AndersenElementary School

What could be more special than having a parent visit your school as a guest speaker? We had many first grade parents volunteer to come in and teach our students about the roles and responsibilities that they have in their jobs. The students had many great questions and discussions about the responsibilities of each job that they learned about. We appreciate our families and love learning more from our community members! 

We are thankful for Liberty Wildlife experts helping our students take a risk and learn about how wildlife is an integral part of our natural world through a very engaging experience! See the video clip here.

During the month of October we celebrated National Hispanic Heritage Month! We enjoyed welcoming many community members as guest speakers who taught us about their experiences, unique perspectives, and roles within our community. 

Author Kim Tomsic visited in September to share her book, The Elephants Came Home. She wrote a very special and true story about friendship and trust. Students learned about conservation, animal habitats, and caring for the endangered African elephant. 

After they became more knowledgeable about their rights and responsibilities as Arizona and U.S. citizens, 3rd graders invited a panel of global speakers to answer questions and talk to them about the rights, responsibilities, and cultures of people in Scotland, Mexico, Haiti, and Australia. Two of the guest speakers were our very own teachers, one was a lawyer who joined us via Zoom, and the other was a member of the Chandler City Council, Council Member Ellis. 

An Aerospace Engineer from Honeywell, Charles Morton, talks to first-graders about how airplanes relate to their inquiries about forces and motion (click here to see video).   

Chef Char from FnB Restaurant and The Blue Watermelon Project talks to kindergarten students about how food relates to their inquires in the 5 senses, and 3rd graders about how food is a natural resource and how she uses local natural resources in her cooking.  

Dr. Martello, from ASU, talks to 4th graders about their inquiries into natural disasters, gives them a global perspective, thinking about natural disasters in Italy, and about how communities come together to persevere through natural disasters.   

Dr. Foy, from ASU, gives 5th and 3rd graders some interesting and mind-blowing information about our universe!   

Bio Chemistry professor, Dr. Starr, talks to 5th graders about what it means to be a scientist and does a group experiment that relates to their inquiries into properties of matter (click to see video).   

Musician, Camp Morton, talks to kindergarten and pre-k students about vibrations in sound as it relates to their inquiries into the 5 senses (click to see video).   

Nurse Natalie talks to kindergartners about how she uses her 5 senses to assess her patients (click to see video). 

Chandler High School students in the IB Diploma Program visit to read to our kinder and first grade students, do a project with them, and talk about The Learner Profile.   

One of our very own Andersen Elementary parents visited to teach kindergarten and 2nd grade students about how her family celebrates Hanukkah. She brought games, books, and items for them to observe! 

 One of our very own teachers, Mrs. Padilla, lived through 2 natural disasters and put together a presentation to talk to 4th graders about her experiences. They even got to see some of the real ashes that she had saved from Mount Saint Helen's eruption. Mrs. Padilla offered to be a guest speaker after one student showed a particular interest in learning more about Mount Saint Helen's.

As first-graders researched jobs that they want when they get older, they had the chance to hear from many local community members about the skills that they use in their jobs. On this special day, one student's mom came in to talk about her job as an Army National Guard Sergeant.