TERRE HAUTE — * Davis Park

Imagine a place where the temperature stays the same all year long.. Also imagine what kind of life can survive without sunlight. Fourth grade students had the opportunity to visit and learn about the ecosystem of caves when they visited Bluespring Caverns on Friday, April 13. Buses departed school at 7:45 and students enjoyed visiting with friends and having a snack during the two hour trip to Bedford.

Students were divided into groups as they rotated doing four different activities; boarding a flatboat and traveling along the underground river through the caverns, mining for gems, shopping, and of course eating lunch. The overwhelmingly favorite activity of these fourth graders was the boat ride. Our guides led us safely on a one hour informative tour of the caverns, and while there students saw a bat, a frog, and several blind fish. Our guides gave us a chance to experience total darkness as they turned off flashlights and we sat motionless, listening to the quiet.

The “mining for gems” activity was a simulation of prospecting for gold and other precious materials. Students were given what appeared to be just a bag of dirt but soon they discovered hidden gems inside as they emptied their bags onto screens and carefully washed and shook the residue into the running stream of water. The children were allowed to keep their gems and were also given an informational card to help them identify each one.

Visiting Bluespring Caverns was just exactly what this group of students needed to help them better understand Indiana’s geography, natural resources, and the science behind the formation of rocks and minerals. Many students and chaperones said they intend to revisit the caverns with their families.

— Jane Tennis, Susan Pickard, 4th grade teachers

• Deming

Since 1997 Vigo County School Corporation has been the home of a Karate Club for students of the school system. The Karate Club was founded by Cpl. Phil Haley of the Terre Haute Police Department. This program has been offered free of charge by Officer Haley to all students in the club. The program began at Sarah Scott Middle School as part of an after school program. Since that time the program has expanded to working with students in Fuqua, Sugar Grove, Farrington Grove and Deming Elementary Schools.

During this school year Deming Elementary School has had the opportunity to offer the Karate Club to our 2’nd Grade students. Currently there are eight students that are part of the club. The lessons taught to the students focus on physical fitness, karate skills, friendships with their fellow students, mental discipline and work ethic to be successful in school and their future careers. Participation in the program is contingent on their showing respect to their teachers, parents and guardians and their fellow classmates.

The Deming Elementary Karate Club students have excelled in their karate skills and work ethic this year. Many of the students have increased their ranking from white to yellow and orange. The students have also had the opportunity to earn a necklace with tags that focus on responsibility, honor, respect, and caring. Several students have earned these tags when they displayed an action focusing on one of the said areas. We are proud of their hard work and proud to have Cpl. Haley working with our Deming Stars. We are extremely appreciative that Cpl. Haley takes his own time during his days off to come to our school and work with our students. He provides his expertise and experiences in teaching these students and never charges fees for any student he works with.  Thank you Cpl. Haley.

Deming Stars would also like to thank Mr. Bob Baesler for his generous donation of cereal and grocery bags to our school. These items have been used to provide students with food items on the weekend through our Bountiful Backpack program. Mr. Baesler is always generous to our community and we are very lucky to have him in our area. Thank you Mr. Baesler, as always.

— Mrs. Laurie Setliff, School Counselor

• DeVaney

Hooray for reading. So far this school year, students have checked out over 38,000 items from our media center. DeVaney is fortunate to have many reading support systems in place, and this is evident in the enthusiasm that abounds for books. Each day, children dig into self-selected, interesting reads that help maintain the motivation to succeed. Statistics taken from Scholastic Reading Counts program show that students have passed 8,485 quizzes and read 55,121,631 words as of March 28, 2012. Those are some fantastic numbers.

Our students have a variety of reading interests. Biographies fly from the library daily, particularly those of sports figures. There is strong interest in weather, military, automobiles, different sports, and animals. Favorite fiction authors are Andrew Clement, Beverly Cleary, Mary Hahn, Peg Kehret, Mike Lupica, and Tim Green. Series your students might enjoy are Bailey School Kids, My Weird School Daze, and Magic Tree House. Summer reading programs begin soon, so encourage your children to select nonfiction books as well as fiction. For those students who will be in the fourth and fifth grades next school year, there is a list of Young Hoosier Nominee books on the website http://www.ilfonline.org/programs-awards/young-hoosier-book-award/. These books will be the basis of the 2013 Battle of the Books academic competition that will take place in the spring of 2013. It is never too early to begin preparing to compete for a spot on next year’s team.

