MONTEREY RIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Message sent - 12/15/2008

 QUOTE OF THE WEEK
All grown-ups were once children.   ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

NEW COMPUTER LAB
AMAZING news to share! Thanks to the generous support of the MRES Foundation we will be adding a new computer lab to our school. Yes, a new computer lab! This new lab was made possible by the purchase of computers by our school Foundation and will be installed this Monday. Did I say amazing news?

NEW LIBRARY BOOKS
More AMAZING news to share! We are adding over 500 new books to our library. YEAH!! All students will have an opportunity to preview the books during their library time this week. All books will be available for check out after the break. If you are available to help get the books on our shelves and put them in our computer system please let us know.

MTV (MONARCH TV)
Our second broadcast of our Monarch TV will be next Friday, December 19, 2008 right after Friday Flag. The newscast will be shown in all classes and in the MPR for all parents immediately following Friday Flag. Thanks Mr. Campos and Mr. Richards for leading this project and thank you students for making your learning come alive.

WINTER BREAK
We hope you and your family enjoy a restful winter break. Our school will be closed from Monday, December 22, 2008 through Friday, January 2, 2009. School will resume on Monday, January 5, 2009.lk

COMPASS LEARNING
The response to our new Compass Learning (CL) program continues to be overwhelming. Thank your for your continued support. Thursday will be the last day for our current before and after school session. However, we are expanding the use of CL so that all of our students will have access to the program. Invitations to the next round will go home this week. If your child has been selected to participate in this next round please return the permission form asap as day and time choices are made on a first come, first serve basis. The next round will run for five weeks from January 12th - February 13th. Confirmation and reminder letters will be sent home after the break. All fourth grade students will be accessing CL from home this next round and will receive separate instructions after the break. All students, however, are welcome to access CL over the break any time or day. A link to the CL website and directions for using it can be found on our website under the student link.

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS
This Friday we will once again be honoring our Character Counts Student of the Month at our Student Council led Breakfast of Champions before Friday Flag. As a school, we believe deeply that character education is important and we want to celebrate students who exhibit the behaviors of the Pillar of Character we emphasize each month. Over the course of the school year we celebrate the six Pillars (Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship) to help us bring character education alive and provide a barometer to help guide our students' decision making. Thanks for joining us in helping build the minds and characters of our students.

STUDENT COUNCIL BACKWARDS DAY
Friday is Backwards day at school. All students are free to wear their clothes backwards.

COOL LINKS ON OUR WEBSITE
Have you ever wondered how to choose a book at your child’s appropriate reading level or has your child loved reading a certain series and once it is over you are not sure what series are similar in content or reading level. We have a link on our website to BookWizard. On this site you can search for a book by reading and interest level, subject, genre, or lexile. The link is located on at the bottom of our home page.

LOST AND FOUND
Please make sure to stop by the lost and found and collect and missing items. It is located outside the cafeteria.

PTA
Giving Tree

THANK YOU MRES community for all of your generous donations to our Giving Tree. Your kindness helped make this holiday season a joyous one for those families who are less fortunate.

Board Meeting
The next PTA Board meeting is Thursday, November 18. Please feel free to join this fabulous group of parents who help make our school a magical place.

FOUNDATION
THANK YOU for making the dream of a second computer lab a reality.

Dr. Rich Newman.

Monarch (e)mail achived pages