March 2019

“To Build Knowledge and Skills

for Success Today and Tomorrow”

Meade School District 46-1

Parenting in the Rain

There is a line in a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that says “Into each life, a

little rain must come.” Those of us advanced in years know that life is full of those

moments when rain is a blessing or rain is a setback. There are many areas of the country

now dealing with damaging effects of moisture and hoping that maybe rain stays away

for a while. But, we know that rain is essential to growth and there are times when we

look forward to it.

There are many articles these days about “helicopter parents” and the newest one is “lawn

mower parents.” Helicopter parents are described as those who are overprotective and

quick to “come to the aid” of their children. Lawn mower parents are described as those

who actually work in the foreground and/or background and make sure their children

experience as few struggles, challenges, discomforts as possible.

While there is nothing more important than loving, nurturing parents, children do need to

work through relationships with other children their age and even in other age brackets.

Children need to work through relationships with other adults. Children need to

understand that their actions have consequences. Children need to face challenges in the

learning process in order to grow.

It is very difficult to listen to your child relay to you how something happened at school

that hurt their feelings or made them feel badly. Part of raising and educating children is

to keep them focused on what tomorrow can bring. We need to encourage them to stay

strong when things don’t look so good. Each of us

adults can remember back to what we thought were

earth-shattering events in our lives. Now, we look

back and think, “Hey, I survived that.”

There are hundreds of stories of people who overcame

adversity and went on to be influential in others’ lives.

Trust your parenting ability enough to know that your

children can become strong and resilient with your

guidance and your stepping back.

Bev Rosenboom, Principal

March certainly came in like a lion, so as it comes to a close I

hope it goes out like a lamb . When we've been able to have

school we've covered a wide variety of music this month! We

started off with "Love Is an Open Door" from Frozen. We dis-

cussed the movie and how it has finally made its way to the

Broadway stage and how making the transition from film to

stage has been quite challenging. Everyone already knew the

song, so after singing it we learned some new choreography. It was really fun!

Next, we learned "We're All In This Together" from the Disney Channel Original Movie, High School Musical. It was the most successful Disney Channel movie to date and the soundtrack

from this 2006 smash was the best selling album in the United States that year. We learned

the choreography, which was quite similar to what is in the movie. It is a great song that cele-

brates the unique characteristics that each one of us possess.

Then on to my favorite composer of all time.... Beethoven! The students had a listening map

for his famous piece, "For Elise", which showed them the form it was written in, ABACA, which

is rondo. We also discussed some interesting facts about Beethoven, one being that he was to-

tally deaf the last 15 years of his life. It was in this time period that he wrote some of his

most phenomenal works. We also sang a song called "The Power of Music" that was written in-

cluding some of his most famous motifs... and the students picked up on some of them. Of

course, there was a little of his 5th and 9th symphonies included as well as the tune from "Ode

to Joy". Most everyone had heard the melodies at one time but they didn't realize that it was

Beethoven who had written these timeless songs.

We also learned the difference in a motif and a hook. A motif is a short, repeated musical

segment in classical music and is also called a "hook" in popular music. In popular music, the

hook is the part that catches the listener's ear... you know, that crazy tune that stays in your

head for a week or two?!?! They learned that they have heard several motifs from classical

music... they just didn't know who had written them!

Our folk dance for this month was from Sweden, the Fjaskern,which was a simple circle

dance that starts out slow then gets faster and faster. The subtitle for this dance is Hurry Scurryand that is definitely what the kids were doing by the end of the song!

On Saturday, March 30, there will be seven students representing the rural schools at the

Elementary Music Contest in Spearfish. I am so excited because I know they will all do very

well and make us all proud.

I can hardly believe that April is just around the corner but I am looking forward to all the

fun that is to come! Until then, keep a song in your heart!

Mrs. Richards

March Students of the

Month

Laken Linn—Kindergarten Ruger Spring —2nd grade Thayne Elshere—8th

Elm Springs Atall Hereford

Upcoming

Events:

Friday, April 29th—No School—

Easter

Wednesday, April 24th—Rural

Screening

Character Traits

MARCH: COOPERATION “A situation in which people work

together to do something” ~Webster’s

Dictionary

From the sounds of it, most of the other schools got hit hard with snow. From the looks and

sounds of it, the kids are happy to have all of the snow to play in at recess! Over the past few

weeks, there have been forts built, melted, then rebuilt again. It’s time for Spring!

