The Tribune-Star
May 06, 2008 09:05 pm
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Send school-related announcements and news to School Zone, Tribune-Star, P.O. Box 149, Terre Haute, IN 47808; community@tribstar.com (e-mail); or (812) 231-4321 (fax). Please include a contact name and number. Limit articles to 200 words. Items must be received 10 days before publication.
Consolidated
“When I went to the book fair, I realized I had to make an economic choice. I wanted to buy an eraser and a book, but I only had enough money for one thing. I chose to buy the eraser so my book was my opportunity cost,” one student confided to her teacher as they walked down the hall. Students in third and fourth grades can be heard making real world connections to economics at Sugar Creek Consolidated. Thanks to an Economic Education Grant from the Indiana Department of Education, students are learning about economics through a multifaceted approach.
Students make economic decisions daily in the classroom by participating in a classroom mini-economy. This motivational program includes four basic elements: economics instruction, classroom management, application of basic skills learned in other subjects and money management. The students are paid in classroom currency for jobs they are expected to perform.
The classes are also involved in a program called “Play Dough Economics.” A series of Play Dough activities introduce the students to economic concepts by providing concrete experiences. Many of the lessons are aligned with the economics strand of the social studies standards, and have applications in other areas of the curriculum, especially mathematics, fine arts, and decision-making.
Two other aspects of the grant provided the opportunities to expand an already existing student business, Jot-It-Ink, and the formation of an after school Economics Club. Jot-It-Ink was established last year. The students decided they would use their most plentiful resource, recycled school paper, to produce notepads. Departments were formed to produce and market their product. This year the company will continue to make the notepads and plans to expand by creating new products. Increased recycling efforts at our school have been an added bonus.
Third- through fifth-grade students were invited to join an after-school Economics Club. This group participated in the operation of the Jot-It-Ink business. They were also engaged in activities that enhanced their understanding and application of economic concepts in the real world.
Jeremiah Lemmons, a district forester from the Department of Natural Resources (and a Consolidated alum) visited recently. He brought several props and presented an outstanding Power Point covering the parts and functions of trees, the benefits and products of forests, and forest management. His presentation helped us visualize the importance of this valuable resource and make connections to what we’ve read in our textbooks.
Whether in the classroom, in the business or in the club, it is exciting to observe students using many of the higher level cognitive skills as they explore the world of economics. Learning to become better decision-makers is vital. Productive and educationally motivated citizens will be our greatest asset.
— Suzanne Jones
and Debbie Banfield
The Sugar Creek Consolidated Anchor fifth-graders will be westward bound on two Turner Coach buses on May 16 for an all-day excursion to St. Louis, Mo. Planning and great anticipation for this experience began in the fall as many of the students earned their entire fee by selling Community Day tickets for the Elder Beerman event. As culmination to many of their classroom studies and preparations, they will begin their journey at 7 a.m. and roll back into the school at 9:45 p.m.
Their teachers, Mrs. Stuckey and Mrs. Turner, the students, and the parents are very excited about the fun-filled educational opportunity. The first stop will be Camp River Dubois, where they will tour the re-enactment camp of Lewis and Clark’s men, where they stayed before they headed out West to explore. They will also peruse the museum there to see many of the boats, tools and supplies that the men used on their two years and seven months’ journey.
The 85 travelers will reload the Turner Coaches and proceed to the St. Louis Gateway to the West Arch and Museum where they are sure to be totally enthralled by the sight. After enjoying lunch on the grassy hill overlooking the great Mississippi River, they will all make the trek up the tram to the lookout at the top of the arch, where they will be amazed by the beautiful sites of the city. This, they will never forget.
The St. Louis Science Center is the next stop planned, where the students and parents alike may participate in many hands-on activities to stretch the mind. The last hour of our visit will be spent in the high-tech Omnimax Theater viewing “Dinosaurs Alive” and trying to keep our bearings straight as objects whiz in all directions overhead. Wow!
After the amazing show, it will be time for a fuel-up. The Ponderosa buffet is the perfect pit stop for a fun time before the crew prepares for the journey home. A terrific time is in store for all. The fifth-graders will have a special memory to carry with them for many years to come. Much appreciation is given to the parent chaperones that plan to accompany the group!
