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Important Dates
at a Glance
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9/21 International Peace
Day!
9/24 Virtual Open House
6:30-7:pm
Zoom Links to Follow
9/25 Pick Up Friday
For Fully Remote Students
Begins at 8am and runs through the weekend. Your child's teacher will let you know if there are items to pick up!
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CORPORATE SPONSORS
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We gratefully acknowledge the ongoing contributions from the following corporate partners:
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Extraordinary Times...
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 We are a week and 2 days into phase two of Teaching & Learning in the Age of COVID. Wow, this is hard and unchartered for everyone involved, but it is also sprinkled with moments of joy and discovery, as well. On a daily basis we see and hear about amazing moments of love and intellect building. We also hear of struggles - from technological to emotional - and the complexities related to the balancing act we are all trying to perform, with no guidebook and no past to look to for reference. The newness of it all can feel overwhelming, no matter your age, or your role in our community. Our staff is working their hearts out to reach and teach our kiddos and our families are leaning in with tenacity in support of that work. And then of course, there are our children who are patient and curious, kind and good humored as they march alongside us in these strange and unusual times. We are so deeply thankful to each member of our school community and we send each of you our love and support. This village of ours is working hard, embracing our mission and the complexity of this moment, together.
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Friday Pickup Day
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 Friday Pickup Days
for Remote Learning
Today was our first Materials Pick Up Friday. At 8am we opened for business, setting out individual plastic covered bins organized by classroom and within that, by child.
 How does this work? Families of our Remote Learners, are asked to come to school, park and walk up to the exterior doors. There they will see the material bins. Please take what is inside your child's folder and leave the hanging folder behind! The crates will be out all weekend. Please check with your child for the name of his/her classroom if you are not familiar with it.Please note, not every class will have materials to pick up each Friday; Teachers will be in touch with their classroom families so you should know by Wednesday afternoon whether you will need to come in to pick up materials on that Friday.
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Save the Date! Virtual Open House, 9/24, 6:30-7:30pm
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 **Calling ALL Mill Falls Families & Caretakers**
Virtual Open House Thursday, Sept 24th 6:30-7:30
Please plan to join us for this important VIRTUAL evening gathering to meet your child's teachers and learn about classroom structure in our public Montessori setting, including basic curriculum, work flow, and how we build community at our school. Even if you've attended this event in the past, please make time to join us. Zoom details for this virtual event to follow. Thank you!
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Required Forms
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Have you turned in all required paperwork?
Here are links to the items we have asked for:
Family Handbook, including the COVID Insert
Please review the Handbook and Insert and then return the Acknowledgement Page to Office@millfalls.org.
Technology Usage Agreement Please click on the agreement that matches your child's Program Level.
Home Assessment Agreement Form
This form has been shared as an assignment in both Google Classroom and See Saw. You can also access it via the link below. Please note that Parents and students need to fill out together.
Permission to Attend Recorded Lessons During this time of remote instruction, we will be utilizing online resources to provide continuing classroom instruction to students. In order to ensure that every child in the class receives the instruction, the online instruction may be video and/or audio recorded so that it can be accessed at a later time. The primary focus of the video and audio recording will be on the instruction and the teacher, not on the students in the class. However, questions and comments asked and spoken by students will be part of the recording.
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Important Attendance Information
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 Regular and consistent attendance is the bedrock of solid learning. Therefore, no matter the learning model, it will be expected that all students will be present and ready for learning each school day, just as in pre-COVID times. If your child is going to be absent or tardy or must end the day early, parents/guardians are required to alert the front office by phone or email.
We wanted to take a moment to highlight the attendance expectations on days when students are learning from home (Remote Learning). Each day, our Students Learning at Home are expected to attend: 1. 8:45am Morning Meeting followed by their Planning Session 2: All Scheduled Live Lessons (specific schedule shared by teachers) 3: At least ONE Daily Check in (specific schedule shared by teachers Additionally, ALL work must be turned in by 3:15pm To be marked PRESENT for the day: a Remote Student must attend items 1-3 above and turn in all work by 3:15pm. A student will be marked unexcused TARDY for the day, if he/she misses 1 of the items above, and still turns in all work by 3:15pm. A student will be marked unexcused ABSENT if he/she misses 2 or more of the items in the list above, even if they turn in work by 3:15pm. Please note, repeated unexcused absences and tardies will trigger our Attendance Protocol as noted in our Family Handbook.
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COVID Resources
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 Family Support Hot Line: Waypoint Family support can help with anything from where to get covid testing or child care.
