Lower School Archives

January 30, 2024

This message is from MPA’s Office of Admission from the January 27, 2024 issue of InsideMPA. Click here to get in touch with Admission and learn more!

Being a student at MPA is a lot of things.

It’s being part of “A generally really diverse, inclusive environment. I fit in like on day one.”

It’s also a place where you will find “Words of encouragement, even when I didn’t really think I needed it,” and opportunities that make you think, “This experience has just made me a much more confident speaker and critical person.”

And even in addition to all of that, it’s “This safe, nurturing, supportive place where I could really explore and learn so many new things.” Read More

Lower School Division News January 25, 2024

January 25, 2024

from Jennifer Le Varge, Lower School director

Mark Your Calendars

Friday, January 26: PA Parent Trivia Night, 6-8 PM, Family Commons
Saturday, January 27: MPA vs SPA Varsity Basketball at Target Center, 9 AM (girls), 11 AM (boys), tickets >
Wednesday, January 31: LS CHAMP Assembly, 8:15-9 AM, Family Commons, wear CHAMP t-shirts
Thursday, February 1: MS Class of 2032 Parent Gathering, 3:15-4:15 PM, Library
Friday, February 2: Re-Enrollment Agreements Sent
Wednesday, February 7: MS Class of 2032 Parent Gathering, 6-7 PM, Library
Friday, February 9: No LS/MS Classes, Conferences
Friday, February 9: LS/MS Conferences, 8 AM-5 PM
Friday, February 9: Thursday, February 15 Lower School Used Uniform Sale 8 AM-3 PM
Monday, February 12: PreK to Kindergarten Transition Parent Coffee, 8:15-9 AM
Wednesday, February 14: Lower School Valentine’s Day Party, 8:30 AM-2:20 PM Lansing Sports Center, Family Commons
Thursday, February 15: LS/MS Evening Conferences, 3:30-8 PM
Friday, February 16: Professional Development Day, No Classes
Monday, February 19: Presidents’ Day, No Classes
Tuesday, February 20: PA LS Quarterly Parent Coffee Meet-Up, 1:15-2:45 PM, Gallery

We’re almost at the end of the first month of 2024, and learning is in full swing! Our classes are chugging right along and teachers are looking forward to connecting with families soon at the upcoming conferences. Please read on for more updates …

CHAMP Assembly on Wednesday, January 31
Our next CHAMP assembly is scheduled for Wednesday, January 31. We will be focusing on the CHAMP attribute of compassionate. Please be sure to send your child to school this day wearing their CHAMP t-shirts!

Conferences Coming Up: February 9 and 15
Conferences for Lower and Middle School will be held at the start of February. As previously shared, families have between noon on Friday, January 19, and noon on Friday, January 26 to register for conferences. Once the system re-opens at noon on Monday, January 29, families can schedule up to two additional conferences for a total of five (5) conferences. The scheduling window will close completely at noon on Wednesday, January 31. Kindly note no additional conferences will be scheduled after January 31.

Lower School Winter Used Uniform Sale Coming Soon: February 9 through February 15
Our Used Uniform Sale is coming back this February in the Lower School Atrium. The sale will be available in the Atrium from 8 AM to 3 PM every day, Friday February 9 through Thursday, February 15. Don’t forget to stop by and shop for great deals on slightly used and new uniforms at great prices!

PreK to Kindergarten Transition: Parent Coffee on Monday, February 12
To support our PreK families, we welcome the parents of our youngest learners to meet the kindergarten teaching team, learn more about the MPA kindergarten program, and get any questions answered about the next step in the PreK children’s journey. Please join us on Monday, February 12 from 8:15-9:15 AM. Mrs. Roche, Ms. Petersen, and Ms. Jennifer Le Varge are excited to collaborate with you! Further communication will be shared soon with PreK families.
Read More

Parents Association News January 11, 2024

January 11, 2024

New! Parents Association Trivia Night
Friday, January 26, 6-8 PM
Join us for a joyful evening of dinner and socializing at MPA hosted by Trivia Mafia! Compete to be trivia champions! For parents and guardians of students in PreK-12, $5 per person (adult or child), dinner from Cossetta, childcare available for grades K-6. For more details and to register, click here.

Dr. Hudson’s Book Club
Monday, February 12, 6 PM
One more announcement for our parent readers! Dr. Hudson’s Book Club will be back on February 12, 6:00 PM in the MPA Library. We will be reading “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride. Childcare will be provided. Sign up here to get your copy of the book.

Parent Volunteers Needed for Lower School Valentine’s Day Party
Please contact msotoPA@moundsparkacademy.org if you want to help organize the festivities!

