Ithaca South Elementary

Students enjoyed cookies and hot chocolate during Polar Express Day!

Students were thrilled to be greeted by the conductor of the Polar Express (our wonderful community member, Craig Zeese). It's been an exciting morning here at South! Thank you Mr. Zeese for keeping the magic alive for us each December!

What an incredible day in Mrs. Simcox's Kindergarten! Our classroom party in the morning with a fantastic breakfast meal. Santa & Mrs. Claus after lunch! We ended our day with Santa Centers in Mrs. Smith's & Mrs. Napieralski's Room! We can't wait for Pajama Day & Polar Express tomorrow! I love South School! 💕🎄😊🎄💕

Check out these "life-size" sleighs our South Elementary engineers built in STEAM lab!

Students have been creatively decorating our hallways for the holiday season!

Our 2nd grade students enjoyed their field trip to the IQ Hub at AgroLiquid! They learned about soil, painted with vegetables, and explored the exhibits while participating in a scavenger hunt.

This week our staff spotlight is on Ms. Knight. This is her second year as a Kindergarten teacher but her 10th year at Ithaca! Ms. Knight loves spending time with family and friends, especially her dog, Cash! She also loves being outside on the lake in the summer and watching home design shows. Ms. Knight's favorite season is fall and her favorite holiday is Christmas.

First graders started their study of light by creating nose covers for Rudolph. Their covers needed to block light from a strand of Christmas lights and be able to cover their nose without being held in place. Science experiment, engineering challenge, and silliness all wrapped into one STEAM lab visit!

After reading Snowflake Bentley, students in Mrs. Gulick's class worked together with their table teams to create beautiful, unique snowflakes out of paper bags.

Second graders were challenged to build sleds that could carry "gifts" after reading the story Just Be Claus in STEAM lab. Collaboration was the key to successfully tackling this challenge!

This week our staff spotlight is on Miss Hartman, one of our preschool teachers. Miss Hartman enjoys traveling with her fiancé, friends, family, and her two dogs. She also enjoys going shopping and spending time at home watching movies. Summer is Miss Hartman's favorite season and she spends lots of time outdoors, going fishing, trail riding, and playing with her dogs.

Kindergarten students listened to "The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush" by Tomie dePaola and then independently wrote their own sentence and creatively designed an illustration to match their writing.

First graders wrapped up their science unit on stars by creating their own constellations. Using actual NASA star maps and wikki stix, they connected stars to outline an image they could "see". They then connected those stars with pencil and colored their new constellations, so others could "see" them, too!

Kindergartners collaborated to build puppet stages and puppets like the ones Franklin received in the story Franklin's Christmas Gift.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our families!

These awesome kindergartners in Mrs. Simcox's class feasted in the classroom today for lunch! Before eating they sang, "Thanks A Lot" by Raffi, including using sign-language. Happy Thanksgiving To All!

If you need help raking leaves, these young engineers may be able to help! They used their STEAM skills to create working rakes out of recycled items!

This week our Staff Spotlight is on Mr. Whitford. Mr. Whitford was born and raised on a farm west of Ithaca. He attended South school from Kindergarten through 6th grade. Mr. Whitford worked as a machinist in a die shop for 15 years in Ithaca before attending Alma College along side of Mrs. Vozar! He has been in education since 2006. Mr. Whitford loves everything outdoors and especially traveling with his family in the summer. He says, "I truly enjoy working for our community and with the amazing staff at South Elementary!"

Thank you to everyone that joined us at Family Night last week! We had over 30 families join us for literacy, math, technology, and STEAM activities. We were thrilled to see so many people come for an hour of fun and an opportunity to dive into their student's learning environments.

South students have engaged in learning about their digital footprints and standing up for others in our digital citizenship curriculum this year. When standing up for others students learned it is important to include everyone during our activities in the classroom, on the playground, and at home. By standing up for others we make everyone feel cared about and important; kindness is key. Our students also learned about the online tracks we leave behind when we are playing games and visiting websites online. They can identify the difference between a website that is just right, and when they need to get an adult to help them if the website is safe or to find a new one that will be safe. Some helpful links about these topics can be found here: Standing up for others: https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/lesson/meet-legs-of-the-digital-citizens Being kind online: https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/lesson/meet-heart-of-the-digital-citizens Online tracks: https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/lesson/meet-feet-of-the-digital-citizens