Celebrating READ ACROSS AMERICA WEEK 2017

This year, GRACE Christian School observes READ ACROSS AMERICA WEEK from February 27-March 1, 2017.

We started off with a variety of activities in early February:

• In honor of Dr. Seuss, Mrs. Gehringer challenged the GRACE students to donate 500 books to the month-long book drive sponsored by WAKE UP AND READ. Our students collected over 700 books appropriate for readers from birth-12 years old. 

• Our 6th graders read a Dr. Seuss book to our Transitional Kindergarten (TK) and Kindergarten classes. This is a GRACE tradition we started a number of years ago. 

• The media center distributes Seuss prizes to all TK-6th grade students (erasers, bookmarks, stickers) in celebration of Dr. Seuss' birthday.

• Our 4th graders performed a Seuss readers' theater in their media class this week, while our 5th graders did a Seuss webquest. Other classrooms did various Seuss-related lessons as well.

• Our TK-6th grade students took Seuss selfies. Our younger students held funny props while we took their photo in front of a green screen. Our 5th & 6th graders wore Seuss costumes we borrowed from our theater dept. Our 6th grade Multimedia class will design the backgrounds and complete the project. We put our Seuss selfies in a slideshow to share in a few weeks.

• Anther tradition -- we post photos of our teachers and staff holding one of their favorite Seuss books, in addition to Seuss banners and posters in the hallway.

• Our Wednesday, we will have a flashlight read in the gym at the end of the day. We will assemble for carpool early, turn on our flashlights, turn off the lights, and read a book for 15 minutes. Our older students will sit with our younger students.

Looking forward to celebrating with you!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!!

Spanish Enrichment

Karen Harrison
K-6 Spanish

Kinders are working on a calendar/weather unit.  We have had lots of snow and rainy days to discuss.  (See our photo below!)

First graders are studying a Food Groups unit.  So far they have categorized "las Frutas" and tasted bananas and three types of apple.  They graphed their favorite kind of apple.  Last week for Dr. Seuss' birthday, we read "Huevos Verdes con Jamón" and tasted ham.

Second graders have been learning where they live and how to describe their houses, bedrooms, and beds.  They wrote a short paragraph and we played "furniture BINGO" in Spanish. ¡Ole!

Third graders learned the Spanish names for the planets.  We love that the names are similar to English due to the Latin roots!

Fourth graders are creating piñatas in the shapes of the planets in the Solar System.  (See photos below.)

Fifth graders wrote and published a paragraph on their assigned plant for Science class.  We incorporated their Science lesson with Spanish and now we will work with Mrs. Boyd on a Mexican Folk Art metal embossing project of their plants.   Look for these at showcase night!

Fourth graders working on "Mercurio".                                                                "Llueve"

READ ACROSS AMERICA WEEK / Dr. Seuss @ GRACE

Carol Gehringer
Media Center

Last week GRACE Christian School celebrated the 111th anniversary of Dr. Seuss' birthday (on March 2, 2015).

We started off the week with a reader's theater salute to Dr. Seuss over our PA system, with the help of three 6th graders. Then all our 6th graders read a Dr. Seuss book to our three Kindergarten classes, as well as our TK classes -- this is a tradition we started a few years ago and both grades love doing it. We were excited to add the TK class to our tradition.

As usual, we posted photos of our teachers and staff holding one of their favorite Seuss books, in addition to Seuss banners and posters throughout the school.

We also observed Crazy Shoes & Socks Day on Tuesday in honor of Dr. Seuss -- and Miss Lisa made a tasty treat in the kitchen for the students to enjoy on Thursday.

We also held an election to see which of 6 Dr. Seuss titles were the favorites for GRACE students. Here are the results:

CLASSROOM

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas -- TK, K (McCool), 1 (Still), 1 (Yabani - tied), 2 (Green - tied), 2 (Goeking), 4 (Burnette - tied), 4 (Schaeffer), 4 (Sweeney), 5 (Barker), 5 (Robinson - tied)

• Green Eggs and Ham -- K (Cheney), 2 (Green - tied), 2 (Chase), 3 (Hare), 3 (Hickman), 6 (Agar/Bell/Walters)

• Horton Hears a Who -- K (Damato), 1 (Huntley), 1 (Yabani - tied), 3 (Shelton), 4 (Burnette - tied), 5 (Robinson - tied), 5 (Suarez)

GRADE-LEVEL

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas -- TK/K, 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th
• Green Eggs and Ham - 3rd, 6th

TK-6 CAMPUS

• Top Seuss book for entire TK-6th grade = HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS. It beat GREEN EGGS by 10 votes.

To close out the 2015 Seuss celebration, Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Gehringer also distributed Seuss prizes to all the classrooms for distribution to the TK-6th grade students.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!!