2007 - 2008 School Year at M.A. Elementary
This school year has been filled to the brim both inside and outside the classroom with academic programs as well as service activities. As always, our elementary students and their families have participated in each of them with contagious thirst and eagerness.
The elementary principal, Mrs. Burton, a strong supporter of reading, is the first one to encourage the pupils to spend more time with a book during Children’s Book Week. Celebrated every year the week before Thanksgiving, this special time immerses readers in the works of talented authors and illustrators. Mrs. Burton challenges the student body to read a given number of books during the week, whether they find themselves at home, at school, or on the road. The Friday before Thanksgiving is Book Character Day. That’s when Snow White sits in class next to Thing One, and Pippi Longstocking might encounter a child from the Polar Express down the elementary hallways. If the school-wide reading challenge has been met, the reward is something everybody enjoys when school is back in session, after the Thanksgiving break. In the past, the true sport that she is, Mrs. Burton has eaten fried worms, gone to “jail”, allowed herself to be transformed into a human ice cream cone, complete with chocolate syrup and sugar sprinkles, and has even been soaked in a dunking booth! This year, to everyone’s delight, Uncle Sam (Mrs. Burton wearing a costume) visited the elementary chapel, after having reminded the students using posters placed on walls: “I Want You to Read”. Making a grand entry on live music played by some of Mr. Crews’ band students, Uncle Sam gave out goody bags filled with patriotic book marks, pencils and other favors, to everyone in the audience.
The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas brought a new opportunity for our students to serve and show the loving kindness of the Father, this time to children afflicted by severe illness. By participating in the Math-A-Thon, they supported the largest childhood cancer research center in the world, St. Jude’s, where no child is turned away because of his or her family’s inability to pay for hospital stays and treatments. Math-A-Thon is a volunteer-based fundraising program for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The program includes a free math curriculum supplement for grades K-9 that students complete after obtaining sponsorships from family and friends. The benefits of Math-A-Thon add up to help a good cause. Students who participate improve math and comprehension skill, solve age-appropriate math problems, and begin to understand the importance of assisting others. This all equals help for St. Jude patients battling cancer and other catastrophic childhood diseases. We are proud to say that our Madison Academy Elementary students raised over $ 3,000 during the Math-A-Thon by enlisting the help of parents, grandparents, and family friends. Their generosity was matched by the prayers that we heard from the students in chapel throughout the rest of the school year asking God to help “the children at St. Jude’s.”
Other programs were equally successful: the Scholastic Book Fair (fall fundraiser for the school library), the Spelling Bee, the Caldecott Reading Contest, the Fun Run, and the ever popular Field Day. Slow weeks are rare at M.A. Elementary. We are blessed with young innocent hearts that teach us daily the meaning of compassion, enthusiasm, and love.
This school year has been filled to the brim both inside and outside the classroom with academic programs as well as service activities. As always, our elementary students and their families have participated in each of them with contagious thirst and eagerness.
The elementary principal, Mrs. Burton, a strong supporter of reading, is the first one to encourage the pupils to spend more time with a book during Children’s Book Week. Celebrated every year the week before Thanksgiving, this special time immerses readers in the works of talented authors and illustrators. Mrs. Burton challenges the student body to read a given number of books during the week, whether they find themselves at home, at school, or on the road. The Friday before Thanksgiving is Book Character Day. That’s when Snow White sits in class next to Thing One, and Pippi Longstocking might encounter a child from the Polar Express down the elementary hallways. If the school-wide reading challenge has been met, the reward is something everybody enjoys when school is back in session, after the Thanksgiving break. In the past, the true sport that she is, Mrs. Burton has eaten fried worms, gone to “jail”, allowed herself to be transformed into a human ice cream cone, complete with chocolate syrup and sugar sprinkles, and has even been soaked in a dunking booth! This year, to everyone’s delight, Uncle Sam (Mrs. Burton wearing a costume) visited the elementary chapel, after having reminded the students using posters placed on walls: “I Want You to Read”. Making a grand entry on live music played by some of Mr. Crews’ band students, Uncle Sam gave out goody bags filled with patriotic book marks, pencils and other favors, to everyone in the audience. The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas brought a new opportunity for our students to serve and show the loving kindness of the Father, this time to children afflicted by severe illness. By participating in the Math-A-Thon, they supported the largest childhood cancer research center in the world, St. Jude’s, where no child is turned away because of his or her family’s inability to pay for hospital stays and treatments. Math-A-Thon is a volunteer-based fundraising program for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The program includes a free math curriculum supplement for grades K-9 that students complete after obtaining sponsorships from family and friends. The benefits of Math-A-Thon add up to help a good cause. Students who participate improve math and comprehension skill, solve age-appropriate math problems, and begin to understand the importance of assisting others. This all equals help for St. Jude patients battling cancer and other catastrophic childhood diseases. We are proud to say that our Madison Academy Elementary students raised over $ 3,000 during the Math-A-Thon by enlisting the help of parents, grandparents, and family friends. Their generosity was matched by the prayers that we heard from the students in chapel throughout the rest of the school year asking God to help “the children at St. Jude’s.”
Other programs were equally successful: the Scholastic Book Fair (fall fundraiser for the school library), the Spelling Bee, the Caldecott Reading Contest, the Fun Run, and the ever popular Field Day. Slow weeks are rare at M.A. Elementary. We are blessed with young innocent hearts that teach us daily the meaning of compassion, enthusiasm, and love.