Karelyn Malliet knows how to spell “success,” not to mention a bunch of other words.

The words that earned the seventh-grade Shawano Community Middle School student her third consecutive Shawano School District spelling bee championship Wednesday were “circadian” and “anthropomorphic.” She spelled the words correctly in the fourth round, beating out 38 other competitors for the three-peat.

Malliet has traditionally prepared for the bee well in advance, but this year she decided to start her studying more than four months ago when the new school year started.

“I want to really get high up in the cycle, and maybe even make it to nationals,” Malliet said.

Malliet won the regional spelling bee for the first time in 2013, advancing to the state spelling bee in Madison. She will have the chance to make it back-to-back championships when the SCMS once again hosts the regional bee on Feb. 18.

Malliet’s road to the third district championship looked in jeopardy in the third round when she got the word “schism.” With all of her practicing and learning, that word threw her for a moment, and she sounded hesitant as she spelled it.

“This year, I found a word that actually I didn’t know,” she said.

Craig Ferch, a psychologist with the district who has coordinated the bee for nine years, admitted he was worried at first when the word came up and she didn’t immediately start spelling.

“I thought you were going to lose it on ‘schism,’” Ferch told Malliet after the bee. “I liked how you paused and took a second or two to compose yourself before spelling it.”

To prepare for this year’s regional bee, Malliet plans to focus on word patterns rather than just memorizing words.

“Last year, I just focused more on the words,” Malliet said.

The second- and third-place winners had an easier time once Malliet spelled her final words. Alex Mueller took second after correctly spelling “shiatsu” and “asylum.” Cameron Watters finished third when he misspelled “stridency.”

Ferch said the district created an emergency list of words two years ago when the bee got down to four or five competitors who misspelled the available words. The regular list had words like “gravitational” and “imperturbable.”

Even the easier words tended to give students difficulty this year.

“By round four, we started with 39 … we were down to four,” Ferch said. “I was kind of surprised with this.”

The top three winners received trophies, and Malliet and Mueller each will receive a free one-year subscription to the online Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Hillcrest Primary School

In Trisha Springborn’s class, we started January by reviewing the rules, then jumped right back into working on letters of the alphabet. We had fun making a jack in the box for the letter j, cutting and reviewing shapes. We made an alligator for the letter a and had to cut out the sharp teeth in a zig-zag pattern. We have also picked out the first letter in our names and have been filling in sounds we know when writing our daily message. The boys and girls enjoy the surprise when giving clues to their peers on what is hiding in their letter of the week bag. We continue to work on line basics and following and listening to directions. Manners are reinforced daily. The theme of the year in our classroom is showing kindness to our peers and teachers.

Melissa Mahloch’s class has been practicing shared reading (reading with a partner) and discussing our thoughts on the pictures we see in books. We have been reading wordless picture books. We have been playing a lot of math games to practice counting, recognizing numbers and writing our numbers.

Sally Slezewski’s class has participated in making Mossy and Hedgie, two characters that they have learned about from our author study on Jan Brett. In our studies we have learned that she writes and illustrates her books. We have discovered that she uses borders in all of her books and draws detailed animals. We will continue with other author studies for the next few months.

In Michelle Oss’ LEADS Charter 4K class, the children had the opportunity to work with a literacy coach from Illinois, Jennifer Burton. Mrs. Burton taught us about text features in books such as bold words, labels, photographs and captions. Now the children are working on making their own text features book to help them remember to look for those text features when they are reading for information.

Shawano Community High School is bringing a classic musical back to its stage for the second time in 13 years when “The Music Man” debuts Thursday.

The Broadway smash that inspired two movies was originally scheduled to debut Tuesday for Shawano Community Middle School’s students and staff, but the recent cold weather closed schools and forced the high school to forgo its traditional middle school performance for the first time in recent memory, according to director Jonathon Kent.

The show was supposed to open at 3 p.m.Wednesday for the community, but SCHS officials opted to move the premiere back to Thursday and will be adding a Sunday matinee, Kent said.

“When you consider that we’ve lost four days (of rehearsals) … it has been a very fluid thing here,” Kent said. “We’ve never had the weather we’ve had. It’s required us to change rehearsal schedules.”

Because the middle school performance was cancelled, Kent is offering all middle school students in Shawano — including the parochial schools — the chance to attend any of the performances for $3. The regular student ticket price is $6.

Despite the weather issues, the show has been coming along well, Kent said, noting that a cast of 45 and an orchestra of 20 will make up this year’s show. This includes an adult barbershop quartet, several teachers and a dozen middle school students.

Kent is experiencing deja vu with this year’s show, as he had previously produced “The Music Man” at SCHS in 2001.

“This was perfectly suited to the potential cast we had,” he said. “There are only so many school appropriate shows out there.”

The show follows con man Harold Hill, who is played by Will Johnston. Hill poses as the organizer of a boys band, selling them musical instruments and promising to teach the boys how to play, but he is secretly planning to skip town with the money.

“Will is a very good Harold Hill, not that he is a con man in real life,” Kent said. “He is very well suited to this.”

However, Hill’s journey to a town in Iowa leads him to Marian Paroo, a prim librarian who sees right through the facade of the “professor.” Maria Fuller will portray Marian.

Kent noted that Johnston and Fuller carry much of the show, not only in plot but vocally, as well.

“The Music Man,” which features the familiar songs “Seventy-six Trombones” and “Shipoopi,” carries the message that no matter how bad someone is, there is always the opportunity to change for the better, Kent said.

“Redemption is available for all of us. Harold Hill was not a very good person when he came into this show, and then he finds love, but even more than that, he finds himself as not being the cad he was when the show began,” Kent said. “It’s a great high school show, and it has a very positive message.”

This is the 15th SCHS musical Kent and band director Christopher Kent have produced.

Sacred Heart Catholic School

On Sunday, more than 240 people enjoyed the free spaghetti luncheon as the kickoff to Winter Wonderland! We were excited to welcome our families, students, staff, parish members and new families into our school. Many enjoyed activities such as face painting, working with words, penny barge building and the basketball shootout. Winners of the penny barge building were Kaitlin Pescinski, Erica Krueger and Ruth Tucker, with their barge holding 40 pennies! Father Luke did not come out as champ in the basketball shootout, but all had a great time with their competitive spirit. Each person who came to Winter Wonderland received a stress basketball with the new logo on it, too.

It was wonderful to have new families stop in to register students for the 2014-2015 school year. We are excited to welcome them into our school family. Registration is now open for everyone. If you or someone you know would like information on how to register, please contact Carolyn Reuter, admissions director, at 715-526-5328 or email her at admissions@shcscardinals.org.

Shawano Community Middle School

Ever wonder how your middle school student is using his/her technology (iPhone, iPad, iPod, tablet, laptop, computer)? There will be a very detailed presentation at the middle school in March that will educate you on the ins and outs and dos and don’ts of technology, and how preteens are using these devices. Some of it will comfort you, some of it will shock you, and some of it will open your eyes to the virtual world that our students are living in. Be looking for more information here, on the website and in the Wednesday take-home packets.

Summer School: Yes, it is the time of year to start thinking about the warmer weather and the fun everyone will have in all of the classes that will be offered. Summer school will be in session from June 16 through July 18, with no school on July 4. Registration packets for grades 3-8 will be available beginning the week of Feb. 24, so be looking for your materials. All registration is due by Friday, April 11.

As always, we continue to educate our students about Respect, Responsibility and Safety here at SCMS. There is a difference between conflict and harassment, and our teachers, counselors and administrators work every day to educate students about relationships and to ensure we have a safe environment for our students to do their best. You are always invited into the school to see what is happening. Always remember that this is the time when your child needs your involvement the most, yet will push you away and make you feel like she/he needs it the least. Please call with any questions, comments or concerns so we adults make sure we work together to help your students experience success here at SCMS!

St. Paul, Lutheran, Bonduel

This week is Lutheran Schools Week! Across the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, early childhood, elementary, high schools and colleges are celebrating the blessing of a Christian education. This year’s theme is “Raising up Faithful Disciples - Witness Always.” The celebration began in Sunday worship services, where all students and staff sang special music. Members of the congregation received letters from students thanking them for assisting in over 50 percent of the cost of education through church offerings. In addition, their prayers and volunteering are also a blessing to our school.

A new part of our celebration this year is participating in Lutheran Hour Ministry’s “Online Mission Trip to Kenya.” Each classroom will be able to participate in a daily, live 30-minute presentation via our Smart Boards. What a blessing technology is to transport us around the world to see the mission field “in person!”

