PreK Butterflies - Mrs. Peek

The month of March has been filled with several new fun topics for the Pre-K Butterfly class!

We started the month wishing in warm weather by learning about butterflies. The day was spent making water color butterflies and learning the life cycle of a butterfly. It was a fun way to begin our month!

The following week we spent the day learning all about rocks. We studied different types of rocks, how they are formed and where they are found. We also spent time painting rocks and using fun snacks to show the kiddos how sedimentary rocks are formed. The experiment with snacks sold the kids, as they declared this the best day at school ever!!

Learning about habitats finished up the month. Time was spent learning about different types of habitats, what kind of animals live in them and what the weather is like in each habitat. Anything involving animals is always a favorite for the class.

In April we will spend time exploring all new Spring like topics like rain, clouds, rainbows, seeds and gardening! Hopefully we will have nice weather and can spend time outside each week taking in the beauty of this season.

PreK Monkeys - Mrs. Eastwood

We've had a wonderful March in the PreK Monkeys' class! We had a variety of themes over our three weeks of school this month. We started a wrap-up of our weather unit with a day on storms and tornadoes. This went along well with our first ever tornado drill where we learned the importance of staying calm and listening to directions. A theme about pets was next and was extra fun as we imagined all the pets we could get! And now that spring has sprung, our class is learning all about flowers...with more to come in April as we grow some seeds and learn about the importance of insects and butterflies to the beautiful blooms outside.

Kindergarten - Mrs. Calton, Mrs. Collins, and Mrs. Puckett

Spring is here and we are excited to watch it bloom. In March we enjoyed learning about Dr. Seuss and Irish Folklore. Our favorite activities were dressing up like a Dr. Seuss character, making walking rainbows in Science, and painting pet rocks when we learned about the Blarney Stone. In April and May will be focusing on all things Spring. We will be learning about the life cycle of a butterfly, insects and bugs, and enjoying Eric Carlson's The Tiny Seed book in our lesson on plants. We are also having a great time as we prepare for Kindergarten Graduation! We can't wait to make you smile on April 30th!

P.E. 1st - 5th grades - Mrs. Morrison and Mrs. Miller

Early March PE was a continuation of jumping rope. We introduced the long jump rope to the upper grades and they were awesome at mastering it! We also played some fun games such as "Save the Forest" and "Pin Blaster". The weather on the last Tuesday in March finally allowed us to go outside again for PE! If the weather is decent, we will go outside. Please see that your students have proper outdoor wear.

We will be doing track and field activities in April, as well as kickball and other games.

P.E. Field Day is quickly approaching. It is successful because of our fantastic volunteers. Please consider volunteering for a full or half day. We will be putting a sign up sheet on Google Docs soon.

Elementary Science - Mrs. Skinner

This last month we wrapped up our unit in health. Students learned about exercise and their heart, hand washing and germs, and the importance of healthy sleep and eating habits.

This month we are learning about plants, pollinators, seasons, and weather. I look forward to having fun outdoors as much as possible, so please remember a jacket. Also, Burr Oak is offering some great free classes that will go along well with our unit, if you’d like to sign up go to their website. Happy Spring!

Excel Science - Mrs. Ungeheier

Students spent some time viewing some slides from different organisms, plants, insects, and other life cells. We will investigate and discover what pathogens are and how to test for them in water. We will also study bacteria and effects from parasites. Some time will also be reserved for groups to explore our final dissection of specimens.

Intermediate Science - Mrs. Champ

During the month of March, Intermediate Science finished up learning about the human body by constructing and labeling a human skeleton. Then we moved on to learning about plants. We started by learning about plant cells and made model plant cells. Then we learned about inherited genes or traits. We learned that humans, animals and plants all inherit genes or traits from their parents. Students observed 2 parent plants, drew from a container each part to an offspring plant, and then illustrated the offspring plant. This helped students to see that sometimes genes or traits favor one parent over the other or sometimes they are equally divided. In April, we are going to study tress from the state of Missouri through video, observation and games. We will also celebrate Missouri's Arbor Day (April 5th) on April 2nd. Each student will receive a tree to take home and plant. We will also learn about Earth Day at the end of April. In May, we will end the year with a fun experiment having to do with kites.

Music 1st-5th grades - Mrs. Scholes

We spent March working hard to learn our concert music and assign parts for our soloists and speakers, as well as learning motions to our songs. Motions help us not only learn the words to our songs better, but it makes the songs more fun to sing and more fun and meaningful for our audience to watch.

