A Peek Inside Saint James School
“We are excited for our annual holiday community service project with Montgomery Area Council on Aging (MACOA). MACOA assists senior citizens by providing services such as meal deliveries, senior activity centers, and so much more. This year, we are hosting a food drive to benefit MACOA and are collecting with instant oatmeal, hot chocolate, and grits to donate.
What an incredible opportunity we have for our students to serve others in our community by donating food. I encourage you to involve your child in the process of buying the food and placing it in the pod’s box while having a conversation about what MACOA does and how your donation will benefit others. ”
Students will be talking about having a “gratitude attitude” in counseling class during the month of November. This service project will correlate perfectly with our counseling lessons and help reinforce the spirit of giving and altruism.
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Things were getting pretty spooky in elementary school last week as our students, faculty, and staff celebrated Halloween! We hope everyone had a very happy and safe (and maybe a little spooky) Halloween!
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“In this digital age with our digital students it is imperative that we model, explicitly teach, and constantly remind our students of digital citizenship. We expect the same great online manners, uses, and skills just as we do with offline citizenship. Our students today have two worlds whether we like it or not and we need to do what we can to keep those students (all ages - it gets more imperative as our students get older) safe.”
Literature used in elementary technology enrichment lessons.
This week, we celebrated Digital Citizenship Week, Oct. 19 – Oct. 23, 2020. Digital citizenship refers to the responsible use of technology by anyone who uses computers, the Internet, and digital devices. This is more important than ever for this generation of young learners. Starting in PreK3, digital citizenship is a main focus of our technology curriculum and is reinforced all year. Students are taught age appropriate lessons about basic internet safety, online research, privacy, digital communication, and applicable skills to help them navigate their digital world. We are thankful for full-time technology faculty members at every level (elementary, middle, and high school) who reinforce these critical skills. #WeAreSaintJamesSchool
Literature used in elementary technology enrichment lessons.
Student created digital citizenship presentation.
The battleship game is a fun culminating activity following our study of map skills and locating latitude & longitude coordinates. The black lights and glow in the dark map add some extra excitement to the game! Our version is called “Explorer Battleship” because we just finished studying some of the early explorers to North America, and the types of ships they sailed. The students each have a printed copy of a world map and decide their ship’s location and coordinates on the map.
Four teams compete to sink the opposing team’s ship by calling out a latitude/longitude coordinate. The large glow-in-the-dark floor map is used to help guide them when locating coordinates. When a ship has been sunk, the appropriate ship card is placed in its spot on the floor map. The winning team is determined by which team has the last remaining ship still sailing the ocean blue!
-Mrs. Robin Parquette, 5th grade teacher
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I teach: high school English II and English I
I've Taught for: This is my 12th year teaching English, 5 years as a middle school ELA teacher and the rest as a high school English teacher. I am also a fourth generation educator, so education has been in my blood and my heart my entire life. This is my first year at STJ and I am loving it!
Hometown: Jasper, Alabama
High school: Walker High School (now known as Jasper High School)
College/Degree: Auburn University; Bachelor's of Science in Secondary English Language Arts Education
Favorite Book: Oh my gosh....there are too many to choose from! Some of my favorites are: Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers; anything written by Emily Giffin for light, fun reading; To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee or really anything in Southern Literature
Favorite Movie: Walk the Line and Beauty and the Beast
Favorite Food: sweet potatoes
Married to: My very own Southern gentleman, Sellars McCurdy
Children: Mac (aka Mac Man)....he is in Mrs. Browning and Mrs. Castleberry's Pre-K3 class
Fun Fact: My husband's family has their own breed of horses (the McCurdy horse), but unfortunately, I am deathly allergic to horses, so I have never gotten to ride one, and I cannot be around them :(
Second grade art
Did you feel the crispness in the air this morning? Fall is all around us and we are embracing the season in the elementary school. Autumn is the perfect time for hands-on learning and exploring the world around us. #WeAreSaintJamesSchool
PreK3 orchard themed bulletin board
Homemade applesauce and apple decor in Kindergarten
Apple exercises in Kindergarten
PreK4 pumpkin spice latte themed bulletin board
Apple anatomy labeling in Kindergarten
Johnny Appleseed lesson in Kindergarten
The purpose of this lab is to introduce the students to metric measurements and conversions. They use various lab equipment to make accurate measurements. If done correctly, a rainbow will appear... in a test tube, of course. 🧪
Even though we have students learning at home via our Virtual Remote Learning option, the experiments in our middle school science lab still go on! With our handy iPad stands positioned near the lab tables, students in Mrs. Whigham’s science class feel like they are right there in the action.
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My role: School Security Officer
I've Been in this role: 1 year
Hometown: Ogwashi-Ukwu in Delta State, Nigeria
College/Degree: B.A. in psychology and visual arts from Alabama State University
Favorite TV Show: The Big Bang Theory, Friends
Favorite Food: plantains
Fun Fact: I love to cook, I am an artist, and I am 6’10!
Favorite Thing about STJ: The kids! They are very loyal to the school.
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Our second graders spent some time during the first few weeks of school creating one-of-a-kind art: themselves! First, students designed and decorated a paper t-shirt that described them, their families, interests, and anything else they wanted to tell about themselves. They then cut out and embellished cardstock hands and mini versions of themselves. Throughout the year, students will use their tiny cut-outs in various ways. In October they will dress in Halloween costumes, in the spring they will sport STJ spirit wear, and so on. We love expressing ourselves and embracing what makes us unique!
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Our kindergarteners recently read Elmer by David McKee. This delightful story teaches us to embrace our differences and find the joy in being unique!
About Elmer: Elmer the elephant is a colorful character. His heady optimism and unbridled sense of humor keep the entire community in a cheery mood. And Elmer's unusual multicolored checkerboard hide is the wonder of all the other elephants, who are characteristically gray.
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In spite of his sunny disposition, Elmer begins to feel conspicuous. He starts to believe the others are laughing at him because of his patchwork coat. When Elmer discovers a bush in the jungle with elephant-colored berries, he shakes the bush and rolls in a berry mash until he is as gray as the others. Now no one seems to notice him; for a time he enjoys his anonymity, but after a while he begins to realize just how quiet and dull things are when he's not around. Finally the practical joker in Elmer emerges, and he soon has the whole gang laughing again. McKee's gentle humor and love of irony are in full force in this celebration of individuality and laughter. Well-designed spreads are washed with stunning color and the use of textured, painted and airbrushed surfaces contributes to the powerful visual impression.
-Publishers Weekly