Prairieview-Ogden Mustangs April 30, 2018

May District NewsNotes from the SuperintendentThe Spring music concert at PVO South Elementary on Monday had a huge crowd. We would like to thank Mrs. Susi Huls for her hard work, planning of the patriotic themed music, and her weekly practices with the students in order to prepare the K-4 South Elementary students for their performance.

The Scholastic Bowl teams have done an outstanding job this season. I was very impressed with them when I observed them in action. These young men and women answered some extremely hard questions! The Scholastic Bowl Regional was held on April 25th at Next Generation. The team won their first match-up against Fisher, but fell short when they faced St. Matthew later that evening.

The Track team has their Sectional at Catlin HS on May 5th. The team has been working hard in spite of the weather conditions. We have a lot of athletes that have a great chance to qualify for the IESA State Track Meet. The State Track Meet will be held in Peoria on May 11th and 12th. GO MUSTANGS!

We have a couple of coaching openings for next year - asst. 5th/6th girls’ volleyball and asst. 7th/8th girls’ basketball coach. If you are interested, please contact Mr. Fiscus.

Listed below are important dates for the last few weeks of school:

May 1 – North and South 4th grade – Danville Children Symphony Field trip May 2 – Jr. High (7/8) Peoria Chiefs baseball gameMay 3 – South 2nd/3rd grade to Science MuseumMay 8 – Farm Safety Day for 6th grade at Vermilion County Fair GroundsMay 9 – North 2-4th Normal Corn Crib baseball field May 10 – Reading Reward – Old Orchard for 7th/8th gradeMay 11 & 12 – IESA State Track Meet in East PeoriaMay 14 – Jr. High Awards Banquet at 6 p.m.May 15 – 8th grade class trip to Kings IslandMay 16 - South K-1 Field trip to Decatur Zoo and Children’s MuseumMay 16 - South 2-4th grade Reading Reward Old OrchardMay 17 - 8th grade Graduation at 6:00 p.m. at the Jr. High May 18 – PTO Reading Incentive Party at South Elementary in afternoonMay 22 – South Elementary PIP Reward Day to Old OrchardMay 24 – South Elementary Awards Program at 8:30 and North Elementary Award Program

at 10 a.m. School Report Card Day – students dismissed at 11:30 a.m. (last day of school)August 13 - Teachers will report for the 2018-2019 school yearAugust 13 - Open House will be August 13 from 5:30-7:00 pmAugust 14 - School will resume - ½ day for students (dismiss at 11:30)

I hope you have a fun, relaxing, safe, and healthy summer.

5 th Grade Makes Memories at Annual Outdoor School The big event for fifth grade last quarter was Outdoor School! We started out with 5 in. of snow and ended with days of rain. However, we made the best of it, and had a great experience.

We saw Lookout Point, Hidden Valley Trail, and the Middle Fork River. There has been a great deal of erosion along the banks of the river. They had a flood this year causing the water to rise higher than people ever remembered.

We did our life in a log study searching for decomposers, fungi, and creepy crawlies. We found many salamanders, centipedes, and worms. It was fun turning over logs to find the critters. Some kids found Letterboxes. (Google it! Letterboxing would be a great family activity)

Since our class was so large, they split us into two separate groups. We mixed up the two classes and had a great time. Unfortunately, Ms. Maxwell was unable to take her yearly picture on “the Log.” Miss Jean kindly took a picture of it, empty, for posterity’s sake.

Another great year in the books!

Junior High Reading & LanguageThe last quarter of school is always a busy one in Mrs. Mathis’ classroom. Currently, the seventh graders are reading the novel Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko. They finished reading the novel last week and turned in their character jersey design project today! They will be on display at the junior high for the next couple of weeks. In language, the class will be researching a vacation destination and giving formal presentations on the destination of their choice. We will be focusing on our public speaking skills and working on determining reliable resources.

