Vol 45: Issue 2 (October 2023)
Welcome to our October Blog!
Hello November!
We’re halfway through our first semester!
From Independence Day to Fall Break,
our month at ACA has been rich and full.
Take a virtual walk down memory lane with us,
as we bring you all the fresh highlights
from our cultural heritage month of OCTOBER…
"WELCOME BACK to our Monthly Blog!" – October 2023
ACA’s Monthly Blog remains your number one destination and visual insight into life across school at the American Christian Academy and in your child’s classrooms.
Welcome to our October Blog!
In this month’s highlights, we bring you a special school-wide “Swimming at ACA” highlight, with photos from PE classes from Crèche through 12th Grade. All across school, we kicked off the month celebrating Nigeria’s Independence Day and said “WELCOME!” to our new Student Body Government (SBG) and a Special Guest.
Our Monthly Class Features takes you on a walk into your child’s classroom (indoors and outdoors), bringing you class activities from all across school. For the very first time, we have class features from every class/grade! This month, we have special carousel galleries from student presentations, full-screen student artwork, a fun Instagram video reel highlight from World Migratory Bird Day at IITA this past month, and so much more! Look out for the different ways that we are incorporating 21st century technology into the classrooms in innovative ways, from Preschool through High School.
We kicked off our Club Highlights for the school year. Stop by this section to have a look at some of our extracurricular activities so far this semester.
Make sure you scroll all the way down to the end for a very special highlight from our ACA Staff, with our Staff Retreat 2023, and more.
There is something for EVERYONE!
Sit back and enjoy!
Welcome to ACA!
“EVERY CHILD IN THE IMAGE OF GOD…”
“Every Child is made in the Image of God, and is therefore of Inestimable Worth” — our Core Value # 1
Welcome to the American Christian Academy!
Here at ACA, we celebrate children of all backgrounds. Our teachers are dedicated to giving every child the love, attention, education and nourishment they need at each stage to thrive, and we believe in the importance of knowing each child by name, serving, and catering to their needs, while raising them (with increasing independence) to become responsible adults. It is our goal to see every child flourish in God’s purpose. We are dedicated to developing students who are fully equipped to flourish in tertiary institutions and beyond, students who are servant leaders that will create lasting solutions to meet human needs, students who embody godly character, students who enjoy and are passionate about their identified and developed gifts and talents, and students who understand that everyone is created in God’s image and likeness and for His glory. We thrive on a foundation of excellence.
— American Christian Academy (Nigeria) on LinkedIn
Follow us on our social media channels (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn) for more!
ACA's Monthly Highlights
(OCTOBER 2023)
ACA Celebrates Nigeria
INDEPENDENCE DAY 2023 – OCTOBER 1
Celebrated on Monday, October 3
To celebrate the Independence Day of our dear home country Nigeria, students and staff were encouraged to dress in green and white or native attire. Here are a few highlights!
View our 1-minute Instagram reel/slideshow and follow us @ACAOneFamily for more.
Swimming at ACA!
This past month, we officially launched our new pool!
ACA staff (coordinators and admin), parents (represented by the PTA Exco) and some of our “Praying Moms” officially dedicated our new pool unto God in prayer and with thanksgiving, praying for the safety of our students and for the entire swimming experience at ACA.
Scroll through our “Monthly Class Features” for highlights from each class (Crèche through 12th Grade) during our new PE Swimming classes, and stay tuned for our “Swimming at ACA” video highlight on Instagram this month! For now, here are some of our favorite views featuring our new swimming pool and wading pool:
This Month's Special Guest: ACA's Favorite Grandma!
This past month, we were excited to welcome back Grandma Monie, ACA’s favorite Grandma, affectionately known as “Ms Karen’s Mom”. As the mother of our Principal, she is very central to the vision and birthing of ACA, having worked in education and missions herself. We are always happy to have her back at ACA, and once she’s here, she misses no corner of campus, spreading happy cheer or just observing, and finding herself in almost every classroom! Scroll through our Monthly Class Features to see some of what Grandma Monie was up to with our younger students.