Our class recently began a hydraulics project. Students spent an afternoon experimenting with

two syringes and tubing. They needed

to figure out how to fill the entire tub-

ing with water using their two syring-

es. After much trial and error, Joni

and Jessa were the first ones to solve

the problem—way to go girls! Stu-

dents are very familiar with the bene-

fits hydraulics play at home on the

ranches. They are currently working

on a project at home and will bring to

school next week to show the rest of

the students what they created using

hydraulics. I can’t wait to see what

each of their creative minds come up

with!

We will be beginning Smarter

Balanced testing in the next

few weeks. 3rd grade has

been preparing for this for

quite a while and will do an

extraordinary job on their

tests! Good luck to Joni and

Colter! Ruger, Jessa, and

Hank will be cheering you

both on! Good luck to all stu-

dents with Smarter Balanced

Testing!

Mr. Erfman

Mrs. Urbaniak’s 4th-8th Classroom at Atall School

What a memorable March it has been! We started the month with lots of snow and cold; hopefully the end of the month is much warmer and dryer. Spring cannot come too quickly this year! Our classroom has been a busy one as we prepared for the school speech contest and the complicated topic of, “Challenges Youth Face.” I think the speech itself qualifies as a challenge; and we are pleased to be able to say that all of our 4th-8th graders rose to that challenge and conquered it! While our fourth-graders did not compete in the contest, they did research and compose a speech that they also delivered several times at home and in school. Tance wrote about challenges we face with cell phones, and gave us several side-effects of too much screen-time to think about. Everett wrote about how school can be challenging, but it is important to realize that everyone is intelligent in their own unique way. Our fifth graders did wonderfully for their first time competing; Alanah spoke about challenges military kids face and her heartfelt message earned her 3rd place in the 5th-6th grade division. Emma spoke about the challenges of being a ranch kid. Her lovely speech about the importance of chores and ranch-work earned her 2nd place at the competition. Seventh-grader Dally wrote an informative speech about the importance of sleep, with several great suggestions for improving the quality of our sleep.

Shaniah Spring, eighth grade, wrote about the challenges of peer pressure; making note of the benefits of positive peer pressure as well as the dangers of negative peer pressure. Her delivery was spectacular! Our other eighth-grader, Mariah Spring, proudly placed 3rd in the 7th-8th grade competition with her speech on learning disabilities. She bravely spoke about her own experience, and accomplished a long-held personal goal of placing at the competition. It has been an honor to teach these girls and watch their speaking skills grow exponentially these past four years of competing in this contest!

Also in March, we celebrated Pi Day, officially held on March 14 or 3.14 like the famous ratio “pi.” This year, we each made our own toaster oven “pizza-pi” for lunchtime on March 20, since the 14th was a day of Spring Break. We rolled out home-made dough

(compliments of home chef, Mr. Joe Urbaniak) and then added our favorite toppings. Older students helped the younger students learn more about the special qualities of the number pi and why it is celebrated.

K—3rd grade

March has been filled with crazy weather, snow days and warmer weather,

FINALLY!

We have loved Science this month! In Mystery Science, we created some awesome

hats to keep the sun off of our face by using materials we would find in a lunch

box.

In

addition to Mystery Science, we have been using the FOSS kits! The students

LOVE the FOSS kits! Currently, we are working on Air and Weather! We created

our very own balloon rockets!

Science is so cool!

Mrs. Matt

K-3 Elm Springs

Mrs. Wilsey,

Paraprofessional

4th—8th grade

The past couple of weeks our class has really been focusing on getting

ready for oration. It was my first time, so it was really wonderful to be able to see

all the children give their speeches and see their hard work pay off. I was

delighted to see my Elm Springs students do a terrific job. Public speaking is such

an important tool to have in your toolbox and something I admire the students

doing so confidently and willingly. Wonderful job to all the students and staff

members for putting on such a neat event!

-Ms. Koenig

Hereford Elementary 5th—8th

Signs of Spring at Hereford Rural

When the snow melts away, Students count down the days until May, And our learning is in full swing… The last chapters of our textbooks are nearer, Our essay organization couldn’t be any clearer- That’s how you can tell it is spring! The earth renews with the springtime showers, The students count the hours Until they can do those summertime things! Spring fever is everywhere, You can feel it in the air- That’s how you can tell it is spring!

Our students at Hereford could not be more excited that spring is finally here. We are enjoying the warmer weather and the mud that winter has left behind! With the winter melt, we are experi-encing unusual flooding. In science, students are brainstorming and engineering ideas that could help mitigate, plan, respond and recover flood situations. They were ever so excited to test their structures to see if they would withstand flood conditions. This has been a valuable learning ex-perience for the students because they are learning and witnessing just how important this infor-mation is to the world around them.

