Family Gallery Now Open

The younger students have culminated their study about families through creating a gallery of family letters and art. Each student wrote a letter to a family member and drew a representation of their family. We encourage you to stop by and see the gallery in the lunch room anytime Thursday or Friday.

Students learned the families are defined by many different things, such as culture, values, places, and people. Students connected that families can be the people you are related to or a community, like our classroom family. Families define who we are as people. It's amazing to think that the food we like, what we care about, who we look up to are largely influenced by our family. This study opened our minds to ask questions, share stories, make projects, and investigate together.

We hope to see you visit the gallery!

We Believe

The "We Believe" Statements are the backbone of SCCS. Watch the video shown at the Family Meeting this month.

The Power of Poetry

Raining Jewels

by Alexis

It's raining jewels on a hot summer morning

I heard the horn

They said, "Stay away from the hot summer sun."

They would say it was a social sun

Sweaty, sweaty, icky water, then you use baby powder

Imagine

being in the hot summer sun

French Fries

by Manny

Crunchy.

Burnt.

Greasy.

Hot.

Salty.

Yellow.

French Fries.

Wild Cats

by Reece

Running through the woods

Looking

for mice and prey

Wind brushing

through my whiskers and fur

Tree leaves

Scratching my fur

July

by William

The sky

trembles

and

quakes

in the summery

July night.

Rethinking Homework

Last Thursday, we had our first brown bag lunch of the year. Parents and teachers met for a casual discussion on the topic of homework and learning extensions families can do at home. We read and discussed this article by Alfie Kohn. In our classroom we want learning at home to be purposeful and meaningful. That is why we don't do "typical" homework.

Older students do Independent Inquiry Projects. These projects take 5 weeks and students research a topic they are interested in. They present their findings to the class. Join us on Fridays (beginning this week) at 8:40 a.m. to see these students' presentations. Younger students participate in the monthly K/1 showcase, where they bring in a project from home to share about. We want our students to love learning at school and at home!

Thinking about Geometry

Aubrielle explains her thinking about determining the area of shapes on a geoboard.

Science Club Information

The students of the Natural Science Department at Stephens College are excited to offer first through fifth graders at SCCS the opportunity to learn more about the world of science through an after school science club! Science club is a great way for the students to interact with science and inspire learning outside of the everyday classroom.

The science club will meet October 11th, November 8th, and December 6th from 3:30pm to 4:30pm in Pillsbury Science Center room 205; you will find a map attached. Topics this semester will include microscopes, light and sound, and Owl Pellet dissection! If you are interested in having your child participate in all three Science Club meetings, please email or speak to Lindsey Clifton by Wednesday, September 29, 2010.

On the afternoon of Science Club, children will be escorted from school to Pillsbury Science Center by a teacher at 3:20pm. At the end of Science Club, families are welcome to pick up children from room 205. If you plan on picking up your child(ren) from Extended day, please inform Mrs. Clifton and she will escort all remaining children to Extended Day.

Any further questions, please contact Lindsey Clifton @ Lriley@stephens.edu.

Stephens College Science Department and Elementary Teaching Team

Introduction from our Spanish teacher, Senora Steelman

I grew up in Columbia and graduated from Mizzou with a degree in elementary education and certifications through junior high in math and Spanish. After teaching middle school and junior high Spanish for Columbia Public Schools, I stayed home with my son until he started preschool at SCCS. I taught Spanish to his class and have continued teaching preschool and elementary Spanish at SCCS since then. My son is now in the fourth grade at Grant School where my husband has been teaching fourth grade for 17 years. We love to play, pray, read, travel, golf, fish, and spend time together. We’re fortunate to have extended family in Columbia, too. Some of our favorite family activities are hanging out, eating, and watching Mizzou basketball and football together. Go Tigers!

Our elementary Spanish classes combine an exploration of the Spanish language with a touch of Hispanic culture. Students will sing, play, read, write and speak while learning the alphabet and basic vocabulary including weather, calendar, numbers, colors, animals, body parts, conversational phases, etc.
- Kristin Steelman (Señora Steelman)

We made the Missourian!

