For those suffering from Automatonophobia, the fear of wax figures, this article may not be for you. Dozens of fifth-grade 'wax' historical figures posed in the Barnett Elementary school gym before Christmas break. Every year, the fifth-grade lets their students research their choice of famous person from United States history. After researching, they are able to write a speech that their character would give, briefly describing their role in our history. Past Presidents, inventors, and astronauts were just a few of the statues parents and friends could visit that day.

Barnett Elementary's Second-grade has been working hard to perform a large selection of Christmas music and student-written speaking parts. Directed by Barbara Chapman and accompianed by Kaye Hansen, the performance included favorites like: Up on the Housetop, Rudolf the red-Nosed Reindeer, All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. The performance was held on Tuesday December 20th, in the Barnett Cafeteria. We would like to thank all of the parents, family, and friends who came to support our production.

      The fourth grade students at Barnett Elementary had an exciting learning opportunity recently at Salem Pond.  The students participated in a wide variety of activities to help them better understand the essential role of the wetlands for Utah’s environment. Students participated in a nature scavenger hunt, tested water samples, and played games that related to animal habitat and survival. They also drew and wrote about a specific scene at the pond.

Today Barnett Elementary hosted an assembly featuring the Payson High School Choir. Over 50 high school students came and performed various holiday songs for the students including “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas”, “Jingle Bell Rock”, “Star of Bethlehem”, and many others. The students loved listening to the joyous music, whether they were songs they had heard hundreds of times or melodies that were new to their ears. We loved hearing from the whole choir as well as hearing some a cappella numbers by their talented chamber choir.

On Friday, December 2, 2011, Barnett’s 6th grade classes participated in their own version of the Greek Olympics. There were six teams all representing Greek city-states including the Athenians, Spartans and Minoans. Students were split into two different teams within their own classroom. They made up their own cheers and flags for their teams corresponding with team colors.

These first graders at Barnett Elementary had good behavior for the entire month and earned POPCORN DAY! During Popcorn Day the students were able to eat popcorn and watch a movie. It was a lot of fun and a great reward for those students that made great choices and worked hard.

Barnett Elementary showed respect on Veteran's Day by hosting an assembly for the whole student body. It was open to the public and featured the musical talents of the Barnett school choir. It was heart warming to hear classic, patriotic songs like, "My Country, ‘Tis of Thee," sung by over a hundred students. The assembly became even more moving when the faculty showed a Veteran's Day tribute video.

Halloween was so much fun in the Kindergarten classes!  Besides the costumes and yummy treats, we made ghost hats and necklaces with the numbers and their tallies from 1 to 10.  The numbers 1-5 were on the hats and the numbers 6-10 were on our necklaces.  We were all so proud of our work.

Patty Hansen, a fabulous first grade teacher at Barnett Elementary, is the proud aunt of You-Tube "Kid History" creators and stars Brett, Randy, John, and David Roberts. Mrs. Hansen arranged for them to visit Barnett Elementary to talk with grades K-3 about how important writing is in capturing memories. Brett talked about revision in writing and how they had to revise continuously during filming to get the perfect story.