The eighth grade is reading Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen and will finish that novel next week. The class has turned in their final research paper rough drafts and will work this week to complete their peer edits and final draft. The students researched a career they believe to be interesting and something they would be interested in when they grow up. In addition to the research paper, the students will begin creating their formal research presentations. We’ll not only be reviewing presentation techniques, but also learning how to create formal research slides for this presentation. They will end the year presenting their information to the class.

Pictured is the 2018 March Madness Poetry Competition winners for both seventh and eighth grade. Each seventh grader wrote a mimicry poem that mirrored the work of Emily Dickinson, a creative poem about their greatest personal quality, a variety of haiku poems, and an ode. The eighth graders also wrote four different poems after our study of poetry including: a sonnet (based on Shakespeare’s writing), creative blackout poem, a researched poet acrostic, and a mimicry poem that imitated Shakespeare’s “Seven Stages of Man.” Aurora Morris was the seventh grade champion while Ben Cunningham took the top spot in eighth grade. Congratulations!

Junior High Student Council Officers Elected for 2018-2019The junior high student council is already looking forward to next year! Mrs. Bork held an informational meeting and is happy to announce that there are seven 7th grade students who submitted an application to become a new member for the 2018-2019 school year. The word is spreading and we are growing! We also conducted officer elections for next school year. We had five current members choose to run for an office: Hunter Ketchum, Jo Schmitz, Mikyla Haley, Blake Morgan, and Josey Frerichs. The students worked on their campaign - creating posters and fliers, requesting teacher recommendations, and drafting a speech to deliver to their fellow council members. All five students presented their speeches to the current council on Tuesday, April 24th. The members voted, and boy, was it a close race – votes had to be counted three times! Hunter Ketchum, with the most votes, chose the office of Vice-President. Jo Schmitz, in second, accepted the President position, and Mikyla Haley graciously accepted the Secretary position. These students have some big ideas for next school year and we can't wait to see what activities and fundraisers they dream up! 

The PVO Track Team Races Into an Outstanding SeasonThe PVO track season got off to a slow start this year due to the unseasonable cold weather. The student athletes have trained in really difficult conditions outside, (even when other teams were inside) and their hard work is really showing now in the results. We started our season with the motto that is on our sweatshirts, "Go fast, turn left.” That was truly my expectation. We were not talking about winning races or going to state yet. We were talking about improving our personal best and being a good teammate. So far this year, we have had 6 athletes break school records and several already reached state qualifying standards.

We have fourteen 6th graders competing this year. We have set up a binder for them to track their progress along the way. Our main goal in the 6th graders is to constantly be improving, and I can say that we have had a Personal Record (PR) at almost every meet by every 6th grader. I am absolutely thrilled.

Our 7th grade team includes six athletes this year, and they are doing a great job. Three of these athletes did not compete last year, and decided to try this year. Their performances have been very good, and I am looking forward to seeing them all back out next season.

Then, there is our 8th grade team. Holy cow! The leadership abilities of these eight student athletes makes me so incredibly proud. Every one of them makes time to show the new track participants how to do something differently, or makes the time to encourage the younger ones.

I am proud of all of these young athletes and their physical abilities, but I am more proud of the human qualities that they all exhibit in the track & field program. At every event, you will find a PVO kid cheering for their teammates. They work together and they take responsibility for the team. Our student athletes understand that this is THEIR team and the coaches are here to help them make their success possible. Proud! Proud! Proud!

Our team of coaches this year include head coach Amber Lannert and student coaches Jo Hannah Sage, Peyton Francisco, Braydon Crozier and Jake Behrens - all young adults that attended PVO who are currently in school for their trade or future professions. Their dedication to the kids and their success is inspiring. It shows the caliber of human beings the Prairieview-Ogden parents and school system help to create.

Highlights from South’s Patriotic Spring Music ConcertThe students did an outstanding job at the music concert last Monday when they performed an array of patriotic themed songs complete with kazoos, sign language, small group solos, and even a couple of songs that included the audience! The kids where dressed in their red and white and they sang their hearts out! Thank you again, to Mrs. Susi Huls for her planning and practice with the students. It was evident from their excitement and smiles that music means a lot to these little ones and they loved that they were able to sing for such a big crowd!