Dear Parents,

Nearing the end of the month where we focus on gratitude, we want to name a few extra ways we are grateful at New Morning!

WE ARE GRATEFUL...

...for the changing of season; to experience color, the joy of a snowflake, the new life spring gives and the warmth of summer.

...for our teachers; their tireless dedication to children, making sure each need is met and students grow with grace.

...for our staff and parent aides; the extra hands, smiles and support for kids, plus all of the extra duties that keep our school clean and safe.

...for our parent support; your partnership is what makes New Morning a great place to be, for our whole community.

...for our Board of Directors; your behind the scenes work is noticed. Thank you for keeping us on a forward moving path.

...for a fresh start; every day is a new morning. We make mistakes, we learn, we thrive. It's the New Morning Way.

We have much to be thankful for and much gratitude for having more than what we need. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Warm regards,

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

As we enter the week of Thanksgiving, we wanted to take a moment to honor those that came before us, by providing you with some resources that you may find helpful. If you would like to talk more about the history of our lands with your children, but haven't known exactly where to start, below are some links to help you navigate the story of Thanksgiving.

Mon 11/21: Celebrating our 50th DAY OF SCHOOL!

Wed-Fri 11/23-25: No School - Thanksgiving Break (no childcare)

Tue 11/29: Half-Day for Elementary only (11:30 dismissal) Parent-Teacher Conferences

Fri 12/02: Spirit Day and Pizza Lunch, Holiday Workshop Potluck & Crafts 5:30p

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

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

Please Note: If you put your pizza envelope in the pizza box after the envelopes have been removed to tally up our order (usually Thursday morning), your child's order will not be included, and their name will not be on the list for pizza lunch on Friday. Wednesday is the best day to drop off your pizza envelopes in the pizza box. Thank you!

Do you shop at Amazon or Kroger? An easy way to support New Morning School is by designating our school as a donation partner. There is no additional cost you! Click on the link to learn more and help us earn while you shop. Thank you for your support!

Hello New Morning Families,

The Holiday Craft Workshop on Friday, December 2nd is quickly approaching! There are still a few slots left for crafters if you'd like to lead a kids craft table. It doesn't have to be an elaborate craft; see the picture of some simple ideas! Scissors, glue, markers and other basic supplies will be available. Let us know what supplies you need and we may be able to help; please also let us know if your craft requires an electrical connection (hot glue guns, etc).

Please reach out to Meredith (734) 740-6918 or Heather (734) 474-5838 if we can help you decide on a craft or with any questions. We would love to support you.

To sign up to lead a craft, click here: Families 2022-23: Holiday Workshop Volunteer Sign-Up (signupgenius.com)

Please also RSVP if you will be attending the event! New Morning School: NMS Holiday Craft Workshop RSVP (signupgenius.com)

We hope you can attend!

Thanks,
Meredith Degenhardt and Heather Fowler

jmrvdegenhardt@gmail.com and fowler.heatherc@gmail.com

Just a reminder that 75% of your Auction Commitments are due on Friday, December 9th. Go grab those Black Friday Deals! Click the Wanted poster to purchase tickets.

Preschool Teachers:

Marisa Downs marisa@newmorningschool.com

Danielle Provencher danielle@newmorningschool.com

Hello preschool families & friends,

❄️ What a wonderful wintery surprise to fill the weekend❄️

We’ve been exploring different methods to creating magic in art and honing in on special interests of our kiddos.

During the next two days we will talk over, and look for the meaning of being thankful in our lives. We will have a fun turkey toss game at discovery, that’ll be sure to test hand eye coordination skills 🦃. Our sensory area will still be stocked with play dough and accessories to keep hands and imaginations busy with creations 🖐🏼.

These next 2 fun-filled days host pajama day(optional of course) and an all-school meeting Monday morning. This week is a short week for us, but we are grateful for any time spent together with the kiddos!

~Marisa & Danielle

Thank you for making time to meet with us during conferences.

We are grateful beyond measure for all the support you give us and the love you pour into your kiddos which indeed spills over into our lives 💛

Thank you to all of our NMS families and friends 💙

Science Teacher: Russell Lightfoot russell@newmorningschool.com

Hi everyone,

Here is a little update to let you all know what’s been going on in science over the last few weeks.

K/1: We are coming to the end of our unit on ‘amazing animals.' The students have continued to learn about animal camouflage and they all had a go coloring moths and hiding them in the science classroom. We invited Miss Elaine and Miss Pauline to come and search for them! We used a National Geographic link to search for animals hidden in their environment. We also read ‘The Mixed Up Chameleon,' by Eric Carle and the children had fun creating their own mixed up creation and thinking of a name for it.

2nd/3rd grade: The students are continuing learning about ‘Animals through Time.' We did our experiment in the gym to discover if we could outrun a dinosaur. Sadly, I think we probably would have gotten eaten! We started to think about what animals there might be in the future. We discussed selection and how people have created cross breeds of dogs. Next we started to investigate if selection can happen without the intervention of humans.

4th grade: We are nearly finished with our unit on ‘Energizing Everything.’ We discovered why the first hill on a rollercoaster is always the largest and conducted an experiment to back this reason up. The students then moved onto thinking about how dominoes work to make a chain reaction. We began to make our own chain reaction machine and will continue with this after the Thanksgiving break.

