As we hope for warmer days ahead, please continue to send students with a coat, as temperatures can vary greatly from morning to midday.

March brings Read Across Manitou and our Spring Book Fair—two wonderful opportunities to celebrate the joy of reading! While teaching reading skills is essential, we also want to foster a lifelong love of books and encourage students to read for fun.

Read Across Manitou: March 3rd - March 7th (see flyer below for details)
Spring Book Fair: March 17th - March 21st in the library

C14 is back - with more variety! Registration will begin March 3rd and close March 17th. This session runs from Tuesday, April 1st to Thursday, May 8th. Classes include: hand sewing, chess, Flying Pig farm, face painting, dance and cheer, children's book writing and illustrating, spring crafts, robotics and fairy camp (stories and crafts).

We’re also looking forward to student-led conferences on March 20th and 21st, where students and staff are excited to connect with families and share their learning. Expect to see sign ups the week of March 3rd.

Here’s to a fantastic March filled with books, growth, and hopefully some sunshine!

Carolyn Leyes

cleyes@mssd14.org

719-685-2195

We ask that all parents and guardians complete the Intent to Return Survey as to whether or not your student will attend MSSD14 for the 2025-2026 school year.

Please complete one form for each student currently enrolled at MSSD14. For additional submissions, a link will be available to begin the survey again after submitting responses.

Parents/Guardians of graduating seniors do not need to complete this survey.

All parents and/or guardians of returning students will receive instructions to complete the 2025-2026 Returning Student Registration Form in the beginning of July. The Returning Student Registration will need to be completed prior to the first day of school on Friday, August 15, 2025.

Individual schools will send specific information during the summer months such as calendars, activity/sports information and required check-in days.

Your participation in this survey is appreciated.

Kindergarten students are flourishing! Our reading topic has focused on lessons that stories teach us. It has connected beautifully to our school-wide focus on kindness. We have read stories that teach about kindness and what to do when something unkind happens. The students have related these messages to ways they can show kindness to everyone around them - classmates, teachers, family members, community members, and even the environment. In Dinosaur School, we are also wrapping up our unit about how to solve problems with others. Once again, kindness is usually the answer!

Our math work has focused on how to solve story problems. Young mathematicians are writing addition and subtraction number sentences to match pictures to tell a story. They are tying together all of the math skills they have used up to this point... sorting and categorizing, counting, writing and recognizing numbers, recognizing parts to whole and whole to parts, comparing numbers, and MORE! Additionally, we also enjoyed celebrating the number 100 on our 100th day of school last week!

In first grade, students dressed up like they were 100 years old and celebrated our 100th day of school! We also had a very lovely tea party to enjoy all of the skills we learned about manners and etiquette. Parents decorated our room with formal decorations and served us delightful finger foods and tea. We had special guests from around the district join each of our classes and we had lovely conversations with them!

In math we just started learning about comparison and composition of length measurements. We have talked about direct and indirect length comparison as well as length measurement and comparison using centimeter cubes. Next week we will move into comparison word problems with measurement. We have practiced measuring classroom objects and figuring out if they are greater than, less than, or equal to other objects in our classroom.

In reading we are excited to start our 6th unit: Stories Teach Many Lessons. Our first week's focus will be the essential question: What can we learn from a mistake? By exploring different stories we will describe characters using key details, use context as a clue to meaning, and compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories. We will be learning about more magic e words and continue to work on reading with fluency and accuracy.

Second graders have been busy exploring trickster tales, enjoying stories filled with clever characters who use their wits to solve problems. In writing, they have been crafting personal narratives, learning to share their own experiences with clear details and strong emotions. In math, they are working on addition and subtraction within 1,000, developing strategies to solve problems with larger numbers. As part of their science and social studies lessons, they have also begun studying landforms, discovering different types like mountains, valleys, and plains. With so many exciting topics to explore, these young learners are growing their skills in reading, writing, math, and geography every day!

In Benchmark, we have begun our new unit. Our essential question is “What helps us solve problems?” We are reading texts in which the characters have a problem to solve. We discussed how the characters used decision making to solve those problems. For writing, we are spending each week on a different type of writing. Our first type of writing is narrative. Students wrote an ending to a story. We will, also, practice informational and opinion writing by the end of the unit.

In Math, we are working with fractions. First, we concretely partitioned various materials into fractional units. We have, also, created fractional strips to use during our math lessons.

