Our first quarter of the 2024-2025 school year has flown by! Students at Maple are busy growing and learning each and every day. We cannot wait to see what the remaining three quarters of the school year have in store. Here are some October Highlights:

1. Thank you to all of our families who participated in our parent teacher conferences this week. We love sharing all of the things your students have accomplished this year and partner with you for your students growth and education.

2. We hosted our first book fair of the year! It was a very busy stop during the last week of October and we loved seeing students leave with their bags of books excited to read!

3.PTO hosted our fall parties on October 25th. Students had so much fun playing on inflatables, getting their faces painted, creating crafts and playing games.

Dr. Taylor Jahn, Principal, jahnt@smithville.k12.mo.us

Mrs. Abbey Meyer, Assistant Principal, meyera@smithville.k12.mo.us

What a great first quarter it’s been in the Innovation Lab! We have really been working hard on our growth mindset this quarter as well as working on our technology skills.

Looking ahead …

Warrior Preschool/Early Childhood

We will continue looking at patterns, building patterns, and continuing the pattern.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten students have started to learn about the skills engineers use to solve problems. We will continue to work on this through the end of the quarter.

First Grade

First grade students will be working on technology skills and all the special keys on the keyboard.

Second Grade

Students in second grade will be starting our computer programming unit. This is a big skill and we will spend the next couple months learning about it.

Third Grade

Third grade students will be working on our simple machine skate parks which is an engineering project.

Fourth Grade

Students will spend the rest of the quarter working on our Battlebots project, an engineering project.

Fifth Grade

Students in Mrs. Hensley’s class are working on our programming Olympics. This will take us through the end of the first trimester. Don’t forget to come to our showcase night, November 6, from 6-7 PM! Hope you can join us!

Sixth Grade

We have started our second quarter group - Engineering and Design. Students have just now started to work on their projects and I can’t wait to see how these turn out! What a great group of kiddos!

You can see more by following our journey on twitter: @sara_freeman, instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mes_tech_and_innovation_lab , facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MESTechandInnovationLab

Pre K - These students will continue to gain confidence in our equipment! We will start soon on kicking activities with passing, aiming, and scoring!

K - Our Kinders have been moving around and being safe in PE class. We will be breaking up into small groups for certain stations as we introduce soccer. We will start by working on proper kicking motions then work our way up to being able to pass to our classmates on the go!

1st - We will be breaking up into small groups for certain stations as we introduce soccer. We will start by working on proper kicking motions then work our way up to being able to pass to our classmates on the go!

2nd - Our 2nd graders are off to a running start! We will be moving into our fitness stations. They will be introduced to ways we can make our body stronger.

3rd - These students will also be moving into some fitness station in the next couple of weeks. During this time, they will be able to identify what is a lower body workout compared to an upper body workout.

4th-6th - Our older students will be going into our soccer activities. The first day, we break into stations and we are able to show what skills we already understand. Then, we will be moving into small team activities to show off those skills. Some games we will be playing will be: 4 team soccer, dribbling relay, and crab soccer.

Warrior Preschool/Early Childhood -

We will be practicing our steady beat skills by moving, playing new instruments, and singing. We are going to continue doing fall music activities and exploring new types of movement with classical music

K -

Kindergarten students are going to have some fun connecting syllables of shapes, to rhythmic patterns. They will have the opportunity to compose their own music using the sounds of shapes. We are also going to continue practicing our musical opposites.

1-

1st graders are hard at work on their music program Over and Under the Snow. We will be performing this program on Wednesday, December 11th at 6 pm in the Maple Gymnasium.

2-

2nd graders are working on reading solfege on a staff, specifically the patterns using DO, MI, and SOL. We will begin learning about different categories of classroom instruments and how to identify them. In 2nd grade, we are also introducing the half note into our rhythm toolbox.

3-

3rd graders are learning about different periods of music history, we are starting with the Classical period of music. We will learn about prominent composers and musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart. We will also be labeling some more dynamic terms such as “mezzo forte” “mezzo piano”, “crescendo”, and”decrescendo”.

