A Message from the Admissions Office |
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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. Even during the summer months, our Admissions team stands ready to assist your continued exploration of the School. Our reimagined admissions process aligns with local health and safety protocols and offers prospective families an informative and personalized experience that we hope will deepen your understanding of MPH. For those of you who have not already connected with us, please know that we would love the opportunity to meet you and learn more about your child. I encourage you to get in touch soon if you are considering applying for fall admission, as spaces are limited and most grades are nearing capacity. Please email us at admissions@mphschool.org, and, in return, we’ll be happy to provide guidance and information, including a recording of one of our previously held virtual Admissions Information Sessions. Enjoy!
Nicole Cicoria
Director of Admissions
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Click here to view a brief video message from Head of School Dave McCusker. Dave 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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From Caterpillars to Butterflies in Pre-K!
Our Pre-K teachers shared with us some fabulous photos of the hands-on investigations their young students were engaged in near the end of April. Facets of these investigations included examining live caterpillars, noting changes in their appearance from that of the previous day, and comparing them to the life cycle chart. They enjoyed predicting what would happen next and drawing in their butterfly journals. Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar also served to inspire these Pre-K students as they engaged in an open-ended exploration of materials during their “process art” activities.
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Kindergarten “Dreaming Up”!
Earlier this spring our Kindergarten students read and discussed “Dreaming Up,” written and illustrated by Cristy Hale. Inspired by this, they then tried building their own structures. (Click on the image to see the full gallery of related photos.)
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Grade 3 Takes Study of Civil Rights (Literally) to Great Lengths
During recent months, students in Grade 3 have been immersed in studies of the Civil Rights Movement. Through reading a variety of books and viewing some videos, they not only learned about pivotal events and adult figures related to the movement, but also about the role children played at the time. Then they completed a biography research project on influential Black people who directly and indirectly affected Black History and the Civil Rights Movement. Finally, they put together a 10-foot timeline of 216 years of Black History.
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Lower Schoolers Receive an Earth Day Education…in Their Lunches!
In honor of Earth Day, one MPH student took it upon herself to make booklets for Lower Schoolers that aimed to raise awareness about our climate. These fun (and educational!) booklets created by Neha C. were added to Lower School lunches and contained activities like a word search and “connect the dots,” as well as Earth Day jokes (e.g., “What did the ground say to the earthquake?” “You crack me up!”). The booklets also provided information about the climate crisis and ways that we humans can help (e.g., try not to waste food, start a garden, and other recommendations).
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Neha initiated this project because she is passionate about spreading awareness about the climate crisis. She explains that, while it can sometimes feel remote, “it really isn’t, and it’s a growing threat! And our generation is going to directly face that threat. We will help the fight against the climate crisis in any way possible, including spreading awareness.” Thank you, Neha, for all of your hard work!
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Relevant Experience! Alumni Visit Entrepreneurial Studies Class
On a mid-April afternoon, Mr. Spear’s Entrepreneurial Studies class was treated to a (virtual) visit from MPH alumni Ralph Torrillo ’98 and Tristan Amond ’12 — chief operating officer and product manager, respectively — of Terakeet, a Syracuse-based search engine optimization firm started by fellow MPH alumni Patrick Danial ’98 and Mac Cummings ’97. During their virtual drop-in, Mr. Torrillo and Mr. Amond discussed Terakeet’s business model and their roles within the organization. The class was able to ask questions of the veteran entrepreneurs, whose experience could help inform the students’ own entrepreneurial endeavors.
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Art and Mathematics in Cool Collaboration!
Quite recently our Grade 6 students actually put their math skills to work in order to create portraits in their visual arts class! In the process, and with the guidance of both Ms. Henderson and Ms. Reeve, students learned about the importance of collaboration and began to see how both subjects exist outside of the confines of the classroom. They learned to draw large-scale charcoal portraits using the Loomis method of drawing, and they relied on a lot of math to get them there: They needed to scale their drawings to ratio, practice with their compasses and protractors to create angles and circles, and use quadrants and points to check the proportions of their drawings. Check out the album for some of their “in process” pieces as well as some of their final work here!
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Sing Me a Shanty (in Calculus!)
Ms. Meehan’s AP Calculus AB students were recently given an optional assignment: They could write a sea shanty (apparently quite TikTok trendy these days) that covered all the derivative rules they’d learned in the first half of the year and then perform it. Some of the students simply wrote the song (or a short story), and some went on to perform the songs that they composed. Ms. Meehan reports that they did a great job with the rhythm and rhyming! Click here to listen to a group, audio-only shanty; on one of the images to view some lyrics up close; or on the image at the bottom to see a recorded video.
