Vol 45: Issue 4 (January 2024)
Welcome to our January Blog!
2024 is upon us!
Let’s take a virtual walk down memory lane,
as we bring you all the fresh highlights
from our first month of the new year!
"Around Our ACA World in 180 Seconds"
(A Quick Tour)
Happy New Year!
We’re kicking off 2024 with our UPDATED school tour video, better representing different programs and extracurricular activities across all schools. Sit back and enjoy this 3-minute quick tour around our beautiful little world!
What would you like to see more of this year? Did you enjoy the voices of our beautiful staff choir in the soundtrack of our school anthem? Are you excited for our upcoming CLAM (Creative Language, Arts & Music) Festival 2024? Or our Swimming Gala before that?!
Catch the full video transcript with details and contact info in the YouTube description, and don’t forget to share with a friend!
NEW YEAR'S EDITION 2024
Welcome back to ACA’s Monthly Blog — your number one destination and visual insight into life across school at the American Christian Academy and in your child’s classrooms. We’re excited to roll out new features this new year, keeping you and your viewing experience in mind. STAY TUNED!
We’re kicking off this New Year’s Edition by welcoming you back from the holidays with concert highlights from our very musical Christmas 2023. Then it’s a “Happy New Year!” from our students, parents and staff.
In this month’s highlights, our wonderful PTA kicked off the year in style with our PTA Family Fun Day. We welcomed our parents for interactive assemblies with our students and informative meetings with ACA’s admin staff.
We welcomed our new staff, shared fun moments as we stepped into the new year with joy, came together as faculty for Professional Development (PD) sessions, and celebrated MLK Day learning about Martin Luther King Jr’s values and the importance of love.
Our “Monthly Class Features” brings you snippets from each class, with a special swimming gallery highlight across all schools, as we prepare for our first in-house Swimming Gala!
As always, there is something for EVERYONE!
Sit back and enjoy!
CHRISTMAS 2023
It was a very musical Christmas indeed! We’re kicking off our New Year’s Blog Edition by sharing highlights from our Christmas Concert:
1. Preschool Christmas Songs
2. Middle–High School Christmas Concert (Part 1): Individual Performances
3. Elementary Christmas Musical: “Little Drummer Dude”
The entire Middle–High School Christmas Opera, “A Night in Bethlehem”, will premiere just in time to celebrate our CLAM Festival 2024. It was a rich and most musically complex performance from our older students. Stay tuned!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel @ American Christian Academy.
"HAPPY NEW YEAR!" from our Parents/PTA:
Parent Highlights
We’re saying a huge “THANK YOU!” to our wonderful ACA family—parents, students, families and staff—and to our PTA for putting on and being a part of our PTA Family Fun Day. All enjoyed an afternoon of bonding time, games, food and fun!
ACA’s parents also led PTA-coordinated assemblies (with an interactive talk show) and engaged our students in interactive and much-needed conversations about internet safety, social media, artificial intelligence, health, and hygiene.
As a family school, we always look forward to providing opportunities for high parental involvement, community, collaboration and support. Thank you for partnering with us as we cater to your child’s holistic educational needs and all-round development. View our parent highlight recaps below:
PTA Family Fun Day — Saturday, January 27, 2024
PTA Interactive Student Assemblies — Friday, January 19, 2024
Parent + Admin Meetings
Our admin meetings gave parents the opportunity to interact and engage; be informed on communication channels, learning in their child’s classrooms, and activities/programs relevant to their child; express their concerns, and provide feedback on how ACA can better serve our students and parents. This past month, we held these meetings with our Preschool, Lower Elementary, and Upper Elementary parents.
"HAPPY NEW YEAR!" from our Staff
We’re happy and thankful for the new year! While students end the week with “Formal Fridays” in uniform, it’s unofficial ankara day for our staff who often dress down in traditional print. We’re celebrating 2024 featuring some of our wonderful staff in this “FASHION FRIDAY” feature, and sending you lots of JOY! Are you flying as high as we are this year?
Always remember, you look so much better when you “SMILE!” 🙂
WELCOME TO OUR NEW STAFF!
