This Week At MSES!

Monday, January 7

• NO SCHOOL

Tuesday, January 8 • NO SCHOOL

Wednesday, January 9

• STUDENTS RETURN • 8:00am- 11:00am MSES Ballet- MSES Auditorium

Thursday, January 10

• 8:00am- 11:00am MSES Ballet- MSES Auditorium • 6:00pm- 7:00pm Cub Scouts- MSES Commons

Friday, January 11

• 7:30am- 8:00am Walking School Bus- Memorial Park & Miramont Castle

Mustang Service Corps Delivers Kindness, Your Holiday Gifts, for Kids at New Children’s Hospital MSC students continued to spread kindness through our Intentional Acts of Kindness campaign as the holidays approached before break. In addition to our in-school celebrations of kindness, MSC delivered your donated new toys and art supplies for young patients at the new Children’s Hospital--as well as crazy socks, coffee gift cards, cool pens, etc., for doctors and nurses who served kids over the holidays. Students delivered your donations on site just before break began last month. We’d like to thank the entire MSES community for your support of our efforts to help develop caring, giving, and kind young citizens in Manitou!

ASK YOUR EXPERT!Family Questions From Your Mustangs’ Lessons This Week

Preschool: We are reading from our Classic Tales Domain. We will read The Gingerbread Man and discuss predictions, characters, and setting--and then retell with puppets and pictures. Ask your expert: Who are the characters in the story, The Gingerbread Man? (The little old lady, the little old man, cow, cat, fox, and gingerbread man.) What happens after the Gingerbread man jumps on the fox for a ride? (The fox eats him.)

Kindergarten In Kindergarten, we spent the week learning about Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanza. We will begin our Native American Domain when we return. Ask your expert: How many days do people celebrate Hanukkah? (8 days.) What is the candleholder called that people use during Hanukkah? (Menorah.) How many days is Kwanza celebrated? (7 days.) What is the candleholder called that people use during Kwanza? (Kinara.) What day do people celebrate Christmas? (December 25.) What holiday traditions do you and your families celebrate? Kindness Challenge: Pick up your toys when you are done playing with them without being told. Why is this a kind thing to do? How do you think people will feel if they don’t have to clean up your things? How will you feel doing a kind deed?

First Grade: We wrapped up and assessed our current domain about Early American Civilizations! We learned about the many winter holidays and traditions that occur at this time of the year and we ended our week by reading and watching The Polar Express! Throughout the movie we did a lot of comparing and contrasting to see how the book and the movie were alike and different. Ask your expert if they can share with you some similarities and differences between the two!

Music: Before break in Music, 4th and 5th graders culminated their study of five major faith traditions with a Thursday morning concert called Seasonal Celebrations. Kindergarteners enjoyed performing for one another, first introducing themselves and speaking a little about the piece they were playing. 1st and 2nd graders worked on their composition and improvisation skills, while 3rd grade violinists focused on bow crossings on the D and A strings. When we return from break, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders will be reading and playing instrumental music, in preparation for their upcoming concert with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. Ask your expert, "What instrument will you be playing with the Philharmonic in February?" Pictured, First-grade students Brynn Fanning, Ethan Hein, and Taelyn Tysland enjoy a little free time in the Prokofiev Piano Lab.

Second Grade: We have completed the War of 1812 Domain and have started some much-anticipated science with our Human Body Domain! Ask your expert: What is a nutritionist? (A person who studies nutrition for the human body.) What are the five senses and body parts? (Eyes/See, Ears/Hear, Skin/Touch, Nose/Smell, Mouth/Taste) Can you name some body systems? (Respiratory, Circulatory, Nervous, Skeletal, Muscular, Digestive, and Excretory.) Why do we call human bodies a ‘machine’? (They need fuel to make energy and you have to take care of them or they break down like a machine!) What is a vaccination? (A vaccination is medicine that helps to prevent diseases.) What types of things can you do to take care of your body? (Washing your hands before eating, getting plenty of rest, eat a balanced diet, and exercise.)

Third Grade: We have finished the Ancient Rome Domain. Ask your expert what contributions they chose to write about in their ancient Roman writing paragraphs. (Answers will vary, but may include roads, concrete, military, government, architecture, art.) Who was the emperor that was known for “fiddling while Rome burned”? (Emperor Nero.) What are some of the reasons for the Roman Empire’s decline? (Answers will vary, but should include something in regards to the Pax Romana and the new military style that was no longer made up of citizens of Rome; that the Empire was divided into the Western and Eastern Empires and the Western Empire ended up falling apart while the Eastern Empire became knows as the Byzantine Empire.) We will begin the study of Light and Sound in our new domain this coming week!!