"Once a teacher, always a teacher! I’m so happy to back at ACA where memories are so alive - like teaching 1st grade many years ago in what’s now the admin block and counting the number of places my husband and I have stayed on this compound. Such happy students and committed teachers! My heart is filled with joy, just like it was when we first went to Cameroon in 1961 to work with leprosy patients with whom we shared a very close relationship. After being married 60 years, the love of my life graduated to heaven in 2015. I found that life was not over. A new chapter opened and since then, I’ve been blessed to help people who are experiencing “end of life” illness as well as those who have experienced a death in their family. It’s been refreshing to come back to ACA, read stories with Preschool-3rd grade children, visit classes and swim in the new pool!"
Grandma Monie Fluth
"Mrs. Karen's Mom"
ACA's New SBG (Student Body Government) 2022–2023
CAMPAIGNS AND OATH-OF-OFFICE
This past month, Middle & High School students held their campaigns and elections for our new Student Body Government (SBG). It was a democratic process involving campaigns, speeches and elections for our SBG Exco (Executive Committee) positions of Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary, while last year’s Vice President, Mojisola Kuti, gave her first speech as SBG President of the 2023–2024 academic year. Class teachers appointed Class Representatives in each class, while the newly elected SBG Exco appointed SBG Representatives in each class. We are looking forward to seeing how our new Student Body Government leads this year! CONGRATULATIONS to all our newly appointed/elected SBG Exco, SBG Representatives and Class Representatives.
Stay tuned for a full SBG feature next month (in our November Blog) and see what special week-long event our SBG kicked off their 2023-2024 tenure with!
Fire Drill
Our entire ACA family on campus participated in a Fire Drill this past month. Fire Drill Assemblies were conducted all across school earlier in the week, to highlight fire procedures and safety measures, to remind all students and staff of the need for calm, orderly and timely response, to create awareness of clearly marked pathways and muster stations for each section of the school, to ensure that all teachers and building supervisors have their folders up-to-date with all names of all students and staff listed in each section of the school, and to make sure that staff leaders know what to do in the case of different emergency scenarios.
We remain committed to the safety of our students and our entire ACA Family, including fire safety, and we carry out Fire and Lockdown Drills every semester.
Canva for Education at ACA
We are happy to announce that ACA is now a Canva for Education campus! All students and teachers now have access to Canva Pro tools for free within our ACA One Family network. Our students are able to explore, develop useful skills, learn in new ways and work independently, while teachers are able to incorporate 21st century technology into the classroom in line with our core values.
Lessons can become even more engaging, fun, interactive and visually appealing for both teachers and students. Teachers have access to high-quality education templates, presentations and teaching aids, and students are able to build technical, artistic and visual communication skills, such as creating animated slideshows and project presentations, editing videos, designing graphics, building websites, incorporating useful learning tools, applying color theory in design, etc. Between teachers and students, it powers creation and collaboration.
Check out 6th Grade’s “Our History Scrapbook” group projects in our Monthly Class Features (Middle School) to see what some of our students are already doing in History class with Canva Pro!
Monthly Class Features
COME! Let’s Take a Walk into our ACA Classrooms…
Preschool
CRÈCHE – NURSERY: It’s Swimming Time!
Crèche, Pre-Nursery and Nursery students have been have been having a fun time in our new Wading Pool during PE class. The tears and wails in the very first class quickly transitioned into laughs and shrills! We are proud of our young students for overcoming their fears and trying something new, and getting more comfortable in the water!
CRÈCHE: Red Day
Crèche students have been learning all about the color “red” this month!
PRE-NURSERY: Recess!
It’s play time! Time spent out during play is just as important as time spent in the classrooms. For our young ones, we emphasize learning through play and let them explore freely.
PRE-NURSERY: Learning the Sight Word “Run”
NURSERY: Learning the Color “Green”
Creating a green snake through painting was an enjoyable way to learn about the color green.
NURSERY: Learning the Sight Word “Up”
Having fun with balloons made learning the sight word ‘up’ an enjoyable experience!
NURSERY: The Diamond Shape
The students decorated a worksheet featuring the diamond shape as part of their learning experience
Pre-K – KG: It’s Swimming Time! (PE)
Our young swimmers had a wonderful time in the big pool! Some of our KG students are swimming all across on their own, while our Pre-K swimmers got to all the way down to the deep end (guided & supervised in their floatation rings) in a long straight line! We’re happy seeing our young students more comfortable in the pool, and learning this healthy and life-saving skill while having fun.