This year’s Battle of the Books will take place on Friday, April 20 at Consolidated Elementary School. We had a great deal of interest from students and had nineteen competing for the ten places on the team. It was very difficult to select only ten from all of the talented hopefuls. The top ten who made the final team are: Braxton Miltenberger, Reilly Morgan, Chaiela Edinburgh, Jacqueline Schramm, Cassie Horseman, Jason Purdue, Brody Hayden, Meghan Frost, Amelia Pomfret and Ryker Wood. Special thanks to fourth grade teacher Mrs. Shannon Foltz who ably assisted with the Battle preparations. We are looking forward to the Battle.

Our library could not thrive without the volunteers, both student and adult, who spend their free time shelving books and being of general assistance. These wonderful people included parents and grandparents such as Mary Schramm, Nancy Watkins, Andrea Peck, Mary Chaney, and Mendi Wood. Student helpers have included: Shelby Freeman, Emma Holder, Macey Deckert, Eli Clements, Jadeyn Arnold, Naya Abdayem, Katie Collins, Niree Evans, Avery Hills, Rachel Wood, Alyssa Popovich, Ceyda Rasor and Bailey Blunk. Thank you one and all.

— School staff

• Dixie Bee

The first graders at Dixie Bee are digging into the world of fractions. We are learning that halves are two equal pieces, thirds are three equal pieces, and fourths are four equal pieces. We will be reading fraction fiction with our media specialist, Mrs. Woodring, as well.

The primary grades have also been busy reading the books on the Young Hoosier Book list for 2011-2012. There are 20 books on the list, and the students will be able to vote for their favorites at the end of April. My classroom’s favorites so far are Let’s Do Nothing by Tony Fucile, Duck. Rabbit. by Amy Rosenthal, and Big Chickens Fly the Coop by Leslie Helakoski.

— Ms. Moore, First Grade

Five...four...three...two...one...Blast off. The students in Mr. Moss’ class have been learning about the solar system, constellations, famous astronomers and explorers, and the phases of the moon with the help of their amazing student teacher, Ms. Sondra Blake. The students will present their projects to their peers and also use some of their pictures, videos, and information in a musical entitled Spaced Out which will be performed on Wednesday, May 9th at IVY Tech in Oakley Auditorium at 6:30. Donations of food and money will be collected for the Terre Haute Humane Shelter. The class would like to thank the Vigo County Education Foundation for the grant to incorporate the ARTS with the curriculum. This worthwhile endeavor allowed the students, teachers, parents, and community members to work as T.E.A.M. to produce a student centered musical. The students would also like to thank our student teacher, Ms. Sondra Blake for helping with this amazing educational experience.

The third grade students and Mr. Moss’ class have been participating in Everyday Math Family Nights this year. The final Everyday Math Family Math Night will be on Thursday, April 26th. The students will be receiving calendars with math activities to do over the summer. Math websites will also be shared with families to use at home to review or enhance math skills. The teachers and students would like to salute the Vigo County Education Foundation for the grant for the Everyday Math Family Nights.

Dixie Bee would like to wish Sabin Karki the best as he competes in the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. which starts on May 27th. The students and staff are very proud of Sabin.

A new social and emotional learning program has been presented this semester by the counselor. It addresses a number of educational issues, including RTI (Response to Instruction) and a new requirement from the DOE regarding the adoption of positive behavioral interventions for all students at all school levels. The proposed program is research based and called Second Step: Skills for Social and Academic Success and is geared for grades K - 8. The program is quite comprehensive in terms of student social/emotional issues and covers many of the areas that counselors already address in developmental guidance work. The primary selling point for this program is that it is unified, developmental and sequential, and it provides a consistency in our counseling program content.

The thought is that over time, the wide-spread use of common, specific terminology introduced in the lessons, as well as consistent and wide-spread incorporation of the included social/emotional behavioral interventions on the part of a majority of the school’s teaching and support staff will lead to a more positive school climate and culture. This should, in turn, lead to an increase in productive instructional time because of improved student self-discipline.

Shiver me timbers. Students in grades 4 and 5 are hoisting the Jolly Roger for Pirates. The Musical, a swashbuckling adventure for young singers, will be presented on Wednesday, May 23rd. Showtimes are 9:00 (Engle & Terkosky), 10:20 (Kuckewich & Steppe), 11:15 (Ralston & Peterson), and 1:15 (Bennett & Carty).

Mrs. Sullivan, Ms. Cornelison, Mrs. Noble and Mrs. Lammey’s 3rd grade class will be starting a butterfly garden for Dixie Bee that has been funded through a grant from our PTO. We will begin this project the first of May and welcome any parent volunteers and/or donations of milkweed plants or plants that attract butterflies. We will use this area for Science projects and growing plants and pumpkins in the fall.