Fourth Grade: “Have a great idea. Have a lot of them.”—Thomas Edison. We are starting our Eureka! Student Inventor Domain. In Eureka! Student Inventor, we are contestants on the bizarre and exciting reality TV game show of the same name—a show in danger of cancellation because of a few ...unfortunate ...incidents last season. Students are divided into teams (labs) and complete activities and challenges both in groups and individually. Guided by puppet inventor-judges—Jacques Cousteau, Hedy Lamarr, Thomas Edison, and George Washington Carver—and a host, contestants learn about the process of invention through examples and experiments. In the Eureka! Student Inventor Quest, students read a range of texts about inventors, inventions, and the process of creation, eventually becoming inventors themselves. As well as texts, students analyze objects and situations in the world around them, identifying problems and creating evidence-based solutions, observing and communicating (through writing and speaking), and persuading others of their opinions. They practice informative and opinion writing, close reading, speaking and listening, and working in teams with defined roles and agreed-upon rules. Ask your expert: What are three of Jacques Cousteau's rules for collaboration? (1. Take turns listening and talking, 2. Stay on task, 3. Ask good questions, 3. Make suggestions in a positive, constructive way, 4. Consider everyone's ideas, 5. Everyone contributes - Ask others if you need help.)

Fifth Grade: In Science, we are nearing completion of a unit on the Structure and Properties of Matter (solid, liquids, gasses) and how that matter interacts to form different mixtures and solutions. Students have also learned various ways to separate those mixtures and solutions and will be putting those skills to the test next week. The culminating project for the unit is for student groups to devise a way to filter a dirty water sample into clean water using the separation methods they learned and the materials at hand. Students will design and build devices and procedures and then test their creations.

Art: Artists K-4 are developing their knowledge about the use of line in art in order to create rhythm, movement, pattern and shape. Russian abstract artist, Wassily Kandinsky is our artist of influence during our study of line in art. Ask your art expert why Kandinsky was considered the "Father of Abstract Art"? Kandinsky changed the way art was being created by translating the sounds and emotions of music into visual artistic expressions. Kandinsky had a gift called synesthesia. What does that mean? Synesthesia is the ability to "see sounds" and "hear colors".

Learning moment for Mrs. D….While discussing the differences between Realistic and Abstract art, a group of Third-grade students proposed an analogy between art and literacy. They suggested that Kandinsky basically painted "abstract nouns" while other painters were painting "regular nouns". I learned for the first time in my 44 years what an abstract noun was! Ask your expert about that!

Robotics Teams Earn Accolades At Regionals MSES competitive robotics teams won respect — and hardware – at the Logo League Robotics Regional Tournament in December. The Face in Space team won the First Place Judges Award for their creativity, workmanship, and hidden talent. In addition to their programming and robotics work, their team research project focused on solutions to the problem of astronauts contracting Epstein-Barr virus in space. Team members are Daniel Parker, Cody Keyes, Hunter Larsen, Oliver Morrisette, Kenzie Keyes, and Brett Arnoldussen.

The Mars Bars team (pictured) earned Second Place in Core Values. Team members included Yonas Hanson, Weston Cassidy, Logan Kelley, Jack Franklund, Madison Anderson, Morgan Lachowizt-Vogt, and Aryeh Alberts.

M4TH C0RN3R! Math should be fun, so please play Math games with your children! Each week I will post a new math game that you can play with your child. (For $2 you can buy dice and playing cards at your local dollar store and be ready to play these games!) – Math Interventionist Steve Smith This Week’s Math Game: Ring Your Neck (Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide) What You Need: • One deck of cards (ace = 1, jack = 11,

queen = 12, king = 13) • Blank sheet for each player Main Idea: Deal 13 playing cards into a circle, face down. Take turns selecting one or two cards at a time and adding their values to your total. Carefully plan your moves. The player who picks up the last card will add 50 points to his score! Use a calculator for help, if you'd like the game to focus on strategy, or use scratch paper if you'd like some extra practice with addition. Game Play:1. Shuffle the deck. Then place 13 cards in the center of the playing area, face down, in a circle. 2. Players take turns picking up 1 or 2 cards at a time (their choice). Players write their score (the sum of their cards) on a sheet of paper. 3. The player who picks up the last card scores 50 extra points. 4. Deal another 13 cards. Play until ten rounds are over and the score sheets are complete. The player with the highest score wins. Variations: • Play multiplication-style. Multiply the card(s) that are drawn to the total. Start with a value of 1. • Play subtraction-style. Start with an initial score of 1,000. • Play division-style. Start with an initial score of 1,000,000. • Change the number of cards in the circle. • Change the value of all face cards to 10.

Early Registration Open for Camp Invention 2019