The Quokka
New Morning School Week 13 11.28.22
A Note from the Heads
Dear Parents,
We are headed into Open House season for New Morning School! We hope that you can help spread the word about our amazing school by sharing our Open House dates with neighbors or friends of school-aged children. We know that when people hear about New Morning from you, they are more likely to take the next step of learning more about us! Thank you for spreading the word.
Don't forget that our Holiday Workshop is THIS FRIDAY! We are excited to spend time with you and your children kicking off the holiday season with some craft making. Please RSVP below. Don't forget to bring a dish to share.
Have a wonderful week!
Warm regards,
Elaine Kennedy, Head of School & Pauline Nagle, Associate Head of School
Golden Nuggets
The Joy of Giving
Did you know that brain imaging reveals joys of giving? The old adage “It’s better to give than to receive” may have a biological basis. A new study found that the brain's pleasure centers became activated as people decided to donate part of a new stash of money to charity, rather than keeping it all for themselves. The findings may shed light on why some people contribute to the public good, even at a personal cost. Read more here: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/brain-imaging-reveals-joys-giving
Donation to New Morning School
Consider making a donation to New Morning School in this season of giving. If you, or a family member or friend of New Morning are interested in donating to our school, it's very easy to do! Simply click on the logo below to donate via PayPal or Credit Card.
NMS Happenings
Upcoming Dates
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
News to Note
Shelter in Place Drill - WED 11/30
In our current school climate, we do the best we can to prepare students for emergencies. As you know, included in this preparedness is to practice for intruders in the building through school safety drills. By law, we are required to practice school safety drills each year. Teachers will be discussing with students this week the actions and steps needed to remain safe should an intruder enter the building. For this drill, we will practice the shelter in place portion of our safety procedures.
The drill will take place on Wednesday, November 30th. We know much anxiety can surface when discussing and practicing this drill. Our staff is well versed in supporting your child through this important preparation. We encourage you to ask your child about the safety drill and answer questions appropriate to their age. You know your child best and assurance of safety and support will alleviate fears as we work to maintain a safe school environment.
Holiday Workshop & Potluck This Friday 12/2
Please, join us this Friday for a potluck and craft workshop, which starts at 5:30pm.
Be sure to RSVP on the SignUpGenius link below and include the ages of your children. Deadline to RSVP is this Wednesday 11/30.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080e49acad2ba4fb6-nmsholiday
Please, bring a bag or box to help transport your crafts at the end of the workshop.
We are excited to craft with you,
Heather Fowler & Meredith Degenhardt
AUCTION UPDATE: 75% COMMITMENTS DUE DEC 9
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.
Classroom Updates
Preschool Brainstormers
Preschool Teachers:
Marisa Downs marisa@newmorningschool.com
Danielle Provencher danielle@newmorningschool.com
Preschool Lead Aide: Crystal GerwatowskiPreschool News
We hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable Thanksgiving. We are thankful for our community of
families and students who make learning fun and meaningful. You make New Morning School
possible!
In our classes this week we’ll circle back to narrowing down the interests of the children and will have free/open ended Art choices and surveys at Discovery. Play sand and popcorn kernels will fill our Sensory tables. Additionally this week, we’ll continue practicing our songs for our Holiday
Performance, which will be Wednesday 12/21 at 6:30pm. Don’t forget to save that date! Friday at 5:30 is our all school Holiday Workshop.
Our teachers for the letter “H” are Olivia and Remy in Danielle’s room and Brooks and Isaac in
Marisa’s.
It’s beginning to look and feel like winter. Please send in labeled snow pants, boots, warm coats,
hats, and mittens/gloves on cold and snowy days. We encourage and support the kids to get dressed for outdoor play independently, so practicing at home is helpful. Thank you!
Have a wonderful week!
~Danielle and Marisa
Primary Explorers (Grades K-1)
Teacher: Lucy Bratt lucy@newmorningschool.com
K-1 Lead Aide: Shelley Blakeney
Dear Parents,
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break and that the turkey table centerpieces your children made and brought home looked fabulous on your tables!
In addition to celebrating Thanksgiving last week, we also had fun on the 50th day of school. We made 50th day crowns and all of our have-tos were themed around the number 50. We marked this day as the official kickstart to the New Morning School 50th Anniversary celebrations so we also listened to music hits from 1973, watched Schoolhouse Rock, a kids’ hit TV show from 1973, and played with hula hoops and jump ropes to simulate a typical 1973 recess.
