MacArthur Messenger

Friday 12/1: Movie/Parents' Night Out, 6pm-8:30pm

Tuesday 12/5: Milwaukee 🏀BUCKS🏀Day!

Sunday 12/3: International Day of Disabled Person

Monday 12/4: Vision Screening for 5k, 2nd, and 4th graders

Thursday 12/7: 5th Grade Concert, 6:30pm

Friday 12/8: No School

Monday 12/11: 🏈Packer🏈 Day, start of PTA Silent Auction

Monday 12/11: Spelling Bee, 2pm

Thursday 12/14: PTA Meeting, 7pm

Monday 12/18 - Friday 12/22: Winter Spirit Week at MAC (see below for details)

Friday 12/22: GHS Carolers come to perform at MAC during the school day

Monday 12/25 - Monday 1/1: No School

Tuesday 1/2: School Resumes

Thursday 1/4: World Braille Day

Thursday 1/11: PTA Meeting, 7pm

Monday 1/15: No School

Monday 1/22: No School

During the holiday season, we often spend time thinking about what/who we are grateful for. We are so grateful for our school community. MacArthur teachers and staff work hard to support our school community. We invite you to complete the google form below if you would like to recognize a staff member or team for their hard work and dedication. We will pass on the good news to them. Thank you in advance for sending an encouraging word, as we know it will mean so much to them.

Hello everyone!

As we move into the last month of the year, we have some exciting and fun things happening this month. I have tried to speak to as many parents as possible at all of our events and it was suggested to me that people would be receptive to attending sporting events for our local teams that would also help fundraise for the PTA. As a reminder, next week are two of those sporting events!!

Sporting Event Fundraisers: The Milwaukee Admirals are playing on Wednesday, December 6th at 7PM against the San Diego Gulls. They set aside 50 tickets for us and we have not sold any. If you are interested in seeing an awesome hockey game and cheer on the indoor blimp, please go here to purchase tickets. If the team or time is a reason you choose not to attend, please send us an email to give us feedback.

The Milwaukee Wave are playing on Saturday, December 9th at 6:05PM against the Monterrey Flash. We have sold 25 out of 50 tickets for this game so there is still plenty of room if you wish to attend an exciting indoor soccer match! You can purchase tickets here.

As a reminder for both of these events, the tickets range from $18.50 to $33.50 and you can purchase any level of ticket for the fundraiser.

Spelling Bee: The spelling bee practices are over and it is now time for the main events!! The grade level spelling bees will be held on December 5th during lunch recess and the school spelling bee will be on December 11th from 2-2:30 PM. Parents are welcome to come watch our MAC spellers compete to see who will be moving on to the district spelling bee!

Battle of the Books: Our amazing library aide, Ms. Kinkade has coordinated MacArthur joining the Battle of the Books!! More information is highlighted below in the newsletter. The PTA is proud to support these efforts so if your 4th or 5th grade bookworm is interested, please make sure they sign up with Mrs. Kinkade and starts to read that January 8th book list!!

PTA Meeting: Out next PTA meeting is Thursday, December 14th at 7PM in the school library. There will be child care available if needed and, as always, you can feel free to join us on your phone or computer via Zoom. We will be discussing Smart TVs for the classrooms and the schedule for next semester!

Text Messaging: In my conversations with parents, it was noted that some people are not on social media and are missing some of the Skyward emails and it was asked if it was possible to receive text messages. In order to test this out, if you are interested in receiving text messages about PTA events, please review and fill out this form.

Silent Auction: Finally, our December Silent Auction is going to go live at midnight on December 10th and will run until 5PM on December 20th. The site is live for you to view the items that are available. Currently, there are items like Kessler’s jewelry, lift tickets at Little Switzerland and the always popular Robert’s gift certificates. We will be adding a few more items this week so keep checking back to see what else is new!

As you all know, the teachers are the backbone of our school. If you are interested in recognizing your teacher with a gift this holiday season, please take a look at their favorite things here.

Thank you!