As is our tradition, the eighth-graders choose theme days for dressing up. New this year is a friendly competition of points for each class member who participates. The class with the most “spirit” will win a prize! Monday’s theme was Summer Days, but the first and second grades went ice skating and the sixth-graders snowshoed on our property. Tuesday’s theme was St. Paul Spirit Day/School Colors. We had planned to travel to St. Martin Lutheran School for a comedy show, and preschool and kindergarten were to have a movie afternoon. Wednesday is a surprise! Each class has chosen a secret theme, and classes will guess each other’s theme. Each correct guess is worth additional points. In the afternoon we will have movie day for grades 1-8 while the early childhood classes go to the Children’s Museum. Thursday’s theme is Blaze Orange/Camouflage Day. The seventh- and eighth-grade classes are going downhill skiing and tubing, the fifth- and sixth-grade classes are going bowling, and the third- and fourth-graders are going tubing/sledding. Friday is another Parent Day, with chapel, classroom visits and several parenting sessions. After enjoying lunch together, the highlight of the week is Lutherlympics, with the upper grades competing in silly competitions. We hope to involve more of the parents this year in the Lutherlympics, as well, and the lower grades will be excited to see how many points they score by participating in the dress-up days. Friday’s chapel offerings will hopefully bring in enough money to finish purchasing the 50 life jackets for Camp Luther. This was an item on their wish list, and we have been having a friendly classroom competition to see which class can buy the most life jackets. So far kindergarten is in the lead — good job!

St. Paul has registered with the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program, which may allow students to attend a private school for free. To find out if you’re eligible, please contact the school office. We look forward to using this opportunity to “tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord” (Psalm 78) so that we can be in the mission of “Raising up Faithful Disciples.”

Menominee Tribal School

The College of Menominee Nation and Beth Waukechon’s 4A class would like to promote literacy and the love of reading by providing a Little Free Library within our school. Please donate any great books you’ve recently enjoyed or don’t want any more, and then take one as your next enjoyable read. Let’s share the love of learning within our school and community. A lot of people have been asking, “What is this Little Free Library?” Ms. Waukechon’s fourth-graders read a short story about a boy who held a book drive at his school. This prompted students to think about ways they could help our school and community. Ms. Waukechon had heard about the Little Free Libraries that CMN students build and distribute to promote literacy within the community. One of our students, Aiyana Haack, called CMN as the rest of the students listened to her conversation, to see if we could have them build a Little Free Library for our school. They did! Through this experience our students learned how to actively take part in our community by utilizing their voice and resources. They’ve also learned how to give back to others. Ms. Waukechon is extremely proud of their philanthropy efforts. We would like to say waewaenon (thank you) to all of the individuals involved in the process, especially to the CMN students who built our Little Library!

Hillcrest Primary School

Chris Kellett’s class is starting to tell time. The students are learning the difference between the analog clock vs. digital and have been able to tell time to the exact minute.

Students in Curt Preston’s class are making tops, zoomers, twirlers and wheel systems to investigate rotating and rolling motion.

Lori Schwecke’s class is researching famous people in history. Once we’ve completed our reports, we’ll create a class time line to show how they influenced history.

Diana Wichlacz’s class began a study of famous people. The second-graders are creating a report about their famous person to share with others.

Sarah Radke’s class has been learning how to write like scientists. They are designing experiments and then writing lab reports so others can duplicate the experiment.

Jamie Kriewaldt’s class is learning how to use informative texts to learn many facts about a specific topic. We will begin researching a famous person in history using informative texts and then write about that person as part of a research project.

Jennifer Zoll’s class began studying properties and the structure of matter this month by having the students bring in toys from home to share with the class. The second-graders have been working on describing the structure in writing before the toys are shared during whole group share time. It is fun to learn about many different toys, how they can be described and how they work.

Karen Flunker’s students have been learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and how one person can make a difference in the world. We also talked about other African Americans that have made a difference, such as Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson and even President Barack Obama. We also came up with ideas how we can make a difference in our community or world and wrote about it.

In Stacey Popp’s class we are learning about Balance and Motion by building tops, zoomers, twirlers and rollers. We have also learned how to take care of our teeth so that we have a healthy smile. We are excited to trade our books in at the all school book swap.

Rebecca Arens’ class created a Freedom Time Line that included Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges. We read and talked about their lives and their commitment to the cause of equality and justice for all people.

Northeast Wisconsin Technical College

We conducted our first high school trades visit last week to Aarrowcast, and it was a huge success. Jeff Theis and Tracie Norton from Aarrowcast organized a great day, which included presentations, a video and tour. Several employees with 20 to 30 years of experience shared stories about working at Aarrowcast and highlighted their educational backgrounds, many including a technical degree or diploma. Many of the employees were originally from the Shawano and Gresham area. Aarrowcast provided lunch for everyone. Thirty-three high school students participated: two from Menominee Indian, four from Bonduel and 27 from Shawano. Several NWTC representatives, including Jeffrey Rafn, president of NWTC, staff from the local job center and Shawano Country Chamber of Commerce, several technical education instructors, two high school principals and several employees from Aarrowcast also participated. Our next Trades Advisory Committee meeting will be from noon to 1 p.m. Feb. 7 at the Shawano center. We will review the Aarrowcast visit and schedule additional tours for the remainder of the school year. A huge thank you to everyone involved in the tour of Aarrowcast.

Six freshman girls at Shawano Community High School are doing their part to get the word out to their peers about drug and alcohol issues.

What started out as a service project for the Destination Imagination program has taken on a life of its own for Rachel Marquette, Emily Jones, Cassie Whitehouse, Caitlin Drew, Lexxus Liebe and Shannae DeBroux. The girls, calling themselves Above and Beyond, have contacted politicians, taken their message to the airwaves, and used social media to educate about the dangers of underage alcohol consumption and drug abuse for all ages.

“We’re trying to raise drug awareness at Shawano High,” Jones said. “If we can at least educate one person about it, it’ll be a success.”

The Shawano County Board unanimously approved a resolution last week declaring Jan. 27-31 to be Drug and Alcohol Awareness Week. Board Chairman Jerry Erdmann brought it forward on his own at the girls’ request.

The girls also took a trip to Green Bay and worked with radio station WIXX to create multiple spots regarding drugs and alcohol facts and statistics regarding teens. The statistics were expected to run this week from 2:30-5:30 p.m. when teens are riding the bus home or driving from school and listening to the radio.

Announcements have been made in the morning at both the high school and Shawano Community Middle School, as well. The girls have spent their lunch periods all week manning a trivia table to see how much their friends and other students know about drugs and alcohol.

The girls also created a Facebook page linked to the National Drug Fact Week website. The page has links to other sites with more information.

“We’re trying to make students more aware so that hopefully they won’t do drugs or alcohol,” Marquette said. “It’s a big issue around here.”

Some of the statistics researched by the students have disturbed them. Drews learned that Wisconsin has the highest rate of binge drinking in the country, while Marquette is concerned about the number of deaths, as well as the cost involved to deal with drug and alcohol issues.

“There are more than 1,500 deaths each year in Wisconsin due to drug and alcohol abuse. Excessive alcohol consumption costs Wisconsin over $6.8 billion every year,” Marquette said. “We hope that, with what we’re doing, (local students) won’t make destructive decisions.”

The girls’ Destination Imagination coach, Emily Schwartz, said she was amazed about how much initiative the girls have taken. The girls had seven different projects that could be done, and they chose the community service project, she said.

“They are their own leaders,” Schwartz said. “Working with kids like these absolutely restores the future of our country. They’re doing it simply for the good of the cause.”

The girls will be taking their project to a regional contest in March, and if they win, they’ll continue to the state DI competition.

Shawano Community High School

FFA is sponsoring a donkey basketball game at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 17. Advance tickets are $6 and can be purchased in the SCHS office. Tickets at the door will be $8. Preschool children get in for free. Come watch your friends, teachers, coaches and others ride.

Friday was the SCHS “Red Out” game against Seymour in support of heart disease awareness.

Sacred Heart Catholic School

Catholic Schools Week was a fantastic celebration of faith, family and fun! We enjoyed many activities that celebrated our faith with our school family and the community. The kickoff on Sunday was our Winter Wonderland. We had many families that are part of our school family and many that came interested in becoming part of our school family.

We opened Monday with a prayer service lead by Grace 5. They taught us the five-finger prayer given to us by Pope Francis. He reminds us that each finger represents someone to pray for. Remember those closest to us (our thumb), those who teach (pointer), those who stand tall and lead (middle finger), the weak (ring finger) and ourselves (pinky).

Wednesday was a very special day because we celebrated the special people in our lives. We came together for Mass at 10 a.m., followed by a lunch to honor the special people in our lives. Students invited guests, and the school also hosted our special people who make our school run smoothly. After the delicious lunch, we enjoyed a comedy show performed by T.C. Hatter and Marcianne.

