Maple Elementary School
April Newsletter
April 2, 2021
Dear Maple Families,
We are excited to announce that our Boosterthon Fundraiser ending in the Dance Fit event was a success. Once all pledges are collected, we anticipate to have raised over $11,000 for Maple Elementary! Thank you for your support. We are planning a special event for students in April to celebrate meeting our school-wide goal.
MAP testing for grades 3-6 will begin on April 26th and run through the end of May. We are using an Olympic theme to build motivation around this event. The Opening Ceremony (MAP Kickoff Assembly) and Maple Talent Show will occur on April 23rd. Grades EC-2 will be assigned a buddy classroom to provide encouragement. We are united as one school to support those who are testing. More information about specific testing days will be shared by your student's teacher in the days ahead.
There have been some changes to our upcoming Field Day events in May. The K-4 Field Day will be held on May 24th and the 5-6 Field Day will be held on May 25th. Both events will be held at Maple and will follow regulations to ensure student safety. A rain day make-up is scheduled for May 26th.
As we enter this Easter weekend with sunny weather, we wish you the hope and beauty of springtime and the promise of brighter days.
Wishing You Well,
Dr. Rena Hawkins, Principal, hawkinsr@smithville.k12.mo.us
Ashley Doll, Assistant Principal, dolla@smithville.k12.mo.us
Important Upcoming Dates
- Apr-May: Grades 3-6 MAP Grade Level Spring Testing Window
- Apr. 5: Maple PTO meeting at 6 PM
- Apr. 5-9: National Assistant Principal Appreciation Week
- Apr. 7: Paraprofessional/Instructional Assistant Appreciation Day
- Apr. 7: Late Start Wednesday, School begins at 9:05 AM, No EC Classes
- Apr. 13: National Library Workers Day
- Apr. 13: Incoming Kindergarten Family Night 5:30-6:30 PM-Virtual Event
- Apr. 14: Late Start Wednesday, School begins at 9:05 AM, No EC Classes
- April 19-23: Public School Volunteer Week
- Apr. 21: Late Start Wednesday, School begins at 9:05 AM, No EC Classes
- Apr. 21: Administrative Professionals Day
- April 23: MAP Opening Ceremony (Kick off) and Maple Talent Show
- April 28: Behavior Interventionist Appreciation Day
- Apr. 28: Late Start Wednesday, School begins at 9:05 AM, No EC Classes
- Apr. 29: PTO Label Pick Up
- Apr. 30: MES Assembly
- May 3-7: National Teacher Appreciation Week
- May 3-14: BOGO Book Fair
- May 5: Late Start Wednesday, School begins at 9:05 AM, No EC Classes
- May 5: Ringleaders Spring Concert at the PAC at 6 PM
Warriors Explore Summer School
The deadline registration is April 30th.
Virtual Little Warriors Preschool
News From the Innovation Lab
Early Childhood
These students have worked on patterns and building this month.
Kindergarten
Kindergarten continued working on planning out our builds and giving feedback to our peers about our building. We will finish up the year working on computational thinking - a precursor to coding programming.
First Grade
First grade has been learning about creating Google Slides deck.
Second Grade
Students in second grade have been building on our circuit knowledge using our Makey Makeys. Next up we will be using our circuit knowledge to build instruments!
Third Grade
Third graders have been programming our Dash robots to test out our bridges. Next up we will be learning about email.
Fourth Grade
Fourth grade students will start a new design project based on the show Battle Bots.
Fifth Grade
Students in fifth grade have started working on marketing for our products that gives back in some way. We will finish up the year working on our programming Olympics.
Sixth Grade
Sixth graders are wrapping up a collaborative design process project to build board games.
You can see more by following our journey on twitter: @sara_freeman, instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mes_tech_and_innovation_lab , facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MESTechandInnovationLab
Notes from the Music Room with Mr. Orscheln
I hope everyone had a restful spring break! Since we've been back, my student teacher, Miss Garber, has taken full control of the music room but I am happy to report what great learning I have been seeing.
Sixth grade is beginning our fourth quarter with a project that has them scoring instrumentation and sound effects for a short film. Students will be working collaboratively and presenting their finished product in a live performance!
Fifth grade will begin a research project on various genres of rock and roll. These genres include Indie rock, heavy metal, British Invasion, Disco, etc. Students will be working collaboratively and presenting a "Ted Talk" on their genre of music.
Fourth grade has begun learning about African Drumming. Students have discovered the many uses of drumming in the African culture, and will participate in some drumming circles as well.
Third grade is synthesizing all of their prior knowledge of Solfeggio syllables in the form of a short melodic composition using the Pentatonic Scale. Students are given lyrics, and will begin composing their own original melodies using Do, Re, Mi, Sol, and La syllables.
First and Second grade have been focusing on visualizing while listening to instrumental music, and then verbalizing and creating movements for their visualizations. This will lead into our "Peter and the Wolf" unit later this spring.
Kindergarten has been focusing on using their singing voice independently! The music room has been using game songs, folk dances, and other activities to help kindergartners develop the confidence to sing tunefully by themselves.
On another note, 3rd-6th grade students interested in the talent show should have their forms turned into me no later than today, April 2nd!
Thanks!
The Maple Library Leaflet with Mrs. Kathcart
There are many special events coming our way and one of the greatest is our “Buy One, Get One Free” Scholastic Book Fair in May. The dates are May 3 through May 14. There will be great books for students to buy for their summer reading. We will have the eWallet option for parents to set up and we will take cash from students for this book fair. At this time, we are not planning to have a family event due to COVID restrictions. There will be more information coming soon.
This past week, we had our younger students try an experiment based on a book titled, Little By Little. It’s a folktale about two crows desperately searching for water in the desert. One crow finds a bottle with water but it’s beak won’t fit. Little by little it adds pebbles to the bottle and the water rises enough to get a drink. The pictures below show the students adding pebbles to their bottles seeing if the water rises enough to get to the top. They loved watching the water go up with every pebble they dropped in and some students counted each pebble as it was dropped in the bottle.
Our upper grade students have been working for months on completing the library puzzle. Even with some missing pieces, they continued to work on it during the last few minutes of their class. Congratulations on finishing and there were many students who loved putting it together. I will have a new puzzle out soon. If you have puzzles you are no longer using, I would gladly take donations even if they are missing a few pieces.
Keep calm and keep reading!
Maple Elementary School
Email: hawkinsr@smithville.k12.mo.us
Website: https://www.smithvilleschooldistrict.net/Domain/11
Location: 600 Maple Avenue, Smithville, MO, USA
Phone: (816) 532-0589
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MapleWarriors/
Twitter: @MapleWarriors