In Fourth Grade, we wrapped up Benchmark Advance Unit 5: Technology for Tomorrow! We read a variety of opinion pieces and informative texts about different technology developments, such as driverless cars, drones, and robots in the workplace. Students developed various reading skills such as drawing inferences, summarizing, determining the meaning of words from context clues, integrating information from multiple texts, and analyzing metaphors. We wrote opinion essays in which students explained whether or not they were in support of a new technology development based on research they compiled. They did a fantastic job!

In Math, we have been very focused on fractions, fractions, fractions! We have covered a variety of topics, such as generating and representing equivalent fractions, comparing fractions with like and unlike denominators, as well as adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers. We plan on wrapping up our big fraction unit in the next week and moving on to decimals!

In Science, we have begun our exciting next domain, Eureka! Student Inventor. Eureka is an invention-themed “game show” in which students are divided into lab groups and compete in challenges to complete their lab’s “Wheel of Invention” and learn about what it takes to become an inventor! Ask Your Student Expert: What is an invention? (An invention is an object or process that a person makes that is new and different and was created to do something). Is a pencil an invention? What about a tree? Why or why not? Which invention is your lab based on? Share who invented your lab's invention and at least one way it has improved life!

It's been a fantastic month in 5th grade at MSES! The students have been working incredibly hard on all of their current learning objectives. In Math, we have been learning how to multiply and divide with decimals. In literacy, the students are learning about the industrial revolution. They are researching an important piece of technology and now writing an opinion essay to why that piece of technology is so important to our society. All 5th grade classes have also gone over to the Manitou Springs Middle School to take a tour of the building with students at the school. While they were there, they had to solve the mystery of "Who took Mr. Cady's socks?!" Every group was able to solve the mystery for Mr. Cady.

Artists in grades K-5 are continuing to develop their use and understanding of the Art Elements of Design, specifically LINE, SHAPE, and SPACE.

Kindergarten students are creating abstract art based on printmaking LINES (vertical, diagonal, and horizontal) and SHAPES (circles). They are learning how shapes are made when lines close.

1st Graders are connecting LINES to creating LETTERS, NUMBERS, SHAPES and PATTERNS through creating a piece called "Alphabet Soup".

2nd Graders are exploring how LINES are either straight or curvy and that when lines connect they create either geometric or organic shapes. They are using their problem-solving skills to then see how these shapes and lines can become the everyday objects around us. Our project called "Hidden Pictures" is a perfect way for young artists to practice their spatial thinking skills.

3rd Grade Artists are creating the illusion of 3-dimensional SPACE through Landscape drawing. They include a Horizon Line, Foreground, Middleground, and Background while utilizing overlapping and size to enhance their illusions of SPACE.

4th Grade Artists are using the art of Zentagles (drawing patterns) and Radial Balance (symmetry of a circle) to create Mandalas. They are integrating their current learning about fractions to divide their circles into 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16 sections as well as dividing their main circle template using "concentric circles" (parallel circle patterns). Once their Mandala template has been formatted, artists will include Zentangle patterns as decoration.

Fifth Grade artists are learning to create the illusion of SPACE using ORTHOGONAL LINES from 2-dimensional shapes to ONE vanishing point. They are challenging themselves with how to slice their shapes and float their shapes.

On Saturday, February 8th, students joined Mrs. Dunlap and other artists at the Manitou Art Center to build and design miniature parade floats inspired by our town's annual Mardi Gras parade, which will be held on Saturday, March 1st, at 1 p.m. in downtown Manitou Springs. This year's festival theme for the parade is "circus." Many creative artists came by and made some awesome floats that they can carry in the parade.

K-5th grade students are back into the swing of things in music after their successful holiday concerts! 5th graders are diving into ukulele and other instruments for their promotion song and K-4th graders are learning about music artists such as Nirvana, Matchbox 20, Bob Marley and more!

2nd and 3rd Grade Language Arts:

Students learned more about building community and turning their Dreams for our World into do-able action steps. After reading about the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, we brainstormed the ways we each want our lives to be. We discussed what we think is important, from helping others to making our own lives better. Students wrote down ideas and then created a paragraph to share. The Second Grade group practiced their typing skills to produce a published version of their paragraphs.

