October 22
Muskrat News
Upcoming events:
October 23 Next Wildlife Steward Workshop
October 27 Restoration trip to Beaver Creek (grades 4/5) 12:30pm
October 27 Soap Creek School Trip (Gorman) 9:30am
October 28, 29 & Nov 1 No School, Parent/Teacher Conferences
November 5 Bookmobile 2-3:15pm
November 10 PTO Meeting 8:30am
November 20 Giving Thanks Celebration
From our Executive Director
This next week begins with three days of school and ends with two days for conferences with your child’s teacher. There is no school the following Monday, November first. We will use Monday to pick up any missed conferences, and for the staff to develop place-based curriculum and projects for the remainder of the year. Part of the reason for 3 days of no school is to work around Halloween when children can be quite distracted. Also family beliefs and practices vary widely making it hard to know what to do or not do about Halloween in a public school.
To repeat about the conferences – this is our time to establish learning goals for your child. Two or three goals are enough for a student. It is very valuable for us to know what is important to you. However, it is your child that benefits most from this effort. Most importantly they see clearly that school is important to you, and therefore to them. Next, they learn about goals and how important goals are for people to stay focused and make progress toward a desired outcome. One other aspect of this conference time is learning about portfolios. Children will be working with their portfolio throughout the year. This conference time – and for the most part anytime – either you, your child, or your child’s teacher can review how the child is performing in school. A very good part to portfolios comes at the end of the school year when we all can see the kind of progress your child has made over the course of the year. Sometimes the growth and subsequent change is so great that a child can’t believe the first efforts of the school year belongs to them (the hand writing is so poor or the math problems are just too easy).
-dan
Classroom News
Room 1 – We really enjoyed our 1st restore day this week. We learned about seeds and how they travel. We have also started learning about architecture.
Hamster Happenings – “Well, hello everyone. I am a little disappointed this week. I was planning on taking a vacation to visit my cousin at the beach on Wednesday. I stopped to take a nap in the reading castle and was put back in my cage! I had even packed my cheeks for the trip. Oh, well, have a nice weekend.”- Sam
Room 2 –This week we have been painting amazing 3D structures that we created! – Ms. Gorman
Kindergarten – The Kinders had a fabulous time at the pumpkin patch! We discovered that pumpkins are not orange all the time. – Miss Jenny
Room 4 – Parents of 4th/5th graders, please check your email for regular updates from me. We will begin keyboarding lessons this week, starting with correct posture and the home row.-Thanks, Mr. Day
Charter Renewal
As many of you know, our school is in the process of applying to renew our charter. It would be very helpful for us to have letters of support from MCCS families to present along with our application. Just a short note describing aspects of your child’s learning that you’ve found most valuable would help us to demonstrate the impact of our unique approach to education. If you would like to contribute your story, you can drop off a letter with Cedar in the office or email your comments to admin.mccs@gmail.com and we can print them out to be included with our application. The deadline for submissions is Monday, October 25th.
School Pictures Are In!
A proof of your child’s school picture and the order form are in your mailbox. Please turn in your order form to the office by Monday, October 25th. Picture retake day has been scheduled for November 5th. Please let Cedar know if you want your child’s picture retaken. Class photos and the all school photo are posted on the board across from the office.
PTO NEWS
Muddy Creek PTO wants to serve a luncheon to our hard working staff during conferences, Friday Oct, 29. We need families to make salads, rolls/breads, and desserts. Please contact Kerry Pfeil if you are able to help out. This is an easy way to get in some volunteer time, and your efforts will be appreciated by everyone. THANK YOU!
The next PTO meeting will be Wednesday Nov. 10 at 8:30am.
Our annual “Giving Thanks” Celebration will be Saturday Nov. 20th. This is a MCCS Community Social with music, potluck dinner and activities for kids. Everyone is invited including grandparents, community members and friends. We need some volunteers to help set up, clean up, and supervise activities for the kids such as face painting, and games. We are also looking for some live musical entertainment, so if anyone knows a group willing to perform please let us know.
We are starting a Parenting Book Shelf in the library that will have resources for parents to borrow. If you have parenting books you would like to donate, please leave them on the library desk with a note marked “Parents Library”.
If you have any questions, suggestions or would like to volunteer please contact Kerry Pfeil kerrypfeil@gmail.com /541-207-3562 or Terina McLachlain 8gr8kids@gmail.com /541-829-9847
Lunchtime volunteers needed
We are looking for 3-4 parent volunteers who would be interested in covering lunchroom and playground supervision duties (11:30-12:20) once a week every other week so Melanie, Larissa and Laura can receive Literacy training. This could happen Monday, Wednesday or Friday. Please let Cedar know if you are interested.