In April we will put the finishing touches on our concert music as it all comes together in a beautiful performance for friends and family on April 23. Make sure to watch weekly emails for all the details on times to be there and what your child needs to wear. We also hope to get some outside time to sing and enjoy springtime together.

Lastly, on May 14 we will host our first ever all school talent show. Students will have an opportunity to audition for this fun show before school either on Tuesday, April 23 or Tuesday, April 30 from 8-8:50. Students from 1st grade through 9th are encouraged to try out either alone, or in a group performance, with musical acts or skits. Students must provide their own background music and/or props, if needed. All performances must kept to 2 minutes or less. For any questions, please contact me at elizabethscholes@yahoo.com

Journalism/Newspaper - Mrs. Swick

Students have completed their first edition of the paper and will receive a printout of their work to show parents soon. This month they have been planning a creative edition of the paper that we will wrap up by the end of the year. Their projects include drawings, recipes, different categories of photography, reviews of modern day technological inventions, etc. I know they are excited for you to see their hard work.

Art 1st-2nd grade - Mrs. Wright

Thank the Lord we are finally starting to see signs of spring which has inspired some of our artwork. First grade has been busy with our space lesson and learned about artist, Claude Monet. Students examined the way Monet used space to give the illusion of depth in his water lilies paintings and then we made our own water lilies painting. Second grade said farewell to winter with our last winter art project of the year. We completed this project on cake discs. They loved having something different to work on other than paper. We used what we had learned about foreground, middle ground, and background to draw trees the appropriate heights to show depth and then drew a mountain landscape in the background with shading to give our mountains a dimensional look. Then students painted the sky in either a cool color palette or warm color palette.

Last week we moved on to the element of shape. Both grades watched a short video on Paul Klee. Klee participated in several art movements including abstract art. We learned what abstract art was and examined several of Klee's pieces and compared them to other artists work and discovered that Klee took complicated objects and broke them down into simple shapes. First grade looked specifically at Paul Klee's Cat and Bird painting and then did a guided cat drawing that they will paint in either a warm color palette or cool color palette. Next week they will finish the painting portion and use what we learned a month ago about texture and use texture rubbing plates to texturize the background of the picture. Because we are approaching the end of the year, we are doing a bit of review and combining of elements in our last couple projects.

Second grade also looked at several of Klee's works specifically his Castle and Sun painting. Second grade used lines (one of our elements of art) to create basic shapes. Then, they painted them in with a rainbow of colors. These were all done on copies of Bible commentary to provide added visual interest.

Our last couple projects for the school year will wrap up with a focus on our last two elements, form and value.

It has been a pleasure to teach your kids. I love their passion, enthusiasm, and willingness to always try their best. Several of them are always bringing me "gifts" that they painted or drew at home. I love that they are taking what they are learning in the classroom and practicing at home. It's so sweet that they are so excited to bring their version back to me and show me what they did. I love that!!!! I look forward to seeing what the last two months holds in first and second grade art!

 

Art Excel - Mr. Voyles

In March we worked on our foam core 3-D projects. We are excited to show these in our Spring art show. The works are combination of ideas developed throughout the year about the elements of art. March focused on the relief aspect of our designs to create a mosaic effect on our previous 2D designs.

Social Studies 1st and 2nd grade - Mrs. Messer

It has been a pleasure serving you and your wonderful children this year. I’m already looking forward to next year. As we close our year, we are planning to continue to learn about our state and national governments along with national symbols. Since we are encouraging our children in the serve-a-thon to serve others, our classes will be playing several games emphasizing a spirit of service. We will end the year reviewing states and capitals.

Spanish 3rd and 4th grade - Mrs. Ungeheier

Students have been learning the vocab for what objects they would find in a home and what clothes might be in their closet. We will be reviewing our vocabulary from this year and incorporating some phrases and books into the lessons to practice interpreting conversational Spanish. The goal is to decipher what is known by using this year's vocabulary and gain the confidence to see how much they have learned and can put to use in a real life situation with the Spanish language.

Spanish 4th - 9th grades - Mrs. Mitchell

In March we started out the month with a game of charades. The kids spent the first part of class learning the names of about 30 different animals and the last part of class acting out the animals in attempt to get their classmates to guess the right animal (in Spanish of course!). The second week we watched a video about the life of two students in Mexico, one in the city and one in a rural area and then discussed the differences in daily life between the two students and ourselves. After spring break we were able to get outside to play Spanish 4 corners (a favorite of the kids) and were able to study outdoor words at the same time! This coming month will bring some more emphasis on vocabulary and a refresher on verbs. I hope to get the kids speaking in class with some fun exercises and maybe to even get outside again!