Congratulations to Jake Polesky

Congratulations to Jake Polesky. He was one of the top entries in NETA’s 2015 Infographics Contest. He created an infographic over the grammar concept Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement using the website Piktochart.com.  An infographic visually organizes both text and graphics to communicate information. His work will be published in an upcoming NETA newsletter, which is received by educators all over the state of Nebraska. Hopefully, educators will use his piece as an inspiration to use this technology in their own classrooms.

His teacher, Sara Wellman-HighHorse, will also be recognized in the upcoming NETA newsletter for her efforts in using the application website in class.  She will also receive a free membership to this years NETA Conference held in Omaha. Mrs. Wellman-HighHorse commented saying, “I had originally learned about this creation-based website at least year’s NETA conference.  I decided to utilize it in my classroom, as it aligns with my philosophy of more project-based assessments. In addition, knowing about this contest fueled my ambition to use it even more.”

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Engineering Competition at UNO

Mrs. Shields took 2 teams to the TSA TEAMS (Technology Student Association Test for Engineering Aptitude in Math and Science) Competition on Tuesday, February 17 at UNO. The teams placed 1st and 2nd in their respective division. The students participating were James Borsch, Sarah Determan, Kyle Owen, Tessa Stevens, Alex Tietz, Daniel Crump, Zane Fickbohm, Riley Grosse-Rhode, Bret Klabunde, Erin Schulz.

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Phenomenon Show Choir

Phenomenon Show Choir competed at the UNO Show Choir Festival on Wednesday, February 11th. The group competed against 8 other schools in our class and performed very well. Phenomenon will compete again this Friday, February 13th, at the NCDA (Nebraska Choral Directors Association) Show Choir Festival held at Elkhorn South High School.

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3rd Grade Project

Hearts are the most recognized symbol for February.  After all, it is the month of LOVE.  Third grade enjoyed creating beautiful Valentine artwork.  They used paper, scissors, glue and oil pastels to make these colorful pieces of art.

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Robotics Contest

Fort Calhoun Robotics class participated in their first contest this weekend at Benson High School. Teams did really well with this being their first contest of the year. They will be participating again at Skills USA State April 15-17 at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha.

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Geometry Project

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The student took a picture of a pioneer, put a 1-inch grid on it and then increased it to 8 foot tall pioneer. Making a shape bigger is called a dilation.

Kindergarten Math Exploration

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Mrs. Clausen’s kindergarteners, this school year, have been working on identifying the shapes: rhombus, pentagon, hexagon and octagon. They partnered with their 3rd grade reading buddies in Mrs. Leishman’s room on January 16th to do a hands-on project building these shapes with spaghetti noodles and marshmallows. The 3rd grade students were able to walk the kindergarteners through step-by-step on how to make these shapes, as well as a few three dimensional shapes such as cubes and pyramids. The students discovered that they can use these shapes to create tents, catapults, skyscrapers,  race cars and much, much more! We enjoyed working with our partners and discovering new characteristics of shapes all around us!

Doane College Vocal Festival & Honor Choir

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Sunday and Monday, January 11-12, Hailey Hansen and Nolyn Appel participated in Doane College Vocal Festival & Honor Choir. These students went through an nomination process in November and were chosen to take part with 260 other High Schoolers from across the states of Nebraska and Iowa. Students are nominated by their choir directors to take part in the honor choir and the Doane College Music staff chooses the final list of participants from the nominations. This honor choir is open to only juniors and seniors in high school.
Students spent Sunday night and all day Monday rehearsing with Dr. Kurt Runestad, a vocal faculty member at Doane College. The festival ended Monday night with a final concert where both the honor choir of 260 performed along with the Doane Choir. The students have been individually preparing the music on their own since they found out they were selected in December. This honor choir gave Hailey and Nolyn an opportunity to go above and beyond, experience a new director, visit a college campus, and meet other students who share a love of music.
These students participated:
Hailey Hansen (11th grade)
Nolyn Appel (11th grade)
The songs they learned and sang:
O la, o che bon echo! (The Echo Song)
Highland Mary
The Last Words of David
Sunday (from Sunday in the Park with George)

UNO’s Middle School Honor choir

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Friday, January 9th, six Jr High students participated in UNO’s Middle School Honor choir. These students went through an audition process in September and were chosen to take part with 160 other Middle school students across the state. For the auditions, students sang a solo song and a scale to show their voice capabilities. The UNO Middle School Honor Choir staff chooses the final list of participants. Throughout the day, students worked with guest conductor, David Puderbaugh in a music clinic setting and ended the afternoon with a final concert at 3:00 pm in the Strauss Performing Arts Center on the UNO campus. The students have been individually preparing the music on their own since they found out they were selected in November. This honor choir gave the students an opportunity to go above and beyond and challenge themselves with new music. It also gave the students a chance to really expand and grow in themselves as musicians.
These student were selected:
Oliva Evans (8th grade)
Julie Klemm (8th grade)
Jordan Wear (8th grade)
Joshua Nachtigall (7th grade)
Riley Mitchell (7th grade)
John Crump (8th grade)
The songs they sang on the concert were:
The Falcon
I Will Arise and Make Music
Amavolovolo
He Never Failed Me Yet
O Swiftly Glides the Bonny Boat

Dance Camp Fun

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The Fort Calhoun Dance team held their dance camp on Friday, December, 5th. It was a success with 45 students participating. Dance team members, Kira Boyd, Emily Shannon, Mikayla Schmitt, Nicole Swanson, Hailey Greenwell, Lizzy Namuth, Taylor Thalman, Molly Shannon, were each placed in charge of a group of students. The theme for the camp was “Live, Love, Dance” and the girls danced in large and small groups to songs by Katy Perry, Madonna, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, and Lady GaGa at halftime of the girl’s varsity game that evening.