🐾 Paws-itive vibes in 8th-grade Spanish! 🐶❤️

Our 8th graders had an extra special visitor last week! Cody the Therapy Dog stopped by Spanish class to support and connect with our students. From tail wags to cozy classroom moments, Cody brought plenty of smiles, comfort, and encouragement to everyone.✨
14 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
A student sits at his classroom desk petting a golden retriever therapy dog as classmates look on.
A therapy dog sits attentively on the classroom floor, looking up toward a teacher holding its leash.
Two students sit on the classroom floor and gently pet a golden retriever therapy dog standing nearby.
A student kneels on the carpeted classroom floor to pet a visiting golden retriever therapy dog.
A student sits at a desk and pets a happy golden retriever therapy dog visiting the classroom.
A student reaches down from a classroom chair to pet a golden retriever therapy dog.
Two students sit at their classroom desks while petting a golden retriever therapy dog standing between them
A student laughs joyfully while petting a golden retriever therapy dog alongside a classmate.
Two students lean down from their classroom desks to gently pet a golden retriever therapy dog.
🌱🫘 Counting Beans! 🫘🌱

2nd grade just kicked off their 2nd math unit with a little Jack and the Beanstalk magic! 🌱 After listening to the story, students estimated how many magic beans were in a bag. Then, they worked together to count and sort their beans into groups of 1s, 10s, and 100s. We had fun practicing making estimates, our counting skills, and building our understanding of place value! 💚
14 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
Three young students smiling at the camera while sitting on a classroom rug with a place value mat and counting beans.
Three elementary students sitting on a classroom carpet, sorting dry beans on a colorful place value mat.
Three elementary students sitting on a classroom carpet, sorting dry beans on a colorful place value mat.
Two students kneeling on the floor, organizing dry beans into place value columns labeled ones, tens, and hundreds.
Two students kneeling on the floor, organizing dry beans into place value columns labeled ones, tens, and hundreds.
Three smiling students sitting on a classroom rug next to a place value mat during a bean-counting math activity.
Three students leaning over a colorful place value sheet on the floor to count and arrange small dry beans.
A teacher guiding students sitting around a table as they sort beans into small cups on a place value mat.
Students working at classroom tables using paper cups and place value mats for a hands-on counting activity.
Three students collaborating at a desk, placing beans into small paper cups arranged on a place value mat.
🌋 Peer editors and math partners at work in 4th grade! 🧮📝

Our 4th-grade Falcons have been diving deep into research on natural disasters! After gathering key facts and writing their essays, students teamed up today for peer editing and revising to help each other polish their work. 🌪️📖

Over in math class, collaboration was also in full swing! Students worked with partners to build ratio tables of multiples and discover smart patterns within problem strings. 📊💡
14 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
Two students, a boy in a green shirt and a girl with red hair, working on a laptop at a desk with papers
Two boys sitting side-by-side at classroom desks looking at laptop screens and papers.
Two girls sitting at connected classroom desks working side-by-side on their laptops
Two boys sitting on round blue stools at a classroom desk using laptops and paper worksheets.
Two smiling students sitting at classroom desks working on laptops with worksheets and water bottles.
Two girls sitting at classroom desks working together on a laptop screen titled "Tsunamis".
Two students sitting on the classroom floor writing with pencils on a long strip of white paper
Two boys sitting at desks studying a long numbered paper strip with pencils and a laptop nearby.
A boy standing over a classmate who is seated at a desk writing on a long paper strip.
A boy and a girl sitting together at desks working on a paper strip activity with pencils.
🌕 Hands-on learning is in full orbit in 5th grade! 🚀

Our Salem Falcons got their hands messy while diving into the lunar cycle! 🌔 Students explored how the Moon’s position relative to Earth and the Sun shapes the different phases we see in the night sky each month. From New Moon to Full Moon, our young scientists showed out-of-this-world curiosity and creativity!
15 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
A student wearing a light blue NASA shirt sitting at a classroom desk with shaving cream on their hand and desk.
A smiling student in a red shirt sitting at a desk covered in shaving cream while holding a small soccer ball.
A boy wearing a blue palm tree shirt smiling at the camera with shaving cream smeared on his nose and chin.
A student smiling at her classroom desk with white shaving cream spread across her desk and hands.
Two students standing by their desks, holding up hands covered in white shaving cream during a classroom activity
Two boys showing shaving cream on their hands and desks, with one student having a small dab of cream on his nose.
Two elementary students sitting at their classroom desks playing with piles of white shaving cream on their desk surfaces
Three elementary students sitting at connected desks smiling while holding up hands covered in white shaving cream.
Mrs. Russell’s class has been engaged in meaningful learning all day long! 📚✏️ From exploring ratio tables in math to enjoying a good book in the library, our Falcons have been busy learning and growing! 🦅
15 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
Two students kneeling on the classroom floor and writing numbers on a long paper strip during a lesson.
Two elementary students working together on a rug, gluing paper strips for a hands-on activity.
Two smiling students sitting on the floor with notebooks and a long numbered paper strip project.
Two students smiling while sitting on the classroom floor with scissors, paper, and pencil supplies.
Three students sitting on the floor in a circle, smiling while assembling paper strips with glue
A student sitting on tiered library seating with colorful round cushions while reading a book.
A young boy wearing a red shirt sitting on a carpeted platform in the library and holding an open book.
Three elementary students smiling while reading books in a library seating area decorated with plush dolls.
Three students reading books while sitting and lying down on the carpeted floor in a library aisle.
Practice makes progress! 🎯🎳 Our 1st graders have been focusing on underhand throwing in PE, and they got to put that skill to work in a game of Pin Knockdown!

