MCS Who's Wise Words 10/14/2022
Created just to keep you informed
Important Dates
● Wednesday, October 19 - Parent Teacher Conferences
● Wednesday, November 9, 9:15am - Coffee Talk, MCS Multipurpose Room;
Topic: Back Playground Design● Friday, November 11 - Holiday, No School
● Wednesday, November 23 - Friday, November 25 - Thanksgiving Recess, No School
Message From The Principal
Specials Rotation for the week of October 17
Monday —D
Tuesday __E
Wednesday Conferences -No School
Thursday__F
Friday — G
On Wednesday we will be hosting parent/teacher conferences. This is a great time for you to get some time with your child’s teacher to check in about how the year is progressing. We are holding conferences now as a midway check in before report cards come out.
Sometimes it is tricky to come up with just the right questions to ask during conferences. Here are questions you might consider asking at your parent-teacher conference. A prepared parent with a positive attitude and an open mind is on the right track for creating a successful, year-long partnership with his child's teacher.
What is it that you want my child to learn?
Is my child taking advantage of the opportunities he/she is given at school? If not, how can we work together to encourage my child to engage in school?
What are you doing as the classroom teacher to make sure you have a full understanding of my child’s needs?
How are you responding to my child when he/she is having difficulty with the material in your classroom?
If my child is falling behind when other children may have moved on, how are you addressing this?
How are you responding when my child has mastered the material, and others have not?
How can we support you at home? Are there games or activities that we could play as a family?
What changes does my child need to make in his/her behavior to be more successful at school?
Teachers are super excited to have parents in the building this year. Please remember that very often our teachers have back to back conferences for the majority of the day. If you find that your time is going past quickly and you still have questions, I encourage you to ask for an additional conference on a different day.
Last evening I attended the PTO meeting, which I encourage each of you to do. MCS has a thriving PTO that is super supportive of our school. One of the topics that came up was volunteerism. This year we are allowing and encouraging volunteers to help us out. If you would like to volunteer please contact Teal Parker, tealparker@hanovernorwichschools.org who will assist you with the entire process. We do require volunteers to have a background check and be fingerprinted. Teal is committed to making the process of volunteering simple and easy. If you have not yet heard back letting you know if you have been cleared to volunteer, please feel free to reach out to Teal.
Finally, I would like to just send out a thank you for trusting us with your children. I may be a bit biased, but in my opinion, MCS has the BEST students and families. We are lucky to have your support. There is no better way to spend each day than with 300+ happy, cheerful children.
Have a splendid weekend,
Shawn
Message From Student Services
This past Wednesday, I shared some information regarding our new universal screener and diagnostic tool, i-Ready.
This nationally normed assessment takes the place of Track My progress, which some of you may have heard from years past. We used Track My Progress to measure growth and ELA and Math. i-Ready does the same thing, but it is also a diagnostic tool which shows particular areas of strength or growth for individual students. We also use i-Ready to help us determine instructional groupings within the classroom and give students personalized instruction.
While i-Ready gives teachers a lot more information, it does not take the place of instruction or classroom work. If you would like to experience what your child experienced please login by following the instructions below.
Website:
https://pd.i-ready.com/
Login: D11V_Gr3Student616d_DS
Password: Demo4Educators (You can enter Vermont as your State on the login page)
Have Great Weekend,
Greg
School News and Information
Instrumental Lessons this week:
Monday (Day D) 7:45 6th clarinet; 8:05 5th grade clarinet/saxophone
Tuesday (Day E) 7:45 6th flute; 8:05 5th flute *
Thursday (Day F) 7:45 6th saxophone; gr. 2-6 fiddlers
Friday (Day G) 7:45 6th trumpet/trombone; 8:05 5th trumpet/trombone/horn
* we won’t have the 5th grade flute lesson this morning due to community groups, but please bring your instrument anyways and we will try to make up the lesson at recess!
Winter Celebrations Concert!!!
Hello all, I am excited to share that we will be able to invite you to several concerts this year! Our first two will be in December (dates and times TBA). There will be two performances, one for grades K-2 and one for grades 3-6. At these concerts, we traditionally perform a variety of music about…
Friendship and community
Winter fun (sledding, snowfall, sleigh rides, gathering together)
Secular (non-religious) traditions/holidays like the winter solstice and New Year’s Day
Songs from all around the world and songs from many years ago
The intent is to share a wealth of music from many traditions, cultures, and times. If there is a winter tradition that is important to your family and you don’t see it on my list, please write me about it! I would love to include new traditions that represent our entire community and am always on the lookout for new music to add to our repertoire. I can be reached at travisramsey@hanovernorwichschools.org and I would love to learn about what your family celebrates each winter.