Click the < > arrows to view our gallery below, and scroll to the very end to see our long line of Pre-K swimmers, all the way to the deep end!
Pre-K: Star of the Week
Every week, a Pre-K student is awarded “Star of the Week”, as a a reward for continuously making good choices that week. Our students are often asked, “Are you making a good choice or a poor choice?”
Whether it be listening to your teacher, walking in line, clearing your table, putting away folders in the right places, carrying out your morning routines quietly, or being a good friend, we encourage our young students to always remember to make good choices and take responsibility for their actions.
Here’s just one of our “Stars” from this past month. We look forward to stopping by our Pre-K board again sometime soon, to see who’s up next!
Pre-K: Storytelling with Grandma Monie
Our young students all across ACA enjoyed a special visit from happy and active Grandma Monie this past month. We always looked forward to a story! In Pre-K Bible class, this story highlighted how special every child is.
Pre-K: Mystery Reader!
Every Tuesday, a surprise parent comes to read our Pre-K children a story!
Pre-K Math: Subitizing
Pre-K students are learning to recognize the number of a small group of items at a glance without counting.
Pre-K Literacy: Beginning Sounds
“Find and color the object on each line that begins with the letter…”
KG Social Studies: Family
In this lesson, KG students learned that in our little families, we are all connected. There are different kinds of families, but one thing was clear — Family brings JOY! Look at all the smiles on these young faces! As our teacher mentioned the names of each child’s brother or sister or mom or dad, we got the widest smiles, deepest laughs and highest shrills… It seemed even more than the joy of recess!
Ms Tosin also reminded us that we are all one big family, no matter our skin color, and that our Heavenly Father loves us so much! But what makes each family special? We ended this lesson by watching a short excerpt from “A Family is a Family is a Family” to highlight that from a child’s perspective, our families may be different in many ways, but the same in the one way that matters most of all — there are people around us who we love and love us.
KG Library: Independent Reading
After a storytelling session, KG students were asked to pick out a book to read quietly. And at the end of each library session, they get to check-out a book to read at home!
KG ICT: The Keyboard
KG students are learning how to type using both hands and all ten fingers on the keyboard. They are learning the middle row alphabet keys A-S-D-F…
KG Science: Effects of Wind on a Tower
KG students made little tower structures out of cardboard and tried fanning and blowing to see the possible different effects of wind on a tower.
KG Literacy: Reading Comprehension
Finding the main idea in a reading passage
Elementary School
LOWER ELEMENTARY (1ST–3RD GRADE) PE: Swimming!
LOWER ELEMENTARY (1ST–3RD GRADE) Phonics: The “SH” Sound
With a fun game of whack-a-mole, students identified the “sh” sound.
1ST GRADE Devotion: Storytime with Grandma Monie!
There’s a special place in Grandma Monie’s heart for First Graders, as she was once a 1st Grade teacher herself! Now back as a beloved special guest, she visited our classroom several times this past month!
This particular week (pictured below), Grandma Monie read a story titled, “My Child, My Princess” reminding our little ones that we are all special and unique, and don’t have to try to be someone else. Our young princess in this story runs away from home, thinking that it might be easier to be like the “peasant children” in the neighborhood and play in the streets all day. Surely they are having a lot more fun than she is… Or are they?
When this Princess disobeys and rebels against the wishes of her father, the King, she learns the beauty of her unique identity, and her father’s forgiveness and patience vividly remind us of God’s unconditional love. Indeed, every girl (and boy!) is a princess (or prince); a child of the King. What can our young princes and princesses learn about forgiveness? How can they remain true to who they are?
1ST GRADE Science: Investigation in Science
Can you guess what our First Graders were investigating in this week’s Science class?
1ST GRADE Math: Writing Numbers in Words
1st Grade students are learning how to write numbers 11–20 in words. Together in different groups, they explored different ways to write numbers.
1ST GRADE Science: Identifying Animals and their Babies
2ND GRADE Science: Planting Bean Seeds
“We learned about the major parts of a plant – the root, stem, leaves and flowers, and we considered the conditions necessary for the bean plant to grow – space, water, sunlight, soil and air. Our-pre-planting process involved clearing our bed, making ridges, picking out unwanted particles, and loosening the soil. Afterwards, we dug the ground, planted the beans, watered the soil and added manure to it.