When I first moved here to the US it surprised me how Christmas and the winter holiday season seemed to begin the minute Thanksgiving was over. In the UK we don’t even think about putting a decoration up until at least the middle of December! But now I embrace the fact that I can enjoy this most wonderful time of the year for longer! The festivities shall begin in the K-1 classroom and our themes from now until the winter break will be Winter and Christmas Around The World.
Within this, we will continue focusing on reading skills - this week in our Jolly Phonics program we will be recapping the digraphs (two letters that together make one sound) ai and oa, then introducing ie, ee and or. When reading with your child at home you might encourage them to spot these sounds as digraphs rather than as two discrete letter sounds (for example, decode the word bee as b-ee instead of b-e-e).
In Math we will be progressing with our addition unit, focusing especially on number bonds and making groups of 10.
In writing I shall be introducing nouns. Children will learn what a noun is, and that there are different types. Those who are ready will be encouraged to identify and use nouns effectively in their own writing.
Have a wonderful week,
Ms. Lucy
Elementary Scholars (Grades 2-5)
Teachers:
Hannah Diaz hannah@newmorningschool.com
Christine Jansen christine@newmorningschool.com
Cynthia Weber cynthia@newmorningschool.com
EL Lead Aide: Karen Staples
Marble Party Breakfast
A HUGE thanks to everyone who brought in our pancakes, waffles, fresh fruit, donuts, juice and croissants! What a wonderful feast! We had enough to share with our neighbors: K-1 and middle school! Thank you to Alicia Marouf for the waffles, Jillian Beckley for the pancakes and bacon, Kathryn Peacock for the bacon, Kristen Haas and Elizabeth Scero for the fruit salad, Pauline Nagle, Angella Martzig and Megan Parsons for the croissants, Andrea Schroeder for the scrambled eggs, Andrea Glomski and Jill Johnson for the donuts and Anne Vondracek for the assortment of juice boxes! It truly made filling the marble jar a much appreciated treat!
The Thanksgiving Float Parade was great fun! See the creations on the window outside the room.
We hope to see everyone at the Holiday Workshop!
Christine, Hannah and Cynthia
Middle School Leaders (Grades 6-8)
Teachers:
Linda Hyde linda@newmorningschool.com
Nicole Matoian nicolem@newmorningschool.com
Greetings Middle School Parents.
Let's hope you enjoyed the long Thanksgiving weekend as well as the unseasonably mild weather.
This week begins our countdown to the Winter Holidays. These are busy weeks ahead.
This week we will start preparing our rendition of the classic story "The Night Before Christmas" for our Holiday Performance on December 21st. Also, 8th grade students have begun a Career Exploration Project due in mid-January. Students have chosen the following careers to explore: Ballerina, Preschool Teacher, Structural Engineer, Computer Engineer, and Animator.
As part of their project, students will shadow and interview a person employed in their chosen career. If any of you know anyone in these careers who would welcome a job shadowing experience, please let us know ASAP.
Also this week students will take individualized vocabulary tests on Monday over the words they've encountered in their reading over the past two weeks. Students will also continue their independent reading and record 10 newly-encountered words on their on-line reading logs.
In Language Arts, students will begin new reading and writing units on the theme of "The Outsider." The unit will be differentiated for the three Language Arts groups, but each group will read some short stories, poems, personal essays and memoirs, and will include a number of short answer and essay responses, as well as targeted vocabulary activities. Students will learn how to organize both effective paragraphs as well as the five part essay. They will begin their study of the unit by previewing the themes, reading selections, and new vocabulary they will encounter in the unit.
In Social Studies this week, students will review what they learned about Renaissance Artists as a result of the presentations last week and to prepare for our visit to the Detroit Institute of Arts next week (Wednesday, December 7th) to view the DIA's collection of Renaissance Art. Students are very excited for their visit.
In Math, Group A will use their knowledge of ratios to determine constant speed. They will also use tables to represent ratios. Group B will end their unit by using graphs to represent proportional relationships. They will observe how graphs of proportional relationships differ from graphs of other relationships. Our next unit will be on measuring circles. Group C will complete their study of the slope of a line by writing equations with positive and negative slope as well as vertical and horizontal lines. Our next unit will expand on our knowledge of slope and y-intercept with our study of linear systems.
Enjoy the week!
Ms. Linda and Ms. Nicole
Helpful Links
Contact Us
School Contact Information
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