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International Festival & Potluck
International Night 2019 was a giant party once again with a record turnout this year! Read on to hear more about our wonderful evening. Also: If you brought a dish to the potluck, we'd love for you to share your recipe!
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First Morse Family Book Club
A Success!
 Submitted by: Sarah Pennell Library Media Specialist
Last Thursday night students and staff joined together with their families to discuss The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser. We feasted on delicious cookies and engaged in lively conversation about characters we loved and the charming community (Harlem) where the Vanderbeekers lived. Our first bookclub was such a success I have begun to plan for a spring encore! Stay tuned for more information. If you missed our first family bookclub but would like to read the book with your family, come check out a copy from our school library.
CitySprouts Update
 Submitted by: Garden Coordinator Ian Grossfelt
It's been a very exciting start to the year with apple cider pressing, garden harvesting, observational drawing, seed saving and taste testing! Thank you all for a successful cider season where we hosted 13 classes, pressed 4 boxes of apples and drank a few gallons of cider!
But just because Winter is just around the corner doesn't mean it's too late to help out in the garden! Throughout November and early December there will be opportunities for classes to:
-Seed saving projects
-Fall plantings of garlic, flower bulbs, and winter rye
-Putting the garden to bed (mulching, composting, cutting down old plants)
-Enriching and amending soil for the next growing season
-Building and planting with our mini hoop house
Putting the Garden to Bed
B8 friends also had a chance to help “put the garden to bed” with our garden teacher Mr. G! Kids helped to gather fallen leaves and sticks, and pull dead plants out of the garden for composting. Students had to work together and use their muscles to pull a giant corn stalk out of the soil! This activity helped reinforce the learning we are doing in science as we explore the changing seasons and investigate some key questions like, “What do living things need to live and grow? Why do they live where they do? How do their parts and behaviors help them?”
Trees in the Art Studio!
 Many grades have been focusing on trees in their artwork the past few weeks. Here's a look at the creativity that's been happening!
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Fire Station
 Room B8 had a super time at the Central Square Fire Station! Firefighters Pat and Matt showed students some of the gear they use to stay safe, and the tools and equipment that they use to fight fires. Kids even got a chance to take a seat in the #3 Ladder truck! In the classroom, we discussed some fire safety information, such as “getting out” when there is a fire or emergency (rather than hiding) and how to “stop, drop, and roll” if fire touches our clothing.
Something New in Room B6
Submitted by: Carolyn Dubofsky, Morse Speech & Language Pathologist
We have started an exciting curriculum in B6. The children are being introduced to We Thinkers! Volume 1 Social Explorers, a Social Thinking Curriculum for the Preschool and Early Elementary Years! The curriculum is based on Social Thinking, a treatment methodology developed by Michelle Garcia Winner that teaches the “why” behind our social behavior. Winner created the Social Thinking Vocabulary and concepts as a way to break down, explain and put into concrete terms the abstract concepts that make up our social world. The We Thinkers! Curriculum is divided into ten units that align with the ten story books in this teaching series.
B6 is reading the We Thinkers! series to help the children develop the skills to be flexible social thinkers and social problem solvers. They will follow the experiences of four characters in the storybooks, helping each child to learn about the social mind and social expectations. The children will also learn about their own thinking (and that of others) to help them make better decisions when in the midst of social play and interaction.
So far in B6 they have read Unit 1 “Thinking Thoughts and Feeling Feelings” and Unit 2 “The Group Plan.” We Thinkers! has already happened in Ms. Bellino & Mrs. Hites room D6 and will slowly expand into other classrooms.
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