Dear Families:

This week brings Valentine's Day, a special day for elementary students. If your child is bringing Valentine's cards, please make sure you have one for each and every student in class. It's no fun being left out!

We have conferences this next week beginning Thursday, February 16th. We release at 12:00 noon on the 16th. There is no school Friday. If you have not signed up for a conference, please sign up here: Sign up Genius.

Morning parking and drop off are available from 7:30-8:00am, at the Hiawatha Parking lot at Prospect Place and Manitou Avenue. You can also park at Manitou Congregational Church during that time as well.

The Book Fair is back beginning Monday, February 13th. The Fair is open from 7:30-8:00am and 3-3:30 daily. Thursday, the Book Fair is open throughout conferences

We celebrated the 100th day of school, which brought some new faces, or should I say, old faces to school. Check out the pictures below!

Warmly,

Maria

• Feb 16: Half Day - 12:00pm Dismissal - Family Conferences
• Feb 17: No School for Students - Family Conferences
• Feb 20: School Closed - Presidents' Day
• Mar 1: Late Start Wednesday (2 Hour Delay for Students)
• Mar 8: Late Start Wednesday (2 Hour Delay for Students)
• Mar 15: Late Start Wednesday (2 Hour Delay for Students)
• Mar 16: MSES Space Night! @ Space Foundation Discovery Center, 5-7pm
• Mar 22: Late Start Wednesday (2 Hour Delay for Students)
• Mar 27-31: SCHOOL CLOSED - SPRING BREAK!

In celebration of Mardi Gras and The Manitou Carnivale, students can pair with the MAC afterschool to make shoebox floats. Saturday, February 11, the MAC will be hosting a shoebox float workshop from 1-3pm. The floats will be on display until Fat Tuesday (February 21) when the King and Queen will view and award winners.

First grade is learning all about the history of our home planet, Earth. Gerry the Geologist has taught us all about the layers of Earth (crust, mantle, inner core, and outer core). He has also taught us about volcanoes, geysers, minerals and so much more. Mr. Paul is not only our custodian but is a former geophysicist. He did a presentation on the three different types of rocks (igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic). Ask your expert: On which layer of the earth do we live? (The crust) Why is the inner core solid rather than liquid? (The inner core is solid because of the pressure from the weight of the rest of the Earth.) What is a gemstone? (A gemstone is a stone that is cut and polished to be used as jewelry.)

Third graders are learning about Vikings! Ask your expert who the earliest known Europeans to travel to North America were, the Vikings! They were also called Northmen or Norsemen. Your expert should be able to tell you the Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden and Denmark) that these Norsemen were from, and who and where they explored and settled lands. Ingolf explored Iceland, Eric the Red settled in Greenland, and Leif the Lucky discovered Newfoundland (and the Inuit!). Just like other civilizations (Greeks, Romans), they believed in many gods and goddesses. Ask your expert to share some of the Loki stories and retell the trouble he causes for Odin and Thor. The Norsemen were excellent ship builders, so enjoy our longships and shields!

Fifth graders have been busy, particularly in starting their Science Fair project (the actual Fair is April 6th). Ask your expert: Why do we need to do research for our project? (Research from a "good" source helps us to form a hypothesis for our projects). What is a hypothesis? (an assumed answer to a question that can be proven with testing/experiment; the start of the scientific process for the project). We've also started our new CKLA Poetry unit. We are reading and writing different forms of poetry each day. Ask your expert: What is an apostrophe poem? (a poem that addresses someone/something not present). What is a stanza? (a section of a poem; much like a paragraph in writing). What is sarcasm? (a way to explain a certain meaning with opposite sounding words/feelings).

5 cybersecurity and privacy tips you can tell your children

Fostering habits for some simple yet good cybersecurity and privacy best practices early on can go a long way.

1. Lock the device.

When it's time to put away the phone or tablet so your child can do something else like going to the park, remind them to lock it. They can do this by pressing the power button of the device. Of course, this only works if you have Lock Screen enabled on the device.

If your child is 5 years old and up, you can explain to them that locking the phone or tablet stops other people from using it without asking permission.

2. Use passwords.

Of course, in order to lock a device's screen, a password is needed in this case. Not going for a pattern lock is deliberate. At this stage, we're not only seeding the idea of creating strong passwords but also making locking devices the norm (From 2016 to 2018, a reported 28 percent of Americans surveyed failed to use any safeguards to lock their phones).

Don’t be too concerned about length yet, but if you can get your little one to spell out and remember a six to eight-character string—ideally, a word—you're both golden. We started our little one with a three-letter password to open her tablet when she was four, and we plan to triple that length now that she's two years older.

3. Keep the device in a safe place.

Instruct your little one to put away the phone or tablet after they lock it. Make sure you already have a designated place in the house that your child knows about. Also, check that this place is accessible, and if it has doors, they can easily open and close them with minimal effort and supervision.

Under a pillow on the master's bed works, too (just don't forget to remove it before bedtime).

4. Ask for permission.

Your five-year-old may have access to either the Google Play or Apple App stores via the device you're letting them use. Whether you have parental controls set up for these stores or not, wouldn't it be great to hear them ask: "Is this okay to download, mum?" This gives you, the parent or guardian, the opportunity to review the app to see if it's any good for them (Remember, dubious apps can still end up in these stores.).

The same principle should apply when they're watching videos on YouTube.

Every now and again, we see or read about cute or cartoony clips that are not actually for kids' consumption. And believe it or not, some of them were purposefully made to appear inviting to young children. To be safe, a critical eye is needed because, sometimes, even YouTube's AI can get it wrong.

5. Share only with relatives and close family friends.

Kiddo loves having her picture taken. Sometimes, she would ask me to take a snap and send it to her Nana, who is part of an Instagram group.

Thankfully, only family members—and those close to us who're treated as family—are members of that group. We would've been reluctant to share otherwise.

Kiddo doesn't have a single social media account, but we're already instilling in her the value of information related to her and, consequently, us. She knows our home address, for example, and she also knows she should only share it with a policeman or policewoman if she's lost.

Final thoughts

The computing devices and apps your little one uses are already impacting them in more ways than one. It's essential to steer them in the right direction by getting ourselves involved in their digital lives as early as possible. There is plenty of room for growth.

So, parents and guardians, be patient. Put these points on repeat and expand on them. And, if you're lucky, be thankful that before your child starts school, they already have some of the cybersecurity and privacy basics down.