For Your Calendar
- October 2 Family Committee Meeting in the Brook Trout classroom
- October 3 SMILE!!!! Picture Day
- October 10 Make Up Picture Day
- October 11 Goal Setting Conferences
- October 14 NO SCHOOL- Indigenous People's Day
- October 16 Staff Meeting- No ASP
- October 18 Winter Gear Swap, Family Friday and Family Committee Bake Sale 1:45-3:00pm
- October 23 Half Day, 11:45 pick up for Professional Development... No ASP
- October 31 All School Halloween Festival (More details to come!)
- November 2 FC Halloween Festival in Fort Creek 1:00-3:00
Some General Reminders
Drop off- 7:45-8:15: Lower Elementary—Please use the loop at the bottom of the driveway if your student needs extra time to get ready. Thanks!
Pick up- 2:45-3:00pm: Please remember that on days that we do not have ASP, the line is a little longer.
Paperwork for Admin must be submitted in an envelope. Checks need to be attached to paper accompanying it. A new lock box system is coming for MVCS instead of handing to a person at drop off/pick up.
Emailing about an early pick up? Please know.... same day notification is best.
LE email teacher, Merrill and Angela
UE email teacher, Alfie and Angela
Students will wait in the office closest to them (Train Car and the Burrow)
Reminder-If you are getting a hot drink or breakfast on the go. Please finish drink and breakfast before getting out of the car. You are welcome to pull over either at the bottom of the hill at Lower El or in the parking lot at Upper El.
Winter is coming. Please check temps for school in Plymouth before heading out. Shorts are great for a warm toasty car but not great for Fort Creek. Please have kiddos bring layers for the cool cool mornings and the summer like afternoons. PLEASE LABEL ALL GEAR.
After School Program (ASP)
We are fully staffed at ASP! Please reach out to Brendan brendan@mountainvillagecharterschool.org if you are interested! Be sure to include what days you are wanting.
October 18 Family Friday-Bake Sale-Gear Swap
MVCS hosts 2 Family Fridays a year. Family Fridays are an opportunity for families to visit their children's classrooms, inside and out, and to get to know other MVCS families. Upon arriving, you will first head to your child(ren)'s indoor classroom(s) where you will meet your child and they will tour you through their work spaces. After this visit, please "check out" with your child(ren)'s teacher to let them know you are leaving. Please make your way to Fort Creek (your child will show you the way!) to share some cider and coffee with other families and to visit the Family Committee's Bake Sale.
All parking for Family Friday should happen in the Upper Elementary parking lot (the lot we share with Granite Forged Fitness), where you can walk through Fort Creek to Lower El (if your child is an Eaglet or Sapling). Follow the signs! We share the parking lot with Granite Forged Fitness and they have posted parking spaces for their members; their Friday class begins promptly at 3:00pm. Thanks!
Please remember that if you come to FF, you are responsible for your child(ren), so please make sure they follow school rules regarding behavior and property boundaries. Also, afterschool program starts at 3pm- please keep your child with you at that time, so the school knows who is going to the afterschool program.
Gearing Up
The cold is creeping in! It is time to think about layers and cold weather gear.
Right now, students need to have…
- A full change of clothes that's appropriate for the colder weather- long sleeves, socks, pants
- A full change of outer gear in case they get wet
- This could look like a pair of pants, rain pants, and rain jacket or some type of water resistant layer.
Gathering Up Your Winter Gear? Here is what you will need:
Insulated boots, winter coat, waterproof mittens or gloves, scarf/neck cover, hat, snow pants, wool/fleece socks. Taking the time to thoroughly dry these items each night will help immensely in the morning.
Please do not rely on our spare gear as your child's back-up.
Music
“Hey Ya!”
Music classes are getting into full swing! We are very excited to be starting the music classes and have been very happy with the response of our students.
Our overarching themes across the ages is the idea of active listening! We want our students to not just hear music but to be able to think about and reflect on what they are hearing! As the year goes on this will continue to be a focus in our classes.
Lower Elementary: Saplings and Eaglets learned that there is music and sound in the natural world! We went out into the woods and had a musical jam session using just items we found in nature! There were stick drums, pinecone violins, rock cymbals, and leaf and dirt maracas! The creativity of the students was on full display!
We continued the exploration of musical instruments by building shakers and learning about different hand percussion instruments!
Upper Elementary: Loons and Black Bears also got to explore the natural sounds of the world around them by having their own outdoor jam session! We have seen several students continue to experiment with sounds in nature during recess over the last couple of weeks.
We are starting to learn the basic components of music - this week with Boomwhackers! Students are experimenting with rhythm, pitch, melody, and harmony. From this starting point we will jump into different types of instruments, music from different cultures and time periods, and even experiment with some music composition!
Middle School: The Brook Trout are in the planning stages for some amazing musical projects! In addition to building on musical concepts from Lower Elementary - we are also integrating more music technology and media into the curriculum; to start off the year we are studying the power of music in movies and television in preparation for the Brook Trout to film/edit/produce their own lip sync videos, short documentaries, and to compose, record and produce their own music.
We will also be doing cultural deep dives into music month-to-month, watching and discussing musicals, and incorporating active listening to a variety of music into our weekly curriculum.
If you have any questions or suggestions about music please feel free to email Brendan and Michael during school hours! Thank you!
“Bye, Bye, Bye”
Board of Trustees (BoT) Meeting
Here is the September Head of School Report. Let me know if you have any questions!
You are always welcome to attend Board meetings in person or virtually! The next meeting is 10/15/2024 happening at 5:30 in the Brook Trout classroom. Here is the Zoom link.
