Hello Mason Road Family!
February? ALREADY? Not to forget the fact that we just celebrated 100 days of school! Goodness gracious! The days are flying by and we are still in winter and not sure what the weather will bring but the sun is now setting later so we are not driving home in the dark at 5pm! Let's call that a win!
Over the month of January, lots of things have been taking place at Mason Road. Between all the amazing things taking place in the classroom and the after school clubs, the staff and students have been learning lots of new things and creating amazing memories! We have included pictures that have been taken throughout the month and you can see by the smiles, learning can be fun!
I want to thank you all for your continued support and trust in all of us here at Mason Road School. I have said it once and I will say it again: "we love your children as if they are our own." We will keep them safe, teach them well, and create those amazing memories!! I love them even when they tape me to the wall!
Now....let's talk football! Who are you rooting for? Kansas or San Francisco? For those who are excited about the Superbowl, I hope your team wins! I also want to wish you all an amazing February vacation! As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at jdesto@dcrsd.org or check out our website page at MASON ROAD SCHOOL.
Sincerely,
Jen D.
IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ALL FAMILIES
Let me introduce myself: My name is Ana Artavia-Speight, and I am part of the Community Relations team for the new Massachusetts Behavioral Health Help Line. On January 3, 2023, the Commonwealth launched the new Behavioral Health Help Line (BHHL) and established 25 Community Behavioral Health Centers (CBHCs). As part of the Roadmap for Behavioral Health Reform, these programs are increasing access to mental health and substance treatment for people across Massachusetts, and offer insurance-blind behavioral health crisis services to anyone in the state.
My job is to help make sure as many people as possible know about this valuable resource and what it offers. I am here to collaborate with the community on any effort that increases awareness about behavioral health and helps others find the help they need, especially underserved populations. I would love to share more about the help line and how it can be of use to you and your group!”, We do this through outreach, education, events, and presentations.
Additionally, the Commonwealth has created a Behavioral Health Roadmap Toolkit, which includes pre-made public awareness and informational materials (including social media graphics, fact sheets, flyers, and more) that you can use to let your community know about these new services. We ask that you use this toolkit to help us spread the word about the Behavioral Health Help Line and Community Behavioral Health Centers. If you would like to request free, professionally printed promotional materials, you can order those within the toolkit as well.
I will be delighted to fill in any more information about the BHHL, and to help answer questions that you might have.
Respectfully,
Ana Artavia-Speight
* ONLY CLEAR LIQUIDS for classroom snack/daily drink. What you choose to pack your child for lunch (with the exception of soda - please do not pack that), is completely up to you. However, for snacks in the classroom, I respectfully ask/remind you that students need to bring a clear liquid. This could be water, clear Gatorade, Roaring Waters juice pouches, etc. I appreciate your cooperation and attention to this matter.
* ARRIVAL TO SCHOOL - please be sure to have your child at school NO LATER than 8:45am. If you are later than 8:45am, you MUST bring your child into the front of the school and stop by the main office. DO NOT LET YOUR CHILD COME TO THE DOOR without an adult with them. This has happened on more than one occasion and I feel it is important to send this reminder.
How much does your child love Art? Music? Computers? Health & Wellness? Please take some time to read about what our teachers: Mrs. Gravel, Mrs. Winans, Mrs. Shorten, and Mr. Davis have to share regarding what is happening during unified arts classes. Just click on the picture or visit February Unified Arts Newsletter.
Celebrating Differences
During the month of February, we want to celebrate what makes us all unique and special! The goal of celebrating differences is to use social awareness and interpersonal skills to help develop and maintain positive relationships. As adults, we can have these discussions with our children by encouraging them to describe the things that make us similar and different and by identifying positive qualities in others. Once these basic concepts are mastered, children can begin to learn how to treat others with respect, even if we disagree with their opinions or are angry at them for their actions.