Robert Sanchez: President - robkiana@gmail.com - 858-663-8819

Nicole Christensen: VP - nicoleriege@gmail.com - 414-379-1600

Coral Kline: Secretary - coralrae.kline@gmail.com - 608-658-0475

Alexis Melby: Treasurer - leximelby0110@gmail.com - 414-331-4102

The Health Room is looking for gently used donations of boys athletic pants or sweatpants in larger (4th/5th grade) sizes. If you have any to donate, please send them to school with your child or bring them into the front office. Thank you for your consideration!

When possible, please launder and send back clothing that comes home on your child that comes from the health room.

No School Reminder: There is no school this coming Friday, December 8th due to a professional development day for our teachers. The office will be closed.

Dress for Outdoor Recess: Please make sure your children are dressed to go out to recess. Unless it is raining, or the temperature/wind chill is too cold (below zero), the students will go out every day for two recesses. Please be sure to write your student's last name on a tag in their outerwear (hats, gloves, boots, snowpants, coats), so we can find the owner when things end up in our lost and found. If your scholar does not have snow pants AND boots, they will not be able to play off the blacktop when there is snow on the ground.

Kids Klub: As a reminder, Kids Klub is no longer accepting unregistered participants. Please make sure you register your children ahead of time by calling the Park and Rec department at 262-250-4710.

MacArthur Parents and Guardians of Fourth and Fifth Graders,

We are excited to announce that our school will be participating in the 2024 Battle of the Books reading competition. Battle of the Books is a wholly voluntary statewide reading program in which teams of up to four fourth- or fifth-grade students read a variety of fiction and narrative nonfiction titles, and compete in school-based competitions or “battles.” The battles are fun competitions in which teams compete against each other by answering questions about the plot, theme, characters and settings, and other elements about the books they’ve read.

Our MAC competition will be organized into two rounds in which teams will be reading from a list of ten books, with approximately three to four weeks in each round. Teams of students are able divide and conquer the reading lists as they choose. All of the titles can be found either in our school library collection, or through the Germantown Community Library (GCL). GCL will be partnering with us to provide extra copies of books for our students which can be found on display at the public library. All reading is done on the student’s own time, and battles will take place during a free period within the regular school day. If your student is interested, they will be bringing home booklists, along with a permission slip to be returned to the library.

If you have any questions regarding Battle of the Books, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Sincerely,

Jenni Kinkade

MacArthur Library Aide

262-253-3468 ext. 3160

jkinkade@gsdwi.org

Ms. Biermann’s first grade students are hosting a snack sale. This year the money earned will go directly to the St. Boniface Food Pantry. The sale began today, and will take place Monday-Thursday (12/4 - 12/7) of next week. Your scholar's classroom will visit the sale on a day that works with their schedule (information on that day will be communicated by the classroom teacher). There will be peanut/nut free items available.

Donations are still being accepted! If you are able to help with store-bought already packaged snack items, we would appreciate donations next week. Everything will be sold for 50 to 75 cents with a daily 2 item limit. If you would like to give a monetary donation, it can be used for more snack items or added to the grand total. Please have your scholar bring in their items to be brought to Ms. Biermann's class or bring them to the office.

Your support is greatly appreciated for this wonderful MacArthur tradition.

Please click below for November menus! If your child will be late to school and would like to purchase lunch that day, please remember to let the front office know the lunch choice before school begins.

Hello parents of MacArthur 2nd grade scholars,

Your child has the exciting opportunity to participate in Destination Imagination (DI), an after-school program where scholars use creativity, critical thinking, and teamwork to solve Challenges with a specific educational focus. They will use skills they already have, as well as learn new skills to design their Challenge solution. This year, teams will present their Challenge solutions at the Regional Tournament held at Kennedy Middle School on March 16, 2024. MacArthur has always sponsored a “Rising Stars” team of second graders to solve the Early Learning Challenge. Teacher recommendations always play a part in team formation, but because there are so many talented and creative 2nd graders, we hope we can form more than one team this year! To do this, we need parents to volunteer as Team Managers and co-Team Managers!