Lower School Division News January 11, 2024

January 11, 2024

from Jennifer Le Varge, Lower School director

Mark Your Calendars

Monday, January 15: No Classes, Martin Luther King Day
Monday, January 15: Indexed Tuition Re-Application Deadline
Friday, January 19: LS Duty Free Lunch, 12:15-12:45 PM, Family Commons
Monday, January 22: No Classes, Professional Day, register for Panther Care >
Friday, February 9: No LS/MS Classes, Conferences
Friday, February 9: LS/MS Conferences, 8 AM-5 PM
Thursday, February 15: LS/MS Evening Conferences, 3:30-8 PM
Friday, February 16: No Classes, Professional Development (Panther Care Closed)
Monday, February 19: No Classes, Presidents’ Day

Welcome to 2024! Families seemed to enjoy a restful winter break, and the students are eager and ready to return to the comfort of school routines. Please read on for January updates and beyond:

Conferences Coming Up: February 9 and 15
Our Lower and Middle School Conferences will be held at the start of February. We will be sending scheduling instructions and details soon—please watch your email for registration/scheduling instructions by the end of this week. MPA will once again be using Pick-A-Time for conference registration. You will need to schedule your student’s conferences between noon on Friday, January 19, and noon on Friday, January 26. Families with two or more students at MPA may sign up a day earlier, starting at noon on Thursday, January 18, to help you secure back-to-back conferences for your children. Once the system re-opens at noon on Monday, January 29, families can schedule up to two additional conferences for a total of five conferences. The scheduling window will close completely at noon on Wednesday, January 31. A letter with more information will be coming home soon. Kindly note, no additional conferences will be scheduled after January 31. Read More

A Makerspace Twist On National Novel Writing Month

December 22, 2023

One of the most memorable seventh-grade traditions at MPA is completing NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is a national effort where participants write a novel throughout November. “It’s one of my favorite units to teach,” said Maddy Wolfe ‘12, seventh-grade English teacher at MPA. “They create well-rounded characters, complex story worlds, and a plot laced with tension, all while learning and incorporating language rules and mechanics.”

This year, in addition to their novels, the seventh graders created 3D frames depicting a scene from their stories. They chose a scene from their novel to highlight, and they needed to define the details that make up the scene in its entirety, translated onto a foreground, midground, and background.

“We used a multi-plane camera process—an old-fashioned way of creating 3D space by painting on glass frames as in the early King Kong movie—to create the illusion of space,” commented Keith Braafladt, MPA’s Makerspace coordinator. “It was a surprise how interested and passionate the students were, especially in terms of using color and painting techniques with paint markers, which is a painting tool we just started using last year with our Gunpla model-making activity. The students had so much more control than learning to use a brush in small spaces.”

When the models are held up to a projector, a 3D image is projected onto the wall behind.
“They turned out really incredible!” said Ms. Wolfe. “Their scenes included so many details from their novels, and it was cool to watch their visions come to life.”

“It was a wonderful collaboration using digital fabrication tools to make the frames and the transparencies using a historical perspective technique that came from filmmaking and animation and building this all around the notion of the creation of the narrative for the students’ novels,” commented Mr. Braafladt.

See photos from this exceptional project here.

A Day In The Life Of An MPA Student

December 19, 2023

This message is from MPA’s Office of Admission from the December 20, 2023 issue of InsideMPA. Click here to get in touch with Admission and learn more!

What is a day in the life of an MPA student? What do they learn? Where do they study? How do they feel?

To answer all of the above and more, we invite you to join us for the opportunity for to experience life at MPA. Our PreK-12 Preview on January 25, from 8:30-10 AM, gives an inside look at MPA on a school day. This is the perfect opportunity for your family to see yourselves here at MPA. Experience the comfy, cozy library spaces, the Makerspace as bright as your ideas, and the wide-open, welcoming Lansing Center. Your family will be led on a tour by community members and experience delightful surprises that make MPA so special along the way. In addition to exploring our state-of-the-art spaces firsthand, you will also meet the people who make our community the family that it is.

At the Preview, you will discover something remarkable–the type of learning that MPA students do each day. If you have any questions, contact the Office of Admission at 651-748-5577 or admission@moundsparkacademy.org. We hope to see you there!

RSVP Today

How We Learn

The Admission Process

We’re Using Robots to Build Kids—With Your Help

December 15, 2023

It’s been 35 years since I graduated from Mounds Park Academy. Had you asked me then, I would never in a million years have predicted my eventual return as both a parent of a senior and, equally incredibly, as a mentor for the school’s FIRST® robotics competition (FRC) Team 3926, the MPArors.

How I came to mentor robotics is a long story. But it’s so much fun, full of energy, intensity, and camaraderie. I’ve watched in real-time as students grow in confidence and leadership. “We’re using robots to build kids” is how FIRST founder Dean Kamen once described it. While the team wisely keeps me away from actually building the robot, I mentor a lot of the other team’s activities: community outreach, public engagement through social media, preparing for regional competitions, fostering inclusivity in STEM, and raising funds to pay for it all.

