Northern Adirondack Elementary School

Congratulations, NAC Elementary! Thanks to your generosity, Mrs. Peryea was able to present a check for $600.00 to the Vermont Children's Hospital as part of the Big Change Roundup! YEE-HAW! That's a lot of change! If we start a change jar now, just think how much we will be able to donate next year....

Elementary students have been fascinated with the video footage of the landing of NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover that STEM teacher Amy LaPoint shared with them! Kristen Patnode channeled that excitement into a P.E. challenge for her students: to create a vehicle that Astronauts could use on Mars. She laid out all sorts of equipment and gave a few requirements - the vehicle had to move across the gym (Mars) and have a covering to protect the Astronauts. The students used their bodies and brains to build these amazing "Mars rovers!" Kudos to our students for their inventions and to our inventive teachers!

Bobcat March Madness Tournament of Books begins March 8! Each day during the last three weeks of March, Elementary students will watch a pair of read-aloud videos and vote for their favorite book to advance in the tournament of books. That day's winner will be announced and advance in the tournament bracket. Beginning March 8 and culminating with the final match-up on March 31, the competition will be fierce! Can perennial favorite Pete the Cat hold off against a read-aloud FROM SPACE by a real astronaut? Will a scrappy newcomer unseat the venerable award-winner “Where the Wild Things Are?” WHO WILL WIN?!! There can only be one….

Key Club members and Elementary students recently created more than 400 Valentine cards/pictures which were delivered to area Nursing Homes. Key Club wanted to spread a little cheer to residents who can not have visitors at this time and decided to send Valentines to Meadowbrook. The idea was shared with Elementary staff, hoping to get enough cards to send to other nursing homes. Faculty and students overwhelmingly responded and cards were dropped off at Meadowbrook (185 items), Clinton County Nursing Home (100), CVPH Skilled Nursing (70), and Vilas Home (50). Key Club created 125 cards and the Elementary students made 280! Special thanks to Ms. Latrell and her art students for a beautiful variety of cards and the Valentine box as well as to Ms. Vanier, Mrs. White, Mrs. Matthews, and Mrs. Spoor for their classroom contributions. Pictures are of two Key Clubbers and their creations, cards made by Key Club, and the many Valentines and box from Elementary students.

One of Mrs. Whelden's 3rd & 4th grade reading groups has been reading "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls. After they read about building a 'coon trap, Mrs. Whelden built one in her living room during a Google Meet and challenged her students to do the same with household materials. These are some of their amazingly imaginative homemade traps! The description in the book is: -find a log -bore a hole about 6 inches down -bright shiny object cut in a circle to sit flat on bottom of bored hole -4 nails, drive in on a slant opposite each other, the nails will enter the hole about halfway down -leave an opening between the sharp ends of nails big enough for a coon to get his paw in

NAC Elementary is feeling festive this week! Thanks to all the staff who decked the halls and jumpstarted our holiday spirit!

NAC Elementary students are participating in the annual international Hour of Code this week! Students in grades 1-4 learn to build algorithms and code short programs, as an introduction to computer science. Keep the fun and learning going at home by visiting code.org or trying out the coding tutorials on Mrs. Smallman's library webpage: https://www.nacs1.org/o/naes/page/library

Tune in to CodeBytes all week for live computer science and coding mini-lessons from the Hour of Code folks! Today, Friday, December 11th, at 11am & 4:30pm, let’s dig into the world of Minecraft to help the Agent activate switches, place blocks, and clear obstacles to pick up items for the journey! Recommended for grades 3-7 Link to the live feed: https://codebytes.live/now More info at: https://code.org/codebytes#activities

Tune in to CodeBytes all week for live computer science and coding mini-lessons from the Hour of Code folks! Today, Thursday, December 10th, at 11am & 4:30pm, want to help your community? Learn the basics of designing a simple app in AppLab that you can immediately share with others. (recommended for grades 6-12) Link to the live feed: https://codebytes.live/now More info at: https://code.org/codebytes#activities

Tune in to CodeBytes all week for live computer science and coding mini-lessons from the Hour of Code folks! Today, Wednesday, December 9th, at 11am & 4:30pm, a virus has infected Monster Town! We’ll code an Outbreak Simulator and make predictions about what will happen to the neighbors of Monster Town. (recommended for grades 4-12) Link to the live feed: https://codebytes.live/now More info at: https://code.org/codebytes#activities

Tune in to CodeBytes all week for live computer science and coding mini-lessons from the Hour of Code folks! Today, Tuesday, December 8th, at 11am & 4:30pm, everyone’s invited to a digital dance off as we code characters to do your favorite dance moves in Dance Party! (recommended for grades K-5) Link to the live feed: https://codebytes.live/now More info at: https://code.org/codebytes#activities

Our current health crisis has placed a strain on our day to day life in many ways. One of the biggest ways may be financial in nature. This impacts everything from food to clothing and of course gifts for Christmas. With the generous support of our community and local service organizations, we may be able to provide some relief with winter gear, food and Christmas gifts for your child(ren). If we can help, please contact Ms. Silver at school at 518-594-3986 or by email at lsilver@nacs1.org.

Tune in to CodeBytes all week for live computer science and coding mini-lessons from the Hour of Code folks! Today, Monday, December 7th, at 11am & 4:30pm, we’ll be training a computer to read sign language with our own images of American Sign Language (ASL) letters. (Recommended for grades 6-12) Link to the live feed: https://codebytes.live/now More info at: https://code.org/codebytes#activities

The earlier regional network issues preventing NAC from connecting to the internet have been resolved. Some Google Meets from this morning have been rescheduled; please contact your child's teacher(s) with any questions. Thank you for your patience during our unexpected network outage.

Please be aware that the school is experiencing network issues that prevent our connection to the internet temporarily. Thank you for your patience. (12/1/2020 @8:19am)

Mrs. Trombley's 1st grade class expressed their gratitude to the cafeteria staff this week by sending these sweet hand-made thank you cards.

PAX is a series of strategies that equip parents to elicit more positive behavior at home and increase cooperation. NAC implemented the PAX Program last school year. See flyer for details on parent PAX tools training.

Lifetouch will be at the elementary school on Tuesday, November 10, 2020. If your child was absent, is new to our district (since the last picture day) or if you wanted a retake done this is the only day to do that. Photo flyer/payment envelopes will be sent home this coming Thursday to any absent or new students. If requesting a retake, you must return the original photo package. Retakes do not need a new flyer completed. A new photo will be taken and the same package will be completed. If you have any questions, please call Lifetouch at 800-736-4753.

NAC Elementary celebrated Halloween with a STEM-inspired trick-or-treat around the halls of school today! Treats were delivered by robot, Rube Goldberg devices, and Halloween-themed social distance chutes.

Elementary Memory Books Are Here! Please be on the look-out for your child’s 2019-20 Memory Book (yearbook) which is being sent home this week. Each one has been labeled with the student’s name in an effort to help them keep better track of their book. In the past we have had issues with students losing, misplacing, or having their book stolen, so please help your child to take care of his/her book as we cannot replace them. Also, for those who may still want to buy one, we have a limited number of copies left. You may send in cash or a check for $18.00 made out to “NACS” if you would like to purchase one. Enjoy reliving the memories!