Skip to main content

Spring cleaning? Wellness Wednesday edition!

 Spring cleaning? Consider contributing to South

Mrs. Joyce, one of our 6th grade Math teachers, has long used Lego bricks to help students visualize fractions. This year, she excitedly told me about the breakthrough of using MagnaTiles to visualize geometry in 3D. How many sets of magnetic blocks do you have sitting in box in your attic?? If your family's days of playing with magnetic tiles are a distant memory, please consider donating them to your friendly Math teacher! Once they're here, we find they are also a great way to spend indoor recess.
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly middle school kids let their inner child run free as soon as certain things happen:
  • You give them something to color,
  • You read aloud to them, or
  • They have downtime and toys like fidgets, MagnaTiles, Lego, etc.
It never fails! 30 seconds in, and suddenly the kids are giggling and chatting--or attentively following along with a story--entirely engrossed in their activity!
As you know, the faculty & staff at South have been focusing on how we use our time and devices at school. Teachers remind students to put phones away for the day in their lockers, and in study halls they are discussing how to use devices as a tool for study--and how to put it aside when it's not needed for work. In classes, lessons are planned to use devices when they are helpful, but teachers are also choosing activities that benefit from these hours when kids are together with one another. More group work and social activities can happen in some classes, while others might plan computer work for classtime so they can give immediate feedback and help kids limit screentime at home. What we're finding is, with more social activities at school, teachers are hungry for more opportunities to let kids play structured games and develop important communication and social skills.

How can you help?
Donate toys & social games for indoor recess:
Lego, Magnetic Tiles, sets of blocks (like Jenga)
Board games (especially classic games or relatively simple-to-learn games)
Puzzle games (like Zentangles, pattern recognition, Rubik's Cube)
Card games (no gambling please!)
Fidgets, like Aaron's Thinking Putty

Donate toys & games for outdoor recess:
Jump ropes for individuals & groups
Hula hoops
Basketballs
Soccer balls
Volleyballs
(No footballs please... that always ends in a scrum, which our blacktop surface doesn't play well with!)
Cleaning out your garage, attic, basement, or shed? Send us any equipment in usable condition. We appreciate your support!With all best wishes,
Damon Rainie

P.S. Cold & flu season is hopefully winding down, but allergy season is just starting to show its head. Kleenex donations will be gladly welcomed by all teachers! Antiseptic wipes, pencils, and Expo markers, too!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday Woof from South

  We are immensely proud of our 7th grade English teacher, Mrs. Christine Norris, who was honored last night at the Norfolk County Teachers' Association annual awards ceremony. Mrs. Norris was nominated by her colleagues for the NCTA Honor Award, saying:  Christine’s contributions to South are immeasurable. She is the type of person who, if she’s going to do something, she’s going to take the time to do it right. This year alone, she’s co-running the Grade 8 Washington, D.C. trip, co-creating the Yearbook, co-creating the Field Day Murder Mystery activity, co-running the South dance, and co-running the South Student Council, which this year was combined with the Community Service club because, you guessed it, she runs that, too! When you ask her about running all of these things, she humbly downplays her involvement. Don’t let her fool you--she’s one of the hardest-working teachers at South.  To be honest, even that extensive list of projects is incomplete; Mrs. Norris is...
Post a Comment
Read more

Grade 8 Upcoming Events

Grade 8 Students & Caregivers: Next week, your child is scheduled to participate in an MCAS grade 8 Civics field test on Monday, 6/3 and Tuesday, 6/4. In order to administer a new grade 8 Civics test in the future, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education must try out new test questions before the test becomes operational and scores can be provided to parents, schools, and districts. Your child’s participation is important and allows the state to build a valid and reliable test by helping to ensure a representative sample of students from across the state.   On Monday, 6/10, the 8th grade is taking the annual end-of-year trip to Level99 in Natick. Please make sure you have filled out the Level99 waiver  AND  the school's online permission slip in ParentSquare in order to participate. Contact a team teacher with any questions. Grade 8 Appreciation Night will be held at South on Thursday, 6/13, beginning at 6:00 PM. Families and loved ones are invited to joi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Applying to private school? South Guidance can help

  If you are considering applying to a private school, please read the following information from South's Guidance Department: Pay attention to due dates!  View  private school application deadlines and open houses  here. If you are applying to private school, students must fill out this Request Form: Mandatory Recommendation Request -  School Report Questionnaire To access application materials/portal, parents/guardians should go to the website of the school they are interested in: Most schools use Ravenna for applications, recommendations, and transcript uploading, so parents need to create an account Make sure that you enter your child's current school (South) and the correct email for their counselor Meghan Thomas --  meghan.thomas @braintreeschools.org ; 781.380.0160 x4036 Grades 5 and 6: Last names beginning with A-J Grades 7 and 8: Last names beginning with A-Le Laura Riordan --  lauraa.riordan@braintreeschools.org ; 781.380.0160 x4037 Gra...
Post a Comment
Read more