Merrimac Memo - Family Newsletter

October, 2024

Thanks for Attending the Family Picnic!

Mark Your Calendars

Tuesday, October 8

Cave of the Mounds & Blue Mounds Field Trip (5K-5) 8:30-2:30
Home and School Association Meeting, 6:00 Virtual

Friday, October 11

Renaissance Field Trip at Circus World, 9:30 (Grades 3-5)
Marching Band Performance & Homecoming Parade, 12:30-2:30 (5K-5 attending)

Saturday, October 12

Fall Family Garden Day, 12:30-3:30

Monday, October 14

Seal-a-Smile
School Board Meeting at Merrimac, 7:00

Tuesday, October 15

Seal-a-Smile
MCS Culver's Share Night, 4:00-8:00

Wednesday, October 16

Early Release, 1:30

Saturday, October 19

RAIN DATE for Fall Family Garden Day, 12:30-3:30

Monday, October 21

Conferences (4K-5) 3:00-7:00

Tuesday, October 22

Grades 1 & 2 to Overture Center & Prairie du Sac Library, 8:30-2:30
Conferences (4K-5) 3:00-7:00

Thursday, October 24

No School

Friday, October 25

No School

Monday, October 28

School Board Meeting at Grand Avenue, 7:00

Friday, November 1

Halloween Costumes in PM and at All School Sing

Monday, November 4

Picture Retakes

Update From The Principal

Greetings Merrimac Families,

October is shaping up to be just as busy as September was here at MCS! A couple of things to highlight are:

Board of Education at MCS

On Monday, October 14th we will host our annual school board meeting here at MCS. Please join us in the gym at 7:00 if you are interested to catch a meeting closer to home and hear the annual Merrimac Community School report to the board. We have lots to celebrate with our academic success! I will share details in the November newsletter.

Homecoming Parade Food and TP Drive

The Sauk Prairie High School National Honor Society will be collecting non-perishable food items and toilet paper during the homecoming parade on Friday, October 11th. The members of the NHS will be at the beginning of the parade collecting those donations, which later will be donated to the Sauk Prairie Food Pantry. You can send an item with your child to hand off to the NHS members from their seats on the curb if you wish.

Annual Safety Drill in October

As part of our commitment to keeping our school community safe, we will be conducting our Annual Safety Drill in late October. This drill will complement our monthly Tornado and/or Fire Drills. During this practice, students will learn how to move quietly to a designated area of the secured classroom.

We approach these drills with care and sensitivity, focusing on helping students understand that their role is to listen and follow the teacher’s instructions quietly. Our goal is to ensure they feel safe and prepared without going into unnecessary detail or "what-if" scenarios. For your information, here is a link to the safety information on the district website. Please contact me if you have any questions about this drill.

The MCS Facebook page is the place to see photos and updates from the school as well as reminders of upcoming events. Be sure to follow us here!

Thank you for reading our monthly newsletter!

Amy Brehm, Principal

4K Farm Week Highlight!

A Very Successful Book Fair!

Thank you for your support of the book fair! The teachers are very grateful for your generous classroom donations. The proceeds of the $2550 sale go back to the library in new books for the students to check out and enjoy!

Fire Prevention Week - Open Houses in SP

Sauk City Fire Department

Please join us on Wednesday, October 9th from 6-8pm for our annual Fire Prevention Open House. This year, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) theme is “Smoke alarms: Make them work for you!” We invite you to join us for a night of fun and learning. We will have fire truck rides, station tours, free handouts and treats. Weather permitting, UW Med Flight is scheduled to be landing on the ground near the station at 6:00pm. Dunkin' Donuts of Sauk City will again be on hand with donuts. Our firefighters will be doing a live fire demonstration starting around 7:15pm. We will also be raffling off a fire truck ride to school to one lucky student in the Sauk Prairie School District! Enter your name into the drawing, and we will call the lucky winner when the Open House is over. The ride to school will be on Friday, October 11th. Hope to see you there!

Prairie du Sac Fire Department

Join us for our annual fire prevention week open house Monday, October 7th from 6-8pm. We will have station tours, fire truck rides, demonstrations, hands-on activities, and food trucks. The night will end with a live fire scenario. It will be a fun night for the whole family!

5K Hikers

A Message on Eye Health from Nurse Shea

Eye Health

October 10th is world sight day, a day dedicated to focusing on children’s vision and eye health. In honor of that we are encouraging kids and adults to assess their daily screen usage. It’s no secret that screens are a large part of daily life for all of us, however, excessive screen time can have significant effects on children's vision health. Prolonged exposure to screens can lead to the onset of myopia (nearsightedness), digital eye strain, and headaches.

