The Quokka

Dear Parents and Staff,

We are in the last week of preparation for Student Museum! All of the students have worked very hard and have so much to share. We can't wait for you to join us on Sunday from 2:00-3:30pm. We could use help with set up on Friday morning at 8:30am or Clean Up on Sunday at 3:30pm. If you have a little time, please sign-up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f054eada72da7fe3-student#/

We are also getting close to our 50th Anniversary Auction and Gala. If you haven't purchased your required commitment tickets, please do so today! Preschool Families must purchase 2 Gala Tickets and K-8 Families must purchase 4 Gala Tickets and 3 Raffle Tickets. If you have any questions please contact our Auction co-chairs: elizabeth.scero@gmail.com or jillianbeckley@gmail.com.

Additional ways you can help:

• Purchase your table or tickets now, even if you don't know guest names and food choices yet. We can add that later.
• Keep selling raffle tickets
• We are still collecting merchandise for our remote auction.
• Know anyone with season tickets? We are looking for sports, theater or entertainment tickets for our Live Auction.
• Invite all of your friends and family to the 50th Anniversary Gala & Live Auction

Thank you for supporting New Morning School. This event funds important programming for our children. We appreciate you!

Warm regards,

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

"Tell me and I may forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me, and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin

Mon 02/06: Middle School Parent Focus Group 6pm

Sun 02/12: Museum: 1:00 prospective parent mtg.; 2:00 - 3:30 pm Student Museum

Mon Feb 13: No School - There is Kids' Club

Mon/Tues Feb. 20-21: Winter Break - No School - There is Kids' Club

Wed Feb 22: Professional Development day - No School - There is Kids' Club

Mon 02/27: Elementary Parent Focus Group 6pm

As you know, my role at New Morning as Associate Head of School will move forward to the role of Head of School upon Elaine's retirement in June. Having a year to learn the school community before taking the helm is extremely valuable. I have learned so much from Elaine, the staff and your children so far. I am learning what makes NMS such an amazing community and why it is so valued. I would like to hear more from you, the parents, over the next few months to add to my learning. I want to hear about what is going well and what you would like to see improve. Please join me for a focus group via ZOOM. The focus groups are organized by program. You do not need to attend more than one. If you have children in multiple programs, choose one that you feel you want to speak to the most.

If you would like to sign up for one of the sessions, please click on this Sign-Up Genius link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F054EADA72DA7FE3-parent.

I'm really looking forward to meeting with you.

Warm regards,

Pauline Nagle

Monday, February 6 6pm Middle School

Monday, February 27 6pm Elementary

Monday, March 6 6pm K-1

Saturday, March 18 9am Make-Up

For new prospective families, we are hosting an Open House beginning at 1:00pm just ahead of Student Museum. Please feel free to share with neighbors and friends that you think would enjoy the New Morning Experience! We would love to see them.

For current families, Student Museum begins at 2:00pm and ends at 3:30pm.

• We will have many guests this day. Please park in the soccer parking lot next door to save room for our guests and those that need a closer location.
• Please let us know if you are bringing a family member that may require support entering or navigating the building.
• For K-8 families, check with your child's teacher on their specific presentation time.

From their website: "SageView Advisory Group focuses on full service financial planning. We offer a unique client experience for all our clients. We believe that success is a result of prudent, objective planning, discipline and honesty." Let's support this group that supports New Morning School.

Our next break from school where the pigs will need vacation hosts is coming soon, Friday 2/17-

Tuesday 2/21. If you’re interested, please email marisa@newmorningschool.com.

NMS families scheduled to clean the school this weekend are the Akinbosede, Opara, Drake, Blomberg/Moss and Kish families. Cleaning checklists will be available on the counter at the front desk Friday afternoon. Please clean your assigned area on Friday or Saturday, as the Student Museum will be held on Sunday. Thank you for keeping our school sparkling clean!

Preschool Teachers:

Marisa Downs marisa@newmorningschool.com

Danielle Provencher danielle@newmorningschool.com

Preschool News

🎂 Happy birthday to Ms. Danielle today! 🎂

We are fortunate and grateful to have you in our lives and hope you have a great year ahead!

We welcomed two new friends last week. Gavin joined Danielle’s room and his sister Paige joined Marisa’s.

It’s the last week before Museum! Our art goals for the week are to finish applying paper mache and painting our guinea pig robot. Discovery choices are guinea pig math games and individual surveys. Our sensory choices are pine chips in Danielle’s room and beans in Marisa’s.

Our teachers for the letter B are Oliva and Mason in Danielle’s room and Brooks and Muyiwa in Marisa’s. After this week, we’ll take a brief hiatus from our letter study.

Thanks to all who have sent in fresh veggies for Oreo and Snickers to enjoy. Feel free to send in romaine or red leaf lettuce, kale, small amounts of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, cucumber, carrots, or bell peppers. An apple slice, strawberry tops, and even a tomato now and then is a treat. If friends come in with a little here and there, we should be in good shape.

Our next break from school where the pigs will need vacation hosts is coming soon Friday 2/17- Tuesday 2/21. If you’re interested, please email marisa@newmorningschool.com.

After our big museum event, there’s no school Monday, then comes Valentine’s Day! Please see the following note from our fantastic party coordinators:

The preschool rooms will celebrate Valentine's Day with a combined class party on Tuesday, February 14. Festivities will feature holiday-themed games, treats & crafts (including a valentines bag for each student). We are looking for a few volunteers to donate craft supplies and/or bring snacks. To contribute to class crafts, check out this Amazon wish list: rmd.me/04tlRU40nfi - please place items in the Drakes' mailbox by Friday, February 10. If you'd like to bring treats the morning of the party, please sign up here: rmd.me/0QGljDBzIED.

