By PARKER ESKRIDGE
It’s getting colder, and to Bayside students that can only mean Christmas break is right around the corner.
The school play, “A Christmas Carol,” was presented by Bayside students grades 6-12 this past week. The Drama Department would like to thank everyone who attended the show. The cast could not have done it without your support. Work on this Spring’s senior show, “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940,” will begin in January.
Congratulations to junior Molly Pinnix, better known as our Bayside Admiral, who was voted the best mascot in the Baldwin/Mobile County area.
The juniors are busy taking their exams this week as they prepare for the annual junior class trip to Pine Mountain, Ky. They will leave Saturday and return for Christmas Together on Dec 16. While there, the juniors will participate in square dancing, woodworking, making stained glass and weaving, as well as learn about the Appalachian culture. And snow is, of course, highly anticipated.
This past Friday a group of foreign language students spent the day at the International Festival. Juniors from Spanish III, German and French had an opportunity to attend, and it was a great trip. They enjoyed the displays from so many countries along with each country’s food and music. What a fantastic opportunity it was.
The fourth graders are busy practicing for their annual Christmas musical. Everyone is excited about having a part in the play, especially Santa, Mrs. Claus, Reindeer and Elves. The children will also be writing and illustrating Christmas cards for a nursing home in Fairhope.
The book “My Father’s Dragon” by Ruth Gannett is a hit with the fourth grade. Shout Elmo made an appearance, because the students are learning words with the vowel sound as in the word shout. They loved dancing and singing with Elmo. Alabama history is also moving right along. The children think that schools in the 1850s were a bit harsh. The idea of a child being seen and not heard is very foreign to Bayside students.
The service clubs are busy trying to spread holiday cheer. The Boys’ Service Club is sponsoring 15 Christmas Angels for Ecumenical Ministries this year, and the Key Club helped out at Barnes and Noble this past weekend doing free gift wrapping. Students are working hard preparing for exams as the semester comes to an end, and the anticipation for Christmas break is higher than ever.
Christ the King Catholic School was one of the recipients of 2011-12 grants given by the SEEDS board of directors recently. The school will receive money to buy iPads, laptops and art supplies to create shadow puppets. Mr. Max Crain, Mrs. Barbara Hutson and Mrs. Rose Mary Mitchell received the grant awards at the 2011 Classroom Grant Awards Reception at the Daphne High School library on Nov. 30.
The first graders are working hard on their Christmas program “The Littlest Christmas Tree.” They will perform Thursday in the school gym.
Second graders are learning about Advent and Christmas. In science class, they have been studying forces, motion, magnets and simple machines.
Third graders used the computer lab to learn about food chains through an interactive game format. Then they tried to create their own food web.
In religion, students are preparing for Christmas by learning the meaning of scripture from the prophet Isaiah and learning about John the Baptist. Also, students are preparing giant candy cane book reports on their favorite Christmas stories. During this season of preparation, 5B students have made “stained glass” windows of candles to remind them that Jesus lights our way. They have made Advent reflection sheets with words or phrases from the Bible and illustrations to help them reflect on our Lord during this time of preparation. They have a beautiful bulletin board designed by Mrs. Ready which originally depicted 28 children kneeling with lit candles. It has the words “Let your light shine before all” (Matthew 5:16). Each day one of the students is removed as the class prays and reflects before they “light” a candle on their Advent wreath.
5B students also visited Rome. Well, actually they visited Nicholas Napolitano in Rome via the wonders of technology. Nick, a CKCS graduate, is a seminarian in Rome attending North America University. The fifth graders have been praying for and writing to Nick. Nick replied to the letters with an email which led to Mrs. Wilson inquiring about Skype. Upon finding that he did have a Skype account, Mrs. Wilson downloaded the Skype application to her iPad. So last Monday, the students had the opportunity to have face time with Mr. Nick. On Friday after Mass, the fifth graders called Mr. Nick again, and he quizzed them about the season of Advent and about the Mass. This was a great opportunity for the fifth graders to have interaction with a seminarian, to ask and learn about the Vatican, Rome, our Holy Father, time zones and many other wonderful and interesting things.
Our chess team traveled to Daphne High School on Dec. 1 for the third meeting of the Mobile-Baldwin County Chess League. At the end of the day, two of our teams were in a four-way tie for first place in the league. The championship will be decided in a playoff in the final league meeting in January.
Our outreach for this month is the donation of new toys for Catholic Social Services. Have a wonderful weekend.
In Ms. Tisdale’s fourth grade class, we completed our coral reef dioramas and put them outside the classroom for everyone to enjoy. The students learned a lot by researching coral reefs and working together to make the dioramas. In social studies, we have been learning about The United States government. In math, we have learned about different types of graphs and are working hard with multiplication.
Ms. Mapp’s third grade has been working extremely hard on many different learning opportunities. We have completed the discovery of patterns and arrays for multiplication, continue our quest for the perfect paragraph and serve through charity opportunities the Advent season. Each day is a blessing and we are thankful for all that the Lord offers.
We have been studying plants and how they are used as resources. As an enrichment activity we explored the characteristics of cotton straight from the field. We know that cotton is used in fiber and textiles. We also learned that cottonseed is used in making oil. Students also examined stalks of sorghum and discussed the uses of this plant — a type of grass — used as food, fodder for animals and sorghum molasses. We will be having a treat for snack this week of pancakes and real maple syrup that comes from trees.
We have a new student in Ms. Cowart’s second grade. Her name is Kimberly and we are so happy to have her with us.
This week in Ms. Donald’s first grade we are excitedly awaiting the Christmas season. Tomorrow is our schoolwide Christmas program. We are proud to perform the classic “Mele Kaliki Maka.”
In school this week we are wrapping up our reading Unit 2 and will be reviewing concepts in spelling, language arts and reading. In math we are working on solidifying our mental math skills in both addition and subtraction through 10.
In religion we are learning about Advent and the Immaculate Conception. In science and social studies we are preparing for our field trip to the Tensaw Delta and learning about the Five Rivers in Alabama’s Delta and the wildlife that inhabits it. Our star of the week this week is Mia Marshall.