W E D N E S D A Y  W E E K L Y
March 1, 2017
 
In this Issue


Upcoming Events

Important Reminder:
Thank you to everyone who has submitted re-enrollment paperwork so far! If you have not yet submitted yours, please do so by the end of the day to avoid the $100 late fee.  For more information, contact Nancy Oddo.

March 1-3

Delaware Association of Independent Schools (DAIS) Art Show
Pilot School
Featuring art by the students of the 9-12 Program
Opening Reception -
4-6:30 p.m. on March 1
Learn More


March 4
Delaware River Region Odyssey of the Mind Tournament
Support WMS's teams at Dickinson High School
Learn More


March 6
Registration Deadline for Spring Break Mini-Camps
Learn More 

Message from 
Head of School Lisa A. Lalama 

Read more from Lisa on the Montessori Message blog.
 

What does it mean to integrate the arts? WMS is working steadily toward integrating its curriculum. Technology and the arts are two areas in which this is most apparent. Teachers are receiving training to learn more about the benefits of this approach and how to make it happen for the children in their classrooms. Some are incorporating practices that may not look like art, but that allow children to develop the habits that help them to focus their attention, allowing and encouraging creative thinking.

So far this school year, you may have had the opportunity to see the 6-9 winter concert or the Talent Show or to participate in a Maker Morning. Upcoming events include the Primary Program's spring concert, Toddler Sing-Along, our annual student art show and the 9-12 Program's spring concert. These are the school-wide events that occur each year, and to be sure, our facility improvements have made these events even more enjoyable. However, each day in the classroom teachers are working together to include more creative and artistic practices. For example, the 6-9 students worked together with our music teacher Heather Wadler to create the stories of Maria Montessori's Great Lessons. Our Spanish and music teachers along with our STEAM coach worked together to bring a Mardi Gras celebration to WMS, complete with the history, culture and music of this tradition.

Over the next few weeks, there will be many opportunities to notice the arts in action as artists-in-residence visit WMS. Thank you to everyone who helped to make these programs possible. The children are having the time of their lives exploring and experiencing the wonder of the arts in their lives.



 

 
News & Notes News
Spring Break at WMS
Registration Deadline - Next Week
 
The deadline to register for WMS's  Spring Break programs is approaching!  If you are planning to register your 5-to 12-year-old for mini-camps - Dance Dream Discovery, LEGO Films, Orienteering, Stream Science or Mandala Yoga - please  register online or contact Cass Winner by Monday, March 6. Courses with insufficient interest will be canceled on March 7.
 
This year, registration for Spring Break child-care also has a deadline: Thursday, March 9. Please contact Cass or register online by that date if your child will attend child-care at all between March 20 and 24.  Note: Students enrolled in our 12-month Toddler or Primary programs are automatically registered.
Four WMS Teams to Participate in Delaware Odyssey of the Mind River Region Tournament this Weekendootm
 
 
Please join us in wishing the best of luck to the four teams of WMS students who will take part in the Delaware Odyssey of the Mind (OoTM) River Region Tournament this Saturday at Dickinson High School. 

The Delaware OoTM website describes Odyssey of the Mind as "creative problem-solving competition for students of all ages (K-12 and college)." The program provides teams with "the opportunity to learn creative problem solving, teamwork, brainstorming, self-reliance and respect for individual strengths - unique, unforgettable experiences that will serve them in every aspect of their lives now and in the future."

The program consists of two parts - a long-term problem and a spontaneous problem. Our students have been working for months to plan a performance demonstrating their solution to the long-term problem, which has an overall theme including specific elements that must be completed within a specific time. The students must interpret the theme, determine and write a story, build props, incorporate the specific elements and perform their solution - all on their own. For the spontaneous problem, the students go into a room and receive a new problem for which they will have only a few minutes to respond. During the competition, teams are scored and given feedback on both the long-term and spontaneous problems.  

OoTM's focus on student-driven learning aligns perfectly with the Montessori philosophy, as all of the ideas/work must be done by the students - in fact, they get penalized if they receive "outside interference" from adults. The OoTM program is also aligned with our Arts Integration Initiative, through which students are learning to make connections between the arts and other areas of the curriculum. 

Thank you to all of the coaches and judges who have volunteered their time in support of this amazing experience for our students!
 
