Our Class Christmas Party

Alex and Shamiah working on their magazine Christmas tree.

Karlon, Myeesha, and Kenosha with their completed magazine Christmas trees.

What a GREAT day we had! We have been so busy today! We went to the 1st graders Christmas program, made magazine Christmas trees, made stockings, made handprint wreaths, and had our class Christmas party.

Johnathan, Tierra, Ashaunti, Eddie, and Kenosha hard at work on their handprint wreaths.

Shamiah, Marquavius, Kesheona, and Shaniah hard at work on their handprint wreaths.

Bryson, Jemarcus, Myeesha, Briana, and Jairus hard at work on their handprint wreaths and stockings.

Myeesha with her handprint wreath!

Bryson, Jemarcus, Myeesha, and Briana eating all the good food!

Ladarious M., Ladarius C., Quaniesha, and Karlon enjoying the food!

Alex, Shaniah, James, Shamiah, Marquavius, and Kesheona enjoying ALL the food.

Johnathan, Tierra, Ashaunti, Eddie, and Kenosha having a good relaxing time!

Ms. Sasser came by for some GREAT food!

As you can tell, we had a great day and Christmas Party! We have the best class! It was a GREAT day!

Our Christmas Carolers!

Mrs. Rita and Ms. Shan's Class

We had some very special visitors come by our class today to visit us. Mrs. Rita and Ms. Shan came by with their students. They sang some Christmas carols for us. Please watch the video below and ENJOY our Montessori Carolers!

They came and sang several Christmas carols that put us in the Christmas Spirit! Thank you so much for coming and singing to us! We loved it!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

from Ms. Strum and Mrs. Thorns' 2nd grade class

Semester Tests!

Our "Prizes"

This week we took our Reading, Language, and Math Semester Tests! Ms. Strum does everything that she can to motivate her students. Ms. Strum wants each and every student to do their VERY BEST! Ms. Strum bought "prizes" for doing their best on the test. Ms. Strum put our names in a basket if we were working hard and doing our best on the test! At the end of the day, we drew names out of the basket to see who got a "reward".

Shamiah, Kenosha, Johnathan, Jairus, and Alex with their "prizes".

Myeesha, Kesheona, Ashaunti, Jairus, and Bryson with their "Prizes".

Jemarcus, Derrick, Quaniesha, James, Shaniah, and Kenosha with their "prizes".

As you can tell, we worked hard on our Semester Test!!!! We won all kinds of different prizes such as coloring books, rubix cubes, magna doodles, puzzles, and calendars. We did GREAT!!!

A Season of Giving!

Ms. Strum's Class with some of the canned foods they collected!

Wow! Our Open Doors Class held a school-wide canned food drive for the Genesis Food Bank. Our school donated over 2,000 cans of food! What a blessing it was to all the families that it reached! Thanks so much to Mrs. Land and the Open Doors Class for all the work that they did!

Our 1st Grade PTA Christmas Program

Our 1st graders presenting their Christmas Program.

Mrs. Williams, our Music teacher, leading the audience in Christmas Carols.

The 1st graders and Showchoir presenting a FANTASTIC Program.

Look at what a GREAT show!

As you can tell from the pictures above, we had a FANTASTIC PTA Program presented by our 1st graders and School Showchoir. They did an outstanding job led by our Music teacher, Mrs. Williams. Please come and join us at our next PTA Program!

Shapes and Shaving Cream

We have been learning about SHAPES this week. We have reviewed some shapes that we already knew and learned some new ones. Ms. Donlin reviewed with us the following shapes: circle, square, rectangle, and triangle. We were introduced to some new shapes. We learned about a rhombus, parallelogram, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, and decagon. Ms. Donlin taught us that a pentagon has 5 sides, a hexagon has 6 sides, a heptagon has 7 sides, an octagon has 8 sides, and a decagon has 10 sides. We learned how to determine the number of corners for each shape. Ms. Donlin taught us about a rhombus. She told us that most people say that the shape of a rhombus is called a diamond. Ms. Donlin taught us that this was not correct. We learned that a diamond is a rhombus.

Brianna made a triangle, and Johnathan is making a triangle in the shaving cream.

Derrick made a triangle and a circle. Marquavius made a circle.

Tierra made a circle.

Jairus made a square.

Kenosha made a pemtagon.

As you can tell, we had a great time drawing our shapes in the shaving cream. Ms. Donlin and Ms. Strum gave everyone some shaving cream. Ms. Strum gave us specific instructions on where to keep our hands while we were doing this activity. Ms. Strum did not want us wearing it! Ms. Donlin would give us the name of a certain shape for us to draw in the shaving cream. We had to draw all of the shapes that we learned about in the shaving cream as Ms. Donlin told us the name of a shape. We really enjoyed this lesson and activity. We left our desks sparkling clean once we cleaned off the shaving cream. We had a great day!

