March 2023
Greetings Meerkat families! With the advent of Spring and daylight saving time (spring forward one hour this Sunday), March ushers in many exciting opportunities for us. Did you know that eleven members of the staff will attend the American Montessori Society conference this month, 10 in person and 1 virtually? We will offer a presentation of learning when we return. We did the same last year and it was a wonderful learning event for both staff and families. We would love to see you there! Sen. Cory McCray sponsored Senate Bill 0646 to provide charter school facilities funding (info flyer). Our community can help by contacting our elected officials and requesting their support of this Bill (find your representative). You can follow the progress of this Bill and watch the hearing by clicking here and clicking on the video icon next to the words “Budget and Taxation”.
Send absence notes to mvms.attendance@fcps.org
Tote Bag Fundraiser Update If you ordered a tote bag, email Kristian Collins at fundraising@mvmpcs.org with your name and child’s classroom and she will coordinate delivery.
Breakfast & Lunch Menus and meal prices can be found here.
Awing Procedure during Dropoff Reminder from the Parent Handbook - Parents/guardians who prefer parking are expected to escort students to the parking lot awning. Parents/guardians are expected to remain with students until the student is prompted by the crossing guard to safely cross the alley into the school building.
Pick up Change As many of you may have noticed, we now have a staff member standing at the corner of North Bentz and Evergreen. There have been some accidents at this intersection plus some members of our community have been parking on that street bypassing the carline altogether. Our neighbors have complained to the City Commissioners and the Police Dept. As a result there is a staff member there directing traffic and reminding community members where they are to park or to join the carline.
Please remember that even though a staff member is directing traffic, cars must stop at the stop sign before crossing North Bentz to Bentz or before turning onto North Bentz. It is not a rolling stop.
Let’s be good neighbors and follow the carline protocols. Thank you
This month, we are continuing our study of South America studying biomes, animals, landmarks, and holidays. The month of March is Women's History Month. We will be reading about many famous women that have made a difference and impact in our world. In science, we will begin our bird unit, studying parts of a bird and the bird life cycle. We will also do some arts and craft projects, one where we make bird feeders. We will also be learning about different reptiles.
Ideas for supporting your child’s learning at home include:
Students will begin the study of botany and life cycles. We will plant seeds and observe guppies, caterpillars, and ladybugs grow. We are also enjoying observing the work of ants in our ant farms.
Our first and third grade students will be visiting the Earth Space and Science Lab to learn about organisms and life cycles.
In math, students are investigating squaring and cubing with the bead chain material. After reviewing money, students will continue to learn about decimals with addition, subtraction, and multiplication. We continue to build foundational skills with the four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
In geometry we will introduce the parts of a circle and measure the diameter and circumference to determine the relationship to pi on March 14th.
Word study and writing will focus on learning about using apostrophes, commas, and quotation marks in short stories.
We are continuing our march through time. We are learning about cultural advancements, ancient civilizations, empires, and dynasties.
On March 24th we will be taking a trip to the Weinberg Center to see a production of EL Otro Oz. Be sure that you have signed a permission slip for our child to attend.
In Science we are focused on the earth’s cycles with emphasis on the central role of the sun.
Every student has individualized mathematics and reading instruction. We hope you take some time to discuss your child’s math and reading activity.
In February our middle school students decided on topics for their Independent Research Project. We recently took a class field trip to the Frederick County Public Library for students to begin selecting resources to inform and guide their research.
In ELA students have been reading their cycle novel selections that support the cycle theme of Identity. Students have also been working on the fundamentals and mechanics of writing.
In Social World, students have been working to identify challenges, barriers, and motivations for immigration.
In Algebra, we are currently working with polynomials and quadratics.
In Math 7, we are working with rational number operations.
In 7 Accelerated, we are learning to translate words into algebraic expressions.
In Math 8, we just wrapped up our unit on linear equations and will begin looking at systems of equations.
All math students have been invited to sit in and audit math classes other than the one for which they receive a grade.
In science, students created a scaled model of our solar system which will be displayed in the hallway.
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We have begun a weekly field trip to Baker Park for lunch/recess each Tuesday. Chaperones are needed. Thanks for volunteering your time!