Watch our plant grow!”
Scroll through the image carousel below, using the < > arrows, to experience our planting process!
3RD GRADE Science: All about Fossils!
Our 3rd Graders learned all about fossils in Science class this month! In our “Paleontologists at ACA” practical lesson, our young paleontologists, complete with their hats, goggles, and other earth & safety tools they had discussed, went digging for chocolate chip “fossils” in cookies. Did the rest of the chocolate chip cookies end up in our mouths? Tap on the < > arrows to scroll through our photo gallery below and see what we were up to!
3RD GRADE Art: Nature Walk
Who doesn’t love art class outdoors! 3rd Graders enjoyed their nature walk and were challenged with coloring only the elements of nature that they observed. They were also encouraged to focus on coloring between the lines.
3RD GRADE with Grandma Monie: A Bible Lesson, a Story and a Song!
One week, it was a Bible story with a very special lesson, and another week, it was a story with a message and a song! Grandma Monie was back once again to remind students that they are special.
3RD GRADE Devotion: The Man with No Friends — Zacchaeus
“Though Zacchaeus was a bad man and people avoided him, Jesus treated him like a good man, and that kindness made him change his ways. We can extend kindness to people despite the wrong things they do, so they can change their ways and come to know God.” – Ms Veronica
UPPER ELEMENTARY (4TH–5TH GRADE) PE: Swimming!
4TH GRADE Science: Habitats – Biotic and Abiotic Factors
What is a Habitat?
How do you define and identify different habitats?
What are the biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) factors that are unique to each habitat?
Our young scientists tackled these questions, and through a series of practical lessons, we can say that they are growing into “habitat experts” of their own! This was followed by a lesson on internal and external stimuli within habitats and how living things respond to them.
In their different worksheets, 4th Graders put their lesson into practice by classifying animals into herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. And then with flash cards, they identified different animals and classified them into air, land and sea, while specifying some of the different climatic and vegetational features that surround each creature in their habitat.
4TH GRADE Math: Mental Math – Multiples!
How do you perform quick arithmetic operations on large numbers that are multiples of ten or five?
Do the several zeros or seven digits scare you?
4th Graders are becoming much faster in their additions, subtractions, multiplications & divisions, and tackling larger numbers! It was a race to see who would finish first (and accurately!) as their hands shot up with their little markerboards revealing their different answers. Following this, they were reminded of the proper way to group zeros in their answers as they learned how to read large numbers quickly. It was a fun and interactive lesson.
4TH GRADE Literacy: Writing with Nouns
4TH GRADE Independent Work Session:
Students are encouraged to put to practice whatever skills they have just been taught
5TH GRADE Science Presentation: Natural Cycles
After creating beautiful and well-constructed visuals, 5th Graders gave their oral presentations on the Water Cycle, Nitrogen Cycle, and Carbon & Oxygen Cycle in different groups, using their detailed cycles as visual learning aids. Scroll through our gallery below with the < > arrows, and click on the images to have a closer look at our natural cycles!
5TH GRADE Art: “Swimming with my Friends” (Painting)
It was our last class in the junior art room! 5th Graders were asked to draw and paint a picture of “Swimming with my Friends” during art class. We’re excited to resume art classes in the larger senior/main art room along with Middle and High Schoolers!
5TH GRADE Bonus Activity Pack: Coloring Activity
“Life is about Always Learning”
5th Graders get a bonus activity pack of fun and academic activities every month. They always have something fun, educational and expressive to keep them busy between lessons. Here are a few students (pictured) working through a motivational poster that reminds them that life is about always learning. What wonderful colors! We see budding artists!
Middle School
MIDDLE SCHOOL (6TH–8TH GRADE) PE: Swimming!