Want to support our teams this Saturday? Here is the schedule for the long-term problem performances:

"Catch Us If You Can" - Tuesday 9-12 team (coached by Nora Lober & Melissa Hayman) - 8:20 a.m.
"Moving Out!" - Friday K-2nd team (coached by Nora Lober) - 11 a.m.
"Moving Out!" - Friday K-2nd team (coached by Kelly Lambiras) - 11:20 a.m.
"Super Hero Cliffhanger" - Thursday 9-12 team (coached by Anna Quisel & Elva Delport) - 1:15 p.m.

  Full Schedule
Edmodo Tips & Updates

This school year, Edmodo has made a number of improvements and updates. Please read the following carefully to ensure that you are receive all of the information your child's teachers post each week. 

Notifications -
Edmodo's notification system has been updated! In the midst of these updates, it appears that some parents' notification preferences have been changed. Therefore we advise all of our families do the following:

Log onto your Edmodo parent account via the web (as opposed to the app). Click "Account" in the upper right-hand corner, then "Settings." Select "Notifications" from the menu on the left and make sure ALL options are turned on, as in the image below:

If you would like to receive Push notifications on your mobile device, click the "Push" tab to turn those on as well.

Edmodo App -
If you are having difficulty logging into the Edmodo app, please make sure you are using the "Edmodo Parents" version. You will not be able to log into the one that is simply called "Edmodo" without a teacher or student account. 

Comments/Likes -
At this time, parent accounts are unable to comment on or "like" posts on Edmodo. This is a system-wide issue, not specific to WMS. 

Questions - 
If you have questions regarding Edmodo, please contact Rose Feehan, Instructional Technology Coach (stop by the Learning Commons between 3 and 4:30 p.m. on most days), or Noel Dietrich, Director of Communications & Development, for assistance. We want to make sure everyone is enjoying this tool for sharing classroom information, photos, videos and more.
Today's Learners todayslearners
Building Cities in Room 20
by Lead 6-9 Teachers Melissa Connelly & Carol Wiswall

As you walk around Wilmington Montessori School, you see children building everywhere. Montessori kids love hands-on building experiences, and there is incredible value in the experience of building something with their own hands. As the children build, they are engaged in continuous thought and conversation as they problem-solve and wonder. 
 
In Room 20, 6- to 9-year-olds have been building their own cities. We started by considering what any city would need, each group making a map with their plans for their city's homes, businesses and places for entertainment and recreation. Many children added playgrounds and green space as important elements to their city. They included roads, power plants, water towers and a space for their trash. With art teacher Laurie Muhlbauer, we looked at maps, not just for practical purposes, but as works of art.

We then considered how buildings are structured. We experimented with many different building materials, testing and measuring how each material fared in terms of height, strength and stability. One parent brought in models of a wall he built that included the framing, drywall, electrical wires, plumbing and insulation, and then he lifted ceiling tiles so we could peek up inside. The children made card stock cubes for their buildings, and many added opening doors to reveal their drawn-in details like pipes and wiring inside their paper buildings. 
Again, we integrated the arts as we worked to make our structures visually appealing. 

We realized that our cities would need leaders, laws and a system in place if someone chose to break a rule or disagreed with a fellow citizen.  Each city group created its own government and laws. As we put our city maps together, we realized that some policies needed to be discussed at levels beyond individual cities. Higher levels of government would be needed to talk about the location of trash dumps, interconnecting highways and pollution policies as these issues impacted people beyond each city's borders.    
 
As the children began constructing their buildings, they wondered, questioned, discovered and designed. One group connected its water tower to each of the houses with pipe cleaners, realizing that it would make sense to have all of the houses near each other to share this resource easily. Another group spent a long time in the planning process debating the merits of extra green space versus adding more businesses and making more money. They ultimately decided to create multi-story buildings so they could add more businesses but maintain their parks in the limited area they were given. Another group decided to create rooftop gardens, along with a multi-story parking facility to meet their citizens' needs. Their creativity took over as they added schools, a nursing home, gas stations and street signs.
 
This project isn't done. The class wants to learn more about electricity, so we will explore simple circuitry and add some battery-powered street lights and consider how electricity is a limited energy source that must be shared by many. Another question has popped up about where the items in their stores come from - we'll probably need to add a separate factory and agricultural area and build some sort of train system to carry the food and goods into town. We may need to figure out how bridges work in order to create a highway system that extends across bodies of water. The children will guide the questions and we'll find out the answers together.

There isn't going to be a written test on the levels of government or the physics of a bridge. No multiple choice questions about circuitry or economics. No civics vocabulary quizzes. These tests would be too limiting. Instead, we will keep exploring, questioning, digging deeper and increasing our understanding about our community and our role within it.  
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.  

For more information, contact Noel Dietrich, Director of Communications.

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