Everybody, clap! Everybody, cheer! The 100th Day of School is here!

Zero the Hero stopped by the Early Learners classroom to teach them all about the special number zero, and how we can use zeroes to make numbers REALLY BIG or really small.

Questions? Contact the Front Desk.

It’s almost time!

It’s getting near!

Seuss Science Day

is almost here!

When: March 5, 2022 – 9am-1pm

Where: The Pat Jones YMCA – 1901 E Republic Rd, Springfield, MO

This year, The Summit will be participating in the 11th Annual Seuss Science Day, hosted by Ozarks Public Television and the Ozarks Regional YMCA. The Summit will be sponsoring a booth with a Lorax-inspired hands-on activity, Mr. Powers will be dazzling with some spectacular, smoky science stage demonstrations, and Mrs. Collins and Mrs. Michaliszyn will be inspiring imaginations with special storytimes of Seuss classics.

We would love to see you there! Also, be on the lookout for social media posts to share with your family and friends and help us spread the word.

Don't dilly dally!

Don't delay!

Join The Summit

at Seuss Science Day!

The first Friday in March is approaching soon, and we don’t want you to miss out on the event of the year! Not only will there be amazing food and great company, but we will also have live music from incredible dueling pianos. Come request your favorite song, and dance the night away! Visit the website to purchase tickets and to find out more information about this special event!

To become a sponsor, please contact the Gala Event Coordinators at gala@thesummitprep.org.

Congratulations to Mrs. Marissa Bradley, The Summit's new Lower School Director!

This spring, Marissa will graduate from Southwest Baptist University with a Master’s of Science in Education with an emphasis in Teacher Leadership. As part of her action research project and required clinical field study work, she will be establishing a professional learning community within The Summit, advancing domain-based curriculum work for our Early Learners program. This effort will support The Summit in attaining fulfillment of ISACS recommendations as part of our accreditation cycle.

Serving on the school’s Leadership Team, Marissa is admired among her colleagues for her calm demeanor, depth of knowledge in instructional practices, astute research skills, progressive curriculum, mastery of technology, and professionalism. As The Summit’s Lower School Director, Marissa will bring this expertise in support of students and faculty of lower school, while providing instructional coaching and working cooperatively with faculty across all grade divisions and disciplines to align and advance curriculum and programming.

Mrs. Bradley says, "I am thrilled to continue working alongside The Summit's exceptional faculty, staff, and administration to support Lower School students and families. This opportunity aligns well with my passions for curriculum development, pedagogical best practices, and distributed leadership. I am excited about the opportunities that lie ahead of us and look forward to partnering with each of you. Go Ravens!"

Although students were snowed in during the Global Day of Play last Wednesday, The Summit still celebrated together when we returned to school on Monday. Across the school, students enjoyed an afternoon of unstructured, screen-free playtime with their peers. The snow even added an extra wintry element of fun!

Students made snowmen, built forts, played card and board games, and even practiced their Spanish-speaking skills during Día de jugar (Day of Play). In the Spanish room, students selected from a variety of games, but were required to play them in Spanish. Activities included Uno, Headbanz, Monopoly, Color por número, Slap Jack, and Bingo. It was amazing to watch the collaboration, problem-solving, joy, imagination, and creativity experienced through play!

Want to learn more about the importance of play? Check out these great resources:

The Summit's Middle School FIRST LEGO League robotics team competed at the state championship last Saturday, Feburary 5th. The competition went virtual after winter weather moved in across the state. With the help of parent volunteers, students set up the Middle School commons as their command central for the competition.

Faculty sponsor, Mr. Rob Powers, is proud of the team's performance especially with the last minute pivot to a virtual competition. He says, "Our team did a great job representing The Summit at the State Championship. The team performed well during judging, presenting their solution, core values, and showed off their robot design skills with panache. The robot table challenge was exciting to watch! Overall, we did not advance to the world championship, but we have several enthusiastic members ready to start preparing their coding skills for next year. I call that a success!"

We can't wait to see our students' growth and how their robot, Petunia, continues to evolve! Speaking of continually growing and improving, keep reading to check out what else Mr. Powers was up to during the snow days!

Ever wonder what teachers do on snow days? For Mr. Powers, the learning never stops! He says, "3D printing has been heating up around The Summit. In order to get the most out of the printers, we have been exploring various design software. One program that has grabbed my attention is Blender. It is free, open-source software that is compatible with several different types of computers. This software is powerful, and it rivals many programs that are quite expensive to operate. The trade-off is that Blender is not the most user-friendly software to use. This can be overcome by the wide array of tutorial videos online. This is the video I found that led me to want to learn how to animate a fanciful, 4-legged creature.

Being a fan of growth mindset, I asked myself, 'Why not?' It is never too late to learn something new, and we are all capable of doing interesting things. I jumped into this project when our first day of school was canceled, and I have been refining it ever since. What you see here is some progress I have made, but I intend to keep refining it since we can always keep improving. Please let me know if you are interested in learning how to do any of this. I am happy to help you learn, and I love sharing ideas."

The snow is melting, and spring is on its way! Check out the lineup of Spring 2022 Clubs and Activities above, and look for registration links sent directly to your email.

New additions this spring include volleyball, dance, and frisbee!

Questions about Spring Activities? Contact Sarah Leighninger, Athletic Director.

The Summit's accrediting body, The Independent School Association of the Central States (ISACS), is offering a five-part parent education webinar series in Spring 2022.

We hope you consider joining other independent school parents for any of the five evening sessions led by a variety of experts to help you support your children socially, emotionally, educationally, and developmentally as we all continue to learn and grow. Please use the link below to register for the live webinars, which will be held from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Central time.

To accommodate busy schedules, recordings of the webinars will be available until June 30, 2022. Be sure to check the Raven Report each week for instructions on accessing the webinar recordings after the live presentation date!