— School staff

• Farrington Grove

The fourth graders at Farrington Grove will take a field trip to the Indiana State Museum and Imax Theater in May. The students will tour the museum and view the Imax 3-D movie, “To The Artic.” The students will be able to get a first hand look at Indiana artifacts from around the state. Fourth graders paid for the trip by hosting the monthly skating parties.

Farrington Grove has its own “March Madness” with girls’ basketball. Girls from grades four and five participate in the after school basketball program. Boys played their games before Christmas. Games are held on Tuesdays, Wednesday, Thursdays, and Saturdays each week. Mr. Smith does a GREAT job teaching our students the basketball fundamentals along with sportsmanship. Good luck teams.

Congrats to 4th grader Ted Pohlman who was a poetry winner in the 2012 Max Ehrmann Poetry Competition. Ted’s poem “The Average Day” was a winner out of 503 entries.

This has been a very successful year for our fourth graders. Testing has gone well and children are very excited about becoming 5th graders next year. Our 4th graders this year are Khalid Alenezi, Shatha Almari, David Baker, Ethan Bell, Michaela Boyke, Delilah Brown, Isabella Carter, Melissa Chavez, Braxton Cooper, Emmanuel Crabtree, Kaleb Edmondson, Anquanice Floyd, Braxton Gabbard, Devin Gess, Nathan Gilbert-Criss, Mike Glasgow, Matthew Haraway, Jalen Henderson, Sophia Henderson, Jaden Higginbotham, Dylan Hudson, Lena Jackson, Damion Kluesner, Libby Koerner, Madison Jones, Caleigh Lenover, LaVontee Lowery, Terrell McGowan, Bradley Moody, Abriawna Muncy, Madi Nicholson, Thomas Olson, Kaylee Phillips, Phoebe Pilant, Ted Pohlman, Luka Popoff, Jarred Powers, Elyse Santos, Carlei Sapp, Alecia Schlup, Triston Smith, Savannah Stevens, Katlyn Strain, Brayden Strange, Mackenzie Sullivan, Tristan Tarwater, Devin Taylor, Brittany Thibodeaux, Jadon Wallace, Kayona Ware, Gabriel Wautelet, TJ West, Mikayla Whippo, Nkosi White, Jerry Whitesell, and Rylen Wiggins.

— Kelly Kellett, Judy Lawler, Jayne Odum

• Franklin

Last month’s Officer’s Ball celebrated 127 students that had reached the rank of Chief Comprehending Warrant Officer. This means that these students scored 78% or better for 15 weeks or more on their weekly reading assessments. Students danced, worked on computers, played video games and BINGO, watched movies, and played board games with officers. Thanks to everyone that made this event so successful. A special thanks goes to Franklin’s PTO officers for getting the balloons and donations from Wal-Mart.

Calendar items: Art Show and Dinner for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades - April 24th; Art Show and Dinner for 3rd, 4th and 5th grades - April 25th; Battle of the Books at Consolidated Elementary - April 20th; Second round of ISTEP+ and IMAST testing beginning April 30th.

Keep up the great work, Franklin Falcons and remember to stay strong.

— School staff

• Lost Creek

The Mayor’s Character Trait for April was “Ambition”, wanting something so much you work hard to get it. The winners for Lost Creek include: Kindergarten: Caroline Gauer & Wyatt Butcher.

First grade: Marc Hirtea, Nathan Phipps, Mircea Kippes, Maecie Coomer, & Isaac Ross.

Second grade: Emily Looper, Justin Chastain, Kaylin Chapa, & Ellie Branam.

Third grade: Shelby Mundell, Emma Lynch, Noah Sutton, Rylee Pender, & Blake Wright.

Fourth grade: Kylie Higham, Sarah Richards, Calyssa Tood, & Jadelyn Johnson.

Fifth grade: Sarah Behnke, Hannah Cervantes, Collin Richardson, Megan Phipps,& Olivia Welch.

Our overall winner was 5th grader Megan Phipps in Ms. Ellis’ classroom. Megan is a wonderful role model for all children & Lost Creek is very proud to have her represent our school at the Mayor’s recognition. Congratulations to all Lost Creek Character Trait winners.

— School staff

• Ouabache

March 2nd proved to be amusing for the young and the young at heart. Thanks to Mrs. Secrest, media specialist, for all of her diligent efforts in planning the colossal Read Across America celebration commemorating Dr. Seuss. The festivities started with students and teachers lining the halls to witness Mr. Tanoos, superintendent, dressing the part of The Cat in the Hat atop a Seussish zambonie parading down the halls of Ouabache followed by Thing One, Rylee Brewster, and Thing Two, Emma Todd gallivanting behind throwing confetti. Indiana State football players. basketball players from Terre Haute North, baseball players from Terre Haute South, along with South’s amazing drumline, paraded down the hall while passing out Dr. Seuss pencils and bookmarks to students. After the parade all of the participants read a Dr. Seuss story to the classes. The merriment ended with a reception in the library, where each student got a cookie and a free book donated to Ouabache from the reading outreach program at WTIU. Thank you to everyone who participated in our Seussical activities.

