Mechanics Grove School

A Note from our EL Teacher

Speaking more than one language is a gift! It has been shown that being bilingual has many brain benefits. People who speak more than one language have improved cognitive skills, better memories, better attention spans and can multitask better than people who only speak one language. Spend time with your child practicing both your home language and English. Children learn best while playing so using games to practice language is a great idea. While in the car, play I Spy. They can describe what they spy in both languages. While grocery shopping, give your child an item to find, like a scavenger hunt. This requires them to use pictures and words to find what they are looking for. Another idea is to discuss what they are reading. Have them describe what they think the characters look like, predict what will happen next, and even compare the book they are reading to another one they have already read. The more students speak, the easier language becomes.

A Note from our Social Workers

How to Develop Emotional Intelligence with Storytime

As we get back into the school routine, reading before bedtime can be a wonderful way to connect with your child and help them increase their reading skills. Books are a fantastic tool to help your child develop emotional intelligence. Discussing emotions while reading helps your child recognize, understand, and respect their own and others’ feelings. The goal is to create a safe space for your child to explore and express emotions. Here’s two strategies you can use to turn storytime into a learning opportunity about feelings and empathy.

1. Pause and Reflect:

• Pausing during storytime to reflect on the characters’ emotions helps your child become more aware of different feelings and situations. This practice encourages mindfulness and deeper engagement with the story.

• While reading, stop at significant points where a character is experiencing a strong emotion. Engage your child by asking questions about the characters’ feelings.

• Example Questions:

1. How do you think they feel right now?

2. Why do you think they are feeling this way?

• This technique helps your child develop a habit of considering emotions, which is the first step in building emotional intelligence.

2. Discuss Feelings:

• Discussing characters’ emotions and relating them to real-life situations helps your child make connections between fictional experiences and their own feelings, promoting self-awareness and empathy.

• After identifying a character’s emotions, talk about them and relate them to everyday life. Help your child draw parallels between the story and their own experiences.

• Example Questions:

1. How would you feel if you were in their place?

2. Why do you think she felt sad when that happened?

• This approach helps children understand their emotions better and recognize similar feelings in others, fostering empathy.

A Note from Mrs Sheedy (Project Challenge)

Welcome back MG families. It’s so exciting to start a new school year. Project challenge will start next week for those students who qualify. As in years past, my goal is to provide rigorous and engaging tasks that challenge students’ thinking. At home, challenge your child to think about different ways to solve problems. Can they show their thinking using an area model, a picture, or a graph? If a problem is difficult, do they try other strategies to get the correct answer instead of saying “this is too hard”? Ask them to write story problems for family members to solve. Start simple with addition and subtraction. Another activity is to give an answer and the student needs to write the story problem (just make sure the story problem makes sense). I’m looking forward to a great school year!

Front Office Guidelines

Click this link for notes from the front office.

Important Dates

9/6- BRAT FEST at CSMS (5:00-7:30pm)- Details to come

9/16-9/20- Community Week D120 and D75! See the flyer below.

9/20- Early Release (students dismissed at 11:05am)

10/1-10/2- 5th Grade Camp Duncan Trip

10/3- NO SCHOOL

10/9- PTO Meeting (7:00pm at CSMS)

10/11- Early Release (students dismissed at 11:05am)

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