On Thursday we relaxed in the afternoon with PJs, movies and popcorn. We closed up our Catholic Schools Week celebration with a spirit rally. We showcased our students who are involved in our sports programs. We also honored our students who made honor roll for the second quarter.

Overall, we had a wonderful celebration where we celebrated our school, shared what we have to offer, and welcomed new families and community members. Reminder that we are taking registrations for the 2014-2015 school year. If you are a family with children currently at Sacred Heart, we ask that you send in your commitment form by Feb. 14. New families that are interested in our school can call the office at 715-526-5328 or email Carolyn Reuter, admissions director, at admissions@shcscardinals.org to set up an appointment to register.

Bowler Elementary School

Bowler School recently held a Geography Bee for grades 4-8. The winner was Jazmyne Brown, a seventh-grader. Ira Rudesill, a sixth-grader, took runner-up honors. Jazmyne will now take a written test to see if she qualifies for the state competition later in the school year.

Second-grade students read “The Ugly Duckling” during a Readers’ Theatre.

Bonduel Elementary School

This quarter our third-grade students will be doing an animal research project. We are going to be following the Common Core standards of writing informative texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information. The students have chosen their animals for their research project. The student will use focus questions for their investigation. They will be using multiple resources to gather information. Each student will develop a research project by planning, revising, editing and rewriting a report. We will incorporate the use of technology as another way to show what we learned by putting some of their research into a PowerPoint. They will be asked to present their information to the class.

St. James Lutheran

We had a great Lutheran Schools Week despite the cold.

On Monday, we kicked off Lutheran Schools Week with Jump Rope for Hearts. Our event was held in the gym and was attended by 37 enthusiastic students who collected $1,769 for the American Heart Association. Everett Grover collected the most donations, $230, followed by Aliza Byczek at $160. Congratulations to both, and thanks to all of the students who collected donations. All of the students were able to choose a prize and will also receive thank you prizes from the AHA. Those will arrive in four to six weeks. Thank you to all of the parent volunteers who helped make our event a success. A very special thank you to Anika Klement and Reno Buelow, who organized the jumping, the obstacle course, the contests and all the different events that made it fun for our students.

We had such a nice response from several people offering to help with recess duty. Thank you so very much. We do, however, still have quite a few available spots. Call the office at 725-524-4213 today and volunteer to help with recess duty so your child’s teacher can regroup and prepare for the afternoon ahead.

Just a quick reminder that the front doors do not officially open until 8 a.m. All children who arrive at school are to be dropped off on the playground via Lincoln Street or Randall Street. If you wish to wait in your cars until 8 a.m. to come into the school by the library, that is perfectly fine, but we do ask that you do not drop your children off at the front doors before 8 a.m. We have had children knocking and banging on the front doors as early as 7:45 a.m. The time between 7:30 and 8 a.m. has been reserved for prep time for our teachers and staff as they get ready for the day. Supervision is available on the playground. If you have business in the office before 8 a.m., you may enter through the church doors, and we will be happy to buzz you in.

Keshena Primary School

January was a very busy month at Keshena Primary. The fourth/fifth-grade girls basketball team started practicing three weeks ago. There are 18 fourth-graders and 12 fifth-graders on the team. The focus of the season is introducing girls to the game and teaching them the basic fundamentals of basketball. The girls will have four games during the season, which will last until the end of February.

Family Night was Jan. 21. It included a dinner of baked chicken, french fries, corn and fruit. When everyone was finished eating, we moved to the library, where everyone participated in activities based on Jan Brett’s story, “The Mitten.” Each child was given a sewn fabric mitten and a packet of pictures of the animals in the story to color and cut out. Before coloring the pictures, everyone watched a video reading of the story. Before the evening was over, we watched a shorter version reading of the story. As we watched this video twice, the children put the animals in their mittens.

On Monday, students who received at least six out of eight Thunderbirds were treated to a day at Silver Birch Ranch. Students were able to participate in all kinds of winter sports. Silver Birch Ranch has sledding, skating, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. To receive a Thunderbird at the end of the week, students need to be at school all week, turn in homework and be respectful. The third-quarter incentive will be cosmic bowling.

The fourth-grade teachers are bringing literacy into all of our students’ homes. They have been having fundraisers, and every Tuesday and Thursday they open a pencil stand for all students to purchase school supplies. All the money is spent on books that will be given out to all students before summer vacation. We appreciate their hard work.

Miss Steichen’s first-grade class and Mrs. Hietpas’ third-grade class have been reading buddies this year. The two classes meet once a week for 30 minutes. The students read to each other and discuss books they have read.

Our school participated in the Green Bay Slam Dunk Reading Club. It was a four-week, incentive-based reading program that encourages students to reach and exceed reading goals. Students who reached all four weekly reading goals set by the teacher earned a slam dunk and received two free tickets to a Green Bay basketball game Jan. 25.

Shawano Community High School

The third annual “Red Out” event held at Shawano Community High School on Jan. 31 was a success. This was a joint effort involving the SCHS Student Council, FFA and NHS. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the cause. We would especially like to thank Twigs Beverage for the generous donation of Sundrop. With everyone’s help, we were able to raise $1,700 in the fight against heart disease.

Shawano Community Middle School

To show our SCMS love to the children of Haiti this February, homerooms will be collecting items for the babies of the poorest country in our hemisphere. Many babies are malnourished and need our help. What can we do? We are going to assemble Healthy Haitian Baby Bundles! Here is the list of items to bring to homeroom: 4- or 5-ounce bottles, washcloths, baby feeding spoons, bars of antibacterial soap (hotel size, too), and baby formula (powder, not liquid). Of course, it wouldn’t be a SCMS Service Learning Project without a contest. Each week, the homeroom with the most items collected by that Friday will earn some tasty cookies for the following Monday morning. The overall winner will be the homeroom that collects the most items for the entire month, and those students will be rewarded with soft pretzels. An extra special prize from Old Glory Candy Store will be given to the homeroom that collects the most cans of baby formula, with a minimum of five cans. After school on Feb. 27, we will assemble the items into individual Healthy Haitian Baby Bundles in Lela Schwitzer’s room. If you have any questions or wish to volunteer, please contact Mrs. Schwitzer.

The Safe Routes to School sponsored our Winter Walk to School day Feb. 5. Although it was a cold morning, more than 50 students trekked through the cold, ice and snow to get to school. Safe Routes donated a number of Subway gift cards and stocking caps to our lucky winners. Great job, everyone, and thanks, Safe Routes!

Our Student Council is selling Valentine Grams consisting of either cloth roses or beanie buddies. All proceeds will be donated to the Shawano County Humane Society.

We continue to stress respectful, responsible and safe behavior with our students.

If you have any questions or concerns, our doors are always open, so stop in and see what is happening.

Bonduel Elementary News

Despite the cold weather outside, Bonduel Schools have started planning their summer school program. Last year the program was expanded to include many educational and fun classes. We had something for everyone, including Zumba, drama and outside games, as well as reading and math classes. We are hoping to offer the same wide variety of classes this summer to the students. We will also offer free breakfast and lunch to every student. Registration booklets will be sent home with the students soon, but for now, here is some information to mark on your calendar. The dates will be June 16 through July 18. (No school on July 3 or 4). The times are 8:30 a.m. to noon. Please join us for a little fun in the sun.

St. James Lutheran

Wow, 100 days of school! First grade celebrated 100 days of school on Feb. 6. They did hundreds of things to celebrate, like making cereal necklaces with 100 pieces of cereal, stamp books filled with 100 stamps, and posters with a collection of 100 things. They also took 100 steps, were silent for 100 seconds, did 100 hops, and wrote about what they would look like when they are 100 years old. The day was full of fun activities, and we are now 100 days smarter.

The third-grade class had a rocktastic day at Earthhaven Rock museum. They saw a rock from the moon and one from Mars, and petrified dinosaur poop! And if that wasn’t enough, the fun continued in the afternoon with the students making their own personal rock collections. The students enjoyed learning about the rocks and hearing stories about mines in South Africa, Canada, Australia and South America.

Gresham Community School

The fourth- and fifth-grade Gifted and Talented members participated in the four-week University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix Slam Dunk Reading Program. The students had to complete a four-week reading goal over the month of December to earn two tickets for the UWGB men’s basketball game against Wright State at the Resch Center on Feb. 1. The event was attended by students, parents, grandparents and teachers from Gresham Community School. Way to go! Keep up the hard work.

Sacred Heart Catholic School

During Catholic Schools Week we participated in the Defeat Hunger Bowl Food Drive. Our initial challenge was for every student to donate two cans of food and $1. Our students went above and beyond! The goal was 150 items and $69, but our students brought in 464 items and raised $121. The class with the highest amount of cans brought in was Grade 3-4. Their reward was taking the money collected to buy more food. The students went to County Market and brought back additional items to add to our donation. It was a great experience to watch the students be proud of doing good for others.

