Upcoming Dates to Remember
September 17
September 20
Festivals Committee 3:15 p.m.
Board Meeting 6:00 p.m.
September 27
Futures Committee 3:30 p.m.
October 1
Harvest Stone Soup Festival
October 4
Board Meeting 6:00 p.m.
October 7
October 13
In-school Health Screening
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Come Join Parent Circle
Zoom Meeting Sept. 19, 6:30 p.m.
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Parent Circle is all about getting to know your community and getting involved! We warmly invite you to join this year’s Parent Circle via Zoom for the first meeting of the year Monday, September 19th at 6:30 p.m. All parents and guardians of students are welcome and encouraged to join!
This inaugural meeting is a wonderful opportunity to come and learn about the new, fresh mood that we are creating for our Parent Circle community. This summer a small group of dedicated parents, teachers and board members met in order to reinvent our Parent Circle. The message that we heard loud and clear from parents is that parents want to support teachers and our school - particularly during our festival seasons.
Our first celebration is the Stone Soup Harvest Festival. The Parent Circle has agreed to take on the majority of the responsibility for this festival. Our meeting on Monday will help us to create a plan for this festival.
The faculty is excited to work collaboratively with Parent Circle to create a whimsical Winter Faire experience for our children and families.
Please see below for the link and details. We hope to see you there!
Gina Nicoletta-Budler
Parent Circle Inaugural Meeting
Time: Sep 19, 2022 6:30 p.m.
Meeting ID: 880 3692 9455
Passcode: 404364
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Please Join Us!
Festivals Committee
Tuesday, Sept. 20, 3:15 - 4:15 p.m.
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Celebrating seasonal festivals is one of the best-loved traditions in Waldorf schools.
Except for the Harvest Festival coming soon, the school’s festivals are now guided by a group of committed teachers who need your help to coordinate and plan these precious events. Plans are forming for our autumn and winter festivals, including Winter Faire, and we invite you to join us in bringing them to life for our school community. Our children (and adults!) look forward to these each year and form deep and lasting treasured memories.
Are you looking for a way to contribute your 40 hours of volunteer service to the school in a joyful and meaningful way? Please join our teachers at our next Festivals Committee meeting, Tuesday 9/20, 3:15 - 4:15pm in Ms. Gina's kindergarten room. We welcome all who want to participate!
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FREE Childcare for
Festivals Committee Meeting
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There will be FREE childcare for families who attend next week's Festivals Committee meeting for children ages 5-14.
Following after school dismissal, please meet Ms. Maggie at the kindergarten playground, located behind the garden, from 3:15 - 4:15 p.m. All children must be signed in and out by an adult.
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Absences and Daily Attendance Form |
To excuse your child’s absence, please let us know in one of the following ways by 9:15 a.m.
If your child was sent home from school early due to illness, you must excuse your child until they are 24 hours symptom-free.
Please see the Attendance Policy in the SY22-23 Parent Handbook for a list of excusable absences. Those that fall outside of the listed reasons may be excused on a case by case basis by the MSCS Administration.
Students who are habitually truant (4 or more unexcused absences in a semester or 10 in a year) or who are chronically absent (missing 10% of the year or more) must meet with the Director of School Performance to be placed on an attendance plan.
For more information, please see the Compulsory School Attendance Law linked here that outlines required hours for attendance in a school year and consequences for absenteeism.
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Passionate About Water?
Submission Deadline - October 7th
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Water '22 and Colorado Humanities invite all students grades K-12 to share their passion for water by submitting an original art work to the Water '22 Student Showcase for a chance to win prizes up to $2,000.
Students can enter (both English and Spanish accepted) in various categories such as creative writing, photography or video, digital art, music and performance, sculpture, or fashion. Students must also include a paragraph (up to 300 words) explaining the relationship between their work and a few learning objectives related to water in Colorado.
All teachers who help students submit works will be entered into a drawing for 1 of 2 $250 cash prizes.
Mr. Matt Thomas is happy to help any students interested in entering this showcase before or after school. Email him at mthomas@mountainsongschool.com to schedule time with him. To learn more and to enter, please visit the Water ‘22 webpage.
