As our Día de los Muertos activities come to a close, Summit students are walking away with a deeper understanding and appreciation of this important Mexican celebration and even learned how the monarch butterflies (mariposas) in our own Big Backyard are connected to this beautiful holiday.

Questions? Contact the Front Desk.

Tomorrow, Thursday, November 11th, is a $2 Uniform Buyout Day at The Summit!

This buyout day theme is Veterans' Day. Everyone is encouraged to wear red, white, blue, camo, or clothing that represents any of the five military branches (Navy, Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marines).

All proceeds will benefit a veteran's charity organization, selected by 3rd/4th/5th grade at The Summit.

Students, faculty, & staff may dress out of uniform and wear any school appropriate clothing in the day's theme. Students are not required to dress out and may choose to dress in uniform instead.

$2 (exact change preferred) will be collected by 3rd/4th/5th grade representatives during carline.

The Summit invites you to join us on Tuesday, December 7th from 6:30-7:30pm for an educational presentation by Dr. Brandi Klepper, clinical psychologist.

Dr. Brandi L. Klepper is a Missouri licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in children, adolescents and adults who are gifted, talented and/or high achieving. She has had a private psychology practice specializing in gifted and talented individuals since 2002.

Dr. Klepper will focus her presentation on adolescent brain development and supportive resources for parents of children about to enter adolescence and middle school. While this presentation will primarily be targeted at families with children in 3rd grade through middle school, we encourage all families to attend and to invite their friends even if their children are not enrolled at The Summit. Dr. Klepper is a wonderful resource, and we are honored to host her on campus for all interested families.

Thanks to you, our annual campaign continues to soar! We have already reached $2,860 of our $5,000 match from BKD for the month of November!

Family participation is such an important part of any school's fundraising, especially for independent schools, which are not reliant on state or federal funding. Supporting the school shows the greater community that what we have here at The Summit is strong and that our curriculum and philosophy are an important part of the educational opportunities here in Springfield and the Ozarks.

We are grateful for each of you, our families, and we look forward to continuing to soar together!

An important executive functioning skill for fourth graders is organization (an efficient and orderly approach to tasks and keeping materials in order). This critical skill becomes more relevant and important as children get older and take on more responsibilities and are continuing to increase their academic knowledge in all subjects. We have many systems in place in the classroom that students probably don’t even realize are helping build this crucial skill, such as organizing their essay into paragraphs, using a pencil box for all their writing utensils, having a specific spot for turning in work, separate “classrooms” in Google Classroom, and using the same spot for our morning message. Of course, we are also consistently working on, improving, and re-evaluating our organizational systems for all our materials.

This will be an ongoing skill for all students as we review and develop strategies that help us keep papers and other learning materials organized. This will help us be successful as we move into the middle and upper school grades, where our systems for organization may involve using a binder or a locker. Being organized helps students find materials quickly and easily, which increases productivity for all. Take a look below at some strategies to help increase your child's organization skills at home!

(from www.thepathway2success.com)

Parents can play a huge role in supporting executive functioning skills at home. Since executive functioning skills impact all areas on a person’s life, it’s helpful for learners to practice these skills in different environments. Here are some activities parents and families can do to at home strengthen skills for organization:

In Upper School Language Arts, students concluded their unit on American author Edgar Allan Poe with a board game tournament in which all the students were able to challenge each other with their own board game creations. Students had a wonderful time as they engaged with the material in this fun and engaging hands-on project. Some games were reminiscent of classics like Chutes and Ladders and Monopoly while others were wholly original and involved entirely new and innovative rules, objectives, and ways to progress.

Mr. Alexander said, "I always expect high levels of creativity from my students, but I must admit to being blown away by what they created. They demonstrated a deep understanding of Poe and his works while being creative and having tons of fun!"