The Quokka

Dear Parents,

Thank you for joining us for the Holiday Workshop! It's wonderful to have time together and continue to build community after 2 long years of Covid protocols. We loved the conversation, smiles and joys of crafting that were had last Friday.

On the last day before winter break, we have another chance to come together in community at our Holiday Performance. The performance takes place in the evening and will be held at the PARC. While the students are preparing for their part, get your singing voices ready for our community sing-along portion as well. It's going to be great!

We also want to thank all of you for taking the time to attend our Bylaw Engagement meetings over the last several weeks. We plan to vote as a membership at our January Community Meeting. If you have any questions before that time, please reach out to one of us. Thanks again for your commitment and time.

Have a wonderful week!

Warm regards,

Elaine Kennedy, Head of School & Pauline Nagle, Associate Head of School

Fri 12/09: Spirit Day and Pizza Lunch, 75% Auction Commitments Due

Wed 12/14: Santa Shop

Fri 12/16: Spirit Day Holiday Style and Pizza Lunch

Wed 12/21: Holiday Performance 6:30p at PARC, Last Day before Break

Thu-Wed 12/22-1/04: Winter Break - NO SCHOOL and NO CHILDCARE

Mon 01/16: No SCHOOL - Martin Luther King Day (no childcare)

Tue 01/24: Community Meet & Greet - required Bylaws vote 6:30p

On Saturday, December 17 at 4 PM the Michigan Men's Basketball team will be hosting their fifth annual Education Day when we take on Lipscomb. We can reserve a block of tickets for $15 per ticket. Let us know by Tuesday 12/6/2022 if you are interested. This will help us know if it's worth setting up! Please send an email to nms@newmorningschool.com with U of M Education Day in the subject line. Let us know that you want to attend and how many tickets. We know it's a busy time, but if families want to participate, we're happy to coordinate!

New Morning is a great place for kids and families. Thank you for choosing us to be your school community. We are even greater when wonderful families like you join as well. Please share our Open House dates with families, friends, neighbors, relatives that you think would enjoy our program as much as you do!

Just a reminder that 75% of your Auction Commitments are due on Friday, December 9th.

Click the Wanted poster to purchase tickets.

Tis the season to meet up with friends, family and co-workers. It is a great time to spread the word about our phenomenal prizes listed below:

1st prize - Long weekend located in West Olive, MI cottage on Lake Michigan. (Dates agreed upon by donor (Sleeps 7)).

2nd prize -Blackstone flat top 2 burner gas grill/griddle.

Tickets are available for $100 thru Shelley Blakeney sb1132@yahoo.com or (248)787-9687. Kit also has tickets available for purchase at the front desk! Please return stubs completely filled out ASAP to Shelley or Kit. Final collection deadline for completed stubs is February 1, 2023.

The envelopes for the Santa Shop will be in your mailboxes today. The Santa Shop is scheduled for Wednesday, December 14. Please take the time to fill out the envelopes with the names of people your child will purchase gifts for. It will help the Santa Shop Helpers guide our young shoppers! Last year was such a huge success for everyone! All the children delighted in making purchases for the special people in their lives!

Although the Santa Shop is on Wednesday, December 14, preschoolers who come on Tuesday and Thursday are also welcome to come to the shop.

The store will be located in the elementary classroom. The schedule is for preschool to come through from 9- 9:45am, the kindergarten - first grade from 10 - 10:45am, middle schoolers from 12:30 - 1pm and elementary students from 1- 1:45pm.

Ms. Hannah is coordinating our Food Drive for the Oaks Village Homeless Shelter in Monroe. Ms. Hannah and her husband regularly support Oaks Village and we are joining her in giving this holiday season. Oaks Village is not government subsidized, so they rely solely on donations. Because they do not have government requirements, they are able to provide more support for longer durations for families.

Additionally, all proceeds from the Santa Shop will be put towards a video game console for Oaks Village. The Elementary students wanted to provide something that kids would enjoy when they take shelter there. Thank you for being a part of supporting those in need!

In conjuntion with the donations to purchase a gaing system for Oaks Village, we are asking for canned or non-perishable foods to be donated. We have placed a large box where the mailboxes are located to make it as painless as possible. This small act of kindness will make the holidays merrier for families in need. We will have the box available until Friday, December 16.

https://www.oaksvillage.net/oaks-shelter

Preschool Teachers:

Marisa Downs marisa@newmorningschool.com

Danielle Provencher danielle@newmorningschool.com

Teacher: Lucy Bratt lucy@newmorningschool.com

K-1 Lead Aide: Shelley Blakeney

Dear Parents,

We had another successful week last week, the highlight of which was definitely completing the sale and handing over the Deeds to our Haunted House to the highest bidders, Ms. Pauline and Ms. Elaine, who paid over the asking price for our magnificent dwelling! We also held a Castles Day on Friday, found out all about nouns and used the Numicon manipulatives to learn our number bonds to 10.

