Dear Parents,

We hope that each of you enjoyed the long holiday weekend. We have to be on our game to start the week on a Tuesday!

Two important items are coming up on the calendar:

• Tues., Jan. 24, is our Community Eat & Meet.
• We will start with a pot luck dinner, so please bring a dish to share.
• This is an important meeting because we need a quorum. We will vote to approve our new by-laws. They are attached to this document. We had small group meetings in the fall to explain the changes. If you have questions, talk to us.
• And finally, at the Community Eat and Meet, we will break into small groups to learn about the next higher program. If your child is in preschool, you'll learn about kindergarten, and so forth. You'll get all of your questions answered.
• On February 2, auction merchandise and raffle tickets are due.
• Our new families each have a coach, so check with that person or email either of us.

It will be good to be all together at our Community Eat and Meet!

Warm regards,

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

With Student Museum being a major endeavor at New Morning School, students are learning the value of "perseverance". We believe that by holding onto the goals that you make and breaking them into steps, you will reach your vision. Our yearly museum project supports this value. Sometimes the endurance it take to work through this 6 week project can become overwhelming. Students learn that by doing bite-sized action, they will see their project through and be very proud at the end. Please be sure that you have marked Sunday, February 12 from 2-3:30pm in your calendar for Student Museum. Your child will be ready and excited to have you come and see their presentation!

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races, one after the other. - Walter Elliot (former Secretary of State Scotland)

Tue 01/24: Community Meet & Greet - required Bylaws vote 6:30p and Pot Luck

Mon 01/30: Preschool Parent Focus Group 6pm

Thu 02/02: 100% Auction Merchandise and Raffle Tickets DUE

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

Sun 02/12: Museum: 1:00 family 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

Tue 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.

We will send out a Sign-Up Genius and zoom links in a separate email. For now, here are the dates for you to attend to add to your calendar. I'm really looking forward to meeting with you.

Warm regards,

Pauline Nagle

Monday, January 30 6pm Preschool

Monday, February 6 6pm Middle School

Monday, February 27 6pm Elementary

Monday, Mar 6 6pm K-1

Saturday, Mar 18 9am Make-Up

Young children and their grown-ups are invited to frolic this Winter at New Morning School. Me and My Shadow is a toddler and parent program designed around 2 and 3 year olds. The program allows toddlers an opportunity to experience a preschool setting. Our Me & My Shadow classes provide special one-on-one time for parents and children and first steps toward socializing with other children.

Parents and children will enjoy • Music • Finger-play • Art • Readiness • Snack • Story time

Please share with your family and friends that are parents of toddlers! Thanks for spreading the word!

New Morning is a great place for kids and families. Thank you for choosing us to be your school community. We are even greater when wonderful families like you join as well. Please share our Open House dates with families, friends, neighbors, relatives that you think would enjoy our program as much as you do!

Plastomer Corporation is our presenting sponsor for our 50th Anniversary Gala! Plastomer Corporation supplies its customers with an unlimited selection of fabricated products that include foams, rubber, and any soft or semi-rigid material, either die cut or formed to shape. Plastomer and Bill Baughman has been a long-standing supporting of New Morning School, sponsoring for over 30 years. Bill's children attended New Morning and Bill currently sits on the NMS Board. THANK YOU for all of your support!

NMS families scheduled to clean the school this weekend are the Corliss, Huber, Haas, Edwards/Baker and Martzig families. Cleaning checklists will be available on the counter at the front desk Friday afternoon. Thank you for keeping our school sparkling clean!

Preschool Teachers:

Marisa Downs marisa@newmorningschool.com

Danielle Provencher danielle@newmorningschool.com

The surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others

- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

Greetings, Preschool family and friends,

This week we continue to expand our growing knowledge of guinea pigs as well as continue to let our girls settle into their new furever home here with us at New Morning School. We are still narrowing down names for them, and currently voting on it. Check the list in Marisa‘s room to see which names are up for voting.

At our discovery centers we’ll compare size differences between guinea pigs and other rodents and host a taste testing experience. Kiddos can eat like guinea pigs, munching on carrots🥕, a variety of leafy greens 🥬 , and strawberry tops 🍓 , which are indeed filled with much nutritional value. We will happily accept small bags of fresh fruit and veggies for the guinea pigs. *No iceberg lettuce as this particular leafy green is not guinea pig friendly.

A link to the Humane Society of America is attached for information on guinea pig diets.

https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/guinea-pig-feeding

We will create skeletons of guinea pigs and explore the magic of tape resist painting at our art centers. Field corn will continue keeping hands happy and busy at our sensory tables this week.

Our keen and kind “Teachers of the Week” this week for the letter ‘Kk’ are Elsie and Esmeralda in Marisa’s room and Catherine and Willa in Danielle’s room.

The guinea pigs are quickly proving to be such a fantastic addition to our NMS family. Relationships are being fostered and strengthened through our two furry additions. We would like to give a grand thank you to the Haddad-Escobar family for hosting our guinea pigs this past extended weekend. If you have the space and time please consider opening your homes to our gals for the upcoming long weekend in February. They will be looking for a vacay host from Friday, February 17 through Wednesday, February 22.

