Stone Academy

🎨 Exciting News! 🎨

Palmetto State Arts Education has a new blog, and 3rd grade teacher Melody Powell is the first featured writer!

Their new blog is called Arts Chat: Weaving the Threads of Arts in Education! 🖌️🎭

The blog dives into the vibrant world of arts in education, exploring how creativity and learning intersect to shape brighter futures. From inspiring stories to practical tips, we’re here to celebrate the power of the arts in schools and communities.

The first blog post is from one of SC’s finest arts integrationists (and Ray Doughty Arts Integration Awards Winner!), Melody Powell. In her blog, Melody outlines how to set up a classroom with the arts in mind. Like Melody says, Make Space for the Arts!

Read the blog post here: http://www.palmettoartsed.org/artschat

Encore class registration is coming up soon! Check out the link in our stories to explore class options before registration opens on Monday, August 19th. ✏️🎭🎨🩰

Link to class offerings: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YPF58aCsMH-MIQlMl6QXuaOlwLERGyVU/edit

For a limited time, the ARMES program has reopened nominations and auditions for this year! See the post below for more information. 🎭🎨🎻🩰✏️

LIMITED TIME AND OFFERINGS: GCS has reopened nominations for the ARMES programs/locations listed below for the 2024-2025 school year. Nominations are open now and will close August 16. Auditions will be held August 23 and selected students will begin class the week of September 2. Nominations will only be accepted for new students.

Central Site at League Academy
-Strings (6th-8th grade only)
-Music (3rd-5th grade only)

Northern Site at Greer Middle
-Music (3rd-5th grade only)
-Theatre/Drama (3rd-8th grade only)

Southern Site at Hillcrest Middle
-Music (3rd-5th grade only)
-Theatre/Drama (3rd-8th grade only)

Submit a nomination: https://tinyurl.com/yc699b2w

The ARMES Program (Arts Reaching Middle and Elementary Schools) is a tuition-free artistically gifted and talented program designed to meet the needs of identified 3rd - 8th grade Greenville County students in the areas of music, dance, drama, visual art and writing. Learn more: https://tinyurl.com/4yakfczh

We’re having a wonderful first day of school at Stone Academy! The older children haven’t skipped a beat and our precious little kindergarteners have come in like they’ve been here before!

We are loving this year’s theme, “There’s No Place Stone,” and are so grateful to the talented Greg Patton for these beautiful sketches. We’re also grateful to Cameron Patton for all her hard work getting these up before Meet the Teacher. Her messages for our students are perfect!

We loved celebrating our wonderful Teacher of the Year, Jill Rohrer, at the annual TOY breakfast! She is a blessing to her team and the entire Stone family!!

Popsicles in the Park was a huge success! This is a time we welcome our newest Stone Stingers to meet our administrators and other new students. This precious kindergartener came ready in her popsicle dress ❤️

Our back-to-school meeting was a success! Our Stone family engaged in thoughtful discussion around our district’s priorities, reflected on who they are and what they need to be good teammates, and reviewed our district and school expectations with some hilarious skits.

Once again, Swamp Rabbit Cafe fed us well!! Thank you to our amazing PTA for providing our staff a fabulous breakfast to kick off this new school year. Forever grateful for this partnership!

Congratulations to Mrs. Powell’s 2023-2024 3rd grade class for being a Top 5 Bell Ringer award winner! Thank you to and her students’ parents for helping instill a servant heart in these young people!!

Join us for Meet the Teacher on Monday, August 5. Kindergarten families may drop in anytime between 2pm-6pm. 1st-5th grade families can drop in from 4pm-6pm. We look forward to seeing you then!!

All new students to Stone are invited to Popsicles in the Park on August 1. Be on the lookout for your child’s postcard invitation coming soon.

Thank you and for a delicious meal! What a great way to end another amazing school year! These Stone Academy staff members are the absolute best!!

We are so excited to celebrate Stone’s graduating seniors!

Happy School Nurses Day to the one who takes good care of us all!

We are so very proud of Mrs. Helsel for being named Mentor Teacher of the Year and Miss Kissam for being named Student Teacher of the Year. They are both part of Clemson University’s Teacher Resident Program. Stone Academy is so fortunate to have such an incredible, dedicated teacher in Mrs. Helsel and Miss Kissam’s future in education is so very bright!

Happy National Principal’s Day to the best there is! 💜🧡

Thank you to our incredible office staff! Happy Administrative Professionals Day!

We are loving Spirit Week as we get ready for Arts Alive on Friday! Today was “dress like a teacher,” and this pairing was spot-on!

In honor of Earth Day, we celebrate 4th grade student, Emma D. who received 1st place for her age group in the ReCraft Trash Fashion Design Challenge! Congratulations and great work!

What a fun way to kick-off Arts Alive week!! The 2nd annual Silent Disco was a huge hit! Thank you to our amazing Stone Academy PTA and Alison Storm Lowry for organizing such an exciting event for the children…and grown ups. Thank you to Angela Rodriguez for sponsoring the fun!

Reedy Rip’It made an appearance on our morning news show and visited some classrooms ahead of the Reading All-Stars game next week.

We celebrated our hoagie-loving, boa-wearing, fabulous assistant principal this week. Mr. E is doing great things at Stone Academy!!

What a busy Saturday for Stone Academy! From our 4th graders doing an incredible job at the bridge competition to our administration doing good work at Shining Stars, Stone Academy was well represented!

5th grade Stone Strings students were amazing today and scored a SUPERIOR rating at CPA today! 🏆🎻

Dr Park, Professor in Soil and Water Dynamics from Clemson University, came to Stone to teach Mrs McClain and Mrs Smith’s classes about soil for their science lessons!

What an incredible evening at the Stone Academy Big Show!

Students in the 4th grade were asked the question Why Do People Matter?
Working with artist ShAy Black, students integrated poetry, art and social studies into a unit of art and discovery. Fourth grade students studied primary and secondary sources to showcase an influential person in history. Students dug deep into themes and ideas while studying important contributions of historical figures during Black History Month. With the help of their artist in residence, ShAy Black, they were able to portray their learned knowledge through the process of writing and art.

Our PTA continues to spoil us!! Thank you for the special Valentine’s Day chili lunch!!

Our wonderful PTA put on a fabulous Health Fair last night that included delicious food from Swamp Rabbit. And a shout-out to Mr. Benjamin for putting together an incredible Art Show!