5th Grade Language Arts:

Students have been reading SuperSTEM, a cool magazine with interesting articles about scientific innovations and connections within our world. The kids read a piece written in Comic style about how the smoke mask was invented to protect fire rescuers. We studied the way the author turned important details into color pictures in comic frames, using text boxes, speech bubbles, maps, diagrams, and even the technique of using a frame to explain a flashback in time. The kids selected different articles in the magazine to focus on turning the key details into their own comic strip story. Make sure you stop by to read their incredible work!

In Physical Education, the students had a blast during our gymnastics unit. They developed their coordination and agility by enjoying a variety of movements, including high jump, rope climbing, tumbling and climbing on the rock wall. We are starting our floor hockey unit, where students are learning safety protocols for using the hockey sticks and learning the fundamental skills to lead into game play.

• Kindergarten is working on La Familia/The Family, Grande/Big and Pequeño/Small unit.
• 1st and 2nd graders are working on the Family unit. Vocabulary: papá/dad, mamá/mom, hermano/brother, abuelo/grandpa, primo/cousin.
• 3rd graders are working on Las Flores/Flowers and La familia/Family unit. Vocabulary: muchos/many, flores/flowers, colores/colors, mano/hand, boca/mouth.
• 4th and 5th graders are working on the Places unit. Vocabulary: farmacia/pharmacy, restaurante/restaurant, cafetería/cafeteria, estadio/stadium.

In the Cultural aspect, students learned about the celebration of Valentine's Day in Latin America and the Las serenatas/Serenades.

Students in third and fourth grade are studying forces and interactions in the STEM lab. In class we learned about how forces cause a change in motion. If forces are balanced, there is not a change in motion, if forces are not balanced, the motion will change. Students demonstrated balancing their yard stick, similar to a seesaw, with different weights and positions.

We hope you can join us for Family Movie Night Friday, February 28! Please watch a special video below from our students for more information and make sure to RSVP by Monday, February 24th.

Read Across Manitou is coming up! We will be doing a reading challenge at home. Your child will be coming home on Monday, March 3rd with the tic-tac-toe board full of fun reading challenges they can complete on their own! Here is a sneak peek of the events coming up!

In our 3rd grade classes (and even in one first grade class!), students are learning about 9 simple strategies, known as “Kelso’s Choices,” that can be used in everyday situations to solve small problems. Small problems are those in which nobody is in danger or badly hurt. The 9 choices are:

• Talk it out
• Walk away
• Ignore it
• Share and take turns
• Apologize
• Tell them to "please stop"
• Wait and cool off
• Make a deal
• Go to a different game
  

Even if your child hasn’t learned about Kelso’s Choices, these strategies can still be helpful for them! Parents can encourage their children to try using one of these choices when they face small problems, whether it’s a disagreement with a friend or a frustration in the classroom. Students are encouraged to try 2-3 of Kelso's choices before asking an adult for help. It’s all about giving students the tools to handle their own conflicts and feel more confident in their problem-solving skills. If your child has not yet learned Kelso's Choice, you can introduce these ideas at home to help them understand how to use them when needed.

When are Kidpower Colorado classes?

March 3rd, 6th & 7th

8:10-9:10 am Larsen (4th Grade)

9:10-10:10 am Carley (1st Grade)

10:10-11:10 am Thomson (1st Grade)

11:40-12:40 pm Goldman (4th Grade)

1:45-2:45 pm Marquardt (4th Grade)

Who is this for?

Manitou Elementary 1st and 4th grade students and their parents/guardians.

What skills do children learn?

• Be aware and confident
• Keep a safe distance from strangers
• Use voice and body to stay safe
• Solve problems with people when you can - and get help effectively when you can't!
• Set boundaries on unwanted touch or behavior
• Effectively address situations with bullies

How do we teach these skills?

• Upbeat language that is skill-based, not fear-based
• Opportunities to learn by doing in a fun and empowering way
• Focus on positive, practical solutions

Time to order your 2024-2025 Yearbook. This year, the yearbook will be in color. The price is $25.00. For more information, please see the order form below.

We all have ideas on how to keep tech time balanced, but how do we share those ideas and make them stick? A family media plan is a great tool for intentional media planning at home. It allows families to make tech decisions together and create shared expectations.

If you’re interested in making or updating your family’s media plan, here are two free planning tools that are designed with different age groups in mind:

• Common Sense Media has printable Family Tech Planners at https://www.commonsensemedia.org/family-tech-planners

• The American Academy of Pediatrics has an interactive step-by-step Family Media Plan builder at https://www.healthychildren.org/English/fmp/Pages/MediaPlan.aspx

Spring classes are coming! Classes will cost $110 for the 6 week session. Classes will run from the week of April 1st to the week of May 6th. MSES Connect 14 spring class registration opens March 3rd and will be available through March 17th.