6TH Grade History Project: Our History Scrapbook
6th Graders are learning about world history in fun, engaging and creative ways, while incorporating modern tools and building technological skills! In this independent group project, students were put into different groups and tasked with carrying out their research and coming up with 5 animated designs with Canva Pro tools (Canva for Education) given these prompts:
- Design a comic strip about a historical event
- Design a poster advertising a historical event
- Design an infographic about a historical figure
- Design a graphic that tells a 6-word story from history
- Design a poster about the impact of a historical event
Students compiled their presentations into beautifully animated videos, complete with motion graphics and a bibliography of sources at the end. Who knew History could be this fun! Scroll through our gallery below with the < > arrows to view some “pages” from our digital History Scrapbook entries:
6TH GRADE Music: Note Identification and Key Signatures
Our music students can now identify keys with up to 5 sharps in the bass clef! They learned note identification and how to properly name all notes in the musical staff as defined by these key signatures, within each staff and in ledger lines above and below.
iPads were introduced to these young students as part of ACA’s iPad program in 4th Grade (2 years ago), and it’s wonderful to see their growth and advancement in learning! Music lessons often involve a game of “Kahoot!” or note identification on their iPads, and learning has become more fun and engaging all-round. Students are able to develop independent study habits and work at their own pace.
6TH GRADE Math Quiz: Prime Factorization Quiz!
7TH GRADE Art: Painting in the style of Georgia O’Keeffe
Our 7th Graders have been studying the style of Georgia O’Keeffe, 20th century American modernist artist (painter and draftswoman). Here’s the artwork from all our young artists!
7TH GRADE French: La phrase négative avec ne — pas
Students got a lot of practice constructing different negative sentences in French with the most common ne + [verb] + pas. With proper grammatical tools, they are learning to negate statements, express disagreement, make contradictions and deny the occurrence of an event or action.
7TH GRADE Business: Marketing Mix Elements
Marketing Mix consists of 7 key elements of a marketing strategy, commonly referred to as the 7 P’s of Marketing: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Packaging and Process. It is a blend of strategies used to drive business and successful product promotion. 7th Graders gave their individual project presentations on “Marketing Mix Elements” and worked on a group project on marketing mix – “Promotion”. See our young entrepreneurs as they discussed in their different groups… We are looking forward to seeing how they grow!
8TH GRADE: World Migratory Bird Day at IITA!
@ACAOneFamily on Instagram: ACA Celebrates World Migratory Bird Day
This past month, the IITA Forest Center invited ACA with selected 8th Grade students to commemorate World Migratory Bird Day – a global event celebrated annually on the second Saturday in October. It is a day set aside by the United Nations Environment Programme to raise awareness about migratory birds, and the need for international cooperation to conserve them. This year’s theme focused on “Water: Sustaining Bird Life”, highlighting the importance of water to migratory birds.
What role do we have to play?
Our students did their research and prepared short presentations, artwork and poems to share. It was a very educative session. This was followed by a trip to the lake as part of a bird watching session with our young environmentalists, who all had a fun time looking through binoculars trying to spot migratory birds and other animals. Did you know that ACA once had a bird club?? We are thankful for our partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and their conservation efforts. Thank you for inspiring our students, and thank you to all the staff at the IITA Forest Center for putting on this event!
Check out this fun 2-min 30-sec video reel to see what our students were up to, and follow us on Instagram @ACAOneFamily for more!
8TH GRADE STEM: Engineering Design & Robotics
8TH GRADE Art: Exploring Art with Georgia O’Keeffes
8TH GRADE ICT
We stopped by the “big” ICT room to see what our older students were up to! In this lesson, they were learning about important features in Microsoft Excel as a powerful data visualization and analysis tool.
High School
HIGH SCHOOL (9TH–12TH GRADE) PE: Swimming!
HIGH SCHOOL Recess: Fun on the Badminton and Volleyball Courts!
9TH GRADE Art: Still Life
9TH GRADE ICT:
In ICT class this past month, 9th Graders have been learning all about Excel, document formatting and HTML — the standard markup language for web pages. With HTML and other tools they are being taught, students can create their own website!
9TH GRADE Business:
Exploring “Business Plans and Marketing Mix Elements” in an open-air classroom
9TH GRADE Business: Student-Led Debates and Presentations
In two groups, students participated in an “Unlocking the Minds” debate competition. Their topic was “Business Tycoons: Illuminating their Impact on the Economy”. Dabira explored the richest family in modern history — The Rothschilds, and the origins of their wealth.