The students have been working hard to raise money for Jump Rope for Heart. On Valentine’s Day we will be having a joint event with St. Rose/St. Mary of Clintonville to jump our way to healthier hearts. If you would like to donate, please contact the school office.

We have some exciting news. Sacred Heart Catholic School has a new 3K/4K program for the 2014-2015 school year. The programs are an affordable alternative to day care. We are taking registration for Grades 3K through Grade 8. We offer an educational option where students can grow in their faith. We educate the whole student through weekly classes of art, music and gym. To set up a mini tour and see what our school has to offer, call 715-526-5328 or stop in.

Pulaski High School

The PHS students will present “Anything Goes” Saturday and Sunday and Feb. 22-23 at the school.

“Anything Goes” tells the story of the lovable, hopeless romantic Billy Crocker, played by James Uelmen, chasing debutante Hope Harcourt, played by Cari Hansen, by stowing away onto the S.S. American ocean liner. Billy is soon devastated to discover that Hope is engaged to a British charmer named Lord Evelyn Oakley, played by Hunter Vannieuwenhoven.

The ensemble is directed by Elissa Lucas and Amy Tubbs, with choreography by Melissa Welsing. Jessica Rosenberg is doing the costumes.

Tickets are on sale in the Pulaski News office, Pulaski High School and at the door for $7. For information, call 920-822-6800.

Shawano Community Middle School

Mark your calendars for 1-2 p.m. March 6 and 6:30-7:30 p.m. March 13 for an extremely important and informative presentation in the middle school LGI. Principal Daniel Labby, Associate Principal Tami Bagstad and Officer Jody Johnson will be addressing three main topics: middle school minds, technology/electronics use and bullying. If you have a student in middle school, this is a must-see! You also have the option of joining your students for lunch on March 6 before the presentation. Sixth-grade lunch is from 10:46-11:30 a.m., seventh-grade lunch is from 11:33 a.m. to 12:16 p.m., and eighth-grade lunch is from 12:19-1 p.m. Please contact Mr. Labby (dlabby@shawanoschools.com or 715-526-2192, ext. 8300) or Mrs. Bagstad (tbagstad@shawanoschools.com or 715-526-2192, ext. 8301) by Monday, March 3, for your lunch reservation so we can have the proper amount of food prepared. Again, if you have a student in middle school, you won’t want to miss this. We are looking forward to hearing from you and seeing you.

Olga Brener Intermediate School

The fourth-grade classes have been taking turns going to Navarino Nature Center for some winter fun. The students get to spend the morning learning about the history of snowshoes and doing some snowshoeing while exploring the many acres of the nature center in hopes of catching a glimpse of a porcupine and seeing a beaver dam firsthand. After an exciting day of exploration, they head back to the nature center and do some sledding.

Congratulations to the following students for being chosen as the Hawk Way Trait Award winners for their classroom for demonstrating the trait perseverance: Abby Swartz, Brady Anderson, Felix Lyles, Jenna Ainsworth, Layla Miller, Owen Curran, Rachel Cooper, Sophia Bessette, Alexia Powell, Tucker Miles, Faith Lammers, Myron Wayka, Rylie Anderson, Braedyn Kowalkowski, Peter Husby, Miranda Bartelt, Damon Montour, Kaylee Rindt, Joshua Tomashek, Rowyn Rodenbeck, Zac Jurmu, Nicole tePlate, Ray LeMieux, Lydia Beyer, Kody Stuewer, Camilla Doherty, Ethan Kreuser, Taylor Johnson, Ben Hoffman, Payton Steinbach, Grace Huntington, Marissa Milavitz, Nicholas Kohn, Nic Budish, Makayla Belongia, Sierra Laubenstein, Holden Medina, Nathan Edwards and Haley Sheldon.

Upcoming: Feb. 21, Family Game Night; March 13, Knowledge-a-thon; March 14, teacher in-service/no school; March 17, there is school; March 25, Brener Student Showcase; March 26, Grandfriends Breakfast; March 27, spring picture day.

St. Paul Lutheran, Bonduel

Last week, students participated in jumping rope or shooting hoops to gain awareness of having a healthy heart. Students collected donations on behalf of the American Heart Association to the tune of over $3,000. Great job, students!

The fourth-graders are enjoying their own version of P.E. Olympics and have enjoyed participating as the teams of Russia, Norway and Canada. The modified competitions round out this week, in time for the closing ceremonies and medal presentation on Friday. They have also been busy learning about nutrition in science and recently completed a lab to visually test fat content in certain foods. This week’s lab will be to measure sugar content, comparing grams to teaspoons with regard to various beverages.

Lower grade students recently celebrated their 100th day of school. Time flies when you’re having fun learning!

January chapel offerings were collected to help Camp Luther obtain 50 new life jackets, one of the camp’s wish list items. Students stepped up to the plate and raised $1,000 in only four Wednesdays, and Camp Luther was so thrilled that it sent out a tweet with a picture of our wall display.

Sacred Heart Catholic School

Sacred Heart Catholic School and St. Rose/St. Mary School of Clintonville teamed up Friday to Jump Rope for Heart. We worked together to raise money to help the American Heart Association fund research to help people have healthier hearts. The St. Rose/St. Mary students and staff came to our school on Valentine’s Day to take part in heart healthy rotations. They not only jumped rope but also enjoyed a heart healthy snack, hula hooped, did the limbo, made cards for families with children who are suffering from heart conditions, shot free throws and jumped on pogo sticks. Our school record of pogo bounces, formerly held by Erin Norton with over 300 jumps consecutively, was shattered with over 500 jumps by eighth-grader Atty Wagner. So far the two schools have raised over $1,800. Donations are being accepted through the end of this week.

Sue Kenfield, our gym teacher, has our students fully engaged in the Olympics by participating in their own Olympics here at school. They have participated in curling and bobsled, and later this week will be speed-skating. The students are enjoying learning about the Olympics, the countries and the spirit of good competition. We will have a closing ceremony on Feb. 28 and award medals to our top finishers.

All students and staff are geared up to spend the day at Camp Tekekwitha on Monday. We have many exciting activities planned including art, snowshoeing, science and team building. Watch next week’s article for an update on all the fun we had.

A big thank you to Father Mack for celebrating Mass with us on Feb. 12 while Father Luke was on retreat. The students who belong to St. Michael’s and St. Anthony’s were excited to share their parish priest with their school family.

Our Home and School Association will be hosting a fish fry for Lent on March 7 here at school. Watch for more information to come or call the school office.

Reminder: We are enrolling grades 3K through grade eight for the 2014-2015 school year. Our staff consists of classroom teachers and specialists for art, music and gym. Call the office today to set up a meeting with our admissions director or just to find out what our school has to offer.

Karelyn Malliet will be making a return trip to the state spelling bee after showing the area that spelling is her “jurisdiction.”

It was that word that gave Malliet, a seventh-grade student at Shawano Community Middle School, her second regional title in a row. Malliet beat out six other students from area public and private schools and a home-school representative Tuesday following nine rounds of challenging words.

Erin Timler, a fifth-grade student from the Bonduel School District, finished as the runner-up after misspelling “wherewithal.” If Malliet is unable to attend the state bee, Timler will be the alternate.

Other students fell to words such as “propulsion” and “dirndl.”

Malliet had difficulty with a couple of words. She asked for the origin and definition of “precinct” and “parasol.” She used her finger to write out the words on her hand, and she prayed as she thought of how to spell “parasol.”

After the bee, Malliet said she used her options just to be safe.

“If I got them wrong, I’d be out, and I didn’t want to be out,” she said.

Malliet said she plans to study some of the lists that commonly come up for spelling bees to increase her word capacity. When she won the school spelling bee in January, she said she had been preparing since the beginning of the school year.

“There are certain lists that come up,” Malliet said.

Dan Labby, SCMS principal, has plenty of confidence in Malliet. He noted that he has seen her studying during lunch and other breaks.

“She takes the spelling bee very seriously,” Labby said. “As a matter of fact, as she has been at recess, she has been studying word lists as she went. She’s quite a good study and on top of her class in every way.”

The 2014 Badger State Spelling Bee will be held March 29 in the Mitby Theater at Madison Area Technical College.

Students in Lynn Schaal’s seventh-grade math class at Bonduel Middle School can pretty much be counted on to always get their homework done.

That’s because they’re doing it in the classroom with Schaal right there in front of them and available to help if they get stuck.

It’s in the evening, when the kids go home, that they get their instruction, by way of a YouTube video, for the “homework” they’ll be doing in class the next day.

