing a lesson for the various ways they can be used by children of different ages and skill sets. 4. Please read over the Distance Learning Lessons Lists. These are posted in Google Classroom and on the Contact Info & Schedules page of this website. There are links, and there are also suggested activities with concrete materials. As teachers of young children, we do not favor excessive screen time. So, please consider some of the activities that involve materials you may have around the house. 5. Monday morning, 8:45 am, please sign in to the Google Meet posted for attendance. We will try to do live attendance each morning, as a way to say hello, and also help children plan their day, if necessary. 6. Follow your child. We will begin this process slowly, in order to acclimate to this new routine. Play-doh and paint and blocks are appropriate works, especially for young children. Just because it might be relaxing, does not mean there's no value to it. Try to follow your child's moods and needs as much as you can . You know them best!
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Well, we hoped it wouldn't happen, but here we are again - going to Distance Learning. However difficult, we are more prepared than we were last Spring, and we've learned some techniques and strategies for using technology.
We are sending home materials and resources today and tomorrow. Please do not get overwhelmed! We will begin slowly. A good thing would be to look at the schedule, begin your child(ren)'s email account through .stmaryschoolswormville.org, and sign up for the Montessori Children's House Google Classroom. Every student will have a school email this year to access all of the Google resources. The main tools we will use will be Google Meet and Google Classroom. For the Kindergarteners who received Chromebooks, the student's email will be used to log in to their account. Click on "Add Person" on the startup screen. All others can use any device that gets them internet. Our Activity Lists will be posted under the Contact Info & Schedules page on this website, as well as periodically on Google Classroom. I prefer to send them as links so that they can be edited as needed, and it updates instantly. I will add resources that I find, and delete things that don't work. That's all for today! Like I said, we'll go slowly, much like the first day of school in person! The good news is we all know each other better now! Have a good night, and God bless. First, a look from a little over a week ago: The students of the Children's House had a marvelous Halloween celebration! There were stations for cookie decorating, lots of festive art projects, and a special friend named Jack was carved!
Now we are in full swing in November. One change that is happening is that, now that the 4-year-old students have learned about the rules and routines of choosing work and asking for lessons, they are now expected to choose from the math area, language area, and science or geography area every day. The children are learning quickly where those shelves are, and are now beginning to explore work that might be outside their comfort zone. Sometimes, they choose, and sometimes, teachers invite them to lessons. It's another layer of our expectations to make sure that our 4-year-olds get the skills they need to be successful in Kindergarten. Of course, 5-year-olds continue with their weekly work lists. Additionally, every child in the classroom is assigned a job every two weeks, to help our room stay tidy and run smoothly. We're all learning to take responsibility for ourselves, our learning, and our room! We are also adjusting to the free breakfast and lunch program. Please keep an eye out for the St. Mary Buzz for the deadline to order lunch for the week ahead. Breakfast is delivered to our classroom daily. As you've probably seen, these consist of bags containing cereal, some kind of cracker or cookie, and a fruit or juice. As I explained in our last newsletter, we are incorporating this food into our self-serve snack in the classroom. We've broken up the bags so that children may choose one item for their morning snack (or 2, if it's a juice and a food item). We have found that it is simply too much food! So we have been sending home the bags daily, so as not to waste it. Don't worry, we still have LOTS of snack in the classroom! For each family's snack week, we are more likely to ask for classroom supplies and perhaps one kind of fresh fruit or vegetable (that can be served whole, or sealed in bags, due to sanitation concerns). Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. This month, we are learning about winter squash. Last week, we introduced five different kinds. We have learned the names of butternut squash, acorn squash, hubbard squash, spaghetti squash, and of course, we know about pumpkins .These squash are on the shelf for observation and exploration. Right before Thanksgiving, we will predict what each of these will look like inside and cut them open to see if we were correct! |
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Ms. Teresa is just one of the three fantastic teachers in St. Mary's Montessori Children's House! |