In Social Studies, we are learning new and fun ways to incorporate technology to make learning fun. Students are creating podcasts and vokis for their latest projects and experimenting with dif-ferent medias to incorporate into their projects.

In reading we are wrapping up Unit 3 in each group and summarizing their skills that we have worked on with Writing Performance Tasks that encompass all of our writing skills as well.

For math, we are beginning the last of our few standards for each grade level and starting to see how all of the skills relate, so that we can problem-solve new challenges every day!

It was great to see all the students highlight their talents at the Oration contest. Every student did an amazing job! Congratulations 5

th though 8

th graders!

Grades Kindergarden & 1st

ENNING/UNION CENTER

March has been a busy, but fun month! With the missed days because of snow, we have been working extra hard the days we are in school! The kids were so excited for the first day of SPRING! We weren’t sure if it was ever going to get here They are ready for green grass, flowers, and baby calves! The Preschoolers came to visit us on March 19th. They enjoyed being “big kids” for the day and helping the Kindergarten and 1st Grade students do their work. They even got to do a fun Spring art project! Miss Steffes-Classroom Teacher Mrs. LaMont-Paraprossional

Grades 2nd and 3rd

ENNING/UNION CENTER

Enning/Union Center 2nd and 3rd grade have been

busy preparing for the Smarter Balance Test and

the NWEA. Though, we are beginning to wonder

if spring will ever arrive, we are continuing in

reading, learning about what heroes do and how

teams work together to accomplish their jobs. In

Math, 2nd grade is learning about how many 5s in

100 using nickels, cubes, and 100s charts. 3rd is

reviewing patterns using cubes, expanded nota-

tion, and rounding numbers to the nearest ten and

hundred.

In Mystery Science we learned to perform a mag-

ic trick that the students really enjoyed. Ask them

to show you the Magician’s Secret.

Meade School District will be offering a free screening in the areas of motor, con-cepts, and speech for all children from birth to six. If registering your child for kindergarten for the fall of 2019, please bring a copy of the child’s birth certificate and an immunization record. Please call the Rural Office on Tuesdays at 985-5532 to schedule an appointment or leave a message and I will get back to you. The screening will be held Wednesday, April 24th from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm at the Central Meade County Community Center.

2nd Trimester Atall Hank Baker (2nd), Everett Urbaniak (4th) Enning/Union Center Brayden Dutt (K), Ian Cammack (2nd), Colter Rhoden (3rd) Joshua Bendigo (7th) Hereford Lawrence Gunderson (2nd) Opal Eli Skogen (K) Brixie Vig (K), Colby Skogen (4th), Esther Munroe (5th) Bentley Frei (6th)

Change in 5-6th Outdoor Experience

For several years, on an alternate year basis, the 5-6th grade students have gone on an

overnight outdoor experience at Outlaw Ranch. That outdoor experience is being changed

to a day trip to the Outdoor Campus in Rapid City which is run by the SD Game, Fish and

Parks. The change is due to two primary issues—cost and difficulty finding overnight

chaperones to go along to Outlaw Ranch. The cost per student to Outlaw Ranch is $58.75

and for an adult chaperone is $29.25. There is no cost for the twenty-two 5-6th grade stu-

dents and teachers to attend the Outdoor Campus in Rapid City. The only cost will be a

bus to take them and some kind of provision of a lunch while there. The event is sched-

uled for Wednesday, May 1st.

Grades 4th and 5th

ENNING/UNION CENTER

March has been an interesting month with the temperatures colder than normal. The students are happy to get

to be outside for recess after being inside much of the time. While continuing with their regular subjects, they

worked hard on their oration speeches. The contest was a good learning experience for them as well as a

chance to socialize with students from the other rural schools. They did an excellent job and Mrs. Schnell and

Mrs. Smith were so proud of them!

Along with specials like Computer and Music, students have

been enjoying art class and P.E. once a week. Art focused on

St. Patrick’s Day, in part. In P.E. they have been learning new

games after being led by selected students for warm up exer-

cises.

Mrs. Smith was fortunate to be able to travel to Florence Italy

and shared her experience with the students. She was kind

enough to bring them back samples of candy as well as some

souvenir gifts. How thoughtful that was of her! The students

were very happy to welcome her back.

Students were also very happy to welcome back their teacher,

Mrs. Wilcox, after being gone for 8 weeks on maternity leave.

Welcome back Mrs. Wilcox!