Technology News
A huge, warm thank you to all the parents of sixth grade who donated to the Robotics teams! The teams are working on gathering ideas for their innovation project. The theme of this year’s First Lego League challenge is all about energy sources. Competitors have to design a robot and code it so that it carries out energy missions on a game table. The missions have to be completed within 2 ½ minutes. Competitors also have to complete an innovation project and research articles about real world energy sources. Students have to interview experts, come up with a solution to improve an existing energy source, engineer a prototype, and then get feedback from an expert to improve their model. Students then have to present their idea to judges in the form of a skit or whatever form they choose. Along the way, students regularly participate in core value exercises to help them to learn to value their teammates and become gracious competitors. Last week we interviewed an expert from our nearby Wilder Dam. Did you know that the Wilder dam can output 41 MWH of electricity to our community in one day? On Wednesday, a sustainability expert from Dartmouth named
Rosi Kerr came to talk to us about the new geothermal project that’s being built on Dartmouth’s campus. She was awesome, and was able to answer so many of our students’ really good questions. (Read about the Dartmouth project in the Valley News.) The robotics program at MCS is more than just robots; it's about teaching young people valuable life skills that will be vital for the future workforce.
Third graders have also been busy using Legos to learn all about energy journeys. Did you know that one way to store energy is to load a train with rubble then pull it up an incline, and then, when the electricity is needed, the train can roll down and the energy it creates to turn a turbine can be used to power a generator? Third graders are learning all about energy in combination with core values that help them become better teammates. They’re also learning how to build and code Lego inventions that demonstrate energy sources, energy distribution, energy storage, and energy consumption.
Niki Oney, Educational Technology Specialist, Robotics Coach
Dartmouth Sustainability Expert answering questions from 6th graders about Geothermal Energy
What is Happening in the Health Office
Next week on Thursday and Friday, 10/20 and 10/21 we will be doing school wide vision screening. If your child needs to wear corrective lenses please make sure they are at school and wearing them for the screening. Thank you for your support.
PE News:
Tick Awareness has been one of our hiking safety tips this week! Most PE classes have been taking a closer look at ticks and identifying which ticks are most harmful to humans and animals during the fall months. It has become clear to me that our students at MCS are proud of their environmental knowledge and truly respect the land surrounding our school
Here are a few questions to use as conversation starters over the weekend;
Safety Tip #1 What should you do before you leave on your adventure?
(Share where you are going with someone.)
Safety Tip #2 What should you do if you are lost in the woods?
(Stay in place, yell for help, whistle 3 times for an emergency, build a nest if help does not come.)
Safety Tip #3 Why should you do a tick check? What type of tick spreads lyme disease? Which deer tick is the only one who feeds during the fall months? What does the female deer tick look like?
(To help prevent the spread of lyme disease. Deer ticks. We will see all types of ticks creeping and crawling, however only the female deer tick will attach for a blood meal for another month or so. The female deer tick has a black head, black legs, and a red/ orange body.)
A big thank you goes out to Miss Amy, our environmental education coordinator, for collaborating and sharing her resources to make our PE activities more exciting for all of our students. As we make our way through the 7 day specials schedule, some PE classes will gain this hands-on experience next week. If your child has PE class or is simply playing in the yard at home, adding daily tick checks to your morning and nightly routines are encouraged this time of year.
Be well,
Melanie Farwell, MCS PE Teacher
PTO Bulletin Board
Thanks to all who attended our Monthly PTO Meeting yesterday evening at the Norwich Inn, and to the Inn for letting us use the living room for our meeting! PTO meetings are typically on the first Thursday of the month. Meetings in Dec, Jan & Feb will be via zoom. While challenging for some, we've learned that evenings are preferable for the majority. Coffee talk, always held in the morning on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, also offers a chance to connect with the PTO and Mr. Gonyaw.***
Spirit Wear: The MCS Spirit Wear store is open! Pick up some gear and support our school. Thanks to Lucy Rojansky for taking on this fun and valuable fundraiser!
Tea Towels: Orders have been rolling in and are due today. Thanks to Ashley Clapp & our Treasurer, Christina Aquila, for their work managing this fundraiser.
There is still time to order!
Gift-Making Festival: Join the gift-making festival committee! The PTO is assembling a committee to help revive this sweet and creative event where kids make handmade holiday gifts. This committee will meet Tuesday, October 18 @ 4:30 on the green.
Fall PTO Grants-The PTO is now accepting applications for Fall Grants. Please refer to the following document for information about grants and how to apply.
Halloween Candy Drive- The PTO will be collecting bags of candy until October 30th for in-town homes that host over 500 trick-or-treaters on Halloween night! Collection boxes are in the following locations: Dan and Whits, Norwich Nursery School, Norwich Town Clerk's Office, Norwich Public Library, and Marion Cross School Office. Thank you in advance for your kind donations!
Next PTO Meeting: Thursday, Nov 3, 7:00pm @ Norwich Inn.
Questions? Please contact us at marioncrosspto@gmail.com
