It's another beautiful day in the garden at Independence High.

These Northwood High students are creating a mini-hammock in Ms. Tonja Thompson's Geometry class.  The students had to use parallel lines and 1 transversal line to create the hammock.  The hammock had to support the weight of a classroom stapler.  This activity helped the students understand parallel and transversal lines.

Martha Vinyard's Cafeteria "The Great Live Pumpkin Patch"

Amite Elementary kindergarten students participated in Jumpstart’s Read for the Record,- a shared reading event on October 8, 2009, as part of a national campaign- to promote early childhood literacy awareness. The event was coordinated by Mrs. Becky Lawson. Special guest readers who read the 2009 campaign book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar for the event were: Mrs. Kay Christmas- Principal (pictured above), Amite City Council woman, Mrs. Rose Sumrall, Amite Kiwanian, Mrs. Lana Hutchinson, Mrs. George Ann Smith-community sponsor and Mrs. Carmen Brabham - assistant administrator.

Over 300 children from DC Reeves Elementary "Beat the Heat" during their first Positive Behavior Support celebration. Students who traded 40 Bee Tickets earned for positive behavior attended the event and enjoyed slushies and games such as water balloon toss, water brigade, and being chased by teachers with water gushers. A total of 20 students per grade level were chosen in a drawing to pair off and try to peel open a frozen T-shirt which had to be pulled over one of the partner's head to win. A great time was had by all students and many are looking forward to the next PBS party in November where Harvey Rabbit and Friends will entertain the 3rd and 4th graders. A special thank you goes to Smitty's Supply, Inc. who sponsored the event.

New at LHS! Through the use of funds gained in the High School Redesign Grant, the Loranger High School Library was able to purchase fourteen books on mp3 players, also called Playaways. Students and teachers may check out the books as part of the library's regular fiction collection. Each title is also part of the Accelerated Reader program, and students may choose to take a quiz on any of the mp3 titles. Additional titles will be added throughout the year.

The Independence Elementary students in Christy Ard's and Megan Rayborn's class practiced subtraction strategies using Qwizdom.  Qwizdom is a computer based question answering system.  Students compete with each other to answer the questions correctly. Each student has a controller, and the answers are automatically input into the Qwizdom software program. 100% engagement is attained when using this new program.

Natalie Watson's 4th graders at Champ Cooper sculpted landforms out of homemade playdough as a Social Studies project. The students then painted the landforms. 

Now in its fourth year, the Champ Cooper Band now has seven flutists who all met during a rehearsal on Thursday.  The Champ Cooper Band is made of 5th through 8th graders, and is under the direction of Mr. Brennan Arceneaux, now in his second year at CCS.  They are busy preparing for their winter concert on December 4, 7:00 p.m, in the Champ Cooper Auditorium.

Marty Simpson from the Kentwood Fire Department visited Spring Creek Elementary and demonstrated how the fire truck works using the hose and sirens. Deroxolyn Spencer's and Lauren Fowler's Pre-K classes were allowed to get in the fire truck and blow the siren.

Richelle Votaw's second graders at O.W. Dillon are working on a math project that Ms. Votaw learned about in numeracy training over the summer.  This flip book gives students a visual of how many it takes of each coin to make $1.00

Tucker Elementary School second graders in the Tucker Book Club read their book, "Werewolves Don't Run for President" and wore their claws for the first Book Club Meeting. Happy Halloween! These second graders read one chapter book each month and meet in the library for snacks and book discussion with Krystle Hyman, librarian.

O.W. Dillon's first PBS celebration for the new school year was "PBS Spirit Week." This week coincided with Kentwood High School's Homecoming week. Outstanding PBS students were allowed to participate in the following activities during Spirit Week: Free Dress Day, Mismatched Shoes and Socks Day, Crazy Hair, Hat and Wig Day, Pajama Day, and Costume Day. Students and staff alike had a blast celebrating together!!!

Amite Elementary recently held a Box Tops Collection Contest. It was a huge success. The collection took place from September 5 until October 5, 2009. A total of 7,408 box tops were collected school wide. Mrs. Candice Wallace’s 3rd grade classes turned in a total of 625 box tops and were the winners of a pizza party provided by the PTO. Box Tops for Education™ has a 12-year history of helping schools earn cash they need — from books and computers, to playground equipment. Amite Elementary will receive the funds from this drive in December 2009.

INDEPENDENCE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS LOVE SPEED STACKS!
Students at IES are excited about physical education!! Robert Hamilton, the new P.E. teacher, has incorporated lots of activities that promote healthy and active students. The one activity students are most excited about are “Speed Stacks.” Speed stacks or cup stacking allows students to develop athleticism, eye hand coordination, ambidexterity, focus, quickness, and bilateral proficiency which is the development of both sides of the brain. Students compete against the clock individually, in relays, with a partner, or as a team. It’s an organized sport that can improve performance in all sports and academics as well.

Students and parents in Alana Tallo's first grade class created alligators using recycled materials. The alligators will be used to decorate their school booth at the Tangipahoa Parish Fair.
Front Row: Addianna Robertson, Kelly Brady, Gabriel Diaz, Jacob Simmons, Kaitlyn Lunk, Peyton Edwards, Joey Doke, Justin Lewis, Kirk Landry. Back Row: Claire Meyers, AnnMarie LaCour, Gage Grashoff, Bruce Fitzgerald, Alexis Bass, Brenna Criswell, Takiyah Alexander, Kennedi Crowe, Amayria Webb, Arshaun Andrews, Jorden Robertson, Zachery McCoy, Chandler Byrd.

Margaret Milazzo's third graders from Natalbany Elementary made a trip to the T3 Lab at C.M. Fagan for the very first Video Conference in Tangipahoa Parish School System. Colette Taillon, Instructional Technology Facilitator, organized the video conference for Constitution Day with a Museum in Ohio. Students received a forty-five minute lesson on the Constitution, participated in hands-on activities and communicated live with the "teacher" in Ohio.  Each school in TPSS is in the process of receiving Video Conferencing equipment thanks to Deborah Forshag, Director of Federal Programs.

Mrs. Crow’s students created a painting in Mrs. Amos’s art class by squirting paint across a large canvas.

Katherine Johnson's 3rd grade Accelerated Magnet Program students at Hammond Westside Primary are learning how to make bar graphs. To make this fun and interesting, the children used M&M's.

Five of seven third grade teachers at Amite Elementary School coincidentally wore black and white to school on Thursday. The teachers have been discussing the vocabulary word, “coincidence,” and decided to use their dress in order to visually demonstrate the word. Teachers gathered and questioned students in order to determine the vocabulary word they represented. Students immediately chose the appropriate word and connected the visual demonstration with the new terminology being presented.

When Hammond Eastside Upper opened its doors this year, the students were surprised by the school's new makeover. Over the summer, Rene Fletcher (art teacher) and Ellen Sweetman (music teacher) donated several days painting Louisiana themes on the walls. Everyone is invited to come and see the new look.