Read the Murch Mustang Express October 23, 2009

The Murch

Mustang Express

Reach for the Best

October 23, 2009

Share the Mustang Express with your children!

Friday, October 23, 8:30 a.m. ~ Coffee on the Playground

Saturday, October 24, 12-4 p.m. ~ Fall Fair (Raindate Sunday)

Monday, October 26 ~
Murch Walk/Bike to School Day!

Murch Award

Monday Assembly with U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar

What: Murch to receive National Oberstar Safe Routes to School Award

Where: Murch Auditorium

When: 9 a.m.

What to Wear: Murch T-shirts

Join Walking School Bus at 8:30 a.m. Albemarle and 36th Street; contact bus captain Wendy Gualtieri for more info.

Fall Fair

Come Out and Play!

The Fall Fair is tomorrow, Saturday, October 24, from noon to 4 p.m.! Rides will include the sensational Sandstorm, train, and super slide. New this year is the Dunk-a-Hunk Tank sponsored by College Hunks Hauling Junk.

In addition, you can:
Win a cake at the cake walk;
Browse the used-book sale;
Buy fabulous flea market treasures;
Lunch and munch on pizza and home-baked treats;
Groove to the music;
Create crafts;
Find a fabulous Halloween costume;
Play the day away at the many games booths!

Bakers, bring your baked goods to the teachers' lounge the morning of the sale to be priced. Pies and cakes should be in containers that will fit in a cardboard cake box. Package bake sale treats in plastic baggies or plastic wrap for individual sale. And, volunteers, please be prompt for your shifts.

Don't miss this wonderful Murch tradition - see you at the fair!

-- Michelle Cochran and Kathryn Harllee, Fall Fair co-chairs

Don't forget to bring canned goods, we are collecting items for the Capital Area Food Bank.

SOS Campaign

One More Week
to Meet Goal

Thank you to the 201 families who have responded so far to the Staff Our School (SOS) Campaign. The Murch HSA relies on the generosity of the Murch community to fund additional staff and services so that all of our children can benefit.

Our goal is to hear from 100% of Murch families and raise $141,800. Currently we have a participation rate of 57% and have received contributions and pledges of $94,308.

Please help us meet our goal by the end of October by returning your completed SOS reply form. Even if you are unable to make a full contribution, we would love to hear from you.

If you have misplaced your packet, you can pick up another from the HSA table next to the school library; download a form or pay online. For more information, contact Julie York.

Return your reply form before October 31 to have your name entered in a drawing for an iPod Touch!

For more information please contact Julie York or 364-8491.
-- Julie York, SOS Campaign chair

Student Council

Reps Discuss PJ Day, Other Issues

At the Student Council Meeting on Oct. 19, President Allie Schwalb welcomed the group. I, the secretary, read the minutes from the last meeting. Allie invited ideas from the officers and representatives. Some of the ideas included:
*Help homeless animals
*Suggest that the next horseshoe reward should be Pajama Day
*Bring back Wacky Wednesday

There was discussion about the school store, and Allie suggested that the Student Council might sign up for shifts to work there. We will vote on hours to be open at the next meeting.

Ms. Finberg, Student Council advisor, passed out slips for volunteering at the Fall Fair, and showed us the new Murch sweatshirts that we will be selling. They are blue with white letters.

We will be doing the annual turkey drive again this year. Look for more information to come.

Finally, we had closing remarks and adjourned.
-- Justin Atwood, secretary

Healthy Eating

Murch First to GROW New Organic Program

Chef Todd and Ellen Gray would like to embark on a program they have entitled GROW at our school! GROW stands for Growing Regionally and Organically With the children of Murch Elementary. The goal of GROW is to give children of the community a greater perception of where their food comes from, how to cultivate their own crops, and, most significantly, how to cook and enjoy what they grow.

GROW is Ellen and Todd's own personal project but is part of a much larger initiative of the Obama Administration's focus on healthy eating and nutritional education for America's school children. Ellen and Todd Gray want to adopt Murch as the first GROW school! They are very excited to embark on a program similar to the wildly successful Edible School Yard concept developed by renowned chef Alice Waters over 20 years ago.

As a part of GROW, Chef Todd and Ellen will plan and install a garden on the grounds of the school along with the students and parents of Murch. They would also like to offer cooking lessons for students and their parents to educate the children about what is growing and how to cook it. This would also lay down fundamental principles to be taught about eating regionally and seasonally.

Volunteer efforts are needed at all levels for GROW. If you are interested in helping out with this project, please contact Norah Rabiah or 202-282-0130.

-- Norah Rabiah

Culture Corner

Music at Murch!

Ms. Smith's music classes are doing a variety of things this fall. Ask your child about these highlights:

A-B-C. Pre-K students sing lots of songs to help them learn their letters.
We Are Family. Kindergarten students recognize instrument families--percussion, brass, woodwind, strings.
Three-Quarter Time. 1st graders compose! Some are writing new verses for songs, others are creating original picture compositions.
A Small World. 2nd graders learn about songs from all over the world.
Figaro! 3rd graders discover opera!
Come Together. 4th graders focus on playing together as an ensemble.
I Hear a Symphony. 5th graders groove to Motown tunes they play on Orff tone bar instruments.
-- Cheryl Saenz

Comic Strip

-- Sammy Schwartzman

In the Classroom

Salsa Spices Up Stories

Ms. George's third graders have been hard at work on their first writing projects, personal narratives, and are finally just days away from being published writers! The class looked closely at what is a personal narrative (a story from someone's life that tells about an event and includes personal comments and ideas about that event). They read from Tomie de Paola's [26 Fairmount Avenue] for ideas of what a real personal narrative looks like. The class plotted out their beginnings, middles, and ends, added lots of juicy details, and worked on leads that hook the reader and endings that would leave the reader thinking. They also worked on replacing boring "rice cake" words with exciting and more specific "salsa" words.

"The best part was shimmying our shoulders every time we heard a salsa word in a story," said Scout Clifton.

The students' small moment stories include things like going dog carting in Alaska, almost hitting a cousin in the head with a kite, a mom spraining her ankle, picking out a new pet, going snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, and seeing a harbor seal in California. The students chose small moments that were important to them and tried to write about them in a way that would show that importance to others. They are excited to finally have their stories be published and to share them with the rest of the third grade. Bravo to the writers in Ms. George's class!
-- Sally George

Contributors Wanted

The Murch Mustang Express
is looking for parents and students to be reporters, editors,& photographers, comic strips artists. The next student reporter meeting will be November 2, 4 p.m. in room 209.

Contact:Laura Kaiser or Catherine Cooney

Got News? Comments? Contact us

Copy deadline: Tuesdays at noon.

Editors: Laura Kaiser and Robin Schepper

Contributors: Justin Atwood; Michelle Cochran;Sabrina Finberg; Sally George; Kathryn Harlee; Evy Mages; Norah Rabiah; Cheryl Saenz; Sammy Schwartzman; Julie York.

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