2022 Summer Camp
- Toddler Summer Camp – choose up to three weeks
- Primary Summer Camp— choose up to three weeks
- Elementary Art Camp—one week
- Elementary Sports Camp—one week
Learn more and register for summer camp on MyFWM.org
Blog
FWM Mask Wearing in School Policy Update
In light of the anticipated end of the statewide mask mandate, beginning on Monday, February 28, 2022, mask wearing at Fraser Woods Montessori School will become a personal choice for staff, students, and parents until such time that we may need to review and amend this policy in accordance with state requirements or local considerations.
Consistent with every decision we have made throughout the pandemic, we move forward with an abundance of caution, having taken into consideration all of the guidance available to us.
Upper Elementary’s Week
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- Work with fractions
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- Work with decimals
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- Taking a closer look at plants and animals
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- February outdoor basketball, anyone?
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- Work cycle
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- Vital Functions of Animals – Nutrition
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- Exploring our impressionistic lesson on the vital function of animal nutrition
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- Comparitive anatomy – Nutrition of animals
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- Yoga led by our student leader for the week
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- 52 degrees!
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- The perfect hiding spot for Hide and Go Seek Tag
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- Taking attendance on our way in from recess
We had a great time outdoors in the mild weather this week. (Please continue to send boots, even on warm days. Our outdoor spaces get quite muddy.)
We continued our math work with fractions and decimals this week. Students focused on a range of lessons, including equivalent fractions, adding and subtracting fractions with like and unlike denominators, multiplying fractions by whole numbers, dividing whole numbers by decimals with a remainder.
Our biology lessons this week focused on the vital function of nutrition in animals. We began with an impressionistic lesson with “Sock.” Using Sock, we explored several stages in which food is processed: ingestion, digestion, egestion, and excretion. Our second lesson focused on comparing the anatomy of the 14 different types of animals on our evolutionary strip, from porifera to mammals. Follow-up work consisted of students working with both sets of materials, practicing explaining the function of nutrition to a partner, and placing animals on the evolutionary strip according to their digestive systems.
In history, we looked at what an archaeological dig entails, including the different jobs that workers on a dig team have. We will complete our own impressionistic dig next week, with each student having a dig team role.
In grammar, fourth grade students are finishing up their work with nouns, and fifth graders continue to learn about the different types of adjectives. This week, fifths learned about indefinite, demonstrative, and possessive adjectives.
On Monday, we will have a small classroom celebration to recognize Valentine’s Day. Students are welcome to bring in valentines for their friends as long as they bring one for everyone. Thank you for signing up for your parent-teacher conference on Thursday! I’m looking forward to sharing your child’s progress with you.
Mrs. Doyle: All You Need Is Love!
As Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, we thought we would ask the children what love means. Their answers are sure to bring a smile to your face. In similar posts that we’ve done in the past, we always say the world would do well to listen to these children. It rings true with this post as well.
Anchor: Love is showing people you really care about them, everyday.
Everly: Love is giving hugs to people to make them feel good.
Lily: Love is taking care of people when they are sick.
Marin: Love is making people feel happy.
Emma: Love is when my Mom and Dad give me hugs.
Greyson: Love is being nice to people.
Landon: Love is playing games with my Mommy and Daddy and drawing pictures for them too.
Luca: Love is when my Mommy makes me eggs in the morning.
Olivia: Love is watching movies with my sister, Ella.
Theo: Love is helping people when they really need it.
Virginia: Love is giving vitamins to people who need them.
Bodie: Love is when my Mommy and Daddy play trucks with me.
Emma Jo: Love is being kind and happy to everyone.
Isla: Love is when you marry someone also I have a big brain so I will just know when I love someone.
Micaela: Love is when my Mom cuddles me.
Saanvi: Love is making food for people. I know my Mommy loves me because she makes me lots of pasta and noodles.
Stephen: Love is when my Mommy plays with me.
Zara: Love is when my Daddy gives me hugs when he gets home.
A gentle reminder that we will be having our Valentine exchange on Monday, February 14th. Please have your child send in Valentine’s for 19 children. They only need to sign them with their own name and not put any other children’s names on them. Thank you.
Wishing everyone a week filled with peace, love and friendship.
Michelle & Liset
News and Updates from FWM
Governor Lamont Lifts Statewide Mask Mandate- Message to Community
In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Governor Ned Lamont announced the statewide mask mandate for schools will be lifted on Monday, February 28, allowing individual schools and districts to develop their own mask policies.
Please take a moment to watch the Governor’s press conference.
It is fair to say that there is a division of thought on this subject both within our school community and in society in general. I kindly ask that we remain respectful of one another’s opinions regarding mask wearing in school.
Manisha Juthani, MD, the commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health stated, “Every community is going to be different because vaccination rates differ so much [from] community to community…So we will be giving guidance to the various things you need to look at within your community to figure out what’s going to work best for you. We have communities that have 90+ percent of their students vaccinated and almost 100 [percent] of their educators and staff vaccinated in a school building. That’s a very different calculation than if you’ve got 20 or 30 percent of your students vaccinated.”
Once we receive this guidance and talk with local health officials, we will have a better understanding. At that time FWM will give official notice to our community.
We recognize that this has been a challenging time for everyone. Our teachers and students have been remarkably resilient and patient as has our parent community and for that we continue to be incredibly grateful.
The good news for all of us is that COVID-19 cases are trending in the right direction and should continue to decline in the coming weeks.
We ask for your continued patience and support during the next few weeks. We will continue to communicate to you any changes that may occur.