4-
4th graders are hard at work on their music program Be a Star. We will be performing this program on Monday, December 9th at 6 pm in the Maple Gymnasium.

5-

5th graders are wrapping up their trimester in music by writing a parody to a popular song of their choice. We are compiling our projects and preparing to present them at our 5th Grade Showcase Night on November 6th at 6 pm. Come check out their awesome work!

6-

We just started a brand new quarter with brand new 6th graders taking Music Composition and Songwriting! We are going to create a soundtrack that represents our life. We are also going to start using digital creation platforms like Band Lab to create music that represents different moods.

Warrior Preschool/Early Childhood- Warrior preschool & Early childhood will be doing a bat Thankful/Fall theme and showing how we are thankful.

Kindergarten Kindergarten students will be listening to stories about Fall and Thanksgiving.

First Grade First graders will be listening to Fall and thankful stories and creating thank-you cards for someone.

Second Grade Students will be reading Thanksgiving stories and showing ways they can show gratitude for others. We will also be learning about traditions, and discussing different traditions around the world.

Third Grade Third grade students will continue to listen to Missouri Show me picture books, as well as fun Thanksgiving stories. We will do some fun Thanksgiving stem challenges and challenges that will have students work together.

Fourth grade After we finish Freestyle, students will create their own graphic novel. Then we plan on reading more Thanksgiving stories on traditions, and how we can give back to our community.

Fifth grade Fifth grade students have been listening to the Mark Twain book called, The Midnight Children. After students finish reading they will create a new book cover that they think would be fitting for the story.

6th grade - We have started Quarter 2, Books vs. Movies. The first book students voted on was Holes. Once we finish reading the book, we will compare it to the movie.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the bookmark competition. Here are the lucky winners who received a book from the book fair and Mrs. Sissom will print off the winning bookmarks for everyone to take and use!

Kindergarten Students will be creating landscapes with painting and collage.

First Grade Students will start creating seasonal artwork with a variety of techniques.

Second Grade Students will discuss primary and secondary colors. They will create art with a variety of color combinations, and some seasonal artwork.

Third Grade Students will begin discussing the meanings and purpose of artwork. They will discuss how artwork can be abstract or nonobjective. They will explore sculpture techniques and create their own sculpture.

Fourth Grade Students are working on several different painting techniques. They have used tempera paint to create tints and shades, and they will learn several different watercolor techniques. They are even creating different artwork inspired by their musical “Be A Star” coming to you this December.

Fifth Grade students are almost ready to switch to their next Encore Class. We will have art on display at The 5th Grade Showcase November 6th. Ms. Ray’s class will be moving into Art on November 11th. They will begin with a few drawing challenges.

Sixth Grade Students are just beginning their new quarter. Some students have finished their first sculpture, and have started to look at their choices for their self-paced curriculum. They have a variety of choices such as paper mache, clay, plaster sculptures, and handmade paper.

1. If your student(s) is going to have a change in dismissal, please let the office know prior to 3:00 on the day. This helps to ensure that we can properly notify the teacher so that the students get to the proper dismissal location.

2. If you have a student who is going to be absent for the day, please let the office know prior to 9:00. If there is a prolonged period of absence that is planned (vacation) you can notify the office about the entire length of the absence with one communication.

** Communication can come via email or phone call. Please email both Heather Waters at watersh@smithville.k12.mo.us and Alison Camacho at camachoa@smithville.k12.mo.us with your changes in attendance or dismissal. You can also call the Maple front office at 816-532-0589.**

