Their latest canvas was one of their most unique. 10 of her students, from kindergarten all the way to the senior class, were tasked with designing images to fit onto a football cleat with the school's motto of #kindness as their primary theme.
"They created a pencil sketch design of what they thought kindness meant or looked like to them. From this design, they drew it onto the shoe and now are painting in the design," Harris said.
"It's so important to look out for each other, no matter who you are or where you're from. It's just important to always know that someone is by your side," Doug Straley, Lousia Schools' superintendent, said.
Several teachers at Moss-Nuckols Elementary transformed their classrooms into pizzerias to help their students learn fractions! After putting on their very own aprons and chefs hats, the students began looking over their pizza orders for the day!
Students had to work together to solve fractions and crack the code of how many ingredients were being used for each unique pizza order. After solving the equations, students got to work creating their pizzas!
The lesson helped students have fun while learning math, and the students also ended up having a pretty cool souvenir to take pride in!
Great job, Foxes!
Jouett Elementary students have been very busy this school year working in their very own garden at the school! F
or the past couple of days, students have taken turns planting carrots as part of their STEAM class. STEAM classes are hands-on, engaging courses that emphasize science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics.
In the week leading up to the planting process, students glued tiny carrot seeds to strips of paper. The strategy allows the seeds to be buried into the soil in neat rows. Carrots take about two months to harvest. During that time, students will be in charge of monitoring the seeds and working the garden.
Jouett Elementary School STEAM teacher Jim Snider said the school’s garden has helped students develop a deeper love for learning.
“Their hands get dirty as they see the soil prepared and the seeds planted,” Snider said. “The students get to enjoy the results of their efforts and learning. It could be one of the best lessons lessons I’ll have a chance to teach.”
Jouett Elementary’s garden has been a huge success! It includes radishes, lettuce, potatoes, and more! Snider said he particularly enjoys the sense of pride students develop after harvesting crops they have planted and tended to for weeks on end.
“This opportunity helps my students understand that — just by using their hands and their brains — they have the power to change our world,” Snider said.
The students are building the carport from the ground up! Already, the team has set the beams, poured concrete, and installed the frame ...
The project is a perfect example of how LCHS Career and Technical Education is transforming the way a 21st-century classroom looks, operates, and educates.
One accomplished group of 19 third graders at Moss-Nuckols Elementary School recently earned a new title they can share on their resume for years to come: they are now award-winning authors!
The group earned the honor as part of a special project they actually completed as second-graders in teacher Dana Nemec’s class. Each spring semester, Nemec works with her students to write and illustrate their own book, which she then has published so students can share the finished project with family and friends. This year, Nemec submitted the group’s final product to School Mate Publishing.
School Mate Publishing works with hundreds of schools to publish thousands of books each year, and annually selects 15 classes to receive a $100 award. This year, Nemec’s class was one of those groups!
On Wednesday, August 28th, Nemec announced the good news to the young authors, who have since moved on from her second-grade class and are now highly-accomplished third graders!
“I was really surprised when I opened up my email and found out that our book from last year was selected,” Nemec said. “Even though it can be a stressful process working on the book each year, it is so rewarding! When the published books arrive, I get excited as the students, and it’s awesome to see how proud they are of their hard work!”
And while the students can take pride in their accomplishment, the entire Louisa County Public Schools community can take pride in the book’s name and theme: “Kindness Counts.” Throughout the book, Nemec had students write about nice things they could do, think, and say.
“I thought kindness would be a great topic since that matches our school division’s focus,” Nemec said. “Before the project, we had already discussed ways to spread kindness throughout the school year, so that helped our students have an idea of what to write.”
Book publishing is a speciality at Moss-Nuckols Elementary School. In fact, each school year, every second-grade class at Moss-Nuckols Elementary School creates its own book. The process remains mostly the same each year. Students start working on the book at the start of the second semester, which coincides with scheduled lessons about the writing process. Students are responsible for creating rough drafts, editing their work, making revisions, drawing illustrations, and settling on the final copy.
Each year, Nemec says the responsibilities draw out a similar level of achievement from students.
“Every year, my students realize how important it is,” Nemec said. “They’ll write the neatest that I’ve ever seen them write, and they always do an amazing job on their illustrations!”
School Mate Publishing assists in the process by providing templates and writing prompts that teachers can use to guide students along through the process. Books are submitted in late March or early April, and the 15 lucky winners are announced over the summer.
Nemec said one way she likes to make the project even more fun for students is by personalizing the project for them. Each of her group’s books included an “All About the Author” section, where students were able to share a photo of themselves and fun information, such as hobbies, their favorite classes, and details about family and friends. Nemec also reserves the last few pages of the book for photos of the class having fun and collaborating throughout the year.
Once complete, Nemec mails the completed book to School Mate Publishing. Within three weeks or so, the finished, published product has arrived and is in the hands of a very proud group of second graders.
“The students are always so excited to see what the final product looks like,” Nemec said.
In this case, it was a final product that will benefit Nemec’s students for years to come. Nemec is using the $100 prize to purchase materials for her classroom, including a wooden table and chair set as well as flexible seating items.
And a prize that is perhaps even more important than the $100 award was also clearly evident on Wednesday, August 28th when Nemec made the announcement to her students: a sense of pride.
“We’re going to be famous!” one of her proud students exclaimed.
LCMS teacher Bonnie Collier and her class used their iPads, laptops, and the app GooseChase to learn about the Constitution!
Goosechase is an iPad app that allows teachers to come up with missions for students to accomplish through research and collaboration. As part of the lesson, students drew images that described each amendment, recorded video of a team member reciting the Preamble, wrote out the meaning of the word Democracy, and more! Superintendent Straley even dropped by to work with the teams throughout the lesson!
When using GooseChase, teachers award teams points for accomplishing each task and they also work with students to help them through the challenges! GooseChase is a great way for students to use technology in the classroom in a highly constructive and educational way!
October 21st-25th is National School Bus Safety Week. To commemorate the special week, LCHS sophomores Anjelina Watson and Deirdre Varney, along with freshman Lesleyann Watson, worked together to create more than 60 “Thank You” jars. Each jar contained a thank you poem, a positive note of thanks, and candy.
Click the photo for video highlights!
Moss-Nuckols Elementary School teachers used green screens and technology in a unique and engaging way to teach students about weather patterns!
For the project, students were divided into groups to work as a team to research weather patterns.
Then, the students selected one weather pattern and wrote out a script for their very own TV news weather report!