Discussing differences at home and school helps to prevent children from drawing their own conclusions about these differences. When your children bring up differences or biased conclusions based on their young life experiences, we encourage you to not shy away from the topic and to allow them to ask questions. It’s okay to let your child know “I’m not sure of the answer to your question. Let me find the answer for you and we’ll talk more about it later”. When we have these open discussions, biased statements start to fade and respect and empathy bloom.
At-Home Mindfulness Practice: 5-4-3-2-1 Senses
The 5-4-3-2-1 Senses activity is a great skill to practice because you can do it wherever you go! This skill can help keep you grounded when big feelings are starting to arise. Try it out and let us know what you think!
Notice 5 things that you see- The goal is to choose something that you normally wouldn’t notice such as a crack in the sidewalk or dust on a shelf. By putting focus into the minute details, you’re bringing focus away from the stressor.
Notice 4 things that you can feel- Try to pick 4 items of different textures. While petting 4 different stuffies may be nice, challenge your child to pick different types of objects or sensations such as the wind blowing, the peel of an orange, or water dripping from the faucet.
Notice 3 things that you can hear- Again, we want to draw away attention from the obvious and focus on the smaller details: birds singing, rain on the roof, the hum of your refrigerator, etc.
Notice 2 things that you can smell- This one can be tough. You can always prompt your child with some of your favorite smells. I always love the smell of fresh cut grass or the breeze after a rainstorm. If you’re having trouble with this one, you can choose something a bit more obvious. Peel open an orange or spritz your favorite cologne/perfume to practice with.
Notice 1 thing that you can taste- While it may be a challenge if you’re out and about, do your best with this one. Have a mint or a sour candy, take a sip of water or just stop and notice if there’s a “taste” to the air.
Rachael Shelburne, Adjustment Counselor
Kathy Kenyon, School Psychologist
Kindergarten Happenings
We began the month of January learning all about the farm! The children learned about many
of the different animals that live on the farm and their babies, the different tools and machines
that a farmer uses, and we learned about the different crops that can be grown on the farm. We
ended the month learning all about kings and queens. We learned about the members of a royal
family, listened to stories and nursery rhymes with kings and queens as the main characters, and
we practiced retelling tales. As a culminating activity for this unit, our royal kindergarteners
were invited to a Royal Ball and could dress up as kings, queens, princes, princesses, and
knights. All of the kindergarteners enjoyed a special snack and had a ball dancing together!
The children have learned 25 of the 26 letter sounds. We are now focusing on the names of the
letters of the alphabet. We are also learning about consonant clusters. This is when two or
more consonants are together in a word and each letter represents an individual sound. The
cluster may be at the beginning of the word (swim, frog, or clap) or at the end of the word
(jump, send, or pants). It can be more difficult to separate the sounds in a word that has a
consonant cluster at the beginning. Many children tend to either forget the second consonant or
they will add a vowel sound between the two consonants. We are playing many games and
practicing different ways to learn this skill so that we can become better readers and writers.
The children have also been busy reading and writing more “Tricky Words”. Up until this
point, the Tricky Words that have been taught are: “one”, “two”, “three”, “the”, “a”, ‘blue’,
‘yellow’, ‘look’, ‘I’, ‘is’, ‘are’, and ‘little’.
Our math lessons have been all about addition and subtraction. We have been using different
hands on materials (yellow and red counters, counters, and dice) to help with these important
skills. The children have been learning about decomposing numbers up to ten (taking a number
and breaking it into two parts). For example, 7 = 4 + 3 or 10 = 2 + 8. A couple of our lessons
have focused on related facts. After we have learned that 2 + 3 = 5, then we can use those same
numbers to know the related fact 5 – 3 = 2. The children have also been learning about finding
the missing part of 10. We have used yellow and red counters and a ten frame to help us with
this skill. The children have learned that if they see that there are three red counters in a ten
frame, then the part that they know is three. The missing part is the amount of yellow counters
that can be added to the ten frame to fill it up completely. The equation would be 3 + 7 = 10
(the part that we know, plus the missing part, equals the whole). We have been learning so
many new things in Kindergarten!
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