This is the link to pay for the overnight field trip to Williamsburg. Final payments are DUE BY APRIL 3, 2023. Please remember to hold back $50 in cash to be given to your child to purchase three different meals on their own. If you have already paid in full we will make arrangements to give them the $50 back. We will collect the cash and pass it out as needed.
Science Olympiad 15 students from 6th, 7th, & 8th grade participated in this year’s competition where they placed in the top 6 in 22 out of 23 events and earned a total of 45 medals and ribbons. Medals acknowledge first, second, or third place and ribbons are for fourth through sixth place. Students will be headed to State competition next!
PE
Lower Elementary and Upper Elementary have been working on improving our aerobic capacity by participating in various activities. The activities include: Running through the ladders, using a hippity hop; using fitness dice; using a hula hoop, and other items. Students are now completing the Pacer portion of the Fitness Assessment. Our goal is to improve upon our Fall Scores by at least one.
Middle school has just completed our “It’s Your Life” lessons. The lessons focused on what virtues are important to each person in the class. The discussions were respectful and informative. We are now moving on to the design of Field Day. A letter will be going home to all MS parents. This is a large cross curricular project for the entire school to enjoy. Let's rally behind our Middle School Students! ??
Art
Please congratulate the following students for being selected for the Delaplaine Art Center’s “Youth Art Month” exhibition! Students Thomas Poleo, Aleena Aslam, and Kylie Schultz will be featured at the Delaplaine from March 4th, 2023 to March 25th. Come down and see these student's artwork displayed!
Art to Remember order forms have been sent home! Please order your keepsakes by Friday, March 17th. Half of the proceeds will go directly to supporting the art program here at MVMS.
Primary: This month Primary will be taking a look at lines. Our two big projects for this month will be to make some art projects involving lines for Spring: a rainy day umbrella, and some beautiful watercolor lanterns to hang outside!
Lower Elementary: Lower Elementary is continuing to look at the art element of Form looking at two famous artists: Roy Lichtenstein, and Piet Mondrian! We are reviewing primary colors and will be constructing two “2 and a half D” as our students have put it in artworks based on these famous artists.
Upper Elementary: Upper El is also looking into Form this month, continuing our “Op Art” looking at artist Yaacov Agam. After they finish their agamographs we will be making city skylines out of toilet paper tubes, followed by some art involving sign language!
Middle School: It’s going to be a fun month for our Middles; after we finish our paper mache bottles we will be cutting up some celebrity faces to make cool collages, followed by the students making 3D rooms for their favorite fictional characters as we talk about aesthetics.
Music
*** The Middle School production of “A Pirate’s Life for Me,” takes place on Friday March 31st and Saturday April 1st at 6:30 p.m. The show will run approx. 120 minutes with an intermission. Tickets can be purchased here! A Pirate's Life for Me
*** Please congratulate Levi Johnson for receiving an honor at the Step UP Frederick! Student Songwriting Contest for his song “Coming Home.” The concert will be at FCC on Sunday, March 19th at 7:00 p.m. at the JBK Theater. Tickets can be purchased here: Step UP Frederick
*** Three of our alumni: Josh Wittenberg, Thomas Gibbons and Aaron Henry will be starring in Gov. Thomas Johnson High School’s production of Beauty and the Beast the weekend of March 23-26. Tickets are here! Beauty and The Beast I would like to plan a Montessori night for Friday the 24th if anyone would like to join me in support of these students please email me shannon.vendemmia@fcps.org
March is Women’s History Month. As we celebrate the many accomplishments of women around the world, we celebrate Maria Montessori. Click here for more information about this education pioneer.
Please help your child to take good care of our library books. Students should not be eating or drinking while reading their books.
Check out the March AMS Parent Connection Newsletter.
Chromebook Care
MVMS provides Chromebooks for our students to use educationally. While these devices are powerful digital tools, they are also quite physically fragile. In the past month, several of our Chromebooks have been damaged by students.
When a Chromebook is intentionally damaged, as determined by MVMS staff:
When a Chromebook is accidentally damaged, as determined by MVMS staff:
We want our Chromebooks to last as long as possible. Below is list of Chromebook best practices for everyone to practice and make a habit:
http://education.fcps.org/mvmpcs/ 217 Dill Avenue Frederick, MD 21701 240-236-6100 Fax: 240-236-6101 Principal: Amy Dorman