MMS Jump Start - Elementary to MMS Transition- Virtual

Entering grade 6

VIRTUAL Class Description: 

The goal is for each student to feel comfortable on the first day of school in the fall.” That sentence has been in each summer school catalog for the last 20 years of Jump Start. How do you make 6th graders feel ‘comfortable’ in the trauma of a 2020 pandemic? Our way will be coming together with warmth and laughter. Ancient cultures designed anxiety-reducing exercises such as Tai Chi. Current psychologists have designed mindfulness activities. In our virtual Jump Start, we will weave Jump Start content with Tai Chi and mindfulness activities rotating throughout the 3 hours each day. We will be having live sessions 8:30-11:30AM or 12:30-3:30 PM. Virtual tours of MMS will assist the mapping exercises. Video clips will demonstrate the mechanics and easy opening of lockers. Students will create artwork to decorate lockers. Importantly, the students will be in small breakout groups and will get chances to talk and work with a buddy often. Included in the fee there will be a materials packet mailed to you. So happy to have you join MMS Jump Start this June.

Questions call 203.216.3429, director of Jump Start, Mary Ellen Flaherty-Ludwig 

It's quite a change going from small Darien elementary schools to the 1200 student-capacity Darien middle school! Wouldn’t it be nice to know how to get around the school easily, how to open a locker smoothly, how to record homework, how to navigate the Library to find books and resources? That know-how is the key of the Jump Start Program. The pace is slow and filled with opportunities to make friends while mastering the floor plan of MMS and the mechanics of 6th grade lockers! The staff of teachers and teenage counselors(formally all MMS 6th graders) work in an upbeat way to maximize student confidence. Students will learn the "ins" and "outs" of Middlesex. The goal is for each student to feel comfortable on the first day of school in the fall. The feedback from JS kids is that they know more folks: teachers and students and they know how to get around MMS from the “start”. Have your child become a Jump Starter!