Veteran's Day Celebration 2014

Medicine Lodge has always made an effort to recognize the veterans in the community with a district-wide day dedicated to teaching the students about service and sacrifice.  Although the ceremony is not as big as it once was, it is still a great day to remember those veterans that have protected freedom that we enjoy in this country today.

At the grade school, each grade has a branch of the military that they study.  During their study, the make decorations representative of that branch and post them in the hallway.  Our fourth grade students make invitations to all of the local veterans to come and eat with us at the school.  When they come, they can see all of the decorations that the staff and students made the previous week.  Here is a folder displaying some pictures of the decorations this year: Veteran's Day 2014 Decorations

We scheduled our veteran's lunch at 11:00 this year.  We changed this up in order to allow the veterans to eat together at one time, instead of spreading them out over the entire lunch period.  If the veteran had a student that they wanted to eat with, we pulled the students out of class to eat at that time.  This year, we served around 60 veterans a great lunch of chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, rolls, and peach cobbler.  Our stuco kids served them and kept them going with tea and water.  Overall, I was very pleased with the change of the time and the way the lunch went.

After lunch, we got the students loaded up to go to the high school for our assembly.  Mr. Moore, our board president led the ceremony and gave a good message about recognizing our World War 2 veterans.  Then the grade school students sang some songs and read a poem.  Two high school students read essays that they had written about the importance of Veteran's Day.  We finished up with the band playing a medley of all of the branches songs.  When each song was played the veterans stood for their branches part.

Overall, it was a great day for our students.  I hope that the veterans in this community felt enjoyed the day!  We are so thankful for them!

Here are some other pictures from the day:

 Veteran's Day Lunch and Ceremony 2014

MLGS Rappers Present: Kindness is cool!

During the month of October, Ms. Hill discussed kindness for their character ed trait.  She wrote a rap for all of the students to learn and perform, here is the AWESOME result:

Mrs. Feely 3rd Grade 'Kindess is Cool' Rap

http://youtu.be/kyfDugB6bDI

Mrs. Rambat 3rd Grade 'Kindness is Cool' Rap

http://youtu.be/OomBS7OLiUY

Mrs. Wiley 4th Grade 'Kindness is Cool' Rap

http://youtu.be/3Zb_jNL17UE

Mrs. Rutan 4th Grade 'Kindness is Cool' Rap

http://youtu.be/JlXGCYgkMVA

Mrs. Hrencher 5th Grade 'Kindness is Cool' Rap

http://youtu.be/scFipQT4_Mk

Mrs. Boyce 5th Grade 'Kindness is Cool' Rap

http://youtu.be/nWcp4TZayiU

Mrs. Hanna 6th Grade 'Kindness is Cool' Rap

http://youtu.be/3PR_tcVnios

Mrs. Buck 6th Grade 'Kindness is Cool' Rap

http://youtu.be/aSnNoT_P8nM

Way to go MLGS rappers!

So...I decided to change the name of my blog!

Let's be honest, I was having a hard time focusing on Friday!  I had a few people reminding me that my Friday Focus was not out yet...on the next Monday. : ) So, from now on, it will be published whenever I can get to it.  Most of the time it will be weekly!  However, I reserve the right to miss a few weeks if a bulldozer rips my internet line from the ground and my phone company does not get it fixed for a month.  : )  Now I feel better!


Today, Mrs. Buck's  6th Grade Science Class was doing a simulation on offshore drilling.  They had been discussing rocks and fossil fuels.  In our area of the country, there is a great deal of oil drilling going on, so they spent some time discussing oil, where it comes from, and how we depend on it.  This led to a conversation about offshore drilling and Mrs. Buck had this simulation to give the students a better understanding of the process involved and the risks in doing it.  First, they made models with play-doh representing the different parts of the ocean floor.  Then, they buried some black in the play-doh to represent oil.  Next, they swapped models for the simulation so they would not know where the oil was located.  In their group, they had to learn and understand the process and the general cost of a drilling project.  Then they had to review the environmental risk of drilling and make a decision on where to drill.  Then they were ready to drill for oil!  To drill they poked a straw into the play-doh to see if they found any black (oil).  Some of the groups hit oil the first time and were able to finish.  Others missed, and had to weigh the risk of drilling again while consulting with an environmental specialist to measure the impact of another drilling attempt.  Finally, they had to finish recording all of their data and information and calculating the final cost of their drilling project.  This was a great project that forced the students to think about a real world issue that we are facing and gave them some background knowledge to help them form an educated opinion on offshore oil drilling!

 It looked like they had a blast!

The First Nine Weeks is Over!

It is hard to believe that we are already a quarter of the way through the school year!  We have parent-teacher conferences this evening and then we begin what I believe is the fastest nine weeks of the school year.  After Halloween, there is Thanksgiving, and then Christmas right after that.  It just seems that this part of the year flies by!  With that said, I wanted to share a few highlights of the first nine weeks here at MLGS. 

