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V
olume 3, Issue 5 | January 2017
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Message from Matt Simberg, M.Ed.
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Dear Parents,
MSOE hopes that the first month of everyone's 2017 year has gotten off to a great start. A lot is happening here at MSOE in addition to the learning and laughter happening throughout. We have had many more tours, children visiting and inquiries in the past month. It is all very exciting and keeping us even more busy in a good way. In this article, I want to share two new childen to our school's community, update you on enrollment, the summer program and where we are at with regards to a future location in the property update section of this newsletter.
We would like to formally welcome Mary Heilig to our toddler class. So far, we have at least two more new children joining us in February. We would like to welcome Jaime Esmail, our newest two-year-old toddler. Jaime has an older brother, Collin, in the Upper Elementary Classroom. During the second week in February we would like to welcome J.T., who is also two years old. He is joining us with his family all the way from Texas! More children may be joining us soon and we are looking forward to the new families who will join us in the summer program and/or September.
Our updated enrollment contracts for the 2017-2018 school year will be available in the next week. We will also have our summer program information to you by that time too. A preview into that will include themes for each week of the summer program. We are finalizing availability and schedules for our guides. Also, the summer program will start on June 19 and end on August 18.
We would not have been able to grow as successfully without the support of you all. Thank you for getting the word out about MSOE to your friends and neighbors. We are continually excited about the future and all the new families we have yet to meet.
Sincerely,
Matthew Simberg, M.Ed.
Head of School
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Property Update
With regards to the new location for MSOE that we are looking at, I am doing my due diligence and having meetings with zoning officers of two different townships. I have met with one of two and that meeting went well. My expectation is to be able to make a decision to focus on one property within the next month. This is based on what I know so far.
I know many of you are anticipating where this location will be and what it will look like. Please rest assured that both are within 10 miles of the school and they are more in an easterly direction. I am not looking near Philadelphia or north of us. There have not been locations of interest to me and if I did find something, I think it would be too far of a commute for most.
Believe me, I am probably more excited to find a place and to share with you that it is my intention for that place to be our future home. Being a part of bringing what I hope to be a great education to your child(ren) is the most important thing to me. So, there will be a point where I will disclose details. I hope for that point to be more intimate and not through a typed communication! In the mean time, keep your fingers crossed, pray, send positive vibes and most of all thank all of you for your support!
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Toddler Update
I can't believe we are already through the first month of 2017!
The toddlers have been very busy this month, working very hard and learning to work quietly and independently! Our toddler classroom is a very calm and peaceful environment where the children are eagerly concentrating and learning new work. I encourage you to schedule an observation, so that you can see all that your child can do!
We are continuing to focus on self care in the Practical Life Area. The toddlers are becoming more and more independent everyday. They all are able to take their coats, hat, mittens and shoes off and put them away upon arrival. They are all doing nicely learning how to put on their own shoes and coats.
In our Art Area we have been making lots of snowflakes, snowmen and polar bears.
We have learned about Antarctica and animals that live in the Artic in our Language Curriculum.
As a Sensorial Activity, we had a food tasting of a mango and all the children loved it! We learned that mangos grow on trees, and they are very sweet and juicy!
In February, we will be learning about our country as we celebrate President's Day!
As part of our Grace and Courtesy lessons we will continue to talk about what it means to be kind, loving and respectful to each other as we celebrate Valentine's Day!
-Ms. Chris
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Primary Update
So January has come and gone. Primary had a great month with lots of new and interesting things going on. We started our sound of the week work with "m" as in man. We discussed a very special man named Martin Luther King Jr. We talked about solving problems with words instead of fighting and made friendship flowers to honor Dr. King. We talked about mammals and what makes mammals different. Ms. Mary even brought in a moose jaw bone from her collection of many treasures. The children enjoyed looking at it through the magnifying glass.
We moved on to "a" for amphibians, ants and antarctic. We discussed the animals and climate and the fact that antarctica is a continent. After that we moved onto "s" where we discussed spiders and snow. The half days during "s" week brought our conferences. Thank you all for attending and helping us to provide a quality program for your children.
As February approaches, we are working on the sound of "r" as in rooster, because it is the Chinese year of the rooster. February will continue our sounds. The second week is "t," the third week is "v," then "p" and the last week will be "c." Many of you asked questions about show and share at the conferences. For those of you who still have questions, show and share items should be something that starts with our sound of the week, something meaningful and something we can all learn from or an appropriate book.
The extended day students have been learning about and working on their own Van Gogh and Monet paintings. This week they will start Renoir for "r." They have been working with math and reading every day. They just starting a writing book where they are practicing letter formation and pencil control.