We welcomed our new Pre-K teacher, LSU (Learning Support Unit) staff, Lower and Upper Elementary TA and substitute teacher, Facilities Manager, and more. Welcome to our ACA Family!
STAFF PD (PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT) SESSIONS
Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century Classroom: All faculty were trained in engaging and informative sessions on the integration of Canva, AI and ChatGPT in lesson plans, interactive learning, projects and more.
MLK DAY
January 15, 2024
ACA celebrated the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr during interactive assemblies and devotions, by learning about his life, values, and what he fought for. Here are some of our favorite quotes from his book, “Strength to Love”. He reminded us that love is the highest good and that God is Love. Indeed, his legacy lives on.
“Happy Birthday MLK!” — January 15, 1929
Monthly Class Features
COME! Let’s Take a Walk into our ACA Classrooms…
PRESCHOOL
Preschool Activity Highlight: SWIMMING IN THE BIG POOL!
EARLY LITERACY IN PRESCHOOL: Library & Independent Reading/Learning
PRESCHOOL CIRCLE TIME!
Circle Time is an integral part of our Preschool curriculum at ACA, and one of our most loved things to do. It’s a time of bonding, interaction, and developing of essential communication skills. Students round up in a circle, often on their classroom’s comfy rugs, and teachers begin by calling each student by name, saying hello with handshake of wave.
Communication skills and learning during this time can include anything from talking about their emotions, making the right choices, values and character development, to storytelling, letters, sight words, colors, days of the week, and more! We look forward to starting our day with Preschool circle time and morning routines. Have a look at some of our activities from each classroom in our galleries below:
<Important Note: To experience our new mobile gallery format, click on each image to view full screen, scroll, or save>
CRÈCHE: Identifying and Matching Colors, Identifying Animals, Counting 1–10
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Elementary School Activity Highlight: IT’S A RACE TO OUR SWIMMING GALA!
ASSEMBLY TIME!
1st Grade: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it SHINE!”
Our young students are learning the importance of “being a light” in our world, both in words and in actions. In our first Lower Elementary Assembly of the year, students made new year’s resolutions as they discussed what they want to stop doing, what they want to start doing, and what they want to learn.
2ND GRADE
In Science class, 2nd Graders learned about the three states of matter. With an exciting experiment of baking doughnuts, they explored physical and chemical changes. What changes are permanent, and which ones are reversible? Our chef mixed the ingredients for making dough (flour, yeast, sugar, milk powder, water, and egg), and the students learned that they could not reverse the changes made. However, when we started molding the dough, it could change from one shape to another (physical change). Finally, when the doughnut was baked, students also realized they couldn’t reverse the changes made to the unbaked state. Eventually, they were able to compare the physical and chemical changes of matter.
In an earlier lesson, students distinguished between thick and thin liquids by describing the properties of olive oil, and syrup. They saw that some liquids flow faster than others. All recognized that God is orderly because He gave specific properties to matter in different states.
Finally, in Math class, students completed their projects and gave presentations on plane and solid shapes using slides and models.
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Middle School Activity Highlight: COMPETITIVE SWIMMING DRILLS!
HIGH SCHOOL
High School Activity Highlight: SWIMMING GALA PREP + WATER POLO!
10TH GRADE: Chemistry
How to find a concentration by Titration:
The volume of acid needed to neutralize an alkali is found by adding the acid a little at a time until the indicator shows that the reaction is complete. This method is called “Titration”. We found the concentration of an acid using this method, and then used a solution of an alkali of known concentration (a standard solution) and titrated the acid against it.
AND THAT’S A WRAP!
We look forward to seeing you again in our next monthly blog,
Vol 45: Issue 5 (February 2023)
Stay tuned for a very special video for our “MONTH OF LOVE”!
Birthdays
FEBRUARY
2 Nemi
3 Ms.Raj, Ms. Tobi, Ella A
4 Ms. Atinuke
5 Alex
6 Kojo, Rhea-Maria
8 Ife Esan
9 Laiba
10 Anabelle
11 Ritika
12 Nifemi B
13 Jonathan, Victoria, Maka
14 Adriyan
16 Tamilore
17 Nigel
18 Emmanuel O
22 Funmilola, Ibrahim M
25 Yara
26 Mahmoud
27 Mark