FALL BREAK   — No School Thursday and Friday, October 18-19

Parent/Teacher Conferences will be made available if you’d like to visit with your child’s teacher about his or her progress.  We will be doing them by appointment the week of  November 12-16th, please call Jacqui to schedule.

 On Wednesday and Thursday, October 24 & 25th bring a decorated pumpkin to school to make Morningside spooky!  Have fun with your family painting, carving, or dressing up your pumpkin!  The decorated pumpkins will be on display in the front of the school.  We will send the pumpkins home on Wednesday, October 31st and Thursday, November 1st.

We will be having Halloween activities on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 30th and 31st.  Kindergarten students will have activities on Wednesday only.  Please have your child come in  costume.  Children can bring Halloween treats for their classmates.  We will be sending home treat bags.

We were a little disappointed because there were so many more, but we were unable to upload them due to a technical problem. Even still — these are just fun!

Most of us are aware that children should never be allowed to ride in the front seat due to risk of air bag related injury and death, but did you know that in Utah all children under the age of eight need to be properly restrained in a car or booster seat unless they are more than 57 inches tall?  Please take a moment and review this Frequently Asked Questions Flier to be sure your child rides as safely as possible to and from school!

What an awesome summer! Thank you Teacher Gigi, Teacher Maren and Teacher Debbie for making a very hot summer fun for everyone! It’s so hard to believe it’s nearly over and we are already gearing up for the school year!

The teachers at Morningside School join many others in Cache Valley for a great big shout out to Nicolas Oakeson, an 2010-2011 Morningside alumni who is fighting a rare disease called Langerhans cell histiocytosis.  In addition to this cancer-like disease that forms tumors out of white blood cells, Nico’s left kidney is failing.  Because he is immunosupressed due to treatment, Nico is isolated from contact with others leaving him to feel very alone. Wendy Oakeson, Nicolas’s mom, works at Advent Creative where Art Director Jake Steele developed a campaign to raise money and support for Nicolas and his family. They are asking that people purchase the T-Shirts, and then photograph themselves to put it on Project Nico’s facebook.  Morningside wants to help.  You can get a Nico T-Shirt directly from www.sparrowalliance.com or you can pick one up at the school next week.  Here’s his story… let’s pay it forward.

Nico, everyone at Morningside School is rooting for you!  You are a great kid and you are not alone!

It’s an incredibly busy summer so far –Summer Camp 2012 is a definite hit!  Teacher Gigi and Teacher Maren are keeping our kids “happy campers” with super fun activities  and the afternoon kids are having a great time at Sensational Kids Club too!  We got a new sensory table and a “new-to-us” light table this month — so fun!  We still have plenty of room for more children in both AM and PM sessions so if you haven’t signed up for a few weeks this summer, now is the time!

Teacher Debbie and I have been busy developing new curriculum to address the developmental needs of children with sensory processing issues, social/emotional delays, difficulties in relating and communicating or other developmental concerns.  We are working toward a partnership with the Up To Three Early Intervention Program at USU.  We are excited about the potential of collaborating with another organization to fill a need for many families in Cache Valley.

I also wanted to share some exciting news!  This morning Autism Speaks, an international autism advocacy group, has published a guest blog featuring the photography project my husband and I developed titled, Evidence and Artifacts: Facing Autism. We are thrilled at this kind of exposure and hope that we are able to positively impact many families through our advocacy efforts.  Pass the link to anyone who might be interested, especially families that might want to participate in the project by sitting for portraits! Click here for a direct link to our guest blog on the Autism Speaks website!

Congratulations to this year’s graduating Kindergarten class!  We are so very proud of all your hard work and play at Morningside School.  We know you are ready to brave the first grade, where ever you will be going to school next year!  We will miss you and we hope you will stay in touch with us as you go all the places you are going!

Children, Children, What Do You Hear?  is a musical adaptation of the well loved Eric Carle story, Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? written and performed by Morningside School’s Kindergarten Classes! Enjoy!

What fun we had Saturday! Thank you to everyone who made this year’s spring program sparkle! The kids did a fantastic job — we are so proud of all of them! Anyone who has great pictures to share — please email me and we will add them to the gallery! Oh, and as soon as I am able, I will edit some video of the program and have them available on-line for viewing!