Maple Elementary School
December Newsletter
December 2, 2022
We are excited to bring our students together today for the school-wide magic show assembly that was earned by our students for meeting the PTO fundraiser goal. Our PTO leaders have been hard at work purchasing and distributing items the teachers selected to enhance teaching and learning. The new library furniture that has been ordered, and we will share pictures once it arrives. Thank again for supporting the staff and students at Maple Elementary.
As the temperatures begin to turn colder, keep in mind that students will go outdoors for recess unless the temperature or wind chill is below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Please make sure students are bundled to keep fingers, heads, faces, and bodies warm.
Our staff is participating in the 12 Days of Holiday Cheer at MES with fun activities and dress up days. We welcome students to participate in the dress up days. Here is the schedule for the 12 days leading to the winter break:
We wish you and your family a happy holiday! Our break will run from December 19th-January 2nd. Students will return on Tuesday, January 3rd. Please continue to reach out if we can support your student or family at 816-532-0589.
Wishing you well,
Dr. Rena Hawkins, Principal, hawkinsr@smithville.k12.mo.us
Mrs. Ashley Doll, Assistant Principal, dolla@smithville.k12.mo.us
Important Upcoming Dates
Dec. 2: School-wide Magic Show Assembly
Dec. 5: Maple PTO meeting at 7 PM
Dec. 6: Maple Elementary Family coding Night from 6:00-7:30 PM
Dec. 7: Late Start Wednesday, K-6-School begins at 9:05 AM, No EC Classes
Dec. 7: All Elementary School Choir Festival at 6 PM at the PAC
Dec. 14: Late Start Wednesday, K-6-School begins at 9:05 AM, No EC Classes
Dec. 14: Maple Elementary Winter Music Program (Grades 3-4 and choir performing) at 6 PM at the Performing Arts Center
Dec. 15: Best Choice PTO Label Pick Up
Dec.16: MES Assembly
Dec. 16: End of Second Quarter/First Semester
Dec. 19-30: Holiday Break, No School
Jan 2: Teacher Workday-No School
Jan. 3: School resumes
Jan. 3-13: PBIS Expectation Review
Jan. 4: Late Start Wednesday, K-6-School begins at 9:05 AM, No EC Classes
Information from the Counselor, Mrs. Hough
Counseling Focus:
In our classroom counseling lessons we are excited to focus on Courage this month! One way to think about Courage is “choosing what is helpful, right, and kind even when it is hard or scary.” Advocating and speaking up for ourselves and our friends takes practice. We can advocate for ourselves with our friends, classmates, teachers and family members. Being comfortable using an assertive voice and standing up for what is helpful and/or right takes courage.
Technology and Innovation News with Mrs. Freeman
Please mark your calendars for our Family Coding Night coming up on December 6 from 6-7:30 PM! Hope you and your family will make plans to join us for this fun event!
If you have any of these items at home please send them in to Mrs. Freeman
Early Childhood students worked on building shapes, numbers and putting together patterns.
Kindergarten students have been working on the steps of the design process and how to be good engineers. This month we will be designing a push or pull toy.
First Grade has been hard at work on keyboard letter location and what the special keys on the keyboard do. Next up we will work on how to create documents and format text.
Second grade students are continuing to work on our programming unit. We have learned how to debug programs and how to use loops in our programs. We will continue this work through the end of the quarter.
Fourth grade students are finishing up our battlebot armor for our robots. We will test it out in the ring in the upcoming weeks.
Fifth grade students in Mrs. Hensley’s class wrapped up our time together by working on programming in an Olympics style competition. Students in Mrs. Meyer’s class started out by using Google Drawings to design expectations posters.
Sixth grade Programming and Robotics students have been working on earning badges. We will continue this work through the end of the quarter. Stay tuned families for a showcase day where we can show off our projects.
Supplies
We use all kinds of supplies in the Innovation Lab. Please see this flyer for our most used items. If you have items around your house that you would like to send, I have a collection bin outside my room, students can drop it off on their way into school. Thanks for supporting our learning!
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
Art with Mrs. Haddock
Kindergarten Art
Kindergarten students learn about a folk artist named Grandma Moses! They learned some tricks to create foreground, middle ground, and background. Look at these snowy landscapes.
First Grade Art
First Grade students have been paper building. They practiced many techniques to make paper into 3 dimensional art. This week they used those skills to create snowy winter towns.
Second Grade Art
Second Grade Students learned a new way to create snowflake art. They colorfully painted their snowflakes with a new watercolor technique. They look beautiful!
Third Grade Art
Third Grade Students spent a lot of time creating Sugar Plum Fairy Forests to share at their concert. They painted the forests, created Sugar Plum fairies or Nutcrackers to add to their paintings. Deep Space Sparkle provided the inspiration for these projects. She has many fun projects you can try at home!
Fourth Grade Art
Fourth Grade artists created Mouse Kings that will also be on display during their concert. They uniquely painted their mice, and had so much fun collaging their crowns with “jewels”.
Fifth Grade Art
It is two weeks into the trimester with Mrs. Hensley’s class. The first week they spent becoming familiar with the drawing studio items. They were required to create value (light and dark) within their drawing. This week they rotated through painting stations trying all the different types of paints they will be allowed to use. Next week they will learn about drawing from a one point perspective.
Sixth Grade Art
This quarter the 3D Art Class has produced many amazing projects. Many students enjoyed creating handmade paper, clay sculptures, cardboard rooms or houses, stitched felt soft sculptures, and plaster gauze donuts.
Maple Library Happenings with Mrs. Cline
Thank you so much to the families supporting our library at the Book Fair in November! We are always successful because of our wonderful families! We appreciate you so much and were able to get books into so many students’ hands! Thanks again! I’d also like to send a big thank you to the volunteers who helped us run our book fair smoothly! You are lifesavers!
In November, classes started the month by reading a Missouri Dogwood nominee, 21 Steps, which is all about the sentinels at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We made thank you cards for veterans as well for Veteran’s Day.
We next moved on to a Thanksgiving tradition, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! We read Balloons Over Broadway about the inventor of the balloons used in the Macy’s Day parade, and we then planned our library parade with the theme of kindness. Students created mini shoebox floats in teams to present in our Maple Kindness Parade. I can’t wait to send out our parade link once it is finished!
Music with Mr. Kroeger
We have three exciting events coming up, save the dates!
- Wednesday, December 7th, 6PM at the Smithville HS PAC. Come watch the Maple Marvels Choir at the Winter Elementary Choir Festival.
- Friday, December 9th, 12:30PM Smithville Senior Center. Kindergarten Caroling, parents are invited!
- Wednesday, December 14th, 6PM at the Smithville HS PAC. Come watch our choir, 3rd grade class, and 4th grade class perform music from the Nutcracker Ballet.
PE with Coach Anderson
Students in grades K-2 have been learning about what control should look like when performing certain basketball skills. To help them out, mini activities to keep them moving with the basketball were created. Each activity was focused on controlling the ball and being able to complete the task without a distraction. These contained more dribbling and passing movements to either a classmate or to a target.
Students in grades 3-6 have been learning about being able to be in control of the basketball as well. These classes went through the same activities but included more skills like shooting. Each skill was broken down to 1 a day (dribbling, passing, and shooting). Towards the end, our students were able to group up and compete in small activities together that included every skill we worked on.
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