Course Offerings:

Tuesdays

• Chess with Summit School of Chess: Limit 20 students 3rd-5th grade. Learn chess from basics to complex skills.
• Face Painting with Keera from Flying Pig Farm: Limit 10 students 1st-5th grade. Learn the basics of face painting while practicing with your friends!
• Hand Sewing with Zora from Flying Pig Farm: Limit 10 students 1st-5th grade. Students will learn the basics of sewing and have a sweet project to take home.
• Robotics with Steven Greybill: Limit 10 students K-2nd grade. Learn the basics of Lego Robotics.
• Spring Crafts with Lu from Flying Pig Farm: Limit 10 students 1st-5th grade. Do a different spring themed craft each week!

Wednesdays

• Flying Pig Farm: Limit 20 students K-5th grade. Experience spring at flying pig farm. Join us for planting, cooking, crafting and play as the farm comes alive this spring. Students will ride the bus from MSES to the farm and a parent/guardian must pick up afterward at the farm.

Thursdays

• Dance/Cheer with Missi Thomson: Limit 10 students 1st-5th grade. Learn some basic Dance and Cheer moves.

• Chess with Summit School of Chess: Limit 20 students 3rd-5th grade. Learn chess from basics to complex skills.
• Children's Book Writing with Illustrator April Lavely: Limit 10 students 3rd-5th grade. Learn to write and illustrate your own book!
• Fairy Camp with Cambria Devoy: Limit 6 students K-2nd grade. Listen to stories about fairies while doing crafts and exploring our school's outdoor spaces.

Location: All classes are located at Manitou Springs Elementary School except for farming, which will be held at the Flying Pig Farm.

Fee (per class): $110 (cash/check only)

Date/Time: April 1st-May 8th, 3:00-4:30pm

2/28: Family Movie Night 4:30-7:00 pm

3/3-3/7: Read Across America Week

3/4: Coffee with the Principal, 8 am

3/5: Late Start Wednesday, students arrive at 9:55 am

3/7: Fitness Friday

3/14: Staff Work Day - NO SCHOOL for students

3/17-3/21: Book Fair

3/19: Picture Day

3/20: Noon dismissal; Conferences

3/21: Conferences

3/24-3/28: Spring Break

4/2: Late Start Wednesday, students arrive at 9:55 am

4/4: Fitness Friday

4/18: Coffee with the Principal, 8am

4/23: Night of Excellence

4/25: Staff Work Day - NO SCHOOL for students

5/2: Fitness Friday

5/7: Late Start Wednesday, students arrive at 9:55 am

5/13: Coffee with the Principal, 8am

5/15-5/16: Spring Concerts

5/19: Field Day (K-2nd AM, 3rd-5th PM)

5/20: Field Day Rain Date 5/22: 5th Grade Promotion

5/22: 4th Grade Pool Party

5/22: Last Day of School, Early Release at 12:00

School and District calendars are available at https://mse.mssd14.org/calendars

This is a Round Robin Tournament in which games are played to 11 points and you have to win by 2 points. Each division will consist of 7 teams, and each team will play all other teams one time within their division. At the end of round robin, team positions (1-6) will play one game to 11 points, win by 2 points to determine the final placing within the division, 1st through 6th place. Prizes will be awarded to teams within the division who finished 1st through 3rd place.

Times of Division Play
2.5 - Men's & Women's Doubles - 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. - Saturday, March 15, 2025
3.0 - Men's & Women's Doubles - 11:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. - Saturday, March 15, 2025
3.5 - Men's & Women's Doubles - 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. - Saturday, March 15, 2025
2.5 - Mixed Doubles - 8:00 a.m. to 11 a.m. - Sunday, March 16, 2025
3.0 - Mixed Doubles - 11:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. - Sunday, March 16, 2025
3.5 - Mixed Doubles - 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. - Sunday, March 16, 2025

To register for the tournament you can sign up with the QR code on the flyer or go to Swishtournaments.com.

All proceeds of the Manitou Springs Kiwanis "Saint Pickleball" Day Tournament will be going to support and promote youth sports and leadership programs within District 14.

110 Pawnee Ave. Manitou Springs, CO 80829

(719) 685-2195