We hope everyone enjoyed their Mid-Winter Break. The break was a great opportunity to spend some extra time with family and decompress from our busy lives. As much as we enjoyed the break, our staff couldn't wait for the kids come back to school. We truly enjoy working with your children each and every day.

This year is flying by and your child has now finished two-thirds of their school year! There has been so much growth, academically, socially, and emotionally. We look forward to connecting with you during conferences later this month to talk about their progress. If you haven't signed up, please use the link in this Bear Bulletin to select a time. We value our strong parent-teacher-student relationships. If there is anything we can do to help better support your child(ren)'s educational experience, please don't hesitate to reach out to our staff. Thank you for helping us create this great school community.

Sincerely,

Ryan Francis,

Principal

3/5 1/2 day for students (dismissal at 11:36 a.m. )

3/10 Spring Forward! Daylight Saving Time begins

3/11 GPPSS Board Meeting 7:00 Brownell

3/13 PTO Meeting 7:00 p.m. Maire Library

3/14 4th Grade to Lansing

3/14 Report cards go home

3/20 Parent/Teacher Conferences (evening)

3/21 1/2 Day for Elementary students. Dismissal at 11:36 a.m.

3/21 Parent/Teacher Conferences (afternoon and evening)

3/22 1/2 Day for Elementary Students. Dismissal at 11:36 a.m.

We have 2 new students starting on Monday, March 4th!

Welcome, Lucy (K) and Samuel (2nd) to Maire!

We are excited to celebrate March is Reading Month. A printed calendar of events will be going home.

3/1 Spirit Day= Wear your Maire gear or Maire Blue

3/4 Author Visit= Local author Kesley Fox is visiting Maire

3/8 "Book Brag" Day = Students will bring in their favorite book(s) to read at school

3/15 "Wear Your Words" = Wear a shirt that has a lot of words (school appropriate of course)

3/22 Donate to "Rx for Reading Detroit" Day= Help kids in Detroit by donating new or gently used books

3/29 PJ and "Mix It Up Reading" Day- Students wear school appropriate PJs and mix with other Maire kids to hear stories together. *PJ day was a persuasive letter request by a 1st grader

Have a Kindergarten or Young Five student next fall - establish/verify residency now!

It is critical that families establish or verify residency by May 1st if they have a student entering GPPSS next fall, particularly for Kindergarten and Young Fives. Click here to see the pre-enrollment process (step one) and the residency documents (step two) required by board policy. Call 313-432-3083 if you have questions or need an appointment outside the enrollment office hours of 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday, and 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Friday.

#One GP Parent Camp is a Grosse Pointe Public School System program for parents, supported by The Family Center, CARE of Southeastern Michigan, and Beaumont Hospital. Topics include: social media, cultural competency, leader-in-me, bullying, suicide prevention, anxiety, trauma, unconscious bias, vaping, special education, early intervention, and more.

• WHEN: March 2 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
  
• LOCATION: Parcells Middle School
  
• Keynote: Dr. Asha Shajahan

Fifth graders continue to create superheroes out of papier mache. Fourth graders drew candy bar wrappers with colored pencils, made two color PopArt! Prints and created a collage. Third graders made Alebrijes, a Oaxacan craft from Mexico, and painted a landscape with snow covered mountains. Second graders completed the torn paper bird challenge, and are masking some birch trees with tape and paint. First graders are making kimonos and Japanese lanterns. And kindergartners are finishing parfleche, Native American sewn bags. I will be in the building for conferences Wednesday evening.

During the month of February, the Kindergarten & 1st grade classes continued to use online databases and eBooks to research animals. We also learned about Dr. Seuss whose birthday is March 2nd. 1st Graders explored the Poetry section of the library. 2nd Graders identified the different literature genres and how to locate them in the library. We also reviewed the elements of a story and identified them when reading. 3rd graders shared how to avoid plagiarism and compared research using print vs. digital resources. 4th Graders explored WorldBook Online to support class research. 5th Graders looked critically at websites for authoritative and accurate information. Congratulations to the 8 winners of the Bookmark Contest (2 winners for the grades with the most entries) : Maddie (Y5/K), Daisy (1), Caroline (2), Emerson (3), Evie and Eva (4), Carla and Tommy (5). Thanks so much to everyone who submitted a design!

February was all about the American Heart Association’s Kids Heart Challenge (formerly known as Jump Rope for Heart)! This year was focused on keeping our hearts healthy through a fun obstacle course. Moving forward, March is going to bring in March Madness Basketball tournaments and skill building, along with learning a Zumba routine right before Spring Break. I will be in the building for conferences on Thursday, for both afternoon and evening.

Grades K, 2, 4, and 5 (Choir Required, other 5th graders optional) will be part of the Maire Spring Concert on Tuesday, May 14 at 7PM. Make sure you’ve cleared your schedules; this is an event that can’t be missed! More info will be coming home periodically in the Bear Bulletin & from your homeroom teachers.

Grades 1 & 3 are working on rhythm identification and performance. Grade 1 is also learning about musical expression -- loud, quiet, fast, & slow, as well as direction -- up, down, high, and low. Grade 3 is continuing their work with dynamics and the instruments of the Symphony Orchestra.

I will be at Maire for Conferences on Wednesday evening in Room 205, and I’m always available by email.

Maire has been granted the highest level awarded to Green Schools in Michigan. Our 2018-19 Evergreen status was once again awarded to us by Wayne County for our efforts toward being an environmentally friendly school. Our work includes a variety of activities from energy efficiency to students maintaining a butterfly habitat. These efforts were completed by students, staff, and parents. Parents, you have helped us be free of one use water bottles for our school events, sent in shoe donations on Walk to School Day, and helped with recycling in the lunchroom. The Maire Green Teams thanks you for your help with this initiative!

For the 2018-19 school year, we have a goal to collect 10,000 box tops!

For the month of January, we collected 425 box tops, and our winner was Mr. Gross' class with 145!

Our total for the year is now 2,821. Great job, everyone!

Addison informed the office staff that there was no adult crossing guard at the Cadieux & Waterloo intersection.

She was very responsible in making sure that we got an adult or a police officer to help out at that corner. What a great example of responsibility!

SUPERVISOR: We are still in need of a consistent lunchroom supervisor. The position has been posted since September with the district's hiring system, but we have not had any luck. Parent volunteers continue to be our best source of support. We are looking for someone who can commit to helping run the lunchroom two days per week. Please reach out to the Maire office (313) 432- 4300 or send Mrs. Karpinski an email at karpinc@gpschools.org if you are interested.

Of course we still need additional volunteers. Please consider signing up to help us for about one hour in the lunchroom =)

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090849A5AF29AB9-lunchroom

Here is the link to our weekly flyers:

https://mi01000971.schoolwires.net/Page/14526

Flyers may also be accessed by going to the Maire website and clicking on the "Weekly Flyers" button.

Twitter: @GPMaire

Facebook : Principal Francis-Maire Elementary and Maire Elementary PTO group page

Email: kramerm@gpschools.org
Website: https://mi01000971.schoolwires.net/gpmaire
Location: 740 Cadieux Road, Grosse Pointe, MI, USA
Phone: 313-432-4300
Twitter: @GPmaire

Maire Mission Statement

The staff at Maire School, in partnership with students, parents, and community, will provide a high quality instructional program. Our purpose is to prepare students to be life-long learners and productive citizens in a dynamic society.

District Mission Statement

The Grosse Pointe Public School System mission - in partnership with students, staff, parent, and community members - is to challenge all students to realize their full potential by providing them with the highest quality educational program and instruction.

District Vision

One GP-where everyone learns every day.