MCDOWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Braving the chill factor

Look who braved the cold at McDowell Elementary School!

It's been really cold outside and the schools even had a snow day recently so attendance was down on Friday. These students from Mrs. Farago's second-grade class are the lucky ones, because they got to relax in the library with their new books.

RANDALL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Sticking with peanut butter ...

Randall Elementary School first grade students in Mrs. Ostrowski and Ms. Schoen's class read "How to Make Peanut Butter," by Sue Howard. 

First, they were able to work their way through challenging vocabulary words such as roasted, measuring, and carefully. 

Then they confidently read through the companion book "Peanut Butter A Traditional Song," by Robin Oz. 

Next, Music Teacher Mrs. McCracken taught the "Peanut Butter" song to the entire class.  Finally, the students have a melody in their ear when they read about peanut butter!

TAYLOR PARKS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Students get back in the groove

Taylor Parks Elementary School students are getting back into their routine of learning after the long Christmas break – and there’s and nothing like visiting their library to help get back into the groove.  

Mrs. Iwaniec's third-grade class showed their enthusiasm to be back searching for that "just right" book.  

HOOVER MIDDLE SCHOOL: Hawks get ready for 'heroes' challenge

The “Heroes vs. the Hawks” is on the horizon …

At 8 a.m. on Thursday, January 22, volunteers from the Taylor Police and Fire departments will take on the Hoover Middle School seventh and eighth grade boys’ basketball teams during a basketball game/pep assembly in the Hoover gym.

The event will provide the opportunity for the kids to meet and greet Taylor heroes in a small group setting after the game. It also will provide positive role models and potential career paths for the numerous students.

And is it isn’t a bad moral boost for the entire school, either.

Ten firefighters have already volunteered and officials at the school are still waiting on the police volunteers. One of the firemen who has volunteered to play in the game is also being featured in the new Hoover Hall of Fame located in the main hall: Alum Chris Hudson.

The firefighters agreed to bring a fire truck for students to view and ask questions.

MYERS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Second-graders document helping and use helping hands

At Myers Elementary School, Miss Gorski’s second graders spent the holidays writing “how they help” for a bulletin board and using helping hands to make ornaments for mom and dad.

VIRTUAL LEARNING ACADEMY: Student council busy helping others

The Taylor Virtual Learning Academy Student Council is sponsoring community drives.

TVLA student council kicked off the school year with the goal to give back to the community. With the help of TVLA students, parents, and staff, the student council donated over 55 canned food items to St. Constance Church of Taylor and a large bag of warm clothing to Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency.

The canned food items will be distributed to Taylor families and to the Taylor Fish and Loaves Food Pantry. The warm clothing items such as hats, gloves, scarves, coats and socks will be distributed to families in need throughout the Downriver area.

TVLA would like to thank everyone who participated in making these events a success and a special thank you to our TVLA Student Council. 

SIXTH GRADE ACADEMY: Get ready for another reading adventure!

Pack your bags for a reading adventure.  We are going to embark on our reading journey.  We will start our journey at the Sixth Grade Academy and from there we will travel by book to exotic places like China, India, Japan, Mexico and more.

At home, during the month, each parent/child detective team will read the story, learn all about a new country, and solve the mystery.

On the third Wednesday of each month all parent/child detective teams will meet at the Sixth Grade Academy at 6 p.m., where we will debrief from our mission.  During this time we will discuss the book that was read the previous month, snack on interesting foods from the country that we just visited by book, do a craft or activity from that same country and receive a new book with a new destination and mystery to solve for the next month.

Any questions please contact me, Nannette Kuhn, at 313-295-5749 or email me at kuhnn@taylor.k12.mi.us.

Remember this is for third- to fifth-grade students and their parents only!

The parents and children read a book called "The Mystery at the Maya Ruins" by Carole Marsh during the weeks leading up to the December meeting.  After the parents and kids sign-in they were able to explore the Mayan themed activities.

Another photo shows a mother and child exploring Mayan math using hands-on methods and then there was an ipad app called "MayaNumbers" that they explored.

Yet another photo shows a girl using the iPad app called "Can U Dig It!" to become an archeologist, where she has to solve puzzles and find buried Mayan treasures.  Once she collected the artifacts she was able to learn all about them and how they were used by the Ancient Mayans.

Another photo shows them using another iPad app called "MayanMystery."  In this app kids get to read graphic novel style panels about kid explorers and then they have to answer questions and play games to outwit the looters and win the game.

Another photo shows the students and parents enjoying tamales, which were originated by the Mayans, and beans and chocolate milk.  Chocolate was thought of as the food of the gods and was discovered in ancient Middle America.

The kids also colored Mayan Masks.