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

Last week MGCS started hammock check out for all of our learners! Learners were taught how to check out a hammock, set up and take down a hammock, and how to safely sit or lay in one. We are hoping students enjoy a relaxing outdoor experience!!

Maple Grove Charter School's 4th grade Outdoor Lab students have had a busy September! They are learning how to write and draw high quality journal entries, have learned about habitats, spent some time picking our garden produce and used it to make salsa, have learned about wildflowers as well as observed pollinators and pollination in action. We are so lucky to have the forest on our school grounds so we can not only learn about these topics, but observe them in real time!

There's nothing better than the fresh smell of popcorn 🍿 in the air! That is exactly what Maple Grove Charter School students and staff smelt throughout the school today thanks to the Maple Grove Foundation and Cindy Artus for volunteering her time to pop enough popcorn for all the learners and staff🍁! The Foundation has graciously donated the supplies to have a popcorn day once a month along with Mrs. Artus being the master popper! We are grateful!

Benvenuto! Fifth grade learners in Ms. Szutkowski's class enjoyed a "book tasting" where they sampled some of the finest literature, enjoyed popcorn, and watched movie trailers of the books in this selection. Learners now have a list of personally-vetted fiction to enjoy for the rest of the year. Bon appétit!

Our Maple Grove Charter School families and community members are AMAZING! A huge shout out to Kevin Flahive, an uncle to a couple of our learners, for designing and building our enclosed whiteboard stand! It is absolutely stunning! Another shout out to Pete Hirn, Mike Cyrtmus, Wes Kottke, Corbin Hanson, Clayton Neske and Jameson Hanson for all your expertise and help in installing it in our outdoor classroom! Our outdoor classroom is almost complete and some learners have already started using it! All that left is the seating. Thank you again to our great community and families! This project has been funded by the charter school implementation grant and will be utilized for learning for years to come.

Our Maple Grove Charter School families and community members are AMAZING! A huge shout out to Kevin Flahive, an uncle to a couple of our learners, for designing and building our enclosed whiteboard stand! It is absolutely stunning! Another shout out to Pete Hirn, Mike Cyrtmus, Wes Kottke, Corbin Hanson, Clayton Neske and Jameson Hanson for all your expertise and help in installing it in our outdoor classroom! Our outdoor classroom is almost complete and some learners have already started using it! All that left is the seating. Thank you again to our great community and families! This project has been funded by the charter school implementation grant and will be utilized for learning for years to come.

Our coop at MGCS got an upgrade! A huge Thank You to Brian Plisch, from BP Seamless Gutters, for installing these wonderful gutters to our new coop! The color matches perfectly too! The water that flows through these gutters will also flow into a rain barrel where we can reuse it in multiple places around the school. It was a great addition!

Third graders at Maple Grove had their agriscience lesson of farm to table involve salsa making. They were able to wash, slice and dice harvested veggies, fruits and herbs into such a tasty treat. This "fruits of their labor" activity was another wonderful hands-on learning opportunity that occurred thanks to Field Edventures' Miss Sandy, to Athens' ag teacher Mrs. Bunkelman and to Athens' FFA student intern, Caden.

On Friday first graders from Maple Grove Charter School were able to fully experience the concept of farm to table. The learners have been tending to the gardens and monitoring the produce as it is ready for consumption. We are fortunate to have the School Gardens provide so many opportunities to have hands-on experiences with healthy and sustainable agriculture. Today we began the morning by picking the tomatoes and peppers that were just right for a breakfast salad at 9:00am. Students did everything - wash the produce, cut the produce, and mix the delicious ingredients for serving to one another. It is not very often that you have first grade learners recognizing the value and having an appreciation for healthy food in our lives🥗🥕❤️ but here at MGCS we do! Thank you to Mrs. Bunkleman, Mrs. Benton, and to the parents that volunteered for making the morning a success😊

Third graders at Maple Grove Charter School showed perseverance, craftsmanship and respect on their Fox puzzle during CREW meeting. They have also been learning to accept and respect each other's similarities and differences that make us each unique and special.

We kicked off the morning at MGCS with a Recess Rodeo! Learners and staff came dressed for the occasion 🤠 Our Fox 🦊 Dens, which are a mixture of K-5 learners, rotated through 6 stations outside on both our upper and lower playground to go over recess safety and expectations. Yee-Haw!

Students that are picked up via cars at Maple Grove Charter School were rewarded for their amazing CRISP trait behavior with a glow party. It takes a lot of respect, integrity and perseverance to wait patiently.

We would love to see our MGCS Families at our PTO Kickoff!

Learners and families were excited to be greeted by Maple the Fox 🦊 this morning! Have a great Wednesday everyone!

We had a FOXtastic first day yesterday at MGCS! Today we welcomed our newest kindergarten foxes to our family! So much excitement in the air🦊💕

Maple Grove Charter School is excited to announce that we are a proud recipients of Trout in the Classroom, a program sponsored by Trout Unlimited. Trout Unlimited sponsors all the supplies and fish to make this learning possible. Although this will be a whole school learning opportunity, our third grade classroom will take the lead on it as an extension of one of their literacy units throughout the year with a focus on the study of water. Our trout eggs are set to arrive in early November and we will raise them throughout the year. Thank you to Al Hauber, Kirk Stark, and Perry Nikolai from the The Wisconsin River Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited for your time and knowledge of the delivery and set up of the tank! Another HUGE shout-out to a grandparent of one of our learner's at our school, Bob Lange, who designed and built our beautiful trout tank stand. It's beautiful and fits the space perfectly! THANK YOU!

The District Newletter is live. Check it now at athens1.org or https://5il.co/23ep2

The 2023-2024 school year is upon us and we had a wonderful turnout at our open house at Maple Grove Charter School! Thank you to the PTO for the fun activity of decorating cupcakes and to our staff for all your preparation making this special for our learners and families! We can't wait to see all the smiling faces next week!

A big shout out to Westfall Construction for your work installing drain tile and laying the solid foundation for our outdoor classroom space at Maple Grove Classroom Space! It looks fantastic! This was made possible from our implementation grant and the generosity of time from Westfall Construction.

Maple Grove Charter School is looking for a friendly and helpful adult to join our Governance Board. We look forward to adding another fox to our fox den family! 🦊