This week in Math our addition unit continues, we will be solidifying our number bonds and practicing modeling equations in different ways.

In Writing we will be recapping what we have learned so far about nouns, then learning the difference between common and proper nouns. Children will be encouraged to identify nouns in their reading and writing, and even in their conversations with friends. You could easily continue this at home by looking for nouns around the house!

Our phonics sounds this week are z, w, ng, v and oo/oo. The childrens’ phonics knowledge is increasing all the time and they are now able to decode and read quite an array of words!

We have also started learning our songs for the Holiday Performance on December 21st. For this, children will be required to wear a holiday outfit, such as a Christmas sweater or a festive-colored shirt in red or green. Everything else will be provided.

Temperatures dropped last week and will continue to be cold this week. We go outside several times a day and temperatures have been below freezing, especially first thing in the morning. Please ensure your child has a hat and gloves, these really help to keep them warm and happy - playing outside is miserable when one is too cold!

Many thanks and have a great week,

Ms. Lucy

Teachers:

Hannah Diaz hannah@newmorningschool.com

Christine Jansen christine@newmorningschool.com
Cynthia Weber cynthia@newmorningschool.com

EL Lead Aide: Karen Staples

Thank you for the amazing Holiday Workshop! It was great seeing everyone there!

On December 1, we started with our 15 days of KIndness in our classroom. Everyone made a list of small and large acts they can do to make someone else feel special. From giving someone a smile to holding open the doors for someone else, small acts of kindness are everywhere this month! Ask your child what silly, fun and kind thing they did each day this month!

Museum

This week we will start brainstorming ideas for good museum topics. Some topics are great but if your child knows a great deal about it already, it won't be a topic that will hold their interest for a month of study. We also have to consider if there are books at the library on the topic at their reading level. We will be sending home notes by the following week so everyone can get books on their topics at the library over the break. When we return in January, we hit the ground running, making out questions, doing research to answer the questions and reading about it.

If you happen to have some time in January, we can always use extra help modeling, researching and taking notes especially with our younger students. Let us know if there is a time you are free to come in so we can be sure to have students available. We always appreciate the extra help! Thanks!

Have a wonderful week,

Christine, Hannah and Cynthia

Teachers:

Linda Hyde linda@newmorningschool.com

Nicole Matoian nicolem@newmorningschool.com

Greetings Middle School parents!

We hope you enjoyed the Holiday Workshop. It was great to revive such a wonderful

tradition after a two year hiatus.

This will be a busy week for Middle School. On Wednesday, we will be traveling to the

Detroit Institute of Arts for a tour of its Renaissance Collection. Students are excited

about the trip! We will leave the school promptly at 8:30 a.m. on a DIA provided motor

coach and will return by approximately 2:30 p.m. Just a reminder that students will leave

backpacks, large purses, and heavy coats at the school. They will need $15-$20 to buy

lunch at Cafe DIA at the museum. There are a variety of student-friendly menu items to

order.

Also, you may have noticed homework starting to come home twice a week. Students

will have Math and ELA/Social Studies homework that should generally take students

no more than 20-30 minutes to complete. Please keep us posted if students are having

any issues or problems completing the assigned work.

In Language Arts, Language Arts Group A will read and study a personal essay "Chameleon" about a boy who wants to fit in at school, and the poem "Identity" about being comfortable being different from others. Students will answer comprehension questions and write short answer responses. They will also take a vocabulary quiz on Thursday over the eight words they worked with last week in the literature. Language Arts Groups B and C will determine and write about the theme of the story "The War of the Wall" they read last week, and read and analyze "The White Umbrella" about a young girl who struggles to belong. They will also take a vocabulary quiz on Thursday.

In Social Studies, students will preview one of the famous paintings they will see at the DIA, "Wedding Dance" and view a Google slide presentation about how conservators at the DIA have worked to restore the painting over time.

In Math, Group A will describe a table of equivalent ratios. They will explain how to find a missing value in the table and interpret a table that represents different sized batches of a recipe. Group B will review at the beginning of the week for their assessment on proportional relationships which will take place on Thursday. Group C will complete their unit by creating graphs and writing equations in the form Ax + By = C that represent linear relationships. We will review at the end of the week, and they will have an assessment on Monday of next week.

Enjoy the week!

Ms. Linda and Ms. Nicole

Office Phone: 734.420.3331

Email: nms@newmorningschool.com

Elaine Kennedy, Head of School elaine@newmorningschool.com

Pauline Nagle, Associate Head of School pauline@newmorningschool.com

Joan Barrett, Admissions Director joan@newmorningschool.com

Kit Zrull, Administrative Assistant nms@newmorningschool.com