The Quokka
New Morning School Week 7 10.17.22
A Note from the Heads
Dear Parents,
We had such a joyful time last Monday and Tuesday with Grandparents and Special Friends! They enjoyed learning about our program, listening to Middle School poetry and Elementary writing, hearing songs from K-1 and doing activities with preschool. We saw them engage in STEM activities and Spanish classes too. It was a great day and we are so glad they were able to get a sneak peek of New Morning School.
This week begins our small group Zoom meetings regarding our proposed Bylaw changes. Thank you for signing up and participating in this process. We want to make sure that all of your questions are answered and you receive any information that you need before voting on these changes at our next Community Meet & Greet.
Piaget Nights are coming! If you are a new family, please plan to attend. Also, grandparents are also invited if they would like to learn more about our program. Feel free to add them to the sign-up. Kids Club is available, please sign up at the front desk.
We have many fun and interesting happenings coming up as we head towards Thanksgiving Break. Please keep a close eye each week on The Quokka to stay updated.
Warm regards,
Elaine Kennedy, Head of School & Pauline Nagle, Associate Head of School
Golden Nuggets
Respect and Brain Research
Admiration and respect are positive social emotions often experienced when recognizing excellent behavior in another person. Although both strongly rely on appraisal of behavior, admiration focuses on the admirable behavior of a person, while respect focuses on the person as a whole. Research shows that respect creates a higher intensity in brain function and may be the more desirable trait. At New Morning, it just makes good sense to respect one another!
Our Values - Respect
Quote of the Week
NMS Happenings
Upcoming Dates
Mon, 10/17: Bylaws Engagement Session #1 6:30pm
Tue, 10/18: Piaget Night 6:30-8:30p (Kids Club is available)
Wed, 10/19: Elementary & MS Field Trip (Howell Nature Center)
Fri, 10/21: Spirit Day (Wear your Teal or NMS Gear) and Pizza Lunch
Tues, 10/25: School Picture Day PreK-8
Wed, 10/26: Piaget Night 6:30-8:30p (Kids Club is available)
Fri, 10/28: Spirit Day (Wear your UofM or MSU gear!) and Pizza Lunch
Mon, 10/31: Family FUNdraiser - Boo-la-thon! No regular school, all family trip.
Tues, 11/01: No School - Records Day (Kids Club is available)
News to Note
A Few Reminders...
Boowl-athon Donations: We are planning to fill up some goodie bags for our kiddos to enjoy at the Boowl-athon on Halloween. If you are able, please donate small items such as pencils, tattoos, glow bracelets, etc. to help us fill our goodie bags. Donations can be placed in a box on the table near the mailboxes
Bylaw Engagement Sessions begin on October 17: There are 7 small group discussion meeting times over the next two months. Please RSVP for one group meeting. We encourage every parent to participate. Click on the picture below to sign-up.
The BEST Night of the Year - Piaget Night!
Piaget Night is an evening where you participate in a hands-on learning experience about the developmental stages of development, authored by Jean Piaget. New Morning School's foundation of learning is built on Piaget's work. All new families are required to attend 1 of the two evenings offered. Please choose either Tuesday, October 18 or Wednesday, October 26 to attend. Kids Club is offered if needed. Sign Up in the front office for Kids Club.
Sign Up for Tues. October 18 https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f054eada72da7fe3-piaget5
Sign Up for Wed. October 26 https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f054eada72da7fe3-piaget6
BOOwl-a-thon is BACK for our family Fall Fundraiser!
On Monday, October 31st, we will enjoy spending time in community for our annual Family Fall-FUNdraiser. We will meet at Super Bowl Lanes in Canton (45100 Ford Rd) to enjoy a morning of bowling from 9am-11am. Bumpers are available for younger bowlers. There will be no school in the afternoon.
Please RSVP using the Sign-Up Genius link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F054EADA72DA7FE3-boowlathon
Treats for Troops Program
We will have a drop-off box in the front office for all those extra Halloween sweets. So, please stop by the front office during school hours between Tuesday 11/1 through end of day Tuesday 11/8 and drop off thosoe treats to sweeten a soldier's day!
School Auction - 50th Anniversary Gala
As a reminder, please help us by bringing in:
*1 bottle of your favorite wine
*1 bottle of liquor
*lottery tickets
*child's toy (around $25 value) to help kick off auction season.
You may leave them at the table in front of the family mailboxes with your family's name attached. These items will count towards your family's merchandise commitment.
We've also included the helpful information and support links below, that was emailed to you last week, for your convenience. Please reach out with any questions you might have as we work together to Go for the Gold!
Thank you,
Auction Team
Classroom Updates
Preschool Brainstormers
Preschool Teachers:
Marisa Downs marisa@newmorningschool.com
Danielle Provencher danielle@newmorningschool.com
Preschool Lead Aide: Crystal GerwatowskiPreschool News
We’d like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the grandparents and special friends who visited last week. Witnessing all the smiles, laughs, and hugs was truly special. We hope the guests enjoyed themselves and they are welcome back anytime!
This week we’ll have our own preschool pumpkin palooza! Friends visiting the art table may choose to puffy paint pumpkins, make a suncatcher pumpkin, and/or finger paint the biggest collaborative pumpkin. At discovery friends may pound and explore the guts of pumpkins. They can also do some pumpkin math. We’ll have orange slime at the sensory tables. Additionally, we have many great pumpkin stories to read together and a cute song to sing. It’s going to be a fun week!
