JA Biztown

For the past three years, the 6th grade class has had the privilege of participating in and learning about real-life experiences related to personal finances and future careers through Junior Achievement's Biztown experience. This year, our 6th graders applied for jobs and worked for the local organizations and businesses: Grand Rapids Community College, Bissel, Gordon’s Food Service, and Chick-fil-a. 

 

Leading up to our day at JA Biztown, the students spend 12 class periods devoted to preparation for Biztown. Through these classes, led by Janet Hulett, the students gained the skills and knowledge needed for their futures. Our students learned how to write a check and fill out a checkbook, the way money flows through the economy, setting prices for goods and services, supply and demand, and how to behave in a professional work environment. 

 

After all of the preparation, students were excited and ready to participate in a day at JA Biztown. While there, All Saints Academy joined with two other schools to make our day successful, working for companies such as Independent Bank, Meijer, Corewell Health, and running City Hall. Our day was quite the success - everyone paid off their bank loans and made a profit! Upon return to school, students spent time reflecting on their experience and Biztown - what they learned, felt prepared for, unprepared for, and shared any additional thoughts. The most common response was the ways in which they felt prepared for their job, but unprepared for the “real world” experiences, such as covering for someone while they were on break - not just completing their specific tasks, but having to step in for their teammates too. Maybe great lessons were learned, experiences had, and they definitely had fun along the way!

 

Thank you to our volunteers who made our day successful and to Janet Hulett for spending so much time with the 6th grade and preparing them well for their day at Biztown!

 

4th Grade Trip to Frederik Meijer Gardens

On March 23rd, the 4th graders got to take an adventure to Frederik Meijer Gardens to explore the butterfly exhibit, sculptures, treehouse playground, and more! The opportunity allowed us to build on our animal and plant adaptations science unit, in which students studied the various internal and external features that affect the survival of organisms.

We began our trip by taking a walk through the plant exhibits, where we saw plants like cacti, and were able to connect the needles to our studies about how plants protect themselves from animals who may want to eat them. 

When we headed to the butterfly exhibit, we were able to see the life cycle of a butterfly on full display. Students used their field journals to choose a butterfly to follow through the exhibit and observe. They drew the butterfly, tracked its flight patterns, and its colors. This helped us determine how it survives in various situations and deters predators from attacking. 

“I loved seeing the tropical birds in the exhibit too,” added Anabelle from 4th Clark.

Some students even had butterflies land on them and hitch a ride through the exhibit!

After going through the butterfly exhibit, students were able to look at some of the indoor art, then head outside to view the sculptures. The 4th graders had a blast imitating the art and picking out some favorites to look up later in class! They also were able to take a break to play on the bird nest themed playground.

To end the day, we got to do a “Learning Lab” about butterflies, filling in more of our observation journals and using lab tools to study the features of wings up close. Students worked together to investigate how light, color, and translucency can impact the survival of a butterfly in the wild. 

“The patterns on the wings were so cool to see up close!” Kasia from 4th Clark relayed.

We had an amazing time thanks to Frederik Meijer Gardens, our wonderful chaperones, and learning leaders. The students expanded their learning and had so much fun in the process!

Kindergarten classes visit Grand Rapids Children's Museum

The Kindergartners had a wonderful time on their field trip to the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum at the end of March!  This opportunity allowed our young learners to make connections to classroom lessons and explore new topics through discovery and hands-on play.  The museum is filled with developmentally appropriate exhibits which allowed the students to create, imagine, ask questions and cooperate with one another.  A few of the highlights from the trip included:

 Little GR: An interactive community where the kids could make pizzas at Uccellos, grocery shop, stock shelves or run the cash register at Meijer and do some banking at Huntington Bank.

Bubbles and More Bubbles:  Explore how many bubbles you can create in a variety of shapes and sizes!  The bigger the bubble, the better!

Dynamic Dental Exhibit: Experience what going to the dentist is all about!  Clean and floss teeth with giant size models of toothbrushes and floss, take X-rays and read about trips to the dentist in a variety of stories.

The students had an amazing day at the museum!  They had so much fun and represented All Saints Academy  in a respectful manner throughout the entire trip!

