January 2015

Mapleton Elementary held their annual Day of Caring on January 30th. Students and families donated hundreds of yards of fleece to make blankets for children at Primary Children's Medical Center. A special thanks to the Nemelka family for organizing this day and cutting the fabric in preparation for the students to tie the quilts. 155 quilts were made and students were truly happy to serve others in this way. Here are several photos from this great project. Way to go Mapleton!

The 5th and 6th grade students were honored to have Mr. Jake Garn visit on Monday, Jan. 26th. Mr. Garn is a past U.S. Senator and was the first member of Congress to fly in space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1985. Students were shown a video with footage from his space flight and Mr. Garn talked to them about the importance of education. He emphasized that he was 27 years old before anything had ever flown in space and how he had no idea that at 53 years old he would orbit the earth 110 times.

The 4th grade classes put together this mural of Martin Luther King.

Mapleton Elementary is learning academic subjects through dance.  Holly Markgraff Mayne is the Nebo District  Dance specialist.  She is helping third grade dance the keyboard to master their touch typing.  Fourth grade students are dancing Utah landforms.  In the photo sixth grade is dancing a Greek myth about the Minotaur.

This year at Mapleton Elementary we will be spotlighting a Student of the Week from each classroom. These students receive a certificate and prize from Mrs. Peery with the chance to be drawn out at the end of each month for "Pizza with the Principal." The focus for the month of January is "Standing Up For What is Right"  The students are selected by their teachers as they show they are standing up for what is right.  Here are the Students of the Week of January 5-9.

The fourth grade was lucky to have Scott 'Grizzly' Sorensen, a mountain man, come to our school in December.  He taught us about mountain men and what it's like to be a mountain man today and back in Utah's early history.  Mr. Sorensen played his Dulcimer and showed us some of his furs and trap.  He told us some mountain man tales and read some excerpts from his new book--Dear Mr. Mountain Man.  The students enjoyed learning about Utah's mountain men and were thrilled to be able to touch some of Mr. Sorensen's furs.  Thank you Mr. Sorensen!

We have many wonderful teachers and staff that work very hard to bring your children a great education and a wonderful environment.  We also have a lot of fun together when we have the chance as you can see here from a faculty Christmas party that we had at the Pizza Factory.  Thank you to Principal Julie Peery for treating all of us to a fun and tasty celebration and faculty get together.

Mapleton’s orchestra is directed by Jessica Knight. The students performed two songs: "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Silent Night" for the Nebo district board.  These students meet multiple times a week before school. The students performed very well and were enjoyed playing.

Kate Cooper and Jaxson Thurgood both presented on the after-school STEM "tech" club available for fourth through sixth grade students at the Nebo district board meeting. This STEM “tech” club is run by Americorp volunteers through a grant from the Boys and Girls Club. Students can sign up to participate in different units including engineering/bridge building and rocket making activities. Kate and Jaxson both love the experiments as they are learning.

Mike Bennett and Kyson Crompton, students who benefitted and excelled from the school’s Math Mastery program in fifth grade, showed their progress from the math enrich provided to the students at a Nebo District board meeting. This included spending time with varying teachers based on math needs during the re-teach and enrich portion of the day. Two trained technicians make math enrichment possible. Teachers can meet with smaller differentiated groups. The students discussed how they love the challenge of math this year.