News

Student Government Association Delivers Joy To Local Family

'Tis the season for good tidings and joy, and that is exactly what PCA's Student Government Association set out to do this holiday season. Teaming up with ECBC, SGA joined in the effort to support the Angel Tree organization where the group could not only offer good tidings but also deliver them with joy.  

According to the Angel Tree site, it is "a program of Prison Fellowship TM, which reaches out to the children of prisoners and their families with the love of Christ. Through Angel Tree, volunteers are mobilized to deliver a gift, the Gospel, and a personal message of love to children on behalf of their mom or dad in prison. Every Angel Tree parent's family is also given access to a free, easy-to-read copy of the Bible. It starts with a gift and leads to restored relationships."

When asked why they chose Angel Tree, SGA advisor Kelly Cooper said, "SGA was presented with a variety of options for their first-semester community service project. They chose Angel Tree because they wanted to directly be involved with helping those who are less fortunate. The group decided to choose one family with four different children and assigned a grade to each child. Collectively, SGA was able to collect several gifts for each child. Once all gifts were collected and wrapped, we prayed over the children and family before sending the gifts."

Vice President and head of SGA's community service, eleventh grader Bella Byham said, "It was awesome knowing that we could help some kids that really needed just a little extra Christmas spirit! This time of year is always about giving, and it was our turn to give to others."

Shadows

Peter Pan isn't the only one who likes to chase his shadow, our first grade classes have also found out that playing with shadows can be fun and educational.

Last week, each class learned about the properties of light as well as how shadows are formed. Eager to demonstrate their new knowledge, the first graders participated in some hands-on activities, such as tracking their shadows through chalk drawings. 

"The shadow activity was an investigation about how shadows change when the position of the light source changes," said first grade teacher Denae Beckett. "They drew their shadow in the morning and then stood on it again in the afternoon to compare and note the movement of their shadow due to the different location of the sun in the sky."

Payton Ralph said, "It was fun to create stuff and I learned that there are little waves that come out of the sky from the sun."

Shadows don't just come out in the sun, though, they can also be used to tell shadow puppet stories.

"This project allowed them to observe what happens when things are closer or farther from the light source," continued Beckett. "We also observed how light behaves when it shines on different materials." 

First grader Jacob Cox learned that "when you look at the light it shows how the light is made and it looks like rainbows."  While Kingston Surrat found out that, "shadows can't get smaller than your hand."

"ELA was included in the shadow puppet activity," Beckett explained. "Creating stories that had a beginning, middle, and an end...each team performed their story for the class. The children did a great job introducing their story, telling their story, and then bowing at the end."

 With the lesson spanning across the curriculums, the first graders enjoyed a  week filled with shadows, lights, and rainbows.