AROUND THE District

“Eagle Champion” bulletin board, proudly displayed at their school! Each grade level has a specific goal for writing and a strategy they use to help students to organize their thoughts coherently into sentences, paragraphs, and essays. Kindergarten wrote a sentence to explain an idea. The first and second graders used a stop light to teach students to organize their writing using color representation for the topic sentence, evidence, and conclusion. Third and fourth graders wrote a multi-paragraph essay to include more than one supporting idea and supporting their topics with evidence from the text. They used a “Painted Essay” template to help them to organize their writing.

Avondale students pose with their hard work!

Avondale Students Make it Write

Avondale students are working diligently to become better writers and were excited to present their grade level examples on the Avondale

Barr is Exchanging Mail with the World!

This year, fourth grade students at Barr Elementary are participating in a postcard exchange with their language arts teacher, Mrs. Harris. “I know how exciting it is as a child to receive mail. Unfortunately, these days it is not as common to get mail, let alone a postcard. I wanted to bring this joy back, and bring excitement into the classroom through this while also taking the opportunity to use reading and writing to get them familiar with different parts of the world, and our country,” shared Mrs. Harris. This idea started by simply asking families for a little help in making it come to life.

Each day the class receives mail, the class starts off with a high level of engagement. Students get so excited to see the words “We’ve got mail” written on their daily agenda board, and as they read responses, notes, and letters from their senders they are reminded just how big our country and the world is outside of the small town of Canton, Ohio. To date, the class has received postcards from 38 out of the 50 United States, 13 different countries, and even several from our nation’s capital, Washington D.C. Not only do they read the postcards, but many of them provide important facts, history and information about where they come from, and they also discuss and point out their location on a world map. What makes it so special and unique to students is that all postcards received come from students’ family members and friends, so they have a truly deep rooted connection to this year-long activity.

“The purpose in this postcard exchange was really two things: to engage students in the reading and writing process, and teach them about the vast world and country we live in,” shared Mrs. Harris. Students have learned so much! From state birds, to national landmarks and all about popular tourist attractions, history of each state, what the weather and climate is like to how different lifestyles can be. One of the class’s favorite postcards came from Alaska where the sender, who happens to be another teacher, wrote about what life was like living a mile from the shore of the Arctic Circle where polar bears, reindeer, and seals are often seen. The postcard also talked about how in Alaska darkness is experienced for months straight, and what it’s like to see The Northern Lights (one of the Seven Wonders of the World) so often. The class has also written some postcards too! Postcards from the students of Barr have been sent to California, Alaska, Maine, and Great Britain.

Avondale teachers share exemplary writing products with Principal McNeal. Spotlighted students receive a shout out on the morning announcements, receive a “Principal is Proud of Me” pencil, and are invited to hang their writing product on the Eagle Champion bulletin board with a Star of their choice! Each Eagle Champion gets a Facebook Shoutout and is included in our building newsletter. It is wonderful to help students to feel confident in their writing and see others enjoy their work. Avondale is building a sense of Eagle Pride through writing!

It is the hope that doing this with Mrs. Harris’s students ignites a spark to send postcards throughout their lifetime, sharing where they have been, or even just to document those memories. Reading, writing and sharing about experiences in life is so important! All students would say they have a different “favorite” postcard because they have all found interests in different places throughout this process and have their own connections which makes it so unique!

Frazer Students Partner with Canton Museum of Art

The Frazer Elementary 4th grade has partnered with the Canton Museum of Art for their Museum to Go program. Each Museum To Go visit includes a virtual exhibit tour, an interactive lesson, and a curriculum-based, hands-on art experience focused on socialemotional learning. Over several months, Mrs. Raga and Mrs. Tsoufiou’s classes are participating in three interactive visual arts experiences.

These well-designed arts experiences are linked to learning standards such as how to create an optical illusion using lines and pattern, while at the same time encouraging creativity and self-reflection. For example, in the most recent lesson students learned about techniques for managing anxiety while creating an Op Art-inspired percussion instrument.

The Plain Local School District and Frazer Elementary value all of our community partners. Specifically, we’re very appreciative of the Canton Museum of Art for bringing this fantastic program to our school. The students have loved learning all about the art and their hearts during each lesson.

Middlebranch Best Buddies

Second grade students from Mrs. Smith’s class spend time each Tuesday and Thursday morning working with their kindergarten neighbors from Mrs. Leist’s class. The teachers formed this partnership early in the school year and couldn’t be happier with the results. “I love how my students have the opportunity to help the kindergarteners with a variety of skills. I love watching their confidence grow and the pride they take in working with the little ones. They know that their buddies are watching them in and out of the classroom. They get to be tutors and excellent role models!”

Mrs. Leist also sees the benefits of the partnership. “I get to personalize the buddy work for each of my students. Repetition is an excellent way to reinforce many of the skills we work on in kindergarten. Our second grade buddies practice the skills each student needs, such as matching letters and sounds, blending these sounds to make words, writing their names, learning sight words and developing early math skills. Each student has work in their buddy binders that is unique to that student. I really enjoy watching the relationships grow also. I worked with many of these second graders when they were in kindergarten. It’s great to see how far they’ve come!”

When asked what they love about being buddies, Aubrey and Myles report that they enjoy helping their kindergarten friends learn. Aubrey says, “I think I’m helping Isabella with her words. It makes me so happy when she learns a new one!” Mila says this about Myles, “He’s my friend. He makes sure I am practicing and doing my best!”

Taft’s Talk of the Town: The Eaglet

Fourth graders at Taft Elementary got a special opportunity to show off their writing and interviewing skills by being part of the school newspaper called The Eaglet. The January edition focused on introducing and explaining more about what happens at “Taft Township.” Taft Township is the school theme for the 2022-2023 school year. Members of The Eaglet are proud to showcase different teachers, students, and staff that make their school and community so special.