Call: 800-640-6486 M-F 8:30-4:30
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 Free COVID Tests
Families who live in the Greater Manchester area may call the Manchester COVID-19 Hotline at to arrange for a free testing appointment. East and West Side locations available. This is NOT an antibody test. The hotline is available Monday - Friday from 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM. Call: 603-668-1547. Testing appointments are required.
* * * To assist in everyone's understanding of the protocol we've designed, we ask that you review the COVID Handbook Insert (esp. pages 6-8) as well as the chart below. Thank you so very much for your ongoing partnership in keeping our school community well!
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Hybrid Student Morning Arrival & Wellness Check Updates
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MORNING WELLNESS CHECK: Families with Hybrid (in-person) Learners, please review the steps below:
- Families are asked to complete the Wellness Check Form QUESTIONS ONLY each morning BEFORE arriving at school about travel, new symptoms, contact with confirmed or suspected case of COVID.
- Mill Falls Staff will greet each car, review the form and take each student's temperature before the student exits the vehicle.
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Family Tech Support
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As noted in earlier communication, Ms. Jody is serving as our Family Tech Support person this year.
She is available by email and Zoom on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays (note, she is not available on Wednesdays).
She can be reached on Zoom (for live chats via the waiting room one at a time) from:
10am-12pm, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
Meeting ID: 797 9462 3236 PW: 6nEvDQ
If Jody cannot answer your question, she will reach out to our team to get an answer for you.
Any academic questions should be sent to your child's classroom teacher(s).
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Montessori Moments From Near and Far...
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 We would once again like to ask our Mill Falls Families to share images and stories from their Remote Learning experience - daily work as well as Big Work Wednesday Projects, which we can share in our newsletter.
Please send your photographs, brief stories (remember sharing humorous moments will help keep us all healthy!), and quotes to Ms. Meryl at: stories.pictures@millfalls.org.
Please be sure to send the photos at small to medium resolution, and send along a description / story about what is going on in the photos. Thank you!
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Laura's Corner
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Student & Family Support
Below is some information shared last spring by Ms. Laura W. about supporting students who are learning from home.
The Importance of the Prepared Environment:
Fostering Student Independence During Remote Learning
A Deeper Dive into the Importance of Independence
The Power of Accomplishment
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Montessori Moments From Near and Far...
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Please enjoy some photographs from this week here at school and some sent in from families working remotely:
Below: Frankie's Bucket Filler Project. This week in the Lower Elementary Glacier Room students created hand-made buckets as part of their social/emotional and community building lessons. As shared by Charley A., a 3rd Year Student in the Glacier Room, a Bucket Filler is someone who gives you good thoughts or good feelings. A Bucket Dipper someone who says something mean to you and makes you feel sad or bad. If your bucket is empty you feel really sad, but if your bucket is full you feel really happy."
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Below: The All About Me STEM Project: Students in Lower Elementary were asked to create and build their names out of materials that they feel represent them. The challenge was that the created name needs to be as long as the child is tall! Here are some examples of completed projects:
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Below: Here's how it looks from the teacher's side of the screen...
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Big Work Wednesday
Independence and ownership of learning are key elements of Montessori education. The classroom setting uses different strategies to support independence, however, one of the most powerful ways to achieve independence in the home is through choice and supporting students' interest. Over the years you may have heard the term, Big Work. But what is this exactly? Well, for starters, it's a work that is driven by student interest. Something that sparks excitement and motivation in learning. And here's the key, once the student has found his/her interest and, with a bit of guidance initially, it's independent! Students choose the topic, decide on a project and begin. Here are some examples from this week:
Above: Michael's Solar System Project.
Below: Owen's Cookie Project
Below: Nathan's Amazon Rain Forest Project
Below: Grace's Zoo Project
Below: Kaylee researching the Florida Panther.
Earlier this week in preparation for Big Work Wednesday, our Kinder Class, the Yosemite Room, read the book Giraffes Can't Dance. The book is full of wonderful lessons, including treating others with kindness, overcoming fears, trying more than once, embracing your own uniqueness, and doing things you love. The Big Work Assignment this week was a STEAM/STEM challenge. Ms. Kristin & Ms. Kayla asked the students to create their own musical instrument! It could be an instrument they've seen before or one they invent.
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Below: Some scenes from school.
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Just moments ago, this beautiful Montessori-inspired cake was dropped off by Sandra, a Mill Falls Kinder mom, as a thank you to our staff. Earlier today, she told us that each day of in-school learning her son comes home and reports, "This day was the most perfect!"
Thank you for the thank you, Sandra - a much needed boost to the team!
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