Yesterday, SCCS celebrated our 85th Brithday! The children made party hats, signs, sang happy birthday, and ate cake on the playground. President Lynch, faculty members from campus, teachers, and families gathered together on the playground to celebrate. We look forward to other celebratory events this year. Click on Missourian to follow a link to read the full story.

Literacy

Our classroom is filled with so much great reading and writing! Over the last few weeks, students have been enjoying reading and writing poetry. They have been practicing using all their five senses and emotions for poetic inspiration. We have also practiced using what we call "sparkle words" (e.g., Instead of saying the ocean was pretty, we can say the ocean was breathtaking).

<---Joey and other classmates checking out our Photo Gallery. Students observe photographs and record their thoughts and feelings.

Math

Geometry has been our focus over the last few weeks. The students have been enjoying shape hunts, classifying shapes, and exploring the properties of 2-D and 3-D figures. They have also been writing some great poetry inspried by geometry!

<--Ethan, Jackson, and Natalie building with shapes

Social Studies-Inquiry into our families and heritage

We have begun our social studies unit on family and heritage! The kindergarten and first grade students have designed their family trees and shared great family stories with each other. The older students are working hard on gathering lots of information about their family history and they are all working on creating their own family trees on ancestry.com's web site. Any information you can give your child about family birthdates, death dates, birth places, maiden names, etc. is very helpful when using ancestry.com. Also, you are all welcome to use Mrs. Clifton's login information to create/update a family tree with your child at home. The web site is http://www.ancestry.com/. The login is Lriley156 (case sensitive) and the password is xj9j6m2 (also case sensitive). It is amazing the kind of original documents that they will find for you on this site so have fun searching!

A Day in the Garden (photos courtesy of Ginny Chadwick)

Sketching the flowers and plants we saw

Observing a beautiful garden spider

Tasting fresh basil and walking through the rows of produce with Adam

Olivia and the chicken coop

Bobby teaching us about the benefits of chickens

1st K-1 Showcase of the Year!

Our interviewer, Nicole (3rd grade), talks to two kindergarteners about their showcases:

Stephens College in the News

Field Trip to Garden this Friday

Who: All SCCS Elementary Students (Families are welcome too!)
What: Learn about gardening, composting, vermiculture, chickens and more!
When: Friday, September 10th – Leave at 1 p.m. return by 4 p.m.
Where: Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture’s Garden at Smith and Fay St. (map)

Details:
• Families will pick children up at the garden between 3:15 – 3:50 p.m!
• At 3:50, teachers will walk back to school with any remaining children and take them to Extended Day.
• We are walking to the garden at 1 p.m. – wear comfy walking shoes!

Driving Directions from the Elementary Classroom…
Go West on Walnut.
Turn right on College Ave.
Turn left on Smith Street.
The garden is at the intersection of Smith and Fay Street.

*The walking route to and from school will take students on St. Joseph St. and Fay St. (parallel to College Ave.)

Math Haiku

Today older students combined poetry and thoughts about math to produce some powerful Haiku. We were not concerned about having the correct amount of syllables for our poems - we focused more about getting our thoughts about math captured in poetry. Take a look at our work!

Parent Association Meeting

The Parents' Association (PA) will hold its First General Meeting of the 2010-11 school year on Tuesday, September 7, 2010, from 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.

Topic: SCCS Orientation with Guest Speakers: Dr. Leslie Willey & Elementary/Preschool Faculty

When: Tuesday, September 7, 2010, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.

Where: Drop off children at Preschool, with child care provided by SLATE (Students Learning About Teacher Education); Adults meet at Elementary School across the street (corner of Walnut & Melbourne).

This is a great opportunity to connect with SCCS faculty & families, to ask questions & learn more about what your child(ren)'s day at school looks like, & to learn more about planned PA & School activities for the 2010-2011 school year. We look forward to seeing you there.