What's Up at St. Mark's?
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA["For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Luke 19:10
The Fourth Grade class and Mr. Luedders presented our chapel service with the story of Zacchaeus. The students did a dramatic reading of the story and led us in singing, "Zacchaeus." Thank you, Fourth Graders!
Preschool has studied about the Bible story of Samuel. They have also been learning about firefighters and how they help us. The students made scarecrows using paper towel rolls, plastic drink containers, and poster board. Each student chose his/her own materials for a scarecrow and then painted or used buttons, wallpaper or other materials to decorate it.
Kindergarten has been working with the letter "T". They are also learning to write complete sentences using periods at the end. In math the class is improving their sorting skills and doing things like adding a penny for each new day of school this year. They are learning that 5 pennies can be traded for a nickel, 2 nickels for a dime and 2 dimes and 1 nickel will get them a quarter.
First grade enjoyed a field trip to the Thresherman's Fall Festival in Pinckneyville. We also saw some modern day farming on the way home. Some of the activities the class enjoyed were: "a guy told us how to make a horseshoe (Brayden), riding a horse (Jack, Summer), riding the train (Jaret, Hailey, Carter), the tractor (Even R, Logan, Gillian) and seeing a combine (Brenden, Trenton). We thank God for giving us a beautiful day for our field trip!
On the first floor hall wall you can see the scarecrows the Second grade made with books in their middles the students wrote. They also studied the fall of Jericho, the bronze snake, and the golden calf in religion. The class has also been telling the temperature and telling time to 30 minutes.
Do you know what a gooseberry looks and tastes like? Third grade does. We read a story called "Boom Town" where a girl bakes a gooseberry pie and goes into the pie baking business. Students had no idea what a gooseberry was, so their teacher made a gooseberry pie to taste. Samantha thought it was gross, while her sister thought it was very good. Several said it was sour. Tarik thought it was heavenly, Dalton said it was awesome, Austin said it was graciously good, and Callen said, "Delicious!" Adison said, "I didn't like it", while Karlye said, "I loved it!' The gooseberry got a mixed review in third grade. What's your opinion?
Science in Fourth grade has covered the kingdoms of life, especially the plant kingdom. Their next topic will be the animal kingdom, learning about invertebrates, vertebrates, endoskeleton and exoskeleton. We will follow with the study of the various body systems that help animals carry out basic life functions.
Fifth grade has been learning about the standard and metric systems. They also read the story "These Robots are Wild." In social studies they learned about the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the New England Colony.
Sixth grade has been bringing their edible cells to class to eat. Some of these have been made of jello, some cookie, and some are cake. Mmmm! What a way to learn about the parts of a cell!
Seventh grade finished planet reports in science. They tried sampling fejoiada in geography. This black bean stew from Brazil started with plantation slaves who only had access to leftover meat scraps such as pigs' ears and tails. They added beans and seasoning. Today the dish is popular all over Brazil, but bacon and sausage replaces the ears and tails!
Eighth grade is starting to put together their news casts about the early colonies in history. The eighth grade and seventh grade girls are starting to make their Steeleville collages and the boys are planning cultural masks.