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Lower School Principal, Ms. Karetov
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Happy December!
November and early December were so warm; yet, it left us with quite the chill. We are upon the hustle and bustle of winter. Please remember to send your child with appropriate gear for playing outdoors, such as snow pants, warm jackets, hats, and gloves (don’t forget to put the names inside – many end up in lost and found). Students will play outside for recess unless it will be colder than -10 in temperatures or wind-chills.
Now that we are halfway through 2nd quarter, teachers are working diligently with our students on literacy in reading, math, science, and social studies and helping the students meet benchmarks. Students are also experiencing questioning and comprehension through guided reading and seminars
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November Lion Pride
Breakfast Winners
K: Annabelle H.
1st: Vincent D.
2nd: Violet G.
3rd: Kaleo B.
4th: Hannah D.
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Specialists have been working with students to finish the first concert and art show. This week, the LS Theater Club had their theater performances of Rats (3rd grade) and A Christmas Carol (4th grade). We have artistic students who put on a great show and are extremely talented. We hope that you had an opportunity to attend one or all of the events.
This year, we are looking for extra-curricular programming that we may offer to Lower School students. The archery program offered a clinic to get students excited about archery, and we have students in 3rd and 4th grade who are eligible to compete on the SCPA team. We hosted a Battle of the Books competition (see article below), and we will have Continental Math League contests. Theater Club just completed a successful performance for 3rd and 4th grade and Lion Cub Theater Club will be starting in the New Year for 1st and 2nd graders. We have a week-long Spirit Week happening in February and March (with the 2nd Annual Book Bingo). The yearbook will be having LS student advisors who meet to discuss what will go in the new LS yearbook. We will keep you posted as we create more opportunities.
On Thursday, December 22, we will be attending our last day of school in 2016. This is a fun day in the classrooms, as well as in the entire building. It is a non-uniform day, and throughout SCPA, teachers and students are invited to wear ugly sweaters. It will come as no surprise to the students that I will be wearing a penguin sweater (although I do not think it is ugly…). We will be having small prizes for those voted with the ugliest sweaters. I cannot wait to see the creativity!
I hope that everyone has an enjoyable and safe Winter Break! Happy 2017!!
Go Lions!
Joann Karetov
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What Is SCPA Lower School?
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At SCPA Lower School, we follow Minnesota standards as well as using the
Core Knowledge Sequence
as the foundation that we follow to support our Classical emphasis.
Core Knowledge Sequence
is a detailed outline of specific content and skills to be taught in language arts, history, geography, mathematics, science, and fine arts. As the core of SCPA’s curriculum, it is intended to provide a coherent, content specific foundation of learning, while allowing flexibility to meet Minnesota standards.
The
Sequence states the specific core of shared knowledge that all students should learn in U.S. Schools. It should be emphasized that Core Knowledge Sequence is not a list of facts to be memorized. It is a guide to coherent content from grade to grade, designed to encourage cumulative academic progress as children build their knowledge and skills from one year to the next.
The Core Knowledge Sequence is distinguished by its specificity. While other standards provide general guidelines concerning what students should be able to do they typically offer little help to teachers in detailing specific content or skills. The Sequence provides a solid foundation on which to build instruction. Moreover, because the Sequence offers a coherent plan that builds year by year, it helps prevent the many repetitions and gaps in instruction that often result from vague curricular guidelines.
If you would like more information regarding Core Knowledge Sequence, please visit:
www.coreknowledge.org or
The Core Knowledge Series: What Your ___ Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. There is a book for each grade K-4.
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22: Non-Uniform/Ugly Sweater Day
23-31: Winter Break
January
2: Winter Break
13: End of 2nd Quarter
16: MLK Jr. Day - NO SCHOOL
17: NO SCHOOL
31: Coupon Non-Uniform Day
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NEW Student Registration Deadlines: If you have a NEW student whom you would like to enroll at St. Croix Preparatory Academy for the 2017-2018 school year, please be sure to fill out and submit an application before the close of open enrollment. Open enrollment ends on January 5, 2017. Kindergarten enrollment will be announced quickly since Kindergarten Round-Up will be February 8, 2017. Current students do not complete an application. They will receive an Intent to Return form in late spring.
Attendance / Vacations: As the holidays and winter are approaching, we have many parent requests asking teachers to organize and provide work for their student because they will be out of school on vacation. We want to help you understand that the time it takes to prepare materials is significant and compromises teacher daily preparation time that benefits all students, such as planning, correcting, grading, communication, and team collaboration.
Teachers will not be providing work before an unexcused absence (vacation). Please note that students should still be reading 20-30 minutes per day. For more information on the SCPA Attendance Policy, please refer to the Family Handbook. Missed work while the student is absent will be sent home for completion upon their return. Parents are responsible for ensuring that students understand the subject-specific information due to the Core Knowledge and Minnesota standards that students are expected to know. Students will have a reasonable timeframe to complete the missing work while they are completing current assignments.
Minnesota law states that students who are absent for 15 school days are required to be dropped/withdrawn from school (see MINN. STAT. 126C.05 Subd. 8[a]). We cannot guarantee that your child’s spot will be available if s/he is absent for more than 15 school days.
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Battle of the Books:
An exciting new event occurred at SCPA. The Battle of the Books competition was held on December 6, 2016 for 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade student who wanted to read books and participate in a large quiz in the PAC.
SCPA’s authorizer, Friends of Education, is sponsoring a competition among all of their schools. The first round was to occur before December 15. All schools were given the same list of books to read, which students have been able to check out since mid-October. The book list included the following 12 books:
El Deafo
by Ce Ce Bell
Wanted, Mud Blossom
by Betsy Byars
Henry and Ribsy
by Beverly cleary
Bud, Not Buddy
by Christopher Paul Curtis
The Worst Best School Year Ever
by Barbara Robinson
Hoot
by Carl Hiassen
The Chocolate Touch
by Patrick Skene Catling
A Handful of Stars
by Cynthia Lord
The Borrowers
by Mary Norton
Miss Rumphius
by Barbara Cooney
On My Honor
by Marion Dane Bauer
George’s Marvelous Medicine
by Roald Dahl
We had no idea how many students would participate so we were pleasantly surprised when we had 80 students sign up and start reading. We placed the students on teams with five members. They monitored each other to ensure that all books were read by at least one team member. Students were excited to check out more than one book over holiday weekends, and there was a mad push to check out as many as they could the weekend before the event.
December 6th came, and we had 75 students attend to compete! We received the questions that week, and they warned us to be prepared for a tie (other schools had only experienced it one time, but just in case, they advised us to pick about 5 questions that appeared a little more difficult). The competition was to last an hour. At around 4:15, we had about 50 spectators in attendance to watch our students “battle” each other.
There was such an excitement in the air! Students cheered as they answered a question correctly. Teachers helped identify teams with the correct answers, as Ms. Renner tallied the points. After about an hour of competition, at 5:15 there was one more question. As the scores were tabulated, we realized that there was a three-way tie! There was one 3rd grade, one 4th grade, and one 5th grade team who had made it to the tie-breaking round. Five questions were read, and the 3rd grade team answered two of the questions correctly and won the Battle of the Books!!! The team consisted of:
Niko G.
Sofia D.
Robbie B.
Stella E.
Haley S.
The winners will get a list of 12 additional books to read before the next round of competition. They will be traveling in May to DaVinci Academy to challenge the winning teams from the other Friends of Education schools.
Congratulations to all students for making this a successful and fun event!
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