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What Are SPES Students Up To In Class?

 

At St. Pius, our student-centered classrooms provide an education that goes beyond what students know, understand, and are able to do.

(BE SURE TO SCROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN SO YOU DO NOT MISS ANYTHING!) 

Celebrations of Learning - It's What We Do

At SPES, we think that it is important to celebrate not only all the things we are learning but the critical thinking and reasoning skills we have used.  It is not at all uncommon for a class, or grade level, to celebrate upon completion of a unit, an experiment and/or a quarter of learning, oftentimes getting very creative in planning the celebrations!  

 

 

 

 

 

Our Kindergarten Book Parade, held in early Fall 2021, saw every student lined up cheering for our Kindergarten students as they paraded around campus with the first library book they had checked out and read! 

 

Fourth Grade Celebration

Our fourth graders celebrated the completion of a STEM project based on the book "Balloons Over Broadway" by Melissa Sweet.  The students learned the history of Macy's Thanksgiving Day  Parade and the gentleman who began it all with his marionette projects!  The students' assignment was to construct a balloon puppet and design a way to keep it afloat overhead similar to the floats in today's Macy's parades.  Since the third graders heard the story during their library class, the fourth graders decided to have their own "Macy's-style" parade for the third graders who appreciated the creative genius of their fourth grade friends! 

 

 

So Much Learning to Celebrate in Kindergarten

There has been a lot of learning going on in the Kindergarten classes as the students are beginning to read and develop their math skills, as well as taking great strides in all of their other subjects!   In addition to the Book Parade, celebrating the completion of their first library book, our Kindergartners have celebrated two SPES Kindergarten "dress up" traditions - '50's day and the traditional Kindergarten All Saints Day Procession

                                         

 

 

During the PreK students' studies about Advent and  "Jesse Trees," the students celebrated by making ornaments to decorate the Jesse Tree at the entrance of school.  

 

          

 

Stay tuned to learn about more of our academic celebrations but, until we post more, we invite you to enjoy what is perhaps the most touching culminating activity of a writing unit - 

Class of 2022

Eighth Grade Memoirs

...and what are these memoirs, you ask? 

Mrs. Ashley Horaist, our 8th grade writing instructor explains:  

The 8th-grade memoir unit is always one of my favorite units. It challenges the students to think deeply about what makes them so special. The unit begins with the brainstorming/generating phase of the writing process. We use maps, social issues, themes, small stories, and identity webs to collect stories to tell in our memoirs. Then the students had to engage in a lot of critical thinking about what all of these stories truly mean to them. How did they grow, change and learn from these experiences? We then searched for a central theme of their life; something that has shaped them into the 8th graders that they are today. We then combined the story narratives and expository explanations of those stories to create their memoirs, and these 8th graders blew me away. They wrote some of the most profound and poignant memoirs! We wanted to celebrate by sharing all of their hard work, so we create 6-word memoirs. Somehow these superstar students were able to summarize their memoirs into 6 words, and, wow, are they powerful! They never cease to amaze me! I hope you all enjoy it!