Maple Grove Charter School - One Town. One Team. One Dream.

We had an action-packed afternoon at MGCS for Field Day — and it was a blast! ☀️🎉 From water relays and a bounce house to squirt gun challenges, nature art, a scavenger hunt, and delicious snow cones 🍧… our learners were all smiles. We wrapped it up with a friendly (but very competitive!) game of tug-of-war between our Fox Dens — and of course, the crowd favorite: Teachers vs. the departing 5th graders. Final score? Teachers for the win! 💪🦊 Huge thanks to our amazing staff for planning and running such a fun, memorable day for our learners. We couldn’t have done it without you! ❤️ #MGCSFun #FieldDay2025

🌿✨ Our naturescape playground is almost complete — and it’s looking absolutely magical! Just a few finishing touches remain. We know how excited everyone is to explore, but we kindly ask for your continued patience while the grass, sod, and plants settle into their new home and take root. 🌱 🚫 The playground will remain closed for at least a month, and we’ll be sure to let you know as soon as it’s ready to be explored and enjoyed! A huge thank you to Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds from Ontario, Canada for designing and creating this incredible space for our Maple Grove Charter School learners. Your natural play structures are not only beautiful but will inspire imaginative, hands-on discovery for years to come! We’re also grateful to your project manager, who was always just a call, text, or email away to guide us throughout the process. An extra shout-out to revi Design out of Wausau, Wisconsin — our build team who brought the vision to life right here on-site. Their communication was excellent, their attention to detail unmatched, and their clean-up was immaculate. We couldn’t have asked for a better crew! This dream playground was made possible through the Maple Grove Charter School Implementation Grant, and we can’t wait to share it with our learners, families, and community. 💚🦊 #MapleGroveCharterSchool #NaturescapePlayground #HandsOnDiscovery #CRISPtraits #LearningThroughPlay #NaturalPlayground #MGCSFoxes

Summer is buzzing at MGCS! 🐝 With the help of Dr. Carla Prahl, our young apprentices suited up and got hands-on with our beehives — on the lookout for queen bees and signs of hive health. We’re thrilled to share that both hives are alive and thriving! 👑🐝 Our curious crew wowed us with their “I wonder…” and “I notice…” statements, asking awesome questions and spotting some sweet surprises. What a sweet way to kick off summer at MGCS! 🌼🍯

🎉 We wrapped up the school year with our final CRISP Assembly at MGCS — and this one was extra special! We celebrated our Fired Up to Read winners alongside some very special guests — the dedicated members of the Hamburg EMS and Volunteer Fire Department, who volunteered their time each week to read with our learners. A heartfelt thank you to Karen Gauerke and her daughter Jesse, who were present to donate a bike in memory of Karen’s husband, Ken Gauerke, who started the Fired Up to Read program many years ago out of his passion for helping young children develop a love of reading. ❤️📚 The Fire Department also awarded six lucky winners with a fire truck ride around the community! 🚒 And all of our readers were treated to ice cream, courtesy of our amazing firefighters. 🍦 In addition to reading celebrations, we recognized: 🏅 CRISP Award winners 🛡️ Safety Patrol members 🎓 Student Council 🏀 March Madness Bracket winners 📈 Screening Data Growth achievers We are incredibly proud of our readers — 89 out of 117 learners met their monthly reading goal, only missing no more than one month! 📚👏 Way to go, MGCS learners! Have a wonderful summer — and keep reading! 🦊💛

Thanks to a generous grant from the North Central Wisconsin Master Gardeners Association, MGCS has completed its orchard! 🍎🍐 Between rainy days and busy spring planting, Julie and Dan from Rock Ridge Orchard used their precious time and expertise to help plant our apple and pear trees. 🌳 Kindergarten students will use this new addition to extend their learning about trees and how living things depend on them to meet their needs. Eventually, all Maple Grove foxes will get a "taste" of this experience. 😋 THANK YOU to everyone involved in the prep work and installation!

We have openings on our Maple Grove Charter School Governance Board! This is a great way to get involved and have a voice in the school and the community!

