A Message from the Admissions Office
Greetings from the Manlius Pebble Hill School Admissions Office!
 
We are excited that you are interested in learning more about MPH and pleased to offer you a glimpse of our program and community in this Discover MPH e-newsletter. Our Admissions team stands ready to assist your continued exploration of the School. While we may be reimagining our admissions process to make sure it aligns with health and safety protocols, we are confident we can offer prospective families an informative and personalized experience that deepens your understanding of MPH. We hope you will attend an upcoming virtual Info Session to connect with us and learn more! Enjoy! 

Nicole Cicoria
Director of Admissions
From the Head of School
Click here to view a brief video message from Head of School Dave McCusker. He believes your exploration of MPH may well reveal what he discovered about our community when he was a candidate for the role – and what he appreciates even more deeply now in his second year.
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MPH will be hosting the following Admissions Info Sessions:

  • Grades 1-12 Info Session: Thursday, March 25, 4:00-5:30 p.m.
  • Pre-K and Kindergarten Info Session: Friday, March 26, 9:00-10:30 a.m.

Please register here and you will receive an email
with the applicable Zoom link.
The “Magnetism” of Our Pre-Kindergarten Students!

As you can see from the photos in this gallery, the “youngest among us” have recently been engaged in activities using magnets. Some of the images depict our Pre-K students either freely exploring the magnets or testing different materials/items (pencil, key, styrofoam, piece of wood, paper clip, etc.) and sorting them into magnetic or nonmagnetic groups. The other pictures show these early learners creating an abstract painting by using a magnetic wand to manipulate a magnetic marble around a sheet of paper — thus discovering the pushing and pulling powers of magnets through the cardboard box. 
"All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten!"

A lot has been happening in Kindergarten lately, too, as evidenced by the photo gallery on the left! As just one example, the students have been taking turns being the weekly “Star Student” and “Star Scientist.” When it’s their designated week, students present their (Star Student) poster on Monday and their science laboratory report and chosen experiment on Friday. The audience? Their teachers, their classmates, and, via Zoom, their respective families! Kindergarteners also certainly seem to love their numbers and recently enjoyed celebrating 100 days of school (counting by twos and tens to make 10 groups of 10 with pom poms, and then gluing them onto their balloons). In addition, these young learners participate in daily calendar math, working on decomposing and composing numbers, using tally marks, place value, and manipulating Base Ten blocks.
 
Alas, these young ones also demonstrated their care of our planet after they learned about reducing waste, recycling, and the concepts of reuse and composting. They now focus on taking care of their school lunches and get the leftover food ready for composting.
From Towers to Bridges

As our joyful Grade 2 students spent some class time building a tower with STEAM materials, our Grade 4/5 Bridge students were busy creatively exploring other cultures: In Grade 4, students in Mrs. Ricciardiello’s humanities class created Wampum belts during their study of the Haudenosaunee, writing about each symbol featured and its cultural importance. In Grade 5, students captured key elements from the first section of the book, "The Birchbark House," by Louise Eldrich, working in small groups to create posters they would later present, which included what they learned about characters, events, and the Ojibwa culture. Click on the image below to see the full gallery of photos from this unit.
Holy moly! Guacamole!

Over the February break, Sra. Trouyet mailed guacamole kits to her Grade 7 Spanish class. Film production was set up in her home kitchen, and together, she and her students made the recipe. Now that's what we call "hands-on learning”!
Advanced Programming = Advanced Fun!
 
Both sections of Mr. Zlomek's Advanced Programming recently built video games in the Scratch language and programmed controls in which to play them. The students then had an “open arcade” and tested out each other’s games, providing one another feedback to determine where improvements could be made.
Senior Provides Lesson to Lower Schoolers as Part of Thesis Project

MPH senior Angel facilitated a financial literacy lesson with fifth graders last week as part of her Senior Thesis Project (STP). Students met with Angel via Zoom, as well as in the classroom, to learn about and discuss concepts such as supply and demand, budgeting, credit, interest, business revenue, profit, and debt. Students shared their own business ideas and discussed possibilities and challenges. 
Sneak Peek! "Fiddler on the Roof"
 
The company of "Fiddler on the Roof" had their first recording session near the end of February to prerecord all the vocals for the show, which will be performed at the end of the school year. Together with the Pandemic Response Team, the production crew collaborated with sound technician and MPH alumnus Will Maresco '15 to create an exciting and innovative experience for the kids. Check it out by clicking on the video link on the left!
Clubs Spotlight: 
 
MPH Kindness Socks (and hats, gloves, and masks) the Pandemic!
Our core value of kindness was on full display at our most recent round of schoolwide COVID-19 testing when the MPH4MPH club invited our school community to “pay it forward” by bringing donations for the Samaritan Center to help keep our neighbors warm and safe. Ultimately, we collected and delivered more than 1,300 items to the center, including socks, gloves, hats, and masks! Why does the MPH4MPH Club encourage donating goods instead of money to our neighbors in need? Because we are cultivating the core value of kindness, and by choosing and physically holding these needed items in their hands, our students connect tangibly with needs that they themselves know: food, warmth, and compassion. The club encourages families to involve students as much as possible in the selection, purchase, and delivery of items that help others. Practicing compassion is the best way to build it!
Chinese Club Members Afforded Chance to Delve into Unique Cultural Practice
China is not only famous for its national treasure, the giant panda, but also for the animal’s staple food: bamboo. To the Chinese people, bamboo is a symbol of virtue; it reflects people’s souls and emotions. This week, members of the MPH Chinese Club had a workshop on painting bamboo with black and white ink.

Outdoor Recreation Club Activities Contribute to Members’ Health & Well-Being
While there was still snow on the ground, members of the Outdoor Recreation Club were taking to the Wellness Trail with snowshoes! What a great way to get some fresh air, enjoy some exercise, and have fun with classmates — all positive ways in which to contribute to club members’ health and well-being.
MPH Conversations
 
Throughout the last year or so, we have invited experts from among the extended members of our MPH community (alumni, trustees, staff, and parents among them) who are well versed in areas of particular relevance to provide their insights about these various topics to any interested listeners/participants (via Zoom). Following each presentation, these “Community Conversations” are then opened up to some Q&A and discussion. Our most recent presenter was an MPH alumna, The Reverend Eboni Marshall Turman, Ph.D. (from the class of 1998), who joined us to discuss how to engage in a dialogue around issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and race with our children (and ourselves!) – and the importance of doing so now. If you are interested in watching a recording of that conversation, you may view it here.

MPH Global
 
We are thrilled to introduce MPH Global! MPH Global masterclasses deliver a unique opportunity for students to perform a prepared solo in front of a live virtual audience and receive one-on-one coaching from our world-class performers! The performances and coaching will be followed by interactive conversations, including Q&A sessions with our guest-artist faculty for all participants.

The first in our series is a voice masterclass with MPH alumna and Broadway performer Carrie Manolakos on Monday, April 12, 6:30 – 7:45 p.m., for students in grades 9 – 12. Learn more here!


The second in our series is a jazz piano Masterclass workshop with pianist, composer, author, and music producer Noah Kellman '09 on April 19, 6:30 – 7:45 p.m., for students in grades 9 – 12. Learn more here!
Read More Like This!

If you would like to see complete issues of Snapshot, our weekly e-newsletter to current MPH families — and the publication from which most of the stories above have been excerpted — click here.