Kinder Camp!

It’s hard to believe that summer is already behind us when it feels like just yesterday. What an incredible week of kindercamp we had during the heat of July! It was a blast and an honor to spend a week learning together with a great group of our 2016-2017 Rising Kindergarteners!!

Our daily activities included a fun, hands-on, multi-sensory and differentiated approach to basic academics, school routines, and social emotional connections…

All about ME and All about YOU! Social Emotional Learning through various activities such as: Get to know you Jenga questions & “All about me” books!

Literacy skills: Letter Naming and Phonemic awareness through activities such as our alphabet scavenger hunt where we also explored the building!

We also included listening and comprehension activities with some great literature about school and added to our about me books in our reflections!

Math skills including number identification, shapes, patterns, & more!

A visit from Miss. Froleiks! We collaborated to create a group art project and a Finding Dory welcome gift from the Dagianis family:)

Thank you to all the families who gave their children the gift of a head start!

Kindness is a choice

In the wake of recent tragic events in Orlando, it is clear now more than ever why we, at MACS, choose kindness. It is a reminder that connecting to one another is a responsibility, and we must educate and model for our children how to show compassion for one another. Helpers emerge in times of tragedy and it becomes apparent that there is always good amidst the devastation. However kindness, compassion and human connection should be even more present in peace in hopes of preventing the recurrence of hate. Fear and hate will not define us, our kindness is louder and our love is stronger. And remember, for your children, who may be aware of the tragedies we face too often, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” – Mr. Rogers

 

Classess 4 Classes Continues to Grow!

Exciting news. We have been asked us to represent C4C for New Hampshire and all of New England. We are not only the first school in NH, but the first school involved in C4C to have all classrooms in the school participating in the initiative! More to come…

5th grade is owning this. We received a thank you letter today for their efforts…Penny wars is happening! Empty your pockets and your piggy banks and support our  PROJECT PAGE.#C4C #Kindnessmatters #MACS

 

What is the heart strand?

Check out MicroSociety inc. for more information on our schools incredible roots and what makes an education at MACS a life changing experience!

http://www.microsociety.org/frequently-asked-questions/

MicroSociety is not just a course but a continuous experience in playing with the building blocks of a modern society. It is applied moral development. Through the “HEART Strand,” community responsibility, service work, volunteerism and reflective activities and discussion are emphasized. Students in MicroSociety receive daily living lessons in citizenship. In the words of a wise student:

 “If you don’t do something in school, it only affects you. But if you don’t do something in Micro, your whole company is affected. If you don’t put the proper entries in the computer, you don’t just hurt the person who owns the bank account, you hurt the whole school.”  – Mathew, 6th grade, alumnus

 

Heart is the base of the acronym TEACHH which represents the 6 strands in MicroSociety.

• “T” is the Technology strand. It encompasses all student activities which utilize computers and other technology.
• “E” is the Economy strand. It encompasses all student business ventures and financial institutions.
• “A” is the Academy strand. It encompasses all student training initiatives inside and outside the classroom.
• “C” is the Citizenship and Government strand. It encompasses all aspects of student government, activism and citizenship responsibilities.
• “H” is the Humanities and Arts strand. It encompasses all performing and non-performing arts and cultural organizations.
• “H” is the HEART strand. It is the social conscience of the MicroSociety program and encompasses all the reflective and service aspects of society: Humanity, Ethics, Aesthetics, Reflection, Respect, Reason and Responsibility and Trust.

Source: http://myiser.org/home/microsociety/

We love our teachers!

 

Ever since our compliment cards for our teachers, students have been asking to throw a surprise party to recognize their beloved teachers. We finally brought this to fruition on Friday of teacher appreciation week. Students worked hard to create thank you letters for their teachers which were compiled into class books. We held an assembly for K-2 and 3-5 to enjoy an inspirational video clip and present our teachers with their class books and posters. There was an incredible drum roll as the class book was passed down the line of creators to the deserving teacher and received with a big cheer. What a wonderful celebration of all kinds of collaboration and hard work!

Who’s in your head? Inner Critic vs. Inner Coach

April’s guidance lessons involved an exploration of the voice inside that tells us how we feel and how to respond. How does your inner voice communicate with you? Are you listening to an “inner critic” or an “inner coach”? We need to train our voice to coach us instead of criticize us. By listening to our inner coach we will be able to reach a higher level of success and happiness. Watch the TED ED talk now!

Students wrote letters to themselves from the voice of their “inner coach” which they would receive on the Monday morning they began SBAC testing.

 

 

Kindness Counts!

With the holiday season approaching we spent a few weeks focusing on acts of kindness. Promoting kindness and compassion in our children is a crucial piece in promoting a better world for us all to thrive in. The kindness initiative we’ve begun is multifaceted. One, it naturally fits into our social learning lessons, as we have been working on thinking about how our choices and behaviors affect others. We want people to have good thoughts and feelings about us and enjoy being around us and one way to ensure that is to be kind!

Our first lesson discussed what it means to be kind. What does it look like, what does it sound like, what can we do to be kind throughout our day? I introduced the lesson with this wonderful video. Be kind and pass it on! https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/kindness-videos/6813-kind-kids-club The students created images of random acts of kindness, here are a few examples…

The second layer of this initiative is the classes4classes program that we’ve joined. http://classes4classes.org (Check it out!) I created a profile for our school and we will wait to be paired with a giving class. Eventually, maybe next year, we will pay it forward to another class or school. The whole concept is that we get to know another class and think about other kids around the country and work together to build a caring and collaborative effort to support their learning. A newsletter regarding this program went home several weeks ago.

The third, is the kindness initiative will continue to be apart of our everyday experience as we encourage kind words, actions, and choices in our micro society. We most recently worked on our first school wide act of kindness. A news article was brought to my attention by our fabulous school nurse, Mrs. Cooper. (Some of the pictures are very graphic so please use caution when sharing with your family.) http://www.buzzfeed.com/javiermoreno/a-little-girl-with-severe-burns-is-asking-for-christmas-card#.kt98peapn 

The children were not shown any of the photos, but we did discuss that this poor little girl lost her family and all she wanted was to fill her card tree for Christmas. If each of our students made a card for her, she would be able to fill her tree! We contributed 103 cards to Safyre, who received over a million cards from including one from the Obamas! Here is an update on her story of hope. http://time.com/4161484/safyre-terry-christmas-cards-obamas/ Here are some images of the beautiful cards from our children at MACS!

I was blown away by the beautiful thoughts and well wishes the children shared with Safyre in the cards they created. We have an impressive collection of empathetic children and I look forward to encouraging this development and facilitating opportunities to spread our kindness and compassion into our community and world!

I am inspired by your children going into this new year and look forward to all this year holds for us at MACS!

Anxious Children

A Note from the School Counselor   — Mrs. Dagianis
In light of recent tragic events in France and around the world on a regular basis, I realize there may be some difficult conversations taking place in your homes. The developmental level of your child(ren), will determine the extent of exposure and information you choose to share with them and how they are able to process. A normal level of anxiety is an appropriate response to an event being faced. It is the body’s natural way of raising our awareness to a potentially harmful or uncomfortable situation so we can respond effectively.

Here is a link to a great article discussing how to best help our children manage their anxiety surrounding current events. It provides some strategies to try with both younger and older children, and if nothing more, it is useful information to keep in mind regarding their perception and processing of our world. ​