Text questions to Katelyn at 248-533-8086

Thank you!

Katie Schanne (Mabel & Willa's mom)

Katelyn Drake (Eliza's mom)

Winter in preschool means getting dressed in all the gear, snow pants, boots, coats, hats, and mittens. Thank you for making sure your child is equipped with the above labeled items. On snowy days, friends may sled if they have one at school (please write their name on it). Unfortunately, friends may not share sleds. If the “feels like” temp is under 20, we don’t go outside. Half day friends can be picked up at the front entry and full day friends will have indoor recess in the gym. Lastly, if Plymouth-Canton schools have a weather related closure, so do we.

Lastly, we have two specials on Thursdays and Fridays. We don’t end up having much time for writing out plans and doing check-out. Some days we opt to “make a plan in our brain” instead. On those days, you won’t see a paper plan come home. Please ask your child what was at Art, Discovery, and in the sensory table. Ask them what their favorite part of the day was. We know the paper plan is a good springboard for reflections and conversations, but we really want to respect their time to play and make choices in the classroom.

Have a wonderful week and see you at Museum! ~Danielle & Marisa

Teacher: Pauline Nagle pauline@newmorningschool.com

K-1 Lead Aide: Shelley Blakeney

Dear Parents,

We are enjoying our final days as we march toward Museum. Students have been busy with learning about their topic, answering questions of curiosity, creating visual arts, and graphing data. It's so fun to see them light up when learning something interesting or new about their topic. Special thank you to our extra helpers again this week and last, including Ms. Lucy, Heather Johnson and Andrea Glomski. Also a huge shout-out to Ms. Andrea for helping us with our 3-D papier mache' models!

Reading and Writing

With February designated as Black History Month, we have begun to listen and read stories about famous black persons in history. So far we have discussed Marth Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks and Jesse Owens. We will continue to learn about small actions that made big changes in our world.

Through museum work, we continue to write our findings and fun facts. We are reading and learning every day about our topics. We are learning about speaking and listening as we prepare to present our work to you!

Math

We are learning about how to create a graph, using survey questions or data. We are practicing tally marks for counting and organizing our information onto a bar graph.

Valentine's Day

To get ready for Valentine's Day, please have your child make a Valentine box to bring to school. The box needs to fit 12 cards and small bags of treats that are sometimes handed out (think shoebox size). Please send in the box on Tuesday, February 14. We also suggested writing only their names on their Valentine cards (it makes it easier for them to hand them out).

This week's Morning Meeting Leaders are: Jack, Jesmyra, Kal, Melody and Quinn.

Have an outstanding week!

My best,

Ms. Pauline

Teachers:

Hannah Diaz hannah@newmorningschool.com

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

EL Lead Aide: Karen Staples

Museum

The room is in the final stages of preparing for museum! The paper mache models are made, dioramas are being created, presentations planned and everyone is busy! Five more days! We will practice their presentations in front of their friends so they are ready to present to you!

On Sunday, we will have the schedule posted of the order the scholars will be presenting. We do expect the scholars to stay at their boards, unless they are presenting. At the end of museum, please take home their board, paper mache and dioramas! Thanks for your support, we look forward to seeing everyone! It is a special time for our scholars to shine!

Again, thanks to all of our aides and extra help that came in this week to help! Alicia Stephens, Kelly Lucas, Lisa Speilman and Dino Bruce! We couldn't reach our goals without an army supporting our efforts! Bravo!

Valentine's Day

Just a reminder, please have your child create a Valentine's box for all of the cards they will be receiving on February 14th! If you need any ideas, check these out.

Looking ahead to March!

We are planning fun activities for March is Reading Month. We will send home a calendar of events soon!

Stay Warm,

Chrisitne, Hannah and Cynthia

Teachers:

Linda Hyde linda@newmorningschool.com

Nicole Matoian nicolem@newmorningschool.com

Hello Middle School Parents!

We hope you enjoyed the milder weather over the weekend and maybe got out to the Plymouth Ice Festival.

Well, here it is, the LAST week before Museum, scheduled for Sunday, February 12th from 2:00-3:30 p.m. Middle School students have been scheduled in 6-minute intervals to present digital versions of their Museum projects in the Middle School classroom throughout the afternoon. The schedule will be posted on Museum Day if not before.

The students will be very busy this week putting the last touches on their essays, Tri-fold Display Boards, Display Elements, Charts and Graphs, and Google slide presentations. On Thursday and Friday, students will practice making their presentations to their fellow students. This year students have done a fantastic job on their research and Museum preparation. Be prepared for some spectacular projects!

As a reward for all their hard work, we'd like to provide a small Valentine's Day Celebration on Tuesday, February 14th, and we would greatly appreciate any food or drink contributions that you can make to this celebration.

Although most of class time this week will be devoted to Museum.in Social Studies, students will continue their investigations into the lives of significant African Americans in our continued celebration of Black History Month.

In Math, Group A will solve problems involving constant speed. We’ll also be introducing the word “percentage” into their rate problems. Group B will be solving percent increase and percent decrease problems. Students will also be writing equations to represent increases and decreases. Group C will demonstrate their understanding of systems of equations with an assessment on this Thursday, Feb. 9. All students will also be finalizing their graphs or charts for their Museum display board this week.

Looking forward to seeing you all at Museum!!

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