Here are some preschoolers getting ready to accomplish their "Monday Mission".  Everyone is excited to see this group out and about!

Cindy Brungardt comes to the school each fall for Indian Summer Days and helps the First and Second Grade students make stick horses to ride in the parade.  It is a blast and the kids always enjoy it!

Cowboy and Indians day during homecoming week.

 

 

Face Painting for Homecoming

Mini Cheerleaders

Ranger Rick visits the school to help the kids understand the rules

Pyramids and Plant Life Cycle Drawings

The last couple weeks have flown by!  We have had lots of different things going on here at MLGS.  Here is the rundown on a few of those things:

Mrs. Hanna's Sixth Grade classes have been studying ancient Egypt in class.  As a project, they created pyramids out of sugar cubes.  For extra credit, some of the students also created pyramids with legos, with buildwithchrome, a lego building app on the chrome browser, or in a computer game called minecraft.  The students really got into this and were very creative with the projects.

Our Fourth Grade students have been working on a plant life cycle project in Science.  Like most schools, we are trying to conserve paper as much as possible, so Mrs. Rutan and Mrs. Wiley decided to have the kids put together a diagram of the process in computer class using Google Drawing.  Mrs. Schield did an excellent job teaching the student to do this, and they picked up on it quickly.   They were surprised at how quickly the students picked up on it.  I am including a student example.

Finally, the Stuco purchased new welcome rugs for the school.  The rugs came in last week and they look great!  Thanks to Mrs. Buck and the Stuco kids this year!





This week is Fire Safety week, we have activities planned this week to help the kids learn about fire and how to stay safe.

Have a great week!

And the winners are...

Mrs. Farrar's Kindergarten Class

This year as part of our Indian Pride Character Education program funded by a grant from the South Central Community Foundation, we are awarding a "Spirit Stick" to one class for outstanding effort.  Throughout the year, we will continue to award the Spirit Stick to a different class every couple of days or so.  While the class has the spirit stick, they will be able to earn double Zing cards for the drawing in the next month's Indian Pride Assembly.  Our first winner this year is Mrs. Farrar's Kindergarten class!  They earned the spirit stick this week for listening, being kind and encouraging to others, and trying their best!  Way to go everyone!!!


I am really excited with the way this program is going.  Our staff, led by our counselor Ms. Hill, has really bought in and is teaching and encouraging the students.   It is nice to see everyone working together and being genuinely excited for each other.  Our shirts came in last week and we are distributing those out to everyone today.  It will be awesome to see all of the kids wearing their shirts and showing off their Indian Pride!

Indian Pride

This week we had our first Indian Pride assembly at school.  We will be having an Indian Pride assembly every month to talk about the new character trait for the month and to showcase the many talents of our students and staff.  We started this in an effort to boost our school pride as well as to recognize our outstanding students.  Our character trait this month is respect.  Ms.  Hill will be discussing respect in the classrooms and helping our students understand what that looks like in their lives.  For each trait, we have a poster that is in the hallway and in the teachers' classrooms to help the students remember.  This month's character is Respect Reggie, pictured to the side with a list of ways he shows his Indian Pride.  We have drawings at the assemblies to reward students for earning Character cards or as we call them "Zing Cards".  All of the staff have these cards to give to students when they do something that demonstrates great character.  We were blessed to have many of the local businesses donate money and gift cards to help us with the prizes. Overall, it went very well, and the kids had a great time!  Thanks to all of you involved  for helping us make it happen!

John and Lainey

Speaking of Indian Pride, students in Mrs. Wiley's and Mrs. Rutan's fourth grade classes have been reading and discussing the history of Medicine Lodge.  They were excited to get to see a newly acquired piece of our local history.  Mr. John Nixon with the help of his granddaughter, Lainey Coley, presented an original copy of the "Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty".  Mr. Nixon described how he had come in possession of the document, answered student questions, and helped compare the reading information to the actual treaty.  The Fourth graders wish to thank Mr. Nixon for sharing this document and his time.

Wagons Away!

Mrs. Rutan's class started a unit on "The Little House on the Prairie" last week.  As part of their project, they constructed covered wagons.  I felt like that was a good representation of the school year as we are beginning another school year.  This week, it started to feel normal at school again. Everyone is settled into the schedule, beginning of the year testing and grouping is almost complete, and we have a stretch of "normal" weeks coming up. Wagons away!

One of the big focuses we have academically is for our students to become more proficient at writing.  We are trying to help students put their thoughts down on paper in a way that makes sense to the reader.  I saw an example of this when I visited Mrs. Rambat's Science class this week.  When I came in, Mrs. Rambat was showing many leaves collected by Jacob Eck and they were discussing why the leaves had different shapes.  The students then had to write a prediction abut how the shape of a leaf affects the way a tree gets sunlight.