To succeed, our Falcons had to combine proper throwing mechanics with communication and teamwork to knock down target pins. Seeing our young students build physical literacy, motor control, and peer encouragement is what PE is all about. Keep soaring high, 1st grade! 🦅✨
15 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
A young student rolling a red ball toward plastic bowling pins during a gym class activity.
Children running across a gym court to pick up and throw colorful balls during an indoor game.
Students actively throwing and dodging colorful balls during a physical education game in the gym.
Young elementary students playing a bowling game in the center circle of a school gym court
A long line of colorful play balls arranged across a school gymnasium floor during a student activity.
Young students playing with colorful balls on a school gymnasium floor during PE class.
Young elementary students gathered near plastic bowling pins on a basketball court in a school gymnasium
1, 2, 3... 100! 🫘💯

Our 2nd graders at Salem School District took math into their own hands today, counting their way all the way up to 100 beans! 📊✨

Hands-on learning is in full swing as our young Falcons build number sense, practice skip-counting, and show off their amazing focus. Every single bean counts when you’re building a strong math foundation!
16 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
Elementary students at a table working with math workbooks, pencils, water bottles, and dried bean counters.
Three elementary students sit at a classroom table, counting dried beans while filling out math workbooks.
Elementary school students work together at a desk, using dried beans as math manipulatives with their workbooks
Young students sit around a classroom table during a math lesson, arranging small dried beans into groups on their desks.
Elementary students at a table organize small piles of dried beans on their open workbooks during a math activity.
Checkmate! ♟️✨

Our Chess Scholars kicked off their very first session last night! It was incredible to see students diving into the art of chess—learning strategic thinking, problem-solving, and sportsmanship while having a blast together.

We can't wait to see their skills grow this season! 🧠👏
16 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
Students playing chess at round tables in a school library while an instructor holds up a demonstration board in the background.
Students seated at round tables practicing chess while a teacher demonstrates tactics on a vertical chess board.
A huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out for Session 1 of our Community Education exercise class! 🏋️‍♂️💪 It was incredible seeing our Falcon family move, sweat, and bring so much energy to the school.
17 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
A group of adult women pose for a selfie holding hand weights during a fitness class in a gym.
Students in Ms. Kennedy's class are working hard learning the difference between a subject and predicate! Great job first graders!
17 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
A young student using scissors at a classroom desk to cut out paper strips for a sentence sorting activity.
A student at a desk carefully cutting paper strips for a classroom sentence structure activity.
A student wearing a paper birthday crown smiles at the camera while cutting paper for a grammar worksheet.
A smiling young student wearing a unicorn shirt sitting at her desk during a cut-and-paste sentence activity.
A student smiling at her desk next to her glued "Sort the Sentence Parts" worksheet.
A completed "Sort the Sentence Parts" worksheet displaying paper strips organized under Subject and Predicate columns.
Learning through play! 🎳🎯 Mrs. Veium’s kindergarten class worked on their throwing accuracy and coordination today during a game of Battleships! The mission? Team up to knock down the other team's bowling pins before theirs got taken out! 💥
17 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
Young elementary students standing on a blue mat during an indoor bowling game in the gymnasium.
Young students aiming and throwing colorful balls at plastic bowling pins during PE class.
Elementary students holding colorful balls on a blue mat while participating in a gym activity.
Young children actively throwing balls at plastic bowling pins in the school gymnasium.
A young student winding up to throw a purple ball at plastic bowling pins during gym class.
Smiling elementary students throwing colorful balls on a blue gym mat during a bowling activity.
🌿 Ecosystems are coming to life in science class! Our students built their very own mini-habitats and ecosystems to take a closer look at how living things interact with their environments. 🦊🌳
17 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
Students sitting at classroom lab tables working on a hands-on science project with laptops open.
Middle school students collaborating on a science activity at group tables in a bright classroom.
A grid of clear Petri dishes holding milkweed bugs, labeled for a science lab observation.
Top-down view of small black and orange insects inside a labeled clear plastic Petri dish
5th grade students got their hands messy learning about the phases of the moon! Students explored how the Moon's position relative to Earth and the Sun causes us to see different phases throughout the lunar cycle. Shaving cream and Oreos made learning about new moons, crescents, quarters, gibbous moons, and full moons extra fun!
18 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
Two students using sandwich cookies and plastic knives on a science worksheet to model the phases of the moon.
Students sitting at classroom desks using sandwich cookies and paper plates to learn about moon phases.
A student placing sandwich cookies onto a moon phases activity sheet during a hands-on classroom science lesson.
🖤 Edgar Allan Poe with a Falcon twist! 🦅

Our 8th-grade ELA students have been diving into suspense by rewriting The Tell-Tale Heart from a brand-new character's point of view! Packed with spine-chilling dialogue and eerie sensory details, these stories kept everyone on the edge of their seats.