Principal: Dr. Taylor Jahn

Assistant Principal: Mrs. Abbey Meyer

Administrative Assistants: Mrs. Alison Camacho and Mrs. Heather Waters

Nurse/Health Room: Mrs. Annie Frazier

Counselor, Room 122: Mrs. Christina Hough

Part Time Counselor: Ms. Emily Johnson

Behavior Interventionist, Room 119: Mrs. Ashli Ellis

EC, Room 101: Mrs. Genna Cornelisse

Warrior Preschool, Room 106: Mrs. Heidi Uptegrove

Warrior Preschool, Room 102: Mrs. Jeanie Martin

Kindergarten, Room 113: Ms. Syndey Goss

Kindergarten, Room 115: Mrs. Sarah Claytor

Kindergarten, Room 114: Ms. Sarah Madden

1st Grade, Room 139: Mrs. Rhonda Henshaw

1st Grade, Room 141: Mr. Aaron Bowlin

1st Grade, Room 140: Ms. Makenzie Kelly

2nd Grade, Room 136: Mrs. Autumn Marriott

2nd Grade, Room 138: Ms. Jenna Spence

3rd Grade, Room 135: Mrs. Emily Callahan

3rd Grade, Room 134: Mrs: Amber Medley

3rd Grade, Room 133: Mrs. Abrielle Bartley

4th Grade, Room 129: Mrs. Cortney Saxton

4th Grade, Room 131: Mrs. Jennifer Stone

5th Grade ELA, Room 147: Mrs. Loren Ray

5th Grade Science and Social Studies, Room 149: Mrs. Hannah Hensley

5th Grade Math, Room 151: Mrs. Sheri Greenfield

6th Grade ELA, Room 146: Ms. Taylor Broleman

6th Grade Science and Social Studies, Room 148: Mrs. Amy Elliott

6th Grade Math, Room 150: Ms. Amanda Bradberry

Art, Room 125: Mrs. Jenny Haddock

Music, Room 117: Mrs. Reba McNair

PE, Gym: Mr. Zack Anderson

Library: Mrs. Brea Sissom

SLP, Room 105: Mrs. Heather Peterson

SPED, Room 126: Mr. Greg Chastain, Ms. Jina Arellano

Essential Skills, Room 130-Jessi Smith & Marci Riley

Process Coordinator: Mrs. Amanda McClusky and Mrs. Kristen Gromacki

OT/PT, Room 104: Mrs. Susan Holden & Mrs. Natalie Lloyd

Quest, Room 103: Mrs. Paige Scheibe (Grades 5-6)

Quest, Room 128: Mrs. Kassie Reade (Grades 1-4)

Technology and Innovation, Room 116: Mrs. Sara Freeman

Title I Reading, Room 120 & 124: Mrs. Lesa Quinn & Kim Roske

Custodians: Sarah Parks, Willie Kerley

Instructional Assistants-Essential Skills Classrooms: Mrs. Courtney Matthews, Mrs. Randa Blakeslee, Mrs. McKenzie Simmons, Mr. Lance Helton, Mrs. Carmen Williams, Ms. Elizabeth Edwards

Instructional Assistants-Resource Classrooms: Mrs. Kim Miller

Instructional Assistants Early Childhood/PreK: Corrie Cox, Dannel Blackwell, Sara Woolery

Instructional Assistant-Reading, Room 124: Mrs. Josie Benedict

Recess/Cafeteria Aides: Ms. Carolyn Steenrod, Mrs. Jessica Chetto, Mrs. Jessica Thomason, Mrs. Ashleigh Dunlap

Kitchen Staff: Ms. Anna Curtis (manager), Ms. Marisol Morena, Ms. Desiree Renz

The Smithville School District follows the SmartSnacks guidelines for student treats and events. Any snacks provided for birthday treats and classroom events need to follow under these guidelines. The district has information regarding these guidelines as well as an approved snack list available on our website.

November 5th-5th grade Career day field trip

November 6th-5th Grade Trimester 1 Showcase 6pm-7pm

November 8th-Career Day field trips (All grade levels except 5th)

November 11th-Veterans Day-all veterans eat free breakfast and lunch!

November 18th-Picture Make-ups and Retakes

November 20th-Board Meeting 7pm

November 20th-Donuts with Grown-ups (more info coming soon)

November 27th-29th-No School Thanksgiving Break