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Preservation/Conservation Couple Share Expertise |
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One of MPH’s faculty members joined Ms. Chhablani’s Museum Studies class for a Monday block in mid-April to share her deep and relevant knowledge of preventative conservation. Mrs. Meriel Stokoe, who currently assists in our Early Learning program, brought her career in this field to Syracuse from the UK. She has taught at Syracuse University and continues to be an adjunct professor at LeMoyne. She spoke to MPH students about when it is appropriate to rescue and preserve items — and how different items are handled and preserved in different ways. |
Meriel’s husband, David, who is likewise a conservation expert -and currently SU’s special collections conservation librarian -joined the same group later that week. He focused on the very-specific conservation process of paper items, such as books and documents, touching on the environmental control measures (humidity, light, temperature) required to prevent their deterioration and the kinds of things in which any archives should be stored for their safekeeping. He also discussed the treatment of items (cleaning, stabilizing, repairing) and the importance of (specially made) boxes for these archival materials. Members of the class were incredibly grateful to have had these experts share their firsthand experience with them! |
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Different Spokes for Different Folks? “Upcycling” Parts?
Bicycle Mechanics Club Turns Old into New
Bicycle Mechanics Club advisor Alex Leclercq explained to us back in April that club members were, at that time, in the process of building custom wheels for a 1971 Schwinn Town and Country trike, which they would be transforming into a chopper. “Students are learning to attach rims to hubs, weaving spokes together into specific patterns. Also, since we couldn't find any spokes with the precise size we wanted, [you can see in the photographs here] we're cutting our own spokes to the desired length out of recycled spokes from old wheels that I collected over the years. Then we use a threading machine to make a new thread at the end of each spoke. Then we pull the spokes through the hub and attach them to the rim with spoke nipples.” In essence, Snapshot readers can see firsthand in these photos both a spoke-making workshop and a wheel-building workshop underway!
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Wellness Week!
While our community’s health and well-being has been front of mind for every facet of the School’s program, MPH specifically designated the last week of April “Wellness Week.” During each day’s Advisory period, students (and faculty) participated in a number of activities, many of them taking advantage of the outdoors, to promote self-care and wellness in all forms. From nature walks to tea tasting, yoga, poetry, crafts, dancing, and much, much more, participants had the opportunity to pause, reflect, exhale, and find joy — perhaps in surprising ways or unusual places!
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Raise the Curtain (and Gather ’Round the Tent!) for… Fiddler on the Roof!
“…this will probably be the first show in MPH history where the actual (real-time) sunset is a part of the design!”
This week, the MPH Performing Arts Department will present an outdoor, drive-in, in-the-round production of Fiddler on the Roof, with the proverbial curtain rising at 7:30 p.m. each evening, Thursday through Sunday, June 3–6. With most schools live-streaming their shows this year, this in-person/drive-in format certainly represents an anomaly. Despite the limitations related to the pandemic, performing arts faculty and students alike felt it important to find a new way to safely present a musical. Just as all those engaged in the arts at MPH have done throughout this unusual year, those involved in Fiddler… have experimented in uncharted waters to develop truly innovative plans that simultaneously uphold the School’s Health and Safety Protocols while prioritizing the critical presence of in-person creative expression and shared experiences.
Click here to read more and learn details about the troupe’s innovative preparations, to discover just how this will all work, and to check on availability of (free) vehicle/pod tickets. Click on the image below to enjoy a less-than-two minute take on the "making of" this production.
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MPH Global: Summer Offerings That Reach Beyond MPH Students!
Be sure to check out MPH Global, a new-this-year virtual (spring and summer) program that promises a wide array of offerings for all age groups and interests! In addition to the Masterclass and Workshop Series (which began in April and continues on), there are a number of summer courses being taught by experienced educators and experts from both within and without our MPH community. From the youngest among us (even kids ages 3–5 have options!) to those in Grade 12, there just might be something amid this array that appeals to your/your child’s passion, desire to improve, and/or eagerness to learn something new… whether it’s in reading, writing, math, world languages, film, or music (instrumental and/or vocal)! Since the course catalog came out this spring, many more courses have been added — it will be worth your while to take a peek at the website and click on the appropriate grade level there (on the right) to see what piques your/your child’s interest!
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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.
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