Students took a vote to crown the most suspenseful narrative—and the talent in the room was downright scary! 😱✨ We love seeing our Falcons flex their creative writing skills and bring classic literature to life in such an engaging way.
18 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
Computer screen displaying an interactive Padlet board with student narrative submissions and voting categories for a Tell-Tale Heart assignment
A monitor displaying a slide titled 'Police POV Narrative- The Tell Tale Heart' with assignment instructions and a woodcut illustration.
Students in Mrs. Cummings first grade class have been learning about subjects, predicates, and complete sentences. They practiced identifying complete sentences with a spider sentence craft.
18 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
Young elementary students working at a desk, cutting and gluing yellow paper sentence strips to build Halloween spider crafts.
Students at a classroom table using scissors and glue to construct spider crafts with printed sentence legs
A smiling young student sitting at a classroom table displaying a finished paper spider craft with sentence strip legs.
Three elementary students smiling while holding up their completed colorful paper spider sentence crafts.
Four students sitting together at a table and excitedly displaying their finished spider crafts made with sentence strips
Elementary students at classroom desks carefully cutting yellow sentence strips to assemble paper spider craft projects.
A completed paper spider craft with a purple face, blue bow, and yellow paper strip legs displaying printed sentences
Our PLTW (Project Lead The Way) App Design students are taking their creativity to the next level as they dive into their very first game design project! Our Salem Falcons are learning key coding logic, user interface design, and problem-solving techniques to bring their original game concepts to life from scratch.

We can’t wait to see—and test play—the finished products. Keep innovating and building, Falcons! 🦅💙
19 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
Students sitting around a long table working on laptops and tablets in a classroom.
Students focused on using laptops and tablets at wooden classroom desks during a lesson.
A student focused on using a laptop and tablet at a classroom desk.
Students sitting around a long table working on laptops and tablets in a classroom
Students collaborating and reviewing work together on laptops at a shared table.
Football, basketball, kickball—Open Gym has it all! 🏈🏀⚽ Our Salem Falcons love choosing and organizing their own games. This week, students chose football. Student leadership in action! Go Falcons! 🦅💙
19 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
Wide view of students playing on a basketball court inside a spacious school gymnasium.
A student preparing to throw a football during an indoor open gym activity on the basketball court.
Students participating in open gym on a basketball court in front of a stage with blue curtains.
A student getting ready to pass a football to classmates during a gym game on the school court.
Students running across the gymnasium floor during an active indoor football game in open gym.
New to 6th grade this year is a stand-alone REACH class that gives students the opportunity to develop their strengths and address their needs in ELA and Math by collaborating with one another. Way to help each other out Falcons!
19 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
2 middle school students working together at a table that has many class materials on it.
2 middle school students sitting on the carpet in the classroom working together on their classwork.

Last week, Ms. Longrie's dad, Firefighter Aaron, came to talk about fire safety with the whole first grade for Fire Safety Week. He talked about making sure everyone checks their fire alarms, makes a meeting spot, and finds two ways to get out of your home in case of emergency. The kids enjoyed watching me dress up in the gear, practicing staying low and go and learning how to stop, drop, and roll!

20 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
A firefighter in full gear stands beside a fire official giving a fire safety presentation to students in front of a projection screen.
A firefighter in full gear crawls on the floor to demonstrate safety techniques during a school fire safety presentation.
A fire official points to a display screen titled "Our job in a fire" while teaching students fire safety rules
A firefighter stands next to a large projection screen displaying "Sparky's Fire Safety Tips" during a school assembly.
Students seated in an auditorium listen to a fire safety presentation titled "Hot things can hurt".
Ms. Longrie with Firefighter Aaron talking about fire safety in a presentation
🏛️ Location, location, location... in 3000 BCE! 🌾

Our creative 6th-grade Social Studies students turned back the clock and put on their real estate agent hats! To demonstrate their knowledge of Ancient Sumer, our Falcons designed custom real estate flyers highlighting prime Fertile Crescent perks—from rich soil and revolutionary irrigation systems to waterfront views along the Tigris and Euphrates. 🌊✨

Would you make the move to Mesopotamia? Check out some of their impressive, hands-on projects! 📜🏠
20 days ago, Jennifer Griffith
A student smiling at her desk while working on an illustrated poster project about Sumerian city-states in Mesopotamia.
A student using colored pencils at a classroom desk to create a promotional poster about Sumerian city-states.
A smiling student at her desk displaying her completed pink poster project on Sumerian city-states.
A student wearing glasses smiling next to her social studies poster detailing facts about Sumerian city-states.
: A student holding up a hand-drawn poster titled "Why You should move to Sumerian City-States".
Students smiling at their desks in a classroom surrounded by art supplies and posters about Sumerian city-states.