It turns out that running an FRC team isn’t cheap! Last year’s expenses included $16,000 in robot supplies, $8,000 in registration fees for two competitions, and $14,000 in travel-related costs. The team also has to regularly update aging tools and equipment.

This is our busiest time of the year for fundraising, and I’m touched by all the generous alumni who have supported robotics at MPA. Did you know that roughly half of the team’s funds come from individual donors? We are so grateful that you have helped us start the season strong.

However, there is still a ways to go before we meet our financial goal. So, this giving season, I’m reaching out to my fellow alumni to ask for your help. Perhaps you yourself were part of the robotics team, or (like me) wished the team had existed when you were a student at MPA. Or maybe you simply appreciate the profound impact that FIRST® Robotics has on our kids.

We’d love to hear from anyone interested in supporting the team – or is able to introduce us to potential new business or corporate sponsors (who make up more than 40% of our funding). Learn more at www.team3926.org or the QR code below, or call (651) 777-2555 x462.

Thank you! Go MPArors!

Sirid Kellerman ’88

The Good Fight

December 14, 2023

from Jennifer Le Varge, Lower School director

Editor’s Note: Periodically, you will find a guest Head’s Message here from members of the administrative team. We hope you will enjoy reading their thoughts and reflections about life at MPA.

Many years ago, near the start of my career when I was teaching in Lebanon, I worked with a wonderful human who became my mentor. Sadly, they recently passed away. In June of this year after yet another move to another new place—this time from Luanda, Angola to Beirut, Lebanon to St. Paul, Minnesota—I opened the cover of the book “Making Thinking Visible” found in a battered cardboard moving box, where this mentor had scrawled in blue cursive letters:

Jennifer—
keep fighting the good fight.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I was fortunate to join colleagues and student diversity leaders from Mounds Park Academy, alongside 8,500 other participants at the National Association of Independent Schools People of Color Conference (PoCC) in St. Louis. The theme of the conference was “Gateways to Freedom: A Confluence of Truth, Knowledge, Joy and Power.” As a first timer at PoCC, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I know that my experience was like no other professional learning opportunity I have encountered.

Firstly, this was not just any conference. Long-time attendees lovingly call PoCC the “family reunion,” and it truly felt like it even as a first timer. Since 1986, this annual gathering of like-minded yet diverse educators holds space for participants to fully see others and to feel seen in a real way. In a non-judgmental way. In a more genuine way than some of us might encounter in our daily lives and in our schools. I had the chance to attend various leadership sessions with a focus on people of color, hear from world-famous yet down-to-earth keynote presenters, laugh and learn with the Latinx affinity group, and lend my voice to the volunteer choir. As I reflect on my PoCC journey, certain themes come to the fore, which I share here in the spirit of collaboration. Read More

Lower School Division News December 14, 2023

December 14, 2023

from Jennifer Le Varge, Lower School director

Mark Your Calendars

Wednesday, December 20: Last Day of School before Winter Break
Thursday, December 21-Tuesday, January 2: No Classes, Winter Break
Wednesday, January 3: Classes Resume
Wednesday, January 10: CHAMP Assembly

I hope everyone is staying warm and gearing up for the winter break that lies ahead. As the winter festivities may be ramping up for some families, please read on for more information to share:

Trimester 1 Reports Sent Home
On Monday, December 4, your child(ren)’s Trimester 1 report cards were sent home via email. Please feel free to contact the Lower School office with any questions or help needed and/or your child’s teachers regarding the content of the report(s).

Missing Mittens, etc
We still have several students visiting the Lower School office lost and found cabinet on the search for mittens, gloves, and hats during recess. Please help ensure your child has the appropriate winter gear for a chilly but refreshing playtime. Read More

Parents Association News and Events December 14, 2023

December 14, 2023

Thank You!
Thank you to all MPA community members who volunteered to wrap gifts for MPA staff on December 11. This is a beloved tradition at MPA where volunteers wrap the personal gifts of MPA Faculty and Staff, giving them the gift of time during the Holiday season. This Monday, we wrapped 229 gifts for 25 staff members! We took 0 lunch breaks and had 0 reported paper cuts. It was quite a day! Thank you again from Tara and the MPA PA!

Book Festival Success
Last week, during the 2023 Book Festival, the MPA community celebrated our love of literature in a big way! We raised money for the library, supported student literacy, and discussed so many wonderful books with each other. Thank you to our community for participating in this effort, and we would like to extend a huge thank you to our amazing volunteers who helped make the MPA Book Festival a success.

Dr. Hudson’s Book Club
February 12 at 6 PM
One more announcement for our parent readers! Dr. Hudson’s Book Club will return to the MPA Library on February 12 at 6 PM. We will be reading The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James Baldwin. Childcare will be provided. Sign up here to get your copy of the book.