Run, Davis, Run!

Many Davis Magnet students woke early on Saturday, January 10, and donned their hats and running shoes and headed downtown to participate in the MS Blues Marathon Kids' Fun Run. It was a chilly morning; even the fountains at Thalia Mara Hall were covered in ice! We had 178 students register for the run, and because of this, Blue Cross Blue Shield recognized Davis with $1500 for our participation! We are already getting excited thinking about what PE/ playground equipment we might use this for!

Davis is so lucky to have such a great IB Coordinator and half-marathon runner, Beth West, organize this for our students. Students even trained with her during their recess, learning the importance of stretching, jogging, and running with a pack. She represents a balanced IB learner and has modeled to the students the importance of balancing the intellectual, physical, and emotional aspects of our lives to achieve well-being.

Enjoy the pictures!

Kindergarteners in the Library

The kindergarteners are transitioning into center time in the library. For the last few weeks the students have been working on computers, reading with partners, and organizing author's last names in alphabetical order. They've also read big books (as in oversized), drew pictures of characters from Chrysanthemum who show empathy, and shared reading in a circle. The students seem very excited to be taking part in these activities. I love having the youngest of our school in our library! They have such energy and enthusiasm for learning!

Here are some pictures of our ABC order activity and partner reading.

Teacher Idiom Day

On Friday, October 31, while the students came to school dressed as cute as a button in clothes that represented a career they would like to pursue (doctors of all types, engineers, soldiers, teachers... to name just a few), the teachers had fun dressing as an idiom. Most of our older students knew what this word meant, but it was a new word for many of our younger learners. Students (and teachers) loved trying to guess which idioms were represented. Some were as easy as pie to guess and some were a pain in the neck. See if you can guess our idioms!

I hope you had as much fun guessing them as we did! Feel free to add a comment if you see an idiom you recognize!
(Sorry to those that were dressed that I didn't get to photograph... one teacher was being driven up a wall, someone had their heart on their sleeve, and someone with their hands tied!)

Lunch in the Library

As students in grades 2-5 have been reading and taking AR quizzes throughout the nine weeks, they have been earning prizes like bookmarks, pencils, and erasers as they work their way to reaching the point goal that has been established for them. (The goals are individualized for each person.) One of the special choices in AR prizes for students in grades 3-5 who reach their point goal is a coupon for lunch and recess in the library. I love that so many students are excited about and choose this option! Students who turn in their lunch coupon are allowed to bring a friend who has also reached 100% of their AR goal. I think this is a great way to celebrate a nine week's worth of reading! Here are some of our recent lunchers-

Some 3rd graders wanted to watch the PBS show SciGirls during their recess time.
SciGirls is a show that features girls putting science and engineering to work
in their everyday lives. I'm a fan of it!

Because it was National School Lunch week, we had parents join us for
Lunch in the Library. One father and son had a good
game of chess going during their recess time!

Reading Fair Exemplars

Please follow this link to the page I posted last year showing some reading fair projects. I hope they will inspire you to be creative and think outside of the box!
http://davispageturner.blogspot.com/2013/11/davis-magnet-reading-fair.html

Remember- Reading Fair projects are due to the school on Friday, October 17. Students will be presenting their projects to their classmates on Monday and Tuesday and the school-wide reading fair will be on Wedensday, October 22. Follow the link to the Davis Magnet webpage to find the Reading Fair packets that were sent home earlier.

Celebrate Reading!

Every year, students in the Jackson Public School District are asked to read and write about 3 books over the summer months to help prevent the loss of reading skills between school years. Davis Magnet students are known to be great readers and participants in this summer reading program. Our school was once again named the Top School in the elementary division for our high number of reading logs that were turned in. Dr. Grigsby received our plaque at the Mississppi Children's Museum's summer reading celebration.

At Davis, we recognized students who completed their 3 summer reading logs by having a school dance in the auditorium with Dr. Grigsby deejaying. Students that read and logged 9 books were allowed to have a blue jean day! Everyone danced and sang and had much fun!

We had 64 Davis students go the extra mile and read and write reading logs for at least 20 books. These students had an additional celebration at the MS Children's Museum by having an evening to themselves to play.

I love that we have so many supportive families that help students read and stay on top of their education... even in the summer! Thank you for your dedication and hard work!


Here are some pictures of the fun (some of them are a little blurry due to the dancing):

Dr. Grigsby and some Davis readers show off our award!

Fourth graders get down!

Second graders play dress up in the library.

I ran into LOTS of former Davis students! Here is a sampling!

The lights in the stairs change colors!