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We want to offer a very special thanks to Mercedes Perez Whitman from MycoSprings for helping our 7th graders plant a mushroom bed in our school garden this week!
This project was completed as part of the 7th grade Ag Arts unit on Fungus, Bacteria, and Invertebrates (FBI). Students planted "spent" oyster mushroom blocks that are traditionally used by large commercial producers but no longer have enough nutrients to be grown indoors. However, when planted outside with straw, mulch, and other nutrients, these mushroom blocks can be "revived" rather than thrown away. We should see mushrooms in our garden in two to three weeks, and they should continue to grow for the next three years!
Our project partner, MycoSprings, is a local community organization that uses fungi to provide education and services related to ecological restoration and food sovereignty. MycoSprings offers events and classes throughout the year, including an Outdoor Mushroom Bed Making class on Friday, Sept. 16, and a DIY Kombucha Brewing Class on Monday, Sept. 26.
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Frontier Homeschool Program |
Are you familiar with the Frontier Homeschool Program at Mountain Song?
This online Homeschool Enrichment Program is a supplemental remote program for students in K through 8th grades, grouped in multi-grade classes (K-2, 3-5, 6-8), that offers a cross-disciplinary Waldorf Main Lesson course throughout the year in two one-semester units consisting of weekly modules.
The key components of the Waldorf Main Lesson across the grades are Opening/Circle activities, Main Lesson Bookwork, and Story. These three key components of the Waldorf Main Lesson are presented to the Frontier Classes synchronously through weekly online class meetings and asynchronously through video tutorials, audio recordings, and shared written text.
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Preparing for the upcoming school year, the Frontier Coordinator and Teacher, Mrs. Shannon Lang, invited families to join her at a local park for the beginning of the year meet-up and supply pick-up. |
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This year's Frontier students began meeting in their online classes the last week of August and have enjoyed beginning our studies of the following Main Lesson Block themes from Form Drawing through Native American Legends to Creative Writing through the lens of Wish, Wonder, and Surprise.
These pictures are just a sampling of the creativity and exploration that takes place for students in the Frontier Program.
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6-8 class Scribble Art that began with the, “I wonder what this will be when I’m finished…”
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Mountain Song stocks a Food Pantry with donations to provide nutritional food for our students who do not have enough to eat. We welcome donations of high protein, low sugar snacks. Time you spend collecting items may be credited towards your volunteer hours. Food donations can be brought to the front office. Feel free to buy in bulk. You can drop off whole bags and a volunteer will separate it for the pantry into smaller portions. Here is a list of items needed:
Beef Jerky
Protein Yogurt
Single Hummus Cups
Cheese
Fresh Veggies
Fresh Fruits
Trail Mix
Applesauce
Peanut Butter Crackers
Granola
Oatmeal
Breakfast Bars (low sugar)
Crackers
Please be mindful of allergies.
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The Place
Donations Urgently Needed
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Please help one of our precious partners who just let us know of urgent donation needs. See the flier below. Today is the FINAL day our Ag Arts teachers will be taking donations.
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Weekend Garden Volunteers Needed |
This is a wonderful opportunity for you and your family to engage with our school garden, to get outside, and witness the impact of nurturing all living things.
With the help of our devoted summer volunteers, the greenhouse is flourishing, our garden beds are alive, and our animals are untroubled. Thank you for the abundance of love and hard work put into the garden this summer!
This school year we encourage our families to join in the fun and support our beloved garden by feeding and interacting with the animals and watering the crops.
Please email Mr. Adam (awright@mountainsongschool.com) if you have any questions or want to receive training.droppable-1662687666852
Mr. Adam Wright
Agricultural Arts Coordinator and Teacher
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We are hiring for the following positions:
Please refer to our website and/or pick up an application at the front office.
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2022-2023 Calendars and Schedule |
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Please find the 2022-2023 school calendar below.
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Mountain Song Community School | 2904 West Kiowa St, Colorado Springs, CO 80904 |
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Looking for past issues of the Songbird or to sign up new recipients click here.
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