Grades 6th, 7th, and 8th

ENNING/UNION CENTER

Who Needs an Egg Hunt? Mrs. Smiley

At the beginning of March, an ambulance and Life

Flight helicopter were involved in an accident in our school

parking lot. We were glad it happened on a weekend so no one

was in the school. Amazingly, none of the pieces flew into the

building. A few days later, we watched as they loaded the

helicopter onto a flatbed and hauled it away. Since the accident,

our recesses have been a little like a scavenger hunt. As the

snow melts, more and more helicopter pieces and other debris

emerge from the snow. By the end of the school year, we could

have a very full box!

Oration Contest

“Challenges Youth Face”

5th & 6th grade contestants

5th & 6th grade winners

First place: Porter Deering

Second place: Emma Spring

Third place: Alanah Spring

7th & 8th grade winners

First place: Sage Graham

Second place: Jeslyn Deserly

Third place: Maria Spring

7th & 8th grade contestants

March TECH TIMES with Miss Gall

K-1: Students have continued to work hard using their home row fingers when typing.

We have also continued working on our mouse skills that include clicking and

dragging. Students have been working on Jungle Jr on Typing Club and have been

practicing creating word searches to build onto their skills.

2-3: Students have been working hard at Dance Mat and Typing Club to learn new

typing techniques and to get faster at their typing skills. Students have finished their animal Kahoots and will be moving on to a

new project!

4-5: Students have been working hard at improving their typing skills. We use Typing

Club to maintain good accuracy and to improve our WPM. Students have finished their animal/famous person Kahoots and have had a blast playing them with their

classmates. They will now move onto a new project!

6-8: Students have completed creating their own Kahoot about a topic of their

choice. They had a blast playing each other’s! Students are now working on researching Digital Citizenship topics to create a Kahoot about, and researching

fast food places to compile a spreadsheet to show their information. 8th graders have continued to work on their iMovie for their

graduation.

What’s Next?

All students will continue to work on their typing skills with Smarter

Balanced Testing coming soon. 3rd grade & up will be required to type for a

portion of their test so practice makes perfect! If accessible, students are encouraged to practice their typing skills at home using the links I have

provided below! In class, students are practicing typing their spelling words,

sight words, and creating short stories to put their skills to the test.

8th graders have begun to compile and insert pictures into an iMovie for their

8th grade graduation presentations. These should be finished no later than

May 3rd.

Next, younger students will continue to practice formatting a document and learning and practicing keyboarding

shortcuts. Older students are working on a research project and using

spreadsheets and graphs to compile their data.

Try These at Home!

missgall.typingclub.com missgall18.weebly.com

abcya.com typetastic.com

Dance Mat Typing @ BBC.com

Eighth Graders visit the legislative

session

Congratulation to the State AAU place winners: Cooper Cobb 4th place & Gabe Dennis 3rd place

NURSE NEWS From your school Nurses: Julie Dobler, R.N, Jennifer Oedekoven, R.N, Heidi Komes, R.N

IMMUNIZATIONS FOR KINDERGARTEN:

THE SOUTH DAKOTA STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH REQUIRES THE FOLLOWING IMMUN-

IZATIONS BEFORE YOUR CHILD CAN START THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN:

4 DOSES DIPTHERIA, PERTUSSIS, TETANUS VACCINE (DTaP/DTP), WITH ONE DOSE ON OR AF-

TER FOURTH BIRTHDAY

4 DOSES POLIO VACCINE (IPV), WITH ONE DOSE ON OR AFTER FOURTH BIRTHDAY

2 DOSES MMR, WITH THE FIRST DOSE ON OR AFTER FIRST BIRTHDAY

2 DOSES VARICELLA, WITH THE FIRST DOSE ON OR AFTER FIRST BIRTHDAY

PROOF OF THESE IMMUNIZATIONS AND BIRTH CERTIFICATE IS REQUIRED PRIOR TO YOUR

CHILD’S FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN. PLEASE BRING SHOT RECORDS AND BIRTH CERTIFI-

CATE TO THE OFFICE.

Principal’s Merit Atall—Shaniah Spring Enning-Union Center—Marnie Baker, Erin Shaw, Andoryn Walker Hereford—Sage Graham, Veronica Grubl A Honor Roll Atall—Mariah Spring Enning-Union Center—Gabe Dennis, Kash Krogman, Joshua Bendigo Hereford—Jeslyn Deserly, Porter Deering Opal—Brigg Price, Bentley Frei, Kaylee Smith B Honor Roll Elm Springs—Lonnie Elshere, Tracy Wilson Enning-Union Center—Tadlee Opstedahl, Maverick Simons, Taber Cammack, Tyon Arneson Hereford—Cade Hammerstrom Opal—Landon Fisher