PARENTS: Take one thing off your summer to-do list—register your child for the 2025-2026 school year now! Get it done early so you can relax and enjoy every minute of summer. Register here: https://www.athens1.org/page/online-registration

We have found ourselves “winging” it on some things as we had daily excitement of chicks hatching! Maple Grove is fortunate enough to continue a yearly tradition of setting up an incubator and hatching chicks in the first grade classroom. This year with eggs from our own chicken coop we were able to successfully hatch nine cute, fuzzy, and adorable new maple Grove members. While the productivity in the classroom during work time has been challenged by their cuteness, the experiences, and opportunities to apply the school CRISP traits and the learning that comes with this new life is extremely special. Students are now getting to hold them, feed them, and make sure the water and heat is a safe environment. This responsibility and compassion for animals is truly extraordinary in these first grade learners. It is hard to believe that within the next two weeks these chicks will be finding their forever homes. Stay tuned for the egg-citing times with our new peeps ahead🐥🐣🐔 ❤️

Shout out to the 86 learners that turned in their March and April reading calendars with goals met! Way to show the Maple Grove CRISP traits of integrity and perseverance. Learners created kites and enjoyed Icee pops. Take a look at some of the amazing kites about to hit the summer skies! ☀️🪁🌳 keep up the reading over the summer

We are feeling the love at MGCS! Last week, our staff was absolutely spoiled by our amazing PTO and families for Teacher Appreciation Week. From a fun bead bar to create custom lanyards, badge reels, bookmarks, or pens, to a delicious lunch and endless treats—we were truly celebrated! Parents generously stepped in to cover lunch and recess duties so our staff could enjoy a meal together. Each team member also received personalized gifts and we even got some much-needed appliances for our staff lounge! We are truly the lucky ones here at Maple Grove Charter School. Thank you to everyone who made us feel so appreciated!

A big thank you to Westfall Construction for preparing the site for our new NatureScape Playground! We truly appreciate all you’ve done to enhance the grounds at Maple Grove Charter School.

This week—and every week—we celebrate the incredible teachers who inspire, challenge, and care for our students each and every day. Your dedication, creativity, and heart make a lasting impact. Thank you for all that you do to make the School District of Athens a place where students grow, thrive, and succeed. We appreciate you more than words can say!

Many hearts were full yesterday as the 1st graders at Maple Grove Charter School continued a 55 year old tradition by holding the Mother’s Day Pancake Breakfast. This years breakfast gave the almost 75 attendees and 23 1st graders the opportunity to share in appreciation and love for the wonderful moms in our lives that do so much each and every day. We recognized those that fill the roll even without the title. Learners presented spring and Mother’s Day poems, performed songs, and displayed gratitude and love for the mother figures in their lives through their art. Leading up to Thursday they had worked together to practice the program, create art displays, and write a class cookbook housing a recipe from each learners kitchen, and it all came together beautifully today. It is an honor to continue this tradition, but none of this would have been possible without many others! A huge thank you to the pancake master, Bryan Bloch! In addition, many amazing Maple Grove staff made it come together, special shout out to Mr. L and Mrs. Williams for being behind the scenes and helping in kitchen production. Lastly, thank you Mrs. Triebold for the beautiful musical performance! Each year comes and goes in the blink of an eye…. yet each year I find myself thinking even more how fortunate I am. How fortunate I am for spending my days with 23 first graders and having a family of my own with them, daily “mom” callings accidentally, and working with so many amazing colleagues that hold the title of being a mom. I am thankful for all the mothers that were able to attend today, including my own mother! Now we can just smile, reflect, and enjoy the last weeks of school, until next year Mother’s Day Breakfast! 🥞☕️🍁💕 ❤️Ms.Etten

Many hearts were full yesterday as the 1st graders at Maple Grove Charter School continued a 55 year old tradition by holding the Mother’s Day Pancake Breakfast. This years breakfast gave the almost 75 attendees and 23 1st graders the opportunity to share in appreciation and love for the wonderful moms in our lives that do so much each and every day. We recognized those that fill the roll even without the title. Learners presented spring and Mother’s Day poems, performed songs, and displayed gratitude and love for the mother figures in their lives through their art. Leading up to Thursday they had worked together to practice the program, create art displays, and write a class cookbook housing a recipe from each learners kitchen, and it all came together beautifully today. It is an honor to continue this tradition, but none of this would have been possible without many others! A huge thank you to the pancake master, Bryan Bloch! In addition, many amazing Maple Grove staff made it come together, special shout out to Mr. L and Mrs. Williams for being behind the scenes and helping in kitchen production. Lastly, thank you Mrs. Triebold for the beautiful musical performance! Each year comes and goes in the blink of an eye…. yet each year I find myself thinking even more how fortunate I am. How fortunate I am for spending my days with 23 first graders and having a family of my own with them, daily “mom” callings accidentally, and working with so many amazing colleagues that hold the title of being a mom. I am thankful for all the mothers that were able to attend today, including my own mother! Now we can just smile, reflect, and enjoy the last weeks of school, until next year Mother’s Day Breakfast! 🥞☕️🍁💕 ❤️Ms.Etten