We are excited to add sharing to our specials schedule. Wednesday friends may choose to bring in something from home that is meaningful to them. They can talk about and demonstrate how they use the item. We appreciate items that are not too big for the child to hold independently. Below is our current specials schedule.
Monday - Spanish
Tuesday - Reading Buddies with Middle School
Wednesday - Sharing (show and tell)
Thursday - Gym and Reading Buddies with Elementary
Friday - Spanish and Gym
Our teachers for the letter D are Julia and Catherine in Danielle’s room and Atticus and Evelyn in Marisa’s. Our friends have learned C, O, & A so far. Encourage them to find them all over their environment, on signs while driving or walking, in books, and everywhere else.
Check out the general news section for information about our upcoming BOOwlathon and picture day. Other reminders: We’d like to request an arrival no later than 8:45 in the morning. We begin our classes at 9am. Thank you for making your best effort to be on time. Other reminders are to check your family mailbox by the copy machine and please send in a family picture for us to post in our classrooms. Pizza Fridays are up and running.
Have a wonderful week, families!
~Danielle and Marisa
Primary Explorers (Grades K-1)
Teacher: Lucy Bratt lucy@newmorningschool.com
K-1 Lead Aide: Shelley Blakeney
Dear Parents,
It was a shortened week last week, but we managed to cram a lot in! Thank you to all the grandparents and special friends who came to visit on Monday, we really enjoyed having you and the children had a wonderful time showing off their classroom to you. On Thursday we held a whole school fire drill. The K-1 children had a lot of questions beforehand, but handled the drill extremely well. They were sensible and followed all instructions perfectly, which made me very proud indeed.
As Halloween approaches, we are starting a project this week in which we will be building a spooky haunted house from recycled 3D shapes. The children will be working collaboratively to design and build a haunted house, which eventually they will market for sale. This project will combine elements of research, math, reading, writing, technology, art and STEM. Per my request last week, if you have been saving empty boxes or toilet paper tubes etc, please send them in this week. We shall be needing to use them from Wednesday onwards.
Additionally, in writing this week we will be continuing to work on writing super sentences. We shall also be working on sequencing narratives.
In reading, my beginner readers will be learning the phonics sounds h, r, m and d. More advanced readers will be working on sight words for spellings and vocabulary. Each week we have been reading a Julia Donaldson book as a class, and our book this week is one of my absolute favorites - “Room on The Broom”. We will be using this as our basis for sequencing narratives.
In math we will be starting our unit on shapes. Children will learn to identify 2D and 3D shapes and to be able to describe and sort them according to similar and differing attributes. We will also be conducting a survey to collect data, which we will then use to construct a chart or graph.
The weather is due to be a lot colder and wetter this week. Please ensure your child has suitable boots and a warm, waterproof outer layer - we will be going outside no matter what.
Have a wonderful, autumnal 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
Howell Nature Center
Just a reminder: we will leave for the Howell Nature Center at 8:30am. This field trip is all outside so everyone needs to dress warmly. I would suggest layers, gloves, hats and warm shoes. Everyone should bring a disposable lunch and water bottle. We intend to leave by 2:15 to arrive back to school by 3pm.
If your child requires a booster seat, please leave it on the bench for us to use. We no longer have spare seats to use. Unfortunately, if they don't have a booster and need one, they will stay at school.
Early Explorers
Last week everyone worked on a timeline of when explorers made their discoveries and played a scavenger hunt to "navigate" through our room using the directions of North, South, East and West. This week they will be preparing for their "trip", learning about spices, knots and survival.
Everyone is working well together and learning to work as a team through our activities.
We are going to have a great week,
Christine, Hannah and Cynthia
Middle School Leaders (Grades 6th-8th)
Teachers:
Linda Hyde linda@newmorningschool.com
Nicole Matoian nicolem@newmorningschool.com
Hello Middle School families!
We have a busy week ahead of us! Thank you to the parents and grandparents who
signed up to drive to the Howell Nature Center this Wednesday. Your efforts are much
appreciated! We're looking to have a lot of fun!
This week in Language Arts, students will write some of their final poems for their poetry books. Language Arts Group A will complete their Concrete poems, write a Juxtaposition poem, and begin work on a Free Verse poem. Language Arts groups B and C will complete their Sonnets, write a Villanelle, and begin work on a Free Verse poem. We will take a break from the Vocabulary Stories this week. Instead, students will prepare for a test over the meaning and spelling of the vocabulary words that they've worked with over the last four weeks. They will take this test next Monday, October 24th during their Language Arts class. Finally, students will work with frequently confused
Homophones and Idioms this week.
In Social Studies, students will complete and present their Google slides presentations
on members of the powerful Medici Family whose members greatly influenced the
Renaissance.
In Math, Group A will use their knowledge of area of 2-dimentional shapes to determine
the surface area of 3-dimentional shapes. They will begin by calculating the surface
area of rectangular prisms. Math Group B will complete the unit on scaled drawings and
review the material for the unit assessment which will be next Tuesday. Math Group C
will determine whether shapes are congruent to each other by comparing and
contrasting side lengths, angle measures, and areas using rigid transformations.
Have a great week and be on the lookout for a sign-up for Parent-Teacher Conferences
to be scheduled for Wednesday, November 9th and Thursday, November 17th.
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