Learners who accomplished their reading goal for the month of February, experienced their reading incentive with their fox den family! Learners got to celebrate by playing games for all ages and abilities. Congratulations to our learners who made reading a priority this month!
Only at a school as special as MGCS do first grade learners dedicate their recess to using the school CRISP traits to care for Mother Nature. With spring having begun, the caterpillars have started to make an appearance out on the schoolyard. Learners have designed custom homes built into the natural landscape and are checking daily with hopeful hearts that the caterpillar will remain healthy. Accommodations of a moss bedding, insulation of the tree trunk house (comprised of 5 rooms 😊), and walls to protect from the unpredictable Wisconsin spring weather, are just a few of the proactive moves of the first graders. The compassion, respect, and collaboration, are just a few of the amazing things happening within this learning experience. The outside discovery and learning has lead for a deeper discussion and research interest within the classroom. Looks like we will be incorporating caterpillars into our book topics of interest.
If you haven't registered your students for the 23-24 school year, please do so today. Registration also includes extra curricular & sports registration for the 23-24 for Middle/High School. Please complete registration as soon as possible. https://www.athens1.org/page/online-registration.
In between sap collecting, our littlest foxes at MGCS are extending their knowledge through play! The maple syrup dramatic play has been a big hit. This center includes the basic, yet important steps of the process: collecting, cooking, selling, and of course...eating! 😋
Third graders at Maple Grove Charter School kicked off their Wisconsin Forward Exam week with dressing up as intellectuals.
We are excited and looking forward to seeing you at our 10th Annual Pancake Breakfast! Please save Sunday, April 16th from 9:00-12:30 for regular pancakes or potato pancakes! 🥞
Third graders at Maple Grove Charter School have been using several tools to test the sugar content of their collected
sap such as: their own taste buds, a sap hydrometer and an ocular sap refractometer. Turns out that our combined sap has a sugar content of 2 Brix which equates to about 2%. Therefore, by using some tricky mathematics like the Jones Rule, we would need 43 gallons of sap to equal 1 gallon of syrup. However, one student had a legit sugar content from her tree of 6 Brix which would be a 14.3:1 ratio instead. What a cool hands-on learning experience that combines above and beyond academics.
Many of us may be sick of the snow but the kids at MGCS are still making the most of it! Thank you Mr. Bloch for helping them build this fun snowman! It may melt soon, but it's making the memories with what we are given.
In labs this week, fifth grade learners completed some investigations to help them better understand how the new pipeline system uses vacuum pressure to bring sap to the collection tank.
Last fall, second graders collected and froze milkweed seeds. Today, they began prepping them for germination by placing them in a damp paper towel and baggie, and also ensuring they will receive proper air flow. It will be time to plant our butterfly garden before you know it! 🤞🏼🙏🏼 🌱 🦋
Tonight's meeting is streaming live on our YouTube Channel. Meeting starts at 6. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySxG14MiDgv85XYQM3tFPw
Be a part of the decision. The School District of Athens has one referendum question on the April 4 general election ballot. There is an information meeting tonight at Athens Elementary, 6 PM. If you can't make it, there are more meetings scheduled. Please check the website! Also, watch your mailboxes for more information about this critical vote.
Fifth grade learners had an opportunity to make maple snow candy during our maple sap kickoff day. It was a sweet experience!
Fourth and fifth graders at MGCS have been spending the past month learning about the Iditarod and tracking mushers that they have chosen to follow. Last week we had a great opportunity to have guest speaker Mark Vachavake present to our class about the Iditarod. Mark had previously lived near Nome, Alaska (where the race ends) for many years and has been to the Iditarod 16 times. He shared information about the race itself, brought in Alaskan artifacts to show, and also brought in dog booties that were actually worn by sled dogs in the Iditarod for students to keep!
It was a great way to wrap up our exploration.
Thank you Mark for this amazing learning opportunity!
We had a wonderful Open House we had last week at Maple Grove Charter School! We had soup, a fire pit with s'mores, inverted art show, face painting, tours, and great conversations! Thank you to the Maple Grove Governance Board, the Maple Grove Foundation, the PTO and the amazing staff for all your support to make this successful.
Applications are being accepted now until April 28th. Any questions or to schedule a personal tour feel free to contact us at 715-257-2199.
What a busy Friday filled with adventures centered around Maple Syrup as well as our outdoor lab bird house building. Books, a virtual field trip, making maple syrup play dough, syrup tasting, tree tapping, and beginning to write step 1 in their memory books of maple syrup making.
1st graders at Maple Grove Charter School had so many life long learning experiences and educational adventures to fully kick off the start of the 2023 maple syrup season! As if all of that wasn't enough, learners also got to use power drills, measurement, and perseverance when putting together their bird houses! Thank you to the amazing staff, volunteers, families, and learners for working together Friday in making it an amazing day to be at MGCS! 🍁🍁
Maple Sap Adventure Day
From read alouds, to movies, to syrup jar logo voting, to tree tapping, to identification of inner tree parts, to taste testing of sap vs. syrup, to drawing a tap-able tree of age and diameter… oh my! Third graders at Maple Grove Charter School had so many hands-on learning experiences all related to the start of maple syrup season.
Registration is now open for the 2023-24 school year. Go to the registration page to begin. https://www.athens1.org/page/online-registration
The future of the School District of Athens is in the hands of voters. Casting your informed vote is important! Are you voting absentee? Timing is everything. Visit myvote.wi.gov to register, request a ballot, or find polling places.
Come check out MGCS Open House/Family Night Thursday, March 9 from 4:00-6:00! We will have Olive Garden soup and breadsticks, a live inverted art show along with showcasing our learners very own inverted art, a campfire with SMORES, teachers available in their classrooms for questions and conversations, and check out some of the cool things our learners are doing in their outdoor labs! Come check out everything Maple Grove Charter School has to offer!