The love and care for the piggies that so many have already shared is beautiful. Their care is ongoing and we have put together a little wishlist for guinea pigs needs and supplies. Check out the link attached!

https://www.amazon.com/registries/custom/1DL6WYBXYPLXL/guest-view

☀️Here’s to a positive & productive week ahead ☀️

~Marisa & Danielle

Teacher: Pauline Nagle pauline@newmorningschool.com

K-1 Lead Aide: Shelley Blakeney

Dear Parents,

We had a great week last week in the K-1 classroom. We have enjoyed our daily Morning Meeting where we played 1-2-3 split with Would you Rather...? questions and revealed mystery bags each day. We continue to work on our Vision Boards and the kids are enjoying the project. Soon they will practice their presentation skills by presenting their board to the class.

Reading

In phonics, we learned th and qu. We have a few more digraphs to learn in the next few weeks. They will then have learned all of their single and digraph sounds. Depending on your child's reading ability, we will be practicing with decodable book reading and early readers. We will continue our Classroom Book A Day read alouds and ask important critical thinking questions along the way. Last week, we focused in on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. The discussions or "turn and talks" were well thought through as we talked about what is fair and how we can make change in peaceful ways.

Writing

Students continue to write in their daily journals. With all of their phonetic learning, they are now able to sound out most of the words that they are writing. While they may not yet know all of the spelling patterns, if they can read and understand their writing, that is developmentally appropriate for this age. They are becoming more independent and can write for longer periods of time. We also continue to practice handwriting. As you see your child writing at home, please encourage them to form the letters at the correct starting point.

It's definitely museum time! Last week we worked on our questions for our museum research. We are now reading our books and finding the answer to our questions. Thank you to Ms. Andrea who is helping us with the art paper mache' projects in K-1! It is time to for us to begin working on our boards. Each child will need a 3x4 trifold cardboard presentation board. You can easily order them from an office supply store or Amazon. Please bring in your child's board by Monday, January 23rd.

Math

In math, I have been working through a mid-year check so that I can understand your child's math strengths and needs going forward. We continue to build number sense through games and play.

Feel free to reach out with any questions, needs or concerns as they arise. Email, text, or catch me at school any time.

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

This is the week we push through researching answers to the questions our young scholars have determined they would like to know about their topics. We set a goal of Friday, January 20 for all of our questions answered before we begin pursuing the paper mache, dioramas, maps and diagrams! As always, we break up the steps into meaningful pieces that enable our scholars to succeed.

Again, if you would like to spend an hour or so assisting our scholars to do the research on their questions, we would love to have you! The scholars are doing well and are focused on learning about their topics, so it’s great fun to see them so passionate and driven.

Math

Ms. Pauline shared a website with me that allows our scholars an easy way to practice their math facts from addition/ subtraction to multiplication/division. The scholars have visited the site at school and have been driven to better their own scores. It gives them 10 facts to answer within 35 seconds in order to progress to the next level. Practicing a little everyday will make everyone more fluent and confident in their calculations! Math Drills Thanks for passing it on Ms. Pauline!

Sleep

We had a discussion in class about giving your body the time it needs to repair and store information in the brain and the importance of sleep on their young bodies. Some scholars shared the times they go to bed, many were much later than their teachers stay up! We know with many activities and family schedules, bed times can be tricky. Please encourage your child to go to bed at a time that supports them. Not being able to focus on their work when they are tired makes learning an uphill battle every day. This is a chart from the CDC and their recommendations for sleep.

Thank you for your continued support this school year. We know it takes a village at New Morning School and we are glad to partner with you this year.

The Elementary Crew,

Ms. Cynthia, Ms. Christine & Ms. Hannah

Teachers:

Linda Hyde linda@newmorningschool.com

Nicole Matoian nicolem@newmorningschool.com

Hello Middle School Parents!

This week marks the second full week of Museum studies. Three weeks to go until the big day, February 12th. The students are doing a great job keeping up with deadlines and reading to answer their research questions. This week they will continue to take notes, record and document their sources, and prepare to construct an outline that will help to guide their research paper. Due dates this week include their Display Element Selections on Tuesday, Jan 17th, half of their note pages on Wednesday, the 18th, and their finalized Works Cited page on Friday the 20th. All of these deadlines can be found on the Museum Planning Sheet posted on google classroom. While students are researching and taking notes, they have been reminded to look for, record, and define pertinent vocabulary related to their topics as well as interesting and important "Fun Facts" related to their topics. Make sure to ask your children to share what they've learned so far in their research. I'm sure you'll be amazed!

In Social Studies, students will complete their Renaissance Assessments by Wednesday and then read about the contributions and accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King whose birthday we celebrated on Monday.

In Math, Group A will divide and express whole numbers and fractions as decimals in preparation for our study of unit rates. Group B will complete their study of the circumference and area of circles and take a short assessment this Thursday. Group C will create linear equations and determine whether they have no solution, one solution, or an infinite number of solutions.

Enjoy your week!

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