First Grade Readers

We have been celebrating March as Reading Month at All Saints Academy.  Our goal is for students not only to learn to read, but to find joy in reading!  First grade is a big year for gaining literacy skills and developing a love of reading.  In preschool and kindergarten, students learn foundational skills for reading and begin reading simple words and sentences.  They also fall in love with story time. We build on those skills in first grade and, by the end of the year, have a goal of reading 60 words correctly per minute.  This is a big jump, but with many different types of practice, first graders are up to the challenge!  Let’s explore how first graders build their literacy skills.

At the beginning of each week, students are introduced to a new sound and spelling pattern.  Currently, we are working on the “bossy r” which likes to take charge of and change vowel sounds–the regular /a/ sounds make an /ar/ sound when r comes right next to it.  Students will explore making that sound and observing their mouth with a mirror to see how the sound is made within their mouth. They notice where their tongue goes and how open or closed their mouth is. They will compare their mouth position when making that sound to other similar sounds.  This helps the student to differentiate between similar or often confused sounds.

After we have identified the sounds, it is time to start blending sounds in words.  Students will practice reading words with the new sound /ar/ by sounding out the letters and blending them together to make the word.  Once we have read all the words, students will underline the new letter pattern /ar/ in the word.  This helps us to make observations about where the letter pattern occurs.  Is it always in the middle of the word? Does it ever come at the end of the word? 

Next, students are ready to segment words, which will help them to learn spelling.  We have a new favorite method for this activity called tap it, map it, graph it, and zap it.  Students will say a word and then tap the sounds to segment or break it apart into its individual sounds. For example, the word barn is segmented to b-ar-n.  Then they map it by placing colorful chips into sound boxes that represent the sounds of the word.  The next step is to graph it by writing the letters that create each sound.  Finally, students get to zap the word by using a magnetic wand to pull the chips away as they say the word.  

Now, students are ready to practice reading the new spelling pattern in a decodable text, which means all the words in the story follow spelling patterns that have already been taught to them.  To get ready to read the story, they will use a highlighter to find all the words that use that spelling pattern ar in the story.  Once we have found the words, we practice reading only those words.  Now they are ready to read the story.  Students will get a clean copy of the text and read it as a group.  Once we have read the story as a group, it is time for partner reading.  They sit with a partner and take turns reading the story.

As students build these skills and become stronger readers, we often see their enjoyment of reading take off! Students are choosing to read books in the classroom as a free choice activity.  Parents are reporting that their students are reading for enjoyment at home.  The students are trading different books that they have read with each other and giving recommendations.  Reading has been a blast in first grade this year!

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb

The month of March is here and with it comes those unpredictable weather patterns as we leave the blustery, cold months of winter behind and begin looking ahead to the warmer, brighter days of spring!  The Kindergarten students have been busy using their science and math skills of observation, classification, comparison, data collection and graphing to track patterns in the weather.  The young meteorologists check the weather each day, talk about what they see and feel and then decide if it is a Lion Weather Day or a Lamb Weather Day. Lion weather days represent the more fierce weather days with gusty wind, rain, sleet or snow.  It is when the weather is cold and “roaring”. Lamb weather days represent the gentle weather days with sunshine, light breezes and warmer temperatures. It is when the weather is “soft” and “quiet”.  By the end of the month, students will be able to answer many questions about the ever changing weather here in Michigan!

Learning with Dr. Seuss

Through books, discussions, and silliness, the preschool 4s classroom had lots of fun learning with Dr. Seuss’s stories. They realized how lucky we are to have just rain and snow coming down from the sky after reading “Bartholomew and the Oobleck”.  The children then enjoyed exploring oobleck, which seems to act as both a solid and a liquid depending on the pressure exerted on it. Everyone knows that nourishment is important for learning, so after reading “Green Eggs and Ham”, we made our own green eggs and ham for a snack. The children worked on their rhyming skills using a matching game after reading “The Cat in the Hat”. We also practiced our balancing skills by stacking items and then trying to walk across the room without the items falling. After reading “The Foot Book” we enjoyed painting our feet and making colorful footprints. Children strengthened their math skills by measuring the length of their feet using Unifix Cubes, and voting for and graphing their favorite Dr. Seuss story.