In order to be accepted into this prestigious writing club, 4th graders had to go through a rigorous application process. This included answering interview questions as well as getting references from previous teachers. The Eaglet was founded by 4th grade teacher Jackie Grosscup. When asked why she decided to start a school newspaper, she said, “In our day and age of so much technology, I think it’s very powerful and important for kids to be able to hold their thoughts written by themselves in their hands. We have some very talented writers here at Taft who deserve to flaunt what they can do!”

Different sections of the newspaper require the students to come up with questions, interview adults and kids, seek out pictures for the newspaper, write their articles, and revise and edit their articles. The students are required to attend weekly meetings and work on their articles outside of school hours. The sections of the Eaglet include Front Page, Staff Spotlight, All About a Grade Level, Ask a Grade Level, Award Winners, SOAR Standouts, and Meet the Editors. Eaglet staff member Khloe Ellis worked on the front page of the newspaper. She said, “Working for the Eaglet is the best because we get to write about what’s going on at our school. It’s a really great place to be.” Everyone at Taft Elementary couldn’t agree more!

Learning is Leading at Warstler

As Warstler Elementary works on closing learning gaps with students, they are finding different ways to help them rise up and achieve their goals. Older students in the building showed the desire and interest to assist younger students during part of their intervention learning groups. They found there is no better way to practice and learn phonics than to do it through this leadership opportunity! The younger students learn from their older peers and have a positive role model in the classroom. The older students are learning the importance of showing responsibility and patience to their younger peers. They love coming to help because they get to “play teacher”! In the photo, third grade student Mayleigh Kennedy is tapping out the sounds of a CVC word to kindergartener Wyatt Hintz using learning manipulatives. Both students are learning the correct vowel mouth positioning together and enjoying time together in their classroom!

Glenwood is Bringing the ART Back to Language Arts

“Close your eyes and imagine a big letter A. Hold it in your mind. What color is it? What does it feel like? How does it taste?” These are the words of the teacher at the front of the room, as her students visualize what it would be like to EAT a letter, just like Milo, the main character of The Phantom Tollbooth. As the students share their answers with their partners, it becomes clear just how imaginative and unique each student’s imagination can be. This is just one of the creative and imaginative activities in store for the students of room 125.

Change does not come easy to many people. No one knows this better than 5th grade Language Arts teacher Kelly Shoemaker. “I really loved the curriculum that I had created with the other Glenwood ELA teachers during the past eight years. It was hard to let go of the books and activities that I loved and embrace something completely different,” recalls Shoemaker. “I knew that I would have to find a way to infuse the creative and fun lessons of the past with the new novels and subject matter.”

Every morning, her students walk through a door disguised as a large, purple tollbooth and take their seats before starting their daily adventure. Today, it’s imagining what letters taste like, tomorrow might be painting a scene from the story, small group skits summarizing a chapter, or listening to classical music and coloring the sheet music to reflect the feelings inspired by the sounds. “I know that every kid learns differently and has a variety of strengths. When planning a project or activity, I try to offer options that the kids will enjoy, as they express themselves and what they are learning,” explains Shoemaker. “Sometimes, that is a poster, a skit, a newscast or maybe it is a

Oakwood Soars with Sources of Strength

This fall, 50 of Oakwood’s staff and students attended a two-day training in Sources of Strength. This diverse student group comes from many different corners and cultures of our school and community. Life certainly has its ups and downs as well as good times and bad. This group’s mission is to ensure that during the rough times no one gets so overwhelmed or hopeless that they want to give up. When students are in need, we will help by connecting them to several sources of strength presentation on their Chromebook. Whatever the case, I just want to bring reading to life for the kids. A book can be so much more than a cover and some ink-stained pages.”

The children in Mrs. Shoemaker’s class can look forward to art projects that complement writing assignments, games to review comprehension and a Book Banquet. There are also plans for a “Word-Play Parade” at the end of their book, so that students in all of the 5th grade classes can dress as word puns, idioms and proverbs inspired by The Phantom Tollbooth or support. This team spreads hope by knowing that our most powerful impact comes from our personal actions, conversations, and messages that use our music, art, activities, social media, culture and our voice. Our Peer Leaders will host campaigns throughout the year to get the entire student body involved in spreading messages of hope, help, and strength to others.

International Baccalaureate Students Tackle Group 4 Project

Juniors in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program kicked off the new year making Rube Goldberg machines! Twenty-three students from Mrs. Hawkins’ IB Biology and Miss Wheeler’s IB Physics classes were challenged to design a machine modeled after the endomembrane system of the cell. The students combined their knowledge of biology and physics to build a chain reaction-type machine designed to pop a balloon! Students had one day to build the machine and were challenged to make a machine that would run for a minimum of 1 minute and 30 seconds. Lucas Bissmeyer, Matt Calvert, Braedon Paolini, Nathan Turowski, and Jacob Wedekamm built the longest running machine, which ran for 3 minutes and 42 seconds!

Students completed this activity as part of their Group 4 Project, a multidisciplinary and collaborative activity that encourages students to be creative, take risks, and persevere through setbacks. During normal science classes, students only work with the other students in their class. The purpose of the Group 4 Project is to introduce to students that science is a group activity performed in teams composed of different disciplines. After completing this, full DP students are one step closer to earning their IB diploma!

The IB program empowers students to take ownership of their learning and seeks to provide students with opportunities to practice inquiry, explore new ideas, and reflect on their strengths and weaknesses. While the Group 4 Project serves as an introductory activity to practice these skills, students will further develop these skills next year through an individual research project. Students will have the opportunity to design and carry out their own research on a biology or physics topic of their choice.