Regarding Valentine's Day, we would prefer no food items as Valentine's gifts because of the many food allergies. You are welcome to send in cards and small gifts to be distributed on that day.
We look forward to a great month of February with many exciting activities.
-Ms. Anne and Ms. Mary
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Lower Elementary Update
Greetings from the Lower Elementary!
After a nice Winter Break the children have had a productive month! The first week we all got back into the flow of work and the children were excited to be back at school! Around Martin Luther King Jr. day we all learned about Martin Luther King in a story during read aloud.
There has been a lot of purposeful work in our classroom this month. Some of us have worked on editing our research writing and our stories. Some of us have learned new Grammar Boxes. Some of us have started to make our own Timeline of Life! Some of us have learned how to do dynamic long addition (with carrying). Some of us have learned about the 3 types of solids and some have learned about multiples and are excited to learn the multiplication tables! We have researched rockets and practiced our public speaking. We have learned how to do addition and subtraction using the squares of numbers. Some of us have learned how to use the chequerboard for long multiplication, how to add and subtract decimal numbers and some have learned about singular and plural nouns. A small group of children have started doing research on The Beatles and we are all looking forward to their presentation! We have started to learn about money and we started reading "Pippi Longstocking" at read aloud. There have been many exciting lessons and many moments of students helping one another, such as, children listening to each other read aloud and helping each other to edit their writing. We look forward to the rest of the year. Here's to a lovely February ahead!
-Mrs. Shannon
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Upper Elementary Update
The first month of 2017 has come and gone like the blink of an eye. I can't even believe January is over. The children have been showing more independence and teamwork. Plus, the usual academic follow-up work has been going on, along with lessons that the children are ready for. One new lesson I introduced recently was economic geography. This gives the children an idea of where natural resources are located in each state utilizing an atlas. The children have a map of the US and they label the different states with symbols and a key. Follow-up work includes, but is not limited to, imports, exports, and approximately how much of each resource in a given state is produced. There are plenty of directions in which the children can then take this work.
Additionally, we have begun delving more into the sciences. We did the plasma ball and fluorescent light experiment, which you can see on our Facebook Page. Additionally, we just began the process for the incredible shrinking and growing egg membrane. I have introduced the concept of hypotheses and the children are incorporating that with the egg experiment, which goes into chemical reactions and permeability. Furthermore, I purchased materials for Physics experiments where the children will also have the opportunity to work independently with what we call Physics Command Cards. The cards have directions and explanations written out for them to exercise independence.
I'm really doing my best to give the upper elementary children a variety of experiences as well as follow their interests. They are doing work at their level, but it is also exciting because work they are doing is more at a middle school level too. These children, like most, are hungry for knowledge and wisdom and I am grateful to be a part of their lives in a way that I can help supply what they need in order to do that for themselves!
-Mr. Matt
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Holistic Health & Nutrition with Mrs. Jamie
Hello all, I hope you had an enjoyable January and are looking forward to February!
I have been asked many times about my opinion when it comes to purchasing organic vs. conventionally grown produce. That is why I wanted to share with you a little info surrounding this sometimes controversial topic.
The USDA Pesticide Data Program found that the most contaminated fruits and vegetables are sprayed with up to 45 different contaminates. Going organic is great for the simple reason that you are not consuming any of these pesticides or contaminates on produce that your family may eat daily. This is beneficial for your overall health and the environment's health as well.
The problem sometime arises when you plan to purchase organic items and they are two to three times the price of the conventional alternatives. Not only that, but organic foods are smaller in size! There are good reasons for both of these occurrences.
A few tips that I have as ways to consume organic produce without spending too much at the grocery store is by shopping in accordance with the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen lists (shown below). These are lists that the Environmental Working Group (EWG) release yearly. The Dirty Dozen is a list of the twelve most contaminated foods and the Clean Fifteen is a list of the fifteen least contaminated foods in America.
Other budget friendly ways to incorporate organic foods into your family's diet is to eat seasonally, shop at local organic farms, grow your own produce, shop at supermarkets that keep organic prices low like Aldi and become a subscriber to organizations like Door to Door Organics who deliver fresh organic produce directly to your door!
Even though consuming conventional produce is not ideal, eating them is better than not eating your fruits and veggies at all. The ultimate goal is to become aware of what you're putting into your body. Remember that you ultimately vote with your dollar, so make it count!
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Calendar Highlights
Here are some upcoming important dates.
- February 16 - 12:00 dismissal for Teacher Development
- February 18 - Adult Only Social Night at Pinsetter
- February 17 - 20 No school for Teacher Development
- Week of February 20th - Montessori week
Click Here for our Google Calendar.
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