Many hearts were full yesterday as the 1st graders at Maple Grove Charter School continued a 55 year old tradition by holding the Mother’s Day Pancake Breakfast. This years breakfast gave the almost 75 attendees and 23 1st graders the opportunity to share in appreciation and love for the wonderful moms in our lives that do so much each and every day. We recognized those that fill the roll even without the title. Learners presented spring and Mother’s Day poems, performed songs, and displayed gratitude and love for the mother figures in their lives through their art. Leading up to Thursday they had worked together to practice the program, create art displays, and write a class cookbook housing a recipe from each learners kitchen, and it all came together beautifully today. It is an honor to continue this tradition, but none of this would have been possible without many others! A huge thank you to the pancake master, Bryan Bloch! In addition, many amazing Maple Grove staff made it come together, special shout out to Mr. L and Mrs. Williams for being behind the scenes and helping in kitchen production. Lastly, thank you Mrs. Triebold for the beautiful musical performance! Each year comes and goes in the blink of an eye…. yet each year I find myself thinking even more how fortunate I am. How fortunate I am for spending my days with 23 first graders and having a family of my own with them, daily “mom” callings accidentally, and working with so many amazing colleagues that hold the title of being a mom. I am thankful for all the mothers that were able to attend today, including my own mother! Now we can just smile, reflect, and enjoy the last weeks of school, until next year Mother’s Day Breakfast! 🥞☕️🍁💕 ❤️Ms.Etten

This week—and every week—we celebrate the incredible teachers who inspire, challenge, and care for our students each and every day. Your dedication, creativity, and heart make a lasting impact. Thank you for all that you do to make the School District of Athens a place where students grow, thrive, and succeed. We appreciate you more than words can say!

We are excited to announce that construction on our new naturescape playground at MGCS will begin next week on the lower playground. This innovative outdoor space is designed to inspire creativity, imagination, and connection with the natural world—all key components of our environmental agriscience mission at Maple Grove. This project is fully funded through our Charter Implementation Grant, and we are grateful for the opportunity to enhance our school grounds in a way that aligns with our values and supports. Take a look below at renderings of what the finished playground is expected to look like—we can’t wait to share this space with our learners and community!

What a fantastic BEACH BASH we had on Friday at MGCS! With over 90% student attendance, the energy was incredible! A huge thank you to our amazing Student Council and advisors, Mrs. Cyrtmus and Mrs. Zamzow, for planning and hosting such a fun and successful event.

What an "egg-citing" week it has been in Ms. Etten's 1st grade classroom at Maple Grove Charter School. We are fortunate to have so many outdoor learning experiences and that is just what the week was once again about. While we help to care for our chickens daily at MGCS by feeding, giving water, and collecting eggs, now the incubation excitement of new chicks has begun. The first grade learners began their incubation of baby chicks by placing 20 eggs in the incubator and learning that they must monitor the humidity to remain a consistent 45%-55%. A majority of the eggs are from our very own MCGS chicken coop! Learners will be hands-on in taking responsibility for the incubation by using the School Crisp traits. The 21 day process will include documentation of the temperature and humidity, observation based journal entries, and discussion of the challenges and successes of the process. Thank you to Tracey Freund for coming to share her expertise on chickens. Thank you to the Bergman family for donating the incubator and for helping to make this learning experience come to life in the first grade classroom at Maple Grove Charter School. Today was day 9 and we candled to see inside the eggs. Students were amazed that they could notice eyes, legs, and physical features through the egg shell. We truly can not wait for the excitement that these next days hold leading up to hatching day🐣🐥🐤 Stay tuned for updates regarding our new “peeps” in first grade!

The School District of Athens is looking for passionate and dedicated individuals to join our team! Check out our current employment opportunities and apply today: https://www.athens1.org/page/employment-opportunities