Dear Families,

Happy Holidays! We sure missed students the last day of school. Unfortunately, staff had to celebrate pajama day without our students. We missed you all!

Third graders were the recipients of dictionaries from Pike's Peak Rotary Club. The club comes once a year and hands out dictionaries to local elementary students. Thankfully, MSES participates in this wonderful opportunity.

Thank you again to all of the families who came to get students after we lost power on Wednesday. You all were so kind as staff ran to each individual classroom to retrieve students. We had no power or phones and we were grateful each of you waited patiently.

Thank you for partnering with us in these unusual times.

We return to school January 6th.

Have a lovely winter break.

Warmly,

Maria

• Dec 20 - Jan 5 - Winter Holiday Break
• Jan 17 - No School - MLK, Jr. Day
• Jan 26 - Late Start Wednesday (2 Hour Delay)
• Feb 2- Late Start Wednesday, (2 Hour Delay)
  
• Feb 21- No School - President's Day
  

Second Grade Language Arts students have been exploring the exciting world of Junior Great Books. While reading the Swedish folktale, “Nail Soup”, we learned about what makes a story a folktale: it is a short story passed down from generation to generation that teaches a lesson about in specific culture. We also learned about the story elements that make up a story’s plot: characters and traits, setting, problem, main events, solution, and lesson. Partners worked together to plan and act out the four events they thought were most important to the story, acting as Karl the Traveler and the Old Woman. For the big celebration, students wrote a friendly letter to their family sharing their learning and requested ingredients they wanted to bring in to create a class meal of Nail Soup. It tasted so yummy that everyone had seconds. This unit provided a great opportunity to challenge ourselves in new ways… we worked hard and then actually ate the final product!

How to Foster Resiliency

What is resiliency? Think about a memory foam mattress, how it gives under pressure but them comes back to its original shape after the pressure is released. Now apply this idea to yourself. How do you withstand adversity? Do you bounce back after difficult life events?

As parents, we tend to believe kids have a built-in ability to bounce back after negative experiences. The current concern over increasing mental health issues in kids should be an indicator that we cannot take our kids worries and fears too lightly. But what can we do to provide balance, to support with encouragement to growth through the discomfort? Here are a couple of suggestions from the professionals:

1) Ask questions and label feelings

2) Resist the urge to “fix” problems for them

3) Discuss coping skills and encourage independent problem solving

4) Challenge them to try something new or uncomfortable

5) Embrace mistakes as a way to learn (focus on a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset)

6) Model healthy ways to manage your own stress

7) Ask for help from others when you need it

8) Look for ways to laugh and play!

For more information, please visit: https://www.psycom.net/build-resilience-children.

Third graders are working on dictionary skills, so the Pikes Peak Rotary Club picked the perfect time to present each third grade student with a Scholastic Children's Dictionary! Students can use their dictionaries at home to practice alphabetizing skills. We have been working in class with guide words to understand alphabetically which words should be on the page. Have them read definitions and make the connection to parts of speech, too! (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) Give them a sentence with a word that has a few different definitions, and let them figure out which definition you are using. Need an extra spelling practice activity? Ask your expert to find their spelling words in their dictionary! Third graders also wrote thank you letters to the Pikes Peak Rotary Club, ask them what word they picked to write and draw on their letter!

Manitou Springs and Ute Pass Elementary Schools will be working together with Champions to provide K-6th grade after-school childcare for the spring semester, beginning mid to late January. After-school childcare will take place at Manitou Springs Elementary until 6:00PM, Monday-Friday. Click here to learn more: www.discoverchampions.com

Champions safe and accredited programs have a proven track record of offering top-notch programs for over 30 years and counting. Plus, they partner with our school to extend the learning your kids are doing here each day. When your child enrolls, they’ll get extra STEM learning, literacy, arts, exercise, and more.

After School, 1-2 Days, $48/week

After School, 3-5 Days, $80/week

Registration is open now at discoverchampions.com, and space is limited. Our school office doesn’t handle registration, so please contact the Champions Family Support team at 800-246-2154 or email them at ChampionsHelp@kc-education.com with any questions.

Breakfast and lunch are free for all students. We would still like all families that qualify to fill out the Free and Reduced Lunch form on our district website.

Breakfast and lunch menus are available online here.

Please have your child check the Lost and Found before Winter Break! All unclaimed items will be donated before January 14th, 2022. If you have a younger child and would like to check our collection for them, you may sign in as a visitor between 1:00 pm and 3:30 pm and someone will escort you to the Lost and Found.