Our fifth graders have just completed a 10-week simulation in The South Carolina Stock Market Simulation. The students researched and choose companies that they thought would perform well over the trading period. Each team had a hypothetical $100,000 in common stocks. They bought, sold and traded stocks to compete for the best portfolio during the simulation.

By participating in the SMS, the students were introduced to how our economic system works. They also strengthen their computer and Internet skills, and learned to work together to make decisions as a team. 

There were a total of 64 teams that participated in the statewide competition. We were the only elementary school in the competition. We competed against one middle school and three high schools from South Carolina.

The Money Makers (Mike Miller, Stockton Wells, and Barron Campbell) placed 2nd in the state. The South Carolina Stock Market Simulation will be awarding each team member a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate! The Strawberry and Grape Nerds (Alexandra McFadden, Moriah Roberts, Landon Bennett, and Zach Barber) missed 3rd place in the state by only $33.50. Six of our teams placed in the top 30. Eight of our teams actually made a total of $13,777.19 in the 10 weeks. That’s pretty good. I think we may just have some future stock brokers.

Betsy Bryan

Togas, baklava, feta cheese, maps, drawings, and Greek lettering -- all these made the Greek festival an appropriate culmination to the study of ancient Greece. For several weeks, sixth grade teachers at Southside Christian have integrated Greek history, culture, science, and literature into their curriculum.

History teacher Denise Stone introduced the project with a discussion of daily life in Greece. The class discussed traditions, as well as the Olympic games and Greek architecture. Nicky Francois learned that "the Greeks used optical illusion in their architecture so it looked perfect from a distance, but it was distorted up close." Students also learned to write their own names in Greek letters, and they studied the geography of Greece.

Math teacher Christie Williams guided students in creating and graphing constellations while English teacher Lana Bennett assisted students in developing stories about their constellations. Anna Reeps wrote her own Greek myth in which Orion tripped over a flower that later became a constellation appearing each night, petal by petal. The students quickly realized that the Greeks worshipped many gods who were each limited in power while Christians worship one God who can do anything.

Having completed their third Greek festival, the sixth grade teachers agree that the most valuable part of this project is the across-the-curriculum approach. "It's a good way to tie in every subject," Mrs. Stone concluded.

The chapel at Southside Christian filled with students as pastors and children's workers from local congregations gathered in the back of the room.  The group lifted their voices in songs of worship, and then Lower School principal Dr. Susan Tucker asked each pastor or children's minister to come to the stage as students from that church joined their pastor. Each pastor shared a favorite verse, Dr. Tucker presented a certificate of appreciation, and students hugged their pastors.

As part of their study on the American Revolution, fourth grade students  visited King’s Mountain.  Surrounded by fall colors and brisk air, students walked through the battle grounds that staged the turning point of the Revolutionary War.  In addition to watching a video presentation on the battle, students meandered through the living history farm, wondering how sixteen to twenty people could live in the small one-bedroom farmhouse.  Many of the students were awed by the blacksmith and carpenter’s shops.  Several students returned home with cotton bolls as a reminder of their trip.  Lead teacher Jessica Larrick was pleased that students had developed a new understanding of how people lived before modern conveniences. 

Lower School students have prepared napkin rings which will be delivered with the Meals on Wheels Thanksgiving dinners on Wednesday, November 22.  The napkin holders, which are turkeys cut from construction paper and stapled in a ring, were the idea of parent volunteers Kathy Nelson and Martha Amador who have completed the project with other groups.  The students were encouraged to write a note of encouragement or a Bible verse on the napkin rings.  From past experience, Mrs. Nelson knows that meals recipients sometimes display the napkins on refrigerators for months after delivery.  The napkin rings were completed in the classrooms by November 15 for presentation during chapel and will be delivered to Meals on Wheels just before Thanksgiving.      

Southside Christian School has greatly expanded its Lower School Spanish Program to include an interactive Spanish Lab. Under the direction of Spanish teacher Isabel McFadden all students in grades 1-5 spend forty-five minutes per week learning basic Spanish in an engaging environment. "I always tell the students that by beginning Spanish now, they could be fluent by high school," Mrs. McFadden says. She wastes little time in her classes, teaching the younger students classroom vocabulary, colors, numbers and adjectives in Spanish, while introducing verb conjugation to her fifth graders. All of her Spanish students are also working on memorizing the school Bible verse, Colossians 3:23-24, in their new language. "I am so impressed by the students’ interest in foreign language. At first, I worried that teaching upper elementary students would be like pulling teeth, but they really drink up the material with enthusiasm!" A native Spanish speaker herself, McFadden is able to express the value of being bilingual from her own experience. Though she has been teaching Spanish at SCS for five years, this is the first year that she has been able to claim a room. Fully decorated with bulletin boards and posters, the lab captivates the students into the realm of foreign language like never before. -- Submitted by SCS senior Kristen Gehrman