Over the course of the month, 9th Grade Business students also performed research on “Types of Business Organizations” and gave presentations in groups of two. These two exercises gave much-needed practice in independent research and learning. 12th Grade students were invited in to evaluate and critique all presentations.
9TH–10TH GRADE English (US Track): Writing a Narrative
Students gained valuable insight and skills, with the tools needed to craft a well-written narrative.
11TH GRADE Physics (AS/AL): A-Level Physics Advanced Practical Skills
Students carried out an experiment to investigate how the motion of a pendulum, whose swing is interrupted, depends on its length.
11TH–12TH GRADE DT (Design & Technology)
Can you guess what our DT students are designing and building this time?
Stay tuned to our blog for more next month!
11TH–12TH GRADE Business & Entrepreneurship: Student-Led Research & Presentations
In Entrepreneurship class, the popular debate topic was “Idea vs. Opportunity”, while in Business class, students gave presentations on Size of Business and Business Ownership
12TH GRADE A-Level Math: Integrating Exponential Functions
Club Highlights
Our Semester I clubs kicked off this past month! Here are some highlights from a few different clubs (in alphabetical order). We have loved seeing our students’ growth in their extra-curricular activities so far, and we look forward to bringing you more next month!
BASKETBALL
CHESS
CRAFTS
CREATIVE DESIGN
PIANO
SMART KIDS ENGINEERING
SOCCER
SWIMMING
VIOLIN
TAEKWONDO
Staff Highlights
STAFF RETREAT 2023
We are thankful for all our dedicated ACA staff, in our classrooms and all around campus! This Fall Break, we had a wonderful and refreshing time at our all-staff retreat with lots of fun activities, team-building, bonding, devotion time, and most importantly, REST! This year’s theme was “Flying Higher”. We can’t wait to see you all soar!
Scroll through < > our slideshow gallery below to have a look at a few cherished moments from ACA’s Staff Retreat 2023!
WORLD TEACHERS’ DAY
On the 5th of October, we celebrated World Teachers’ Day and appreciated all our wonderful teachers!
“FASHION FRIDAYS!”
(With ACA Staff)
While our students are fully dressed in uniform for “Formal Fridays”, we’re with staff nationwide who seem to have unofficially adopted classic traditional wear and modern cultural print on Fridays? So we’re dressing down and bringing in the fun with our “Fashion Fridays” featuring fun ankara print pants and more! Would you like to see more fun candid moments with our ACA staff? 😀
STAFF SWIM DAY!
It’s another Friday treat! Staff were not left out of the new pool fun and educational swimming experience at ACA. We are happy to end out busy weeks with relaxing and educational swimming lessons, and we are so proud of the growth we have seen so far! We are always happy to see our staff modelling the behavior we seek to develop in our children, and with this life-saving skill, we are happy to say that no one is too old to learn to swim!
THANKSGIVING 2023
All-School Thanksgiving Assembly
November 24, 2023
“There is always something to be thankful for”
CHRISTMAS 2023
Christmas Concert: Middle – High School
December 7, 2023
“A Night in Bethlehem”, featuring the Christmas Musical by Laz Ekwueme and other performances
Christmas Program: Pre–Elementary School
December 8, 2023
“The Little Drummer Dude”, featuring a percussively fun Christmas Musical for kids
AND THAT’S A WRAP!
We look forward to seeing you again in our next monthly blog,
Vol 45: Issue 3 (November 2023)
Birthdays
NOVEMBER
1 Ahmad, Mr Sunday O
2 Eniiyijoba, Janelle
4 Kamsi, Mr. Felix, Laila
7 Vansh
8 Ariella, Aboud
9 Joseph S.
10 Hillary
11 Roy
13 Ms. Ebele
14 Tobenna, Prianna, Ms. Elizabeth S, Chukwuagoziem
16 Joli
17 Srishti
18 Ayomide B., Hassan
19 Gabriella, Ms. Ethel, Mr. Babatunde
20 Ms. Bola O, God’s Peace
21 Ali S., Ire (Queen)
23 Jeanie, Mr. Abiola
25 Ms Opeyemi
26 Ms. Olamide, Eniife, Oshojeme
27 Sahaan, Sahasra
28 Christian, Swara
29 Devesh
30 Andrea