Happy Wednesday MCS Community!
We want to take the opportunity to express our love and gratitude for all of our students & families who make this community so vibrant, energetic, kind, generous, and such a joy to work with and be a part of! We wish all of you a magical and restful holiday season and hope you are able to make beautiful memories with loved ones. 🎁💚❤️
An Announcement About Staff Continuing Education
Each year key members of our staff travel to a Montessori conference for an opportunity to expand their knowledge and bring back valuable tools and powerful momentum to our little community. We all know the struggle of continuing education and the cost (monetary & time!) to expand our horizons in our individual industries, and despite the challenges we encourage our staff members to take this opportunity every year. The knowledge and wisdom souvenirs that have returned from these conferences have kept our school growing in immeasurable ways.
This year a group of our staff is traveling to Washington DC for the AMS Conference at the end of Spring Break (March 18-22) and needs to raise $6,000 to cover travel expenses. That is a very big number for our group of teachers and assistants.
We will be putting on several fundraising efforts to cover this cost. The first will be a PJ Party on FEBRUARY 14! That’s right: Valentine’s evening you can drop your kids off at school for an evening hosted by our key staff and go out to enjoy yourselves. Please mark your calendars. Sign ups will be released in January, but you can make your plans accordingly.
If you or anyone you know is willing to help our staff with this continuing education expense, please contact Ms. Amy or Ms. Alex.
This Week @ MCS
Pictured:
1 Lower Elementary receives a lesson on Hanukkah traditions
2. Primary friends enjoy a timeless favorite: the parachute!
3. Our Pigeon Plum (Toddler) landscaping team gets to work
Upcoming Events (more info below)…
PRO TIP: Click the date to save the event to your personal calendar on your phone!
Thursday & Friday, December 18 & 19: Banyan Bake Sale 2:30PM
Monday, December 22- Monday, January 5: No School WINTER BREAK
Monday, December 22 – Friday, January 2*: Winter Break Camp 8AM-3:30PM Toddler & Primary (*No camp Dec 25 or Jan 1)
Tuesday, January 6: Return to School
Saturday, January 10: Pirates & Princesses Event by Sunset Sail Key West, Perry Marina 10AM
Banyan Bake Sale
The Banyan Bake Sale is here! This event is one of our favorites as it creates a special way to include your child in the kitchen and the process of baking and being part of the community. 🧁🍪
100% of the proceeds from what we sell will be utilized by the Banyan class for supplies, materials, and more for the children and the classroom.
Our Bake Sale will be on the Front Lawn this week – Thursday the 18th and Friday the 19th at 2:30. If you are an aftercare family and would like to purchase treats, please reach out to Desiree at desiree@montessorikeywest.com for more details.
We currently need volunteers for supplying baked goods and coordinating the sales table.
When you sign up for any slot, this counts as a volunteer hour.
Here, you will find a direct link to our Sign Up Genius where you can choose a slot that you are interested in:
** When you sign up for baked goods, please list what you are making! 🍪
**The sales table volunteers will be in charge of setting up, cash handling, ensuring invoices are logged (if applicable), and completing the sale of baked goods.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094FAAAD28A7FFC25-61211709-banyan
Winter Break Camp
We will be out of school beginning Monday, December 22nd with a return of Tuesday, January 6th. We offer Camp from 8AM-3:30PM for Toddler & Primary programs for these two weeks, aside from December 25, January 1, and January 5. Camp is $65/day (or $35/day for half day students.) If you would like to register your child for Winter Break Camp please complete the attached registration form and return to the office before December 12th. As a reminder, space in camp is limited and confirmed on a first come, first served basis.
2025 Winter Break Camp Sign Ups.docx
Pirates & Princesses Special Fundraising Event by Sunset Sail Key West!
PIRATES AND PRINCESSES INVITATION
Dear MCS friends and families,
At Sunset Sail Key West we are fortunate to be the custodians of two very special historic vessels – the record-breaking 1930 racing schooner Malabar X and General George Patton’s 1939 transoceanic cruising yacht When And If. Also known as Pirate Ships.
We love to inform, engage and inspire young minds and are delighted to be able to offer a Pirates and Princesses event for children ages 5 and above! Each Pirate or Princess will need to be accompanied by a guardian – this is an opportunity to make beautiful core memories together on this adventure.
For those friends able to join us, we invite you to don your finest pirate/princess garb and join us at 10AM on January 10th at The Perry Marina. We will start with a treasure hunt! Designed to familiarise friends with the ship and lend some structure to their exploration on board, clues will teach them the names of parts of the boat and lead them to a treasure treat to get us started!
The more musically-minded of our multi-talented crew will induct our guests in a few encouraging sea shanty choruses to help encourage their companions as they haul away because there’s no electric winches here! Friends and family are encouraged to help set sail and there’s more than enough sails for everyone to have a go!
Once the sails are set our ships will head towards a predetermined starting point and a (very loud) cannon shot will announce the commencement of hostilities! A race under sail is a thrilling affair with ships leaning into the wind and water rushing along the scuppers; friends are encouraged to help out wherever possible with tasks such as coiling and setting lines ready for the next maneuver. Our conch horn is our standard signalling device and anyone who wants to will be welcome to have a go!
The race winner will fire their cannon and raise their colors in a declaration of victory, and the ships will cruise in tandem back to the dock as friends help to strike and furl sails and ready the ship for safe harbour. On disembarking every pirate and princess will receive a commemorative certificate thanking them for their service!
We hope you’ll join us for this great adventure – all proceeds go to our wonderful Montessori Children’s School! Email office@montessorikeywest.com or text 305-294-5302 to reserve your tickets!
Best wishes,
Captain Seth and Crew
Sunset Sail Key West
Weekly Miracle Makers
Oftentimes it feels like our school is powered by Miracles. Miracles large and small happen each week to pull off all that we do here. Those miracles appear in acts of love and kindness and service by parents, children, staff, alumni, community members, and more, and each week we highlight a special one here.
This week’s Miracle Makers are Ben & Heather Ludwick, whose help with their work with Historic Tours of America gave us the prime booking for our Holiday Light Tour Train and allowed us to put on such a special evening for our families. Parents: We always appreciate when you offer us your Super Powers – whether that be work connections, personal skills, or your own time and energy – to fuel our community and create opportunities for our children.
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