Dear Families:

It has been a busy start for 2023! Great things are happening each and every day. This week, Mr. Niebuhr, our physical education teacher, introduced archery to students. Students learned how to hold a bow and arrow and all about safety practices with open and closed ranges. Check out the pictures below!

We have opened our Choice Enrollment window for new out-of-district families. If you know an interested family, encourage them to apply.

Our PAC, Parent Action Committee, is hosting a fundraiser at the Ninja Gym on 1/21, from 4:30-6:00pm. Fifty percent of the profits go to Manitou Springs Elementary School. Come join the fun!

If you are not a gym ninja and you want to contribute to MSES, please link your King Sooper's grocery card to MSES.

We have a three day weekend with Martin Luther King Day on Monday, 1/16. That means there is NO late start on Wednesday, 1/18. We will begin our day at 8:00am.

We so look forward to growing with you in 2023. Please let us know how we are doing and what we can do to make your school experience the best ever.

Thank you for your continued partnership!

Warmly,

Maria

• Jan 16: School Closed - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
• Jan 18: NO LATE START - REGULAR SCHEDULE
• Jan 24: MSMS Welcome Night for Incoming Students, 5:30pm
• Jan 25: Late Start Wednesday (2 Hour Delay for Students)
• Jan 27: Fitness Friday! 7:30am-8:00am
• Feb 10: No School for Students - Conference Prep/Staff Work Day
• Feb 16: Half Day - 12:30pm Dismissal - Family Conferences
• Feb 17: No School for Students - Family Conferences
• Feb 20: School Closed - Presidents' Day

First Graders are taking a journey into outer space for our Astronomy domain! See if your expert can answer these out-of-this-world questions: Why do stars appear so small? (Because they are really far away?) Is the sun a planet or a star? (A star) What is the sun made out of? (Gas) Why does the sun appear bigger than other stars? (Because the sun is our closest star) What do we call the “bubble" or “blanket" of air that surrounds earth? (The atmosphere) Ask your expert if they know objects that are found in the sky and therefore earth’s atmosphere, vs. objects that are found in outer space! (i.e. an airplane is in earth’s atmosphere, a star is in outer space.)

Third graders have started CKLA Unit 5, Adventures in Light and Sound. They are learning the science behind light and sound, both are forms of energy. Ask your expert to list some light sources (sun, electricity, light bulbs, flashlights, candles). Students will learn about the properties of light, and how light travels in waves (just like sound). Students can explain the difference between transparent (clear so light can pass through) and opaque (blocks the light) items. Ask your expert how shadows are formed by light hitting opaque items. Students should be able to tell you about plane mirrors and reflection, and concave (curved inward) and convex (curved outward) surfaces. Ask your expert to share what they have learned about a spoon! They will be able to show and explain to you what refraction is, too, if you give them a transparent glass of water and a straw. Your expert should be able to tell you about how color is reflected or absorbed to create the colors you see. Next week, they will study the characteristics of sound, as well as the human voice. Expect a lot of singing!

Third grades investigated concave and convex ‘mirrors’. We used a spoon and drew our reflection from each side in our CKLA workbooks.

Fifth graders have been busy since we've been back from break. We started with writing a 6-paragraph essay on things we're grateful for, explaining with stories and memories, and focusing on planning and topic sentences. These writings will be fun to share at home as well. We've also started our new CKLA unit on the Reformation. This is a time period that takes place just after our last CKLA unit on the Renaissance. You can ask your expert.... Where did the reformation take place? (Europe). What was a big influential invention during this time? (the printing press). Who invented it? (Johannes Gutenberg). Why was it important? (It made it faster and easier to make copies of books (previously copied by hand), and made books more accessible to all people).

Dear Mustang Families,

Welcome back and Happy New Year! This semester will bring some exciting and engaging learning. We are almost wrapped up with the Kindness and Empathy unit across grade levels. Next up, students will learn about Problem Solving when having interpersonal problems.

This week in 1st grade your child learned and practiced two types of kind acts: offering to help someone and inviting someone to join. Help your child think of a kind act they can do for someone involving offering to help or inviting them to join. Support your child in carrying out the kind act.

This week in 2nd grade your child practiced having empathy to come up with kind acts they could do for others in different situations. Ask your child how having empathy can help them know how to be kind.

Ashley Root, MA, LPCC

MSES School Counselor

aroot@mssd14.org | (719) 685-2160

Tech Corner

Gmail Tips and Settings:

All school emails are set up using Gmail. While most settings in Gmail are pretty straight forward, here are some additional tips and settings you might want to utilize:

Searching Email
It can be tedious searching through your email to find a certain thread, attachment, etc. We all know about the search bar in Gmail, but many people do not know about all the parameters you can use to search. Below are some helpful search operators to use:

1. subject: search for subject lines that contain specific words
2. has: search for emails that contain something specific. after the colon, you can add things like attachment, spreadsheet, document, etc.
   
3. after:/before: you can use after or before to narrow down emails by certain dates. For example, if you wanted to only see emails from the start of the month, you could put after: 04/01/2022.
   

For a full list of search operators, click HERE.

Undo Send

Undo send is a helpful tool if you notice a typo, forget to add a recipient, etc. After you send an email, you will notice an "undo" option at the bottom of the screen. By default, the undo send setting is set to 5 seconds, but this does not give you very much time to notice a mistake. Follow the instructions below to change the amount of time "undo" is available:

1. Go to settings -> See all settings -> General
2. Scroll down to find the "undo send" option
3. Use the drop down menu to change the time limit

Filters:

Filters can be a useful tool for organizing your inbox. You can automatically send incoming emails to the correct labels by creating filters. Here are instructions on creating filters:

1. Click the check box on a message that you want to filter

2. Click the 3 dots (next to the "move to" and "labels" options)

3 Click "filter messages like these"

4. Fill out the information in the box to make the filter as specific or general as possible. For example, you could simply filter all messages from a certain sender by filling out the "from" field.

5. Press "create filter"

6. Select how you want to filter the email (move to a certain label, delete, mark as read, etc.)

MANITOU SPRINGS CO – The City of Manitou Springs is conducting an important survey regarding public transportation and mobility in our community. The survey begins December 12th at 12:00p.m. and will remain open until January 20th. Your opinion matters, and we would like to hear from you! Your responses will have a direct impact on decisions in our community. Click the link below to participate in the survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ManitouSprings_Mobility_Survey

Make your voice heard by sharing your opinion and participating in the survey. Your answers are completely confidential, and the survey will only take 8 minutes to complete.