Lower School News

Robot Dash Encourages Accurate and Proficient Coding

Congratulations to the top-scoring teams in the Fourth Grade Coding Competition. Each of the 20 teams had to complete five increasingly difficult challenges utilizing a coding robot named Dash. These challenges required teams to create a sequence of coded commands to complete a series of complex moves and tasks. Points were awarded based on accuracy […]

Read More

Former Governor and JA Grandparent Haley Barbour Visits Lower School

It was a toss-up as to who was the most impressive: our former governor who wowed fourth graders with little known historical facts about Mississippi, or the fourth graders who peppered him with questions until teacher Sandra Triplett called for the last question due to time constraints. Fourth grade classes thoroughly enjoyed their time with […]

Read More

Sydney Thaxton Shares Experiences Writing First Book

Sydney and her mom Amy greet students during the book signing January 25. Sydney Thaxton encouraged students who attended the reading and signing of her book to write about something they like. The fifth grader did just that when she wrote Dusk, her first published book. She selected a story about a dog that was […]

Read More

Little Dribblers Perform

The Little Dribblers took the court last week in an impressive and entertaining performance of ball-handling skills, timing, and working together. Check out the above video of their performance.

Read More

Alpha and Omega Cheer for Teachers and Students

Seniors and kindergarten students in Alpha and Omega attended the faculty-student basketball games together this past week. They cheered and watched games between female faculty and Upper School girls and male faculty and Upper School boys. The games were competitive and close in score, which made the event all the more exciting! Ultimately, getting to […]

Read More

JA Teams Earn First Place for Mississippi in Global Competition

Robotics teams in Jackson Academy’s fourth grade earned first place in the state in a global competition for lower school students. The four JA teams that completed the coding challenge each earned a perfect score. They all tied for first place in the state of Mississippi. Globally, the JA teams were among only 180 of […]

Read More

Lower School Teams Code in Global Competition

This year, a systematic coding curriculum has been added to the Lower School STEM program for grades first through fourth. Using various age-appropriate robots and apps, the students learn programming, predicting, and problem-solving skills. As part of their learning experience, the fourth graders participated in the global Wonder League Robotics Competition along with 5,200 schools […]

Read More

On Your Mark, Get Set, Go…Raider Racer!

When the STEM crew finished production this week, the Raider Racer sported a blue and white exterior. Of course, what other colors would do? Jackson Academy fourth graders are designing, building, and racing an electric car. The new program at JA is one way of fostering interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. […]

Read More

National Geographic Bee

Bo Barbour, a JA fourth grader, won first place during the school level National Geographic Society Geography Bee on January 8 in the PAC. Regan Felder came in second place, and Ty Usey came in third place. Runners up were Bryan Eubank, Bailey Berry, Reese Anderson, Chase Rush, Joseph Ciaccio, Thomas Antici, and Ethan Hill. […]

Read More