Contributed Photo State Rep. Mandy Wright, D-Wausau, recently visited Bowler Elementary School, explaining to fourth-grade students in Lori Mueller’s social studies class the duties and responsibilities of a state legislator.
Contributed Photo Olga Brener Intermediate School staff members, from left, Jason Kuehl, Joe Robinson, Joseph Zuniga, Ryan Stuber and Craig Ferch grew mustaches as part of the school’s Mustache Movember, a campaign to raise awareness of men’s health issues, especially prostate cancer.
Hillcrest Primary School
In Heather Schmidt’s class, we have been learning about why the first Thanksgiving was celebrated. We have been playing some games that the pilgrims and Native Americans may have played. We also learned how to make butter and tried out our homemade butter with our snack. We have been doing an Ann Morris author study. We are learning from Ann Morris how to write an informational text about something we know a lot about.
We love to reach out to the community in Bonnie Hilgenberg’s class. In September, we started practicing our nursery rhymes by learning them. It has helped us to learn to read and write. In October, we performed our nursery rhymes for Birch Hill Nursing home. In the beginning of November, we began learning the first Thanksgiving story. We brought Plymouth Rock, the Mayflower ship and our house we made to perform our play at Birch Hill for Thanksgiving. We had a fantastic experience.
Gresham Community School
The junior high had an incentive day Nov. 26 as students who were eligible played Wii games, pin knock down and board games.
Gresham school was on break from Nov. 27 until Monday.
FFA had a meeting Monday night. Members turned in their fruit orders, discussed the sales, played board games and had an ice cream treat.
On Thursday, the middle school boys have a basketball game at Bowler.
Sacred Heart Catholic School
Students and staff enjoyed the extended weekend to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with their families. Our school family has so much to be thankful for; we have great students and staff. We also are fortunate to have a parish family that supports us with time, talents and money to keep our school moving forward.
This week marks a special time in our calendar. This is the first week of Advent. It begins our church calendar for the coming year. Our students are busy preparing for the coming of Jesus at Christmas. We opened our week with a prayer service to remind us that God’s gift of Jesus is coming soon and that we need to be prepared.
Mark your calendars! Watch for our school Christmas float in the Shawano parade on Friday. Father Luke will be throwing out special basketballs with our new school logo on them.
On Dec. 12, the community is welcome to join us at our annual Christmas concert in the school gym. All students in 4K to eighth grade will be singing and playing instruments to remind us of the reason for the season. The concert begins at 6:30 p.m.
Olga Brener Intermediate School
We are gearing up for the first book club event at 5:45 p.m. Jan. 16 in the Community Room at Olga Brener School. The mission of the Family Book Club is to give the families of the Shawano School District an opportunity to get together and share their love of reading. The book that has been chosen is “The One and Only Ivan,” by Katherine Applegate, who blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art and hope. Families are encouraged to do a read-aloud or a shared reading of the book prior to Jan. 16, jot down some thoughts on the book, and bring the books and their thoughts with them for the book club discussion. Books will be provided by Olga Brener School. If you are interested in joining with your child, please contact Carrie Ninham at ninhamc@shawanoschools.com for registration and more information.
There were many things happening to show that Brener cares, for both students and staff. The Hawks Club organized a schoolwide food collection that was donated to SAFPARC. Staff donated items to Toys for Tots and participated in Mustache Movember! Some male teachers grew mustaches for men’s health awareness, and all staff paid to wear jeans twice this past month. Money that was raised will be donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
Wolf River Lutheran High School
The Wolf River Lutheran High School entrepreneurship class has been enjoying lectures from guest instructor Joe Miesbauer of Edward Jones, Shawano. He has been teaching Junior Achievement Titan for the past 10 years. JA Titan is an online game in which students learn how to operate their own business and compete in the marketplace against other young entrepreneurs. Students learn about research and development, supply and demand, demographics, target market, market research and the “4 P’s” — product, price, place and promotion. Over the course of eight sessions, Miesbauer incorporates lesson instruction and an opportunity to practice the online game. During the final session, he will play against the WRLHS students — and he has never been beaten. This should be excellent preparation for the JA Titan tournament in Shawano on Feb. 26.
WRLHS students have been lifting up their voices in the school’s newly formed choir. Under the direction of Brent Schultz, assisted by pianist Debbie Welch, the choral ensemble has been learning a compilation of traditional hymns, contemporary praise and, of course, Christmas carols. Over the past few weeks, the WRLHS choir has sung at area churches, including St. John Lutheran Church in Pulaski, St. Jakobi Lutheran Church in Shawano and St. James Lutheran Church in Shawano. On Dec. 11, both the choir and the WRLHS brass ensemble will perform at the annual St. Jakobi Christmas Concert. Hope to see you there!