— Teresa Stuckey & Tammi Turner, fifth-grade teachers
DeVaney
DeVaney Elementary has had another successful school year for 2007-2008. The month of May will be filled with many exciting activities and opportunities for our students. May 22nd will be our annual Field Day. Students will participate in various physical activities throughout the day. We would appreciate parent volunteers who can give their time for our students on this day. Mr. Menestrina, our physical education teacher, does a fantastic job planning and coordinating the day.
Students will be honored during the schoolwide honor’s program on May 28. Recognition will be given for perfect and outstanding attendance, Bug Club Awards, special area awards and individual classroom awards.
Our fifth-grade students will be honored on May 29 during an assembly. Students will give reflection speeches, perform a song, and each student will be given a certificate of completion presented by DeVaney’s principal, Ms. Fenton.
The 2007-08 school year has been a very successful year both academically and in attendance. We look forward to continued success next year. We encourage all parents to become involved with our PTO activities. Our Open House will be held Aug. 18, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. We hope to see everyone at DeVaney.
— Paul Utterback
Dixie Bee
In conjunction with our study of the Terre Haute community, Dixie Bee second-graders are presented with lessons from volunteers from the Junior Achievement program. Volunteers include: Will Downs, Human Resources at ISU; Dave Furhmeister and Laura Simmons, Terre Haute First National Bank; Amanda Hogue, CSN; and Amanda Lawler, Jr. Achievement office manager. On May 15, the students will tour the community of Terre Haute. Some of the valuable sites and resources in the downtown the second-graders will explore are the Vigo County Public Library, Terre Haute First National Bank, the ISU Recycling Center and St. Benedict’s Catholic Church.
The children will dine at the Grand Traverse Pie Co. for lunch and receive a library card if they don’t presently have one. We appreciate all the parent chaperones and the assistance of the businesses that will make this a fun-filled educational day! We are proud to call Terre Haute our home and are looking forward to discovering some of the assets of our community.
— School staff
Our news for this time includes an ending and a new beginning for our leader, Mr. Timothy F. Sheehan. Our principal, Mr. Sheehan, is going to leave the Dixie Bee hive after 42 wonderful years in the field of education.
His accomplishments are many. He is leaving the hive in great shape. We have met our requirement for AYP (Annual Yearly Progress); we are a Blue Ribbon and Four Star School. We are the Spelling Bee champs. Last summer and fall, the remodeling of our facility, which turned out to be a beautiful hive indeed, was under the watchful eye of Mr. Sheehan. So …
We would like to invite everyone to the Dixie Bee Community Celebration of the wonderful 42 years Mr. Timothy F. Sheehan has dedicated to education in our community and the Vigo County School Corp. The celebration is 1 to 4 p.m. May 18 in the new Dixie Bee Gym. The PTO will provide refreshments.
Staff and students also will honor Mr. Sheehan at 1:45 p.m. May 16th in the gymnasium.
— Monica R. Tener-Smith,
counselor
Farrington Grove
The Farrington Grove art room has been a busy and creative work place this school year. The students at Farrington Grove have spent the year learning about different masters, different artistic styles, and experimenting with different types of media. The students have been very successful in understanding artwork, as well as learning how the different styles can be found in the world around us. All student projects also have crossed the curriculum by directly connecting to math, language art, social studies, or science standards.
All grade levels have been experimenting with new and exciting art techniques. The students have created projects in pencil, watercolor, tempera paint, chalk and pastels. Our more challenging projects have included weaving and working with clay.
Our school also has participated in several art shows throughout the year. Several participants have had artwork displayed in the Vigo County Public Library and the Honey Creek Mall. The student art exhibit at the Swope Art Museum is the latest forum for our Farrington Grove artists. Jaedyn Bell, Alaina Blazwich, Miranda Lawrence,Teddy Pohlman, Aaron Crowder, Alexis Fitzek, Shaina Ford, Jolee Terry, Lama Aljuwaiber, Sa’id Bin Daar, Marlee McCoy and Takoda Sons were the students chosen to have their work displayed in the museum. These pieces will be on display at the Swope until Saturday. We would like to congratulate all these students and all the other students at Farrington Grove for their hard work this year. We are fortunate to have so much talent in our school.
