December 2023

Important Dates

Tuesday, 12/12 PTG on Zoom

Wednesday 12/20 through Tuesday 1/2 Winter Break

Classes resume on Wednesday 1/3/2024

1/9 PTG in person at Lapham

1/11 Fine Arts Night 6:30 - 7:30pm

1/12 Crazy Hat and Sock day

1/15 NO SCHOOL Martin Luther King Day

1/26 NO SCHOOL - Teacher Grading Day

1/29 Beginning of Semester 2

THANK YOU!

Thank you to our community partners at the WI Department of Administration for providing snacks for out Marquette Scholars

Welcoming Schools 

Marquette elementary is a Welcoming School. This year we continue to complete lessons connected to our theme, preventing biased based bullying.  During the month of December at Marquette, students will be completing a lesson called Ally or Bystander. The goal of the lesson is to increase ally behavior and help students gain empathy and compassion for people that identify differently than themselves. During the lesson students will read the book, IntersectionAllies: We Make Room for All, and review different scenarios and how they can respond to them using allyship behavior. 

REACH 

This month in REACH, all grade levels will also be focusing on learning to code. We will be using websites like Hour of Code and Scratch along with many of our makerspace items to practice coding and completing coding challenges. Some of the student’s favorite makerspace items come out during this time including, cubelets, dash and dot robots, code and Go Mouse, Osmo Coding apps and ozobots. 

Coding Club

We are hoping to start a coding club back up in the spring. It will start Thursday, February 15th and end Thursday, May 2nd. The club will run weekly on Thursday from 2:45-3:45 in the Marquette makerspace. We are in need of a volunteer to help manage students. UW students come and teach students about scratch so that is not part of your volunteer responsibilities. Please reach out to the school LMTS, Shannon Erickson, if you’re interested in volunteering to help support this club. 

Battle of The Books

4th and 5th grade students who signed up for Battle of the books will learn about their groups the first week of December. They will then work with their team and determine how they will read all the books. Students participating will be checking in with Mrs. Erickson throughout the next few months to make sure everyone is keeping up and creating plans of support if necessary. The battle of the books competition will happen sometime in March. That date is TBD. Check out the Battle of the Books family website for more information. 

LMC Contact: Shannon Erickson slerickson@madison.k12.wi.us 608-205-3229

Music - Ms. Kazda and Art - Ms. Miran

We are so happy to announce Fine Arts Night is approaching!

Please mark your calendars for this special annual event.

Fine Arts Night

Thursday, January 11, 2024

6:30-7:30 p.m.

O'Keeffe Fieldhouse (attached to Marquette cafeteria)

All K-5 students will participate in a musical performance, then families will be invited to stroll the Marquette hallways and admire student artwork on a gallery walk. 

More details will be shared as the date nears. Questions? Reach out to us anytime. We love teaching your children!

Warmly,

Amy Kazda (Music) akazda@madison.k12.wi.us

&

Marnie Miran (Art) mhmiran@madison.k12.wi.us 

PBIS - Ms. Zhang and Ms. Hawthorne

December’s PBIS theme is Compassion & Empathy!

Marquette will be engaging in an all-school activity in creating seasonal cards for Capitol Lakes and SSM Health. Classrooms will be designing artwork and sending words of love and healing to older adults and patients in the community to bring joy this winter season.

Do you have extra craft supplies? Please send them to school. No glitter, please.

Advance Learning - Ms Augustine

If you are new to the world of Advanced  Learning or have significant experience or knowledge and would like to contribute to the conversations and learning surrounding talented and gifted learning, then Advanced Learning Advisory Committee (ALAC) meetings are the place for you!

The next Advanced Learning Advisory Council (ALAC)Meeting is Wednesday, December 14, 2023

The regular meeting will be held from 6-7 p.m., and 7-8 p.m. is specific to Advanced Learning Advisory Committee-Task Force work.

We will be meeting at The Holtzman Center Location 333 Holtzman Rd., Madison, WI 53713 and also via Zoom.

More information can be found on the Advanced Learning page of the MMSD website.

Lapham-Marquette Parent Teacher Group (PTG)

​New this year - our Annual REAP Fundraiser is taking orders for direct shipment!

• Those orders are due Friday, 12/8/23. Christine's Kitchen will ship your orders on 12/18/23.
• Orders placed for in-school pickup were due 11/20, and they will be available for pickup the week of 12/4, with more details to follow.

Everyone in our school community is part of the Parent Teacher Group!

Thank you for your partnership in enriching our students' school experiences and we look forward to seeing you soon!

Our November 14th Minutes are now posted on our website.

A few key things to note:

• On Tuesday, 12/12/23, we will return to a Lapham-Marquette Communitywide PTG (LMPTG) Meeting. The meeting will be online on Zoom.
• After Winter Break on Tuesday, 1/9/24, we will have an in-person LMPTG meeting at Lapham with Board of Ed Members, Nicki Vander Meulen and Maia Pearson. 
• Email questions for guests: board@lapham-marquette-ptg.org OR Grace at president@lapham-marquette-ptg.org