November 13th was a busy day for everyone as we worked on our social cognition skills.  It started in the homerooms where classes talked about how to introduce yourself to someone new, how to start a topic of conversation, and how to make conversation by listening and responding to others.  As the children went to lunch that day, they were mixed from Kindergarten through 4th grade at each of the tables, and the older students were expected to start the discussions.  It was interesting to listen to the hum of conversation as I walked amongst the tables and to see how intense some tables were, while others were quite jovial.  The younger children were so excited to have “bigger” kids at their tables, and they were eager to tell me about the new friends they had met.  Some of the camaraderie even spilled over to recess where the younger and older children mixed more than usual that day.  Most of the classrooms had a nice follow-up discussion about the lunch and how easy or difficult it might have been to mix with different students.  We will have several more “mix-it-up” lunches throughout the year.

Our discussion of social skills continued into the evening as the 3rd grade parents gathered in the Recital Hall for the 3rd grade parent night.  We had almost 40 parents present, and with a class of 38 that is quite amazing.  We watched a clip of Mel Levine as he discussed social cognition, listened to what’s done in the 3rd grade classrooms to enhance social skills, and listened to a portion of the book entitled Best Friends, Worst Enemies by Michael Thompson.  Then we put the parents in small groups to read and discuss the suggestions Dr. Thompson made for parents.  Each group received two of the 10 suggestions and were asked to find the most salient features of what they read.  This was cause for much discussion among the small groups, who were then asked to report to the full assembly of parents.  We were impressed by the level of engagement by all of the parents, and it was a great feeling to know that we were truly working together toward the same goals.  Once again, this gathering demonstrated the wonderful community that is built among families at MPA.

Future Dates:

December 14th is Basketball Spirit Night at MPA.  The JV game begins at 4:15 p.m., Girls’ Varsity at 6:00 p.m., and Boys’ Varsity at 7:30 p.m.  The teams would love to see you at their games.

December 18th is our next Lower School duty-free lunch.