It has been wonderful to connect with you for parent/teacher conferences. The middle school team is grateful for our partnership with families to support all students. We have a lot of fun and creative learning experiences happening in school right now - enjoy the photos below. Have a safe, fun weekend!

The 8th grade year 2 Spanish class has been learning about "el día de los muertos" this month. They studied traditional elements of Day of the Dead ofrendas and created their own ofrenda to honor their loved ones who have passed, as well as all the people who have lost their lives to COVID-19. Manitou Springs Middle School's ofrenda will be on display at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center until November 6. The Fine Arts Center will host a free Day of the Dead event open to the public on November 2nd from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. For more information, please visit https://fac.coloradocollege.edu/events/dia-de-los-muertos/

On Wednesday, Manitou Springs Middle School and Manitou Springs High School choir students performed their first live concert in almost two years! Selections from the concert included: "All Star" by Smash Mouth lead guitarist Greg Camp, "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Walt Disney's Toy Story, and "Another Op'nin', Another Show" from the musical Kiss Me Kate. It was a great learning experience for everyone involved.

These tessellations are from 7th and 8th grade prealgebra students as we start our geometry unit on transformations. Students could make a repeating pattern with no spaces by either translating, reflecting or rotating a stencil of their own design. In class we will then learn how to move shapes on a coordinate plane.

Federal Law currently requires students and staff wear masks on our school buses.

The difficulty of mask enforcement while the bus is in motion cannot be overstated. The driver simply must focus on safe driving, and enforcing mask wearing, while the bus is in motion, is not a safe practice. Even when efforts are made to enforce mask wearing, students are still able to pull them down when the driver should not and cannot be looking.

Our drivers:

• hand out masks when students board and they do not have a mask.

• remind student riders of the expectation.

• notify principals when a child is not wearing a mask.

Principals will be in contact with parents if their child is not wearing a mask while riding a school bus.

As we continue to work towards all students consistently wearing a mask on the bus, if you would like your child to sit in a specific seat, we can make those arrangements with the bus driver in a private and discreet way so other children are not aware of the situation.

We appreciate your understanding and support of these requirements.