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Overall Winner  Nicole Swanson and Morgan McNew – Does calcium affect the strength of egg shells?

Fort Calhoun Elementary had a blast celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday this week. They had many different dress up themes, contests and story times. Some favorites were decorate your hair day and dress like your favorite Dr. Seuss character. Students also earned Cat Cash for every Dr. Seuss book they read. The students made a Seuss Soup Snack to enjoy during their time reading Dr. Seuss books throughout the week. Families joined into the fun by decorating a Dr. Seuss themed sock with their student. The week wrapped up with an assembly to announce contest winners. A highlight of the week was watching the students who earned the most Cat Cash, dump water on the Principal, Mr. Wagner’s, head.

The 5th and 6th grade HAL students competed in a Mad Hatter Quiz Bowl at esu3. Each team challenged the other team every single game. These Pioneers improved their quiz bowl games tremendously over the course of the year. They had help from great coaches, Teri McKennan and Kelli Shaner. Some highlights from the day: The 6th grade girls team had a few fresh, new competitors that have never competed before. Their captain was a knowledgeable, brainiac, Mackenzie Hansen, who led her team to two close heart breakers. They lost one of the games to the defending champions. The 5th grade team was tied after the 45 questions were asked. They then asked a tie breaker. Bella Benoit was quick on the trigger and answered the question right to advance her team to the next round. The all boys team made it to the 9th round and earned 5th place in this competition! They were knocked out by a Blair team that they had previously beat in the day. These students represented the town of Fort Calhoun with pride and respect, we should all be proud of them!

6th graders have been working on story telling projects in music. After attending the Omaha Symphony, they have been studying how music can help to tell the story through the 5 story elements – character, setting, plot, conflict & resolution. Each group chose a well-known story and retold the story and added their own music to help tell the story. Some of the stories chosen were: The Lorax, The Three Little Pigs, Beauty and the Beast, and Jack & Jill Went Up The Hill.

Last week, the final group of eighth graders went through their mock interviews in the Eighth Grade Careers class.   In this class, the student play the Real Game and complete various activities throughout the simulation – choosing housing, learning to budget their time and money, and a few even loose their jobs and have to complete to get new ones.  Then the student connect their real game experiences to the information they learn about themselves and research possible career choices hoping that they can plan now and make good choices to set themselves up for success in the future!  The careers class is a required class (one of the quarter-long exploratory classes) and is taught by Mrs. Hernandez the FCHS guidance counselor.

2nd grade has had a lot of hatching going on! For science, in Mrs. Benoit’s class, we have learned about the embryo of a chicken. We have learned the components it takes to hatch baby chicks. We also have trout eggs hatching in our classroom. The Nebraska Game and Parks has provided all of the equipment needed to allow these eggs to hatch. We have learned the life cycle of the trout and we will get to release our trout in April at Schram Park during our field trip. Lots of learning and excitement going on for sure!

The Fort Calhoun Elementary School was able to fund-raise a grand total of $4,021.65 for Hoops for Heart! Over the last couple of weeks, the students learned about being HEART healthy through basketball skills and activities and how we, as a school, can help others. Great job to everyone!

The Spanish 2 students have been learning about the culture in Puerto Rico and learned about the festivals that take place in Ponce. Within the culture they learned about the masks the people wear in the parades and the meaning behind them. With the help of Mr. High Horse, they created their own masks with molds, plaster and paint. The students used their iPads to record themselves describing their masks and were able to share the descriptions with their classmates.

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.”