Muskrat News

Upcoming events:

February 10 NO Scratch or Homework Club

February 10 Hatfield Marine Science Center Trip Grades 1-5 8:15-4:30

February 16 Writing Club 3pm

February 17 Scratch and Homework Clubs are back 3pm

February 17 ICP Board meeting 7pm

February 18 Bookmobile 2-3:15pm

February 21 Snow day make up SCHOOL IS IN

February 21 Kinder Field Trip to the OSU Lambing Barns

March 3 Play at LBCC, All School 9:15-11:30am

From our Executive Director

We have met twice with the Corvallis School District to talk about our school next year. We are pushing the idea of our having a middle school. We believe we have a fairly large number of families that want us to provide a middle school. We have also asked for more funding. We will keep you up to date with developments.

Our LIFESKILL for next week is Perseverance, meaning to keep at it or never give up.

With the report cards, we have sent home a survey instrument to learn as much as possible about how you see our school. We sincerely wish to have you feeling we are doing a good job for your family. For example, at the end of last year I learned that some were frustrated with our communication. Others were concerned about the amount of history being taught. We have attempted to address these concerns. Whatever you have to say will be taken seriously. So please fill out the surveys and get them back to us. – Dan

TOMORROW
All School Hatfield Marine Science Center and South Beach Fieldtrip

Grades 1-5 all have ocean – related studies this year. We are going to take advantage of funding from the Gray Family fund to make several trips to the coast this year. The first trip will be tomorrow, February 10. We will visit the Hatfield Marine Science Center. We will also make a short visit to South Beach State Park to collect materials for our ocean mural — weather permitting. We are taking a bus, but need as much parent participation as possible. There will not be enough room on the bus for all the parent volunteers, so please plan on meeting at MCCS at 8:15AM and caravanning over. This will be an extended school day, going until 4:30 PM.

TESTING NEWS from Miss Melanie

The time is approaching for the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students to participate in the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (OAKS). The 4th grade students will be taking the Writing section of this assessment next week. A schedule for the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students to take the Reading and Math sections of these assessments and the 5th grade students to take the Science section will be worked out after the Writing assessment is complete. I will keep you posted of the schedule of these assessments. If you have questions, leave me a note in my box or email me at jkelley@peak.org.

Running Club is Up and “Running” Again

The running club met again before the report card break and had some hard running students participating. The Afternoon Adventures students are the ones to watch, it seems. The older students are going to be hard pressed to keep up with those little adventurers. Join them on Thursday afternoons during the lunch recess.

Lost and Found

There must be a whole lot of cold and wet students out there; if the number of coats and jackets we are collecting in our lost and found is any indication. The lost and found rack and baskets are located in front of the library window, in the hallway. Please come by soon to collect your student’s lost and lonely belongings.

Scrip

Scrip orders are due this Thursday by 3pm and will be ready for pickup next Friday, the 18th by noon. Scrip is one of the easiest and most painless ways to help your school as you are contributing by spending money on the things you would normally have bought anyway. Please talk to Carla Callahan at 541-929-5784 or cdcallahanz@gmail.com, if you have any questions.

eScrip

Collect your old Safeway receipts Although the “10% Goes Back To Schools” program at Safeway ended January 25th for any new purchases, you can still get you receipts in for the time period of Jan. 2-Jan25, if you do so by February 28th, 2011. Enter the number at the bottom of your receipts (dated 1/2 to 1/25/2011) at www.escrip.com (list Muddy Creek as your school) and 10% of that purchase will go to MCCS. See http://backtoschools.escrip.com/ for all the details.

Volunteers Needed for Art Center Project

A tile mural showing what the students are learning about oceans will be built and displayed at the Corvallis Art Center. Once the students learn how to make the mosaic we will need volunteers to supervise small groups. The office will be coordinating volunteers for the project, so let Cedar know if you are interested.

Oceans Mosaic Needs

Interesting shards, shells, glass, stones, etc. We are asking parents to collect colorful pottery shards for the oceans mosaics. They can be broken pieces of ceramic pottery or whole dishes (flatter is better, but anything could be useful) from home or from thrift stores. Also needed are shells, beach glass, ocean stones and, potentially, some small pieces of interesting driftwood. We are looking for pieces under two inches square or that can be broken into pieces that small. You can bring them in to school where they will become part of the sorting and organizing stages of the project. Thanks! -Shari

Thank you

The teachers and office staff would like to give a big thank you to the PTO for providing an amazing lunch last Thursday. It was so appreciated!

Wish List

Shallow, wide plastic containers for sorting pottery shards by color

Microwave Ovens (sometimes we get long lines in the cafeteria of students waiting to heat their lunch)

Portable Screen