On Friday, the 5th Grade Science classes concluded their Metric Olympics unit with a visit from a special guest.  Carmen Forest came to talk about her experience as an Olympic handball player for the United States in the 1984 Summer Olympic Games held in Los Angeles.  The 5th and 6th Grade students learned about handball, the sport she played, and what it takes to be an Olympian.  Carmen also brings a great message about perseverance and illustrates it by showcasing some amazing Paralympians that beat incredible odds to reach their goal of being Olympic athletes.

Next week, we have pictures on Monday and our first Indian Pride assembly!  Looks like it should be a great week!

Mr. Cunningham

Metric Olympics and Car Baked S'Mores

We have now completed our first full week!  It was good to get back into the routine of school and then have a three day weekend to regroup and get ready to go again.  I am always glad when we pass Labor Day and settle into the schedule for the year.  It usually takes a little bit before everyone gets moving in the right direction.  Because of this, I was not able to get out into the classrooms as much as I would have liked. By the end of the week, however, I was able to catch some cool things going on!

Mrs. Buck's Fifth Grade Science students took over the hallway for their annual Metric Olympics.  A couple of the events that I saw them competing in were the Straw Javelin and the Cotton Ball Toss.  This lesson is designed to get the students excited about measurement.  Judging by the engagement of the kids and the competitive conversations, I think it was a hit!  It looks like next week they will be finishing up and having their medals ceremony.  Way to go Mrs. Buck and the Fifth Grade Science classes!

I also heard that the second grade students were baking S'mores in a car as a science experiment. Unfortunately, I cannot confirm this because I did not make it in to sample one, but I am sure they were excellent!  For more information on this, check with Mr. Fields or Mrs. Forsyth to see how baking in a car works.

Next week is a four day week as we have Monday off.  I hope everyone has a restful Labor Day weekend and is ready to go on Tuesday!

See you soon!

Mr. Cunningham

The first week is in the books!

To start off the school year, I thought it would be good to give you a picture of what the first week looked like at school from my perspective.

The beginning of school is always exciting for me.  I love watching the kids come in the first morning.  It is amazing how much the kids grow up over the summer.  This year was no different! 
The day got off to a good start with the teachers welcoming the students in and getting them into the routine that they will follow for the next 158 school days.  Normally, we start the day with an all-school assembly where we welcome everyone and go over a few school rules.  We decided to do things a little different this year and save the assembly for the end of the day.  The morning moved along quickly and we were ready for lunch.  Lunch in a grade school is always a challenge as we have 250 kids to serve in about 75 minutes.  We had a couple of changes to contend with this year with a new computerized lunch system that did not work quite right and a slightly different schedule for the cooks and lunchroom staff to get accustomed to.  It was a struggle at times, but we made it through!  After lunch, Ms. Hill and I visited the rest of the classrooms and presented our character ed cards that some of the teachers are referring to as "zing" cards, since our kids "put the zing in amazing!"  To end the day, we had a camping themed assembly with a visit from Ranger Rick, my "brother," the camp ranger, from Alaska.  Rick talked to the students about five rules:

1. Be kind to others.
2. Follow directions the first time.
3. Always do your best.
4. Learn something new every day.
5. Have fun!

To finish up the assembly, Ms. Hill and her crew served s'mores to the kids for an after school snack.  It was a fun first day!

We finished up the week with a great day on Friday.  Everyone settled into the routine, and we worked out some of the kinks that came up the day before.  Lunch went very well, as this year's group seems to be figuring it out quickly!  Plus the computer entry worked very well and sped up the process.

Overall, it looks like it is going to be a very good year at MLGS.  I hope the kids feel the same way!

Mr. Cunningham

2014-15 Getting Started

Welcome to the start of another year!  Over the summer, I had a great deal of time to think about the upcoming school year.  Although I felt that my first two years went pretty smooth, I knew there was plenty of room for improvement.  One of the biggest things that kept coming back to me was parent involvement and communication.  I felt that there needed to be a more constant stream of information going to parents about what we are doing with their children for eight hours a day.  I decided that this would be my focus for the year, to improve communication between the school and the home.

This is my plan. Over the course of the year, there are many times that I see projects that our students are doing and I leave the classroom amazed at what a great group of teachers and students we have.  I would like for all of my staff, students, and parents to be able to experience that same feeling.  So...I decided to start a weekly blog that will focus on our staff, students, and parents.  I will be discussing projects that I think are cool that our students are doing and include pictures or video.  I will include websites I find that I think would be helpful to parents.  As many of you know, I am now the father of seven, yes seven, wonderful children.  For this reason, I often come across helpful tips that some of you might also benefit from.  Hopefully, doing this will help you get to know me an little bit better, and also get a glimpse into the daily life of our school.

Finally, I hope that this conversation will open the door and make more of you have a desire to get involved.  Maybe that means volunteering to read with a student once a week, or maybe it means serving on the Parent Teacher Organization or the Parent Advisory Committee.  For some, it may mean coming to parent/teacher conferences with a better understanding of what your child does each day.  Whatever the case, I know that I will benefit from it, and I hope that you will as well!

I am looking forward to a great year!  Thanks for all you do!