MSA Weekly News - March 10, 2017

March 10, 2017 | Vol 10, Iss 26, No 350

NEWSLETTER

Looking Forward to the Next Event

What a fabulous week we have had! This week started out with the PVA Coffee Break immediately after Monday's carpool, we held a well attended open house on Wednesday, last night we had a concert in the amphitheater with the Indigo Girls and a handful of superstar students who all entertained us. Today we rounded the day off with a Middle School Spring Dance. Can't wait to see how we top this week!

The weather was perfect, the event was casual enough that the kids could play on the sport court without interruption to the concert going on before them, and the adults were able to enjoy a night out with some terrific music. Our fantastic Fine Arts department ROCKS and we look forward to what the next Music Fest brings! Thank you for a great event.

See you Monday Morning!

Art of the Week

Many, many students sketched themes of music and Indigo Girls. Studio Arts teacher, Brenda Smith, traced the kids' awesome images, and carved them into clay to create these gorgeous pottery containers. Emily of the Indigo Girls proclaimed, "This is going in my kitchen!" Amy was touched by the creativity and thankfulness of the students.

7th Annual Spring Break Survey

Every year we do a survey to see what everyone is doing for Spring Break. I would love if you took just a couple minutes out of your day to answer two short questions.

Join in on the 7th Annual Spring Break Survey by CLICKING HERE. Survey closes on Wednesday at 5pm, so do it now.

Next week I will share the results with you. --Cheri

Musician of the Week

Meet Middle School 5th grader Seth Horwitz! Seth is a brand new addition to our trombone section here at MSA. Because of his excitement for music, his hard work and dedication to learning an instrument, and his excellent attitude, he is our Musician of the Week! Congratulations, Seth! You're awesome!

Students Perform with Indigo Girls

MSA students will one day tell the tale to their grandkids of this perfect night we had when they sang with Grammy Award winning musical geniuses! Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, the gold and platinum certified Indigo Girls, volunteered their time to come perform for and with our students at our first Music Fest in our awesome PVA Amphitheater. Amy came, talked with and performed for our students in 2015. She fell in love with our school and agreed to come back with Emily for this perfect night. Six MSA soloists, the MSA quartet, and the Singin' in the Rain cast performed between the IG sets. As the finale, Upper Students Cartwright Ayres, Journey Falco, Collins Losson, and Addison Monette sang with the duo for their signature number "Closer to Fine." Anyone that would like to show their appreciation for Amy and Emily sharing their time, talent, and love with us can make a donation to the women's shelter N.O.A. (No One Alone) in Amy Ray's hometown (by her request), by CLICKING HERE. If you'd like to see more Music Fest programs like this in the future, you may also make a donation to MSA's FINE ARTS program directly to MSA.

Workshop: Steps to Success in College

Please join the Counseling Department for a Parent/Student workshop on Steps to Success in College.
The workshop will take place from 6:30-7:30 pm in the Upper School Great Room on Wednesday, March 15, 2017.
Please RSVP HERE.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

March 2nd was Dr. Seuss's birthday, and Ms. Donna and Carissa's classes wanted to celebrate! We read Dr. Seuss books all week long, participated in comprehension activities, and wrote about our favorite Dr. Seuss book. At the end of the week, we all dressed as the Cat in the Hat and presented poems to the Lower School and front office. Last but not least we got to have a birthday party for Dr. Seuss! We had special snacks and watched Dr. Seuss cartoons. What fun!

Pictured: Sam Lesser, Neil Mukana, and Max Young present their poems to their classmates.

MSA Talent Show

Saturday, March 18

This night is always terrific fun! Last year it was standing room only. There are only so many tables and chairs, so get your tickets early. The deadline to get tickets is March 17. At the door ticket prices are increased. CLICK HERE to get tickets or sign up as talent!