The concept is called a flipped classroom — an approach growing in popularity at the higher education level, but also beginning to trickle down to the middle and high school levels, according to Bonduel School District Administrator Peter Behnke.

“It’s a novel approach, but there’s some logic to it,” he said.

Behnke said if a student gets stumped on a math problem while doing his homework at home, there’s no help available until the student goes back to school the next day.

“It’s better to watch the instruction at home and ask questions in class,” he said.

Behnke said it’s not something that would work at all grade levels or for all subjects, but appears to have been working well for Schaal’s math class.

Schaal said that’s because it’s a natural fit.

“It’s meant for a math classroom,” she said.

Schaal said she heard about the concept at a conference of the Wisconsin Mathematics Council in Wausau in December.

Though it sounded promising, she still wasn’t convinced she should try it.

“It’s a lot of work,” she said. “And I wasn’t sure if I could get the parents committed, the students committed, and the administration committed.”

It was while she was attending a Saturday basketball game with her son that a parent approached her and asked if she had heard of the flipped classroom concept and suggested giving it a try.

Schaal, who has been with the Bonduel School District for 15 years out of a 23-year career in education, started giving it a try this semester after her students returned from their Christmas break.

She generally comes to her classroom on weekends and records two to three instructional videos, about 20 minutes in length. The videos are posted to YouTube under an unlisted link that is shared only with the students.

Those who don’t have access to the Internet can have the videos downloaded to the laptops or tablets the district provides.

The videos are done in one take; there’s no editing.

“I would be too nit-picky,” Schaal said.

In one of the videos, the Smartboard briefly malfunctions and won’t scroll down, so Schaal takes a few moments to fix the problem; just as she would if she were teaching the lesson in front of her students.

“It’s real life,” she said.

One of the benefits of getting instruction from the videos is that students can watch at their own pace.

“They can rewind me if they don’t understand, or they can fast-forward if they already get it,” she said.

Schaal said there are always a couple of students who don’t watch the videos, but there used to be twice that number who refused to do their homework.

Another benefit is that some of the parents are also watching the videos.

One of the concerns about the new Common Core standards adopted in the state has been that parents have been put at a loss as to how to help their children with homework assignments, because many subjects such as math aren’t being taught the same way as when they were in school.

Even setting aside Common Core, what students are learning at the seventh-grade level has drastically changed.

“Seventh-grade math isn’t easy anymore,” Schaal said. “It’s pre-algebra.”

Having the students do their homework in the classroom allows an individualized approach to teaching, Schaal said.

“They can get answers from me in the classroom versus struggling at home,” she said.

Schaal said she was thankful for the support of district administration for allowing her to experiment with the concept.

“I’ve been very blessed at Bonduel,” she said. “They’ve allowed me to try new things and they’ve been very supportive in those things that are in the best interests of the students.”

Shawano Community High School

The donkey basketball game sponsored by the Shawano FFA has been rescheduled to Tuesday, April 29, at 6:30 p.m. in the high school gymnasium. Please present your advance ticket at the door if you purchased one for the original game (sorry, no refunds). Advance tickets will go on sale again in April for any additional tickets you may need. Sorry for the inconvenience — thank Mother Nature.

On Saturday, Jazz I and II competed against 11 other bands at the Rolling Meadows Jazz Festival. Jazz I won for the sixth straight year. Jazz II put on an excellent performance as well. No other Wisconsin band has won has six times straight in the 29 years of the festival. Way to go, Shawano Jazz.

Shawano Community Middle School

Mark your calendars for March 6 (1-2 p.m.) and March 13 (6:30-7:30 p.m.) for an extremely important and informative presentation in the middle school LGI. Principal Daniel Labby, Associate Principal Tami Bagstad and Officer Jody Johnson will be addressing three main topics: middle school minds, technology/electronics use and bullying. If you have a student in middle school, this is a must-see!

Parent-teacher conferences are rescheduled for Thursday. If you are involved, you already received a confirmation call. Due to parent-teacher conferences being rescheduled to Thursday, the assembly of the Healthy Haitian Baby Bundles has been changed to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Bonduel Elementary School

The second-grade students have been working hard on the new math Common Core standards. We have been working on collecting and graphing data as well as analyzing pictographs, bar graphs and charts. Furthermore, they are working hard on mastering one- and two-step story problems. The biggest struggle has been learning to persevere with problems that require deep, critical thinking. Students are taught different strategies to help them solve these problems, including drawing a picture, acting it out, using comparison bars and creating equations. Students then use “math talk” to discuss the word problems and share how they reached their solutions. They have learned that while there may be only one answer, there are many ways to reach the solution.

Olga Brener Intermediate School

Fifth-graders here at Brener have been busy studying landforms in science class. Students in Ryan Cappaert’s class had to do a landform project in conjunction with this unit. The students got to choose one of the following landforms: volcano, glacier, mountain, earthquake, cave or sink hole. Once they chose their landform, they needed to come with questions about it. Once they were done gathering their information, they then needed to build a model of it and present it to the class.

Who doesn’t love the Olympics? Gym classes were set up in winter Olympic stations last week, doing activities related to the Olympic games. There was hockey, ice skating, bobsled racing and many more. It was a fun way to connect with the Olympics. The students were also encouraged to watch the Olympics on TV and to keep track of the medals that the countries won.

A big thank you goes out to our PTO at Brener for setting up a Gnomes Games night. Gnomes Games is out of Green Bay, and the staff organized a great evening of family fun with an assortment of different games. There were classics such as chess, family favorites such as Apples to Apples and Headbandz, and many new and interesting games, such as Slamwich, Snakes Out, Spot it and many more. There were games for everyone from pre-schoolers to adults, and many were lucky to win a game as a door prize. Many families, including staff, came to participate in the fun-filled evening.

St. James Lutheran School

Students in Karen Barnes’ class found out that valentine parties can be healthy and still a whole lot of fun. This year, everyone chipped together and Mrs. Barnes put together a strawberry parfait buffet for her students. With fresh strawberries, vanilla pudding, granola and other goodies, the kindergartners had fun making their own parfaits not once but twice. It was a nice way to end the week before heading into a long weekend. Thank you to all the parents who contributed to our classroom parties so the students could celebrate Valentine’s Day with one another.

Beginning this second semester we have been blessed to welcome Kathy Beyer to our St. James staff. Mrs. Beyer is our new reading specialist, and she will be here every afternoon from 12-3. Mrs. Beyer’s position is being funded through Title 1 funds that we received through Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Mrs. Beyer will be working with children in grades K-5 who would benefit from some extra help in the area of reading. The Title 1 room is located in the church office area; she is meeting with the children in one of the vacant pastor’s offices. The room has been made ready for the students with the reading materials, table and white boards that she will be using during her classes. We are very excited that we can offer this service to our families and hope that we will be able to continue offering this program to our children in the years to come.

Menominee Indian Tribal School

An assembly was held Feb. 10 in the school gym to say waewaenon, thank you, to Joey Awonhopay, whose new title is director of the Menominee Language and Culture Commission for the tribe. Pakahcekaew has been teaching Menominee language and culture for nine years at Menominee Tribal School. He will be sorely missed as he gave his all to instill cultural pride in the students.

Maech Waewaenen to Pakahcekaew

By Michael Clark

We do not want to say goodbye to a man of gold.

So instead, maech waewaenen, Pakahcekaew, see you down the road!

You have taught us all how to live our life,

As we deal with joy, peace, love and strife.

Waewaenen for taking us to find the wild rice,

The maple sugar camp experience was also very nice.

In class we learned Menominee language and beading,

Your drumming and singing was a unique way of leading.

The cha ha and lacrosse games were certainly fun,

We left it all on the field until we could no longer run.

If you are ever in your office and need a little more noise,

Feel free to come visit our middle school girls and boys!

May you find time in the fall to walk through the muck,

As you scout, harvest and track your 30-point buck!

Menominee Tribal School was so blessed by the Creator to have you here,

May he grant you and your family health, happiness and prosperity for many a year!

Hillcrest Primary School

Monarch butterfly SEJ 507 that hatched in Dan Everson’s classroom on Sept. 15 and was tagged and released on Sept. 16 was recently recovered in the El Rosario sanctuary in Mexico. This butterfly flew 1,860 miles to reach its destination.

Jamie Kriewaldt’s class is learning to identify and count different amounts of currency during math workshop. In readers workshop we are learning about the types of text and visual features authors use in nonfiction texts and discovering the author’s purpose for using many different text and visual features.

Rebecca Arens’ class has a classroom store every other Friday. Students earn daily points for respectful and responsible behavior. They convert these points into money that they can spend. They are applying many skills as they add multiple numbers together and count out the coins to represent the amount they earned. They also learn to make change as they purchase their items.

