Ithaca South Elementary

In STEAM lab, second graders read a story about a boy who built a bridge to save his friends during a field trip. They were then challenged to work with different materials and determine which were best suited for building bridges. They all found clever ways to work with tricky materials!

This week in Music 2nd grade is learning how to sing "Paddle in My Kayak," a fun song about a kayak adventure! The song has students pretending to paddle, see wildlife, and encounter a strange foe!

Today Mrs. Simcox's class earned their first instrument say! They learned how to play the egg shaker and we played along to "the Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks!"

First graders learned how Earth's rotation creates days and nights in STEAM lab, then were challenged to create Lego models to demonstrate what they learned. Using cubelets robots and flashlights, the young scientists made their Lego homes rotate to experience day and night!

On Fridays, our Junior Jackets show their school spirit by wearing BLUE & GOLD!!

Our 2nd grade students are doing a great job learning our partner reading routines. Partner reading is a vital component of our Bookworms curriculum, as it enhances fluency, comprehension, and motivation, facilitates collaborative practice, and enables differentiated instruction by providing each student with a more active and supported reading experience!

We read Harvey the Carpenter in STEAM lab today and created tool boxes and tools with recycled items! Cardboard hammers, pipe cleaner drills, and popsicle stick screwdrivers are just a few of the tools these great builders made!

We are so thankful for our amazing friends at the Thompson Home Public Library for helping us secure the books necessary to kick off our STEAM lab challenges this year! Their willingness to track down all of these great books allows us to create a STEAM program built on a strong literature foundation. Thank you for your support!

South Parents: School Dismissal is Live! You should receive an email so you can set up dismissal instructions for your child. Check your Spam/Junk email if you don't see it. For help, please email Mrs. Giles: sgiles@ithacaschools.net.

We are excited to see you tonight at our South Elementary Open House from 5:30-7:30pm! Our teachers are ready to meet their students!

First and Second Grade supply lists are below. Kindergarten lists vary by teacher. You will receive them by mail. Welcome back letters were mailed mid-week and should be in a mailbox near you very soon! Open House at South: Thursday, August 21 from 5:30-7:30

You can find your child's classroom teacher by logging into PowerSchool Parent Portal. If you need help logging into PowerSchool, please email helpdesk@ithacaschools.net We look forward to a great year ahead! Incoming Kindergartners/New Students: If you have not completed the forms in PowerSchool, you will not be able to view your child's teacher.

Parents: Please log-in to PowerSchool and complete paperwork and forms for this school year. We will be releasing classroom assignments in the next few days. You will not be able to view your child's teacher until the 2025-26 forms are completed. This includes incoming Kindergarten students. If you need help logging into your account, please reach out to the technology department.

Meet up and Eat up

We are proud to announce our May students of the month! These students were nominated for their leadership characteristics. Congratulations, Junior Jackets!

Ithaca Public Schools will be participating in Meet Up and Eat Up again this year. 7 Day packs can be picked up by parents or guardians starting June 10th between 7:30 am and 9:30 am. Distributions will be every Tuesday through August 18. In an attempt to make sure we have enough packs available for the entire community we are asking that you email ahanna@ithacaschools.net to get on the list for pick-ups. This is a first come first serve distribution and being on the list does not guarantee that we will not run out of food before you get here. Thank you for helping us try to serve the entire community. We plan on having 225 packs available on June 10th. See you there.

Thank you Ithaca Big Top Ice Cream- Josh Schmidt & Ithaca PTO for a fun treat for our kindergarten kiddos today! We enjoyed our walk to Big Top, the yummy ice cream, and our bus ride back to school! We had PERFECT weather for this activity! 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞

We have been studying & enjoying a book in our Bookworms ELA (English Language Arts) lessons called, "Ada's Violin." We are privileged to have a strings instructor as part of our staff, the wonderful & talented Mrs. Faith Chaffee! Mrs. Chaffee brought in her violin today and taught our class the parts of a violin. We loved hearing her play this beautiful string instrument! Mrs. Chaffee has been playing violin since she was 5 years old. Her violin is made of maple wood, and the strings on her bow are horse hair! Thank you Mrs. Chaffee! 🎻🎻🎻🎻🎻🎻🎻🎻🎻

Today our Junior Jackets participated in ACES at IHS! Thank you, Mr. Rayburn, for organizing a fun event and thank you to all our families that showed up and walked with us!