ST. PIUS X REGIONAL SCHOOL students in Anne Curran's third grade brought in solid objects to create dream houses. The shapes included cubes, spheres, cones, cylinders and prisms. Students formed small groups of three or four and after building their dream house wrote advertisements to sell them. The class used math and language arts skills for this project. Additionally the class created sticker stories using a Halloween theme. Each child picked stickers and wrote short stories based on their stickers.

The entire school will commemorate Red Ribbon Week, Oct. 26-30, a nationally recognized drug prevention and education program. Students will receive lessons on the harmful effects of drugs and alcohol and learn about making better choices. The students in the upper grades will participate in a poster contest and students will be given the opportunity to wear a red accessory such as red socks with their school uniform.

Grades one through four recently participated in field day activities. Students decorated different colored T-shirts which identified them by their class. Teams spent the morning completing obstacle courses, learning fun games and cheering for one another.

Students in first through third grade will participate in a costume parade Friday for Halloween.

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HOLY TRINITY Discovery students are enjoying the beauty of the fall season. They noted the different colors of fall leaves and took a nature walk around the school to observe the changes to the trees. In the art center, they made leafy masks and painted colorful leaves. Explorers read From Seed to Pumpkin, a book about the stages of a pumpkin's growth. They examined some real vines from the pumpkin patch, found pumpkin flowers, small baby pumpkins, and a few little insects that traveled on the vines. Together with their friends in the division, they went to a pumpkin patch. The children wandered through it, took hayrides and played in the teepees. On their return, the children graphed their favorite part of the trip and sampled pumpkin bread, pumpkin cake and pumpkin seeds. In science, kindergartners talked about animal homes and hibernation.

First-graders began their service project with the Prince George's County Animal Shelter. They welcomed a management coordinator from the shelter who spoke about the responsibility of pet ownership. The children are donating items such as toys, treats, old towels and blankets to the shelter. Fifth-graders have completed a coral reef creature report and poster presentation. They learned about the conservation of the coral reef and the interdependence of the creatures that habitat there. These students also took a trip to the National Museum of the American Indian. They were given guided tours and the theme was the values of American Indians throughout America. As students had just completed their unit on Native Americans, they were excited to see firsthand information that related to their studies. After the museum, the students had a picnic on the National Mall in front of the Capitol and were fortunate to have warm, sunny weather.

Seventh-graders enjoyed a visit to Goddard Space Flight Center that was relevant to their science unit on earthquakes. They met scientists and learned how scientists use satellite laser ranging and GPS techniques to predict and locate activity of earthquakes.

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ST. MATTHEW'S EARLY EDUCATION CENTER knows that autumn is a wonderful time of year to learn about nature, and that is exactly what Erin Becraft and Julie Painter's 2-year-old class is doing. The inquisitive 2s are busy exploring leaves, learning where to find them, what they look like, how they feel and smell and what sounds they make. Using fine motor skills they painted a fall mural for their classroom with colorful printed leaves stamped on it. As a treat to tie in with the theme, they made cinnamon tortilla leaves for snack.

Taking advantage of all the spider webs that can be seen this time of year, Bonnie Krum's class learned interesting facts about spiders. Being creative, they designed their own spiders with eight legs and eight eyes. They colored a "Little Miss Muffet" booklet, and enjoyed playing with the Miss Muffet and Spider puppets they made. Acting out, "Little Miss Muffet" with a large spider had the children screaming and laughing as the spider descended on them as they pretended to eat their "curds and whey." Learning Little Miss Muffet in sign language, eating spider cupcakes and searching for spider webs outside has kept this 4-year-old class very busy.

While singing songs of autumn like, "Leaves, Leaves, Falling Down," Lois Stetler's class focused on their sense of hearing. Distinguishing different sounds from a train whistle, assorted bells and a harmonica, had the preschool class "all ears." The children became young scientist as they mixed water with red and blue dye to make the secondary color of purple. Even more fun, was getting their fingers into red and blue paint and mixing it up to make purple. This hands-on activity made the perfect art project on the square shapes they were learning.

After reading the book, Harold and the Purple Crayon, each child used his/her own purple crayon and imagination to create a piece of art.

There is more to learn during autumn, and the children at St. Matthew's EEC will be using sight, sound, smell, taste and touch to discover the wonders of the fall season.