Dear Families:

This is a hard newsletter to write because it's our last full week of school! Since I am in denial, I will make it short and sweet!

PAC is hosting one final fundraiser, a FUN RUN. Families are welcome to join us on the field on May 24th. Grades 3, 4, 5 will run at 8:30am and Grades K, 1, 2 will run at 9:30am. Our goal is to raise $10,000 to fund school events. This fundraiser is unique in that each day students will be learning about various character traits. We have already raised $8500!! GO MSES FAMILIES!

As we embark on the final weeks of this academic year, I encourage you to celebrate your child's accomplishments and milestones. Take time to reflect on their growth, not just academically but also personally. Celebrate their resilience, their determination, and their ability to adapt in the face of adversity. While this year may have presented its fair share of challenges, it has also provided opportunities for personal growth and valuable life lessons.

Have a lovely weekend!

Warmly,

Maria

“It’s GO time! Don’t wait to join!”

Manitou Springs Elementary School families,

The day is here! You can now register for our Manitou Springs Elementary Fun Run! Our goal is to raise $10,000 for PAC Budget for Classroom & School Resources. Registering is easy and free!

️ Register Now On MYBOOSTER.COM ️

Be sure to check out the easy sharing functions on MYBOOSTER.COM to let others know how they can help support our school.

Thank you for working with us to make our school stronger. We are grateful for your support!

Kindergartners have been busy learners this year! They have learned how to be a part of a school community, explored their emotions and how to label them, discovered possible solutions to social problems, learned the foundations for "cracking the code" to reading, they have become mathematicians, and SO MUCH MORE!! It has been fun watching them learn and grow this year together. We just completed our final social studies domain of the school year learning all about American symbols and some influential presidents of the past. We focused on George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Barack Obama. Students were even invited to bring teddy bears to school as we explored Theordore Roosevelt's inspiration for their creation. Here are some questions to ask your little one as we head into the summer:

• What are some of your favorite things you learned about in kindergarten?
• What were some things that challenged you?
• What are the names of some of the friends you made this year?
• How do you feel about going to first grade?
• What are some of your concerns?
• What do you think we can do this summer to make sure our brains stay strong? (Write to a pen pal, visit museums and zoos, go to the local library, practice writing letters, CVC words, and sentences, look at tricky words and go exploring!!!!

Mrs. Schneider’s kindergartners and Ms. WoytkoMorris’s third graders met for their final buddies. They supported each other with tracing their hands and coloring them in. Then they signed everybody’s by putting their thumbprints.

First grade mathematicians have been working hard on recognizing shapes and their attributes.

Ask your experts what shapes have four sides and four corners. (Quadrilaterals)

Can you name some quadrilaterals? (Rectangle, rhombus, square, and trapezoid)

What is the difference between a flat shape and a 3D shape? (A 3D shape has depth)

How can you split a candy bar between two people and make it fair? Four people? (Cut it into halves or quarters)

In Listening and Learning we have been learning all about the Western Frontier.

Who was Daniel Boone and what did he do? (He was a woodsman that helped create the Wilderness Road. The Wilderness Road was a route that stagecoaches could take through the Appalachian Mountains.)

Who hired Meriwether Lewis and William Clark? (Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States.)

What were Lewis’ and Clark’s three tasks? (They were sent to find an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean, collect samples of plants and animals and to befriend the Native Americans.)

What was the name of the expedition? (The corps of Discovery.)

Who was Sacagawea? (She was a Native American girl who was an interpreter for the Corps of Discovery. She was from the Shoshone people and helped Lewis and Clark with a baby on her back.)

2nd Graders are cruising into the last week of school! Our kiddos received their Monster stuffies this week. This was a collaborative project between 2nd and 7th grade students. Our students had the opportunity to create their own monster using mixed media. They were then presented to 7th grade students, who used their drawing to create a stuffy that they gave to them on Monday and Tuesday. It was such a wonderful opportunity for older and younger students to work with each other.

We also kicked off our Booster Fun Run and have had mini lessons on character traits. So far we have learned about stewardship, bravery, and perseverance.

Students also got to watch their peers in Maestra Lillemon's cultural dance. We loved watching them show off their skills.