— Art teachers Mrs. Terri
Potter, Mrs. Pam Anshutz and Mrs. Pauletta Allen
Fayette
One of the annual physical education activities offered by the Vigo County School Corp. is bowling instruction in each elementary school.
Mr. Rohrbach, the PE teacher at Fayette, arranged for Coach Janet from the Terre Haute Bowling Center to come to Fayette to work with the children as they learned and improved their bowling skills.
Coach Janet came to Fayette for three days of instruction. The gym was set up with carpets that resemble bowling alleys with appropriate markings, plastic pins and balls. Each class received an hour’s instruction in bowling skills. The instruction was introduced with a videotape that acquainted the students with bowling activities.
The students were divided in teams and practiced at school. While some children are regular bowlers, this was an opportunity for other children to learn an individual sports activity that they can participate in at any time in their lives.
On April 29-30, students were taken to the Terre Haute Bowling Center for 21/2 hours of bowling activities. The students were able to play two games during that time. The kindergarten, first-grade and second-grade students use bumpers while the third-, fourth- and fifth-grade classes do not bumpers, but use step approach skills during their games.
Bowling is a great activity for children. As their skills increase, some of the children will become members of league play at various bowling centers. This introduction to bowling will allow children to participate in bowling as family or team sport.
The bowling program offered by the Vigo County School Corp. is one of several opportunities offered to students to expand their horizons as a part of the physical education program.
— Sally Carpenter
Franklin
Franklin Elementary congratulates the following students for being chosen from a field of 35 contenders to be named to the Franklin Falcon’s Battle of the Books Team. These students proudly represented Franklin Elementary on Friday at the 6th Annual Vigo County School Corporation Battle of the Books.
Franklin Elementary’s Battle of the Books Team members were: Travis Pitts, Travil McKinney, Nyxie Smith, John Butts and Sean Sullivan.
Mrs. Williams would like to thank all students who participated on and off stage, the fourth- and fifth-grade teachers as well as PALS and the Vigo County Education Foundation for their support to our team.
— School staff
Lost Creek
Lost Creek did an outstanding job at the AIME State Media Fair. We had 10 first-place winning projects and three second place.
First Place with Perfect Scores:
“Beagles” (Multimedia Presentation) — Tyler Zigler
“Creepy Crawly Creatures” (Multimedia Presentation) — Ashley Fields
“Literacy Fair” (Graphic Design) — Dakota Daniels
“I Pledge My Allegiance” (Live Action Video) — Anne Herrmann, Shelby Baldwin, Jodie Pilkington, Marvin Malone
First Place:
“My Grandpa and Me” (Multimedia Presentation) — Machelle Blair
“Civil War Battles” (Web site) — Matthew Zigler
“Dolphins” (Multimedia Interactive) — Peyton Hochhalter, Madeline Martin, Abby Kelsheimer
“Manatees” (Multimedia Interactive) — Kendra Baldwin
“Animals & People of Antarctica” (Multimedia Interactive) — Kayla Burkitt, Becky Hunter
“Reading With Dr. Seuss” (Photographic Essay) — Rachel Siverston
Second Place:
“Our Angel” (Graphic Design) — Zoe Kedwell
“Mission Nutrition” (Graphic Design) — Emma Greninger, Jordynne Shelton
“Colors of the Sky” (Photographic Essay) — Marvin Malone
Ms. Karen Wells, Lost Creek library media specialist, is the sponsor.
— School staff
Rio Grande
Rio Grande Elementary School’s first-grade classes study plants and animal science units each spring. Our culminating activity is a field trip to Leiber State Recreation Area.
The educational program they have developed is very rewarding. Each activity is a fun learning experience. The children examine a marsh area to look for animal tracks and watch for birds fling overhead. Each child is presented a “tree cookie” to wear, that has been cut from a tree branch. The end of our day is hearing the true story of Smokie Bear and having a face-painted paw print. The day is very organized and the activity director and her staff are very personable and do a wonderful job.
— First-grade teachers
St. Patrick’s
St. Patrick School was a busy place during the month of April! We all enjoyed a nice relaxing week of Spring Break and came back to school ready for all the excitement the month would bring.