In Jennifer Zoll’s class we are focusing on the steps of plan, do and review while working on studying and building structures, communicating how they are or will be built, and thinking about how to make our structures better.

Lori Schwecke’s class is enjoying book clubs. We’re noticing reoccurring patterns in characters’ behaviors and in authors’ writing styles, but are still surprised by the twists and unexpected events.

Stacey Popp’s class found out how important it is to use describing words in their “how to” writing. Making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich can get quite messy if you don’t explain each step with details!

Students in Diana Wichlacz’s second-grade class are working hard at turning their biography of a famous person into a PowerPoint presentation. We will be sharing them at the Showcase of Colors from 5-7 p.m. Friday.

Sacred Heart Catholic School

The students at Sacred Heart Catholic School are staying warm by keeping busy! The seventh- and eighth-grade classes made their annual trip to Camp U-Nah-Li-Yah in early February. The students and several volunteer enjoyed three days and two nights of making memories. Our Home and School Association fully funded our trip this year. The camp is an outdoor adventure camp that allows for team building opportunities outside of the classroom setting.

Gym teacher Sue Kenfield built up school spirit by engaging our students in all grades in our own Olympics. They have been bobsledding, curling, skating and playing hockey. On Friday, the students and staff braved the cold and enjoyed time at the skating rink for students to compete in speed skating (or booting) and hockey goal shots. The closing ceremonies will take place Friday at 1:45 p.m. The students will receive recognition for their skills and participation.

Our entire school packed up and head to Camp Tekekwitha just north of Shawano. We are so fortunate to have the Diocese of Green Bay host a faith-based camp so close to our school. All students and staff in grades 4K-8 started the day with prayer in the chapel and then broke off into various activities. They experimented in science, made bird seed mosaics in art to be good stewards of the earth, worked on team building Olympic events, and went snowshoeing. The entire school looks forward to our return trip to Camp Tek in the spring to enjoy another season of fun and learning outside the classroom. Camp Tek does host campers during the summer month and you can find more information on their website.

Eleven seventh-grade students from Menominee Tribal School learned about human survival skills, animal signs, birds of prey, and how to cross-country ski and snowshoe during a recent visit to Trees For Tomorrow in Eagle River.

Menominee Tribal School has been bringing students to workshops at Trees For Tomorrow — a private, nonprofit natural resources specialty school — for 22 years. The workshops provide students with hands-on learning activities in an outdoor environment.

“I believe that the students from Menominee Tribal School have a better idea of how the concepts stressed by Trees For Tomorrow integrate with their lives on the Menominee Indian Reservation” as a result of the workshop, said Ben Piaskowski, a teacher who accompanied the students.

The Feb. 17-19 visit to Trees For Tomorrow also “may impact future educational and career decisions,” he said.

As part of the educational experience, students learn about food waste and attempt to achieve “zero waste” during their meals in the campus dining hall.

“At the first meal, one of our students took one bite from an apple and threw it in the compost, immediately ending our chances at winning the zero compost award,” Piaskowski said.

It did, however, provide an easy-to-remember lesson reminder.

“The event, henceforth, was referred to as the ‘infamous apple incident of 2014,’” Piaskowski said.

Trees For Tomorrow serves school groups throughout Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois. It provides both daylong and multi-day educational workshops focusing on natural resources management.

Teachers choose from more than 50 courses to customize workshops that best meet the needs of their students.

Financial support from the Bleser Family Foundation in Shawano made it possible for the Menominee Tribal School students to attend the educational workshop at Trees For Tomorrow.

A Shawano family’s trip to Haiti later this month was the catalyst for a service project at Shawano Community Middle School.

Almost a dozen students put together Healthy Haiti Baby Bundles that will go to poor families in Haiti. Sixth-grader Haley Williams and her family will leave for Haiti on March 28 with the supplies collected by students — more than 1,000 items total — in February.

Students who brought in the most items will be rewarded with candy from the school’s store, and the homeroom that brought in the most items will get soft pretzels.

Sixth-grade teacher Lela Schwitzer helped organize the drive with the Williams family.

Schwitzer had done a fundraiser years ago at Gresham Community School in which items were collected for “love bundles” for those in need. The bundles carried the basic essentials that many Americans take for granted.

The Haitian bundles put together by students on Tuesday afternoon contain baby bottles, spoons, wash cloths and bars of antibacterial soap. Toothbrushes and cans of powdered baby formula will be sent separately.

When Schwitzer and the Williams family hit upon the service project idea, they contacted the Green Bay-based Friends of Haiti to determine how the middle school students could help.

“They said that the biggest need was for infants,” Schwitzer said. “They’re starving; they’re malnourished. I did a little research on this, and the biggest thing they need is food.”

Schwitzer noted the larger cans of baby formula cost $13, a price that is affordable for many area families but far too expensive in impoverished countries such as Haiti.

“This is how students at Shawano Community Middle School can help children in some of the poorest countries in our hemisphere,” Schwitzer said. “It’s important for us to know that, even though we’re in little old Shawano, we can help kids far away.”

Jodi Williams, Haley’s mother, said she was surprised at how much stuff the students collected.

“It’s just so touching to see the goodness in our community,” Williams said. “This exceeds every expectation I had.”

She said her husband had gone on a goodwill mission with Friends of Haiti last fall, and the trip later this month is a chance for her whole family to see the situation first-hand and to provide support.

Hillcrest Primary School

On March 20, a local author will spend the day with the kids at Hillcrest/LEADS Primary School. Marla McKenna published a book called “Mom’s Big Catch.” It is a book about the day Marla took her family to a baseball game and a baseball actually landed right inside her purse! She will be encouraging the students to never give up on their dreams, focus on the power of reading and share her journey of becoming an author. She will also provide a family presentation from 5:30-7:15 p.m. that will include dinner for the whole family. Please contact the school for the registration information.

LEADS Primary Charter School

LEADS first-graders have been busy working on collaboration skills in small groups. We are working on the art of compromise, making sure we all do our share of the work, and learning to agree or disagree respectfully. We are finishing up our partner research in our animal inquiry and noticing how animals have special functional parts to help them survive. We will soon be “going public” with our research to present our findings. Part of this going public stage will be learning about the three A’s: Activism, Awareness and Aid, and how we can inspire people to take action for a cause, such as helping to prevent animal extinction.

Shawano Community High School

The winter athletic banquet will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday at The Gathering.

Parent-teacher conferences will be held from 3:15-6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Parents will meet with teachers in their rooms.

Olga Brener Intermediate School

The third-grade students in Deb DeFere’s class are becoming awesome detectives. They are learning and reading books about mysteries. Officers Heidi Thaves and Jody Johnson visited and told how they solve real cases as detectives in our community. Officer Thaves told how her dog helps her solve cases of missing people.

Research shows that good attendance is essential for success in school. Chronic absenteeism, whether excused or unexcused, is directly associated with lower academic performance in later grades.

Upcoming: Knowledge a thon, March 13; no school/teacher in-service, March 14; Author visit, March 19; Brener Student Showcase, March 25; Grandfriend Breakfast, March 26.

Schools nationwide are celebrating Read Across America Week, and area schools are pulling out all the stops to get children excited about books.

At Olga Brener Intermediate School, more than two dozen fictional characters walked down the runway Monday in the school’s first-ever literary fashion show. The students eagerly welcomed teachers portraying The Cat in the Hat, Katniss Everdeen, Huckleberry Finn and other popular protagonists.

St. James Lutheran School made reading a family affair Monday night, holding read-aloud activities at the school and a book fair. The staff also offered advice to parents on how to encourage children to read outside of school.

Menominee Indian Middle School incorporated native culture as The Cat in the Hat interacted with hoop dancers and native drums. The Dr. Seuss classic was read in the traditional Menominee language.

In its 17th year, Read Across America is facilitated by the National Education Association.

The fashion show was new for Olga Brener. Principal Karen Smith said besides giving students the chance to see their favorite characters come to life through their teachers, the show introduced students to characters they might be interested in reading about in the future.

When Katniss Everdeen (teacher Karen Braun), one of the main characters from the popular book series “The Hunger Games,” popped out on the runway in the school’s cafeteria, students greeted her with cheers.

The students were also excited to see their favorite gorilla, Ivan (teacher Jenny Ballwahn), come bounding into the room, as “The One and Only Ivan” has been featured in the school’s family book club.

On Tuesday, Olga Brener students got the chance to dress as their favorite fictional characters, and students are decorating their classroom doors later in the week with book and character imagery.

The youngest students at Olga Brener are third-graders, and events like this week’s are vital to keep students interested in books, said Carrie Ninham, Olga Brener’s literacy coach.

