• Friday was the conclusion of our 24-hour “Make-It Day” that started at 1 PM on Thursday. Each level got to share their creations with the others as we had a school-wide “Make It Day” tour. Wow, it’s amazing how creative our students are and what fascinating interests they have! One student even chose to do a documentary on “Make It Day”! Some of the photos are below for you to enjoy.
  

• Visiting “Trucks on Main” is a great family outing and serves the added purpose of helping to keep children in Anderson County safe while in cars! The event is organized by Junior League of Anderson County, sponsored by MSA, and supports Seats for Safety which provides car seats for those in need in Anderson County. The fun begins at 10 AM in downtown Anderson!

• Please join the MSA board and administration this Tuesday, April 26 at 6 PM for the Annual Meeting as our accountant from Argo and Associates will present the Annual Financial Report. Also, nominations are currently being accepted for open positions for the MSA board beginning this summer. Particular areas of expertise needed are marketing and fundraising. If you have these skills or know a prospective candidate who does, please contact jcline@msasc.org.

• Monday students will receive information about the “Student Strengths Show” which will be held after lunch on Field Day. It will be an opportunity for students to showcase all types of "strengths". They could include anything from knock-knock jokes, karate moves, magic tricks, jump rope skills, reciting the alphabet backward, demonstrating proper flossing technique, and so much more!

• Next week includes Stanford 10 testing for grades 4 - 8, Monday through Thursday, followed by our school-wide Field Day celebration on Friday, April 29. What a great way to end the week and close out the month of April!

A brief “Where are they now?” -

We recently received some exciting news about a 2018 MSA graduate. Catherine Hiebel, who attended MSA from primary through high school, will be graduating from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, in May. Catherine was on the swim team all four years at SU and still managed to double major in Political Science and Spanish with a minor in History. She has been inducted into both the Alpha Chi and Phi Beta Kappa national honor societies and was recently selected as a Fulbright scholar. The Fulbright Program is considered the most prestigious educational exchange program, providing recent college graduates and graduate students the opportunity to teach or conduct research in a foreign country. Catherine will spend next year in the Spanish province of the Canary Islands. We are so excited for Catherine and wish her continued success and blessings!

Cheers!

Dr. Dana Hill

April 23 - Trucks on Main event in downtown Anderson, 10am

April 25 - Montessori Monday - Wear Montessori attire/MSA colors

April 29 - Field Day

April 30 - National Prescription Drug Take Back Day and Shred Day at AnMed

May 1 - FACTS tuition assistance application deadline for returning families

May 6 - Family Day - see hours below

Family Day - May 6

Family Day will be held on campus on Friday, May 6. Check information sent home by your child's teacher for more information. The schedule for each level is listed below:

Primary: 10am-11am

Lower Elementary: 10:30am-12:00pm

Upper Elementary: 11am-1pm

Middle School: 12:30pm-1:30pm

Students from Lower Elementary through High School participated in Make-It Day on Friday, with each choosing a project that they can construct completely in one day. Students could learn a new skill that they had never done before, for instance, students learned to play guitar and the ukulele, painted still lifes and abstract paintings, learned video editing to document the Make-It Day project, and carved soap, or something that solves a problem, for example, needing a shelter for a dog, a bookshelf for a bedroom, a automatic-watering planting bed, creating board games for relieving boredom, and even climbing the side of a building! A few photos follow this note, and for a gallery with over five hundred photos of the event, click this link.

Students in Sra. Wickiser's Middle School Spanish class each chose a food from Argentina, researched how the food is made and a variety of facts about the Argentinian dishes. They then presented what they learned to their peers in an oral report.

These Toddler One students are practicing their hand-eye coordination, concentration, and practical life skills through scissor use, placing rings on a pole, and food preparation.

This Toddler Two student is practicing putting clothespins on a line in her classroom to develop hand-eye and fine-motor skills.

Students in Mr. Dabney's Middle School Technology class have been working on creating interactive posters over the past quarter and presented them to students from Upper Elementary and High School and faculty members this Monday. Each student chose a topic to research, created a paper poster design with several points of interest in Canva, and designed and programmed interactive components related to those points of interest using Scratch. The students then wired the paper posters using copper tape and connected the posters to their laptops and Chromebooks using Makey Makey devices. When their audience completed a circuit by touching a point of interest and a piece of copper tape connected to the Makey Makey board's ground connection, the Scratch program informed the viewer about the selected topic. See below for photos of the presentations and this album for more.

The Greenville Zoo's traveling zoo made its final trip of the year to visit the Primary class students, bringing a gecko, a turtle, a snake, and a parrot for the students to learn about. The students learned that each animal at the zoo participates in engagement activities to stimulate their brains in addition to teaching them useful skills for visits with the veterinarian, like raising their limbs for evaluations. The Primary Risers are excited to make their own trip to the Greenville Zoo later this year! More photos from the visit can be found in this gallery.

Each year students in the Upper School select Field Day activities and gather and create materials, organize the events, and facilitate the stations on the day itself. These students are gathering ideas before planning out their contributions to this year's exciting day this Friday!

On Friday afternoon two weeks ago the Middle School students had their first opportunity to participate in our mentoring program with the Lower Elementary students. This meeting was a chance for the older students to get to know their younger peers and some of their interests by reading together. In May, the Middle School students will begin leading short activities during the mentoring opportunities. Both groups reported enjoying this time together and were disappointed that they would miss the next few Fridays due to other conflicts. Click here for more photos of the Middle School students planning their activities and the first mentoring opportunity of the year.

It has been exciting getting the opportunity to return to a bit of normalcy with events on campus again lately. One activity that has been greatly missed is the weekly flag ceremony during which students across the campus come out and "celebrate our being here" as the Middle School students raise the flag for the day. Photos of one of the last Middle School-only flag raising ceremonies over the previous few weeks before starting to phase back in the full ceremony can be seen below.

Another sorely missed tradition on campus is the ability for families to join for their child's Walk Around the Sun celebration, celebrating each year the child has finished another trip around the sun. Luckily the tradition has been able to return over the past few weeks, and we're excited to have visitors once again!

In lieu of participating in an in-person Mock Trial event this year, the High School students chose to meet with the school's Mock Trial coach, Mr. Joshua Raffini, and have their own in-school trial throughout the year. They have been going through the typical trial preparation as usual in order to keep their skills sharp for the future.

The High School students participated in the Purple Comet Math Meet, an international math competition in which students had 90 minutes to attempt to answer 30 interesting and difficult math problems.