— School staff

• Rio Grande

Recently, children from Rio Grande Elementary’s Second Grade were treated with a trip to the Vigo County Public Library. The trip was sponsored by Friends of the Library.

The second graders took a tour of the library where they found it to be a great place to find information or just to grab a book for reading pleasure. They were introduced to a large nonfiction section with encyclopedias, magazine articles, biographies, and many other resources including online databases. Hundreds of fiction books including the Young Hoosier books and graphic novels were also available. They learned the library is home to all the current elementary text books and Everyday Math kids. DVDs, CDs and Books on CD were ready to be checked out too.

Librarians read a story while the children eagerly listened. A book was then presented to each child as a gift from Friends of the Library. With parental permission, library cards were distributed to the children in hopes of return visits to the library where several programs will be hosted this summer.

Research shows that the more time spent reading, the more evidence of reading achievement. Reading at home with parental involvement is important to students’ success. Rio Grande wants to thank Friends of the Library and the Vigo County Public Library for promoting reading to our student readers.

— Mrs. Rita Myles

• Sugar Grove

The character trait for the month of March was SELF-CONTROL~being in command of your feelings, actions, and behavior.

 The following students were selected as Character Award Winners for exhibiting determination:

 Grade 1: Seth Donham, Emilee Hammond, Mary Petty, and Devin Tackett

 Grade 2: Gavin Evans, Hannah Garwood, Micah Huckaby, and Luvie Jones

 Grade 3: Alexia Clements, Abigail Hernandez, and Darrin Rhoades

 Grade 4: Marcus Rizer and Luke Stamper

 Grade 5: Michael Brace, Suzy Lechner, and Addison Smodilla

 The schoolwide winner for the month of March was Alexia Clements. Alexia and her family will be invited to a celebration with Mayor Duke Bennett at City Hall on April 19. Congratulations, March winners.

Mrs. Sandy Ring, Reading Recovery teacher and Literacy Coach, has been selected as Sugar Grove’s Vigo County Education Foundation Excellence in Education winner for 2011-2012. Mrs. Ring will be honored at the Excellence in Education banquet on May 9. Congratulations, Mrs. Ring.

Mrs. Crystal Harris, Grade 4 teacher, has been selected to receive the 2012 Indiana Alpha Delta Kappa Excellence in Education Award. She will be recognized during the Alpha Delta Kappa State Convention on April 28. Congratulations, Mrs. Harris.

Many boys and girls in the upper grades have enjoyed reading the Young Hoosier Book Award titles this year. Several of them met with Mrs. Knierim and Mrs. Scamihorn after school to take part in the Young Hoosier Book Club. Following two days of intense competition on March 27 and 28, the following students are to be congratulated for earning spots on Sugar Grove’s Battle of the Books Super team: Maddie Auler, Jennifer Garcia-Israel, Aaron Gentry, Alyssa Huffman, and Tommy Personett. Team alternates are Anthony Bovenschen, Adam Gasiorowski, Lauren Keith, Jacob Moore, and Jan Tomaszewski.

We wish the team members the best of luck as they compete in the county-wide Battle of the Books competition at Sugar Creek Consolidated Elementary School on Friday, April 20.

Grade 4 student Ella Lautzenheiser has been selected to represent Sugar Grove at the Reading Association Spring Banquet on April 17. She and her parents were invited to attend and accept books for Sugar Grove’s library. Congratulations, Ella.

— Submitted by Ms. Artis and Mrs. Knierim

• Turkey Run

TRES Holds School-wide Four-Star Celebration

Turkey Run Elementary students and staff were treated to a special celebration in honor of the school receiving a Four-Star rating by the Indiana Department of Education (DOE).

With the help of a grant from the Parke County Community Foundation, the elementary school students along with the sixth grade class traveled to the Ritz Theater for a special showing of The Lorax. The students wore their red Four-Star School shirts that were also provided to each student through funding by the Community Foundation and a private donation.

During the show, the students were treated to a bag of popcorn and a drink.

“It was wonderful to be able to celebrate the hard work and efforts of all of the students and staff by attending the special movie showing. This outing would not have been possible without the generous donations and support from the Community Foundation,” said Mrs. Roberta Hobbs, fifth grade teacher.

— School staff