The entire school became authors while writing books for our book fair! Many books went along with the theme of animals. The books debuted along with our best art work from the school year, at our Annual Spring Concert on April 17. Students in grades K-5 performed songs from the “Carnival of Animals” under the direction of our music teacher, Mrs. Kristina Waugh. Many songs sounded just like the animals they were about. The following day, we celebrated Grandparents Day at St. Pat’s. Many grandparents and special friends traveled from near and far to attend Mass, tour our school and enjoy a yummy treat with us.
To cap off the week, our second-grade students received their First Holy Communion at a special Mass on April 20. The second-graders and their families enjoyed a beautiful day celebrating this big event in their lives. As a treat, the second-graders also enjoyed a “surprise” picnic at Deming Park the Tuesday following. Finally, to end the month, many students put their talents on display at our Talent Show on April 25. These students sang songs, played instruments, danced, did magic tricks and much more.
We want to congratulate all our talented St. Patrick School students and their hard-working parents for a month full of fun and creativity!
Registration for the 2008-2009 school year is now under way. If interested, call (812) 232-2157 for more information on all that St. Patrick School has to offer.
— Sarah Clark,
Second grade/
athletic director
Sugar Grove
Sugar Grove Elementary celebrated National Library Week with several activities. Students switched roles and read to their parents at home. They kept track of their minutes and turned in their logs at the end of the week. The student who logged the most minutes at each grade level was awarded a gift card from Books-A-Million. Those winners were: Kindergarten, Nick Cutter; first grade, Aaron Gentry; second grade, Chelsea Barnes; third grade, Nastasia Whitesides; fourth grade, Jailon Smith; and fifth grade, Ashley Godar.
We also staged a writing contest. Students were asked to finish a story about getting locked in the library over night. The stories were judged on vocabulary, grammar and imagination. They were to enlist the help of book characters or stories to help them escape from the library. The winners of that contest were: Aaron Carter, Elyse Babb and Alyssa Joyal. These winners also received gift cards from Books-A-Million.
Also, during Library Week, Mrs. Knierim read a trivia question each morning pertaining to the library. A chart was created to record which classes answered correctly each day. The class that answered all five trivia questions was Mrs. Oehl’s first-grade class. They were rewarded with a bag of treats.
There were several guest readers to help us celebrate Library Week including Peggy Marion (health aide), Cindy Caton (cafeteria), Robin Howard (cafeteria), Detective Phil Haley and Laurie Boland (school secretary). The students thoroughly enjoyed listening to them read their favorite stories and hearing how important reading is in their job and in everyone’s job, no matter what you do!
The Scholastic Book Fair was open all week and during our Spring Fling the Friday evening of Library Week. We are grateful for all the wonderful moms and grandmothers who volunteered to help run our book fair.
— Mrs. Knierim
West Vigo
The fourth-grade classes at West Vigo Elementary School have been studying about the Underground Railroad. In March, they had an opportunity to hear Cindy Rider from the public library recreate the character of Katie Coffin. Students were drawn back into time by listening to “Katie” speak about her experience. The students were eager to ask questions about Katie’s life. They were captivated by her journey of helping others escape from slavery.
Students were so interested in learning about the Underground Railroad and Civil War that they took the initiative to research famous people from this time period. Students really enjoyed writing “Letters Home from the Civil War.” Many students checked out library books about the topic. Gary Paulsen’s books were among the favorites.
The fourth-grade classes will conclude this experience by attending a history living play on Friday. Students will enjoy seeing and listening to actors depict famous Hoosiers. They will learn about their life and see how they played a significant role in Indiana history. This field trip is sponsored by the Historical Society of Terre Haute. Each year, fourth-grade students look forward to this field trip.
— School staff
Turkey Run
Sports physicals are being offered for Turkey Run athletes in grades 4-11 today during school hours. Personnel in the Family and Health Help Center will conduct the physicals. The cost is $28. The physicals will be available to Hoosier Healthwise Clients at no charge. Forms are available in the high school and elementary offices. These physicals are valid for the 2008-2009 school year.
— School staff
Martinsville
The Martinsville fifth grade has recently finished studying electricity, force, motion and alternative energy. To wrap up this unit, each student built a solar car using the concepts learned during this unit of study. The students raced these cars in the “Great Race” on Friday. Prizes were awarded after the race.
The project was made possible through a grant from Norris Electric Cooperative.
— Beth Baird and Lori Wolfe
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