August 10, 2023

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Monday, August 21 - Lunch Opens for Parent Visitors!

You are welcome to join your child for lunch at MES starting on Monday, August 14th. We have designated visitor tables inside the café for you and your child to enjoy lunch together. We ask that when you come, you eat with your own child and not invite other students to join you. Even though you think it may be OK with the other child’s family, our café supervisors are unable to fulfill their duties and manage the required parent permissions involved with a non-family member having this close of an interaction with one of our students at school. 

Please note that students do go to recess immediately following lunch, and lunch parent/guardian visits are for the lunch period ONLY. For classroom or other visits, please contact the teacher to plan those in advance. 

Here is the lunch schedule, with students having the option on non-rain days, if finished eating, to go to recess after 25 minutes in the cafe:

• Kinder: 10:55 - 11:25am
• 1st Grade: 11:30am - 12:00pm
• 2nd Grade: 10:20 - 10:50am

• 3rd Grade: 12:40 - 1:10pm
• 4th Grade: 12:05 - 12:35pm
• 5th Grade: 1:15 - 1:45pm

Monday, August 21 through Friday, September 1 - Fall MAP Assessment Window

The first of three MAP assessment windows for the 2023-2024 school year will take place beginning on Monday, August 21st and will conclude on Friday, September 1st. Classroom teachers will reach out individually with specific class testing dates (both for this testing window and future assessments), but generally speaking, assessments will take place according to the following schedule:

MAP Growth Assessments - Reading and Math (Grades K - 5)

MAP Growth is the most trusted and innovative assessment for measuring achievement and growth in K–12 math, reading and language usage.. It provides teachers with accurate, and actionable evidence to help target instruction for each student or groups of students regardless of how far above or below they are from their grade level. MAP Growth Assessments will be completed on the following dates:

• Monday, August 21^st – Friday, August 25^th (Fall window)
• Monday, November 27^th – Friday, December 1^st (Winter window)
• Monday, March 11^th – Friday, March 15^th (Spring window)

Access a Family Guide to understanding MAP Growth: ENGLISH  SPANISH

MAP Reading Fluency Assessments (Grades K - 3)

This assessment allows precise, reliable insights to support early readers while maximizing valuable instructional time. With speech-recognition technology, group administration, and automatic scoring, MAP Reading Fluency provides a clear view of early literacy skills and learning needs for an entire class in about 20 minutes. MAP Reading Fluency Assessments will be completed on the following dates:

• Monday, August 28^th – Friday, September 1^st (Fall window)
• Monday, December 4^th – Friday, December 8^th (Winter window)
• Monday, March 18^th – Friday, March 22^nd (Spring window)

Tuesday, August 22 and Thursday, August 24 - Back to School Nights!

Please plan to join us on campus for Back to School Night, our annual opportunity for you to hear about grade-level specific curriculum, classroom expectations, and more directly from your students' classroom teachers. This year, Back to School Night will be split across two nights:

• Tuesday, August 22 - Grades K – 2 Back to School Night
• Thursday, August 24 - Grades 3 – 5 Back to School Night

Back to School night is THE NIGHT to come to the school and meet our staff! At 6:00pm, there will be offerings from Principal Sofianos and her team to ensure you have all the information you need for an amazing MES year, with classroom sessions from 6:30 - 7:30pm. More details to follow soon, but trust us - you don't want to miss this night!

Parent Safety Meeting Follow Up

Last week, we had our 2nd Annual School Safety Meeting with Officer Louis on all things school safety. We also held our first Fire Drill this week, and the students learned how to be members of our school-wide safety team by listening to the adults at voice level zero during any emergency drill. The kids and staff were AMAZING as we successfully completed this first drill.

We hope to have the video link from last week's meeting available by next week. You can view the presentation from the meeting here, which describes all of the drills that take place at our school, including weather, reverse evacuation, and three levels of lockdown. At Morningside, we are not scared - we're prepared!

We thank Officer Louis for her leadership in all things safety and security as our School Resource Officer.

PTA Volunteer Sign Ups are OPEN NOW!

Sign ups for yearlong volunteer positions, including Class Parent Leaders and Grade-Level Social Chairs, and for all PTA committees are open NOW via Membership Toolkit. Thank you for those who have signed up already!

If you're interested in taking on one of these roles, don't worry - there are still plenty more spots available, especially for our Class Parent Leaders. Here's a quick look at the positions that we still need to fill:

• Kindergarten and 1st Grade classes are leading the pack with only one more position to fill each (Ms. Schill and Ms. Hamilton needs SWAG support!)
• Second through 5th grades have plenty of positions open to be filled! Let's catch up to K and 1st! (Are you in Ms. Nordman or Ms. Ahmed's class? We especially need you!)
• We are also still looking for more Grade-Level Social Chair for 4th grade!