National education organizations say third grade is usually the critical junction to get students reading on grade level.

“This level is critical,” Ninham said. “Either they’re going to be interested in reading more or they’re going to fall off that interest. Anything that we can do to promote literacy, I think, is extremely important. Having weeks like this that highlight literacy can be fun, and you can do a lot of different things.”

St. James is placing an increased emphasis on reading this year with the addition of a Title I teacher who helps classroom teachers focus on reading strategies that help disadvantaged students, according to principal Susan Longmire.

Title I teachers have been a part of public schools for many years, but now parochial schools are getting the added reading assistance, she said.

“All year, we’ve been putting an emphasis on literature, and we just felt that we should try this,” Longmire said.

Besides the read-alongs and book fair, the school also gathered families in the cafeteria to enjoy walking tacos and discussed with parents what they can do to encourage reading.

“Every night, settle them down and read a book together,” Longmire said. “They need to be the examples.”

Longmire said it is more challenging than ever to get children to read, as video games and the Internet compete with literature for attention.

“They don’t even know how to interact with one another anymore,” Longmire said. “It’s like you have to teach them social skills, so getting them to read really already starts at (age) 1½. Parents should be saturating them with books. Even though they can’t read them themselves, they’re used to them. They see the importance of books.”

Longmire pointed out that a good reading base helps students succeed in other school subjects, as well.

To get students at Menominee Indian Middle School more interested in reading, the school’s cultural event included a pie throw, with students who met their reading goals earning the chance to throw pies at their favorite teachers.

Earlier in the day, the Cat in the Hat paid a visit to Keshena Primary School, reading with the students and having lunch with them.

The Menominee Indian School District also received two representatives from the Wisconsin Education Council, who presented the district with $500 to help enhance school libraries.

The College of Menominee Nation recently was chosen to receive a $413,423 grant from NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project.

CMN was one of four tribal colleges in the U.S. sharing nearly $3 million in funding to enhance learning through the use of NASA’s earth science resources.

The funds will support the tribal colleges and their partners as they improve teaching and learning about global climate change.

Professor Lisa Bosman wrote the CMN proposal for work that will be done at the Keshena campus. The project involves five partner institutions: NASA Langley Research Center, which will incorporate data sets related to weather and solar irradiation; Argonne National Laboratory, which will provide access to real-time solar energy performance data; University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; the National Council for Science and the Environment; and UW-Platteville.

Bosman, a graduate of the Milwaukee School of Engineering and Clemson University, is a member of the faculty in CMN’s degree program in material sciences and pre-engineering.

She identified several research objectives for the new grant, including opportunities for students in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) programs to construct a user-friendly solar energy system evaluation tool. The project will incorporate solar modules at Argonne National Laboratory, NASA weather and solar irradiation data, and detailed cost analysis.

The grant also will help establish curricula that fuse STEM concepts with climate change literacy, Bosman said. The result will be combined social science and physical science courses that should have wide appeal to many students.

CMN’s introduction to statistics course will be modified to include case studies analyzing climate change data. Another CMN course – global implications of climate change – will be modified to bring science and math concepts into the curriculum.

The grant also helps CMN develop a train-the-trainer model for faculty of tribal colleges and universities and for teachers in local middle schools.

Other tribal colleges receiving grants were in Belcourt, N.D.; Cloquet, Minn., and Pablo, Mont.

The Shawano Community High School jazz band dominated the Division 1A competition at the 29th annual “Jazz in the Meadows’’ event on Feb. 22 at Rolling Meadows High School in Illinois. With the victory, Shawano became the only Wisconsin high school to win six championships — in a row nonetheless — at Rolling Meadows.

“We tell the kids to compare this to high school sports,’’ said Christopher Kent, band director. “Winning at Rolling Meadows is like winning the state basketball championship, and Illinois’ state championship, and a couple other states’ championships as well. This is a big deal.’’

Shawano opened with Gordon Goodwin’s “Gumbo Street,’’ with solos from junior tenor sax player Threse VanDyck, and junior piano player Sara Arens, along with senior trombonists Maris Braun and Connor Neumann-Sleeper performed “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most.’’ Shawano’s finisher, “La Suerte De Los Tontos,’’ drew on solo performances from tenor sax player Will Johnston, Teddy Myers and Mitch Micik (drum set), to send the Hawks to a sixth straight Meadows victory.

“A month ago, we won at the Northshore festival but did not play our best, but today they walked out and played like the champions they are,’’ Kent said. “ I am very proud of them and they did a great job but it is time to get back to work.”

Shawano’s Jazz II band earned a two-star rating in the “second band’’ competition at the festival.

Next for the two jazz bands is their own jazz festival on March 15 at SCHS. Shawano will not be competing at its own festival, but both bands will be playing Saturday along with 21 other bands and will receive clinics from national jazz clinicians

Shawano’s final competitive event in 2014 is UW-Eau Claire on April 5. Despite its success in area jazz festivals, Shawano has never finished first at UWEC.

“That is our focus, today and going forward,’’ Kent said. “We need to raise our level of performance, and play like we know how to, to give us a chance to win at UWEC.

Gresham School

To help celebrate Read Across America and Dr. Seuss’ birthday, we had dress-up days all week. Monday we had pajama day, Tuesday was crazy sock day, Wednesday was crazy hair day, Thursday was mismatch day, and Friday was twin day. Members of our staff read to the whole elementary school on Monday. They read Dr. Seuss books and then watched the movie “Green Eggs and Ham.” They then proceeded to eat green eggs and ham and cake.

Also on Thursday, the elementary kids had their drama club play. The first and second grade had “The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs.” The third-, fourth- and fifth-graders had two plays: “Scrabble” and “Let Me Play.”

Next week we will have our Pennies for Patients competition. Whichever grade has the most pennies by the end of the week gets a prize. All of the money is donated to help fight cancer.

Shawano Community Middle School

We had our first and very successful presentation on “Middle School Minds and Bullying,” and our evening presentation is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the LGI. It will be just over an hour. We also have a second presentation planned, specifically on electronics and how students are using them, at 1 and 6:30 p.m. March 27 in the LGI. This presentation is for parents/grandparents/guardians only. A Skylert phone message will be sent home soon.

The Amazing Mini Mustache Ponies, a Destination Imagination team at Shawano Community Middle School, organized a balloon pop to raise money for the Shawano County Humane Society. Eighth-grade students at SCMS bought balloons to pop; inside the balloon they found a prize. Several businesses in Shawano, including Oakhaven, Perkins, Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Body Essentials, Lake Shore Lanes, El Tequila, Qualheim’s, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College and Book World, donated money and prizes for this event. The team raised $170 to buy cat food.

Students who sold items for the Student Council fundraiser earned an afternoon of fun on Feb. 28. Hansen’s fundraising provided popcorn and drinks, along with a number of bouncy houses for students to enjoy. A good time was had by all!

Hillcrest Primary School

Did you know that the plates on the back of a stegosaurus act like an internal air conditioner? Did you know that flying dinosaurs are actually called pterosaurs? Did you know that the diplodocus dinosaur stood on its back legs to feed on high trees? Or that deinonychus dinosaurs hunted in packs? Well, the students in Megan Beauprey’s first-grade class at Hillcrest Primary know these things. Thanks to a special volunteer, these first-graders learned a lot about dinosaurs. On Friday, Mark Verkuilen, of 1st Class Ink and Verkuilen Chiropractic, visited these first-grade students to help them explore the world of dinosaurs for their new science unit.

This week was KAT week at Hillcrest School. Our Knowledge-a-Thon (KAT) quiz day was March 4. We would like to thank all of the parents and community members who came to help quiz our students. We would also like to thank teachers Dan Mead, Melanie Miller, Karen Preston, Alexander LeRoy and all of their fifth-grade students for coming to quiz. We couldn’t have done it without your help. Check back to find out how many questions that Hillcrest students answered correctly.

Cindy Ferch’s class celebrated Dr. Seuss this week. We enjoyed lots of his great books. We had some guest readers, and we even made green eggs and ham. We all tried the eggs, and most of the students liked them. We are learning about our community and the difference between things we want and things we need.

Beth Mueller’s students have been busy discovering the world around us. We continue to explore our environment, making new discoveries and connections every day. We are always anxious to share our learning with others.

Jamie Malueg’s students continue to take on new reading challenges. We enjoy spending time with our first-grade buddies and really enjoy partner reading.

Bonnie Hilgenberg’s class is taking care of the Earth. Our class has been busy learning what we can do to make the Earth a safe and healthy place to live. We have a responsibility to care for the Earth. Our class will put on a play at Birch Hill Nursing Home at the end of March. We can make a difference!

