What's Going on at St. John
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The 3 and 4 year old preschool children have been talking about all the different kinds of apples. We have made several projects with the apple theme. We count and sort items according to color and size. We also went to an afternoon chapel service led Pastor Ill. He talked about Noah's ark, and we also sang Jesus Loves Me. That is one of our favorite songs, but we are learning new songs all the time. During story time we usually get to choose some of our favorite books, one of our favorite books this week was The Apple Pie Tree. We love to play with our new friends.
The Kindergarten classroom has been learning, sharing and loving. We've been studying all about fall and the "Apple Season." We brought apples to school to graph and to help with Special Projects and then we used those apples to make our own Kindergarten Applesauce. We've met new friends in our classroom, while loving our Best Friend of all - JESUS!
Our first graders enjoyed a visit with Mrs. Kendra Beattie, our Ag in the classroom representative. She visited our class with a read aloud story of the apple. We then made an apple craft to retell the story to our families. As the students worked they were all able to tell the life cycle of the apple from seed to delicious fruit. Finally, we tasted several kinds of apples and apple juice. Each type of apple tasted a little different, but all were very good! We're looking forward to another visit with Mrs. Beattie next month
Last week the second grade class read the story Berenstain Bears and the Missing Dinosaur Bone. In this story, the Berenstain Bears tried to find the missing piece of the dinosaur skeleton. We then did a Math activity in which we tried to find the missing pieces to some addition problems. The class loved linking literature with our Math lesson for the day!
The St. John 5th Graders have been learning what they can about green plants and nutrition. They have combined Science and Health classes by observing the seeds each student planted. A careful record is charted about the growth of each cup of seeds. The "farmer "student is to take responsibility for the amount of sun and moisture his/ her cup of seeds receives. Now that the seedlings have grown the students know they have turnip plants. In Science, the students understand what type of root a turnip has while in Health, they know it is good for them to eat. The 5th Graders enjoy this type of hands-on activity.
In sixth grade we are working on finding the mean, median, mode and range. We are working on applying these to real life situations and why you would need to know them. With seventh grade we are learning how to add and subtract positive and negative numbers. 8th grade is balancing equations and solving for variables. In social studies, the sixth grade is just finishing up a chapter about Mesopotamia, Babylon and Assyria.
This week the St. John's 7th grade has been studying plants, and we were analyzing how many different agricultural products go into the manufacture of the household favorite, tootsie roll! Many of the students were surprised at the amount of ingredients it took for something so simple! We've also been learning about the vast agricultural resources of our state. Our state is responsible for barley, popcorn, sheep and everything in between! When you sit down to dinner tonight, say a prayer and thank a farmer.
Mrs. Schwarting's 6th, 7th, and 8th grade literature and composition students recently finished writing their first essays of the school year. Opinions ranged from why dogs are better than cats to problems in government. Students are learning the importance of a well-constructed thesis statement, topic sentences, and supporting details. Students are also reading, discussing, and analyzing literature ranging from "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" to "Suzy and Leah," a story set during WWII. For extra credit, many literature students wrote paragraphs to state legislators about how their life would change if Chester Mental Health Center closed. Students are learning that their writing skills are also valuable outside of the classroom
This past week, our music classes have been working on steady beats, silent beats, and reading music notes and rests. Preschool through 2nd grade practices rhythms with clapping. We clap two times and say, "Shh," for the silent beat. We then practice using rhythm instruments, such as rhythm sticks, drums, tambourines, jingle bells, wooden blocks, sand blocks, maracas, and triangles. "Shake, shake, shhh. Shake, shake, shhh." It was great to hear how quickly they caught on! Grades 3-8 are starting to read music with rhythms. They can clap a rhythm of 3 quarter notes and a quarter rest. They are shown a card and they read the notes and rests on the card by clapping and counting the beats. They are learning while having fun!