Volunteering in the classroom is a great way to get involved with your child's classroom. It is a great opportunity to get to know the teacher, students and parents in the classroom. Interested but scared of the commitment? This year, we have four class-level volunteer roles: Classroom Parent, Party Planner, Sustainability Wellness and Garden (SWAG) Coordinator, and Yearbook Liaison. With four options, you can pick what works for you and your schedule. Details on each role can be found here.

or questions, reach out to Classroom Parent Coordinators: Yasuko Toeda (for grades K-3) and Marla Johnson (for grades 4-5). For questions about Social Chairs, please contact Tiffany Torbert.

Are you more interested in helping with PTA events and activities throughout the year rather than volunteering with your class or grade-level? Sign Ups are also open for all of our assorted PTA committees! Through these sign ups, you'll be able to indicate which event(s) and/or committee(s) you may want to help with this year, either as a full committee member or as an event day volunteer. Our committee chairs will then use these sign ups (as well as the information previously shared through the Volunteer Interest Form) to reach out to interested individuals about the different roles they need filled. These sign ups will also be facilitated via Membership Toolkit.

MES International Festival Is Nearly Here!

We are excited about our first festival of the year!! In preparation for the International Fest, we'd like to better understand the countries represented in our MES community. Please fill out this short survey and let us know!

Please note the survey is for EVERYONE. Students from the USA are just as important as everyone else.

Estamos emocionados por nuestro primer festival del año!! En preparación para el Festival Internacional, nos gustaría comprender mejor los países representados en nuestra comunidad MES. ¡Complete esta breve encuesta y háganoslo saber!

Tenga en cuenta que la encuesta es para TODOS. Los estudiantes de los EE. UU. son tan importantes como todos los demás.

You can learn more about International Fest on the MES International Fest website. For questions about this event, please email Shraddha Srivastav Strennen.

Order Your MES 2023-2024 Yearbook Today!

Now is the best time to order your 2023-2024 MES yearbooks, with the book price at its lowest ($40)! As a special Back to School treat, when you purchase personalization for your yearbook (only $10 more!), you can add up to four icons free! Icons are normally $5 each, so that's a $20 value. This special Back to School early bird discount ends on Friday, August 25th. After that, book prices increase to $45.

Click here to order your MES Yearbook today!

Interested in helping put together this year's yearbook? We are looking for additional help this year for the following roles:

• Image File Collector and Organizer
• Layout Assistant
• 5th Grade Yearbook Club Coordinator

If you're interested in helping with any of these roles, please sign up via Membership Toolkit. If you'd like to learn more about what these positions might entail, please contact contact Stacy Walter. Thanks!

2023-2024 Dolphin Donors Sponsorships Available Now

Calling all local businesses and community organizations! The MES PTA is committed to continued fundraising efforts throughout the school year, in support of our Morningside students and community. As part of that effort, we are pleased to announce our Dolphin Donors sponsorship packages for the 2023-2024 school year!

Some of the annual events that we look forward to each year (Back to School night, Monster Bash, Boosterthon, Family Science Night, Spring Auction and Field Day) are already in the planning stages and could offer the opportunity for increased visibility for your business as a community sponsor. Booths and signage at these events, prominent signage at the school, Facebook and Instagram posts, fliers, MES website recognition, and the addition of your company's logo on our Boosterthon shirt worn by every student, are just some of the benefits available to your business when you become a Dolphin Donor.

Additionally, all Dolphin Donors will receive a window cling that you can proudly display, showing your support for Morningside Elementary. Email [email protected] by August 20th, 2023 for more information on how you or your business can support MES through our Dolphin Donors program.

For more Information about Dolphin Donors, please click here.

MES Principal Blog

Principal Sofianos has been busy updating her blog this summer, with some help from Assistant Principals Dr. Sinclair and Mr. Baron! Be sure to keep up with all the school news straight from the principal's desk by bookmarking her Principal's Blog and checking back often!

Stay Up to Date with the APS Midtown Cluster

Click HERE for resources directly related to our cluster.

Stay Up to Date with the 2023-2024 APS Calendar 

Click HERE to view the district calendar and start planning for all the breaks.

Click HERE to view the Atlanta BOE 2023 Calendar.

Thank you to our 2022-2023 Diamond Dolphin, Dolphin, and Platinum-level sponsors for supporting our school!

Sponsorships for 2023-2024 are available now!

For more information about Dolphin Donors, please click HERE.