A Few Reminders

Service Project:  December
We are collecting new stuffed animals - to be given to children suffering with AIDs and other children who are spending the holidays in the hospital.

Las Posadas:  December 21
The last day of school before Christmas break is Tuesday, December 21, but school does not end until that night!  All Upper School students lead in some way.  Students in grades 7 & 8 take special leadership roles and so arrive early - at 6:30 PM.

Dressing for the Weather!  Every day!
Our plan for park time is to go outside as many days as possible. Only extreme cold and rain will keep us indoors. Please make sure your child brings proper outdoor gear.   If both the temperature and are at 20 degrees or above, we will go outside. At that temperature, students will be safe, so we will go out. Still, they will be safely uncomfortable, unless they are wearing hats and gloves. This means that hats, gloves and coats are needed every day now.

Geography:  Preparing for the Geography Bee in January 

The preliminary classroom rounds for grades 4-8 will take place in December so that the final bee may take place as soon as we return in January!

Winter Days

Just a reminder that during these cold winter days students will still be going outside for Park unless the weather falls below 20 degrees (this includes wind chill).  What this means is that students should be dressed accordingly with hats, gloves, a thick jacket, etc.  If you have any questions please email me.

Tuesday 12/7

Carnegie Hall (Wednesday December 8th)
Below is the schedule for tomorrow's trip to Carnegie Hall.  Please take careful note of when the students are expected to arrive at school.

8:10am - arrive at school
8:20am - board the bus
9:30am - seating at Carnegie
10am-11:15am - performance @ Carnegie
11:15am-noon - return to MSS

A Few Words about Math

During Advent, daily math classes continue apace. Last week the Seventh Graders were perfecting their skills with positive and negative numbers, and practiced solving equations using more complex calculations. This week, they are studying the absolute value concept, and practicing with exponents. More familiarity with powers and exponents help them be more confident with scientific notation, and support their work in math and especially science.

Spanish Corner

Language as a vehicle for learning and not learning as a vehicle for language acquisition best summarizes the way we teach language at Mustard Seed School. We bring children into a Spanish immersion experience that provides them with lots of input, culture and learning. Language acquisition is more than a grammar lesson in class. Students are invited into another culture and language as a means of learning and exploring. As we study a particular subject, simple phrases and questions and highly used words provide opportunities for authentic communication and growth. It is the goal of our program that communication be meaningful to students. Currently students are learning about clothing. Students will learn about clothing found in the Andean region and explore ancient cultures values as seen in their clothing and communities. We will focus further on clothing from Perú.

Basketball Practice

Due to the limited availability of the gym, basketball practice will take place this month only on Thursdays (not on Tuesdays):
Junior Team: 3:15 - 4:15
Senior Team: 4:30 - 5:30

Note: As before, 6th grade boys would go to Basketball practice at 3:15 PM and then go to join Chorus sectionals, ending at 5:40 PM. As for 7th & 8th grade boys, basketball practice begins at 4:30 PM and Chorus sectionals take place beforehand.

This is the plan for December.

We are still working at increasing our times for practices. We are also still looking for a Junior team coach and a Girls Team coach. Any interested coaches should contact us at:   Khanson@mustardseedschool.org. More news to come.

Las Posadas

More information will be given soon but for now just wanted to remind everyone that Las Posadas is on a Tuesday night (12/21) this year.  Hopefully everyone will be able to join us.