Can you spend about 1 ½ hour after school one day a week? Can you help our scholars learn to problem-solve and work together as a team? You’ll receive in-person support and training throughout the season, as well as resources and materials.

If you volunteer to be a DI Rising Stars Team Manager, your child will, of course, be on your team. You would determine the team’s meeting schedule. To form Risings Stars teams, we need to hear from you! If your child is interested and/or you would consider being a Team Manager, please fill out THIS FORM (or click below) by Friday, December 15th. We’re looking forward to getting MacArthur’s “Rising Stars” started on their problem solving journey!

Home-School Connection

Every month, we will have a new "value word" that our scholars at MacArthur are working on as part of our Character Strong program. We talk about this during assembly time and as part of the Monday videos that are shared school-wide. The students continue learning about the value word within their classrooms. MacArthur focuses on specific areas in the school as we teach the students how to practice the value word in their lives. So far, we have focused on Kindness, Respect, Responsibility, and Gratitude.

This month, we are focusing a lot on Empathy. One way to think about Empathy is “understanding and connecting with other people’s feelings.” Empathy is a practice that can help us grow strong relationships. Empathy is 1 of 3 traits we will focus on throughout the year that allows students to Be Kind. Students are working on developing skills like perspective-taking, conflict resolution, and leadership.

We will learn and practice the following Whole Body Listening strategies at school. Try them at home with your student!

1. Eyes are watching (point to your eyes)

2. Ears are listening (cup your ears)

3. Brain is focused (point to your brain)

4. Heart is caring (put your hand on your heart)

Whole body listening is part of empathy as we show others that we care when we are listening with our whole bodies when they are speaking.

Here are 2 “PurposeFull Pursuits” for you to complete together.

Pursuit 1:

As a family, create your own poster showing different emotions. For example, you could use emojis to represent different emotions and label them. Hang your poster in a central location. Each day, designate a time that your student can do an "emotion check-in" and tap the feeling they felt the most that day. This reminds your student of the emotion vocabulary they are learning at school and gives you insight into how they are feeling. Understanding other people’s feelings can help us grow in Empathy.

Pursuit 2:

Find a time to sit in a circle together and celebrate all the ways you have seen each other practice Empathy. Take turns sharing responses to the following prompts or make up your own! Remember to practice Whole Body Listening as you discuss with one another.

Celebration Prompts:

• What is one way a family member has shown you Empathy lately?

• Share about a time when you felt like someone really listened to you.

We have another new and wonderful face to introduce to you! We are lucky to welcome new help to our Special Education Aide Team.

My name is Kristy Richards. I am excited to join the team here at MacArthur as a Special Education Aide. This is a new role for me, and I am really enjoying it so far! I have experience leading exercise classes for adults with Parkinson’s disease as well as instructing exercise programs for cancer survivors.

I have been married for 29 years. My greatest accomplishment is being a mom to Morgan, Haley and Derek. I enjoy working out, reading and traveling with my family.

The Germantown Park and Rec. Department’s Winter/Spring Recreation Brochure can be viewed online here.

Upcoming Programs to register for include:

Pom Pons

Afterschool Legos Classes

Indoor Tennis Instructions

Kalahari Waterpark Field Trip

Schools Out – Stream Sampler

Babysitters Classes

Art Classes

Check out this link for program specifics!

Please complete the DISTRICT VOLUNTEER APPLICATION using the button above if you are interested in volunteering at school or chaperoning a field trip with MacArthur. This form MUST be filled out and the background check needs to be cleared (it can take up to two weeks to clear) if you would like to help. The background checks are good for 3 years, after which they must be renewed.

If you are visiting the school and have an appointment, please bring your I.D. with you so you are able to get a visitor's badge to enter the school.

We plan to post many updates and school happenings on Facebook. Please be sure to follow us so that you can celebrate the student learning and school happenings with us!

Website: gsdwi.org/o/macarthur
Location: W154N11492 Fond Du Lac Ave, Germantown, WI, USA
Phone: 262-253-3468
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MacArthurGSDWI