5th grade: The students continued to investigate where it is that fallen leaves go to. We conducted some experiments using worms to learn more about them and their behavior. Everyone then thought about how decomposers are really important and the students added these to their biosphere models. Finally we made a few wormeries with layers of sand and soil, which will further help us to study the worms.

Middle School: We have just about wrapped up our unit about natural disasters. The students began to understand how different warning signals are used to warn different groups of people about Tsunami danger. We did an experiment to learn about convection and to discover how tectonic plates move. Everyone designed a poster to share what they have learned so far about tsunamis and the systems that are in place to help save lives. Finally, in groups the students picked a natural disaster that they wanted to find out more about. They then chose a way in which they wanted to present their findings, such as making slides, kahoot etc. We will finish this activity off after Thanksgiving break.

STEM (elementary and middle school):

The middle school students had fun using the stomp rockets and we had a little competition to see which group could land the most rockets into some hoops. They worked well in teams and thought about trajectory and the correct amount of force to use. They also began a ball launcher challenge where they have to construct their own ball launcher and something that will catch the balls.

The elementary students finished constructing their wooden derby cars and had some fun making some ramps to test the cars. We also started to do some coding activities for the first time this year. We used studio.code.org and had a go at some of the ‘hour of code’ activities.

Salmon update:

The salmon eggs arrived at school on Friday which was very exciting. Due to a shortage of eggs this year we received 125 eggs instead of 150. I will post some more updates to let you know how things are progressing. Feel free to pop into the science classroom if you would like to have a look at our salmon set up!

Thank you to the Huber family who have volunteered to come check on our salmon over Thanksgiving break. I appreciate the help!

Let me know if anyone is able to help out over the Christmas break. Thanks!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Mr. Russell

Teacher: Lucy Bratt lucy@newmorningschool.com

K-1 Lead Aide: Shelley Blakeney

Dear Families,

Last week contained some activities that were a little different than usual! We helped the elementary class by transforming our outside area into a South American trading post; we traded potatoes and pumpkins with them as they learned about the lives and times of ancient explorers. We had a ‘surprise’ fire drill, which everyone took in their stride and behaved impeccably. We enjoyed our first Magic Treehouse book so much we finished reading the whole thing and ended the week with Dinosaur Day, when children completed activities such as acting out their favorite part of the story, constructing a treehouse from lego or magnatiles, drawing a map of the setting of the story, junk modeling dinosaurs and researching facts about dinosaurs.

But the highlight of the week had to be when Thorin’s G-Pop, Derek Moss, brought in Rosie the Russian Tortoise to visit us as a very special show and tell item. Thank you Derek!

This week is very short, but will be fun-filled and jam-packed with learning. Monday is our 50th day of school celebration. We will be joining in with whole school activities and in our classroom we will be focusing our math and literacy activities around the number 50, as well as playing some games, listening to music and even watching a little TV from 1973.

On Tuesday our learning will all be Thanksgiving themed, and, being the day before we break for the holiday, will be a chance to celebrate together. The children opted to make this fun and asked for a pajama day. So please send your child to school in their pajamas on Tuesday! They may also bring in one small stuffy to snuggle while we watch a movie together. I would also suggest they bring in an extra layer for outside recess times as pjs alone will not be warm enough.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ms. Lucy

Teachers:

Hannah Diaz hannah@newmorningschool.com

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

EL Lead Aide: Karen Staples

Early Explorers!

We trust you have heard about the explorers adventures and know that they all survived. Some did come down with scurvy but they recovered quickly.

We would like to thank:

• the K/1 classroom and Lucy, Karen, Kit Zrull and Kristen Haas for being good sports. They were manning the trading for India, Africa, South America, and the far east. Everyone did a great job.
• We also have to thank Elaine and Pauline for coming to send us off as the Queens who funded the trips for the countries of England, France and Portugal.
• Lori de Four, Alicia Stephens and Lisa Alberts for supplying the wagons for our "boats." Thanks so much!
• Huge thanks to Lisa Alberts for taking all of the pictures of our adventure.

Spelling

There will be no spelling next week! We will give out the new spelling lists on Monday, November 28th.

Marble Party

Thank you to everyone that signed up to send in items for our breakfast. I made an assumption that everything will come into school cooked. We will reheat it! Our scholars also wanted to have a PJ Day on Tuesday. They voted on the Muppet Treasure Island to watch in the afternoon. Fun for all!

We wish everyone a wonderful holiday with your families!

Christine, Hannah and Cynthia

Teachers:

Linda Hyde linda@newmorningschool.com

Nicole Matoian nicolem@newmorningschool.com

Dear Middle School Families,

We enjoyed meeting with the rest of you during conferences last week. If you ever have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact us.

This week will be a short one as we approach Thanksgiving break. On Monday morning, our students will present a Google slide retrospective comparing life in 1973 with the present at the all school meeting celebrating the 50th day of school.

In Social Studies, students will complete their presentations on Renaissance artists.

In Language Arts, students will complete a short essay on Native Americans’ relationship with the natural world.

In Math, all groups will review a variety of concepts through Thanksgiving math activities.

We wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your families!

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