October is Fire Safety month and our wonderful Hamburg Fire Department came in today to educate our learners about fire safety, show them how to stop, drop, and roll, talk about all the equipment the firefighters wear to stay safe, and answered all the learners questions! Thank you again Hamburg Fire Department, we appreciate your time and sharing all your knowledge with us!
Ms. Etten's first graders have been busy at Maple Grove Charter School.
During EL Module, learners were proposed the question, “Why do we need tools?” The overall consensus of learners was that tools make our lives easier by helping us to do work. Tools help us create things! Learners were to use habits of character such as perseverance and collaboration to work throughout module. The end goal of the students learning was to create a magnificent thing that would fulfill a need within the classroom. Learners worked through the process with making drafts, reading books such as The Little Red Pen and The Most Magnificent Thing, and lab opportunities with different tools, inclined planes, wagons, levers, pulleys, and various recycled materials to create their magnificent thing. Creations included a book buddy shelf, classroom mailbox, bird house, prize box, tic-tac-toe, book shelf, candy dispenser, and more. The learning opportunity was extended on a field trip to the Merrill School Forest where Mrs. Benton worked with learners to operate many different pulleys, create levers out of broken down trees, and overall be creative thinkers of how perseverance and collaboration is possible in the outdoor environment!
After-school pick up kids at Maple Grove Charter School once again met their goal of receiving over 95 Fox Tails for displaying their CRISP traits while they wait for their families. They celebrated with a Drop Everything and Draw or Color activity. Thanks to a wonderful donation, we had plenty of Crayola crayon boxes for this creative experience and also for Art class.
Enjoying the beautiful fall weather at MGCS in a variety of ways at recess🍁🦊
Third grade students from Maple Grove Charter School recently went on a field trip to the George W. Mead Wildlife Area. Thanks to Miss Sam and Mr. Ryan, students learned about the balance or imbalance of a trophic cascade, about the 21 WI snake species; two of which are venomous and about birds and macro invertebrates of a pond wetland habitat. They are looking forward to going back soon with their own families.
Hope to see all our MGCS Families at our PTO sponsored Fall Festival!
Each month Maple Grove Foxes choose a monthly reading goal that is just right for them through a conversation with their teacher. This is a goal that they work to achieve at home with nightly reading. Learners who meet their goal at the end of each month are rewarded with some type of whole school reading incentive! This month we celebrated with painting pumpkins that were donated by the Nicklaus Family founders of Incredible Bank! We were thrilled to hear that 100% of our 4th and 5th graders meet their monthly goal! Way to be great role models and CRISP leaders!
Our littlest foxes at MGCS worked together to create a nature loom during labs! They sorted items found in the trail and garden by the following attributes: color, shape, texture, and size. After discussing and testing what could be easily weaved within, their masterpiece was complete! 🍂
Please feel free to hang out after you pick up your child/children for our PTO meeting in the gym! We would love to have you!
Grades 1-3 at Maple Grove Charter School enjoyed some wonderful learning opportunities on their field trips to Rock Ridge Orchard and to Red Door Family Farm. It's really great to have community partners that help extend our outdoor lab learning to real life. Plus, did you know that the owner of Rock Ridge (Mrs. Knetter) is a past Maple Grove alumni? #fullcircle
Ms. Etten’s 1st grade class
dressed for a special occasion on Thursday. They hosted a wedding for the letters of Q and U. Attendees included 1st grade learners, staff, and cards delivered from other classrooms congratulating the letter couple! During EL skills block learners are working on Qu which is taught as a type of digraph or blend in that the Q is always followed by the vowel U. This is often a very challenging concept for students to remember and produce in their writing. The special learning experience was just what was needed. The reception included juice, cake, and QU activities. Craftsmanship was applied to make a wedding quilt gift. All quilt squares began with Qu vocabulary and pictures💕
Last week MGCS started hammock check out for all of our learners! Learners were taught how to check out a hammock, set up and take down a hammock, and how to safely sit or lay in one. We are hoping students enjoy a relaxing outdoor experience!!
Maple Grove Charter School's 4th grade Outdoor Lab students have had a busy September! They are learning how to write and draw high quality journal entries, have learned about habitats, spent some time picking our garden produce and used it to make salsa, have learned about wildflowers as well as observed pollinators and pollination in action. We are so lucky to have the forest on our school grounds so we can not only learn about these topics, but observe them in real time!
There's nothing better than the fresh smell of popcorn 🍿 in the air! That is exactly what Maple Grove Charter School students and staff smelt throughout the school today thanks to the Maple Grove Foundation and Cindy Artus for volunteering her time to pop enough popcorn for all the learners and staff🍁! The Foundation has graciously donated the supplies to have a popcorn day once a month along with Mrs. Artus being the master popper! We are grateful!
Benvenuto! Fifth grade learners in Ms. Szutkowski's class enjoyed a "book tasting" where they sampled some of the finest literature, enjoyed popcorn, and watched movie trailers of the books in this selection. Learners now have a list of personally-vetted fiction to enjoy for the rest of the year. Bon appétit!
Our Maple Grove Charter School families and community members are AMAZING! A huge shout out to Kevin Flahive, an uncle to a couple of our learners, for designing and building our enclosed whiteboard stand! It is absolutely stunning!
Another shout out to Pete Hirn, Mike Cyrtmus, Wes Kottke, Corbin Hanson, Clayton Neske and Jameson Hanson for all your expertise and help in installing it in our outdoor classroom!
Our outdoor classroom is almost complete and some learners have already started using it! All that left is the seating. Thank you again to our great community and families!
This project has been funded by the charter school implementation grant and will be utilized for learning for years to come.
Our Maple Grove Charter School families and community members are AMAZING! A huge shout out to Kevin Flahive, an uncle to a couple of our learners, for designing and building our enclosed whiteboard stand! It is absolutely stunning!
Another shout out to Pete Hirn, Mike Cyrtmus, Wes Kottke, Corbin Hanson, Clayton Neske and Jameson Hanson for all your expertise and help in installing it in our outdoor classroom!
Our outdoor classroom is almost complete and some learners have already started using it! All that left is the seating. Thank you again to our great community and families!
This project has been funded by the charter school implementation grant and will be utilized for learning for years to come.
Our coop at MGCS got an upgrade! A huge Thank You to Brian Plisch, from BP Seamless Gutters, for installing these wonderful gutters to our new coop! The color matches perfectly too! The water that flows through these gutters will also flow into a rain barrel where we can reuse it in multiple places around the school. It was a great addition!
Third graders at Maple Grove had their agriscience lesson of farm to table involve salsa making. They were able to wash, slice and dice harvested veggies, fruits and herbs into such a tasty treat. This "fruits of their labor" activity was another wonderful hands-on learning opportunity that occurred thanks to Field Edventures' Miss Sandy, to Athens' ag teacher Mrs. Bunkelman and to Athens' FFA student intern, Caden.
On Friday first graders from Maple Grove Charter School were able to fully experience the concept of farm to table. The learners have been tending to the gardens and monitoring the produce as it is ready for consumption. We are fortunate to have the School Gardens provide so many opportunities to have hands-on experiences with healthy and sustainable agriculture. Today we began the morning by picking the tomatoes and peppers that were just right for a breakfast salad at 9:00am. Students did everything - wash the produce, cut the produce, and mix the delicious ingredients for serving to one another. It is not very often that you have first grade learners recognizing the value and having an appreciation for healthy food in our lives🥗🥕❤️ but here at MGCS we do! Thank you to Mrs. Bunkleman, Mrs. Benton, and to the parents that volunteered for making the morning a success😊
