IT’S TIME FOR SOME ANIMAL RESEARCH

Every year at Pioneer, we try to host two spirit weeks in lower school. Our first spirit week for the school year was in the beginning of October.

The themes for each day were;

Monday - Superhero day

Tuesday - Formal day

Wednesday - Sports day

Thursday - Pajama day

Friday - Crazy hair day

The participation from the students was great. The hallways were filled with laughter, love and enjoyment.

We want our students to know school can also be fun and exciting with different events such as spirit week and we know that this was successfully accomplished during our first spirit week of the 20222023 school year!

How do students learn how to navigate the world around them? By learning what non-fiction texts and/or pictures are! Nonfiction helps children develop critical thinking, and analytical skills, as well as the ability to read and understand complex texts. Nonfiction books are great tools for making realworld connections to build on children’s knowledge and personal experiences.

Our 2nd grade teacher, Ms. Berrios understands the importance of teaching nonfiction. Her students have been hard at work with their Nonfiction ELA Unit. They have been learning how to analyze and comprehend nonfiction text. Once they were able to do this they decided to build on these skills and become researchers themselves. Our current task is an Animal Research Project.

Step 1 is brainstorming. In this step each child gets to choose an animal they want to learn more about. Step 2 is planning. In order to plan, students worked on a chart of things they already know about their animal and what they still want to find out. They are currently on Step 3: Research. Their favorite websites for research are Kiddle and National Geographic Kids. This project in its entirety takes about a month to complete. One of the most important parts of nonfiction is being able to teach others what you have just learned.

Into The Woods

Middle Schol Drama Club came back live and in person with its spring play, “Into the Woods”. The performances were held in Auditorium on June 2nd. Ms. Atay, mentor of Drama Club said she was very pleased with the final production and students’ performances. “The students were a little nervous at first, but as it went on, they started to have fun. It was wonderful!” Ms. Atay said they chose the script based on the number of students that wanted to participate. The Drama Club is open to any student in 5th through 8th grades.

A Blast To The Past

There were 20 characters in the play but we had 19 students, Ms. Atay also had a role to make it 20! Our one and only Music Teacher Mr. Bajrami also helped students sing for the play.

Into the Woods is a modern twist on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales in a musical format that follows the classic tales of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel-all tied together by an original story involving a baker and his wife, their wish to begin a family and their interaction with the witch who has put a curse on them.