Parents’ Memo
March 24, 2006

The Parents’ Memo is our Lower School newsletter for the parents of the students. This Memo comes out each week with the news of the past week as well as future events and items of interest for the parents.

“This...illustrates the technique of intelligent teaching. The subject is introduced and its result made clear in one stroke so that, seeing both the scale of the subject and the possibility of achieving the desired goal, the student is eager to begin.”—Maharishi

Dear Parents,

DESTINATION IMAGINATION

Good luck to our DI teams at the State Competition on Monday, March 27th in Grinnell!

IMPORTANT REMINDERS AND SCHOOL CLOSINGS

March is almost over and today marks the end of our 3rd quarter of School. On Monday, March 27th, the Middle and Upper School will be taking a grading day, and students in 7-12 will have no school. This does NOT apply to Lower School .

Please remember that Spring Break is the week of April 3rd-April 7th, during which time there will be no school.

During the next few weeks, teachers will be preparing report cards and are looking forward to visiting with you at Parent/Teacher Conferences, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, April 13th and all day Friday, April 14th.

The Lower School will be closed the afternoon of April 13th and all day Friday, April 14th so that parents may meet with teachers. 

Please note that Kindergarten will be in session Thursday morning, April 13th, but not on Friday, April 14th. 

I encourage all of you to attend these conferences, as it is an excellent opportunity to review your child’s progress and development over the past several months. You may call the Lower School office beginning Wednesday, April 5th to schedule your appointments.

 ATTENTION ALL GARDENERS! SEEDS FOR SALE

There are now extra seeds available for sale in the Lower School Library. We have arranged a great price on organic seeds from Seeds of Change. The normal price for these seed packets is $2.49-$2.79. We are offering them at the reduced price of $2.00 per packet or $1.50 for faculty and staff.

Seeds and produce from our Maharishi School Greenhouse will be available at the Saturday morning indoor Farmer’s Market beginning tomorrow, March 25, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon.

SPEND A SPECIAL EVENING LIVE WITH DAVID LYNCH, DR. JOHN HAGELIN, AND DONOVAN

Sunday, March 26 at 7:45 p.m.
M.U.M Recreation Center

Open to: All students, faculty, and staff at Maharishi University of Management and Maharishi School with valid ID, all sidhas and meditators with a current Dome badge, “Celebrations & Sunday” badge, all Maharishi Vedic City residents on the MVC list, and ALSO any sidha or meditator vouched for by someone with a current badge.

2006  ANNUAL SPRING FUNDRAISER

Friday, May 5, our Spring Fundraiser, “Celebrating Maharishi Yagya Performances,” will be held in the Henry Ogden Clark Auditorium.

This year’s Spring Fundraiser is gaining great momentum, as everyone is becoming more and more excited about the School offering Maharishi Yagya performances to our extended meditating community.

A Maharishi Yagya performance works on the most powerful levels of consciousness to remove obstacles and enliven those laws of nature that support us. The Yagyas requested include ones for  wealth, perfect health, enlightenment, and to increase the numbers in our community. There will be between three and five Yagyas recommended.

One hundred dollars includes you in the Yagyas that will take place from April 28th to May 5th. His Excellency Dr. Bevan Morris was the first to donate! 

You will  have the opportunity to write a note to Maharishi and attach a photo of yourself. These will be put in a book and sent at the conclusion of the Yagyas. This rare opportunity will bring a powerful wave of coherence to you and the entire community, and will also be a great time to be in the Golden Domes to maximize the benefits from this historic week.

See the brochure and pay online.

INTERMEDIATE GRADE STUDENTS ANIMAL PROJECTS

During the past several weeks, Intermediate students in Ms. Siemsen’s and Mrs. Vigmostad’s classes have been working diligently on a project about their favorite animal.

Written reports contained a beautiful cover page, a description of the animal, information on their habitat, facts about their offspring and other fascinating facts. In addition, students included a bibliography, a species map showing where the animal is found, and a cinquain poem.

The students completed their project with very original dioramas which are now on display in the Lower School library. They concluded with an Animal Fair to which their parents were invited. Integrated into these projects were Maharishi’s Findamentals of Growth.

Following are a few examples of how students explained the integration of these Fundamentals:
Creativity: “We had to use creativity when we were drawing pictures and making our dioramas.” David Fleschman and Nathaniel Zhu
Energy: “We needed energy to write down things for our report and to make the diorama in only one month!”  Brandon Prather-Huff and Davin Titus
Intelligence: “We needed to use our intelligence to read, write and focus and to find facts to write down.” Avery Mullenneaux and Nathan Haerr
Knowledge: “The class gained a lot of knowledge by learning the steps of note-taking, writing drafts, and creating an informative animal booklet.” Ms. Siemsen

Below are two poems the students wrote for this project:
Basilisk
small, speedy
dancing, running, living,
story telling little creature
inspiring
        —Matthew Rowe

 

Grey Wolf
silent, wild,
leaps, howls, trots
they blend into the dark night
dark explorer
        —Camille Goodale

DATABASES FOR STUDENTS

If your child has a research project to do, please consider trying database services provided by the state of Iowa for students in Iowa schools. The databases include:
1. AccuWeather (detailed weather and satellite maps for any region in the world),
2. Atomic Learning (tutorials on how to use Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Photoshop and many other software programs),
3. ClipArt (thousands of drawings and photographs that can be downloaded for use in projects),
4. EBSCO (magazine articles, encyclopedias and images),
5. Multimedia Archive (up-to-the-minute photographs from the Associated Press),
6. World Book Encyclopedia Online (the same content as the print version, plus links to helpful internet sites),
7. United Streaming (educational videos that can be downloaded and played with Windows Media Player or QuickTime). (There are currently some problems with this site. I hope it will be fixed soon.)

All these services can be found on one web site:  www.iowaaeaonline.org

All need a user name and password to get into the site.
The user name is: msae3 and the password is: aea15.

We also have some excellent databases to use just for the rest of this year. The service was donated by the vendor, ABC-Clio, because Mrs. Loiselle attended a workshop they provided. They include databases on American history and government, world history and geography, and state geography. All of them use a different password. (user name: msae05, and the password is: abcclio.

These temporary databases and information about the other permanent ones can all also be found on this website at "Online Databases". Please call Mrs. Shaw at 472-9400, Ext. 5072, if you have any questions. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
• 2005-2006 Registration Packets: Will be mailed out next week. As indicated in the packet, all financial aid applications are due at FAIR no later than April 17th. If you have not received your packet by the end of Spring Break, please call the Administrative Office at 472–9400, ext.1.

•Spring Break Dates: Monday, April 3rd through Friday, April 7th.

Have a great weekend!

Laura Bordow

 

Back to top