Holiday Safety Tips from JPD

JPD came to talk to us on Career Day. While they were here, they shared with us some Holiday Safety Tips! These are GREAT Holiday Safety Tips that all of us can follow. Thank you JPD for all you do to help keep us safe!

Holiday Safety Tip

1. Always park in a well lit area.

2. Make sure that you don't leave items visible in your car.

(ex. money, purse, wallet, phone)

3. Wrap "dummy" presents and put them under

your Christmas tree. Hide the "real" presents

somewhere else.

T

Career Day with the USDA

Today we had Career Day at our school. We had different people come and speak to us about their jobs. They told us about what they did and what they had to know to do their job!

Rogerick Thompson with the USDA Resources Conservation Service came and spoke to the 2nd graders. Mr. Thompson in a District Conservationist. A District Conservationist is someone who works with farmers to conserve their natural resources. He taught us that there are 5 natural resources. Mr. Thompson taught us the acronym SWAPA to help us the natural resources. The S stood for soil, the W for water, the A for air, the P for plants, and the A for animals. This was very helpful for us to learn the 5 natural resources. Mr. Thompson taught us that conservation is the wise use of our natural resources.

Mr. Thompson focused on soil today. He told us that soil is the outer most layer of the Earth's crust. We learned that their are many "layers" of soil. Mr. Thompson told us that soil will erode if there are no trees or grass on the soil. Erosion is the wearing away of the Earth's surface. The soil must be protected and taken care of for it NOT to erode.

Rain Storm Simulation

Rain Storm Simulation

The end result of both Rain Storm Simulations.

Mr. Thompson let us help simulate a rain storm. There were two different rain storm simulations. One was with soil that was protected with grass and the other was soil. When the rain storn happened, the soil with grass was able to filter sediment and the soil without the grass was dirty.

RICE

Mr. Thompson asked us what he was holding. Most of us answered wheat. We learned it is RICE! Mr. Thompson told us that it takes lots of water to grow rice.

SOYBEANS

We have had a lot of rain over the past two months. Mr. Thompson informed us that the majority of the soybeans that were grown this year rotted because they stayed too wet for too long. A combine is a piece of machinery that picks soybeans. It has a header in the front of it. This header runs over the soybeans and strips everything but the bean.

COTTON

Mr. Thompson taught us that cotton is used for many different things. Cotton is used to make socks, sheets, clothes, and other things.

CORN

We learned there are three parts that make up corn. Corn made up of the cob, silk, and kernel. Pollenation must occur for the seed to be produced. A kernel is produced when dust is dropped on the silk.

PEANUTS

Mr. Thompson taught us that a peanut plant has a plant underground and leaves growing above the ground. He told us that a peanut plant is also known as a lagoon. A lagoon is a plant that produces its own Nitrogen.

Our class with Mr. Rogerick Thompson

Thank you so much to Mr. Rogerick Thompson, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and our school Career Day Committee! We learned so much and had a great time!

Career Day with JPD

Our Class with JPD

We had the BEST Career Day at our school! Today the Jackson Police Department came and talked to us today about what we need to do so that we can graduate from high school, graduate from college, and have a job.

Tyrone Lewis, Deputy Chief

Randy Averitt, Quality of Life Officer

Officer Averitt works with neighborhoods, schools, and businesses.

He works with Crime Prevention and Neighborhood Watch Programs.

Deputy Chief Tyrone Lewis, Officer Randy Averitt, and Detective James Cornelius came and asked us what we wanted to be when we grow up. Several of us told them that we wanted to be a firefighter, a police officer, a wrestler, a singer, a doctor, or a lawyer when we grow up. They told us that for us to have these jobs when we grow up that we have to come to school. When we we come to school, we must learn, listen, and pay attention. The Officers and the Detective told us that if we do all of these things, we will get a good education.

They told us to choose our friends wisely. They shared with us that we need to stay away from drugs and alcohol. The Officers and Detectives told us that everyone you surround yourselves with is not your friend. They told us in order to get to the next grade you have to stay out of trouble, maintain good grades, and do your homework!

Deputy Chief Lewis, Officer Averitt, and Detective Cornelius told us that if you wanted to be a police officer that you would have to graduate from high school. They told us that you have to qualify to be a police officer or you cannot work. Once you qualify, you must attend a 16 week academy. They train you on how to handle weapons and how to speak in public. You will also be taught how to complete reports. You must have grammar and writing skills to complete these reports.

Ms. Strum's Girls with JPD

They told us that you have to lead a GOOD, CLEAN Life to do what you want to do and be SUCCESSFUL!

Ms. Strum's Boys with JPD