Sabotaged

Well, The Nightmares have ended and if we "face our fears," instead of ignoring them, dreamland should be peaceful. Presently, my class is reading Sabotaged by Margaret Peterson Haddix. It is a historical fiction. Unethical time travelers from the future have kidnapped children from their history and brought them to the 21st century. Two children from the 21st century have been chosen to return the missing children of history to their proper place. This must be done very carefully. Katherine and Jonah need to help Andrea/Virgina Dare back to the Roanoke Colony; which is the lost Colony of Roanoke, Va.

--Kathleen Swift, Middle School Instructor

Beautification Day

Twice a year your Parent Volunteer Association try to schedule a Beautification Day to spruce up the grounds here on the campus. The tasks vary based on the needs of the school, but have include painting fence, filling flower pots, repainting the horseshoes along the walkway to the Student Activity Center, etc. This spring will be no different. Plan to attend Beautification Day to help out. Let us know you are coming by CLICKING HERE.

Saturday, March 25

Parallel City

This week Communication Arts Geometry finished up their parallel city project. In this project, the students applied their knowledge of parallel lines cut by a transversal. Do you see corresponding angles or alternate interior angles in Cole Reed's city, Logan's Grove pictured above?

--Michael Adams, CommArts Instructor

Don't Miss Your Chance!

Purchase your yearbook before
March 31, 2017
to have your student's name imprinted on the front cover.
Just CLICK HERE
And place your order TODAY!

Mustang Golf Defeats Cottage

Last Thursday at Steel Canyon Golf Course the Mustang Golf team defeated Cottage 185 - 263. It was a very windy day that made scoring well a challenge. Freshman Yates Smith lead the way with a score of 33, followed by senior Michael Martin with a 49. Sophomore Vijay Shah scored a 50 and Sophomore Maddie Hahn shot a personal best 53.

Our next match is March 15 at Trophy Club. Thank you for all your support.

Coming Soon!

At the Music Fest you got a preview of a t-shirt we are preparing to add to the Mustang Market. It is NOT a uniform item, but can be worn on dress down days by students. Parents you can wear them every day out and about town. This is one more way we can share Mill Springs with our community, friends, and family. We hope you are thinking about purchasing one for yourself. We will let you know as soon as they are available! #SuccessInSchoolSuccessInLife

Do you Need Summer School?

Do you know someone that needs Summer School or maybe you want to pick up a class over the summer yourself? If you know a rising 9-12 grader that needs summer school, you can find information HERE to share with them. We are offering most core classes and certain electives under our Forward Thinking program. Look for those offerings as well. If you have any questions about the program you can contact Cynthia Traylor, Upper School Principal.

Book Character Dress Up Day

To celebrate "Read Across America" day on March 2nd the Lower School students and teachers dressed up as their favorite book characters. Everyone from Harry Potter to Garfield to Junie B. Jones was represented. The students got to present their books and characters to the group, and had an awesome time!

Picture 1: Kevan Thieriot, Aiden Weaver, Eli Jutan, and Lauren Scobee represent the Harry Potter crew

Picture 2: Charlotte Christerson, Jackson Kennedy, and Duncan Bear went with the cat theme

Preposition Trees

Mrs. Courtney's 7th grade classes are learning about prepositions. I love to show the kids that a preposition is a word that shows relationship between a noun and another word by using a tree outside of our classroom. Everyone loves going outside to learn. We have a silly but productive time learning about prepositions with the tree. The kids have a drawing of a tree to write the prepositions on as we learn visually at the same time. We all laughed at some of our sentences but I do think the kids have a great understanding of prepositions.

You can sit before the tree (or in front of the tree). The student can sit on the tree or behind the tree (which is preferred), and then their feet are under the tree or beneath the tree. They can stand beside the tree (meaning next to the tree), before the tree, between the tree and a friend, or even on the tree (if they are really strange). READ MORE

Community Cares & Concerns

The Barkley Family

The Carlson Family

The Kaiser Family

The Smith Family

Unemployed Families

If there is ever a care or concern you would like to share with the community, please just email me at any time, I will be glad to include either names or situations. For privacy, I will only list names and claim ignorance if anyone asks me for details. Cheri