Library volunteers needed
If you have only a few minutes to help out at the school, the library can use your help. Within a half hour or even only a few minutes you’d be surprised how many books one can alphabetize! The picture books and the fiction section are in need of organization. Please come by the library or contact me first, and I’ll show you around. Thanks, Kelly ksbirish@yahoo.com .
Box Tops
October is a big month to turn in box tops. In your mailboxes you will find a list of products you can find box tops on and a Halloween Helper sheet to collect them. Bring in your box tops and we can turn them into money for our school. For further questions please contact our Box Tops Coordinator, Cortni Boyd (Brindyn’s mom) at rob_n_cort@yahoo.com
Hiking/Walking Group
Please join us each Friday after drop off for an easy to moderate hike around our beautiful valley. This Friday we will meet at the school, and then figure out where to go. On subsequent Fridays I will send an email telling where and when to meet. Hikes will be low-key but will go on rain or shine (If it’s real rainy or cold we may have a short hike then go to coffee!). Send your email address to emdub7@yahoo.com, and I’ll put you on the list. Thanks, Michelle Waddell (mom of Aidan S. and Jillian).
Community Canning Center
Is anyone interested in turning our Muddy Creek CS kitchen into a Community Canning Kitchen? I have read a little bit about it and think our kitchen would be a great place for such a center if we were able to get all the equipment working and up to code (with a lot of fundraising). It would make the canning task extremely easy, not to mention the benefit of bringing people together to share their knowledge and enthusiasm.
Let me know if you’d be interested in:
1. Using a canning kitchen if it were available.
2. Starting a group to study the feasibility of turning our kitchen into a canning center.
3. Sharing any resources for kitchen/canning equipment or knowledge.
Thanks, Michelle Waddell (mom of Aidan S. and Jillian) emdub7@yahoo.com
1st Annual Willamette Valley Fill-Your-Pantry Market
Saturday, October 23, 2010 2-5 p.m., A2R Farms, 7205 Cutler Lane (2 miles west of Corvallis Municipal Airport off Airport Rd.).
Purchase staples (grains, flour, beans, seeds, winter storage produce, honey, meats, canned fish, etc.) directly from local farmers and fishermen. Stock your pantry for the winter. See List of foods on MCCS bulletin board, which includes growing method (conventional, natural, certified organic or transitional to Organic) and price per pound.
Weaving Play into the Day
Right now. In the midst of the fall season, nature is engulfed in a conversation on change. Deciduous leaves are a color they’ve never been- never in their individual lifetime. What’s it like for a leaf who has known only green to be suddenly inspired to yellow or red? What’s it like for a patch of earth that once saw sky to be covered in a blanket of leaves? Fall teaches us about relationship. And change. A falling leaf surrendering to gravity and the process of letting go, creates change in the world. It is lost to the tree. And found to the ground.
In play, children do this naturally. They change position, perspective, and their minds. They grow and evolve. As adults, we participate in this process less and less. We are mostly sitting, sometimes standing, and almost always looking straight ahead. It affects our bodies, our minds and our emotions. We grow less flexible, are generally not as easily inspired to joy or tears, and start to note physical declines such as repetitive stress injuries.
Neuroscience is teaching us that the brain reabsorbs the connections we don’t use, pulling the energy and nutrients from an underutilized system to be applied elsewhere. This process is directly linked to our entire body. Bodies and brains that are well woven with multiple connections are more adaptable and handle stress better. Moving differently initiates this process and finding a new or different way to do the same old thing can bring it into a state of unfolding.
Walking down the front steps to pile into the car and head to school- can you do it backwards or sideways? Can you skip two or jump over three? If you take five minutes and explore these potentials will your relationship to your front steps change? When you encounter them again at the end of a long day, will you see them differently?
I predict you will. I predict the mere sight of your front steps inspiring a smile even…
Did you smile when glimpsing your front steps before?
-Brittany Legacy
Wish Lists
The Room 2 CD player is not working anymore. If anyone has a CD player with speakers (boom box style) that they are not using, we would appreciate it.
Ms. Gorman’s and Miss Bridget’s classrooms need a few items to help them with their outdoor activities. They are looking for donations of rakes, shovels, a wheelbarrow, kid-sized gloves, seeds, extra garden tools in general and fall bulbs (tulips, daffodils, crocuses, etc.). Anything you can spare would be greatly appreciated.