Ready for Routine?

It is hard to believe that Winter Learning is already in the books and now committed to memory. We have had some fabulous activities over the course these two weeks, several of them you can read about below - make sure you scroll to the very end, for the last one. Pictured above is our stage as it begins it's transformation at the hands of the Winter Learning crew, for the Spring Musical, "Shrek, Jr." Our Fall Mustang Awards have been announced on Facebook as they came in - all of them are available now, check out the lists below. The JTF performance was presented to the parents this week in preparation for the upcoming weekend of the Junior Theater Festival - break a leg everyone! Next week we are going to get back into a routine, the Spring Semester begins for PU/CA/U. We are very excited about the Open House on Wednesday, January is almost always the largest one and this one is shaping up to be no different.I hope you have a nice weekend, try to stay dry. See you TUESDAY!

The Mustang Awards have been Announced!

Mill Springs Academy awards the Gold and Silver Mustang as our version of the honor roll. The Mustang Awards can be earned in 5th - 12th grades. The criteria for obtaining either award is as follows:

GOLD Mustang - All A's
SILVER Mustang - All A's & B's with at least one A in a core academic class

Here are the listings:

Congratulations to everyone! We are proud of you!

Honored by BroadwayWorld.com

Last summer, Fine Arts teachers Patrick Rose and Jamie Fambrough brought Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" to life at the Holly Theater in Dahlonega, GA. It was a massive project and ended up being very successful. Over the holiday break, the show was honored with SIX awards from BroadwayWorld.com, including:

Best Set Design of a Musical (Non-professional) for Patrick
Best Direction of a Musical (Non-professional) for Jamie
Best Musical (Non-professional)

There wasn't an awards ceremony but Jamie was last seen with tears in his eyes, clutching a shampoo bottle saying, "I'd like to thank my family, friends, and school for all the support. You like me! You really like me!"

Congratulations to both Patrick and Jamie, these awards were well deserved!

Great Start to the New Year

Great job last week by our Mill Springs Wrestlers! Our Mustang Team came away as the overall winners of the four Team Round-Robin event, taking wins in 7 of the 10 bouts. What a great start to the new year.

Every MSA wrestler stepped on the mat with great courage, a positive attitude and demonstrated their maximum effort. With each opportunity to compete our team displayed the moves they've worked so hard to perfect and they also always learn important components to go back and work on to improve.

We have a very young team who love to compete with great spirit and enthusiasm. We look forward to even more terrific things from them. Go Mustangs!

Public Open House

Wednesday, January 23

9:00 - 11:00am

Student Activity Center

Many of you have attended an Open House on campus, and if you have, you know it is a great opportunity for someone to get a good feel for what Mill Springs is all about. If you haven't attended an Open House, it provides potential families with an overview of the school, a wonderful Fine Arts presentation, at least one parent and one student perspective, a tour of the school and an opportunity to speak with the principal. If you know someone that might benefit from attending MSA, PLEASE invite them to an Open House or better yet bring them! Word of mouth is by far the biggest way families find their way to Mill Springs. We know that you sometimes have the chance to be "Mill Springs on the Street" and we truly thank you for sharing MSA! www.millsprings.org/OpenHouse

Gave it Their All

This past weekend the Mighty Mustang Swim Team competed in the AAC Championship Swim Meet. In the heavyweight clash against Howard and Cottage Schools, the Mustangs truly gave it their all and battled from the first event all the way until the last! Competition in the league has certainly heated up as this year the Mustangs finished 3rd place overall.

The coaching staff is so proud of how hard everyone competed, but more importantly all the great sportsmanship that was shown to our opponents. The Mustangs are quickly establishing themselves as a swim team who competes hard, and does it the right way!

If you see any swimmers around school, please tell them CONGRATULATIONS!! The Mustangs will wrap up their season on Saturday, January 26 at the GISA Championship at Georgia Tech. It has already been an amazing season, and we are so excited to finish it off with a meet that brings out the best of the best from our state!

--Coaches Josh Hersko, Michael "MG" Griffeth and Astrid Cortes

Library Internship - WLP

Guest Journalist - Maddie Hahn, MSA Senior

The library is usually a quiet and clean place. You come in, find a book to read, and choose a comfy spot to sit. However, my internship at the library for both weeks of Winter Learning was anything but usual. Brittany and I would jam out to different AC/DC songs or talk while I did various tasks. I would pet Kayso or finish my breakfast while hard at work doing what needed to be done on a certain day. I removed books on the shelves that have gotten worn and old. I have labeled new books that have come in with their proper author and section sticker, like many new picture books that Lower can enjoy. I have also shelved books that have been returned to the library from various students in Lower and Middle. I have scanned inventory in the Juvenile Fiction section, making sure that none of our library books have gotten lost. I am pleased to report that we found the majority of the books that were lost. In addition, I also helped Lower and Middle school students find books that they were interested in checking out when they came in to have library time. It was a great joy to be able to work with Brittany in the library these past two weeks during Winter Learning; I would love to do it again.

