A Message from Our Principal January 2014 Volume 6, Issue 2

Abner CREEK

Gator Times “Learning With love and laughter”

Abner Creek Academy 2050 Abner Creek Road Phone: 864-949-2334 Karen McMakin, Principal

The mission of Abner Creek Academy is to provide every student quality educational experiences in a safe, nurtur-ing, and engaging environment, enabling each individual to succeed in life and function as a productive citizen.

Happy New Year! I hope that 2014 proves to be a year full of blessings for you and your family!

Here are a few important reminders for our Gator families.

Weather can be very unpredictable this time of year! Please check the school website or your local tel-evision station for closings or delays if snow or ice is in the forecast.

Learning begins at 7:40. This means that students need to be here in time to walk to class and be in their seats by that time. If you arrive after 7:40, please do not drop off your child. You will need to park and come in with your child to the front office.

Second semester is full of opportunities for parents and friends to be a part of the magic happening at ACA! Please mark your calendars and join us as we celebrate the great progress our children are making!

I continue to be very proud of our students! Thank you for your dedication as we work together for our children!

Best wishes, Karen McMakin “Principal Mac”

Upcoming Events January 8— Report Cards February 14-21—Book Fair January 15— Terrific Kid Luncheon February 17—Staff Development (no school) January 20—MLK Jr. Day (no school) February 20—Family Fun Night (Book Fair open) January 28— PTO McDonald’s Night February 24—PTO Skate Night January 28-31— Science Fair March 7 —Magic Tree House production at FAC February 7 — Progress Reports 9:30 am/6:30 pm February 10— Dad & Me Breakfast K5 and 1st March 14— Staff Development (no school) February 11— Dad & Me Breakfast 2nd-4th March 18-19—PASS Writing (3rd and 4th grades) February 14—Valentine’s Day Parties 1:00 pm

Magnet Program Implementation

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Kindergarten It’s been busy on the yellow hall these past few

weeks! Kindergartners have been learning so much and working so hard. We have been learning to read by learning how to use our reading strategies. The boys and girls are using the strategies and becoming more independent readers each day! In writing, we’re learning how authors put their stories onto paper. We’re learning how to use details to show the setting, characters, and event so our pictures tell a story. To help us understand how authors begin with an idea and turn the idea into a book, we invited the author and illustrator of the The Christmas Donkey to speak with us. It was interesting to see the process of how a book is made. In math, we have been having fun with two-and three-dimensional shapes. We’ve been learning how to analyze and compare shapes and even had a “shape party” to cele-brate our learning! To celebrate Thanksgiving, three kin-dergarten classes performed a play called “The Day of the Turkey” and two classes performed Turkey Trouble for our parents and reading buddies. We had fun learning how to project our voices and speak into a microphone. We kicked off the Christmas season by going on a field trip to Florence Chapel Middle School for “Storybook Christmas”. There we listened to special Christmas stories and enjoyed cookies and milk with Santa. Hopefully, everyone saw our Christ-mas performance called The Tale of the Gingerbread Man. All of our kindergartners worked together to perform our play on the big stage in front of the whole school and our families! We even had our own Santa! Whew! We’ve had so much going on, but we’ve had so much fun!

First Grade

Second Grade Second grade has been working hard to make magic happen this nine weeks! We have been learning all about addition, and we have even learned several strat-egies to help us along the way. In science, we have been learning all about matter, how matter changes, and the many different properties of matter. We even made mystery matter and Coke floats to celebrate all of our learning! It was so much fun exploring solids, liq-uids, and gases! As the holiday season approached, we practiced writing by sending friendly letters to Santa. We also set our goals for this new year. Look out! More magic is happening in second grade!

First grade continues to work hard in the classroom. They have been working on fiction in reading. Some of the skills we focused on were fiction elements, sequencing, retelling and asking questions about our reading. In math, first grade has been working on numbers to 120, addition, and subtrac-tion. To showcase our magnet theme, first grade worked hard on two performances for parents. Our first performance was at Thanksgiving where we showed our abilities to speak to an audience and shared writing with our families. Our second performance was the play, “The Littlest Christmas Tree.” Students worked hard to learn songs, lines, and how to be a performer. In January, we anticipate moving forward with reading, writing and math! Our year is flying by and magic happens every day!

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Third Grade Fourth Grade

Magnet Program Implementation

Fourth graders have been thriving. In math, students used place value understanding and patterns to multi-ply. These awesome students now know many strate-gies to multiply. They include area model, distribu-tive, and traditional. In science, fourth graders learned to classify all living things as organisms. This includes plants (flowering and nonflowering) and ani-mals (vertebrates and invertebrates). They also learned about five environments; desert, tropical rain-forest, polar region, swamp, and rivers and streams. The field trip to Stone Mountain, Georgia was a huge success. Students were able to take in the sights and sounds during the Native American festival. Thanks to all the volunteers for their support!

Third graders have been so busy. Time flies when you’re having fun! Students have been racing through their multiplication facts. We are amazed at how many math whizzes we have. Students have also been dili-gently working on learning to write in beautiful cursive. What a talent some of us have for writing! In social studies, we have been zooming along through the histo-ry of South Carolina. We have now learned about our history through the time period of the American Revolu-tion. Next, we will be learning all about the Civil War. In science, we have spent the last several weeks learning all about motion and sound. We can’t believe how much we have learned! As we move toward spring, we look with anticipation toward our upcoming field trips to learn more about Spanish, to see a play, and to visit Charleston. We can hardly wait!

and asking questions about our reading. In math, first grade

hard on two performances for parents. Our first performance was at Thanksgiving where we showed our abilities to speak

to be a performer. In January, we anticipate moving forward

S c h o o l N e w s PTO News

Limo and Lunch was a huge success and a lot of fun! We had about 65 children who sold $150 or more and got to participate in the fall fundraiser. PTO would like to thank everyone who participated and helped raise

around $6,000 for ACA!

Our November fundraiser, Original Art, was also a hit! ACA received around $1,200 for this fundraiser and a portion of it will go directly back into our art program at ACA.

We will do one more order for our Gator Apparel in January. Please look for these order forms to come home. This will be the last time this year.

Wednesday, January 15th will be a PTO sponsored bagel breakfast for our ACA teachers.

Tuesday, January 28th from 5:00-8:00 pm will be our second McDonald’s Night. ACA receives 15% of the sales at the drive-thru and inside. ACA received about $300 at our first McDonald’s Night in October.

Monday, February 10th from 7:20-8:00 am will be “Dad and Me Breakfast” for our PreK-1st graders.

Tuesday, February 11th from 7:20-8:00 am will be “Dad and Me Breakfast” for our 2nd-4th graders.

Monday, February 24th will be ACA’s Skate Night at Roebuck Skate Center from 6:00-8:00 pm. The cost will be $4.00 per skater.

Please mark your calendars for BOOSTERTHON! It will be held on Friday, March 14th at ACA. This fund-raiser will start with our kick-off on Wednesday, March 5th. Details will be coming home at the end of Febru-

ary.

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Olweus Anti-Bullying Rules

1. We will not bully others.

2. We will help students who are bullied.

3. We will include students who are left out.

4. If we know that somebody is being bullied, we will tell an adult at school and an adult at home.