Adults can provide a great example to their children to find alternative activities to screen time. One great way to do this is encouraging outdoor activities. Not only is it great exercise, but natural light helps children's eyes develop and grow properly, reducing the risk of myopia.

Prevent Blindness of Wisconsin encourages adults and children to follow the 20-20-20 rule to encourage regular breaks from screen usage.

20-20-20 Rule

Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds.

This habit helps the eyes reset and allows our distance eye muscles to be used more regularly.

Other Habits that Encourage Eye Health

Discourage the use of ANY screen held close to the eyes
Adjust screen brightness & contrast to avoid screen glare
SIT UP! Screens should be at arm's length, slightly below eye level, tilted away with light behind the user.
SHUT DOWN! Stop device use 1-2 hours before sleep. This not only encourages eye health but promotes better sleep.

Our school nurse will be performing routine vision screenings at Merrimac Community School on Thursday, November 7th for grades K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th.

If your child needs further vision care based on their results, you will receive a letter in their backpack that day. If your student wears glasses, please make sure that they have their glasses with them on that day.

Thank You Sauk Prairie Lions Club!

We would like to extend a big thank you to the Sauk Prairie Lions Club for their continued mission of sight conservation within our community, as well as a generous donation of several pairs of eye screening glasses and eye charts to assist in our vision screening this school year. We are truly grateful for their generosity and support!

Grade 1 Learning About Libraries with Llama Llama!

MCS Borrow Bags

Borrow Bags are now available at MCS. What is a Borrow Bag? It is a backpack your child may take home that has activities they can do independently or with family members. It may contain books, games, toys, coloring, etc. There are 12 Borrow Bags and each one is different. Students may borrow the backpacks for as long as you like and return it when done. The backpacks are located in cubbies across from the 4K room for students to take and are tagged with numbers so you can keep track of which one you have borrowed. No need to let Mrs. Gagnon know you are taking one. Please return all pieces to the puzzles and games and let Mrs. Gagnon know if something needs attention.

Second Grade Harvest!

Gently Used Tennis Shoes Welcome for PE!

If your children have any tennis shoes they have outgrown and you do not have a place for them feel free to donate them to PE. I have a basket of shoes in case kids forget theirs on a PE. day. I will make sure the shoes are cleaned and sanitized before used by any other students. Just sent them in attention PE.

Thank you -

Mr. Breunig

Grade 3 On the Move!

Home and School Association (HSA) Updates

The HSA is meeting virtually on 10/8. We welcome any parent or caregiver to join us! Here is the link information.

HSA Virtual Meeting

Tuesday, November 12 · 6:00 – 7:00pm

Time zone: America/Chicago

Google Meet joining info

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/hkq-juie-wjg

Or dial: ‪(US) +1 971-770-1912‬ PIN: ‪420 083 344‬#

Fundraising is a big part of the HSA's work, so mark your calendar for Tuesday, October 15th from 4-8 to attend our Culver's Share Night!

Many thanks for the overwhelming support of the MCS Amazon Wish List! If you want to make a teachers' day this is the place!

Any questions about the HSA can be directed to Mellissa Benson, President at presidentmerrimachsa@gmail.com

4th Grade Conquers Parfrey's Glen

5th Grade Loves Their New Seats!

Follow MCS on Social Media!

We post a lot on social media at Merrimac, most frequently on Facebook. Make sure to follow us!

Follow MCS on Facebook ⇒ Merrimac Community School
Sauk Prairie School District website ⇒ saukprairieschools.org
MCS website ⇒ melm.saukpraireschools.org
Follow MCS on Instagram ⇒ sauk.prairie.mcs

MCS Google Calendar

We are rolling out a way for you to see our MCS events to your personal digital calendar. Mrs. Kerri Lintl our Grade 3 teacher has created these links.

Here is the link to view the MCS calendar https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=Y19mcjd1cjZkbm5icXF1bzJmbmNwNTAyajAzY0Bncm91cC5jYWxlbmRhci5nb29nbGUuY29t

Use this link to integrate it in to other calendars -

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/c_fr7ur6dnnbqquo2fncp502j03c%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics - this one you need to copy and paste into your own personal calendars

If you have issues email Mrs. Lintl at kerri.lintl@saukprairieschools.org and she will assist you.