Carpool Collection for Mustang Mardi Gras

Next week we will be collecting items at carpool for the Mustang Mardi Gras. Watch for Moms with signs and/or wagons at both morning and afternoon carpool.

Here is what we are collecting:

Gift Cards - $25 or more to restaurants or retail stores - for our Raffle
Bottles of Wine - $20 value or more each - for our Wine Pull
Donations for the Silent Auction
Cash/Check donations for the event
Items for Theme Baskets (School specific - refer to separate communication if you are participating)

Don't forget to get your tickets while supplies last at www.millsprings.org/PVATickets. If you have any additional questions, let us know and we will answer them for you. We can't wait to see you at the auction on February 9th!

Learning about Martin Luther King, Jr.

Branigan Hughes and Carissa Nelson's Lower School classes learned all about Martin Luther King, Jr. this week. We read a story about him and discussed why we celebrate his life, and the students completed a time line of his life. We participated in BrainPop activities in class. We also participated in two writings - first we wrote facts about his life and then wrote about why it is important to celebrate Martin Luther King Day. At the end of the week, we did a fun art and poem activity that we really enjoyed. Pictured are Ady Rajarajen and Zac Johnson.

Snowshoe Ski Trip - WLP

Last week Michael and I took a fantastic group of students to Snowshoe, WV on a ski trip. The kids loved how much the resort had to offer with anything from night skiing to swimming in an outdoor heated pool. We made some amazing memories over the course of the week! I grew up skiing at Snowshoe every winter when I was a kid, so I was looking forward to returning with these students. The first night we all went tubing together--it got pretty competitive. Kyle Moffitt made it his goal to beat me down the hill, and succeeded a couple of times. Eli Musgrave said that was definitely his favorite part of the trip. He went three or four more times over the course of the week. I had the greatest time teaching Sam Henslee the basics of skiing. It was so cool to see him and Taylor Mallady (a first time snowboarder) improving over the week. I also got to spend a good amount of time skiing with some of the more experienced skiers and snowboarders. Cayden Harris and Reese Urban skied some more advanced runs with me on the first day. On the second day I took Cayden Harris on a black diamond run (the second most difficult on the ski scale). The trail was called "Knot Bumper," and we both agreed that it lived up to its name! I also got to take Reese Urban and James Maichle on their first black diamond run. James loved it so much, and made a point to try some of the other black diamonds snowshoe had to offer. From starting with a snowball fight with the melting snow on the cabin's back porch to ending the week with a foot of snow falling over the last two days, this trip was surely one for the books! Pictured L to R: Ethan Stroup, Taylor Mallady, Kyle Moffitt, Shevy Hightower at the tubing slopes.

--Hayley Adams, Upper School Instructor

Get Fit - WLP

In the 'Get Fit' Winter Learning seminar students enjoyed a host of activities aimed at helping them discover the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle through a balance of diet and exercise. Our overall goal to start the week was to complete a marathon of 26.2 miles through a daily walking schedule. On Monday, we walked around the beautiful MSA campus and on the track. By the end of the day, we had walked over 6 miles! We also took baseline measurements for the amount of sit-ups, push-ups, and pull-ups we could do in a minute followed by a 400 meter run for time. We capped off the day with an awesome game of basketball. On Tuesday, we did our morning walk for approximately 4.5 miles. This was followed by a fun day at Stone Summit doing rock climbing. I think all the students gained an appreciation for how difficult that sport truly is! On Wednesday, we were back on campus and walked our furthest distance the whole week – approximately 7 miles!! We also enjoyed a very interesting documentary about the benefits of a healthy fruit and vegetable based diet. On Thursday, we walked 5 miles in the morning then were off to the pool for our swim workout. This was one of the most exciting days because we were able to combine a solid workout with good old fashioned fun in the pool! Of course, Coach Josh was also doing some recruiting for next year's swim team :-) On Friday, we finished off the week with another 5 mile walk which helped us achieve our goal of walking a marathon! We also did another round of testing to see how much improvement was made from Monday to Friday. We were very impressed with what can happen in just a week's time! Friday was capped off with an amazing wrestling workout with our very own superstar Coach John Hanrahan. Each day wrapped up with a journal entry to record the distance walked, activities completed, and overall personal summary of the day. Get Fit was definitely an amazing week, and I am sure the kids had a blast. Hopefully, this stoked the fires for a lifelong love of being healthy and fit!

--Josh Hersko, PreUpper Instructor