Bonduel Elementary School

Recently, the 4-K classes at BES celebrated our 100th day of school! We ate a special 100th day of school snack. We also enjoyed special activities such as making glasses, counting to 100, finding 100 numbers hidden around the room, making a book about what we would buy if we had $100 and bringing in collections of 100 items from home. We are very excited to be 100 days smarter.

Bonduel Elementary first- through fifth-graders participated in the Jump Rope For Heart program the week of Feb. 10 in their gym classes. We used long jump ropes one day and short jump ropes the next day. The younger students learned how to twirl the long rope, and a lot of the older students learned how to get into the middle while the rope was twirling. They all discovered that jumping rope is great exercise. The Jump Rope For Heart program is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. Because of this, extra incentives were added for the students. We had 46 students collect donations for the American Heart Association, which was double the number that took part in this community service project in 2013. The students collected $2,254, an increase of more than $1,100 from 2013. The top fundraisers were Mason Zuleger and Alex Benish. Thank you to all the students who went out and collected donations for the American Heart Association to benefit their research and educational programs. Thank you to everyone who supported all of the students who collected donations for the American Heart Association.

Bonduel Elementary School

This first full week of March has been filled with literacy activities for the kindergarten students at Bonduel Elementary School.

The kindergarten children heard a large variety of stories written by one of their favorite authors, Dr. Seuss. We had a great time celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday throughout the week. To conclude the week, the students wore their pajamas to school on Friday. They also tried “green eggs and ham,” played a game of Jeopardy based on Dr. Seuss’ stories, graphed their favorite Dr. Seuss story, made turtles from his famous story “Yertle the Turtle,” and even got to meet the Cat In The Hat and hear him read a story! It was a great way to conclude the week.

The children also have our field trip to Building for Kids in Appleton to look forward to this month. The museum has many hands-on activities to keep them all actively engaged. They will participate in a class exploring the five senses, which will address a unit in our science curriculum.

There is never a dull moment in kindergarten at the Bonduel Elementary School!

Shawano Community Middle School

Tracy Laude’s and Laura Mielke’s seventh-grade math students had the privilege of hearing about money matters from Jackie Suehring, a personal banking officer at Premier Community Bank, during their classes March 12. Mrs. Suehring visits local classrooms as part of a community outreach education program. She discussed with the students the importance of opening and maintaining a savings account, what interest is and how it is accrued, and provided the students with the opportunity to work with a cash register and some real-life situations, such as buying groceries at the store or paying a bill at a restaurant. Each student was able to take away some new piece of information from the presentation, and we thank Mrs. Suehring for stopping by to share her knowledge.

Principal Daniel Labby and Associate Principal Tami Bagstad would like to thank the parents who attended the presentation on middle school minds and the bullying report. We received great feedback and appreciated the conversations and involvement. Please remember to mark your calendars for March 27 for a presentation on middle school students and the use of electronics. The presentations, at 1 and 6:30 p.m., will inform you about cyberbullying, websites and apps that students have unfiltered access to and how they are using them. This presentation will include handouts to take home. Parents, grandparents, guardians only; please, no students or children.

St. James Lutheran

The sixth-grade earth science class is just completing a study of volcanoes. During the unit the students had to build a model volcano that could actually erupt. There were many concoctions and mixtures thought up to demonstrate a volcanic eruption, including smoke bombs, Mentos and Coke, and baking soda with vinegar. We even had a student build a wide and gently sloping shield volcano like the state of Hawaii. The students had a great time presenting their projects to their classmates and spending a day outside watching the eruptions.

Gresham School

Jump Rope for Heart was held March 6 at Gresham Community School for students in K-5. Sixty-one students raised money for the event. They combined to raise a total of $2,800.56. We doubled the amount raised during last year’s event. This year’s top fundraiser was kindergartner Cierra Ninham. We would like to thank all of the participants for their hard work, everyone who donated money, and the parents and staff for all the help they offered to make this event very successful. Since our school raised more than $1,500, our school will receive $100 to spend on equipment.

This week we also started Pennies for Patients. It is a fundraiser for blood cancer. The money benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The class that has the most change wins a pizza party.

Olga Brener Intermediate School

Olga Brener had the schoolwide Knowledge-a-thon on March 13. This is a fundraiser in which each student gets 100 questions to study based on their grade-level curriculum. Students are asked to go and collect pledges for each question they answer correctly. Thank you to all of the volunteers who came and helped with this; without you, it wouldn’t have been possible.

Students have been busy getting ready for the Showcase of Students Learning and Arts Fair coming up on March 25. There will be many project displays, art displays and music/dance performances by students. Concessions will be available for purchase.

Congratulations to the following students for demonstrating the February Hawk Trait – Trustworthy: Drake Lorge, Ava Huntington, Collon Griffin, Macie Wincentsen, Raven Marquette, Joryn Koelbl, Landan Gretzinger, Leslie Lemerond, Luke Guenther, Ashley Warren, Jacob Polzin, Jack Reed, Jorden Thompson, Elizabeth Rosario, Mitchell Soto, Austin Hill, Jadyn Madlon, Jared Sackett, Ally Popp, Brady Sischo, Brady Stomberg, Brad Puffe, Gracie Onesti, Jeffery Teske, Selena O’Kimosh, Libby Lang-Smith, Will Myers, Anna Cuenca, Carson Cummings, Sarah Carlson, Sophie Hanauer, Aiden Nielsen, Taylor Powell, Kendra Kristof, Camden Kroll, Matthew Bohm and Emma Krueger.

Upcoming: Family Night with author Marla McKenna, March 19; Showcase of Students Learning and Arts Fair, March 25; spring picture day, March 27.

Sacred Heart Catholic School

The students and staff have been blessed with time for reflection during this Lenten season. Each week our school takes time to pray the stations of the cross. Students and staff have taken turns leading the stations in a variety of ways. During Holy Week, our second- to fourth-graders will be acting out the Living Stations at 8:40 a.m. Thursday, April 17, in the church. All are welcome to join us.

On March 18 we had a very special guest in our building. Author Marla McKenna came to share her love of reading, writing and following your dreams. She is a Wisconsin author who wrote “Mom’s Big Catch” after she had an exciting family outing to the baseball park. St. James students also came to learn about following their dreams from Mrs. McKenna. In the evening our Home and School Association sponsored a family literacy night that kicked off with a free spaghetti dinner. All families that attended the literacy night were able to purchase a copy of Marla’s book and get it personalized on the spot. All students who attended received a free writing kit with a blank book so they can write and illustrate their own story.

Students are grateful for the warmer weather this week because they walked to the public library for their monthly visit. All students in grades K-5 enjoy time at the public library each month. They have stories read to them and have the opportunity to check out books to bring home. We are appreciative of the great local library and staff in Shawano to help us spread the love of reading with our students.

Mark your calendars! The Home and School Association will sponsor a family fun Bingo night Saturday in the school cafeteria. The event will be from 6-9 p.m. Refreshments and snacks will be available for purchase. The next fish fry will be April 11 starting at 4:30 p.m. in the school cafeteria. All Home and School events help to supplement student experiences at our school.

We are excited to have so many new families show interest in our school for next year. We have registered many new families for our new 3K/4K program. If you or someone you know might be interested in what our school has to offer, please contact the school office or email Carolyn Reuter, admissions director, at admissions@shcscardinal.org to set up a private tour and information session.

Think spring!

The selection committee for the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation Scholarship and Fellowship Program has announced several area recipients of the 2014 Herb Kohl Foundation awards for students and teachers.

The $1,000 awards statewide are being made to 100 teachers, their schools and 187 graduating high school students.

Area Excellence Scholarship winners are Mallory Mews, Bonduel High School; Erin Wick, Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School; and Carly Lemke, Oconto Falls High School.

Excellence Scholarship recipients have demonstrated excellence in the academic arena and high motivation to achieve, have displayed a broad range of activity and leadership outside the academic setting, and have shown strong promise for succeeding in college and beyond.

Area Initiative Scholarship winners include Erin Fisher, Suring High School, Rose Magee, Lena High School, and Keith Malueg, Clintonville High School.

Initiative Scholarship recipients, chosen by their schools, have demonstrated exceptional initiative in the classroom and have shown strong promise for succeeding in college and beyond, but have not yet received other academic-based scholarships.

Area Fellowship recipients are Karen Petermann, Longfellow Elementary School, Clintonville, and Lynne Simpson, St. Rose/St. Mary School, Clintonville.

Fellowship recipients are chosen for their superior ability to inspire a love of learning in their students, their ability to motivate others, and for their leadership and service within and outside the classroom.

A luncheon honoring the Kohl winners from three area CESA districts will be held April 6 at Red Smith Elementary, 2765 Sussex Road, Green Bay.