Most the year we just have on-line ordering for Scholastic available through the Morningside School website, but next month we are sending home catalogs because many people like to use Scholastic orders as gifts around the holidays.  If you would like to place an order, they will be due NOVEMBER 15^th.   You are free to order by filling out the form on the back of the catalog and sending a check made out to Scholastic Books or online www.scholastic.com, using the MorningsideSchool code HW743.  As a service project we will be donating  free books we receive through scholastic to Bear River Head Start who will send them home with children who have not had access to books.    Christmas shopping and community giving with the click of a button!!!  Sounds like a win/win to us!

If This Is Your First Time Ordering Online:

– REGISTER at scholastic.com/readingclub
– ENTER the one-time Class Activation Code from the top of this letter
– CHOOSE from thousands of books, value packs, and Storia eBooks
– SUBMIT the order to me by the due date listed on the website

Every once in a while there are events going on in the community that are so special we pass the info along to our Morningside Family.  Saturday, October 26, 2013  at 7:30 pm the American Festival Chorus and Orchestra will present a fun-filled family evening of magical music from the Disney archives, as well as other memorable pops favorites.  Children are encouraged to wear their Halloween costumes.  Don’t miss out on the fun! 2 Free children’s tickets are available with purchase of each adult ticket.  Tickets can be purchased online, by phone (435-797-8022), or in person at the CCA Box office.  We want your children to have this experience so much that if you bring us the program from the event, we will take $10 off November’s tuition! 🙂

Today Teacher Gigi led the kindergarten classes in the classic chemistry demonstration affectionately called “Elephant Toothpaste!” This entails mixing hydrogen peroxide with liquid soap, then a catalyst like yeast is added to make the hydrogen peroxide break down very quickly. The soapy water traps the oxygen and creates bubbles, turning the mixture into foam. Today they added food coloring to make the foam look even more like toothpaste.  Look at these faces!  Future scientist in the making.  <3  Thanks Teacher Gigi!

When I was doing a little background research for this blog post I ran into this awesome YouTube video!  What a great jump point for all kinds of conversation between you and your child about the super-duper amazing things we can learn in science! My oh my!

Friday morning, Lynn Jemison-Keisker, Associate Professor and Director of Opera Theatre in the Caine College of the Arts at USU dropped in with an amazing quartet of students to perform “The Emperor’s New Clothes,”. If you are unfamiliar with the fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen, it’s a short story about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes that is invisible to those unfit for their positions. When the Emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, a child cries out, “But he isn’t wearing anything at all!”  In the opera version we saw today, the Emperor was sporting Batman boxers! Bwaahaahaa! What a delightful interruption to an otherwise normal day at school.  The children were dazzled.  Thank you Professor Jemison-Keisker for bringing such a wonderful experience to our little friends at Morningside School.  BRAVO!

http://youtu.be/mhauAxlym-A

Fall Break — No School Thursday and Friday, October 17^th & 18^th 

Pumpkin Decorating!

On Wednesday and Thursday, October 23rd & 24^th bring a decorated pumpkin to school to make Morningside spooky for Halloween!  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 30th and Thursday, October 31st.

Halloween Parties!

We will be having Halloween parties on Wednesday, October 30th and Thursday, October 31st.  Kindergarten students will have their party on Thursday only.  Please have your child come to school in costumes without weapon-like toys or masks.  Children can bring Halloween treats for their classmates.  (20 treats per class is a good estimate – non-candy items are welcome — pencils, stickers etc) We will be sending home treat bags!

This week, Michelle, the community educator from Willow Park Zoo brought a Cockatoo, a Tortoise, a Screech Owl, and a super fluffy high jumping Chinchilla to show the friends at Morningside School! We learned that turtles love water, but tortoises are desert creatures; owl poop smells bad; and Chinchillas can release their fur pain-free as an method of escaping predators! Crazy little critters – cute and smart too!    Thanks for coming Michelle — you taught us a lot of really neat stuff about these animals!

Look at these darling Old MacDonald puppets Mary Lynn made for our school!  They are fantastic and the kids love them!   Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

For the past several years Morningside has partnered with two programs at Utah State University to place practicum students in the classroom; Family, Consumer and Human Development from the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education & Human Services and Family and Consumer Science through the College of Agriculture and Applied Science.  Each semester we carefully select individuals for a practicum at Morningside who demonstrate child respecting attitudes and enthusiasm for being present and engaged with young children.   This fall I would like to introduce you to  Mary Lynn,  Michelle Cook, Chandler Daniels and Jessica Kunzler!  We have enjoyed each of them so much so far — we wish we could keep them all year!

Mary and Michelle

 Chandler

 Jessica

Exciting News!!! Starting next week, our Kindergarten friends at Morningside School will be participating in a program called Reading in Motion. This program is designed to help children develop proper language and reading skills while also learning and developing musical ability and self confidence. The children will participate in a variety of activities including: songs, dances, games, and reading skills exercises that will strengthen  literacy development.   Arts Bridge Scholars (USU students) will join us for 40 minutes, twice a week, in both  AM & PM kindergarten sessions to provide this program!  We just know this is going to be a great experience for our children and teachers at Morningside!

Reading in Motion was brought to Utah State University through ArtsBridge America, a service learning scholarship program for advanced university arts and education students. Reading in Motion is a Chicago-based program that seeks to teach reading through the arts to Kindergarten-3rd Grade students (for more information, visit www.readinginmotion.org).

If you have any questions about this program, or if you’d like to come in and observe, please let us know!

Keeping our kids safe is our #1 priority!  Did you know that according to the Utah Department of Public Safety, “More children ages 6 to 14 die from traffic crashes than from anything else. But even more startling is the fact that over half of the 4- to 7-year-olds who die in crashes are buckled in seat belts. The truth is that these younger children are not safe in seat belts alone. They are not adequately protected by seat belts alone.”

Please take a moment to check out this informative  Child Passenger Safety Fact Sheet to be sure your child is in the right car seat!