MVES Newsletter

December

10- Winter Concert & Art Show 6:00-7:00

11- 4th & 5th Grade FLE

12- 4th & 5th Grade FLE

12- PTO Meeting 4:30

16- Marcos Pizza Night

17- Smiley's Fundraiser Night 5:00-9:00

18- 4th & 5th Grade FLE

19- 4th & 5th Grade FLE

DECEMBER 23-JANUARY 3 NO SCHOOL WINTER BREAK

Dec 10 is our winter concert and Art Show for Grades kindergarten and 1st. The music portion of the show begins at 6pm (performers should arrive about 15 minutes early to get ready). Dress is casual as we have little attire for them. Hope to see you there!

Still recovering from cooking last week’s Thanksgiving smorgasbord?!? I know I am! Well, we’ve got a great solution! On Saturday, December 14th, Mountain View teachers and West Rockingham Ruritans will be partnering together to barbecue some delicious chicken! All profits will go to our ongoing campaign to improve the play spaces for our hardworking students!

Because their chicken tends to sell out quickly, this year we are encouraging families to pre-order what they would like. Chicken halves are $5 each and a quart of white beans is $4.

If you preorder (which is highly encouraged), please bring cash payment to Mountain View when you pick up your order between 8:30-10:30am on Saturday, December 14th.

Thanks for your support!

Pre-Order here!

In this week’s newsletter, we are including a social media guide for parents and caregivers. While the intended audience is teenagers, more and more elementary-aged kids are getting cell phones so we thought this would be helpful. As a father of three sons, I chose to wait until they were in 8th grade before they got a really locked down cell phone and, even then, recognized that any of my sons could be capable of using their phone inappropriately. I monitored their phone use, knew their passwords, set screen limits and content restrictions, “surprise inspected” their phones periodically, and made each son sign a contract before he got one (if you’d like a copy, just email me). As they proved to me that they were trustworthy, I relaxed their restrictions until 12th grade. Then, they had unfettered access the last year they were living at home so I could still help guide them through any difficult situations (e.g., 2am text from a friend contemplating self-harm; a high school sports’ team group chat that has devolved into harassment, etc).

As the holiday gift-giving season quickly approaches, please fight the temptation to give your child a phone unless you are committed to guiding them on how to use it appropriately and willing to provide clear and significant boundaries (what apps they have, how much time they can spend on it, charging it in your room beginning an hour before bedtime each night, etc). If your child(ren) already has a phone, winter break and the start of 2025 is a GREAT time to establish clear boundaries to show them you love them and want to keep them safe!

Dec. Week 1: Simple Machines - Wheel And Axle - Candy Gears!

Observation: Work is HARD! One of the ways people are able to adapt is they are able to make machines that help make their work faster or easier.

Question: How can simple machines help make work easier?

Materials:

• Round, plastic Lids

• Hammer & Nail

• Candy Corn

• Glue

• Brads

• Cardboard

• Marker

Investigation:

• Draw a dot in the center of each plastic lid.

• Use the hammer & nail to make a hole on the dot on each lid.

• Push the brad through the hole (Make sure the lid can turn easily around the brad.)

• Glue the candy corn around the edge of the lid (evenly spaced) to create a gear.

• Attach your gears to the cardboard using the brads - attach the larger one to the left, make sure they are close enough for one candy corn to be between 2 candy corns of the other gear.

Results:

• Take a picture and submit it to your teacher on SeeSaw!

Reflection:

• Did you run into any problems? What did you have to change?

• Which gear turns faster, the big one or the little one?

Reference

https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/candy-gears/ 6/11/24

REFI GRANT

Mrs. Enke, Ms. Shaffer and Mrs. Cherry are excited to announce that MVES has received a REFI grant entitled "Amazing Appalachia: A Cross-Curricular Fine Arts/STEM Endeavor" The grant supplies funding for Music/Art and Stem projects surrounding the cultural influences of Appalachia and will culminate in a Fine Arts/STEM night in Februrary. More info to follow. The funding for this project was made possible by one of REFI’s Partners in Education or through a Named Honor Grant, Partners Excavating Co. Thanks to Partners Excavating and REFI for making this possible!

Dick Miller Grant via Cooks Creek Presbyterian:

The music program would like to thank The DIck Miller fund via Cooks Creek Presbyterian Church for funding the cost of the shirts for our upcoming Vertical Event. Thank you for supporting the FIne Arts at MVES!

Thank you to everyone who generously gave to our Shade Drive Fundraiser. We raised over $1500! We will purchase and plant at least 10 trees this coming spring!

Congratulations to 2nd Grade! Your classes gave the most combined amounts and won an ice cream party courtesy of the PTO!

Monthly PTO Meeting 12/12 in Library @430

Upcoming Spirit Nights

12/16 Marcos Pizza Use code MVES1016

12/17 Smiley's Ice Cream 5-9 Come for games and fun

The Duke Dog Reading Program is back for the 2024-2025 school year! The reading goal for students in grades K-3 is 5 books and the goal for students in grades 4-5 is 3 books. Once students have reached their goal, parents fill out the submission form at dukedogreading.com and students will receive 3 digital tickets for each of the following games, which admit the student and 2 additional guests to this season's Duke Dog Reading JMU Basketball Games:

Women's Basketball: December 29th, 2024 vs Troy
Men's Basketball: January 4th, 2025 vs Arkansas State
Women's Basketball: February 15th, 2025 vs Old Dominion

More information can be found in the attached parent letter!

If your child is going to be absent from school, please call the office at 540-438-1965 or email mvesattendance@rockingham.k12.va.us. If you are planning to take a vacation or your child will be out of school for an extended period of time, please contact the office. Thank you!

Be sure to check out updates from our Fine Arts here Fine Arts News.

All transportation changes must be made by 2:00pm. Please contact the office at 540-438-1965 or you may send an email to mvesattendance@rockingham.k12.va.us with your change. If you’ve notified your child’s teacher please be sure to notify the office as well.

The parent portal is an online portal accessible anywhere on the web that parents can log in to and see all of their children in one place, their grades, assignments, scores, attendance, schedules, and teacher comments for each school your children attend.

Parents need to contact the school to get access information to create an account in PowerSchool.