May is the perfect month for our Ecology unit! We begin with the word ecology, which is the study of relationships between living things and their environment. Your expert can explain to you that an ecosystem is everything in a particular environment, both living and nonliving. Students have been learning about a food chain (the relationship of living things as food sources for other living things) and food webs (interconnected food chains). Ask your expert to describe a food chain. They should include the words producers (living things that make their own food), consumers (living things that eat other living things), and decomposers (living things that eat dead plant and animal matter). Your expert ecologist is also learning about the natural balance of ecosystems, and how easily this balance can be disrupted. Ask your expert to list some natural changes that affect an ecosystem’s equilibrium. (Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, wildfires, floods) See if they can also describe changes to the environment that are made by humans. (Oil spills, pollution, acid rain, removing natural habitats for crops and development, climate change) What are some ways that we can help to protect our planet? Reduce, reuse, recycle!! We will wrap up our Ecology unit by learning about environmentalist John Muir, who is well known here in Colorado for this quote; “The mountains are calling, and I must go!”

A message from Mr. Niebuhr:

*First, I would like to send. a huge thank you to all the parents that helped out on field day, and that will be helping out on Friday's field day...not only this year, but all the years we have been doing these events.

*Next, well, this has been a most incredible time in my life. what a blessing it has been for me. teaching your children has indeed been an honor. I will never forget all my years working at Manitou elementary school, watching you children grow, not only in elementary school, but seeing them in middle school, high school and many, I still see with their own families.

thank you all.

It has been a most incredible run.

Attention Potters and Poets:

There will be a Free Poetry and Pottery Event at Soda Springs Pavilion for 7 consecutive Tuesdays this summer. Free sessions will begin on Tuesday, June 13th through Tuesday, July 25th from Noon to 2pm.

5th Grade Magazine

Congratulations, Magazine Group, on an awesome eight-page publication! Color paper copies are available in the office or from Ms. Kanaga for $0.75. Or, to enjoy the online magazine in bursting color, here is the link: https://enewspaper.makemynewspaper.com/b4cefc30f79989/2023-05-08-finalradicalresearchreviewspring2023

Summer Reading Resources

* Find award winning books for primary grade levels: https://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/notalists/ncb

* 5th Grade Battle of the Books List from 2022-2023 to start your 4th Grader reading; only two books change every year: https://pikespeakbob.org/book-list/

MSSD14 Gifted and Talented Newsletter

https://www.smore.com/0513n

At-Home Summer Extensions:

https://www.hmhco.com/blog/fun-summer-learning-activities-for-elementary-middle-school-students

MSES Camp Invention:

July 10-14, 9am to 3:30pm, $260

* Register students entering Kindergarten through 6th Grades and Leaders in Training (1/2 price for 7th, 8th, 9th Graders) at www.campinvention.com

* Volunteering: Leadership Interns (10th, 11th, 12th Graders) 40 hours from the National Inventors Hall of Fame

* Partial Scholarships available through Kristen Kanaga, kkanaga@mssd14.org

With so much media and information coming at us through the television, phones, social media and more, it's more important than ever for children to understand the basics of media literacy. When children can identify different types of news and media, and the methods and meanings behind them, they're on their way to being critical thinkers and smart consumers.

Encourage healthy skepticism.

Help them analyze the messages around them -- from toy packaging to news headlines -- and question the purpose of the words and images they see.

Play "spot the advert".

When you see advertising on TV or on a hoarding, ask children to figure out what the advert is selling. Sometimes it's obvious and sometimes it isn't. Help them explore why certain pictures, sounds or words are used to sell certain products.

Explore different sides of a story.

Use real-life examples to help children understand how people can view the same situation from totally different perspectives. One child might experience a game in the playground as fun, while another might feel like the rules are unfair. When appropriate, tie this example to a news story.

Discuss fact vs. opinion.

Play around with ideas and decide which are facts and which are opinions. Ask: How tall are you? What's the best food in the world? Do rocks sink or float? Do you like dogs? Point out that both facts and opinions show up in the news, but opinions are usually labelled.

Choose a variety of sources.

Show children how you get news and information from different places and explain how you make your choices. Use words like "credible", "trustworthy", "respected" and "fair". As children get older, introduce the ideas of "bias", "satire" and "clickbait".