Thank you for your support, your patience and your kindness during this turbulent time.
Staffing Updates:
Administrative Assistant
Charlotte Wood
Please welcome Charlotte Wood, our new Administrative Assistant.
Charlotte comes to us with many years of experience as an Administrative Assistant to the Head of School and Administrative Assistant to the Associate Head of Upper School at the Wooster School in Danbury.
Long-term Substitute for Spanish
Vanessa Cruz
Vanessa Cruz has joined FWM as our long-term substitute teacher for Spanish. Vanessa is a fluent Spanish speaker and a Behaviorist who specializes in working on one one with children to provide support in school settings.
Reminders:
Thursday, February 17 – No School, Parent Teacher Conferences
Friday, February 18- No School, Staff Professional Development
Monday, February 21- No School, Presidents Day
Happy Valentine’s Day to Everyone!!
Makers take flight!
The elementary students have been busy experimenting with the dynamics of flight. Students have been working collaboratively to design and create original flying machines. They are able to use all the tools available to them in the MakerSpace including various recycled materials, laser cut designs, and 3D printing. The students are learning to make calculated design choices in a low risk environment, learning to balance the natural forces around them such as thrust, drag, lift, and gravity. Our makers are given the freedom to discover how their designs react to flight and then encouraged to go back to the drawing board to rebuild based on their observations. Through hands-on experimentation, the students gain confidence in their abilities and a willingness to dive into the unknown. Well done!
Middle School: Week in Review
It was a great week of classes and sunshine! We are excited to meet with you next Thursday, 2/17 for Middle School Conferences. If you haven’t already, please sign up with your child’s/children’s advisor. Sign Ups were sent out by advisors last Friday, 2/4. Please email advisors if you have any problems with the Sign Up or making it on Thursday. Thank you!
Humanities
6th and 7th grade Humanities classes spent the week finishing presentations for their research project surrounding the theme, Overcoming Obstacles. All students have gone through their presentation in front of the class and Mrs. Lamb 1-2 times and received written and verbal feedback. They should be practicing this weekend! Mrs. Lamb also asked all students to sign up for a 15-minute tech-check over the weekend to run through their presentation from home using the same device and space they will be using on Tuesday evening. This will help students iron out any tech glitches ahead of time. We are looking forward to Tuesday night @ 7 pm. Zoom link will follow!
8th grade leadership worked hard this week to launch their “Give A Little Love” fundraiser with Alternative Gifts International. You will see information about the causes they chose to support and how you can help on Monday, 2/14! Also, 8th grade is finishing their class novel, If I Ever Get Out of Here over the weekend. Finally, 8th grade checked in with Mrs. Lamb regarding their Expert Projects. Students are already lining up interviews with experts!
Science
6th year Earth Science students are continuing their work on the unit, Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources. This week, students conducted several simulations that represent how energy can be obtained and the cost associated. Students were tasked with finding how to provide 100% power to a factor using 4 options as their energy source (wind, solar, coal, gas). From their findings they discussed both the advantages and disadvantages of their options and the environmental impact associated with each.
7th year Physical Science students conducted tests this week to determine KE (kinetic energy) of different marbles from class. They discovered the mass and velocity in order to calculate the KE of each. From their research on this project, students are beginning to plan the construction of their very own pinewood derby cars. Throughout the building process of this project, students will need to take into consideration weight distribution as it results in a change of their car’s velocity and ultimately, kinetic energy. Once students complete their building/design, they will race their cars down a 32′ official derby track.
8th year Life Science students have continued their research and lessons on the unit, Influencing Inheritance. They continued class discussions on topics such as, “How do humans apply technology to select for certain traits in other organisms?” and, “What social and environmental impacts result from the use of technology to influence the desired traits of an organism?”.
Math
In Transition class, students are working through important geometry ideas. This class is learning about alternate interior and exterior angles, finding corresponding angles in a figure, and solving for unknown angles in a triangle. They concluded the week with a short quiz that covered topics such as finding distances between points on a coordinate grid and solving for complementary and supplementary angles.
In Algebra class, students began learning Chapter 8 in the textbook titled, Powers and Roots Properties. Students were excited to learn about the power of products and the power of quotient properties as well as simplify expressions using the power of powers property. This class will write a short quiz next week before the Presidents Day long weekend.
In Geometry class, students started to explore congruent properties of triangles. This class is able to draw a triangle – given specific conditions, determine whether triangles are congruent, and write simple proof statements to justify known theorems. Next week, we will study diagonals of quadrilaterals and properties of parallelograms.
Math Joke: Why are obtuse angles so sad?………..Because they are never RIGHT!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Semmah: The Developmental Stages of Writing
Children’s writing may include scribbles or separated letters and looks very different from adult writing. Vertical lines through paper may correspond to a whole story. Letters of a child’s name may stand for a letter to his or her family. It is very fascinating to observe the children using a series of letters to express their thoughts. They also show their motivation for reading and writing. Our role as parents and teachers is to provide an environment rich with resources for writing.
In our Montessori classroom, we have the moveable alphabet as a significant resource to compose words or stories before writing them on paper. It can be used for building words or building sentences to express a story. It is a hands on experience for the child to hear the sound and feel the matching letters by his hand. They begin using consonants that match some of the sounds in the story they are writing. This is an example of a transitional stage. Below, I have included a chart of developmental stages of writing which helps teachers and parents to identify children’s developmental stages. It helps us understand where our child is and what stage is next.
Wishing you a peaceful weekend.
Kaoutar and Sara
