Fernwood Family Newsletter #29, 3/22/23

~Friday, March 24th, 5:45pm, PTO Movie Night, School Gym, K3-3rd grade families

~Monday, March 27th, 5:30pm, SEC Meeting, https://meet.google.com/srb-wjae-xko?hs=122&authuser=0 

~Monday, March 27th, 5:00pm, Music Parents Meeting, Library & virtual

~April 3-7th, Spring Break, No school

~Monday, April 10th, School Resumes 

~Thursday, April 20th, 5:30-7pm, Spring Open House, Fernwood Classrooms

~Friday, April 28th, 8:45am-10am, Special Friends’ Day, Fernwood Classroom, check upcoming newsletter for information

PTO Movie Night: Sing 2

Fernwood families of K3-3rd grade students are invited to a movie night at Fernwood on Friday, March 24th. Sing 2 will be shown in the Fernwood gym.  Families can bring blankets to sit and snacks to munch on.  This event is hosted by the PTO and is free. The PTO will be selling popcorn for $1.  Please reach out to Jenni if you would like to help with popcorn.  Adults must stay with their students for this event.  Doors open at 5:45pm and the movie starts at 6pm.

Summer Academy at Fernwood

Fernwood Montessori will be hosting a Montessori Summer Academy.  Summer Academy is open Monday-Friday, June 26-July 28 from 8am-12pm.  (Closed July 3 and 4) Students will be able to connect with their Montessori learning in new ways while engaging in this fun program. Summer Academy is free.  Students who have completed K5 through 8th grade are eligible to attend. Register by June 5th.  For more information and to register, visit mpsmke.com/summeracademy 

Rainbook Booksellers Book Fair

Thank you to all the gracious volunteers who made our book fair possible.  Over 17 Fernwood family members donated their time and several people picked up multiple shifts.  We know that students and teachers are enjoying their new books in their classrooms and we hope you are enjoying reading your new books at home.  Thank you for your kind support!

Celebrating Abilities Spirit Week 

This week is designed to promote inclusivity of students with special needs and their families and community building in schools. Our Virtual Kick-off event will be held on Monday, March 27, 2023 from 9:30-10:30 a.m.  

 This event will feature community and district vendors who will share information on their programs and answer questions. Schools are asked to host a watch party and invite parents/guardians and families to attend. The link to join is https://mpsmke.com/mpsca2023. 

Order Your Yearbook 

It is time to order your 22-23 yearbook.  All yearbook sales will be online only though the Lifetouch website.  Yearbooks are $12.  Yearbook sales will be through pre order only.  We expect yearbooks to be delivered at the end of May.  

To order a yearbook, please go to ybpay.com.  Fernwood’s yearbook ID code is 14852523.   (If you have already ordered a yearbook through Lifetouch for this school year, no need to take any additional action.) 

Thank you to Amanda Lavoe, Fernwood parent, for volunteering to create our yearbook. 

Fernwood Website Calendar

MPS has made some changes to the Fernwood website.   To find out about what events are happening at Fernwood and information about those events, click on CALENDAR in the top blue bar.  A Fernwood calendar will appear.  Click on each event to learn the event details.  Fernwood Website  This is a great way to stay connected to fun school wide events at Fernwood.

Spring Concert

This message is in regards to the upcoming Fernwood spring concert. Unfortunately, Bay View High School needs their auditorium to store items for construction elsewhere in the building, so our plan A to have our concert there is a bust. Our plan B was to hold the concert in our gym so that we could have one night of performances, accommodating all of the families (and not have them packed like sardines). But it turns out renting the chairs will be too costly and the logistics behind transporting the risers, sound system, etc will be too great. Plus we would be compromising Mr. Comp’s teaching space. 

Introducing plan C. The concert will be held in the Fernwood auditorium on May 18th. Students should arrive at 4:30pm and the concert will start at 5pm. In order to ensure that certain fire codes are followed (and our families are not squished), we will have to make an adjustment to our list of performers. Our 2023 spring concert will include the following groups: lower elementary choir (after-school with Ms. Molly), upper elementary choir, adolescent rock bands, and the 3rd grade recorder group. We will not have all the lower elementary classes performing like we did for the winter concert. In the future, we hope to incorporate more upper elementary and adolescent classes and eventually the entire school. But we will work up to that.

For the concert, we are looking for parent volunteers to help monitor students and usher them onto the stage. If this sounds like something you are interested in please sign up here.

If you have any questions please email:

Brandon Miller, millerbm@milwaukee.k12.wi.us

Molly Pufall-Brown, mpufall@gmail.com 

Thank you Kinsella

Thank you to Kinsella Irish Dancers for your beautiful performance on March 15th.  Fernwood K5-3rd grade students got to experience an Irish dance performance in the auditorium and even learn a few Irish dance steps.  The event was even more special as several of our Fernwood students dance with this group and got to share their talent with the school community.  

Congratulation to Niles Janzen

Fernwood 6th grade student Niles Janzen entered the Cesar Chavez writing contest sponsored by MPS. This contest focuses on educating our communities about the legacy of César E. Chávez, an unselfish advocate of social justice and respect for human dignity. Niles placed first in the 6th-8th grade category with his essay titled, “Non-Violence is the Best Path to Justice”.   Niles presented his essay at the Cesar Chavez Celebration on Sunday March 19th at Marcus Performing Arts Center.  Congratulations Niles!

Science Fair Winners

Some of our Upper Elementary students participated in the Badger State Science and Engineering Fair.  Brynn Hill and Santiago Maqueda won the CSUPtwo Award for their project on Sustainable House Materials.  Cece Piaskoski, Theo Matthews, and Jack Porter won the Naval Science Award for their project on Magnetic Fields. Congratulations!!