Weekly Update
May 17, 2013 - 4:08pm

The School District of Black River Falls is committed to creating a learner-responsive environment that ensures educational excellence and life-long learning.

News from the Administrative Team

Mike Lichucki will be transferring to Gebhardt next school year.  He will also take on the role of District Title VII Administrator.   

A Reminder

There is no school on Monday, May 27 due to the Memorial Day holiday; the District Office will be closed. 

Forrest Street News from Mike Lichucki

Thanks to Kalen Leque for creating a volunteer wordle. Our volunteer recognition ceremony will be at 2:00 on Monday, May 20.

Thanks to Jody Gawron for bringing her Third Street students over to Forrest Street for a short musical on Friday.

Thanks to Karri Larson, Katie McNeely, and Sarah Staff for attending the Title VII banquet on Monday.

We had our 5k parent orientation for the 2013-2014 school year. Please encourage anyone planning on attending to enroll now!

Thanks to all of our special education aides this year. They have a difficult job and don't always get the recognition they deserve: Sarah Franks, Becky Markee, Mara Waldera, Becky Hulett, Delrae Chenoweth, Nikki Sackmaster, and Karen Haaglund. Thanks for being so kind and patient with the kids!

Third Street News from Shelly Severson

Today is Miss Lenart's last day joining Kathy Hanson's third grade classroom.  Good luck to you!  You will make great contributions to the profession!

Gebhardt News from Shelly Severson

Thanks to Christy Roush and the PTO for coordinating David Drake, a Troubadore, to come and visit with us today!  He sang and played folk instruments for us.  The name of his performance was Winscon-SING!  Very appropriate for Wisconsin History!

This week we held the Presidential Awards for Educational Excellence.  It was our largest group of fifth grade students yet! 

Middle School News from Dave Roou

According to 8th grader Ciara, we have picked out and ordered the colors for the school store. We are now finishing up mudding and sanding and will soon start painting. We are preparing for some electrical work coming in sometime next week. We ordered a variety of boards for the door, display, and window.

In Mike Downie's and Allison Boerger's 6th grade social studies classes, students were given expectations this week for a Middle Ages project. There are five project choices to choose from including constructing a castle, creating an invention booklet, and dressing as a character from the time. 

Karen DeBerg’s 8th grade book club concluded with their last meeting on Wednesday with Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.  This year, students met over lunch (often over pizza) once a month.  Students jumped in and out of book club based on their interest in the book selections.  All book selections were decided on by students.  Students met and discussed the following books this year:

A Tree Grows in Brookyln by By Betty Smith (Ok-the teacher selected this one.)
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Raft by S.A. Bodeen (local author)
Lockdown by Alexander Gordon Smith
Solitary by Alexander Gordon Smith
Maze Runner by James Dashner
Divergent by Veronica Roth
 

There was a lot of lively discussion over these books!

High School News from Tom Chambers

On Monday, our seniors showed some Tiger Pride and leadership with their exit presentations to the underclassmen.

Weekly Update
May 10, 2013 - 4:17pm

The School District of Black River Falls is committed to creating a learner-responsive environment that ensures educational excellence and life-long learning.

Board of Education Information

On Friday, May 17, the board members will be participating in a district facilities tour.  They will be starting at Forrest Street at 7:20 am and visiting each school along with BRAGS, the bus garage, and the alternative classroom downtown.  They are excited about seeing the students and staff in action!    

Forrest Street News from Mike Lichucki

Thanks to Sue Wester and June Johnson for volunteering to be part of the Forrest Street Promotional video. Way to be ambassadors!

Thanks to Kalen Leque who serves as our volunteer coordinator at FS. Kalen and Karen Haaglund have done a great job organizing our volunteer recognition for May 20.

Please spread the word and have people enroll for 4k and 5k if they have not already done so. (5k students who attended 4k do not need to enroll.)

We have our Title VII banquet on Monday, May 13 from 6-7:30. It will be held at FS.

Next Wednesday, we have invited the police to help us with suggestions as we conduct our intruder alert drill when we have kids outside for recess. 

Thanks to Kim Parker and Amy Luna for everything they do to keep the office chugging along!

Third Street and Gebhardt News from Shelly Severson

Third Street and Gebhardt Literacy Collaborative training classes completed their initial year of training this week!

Thank you to Julie Tiedens for her work today interviewing and videotaping some PR videos for the elementary schools. We can't wait to see what you put together! Thanks also to Tom Epps, Jen Bolger, Christy Roush, and Todd Fendt for representing the staff in these videos!

Third Street News from Shelly Severson

Second grade classes in Cassie Hammond's, Lisa Moretti's and Betsy Mashak's classes made stepping stones for Mother's Day. Kent Weinman mixed the cement and seemed to enjoy it as much as the kids! Thanks, Mr. Kent! :)

One of Sherry Erickson's reading groups will be reading the book Everville: The First Pillar by Roy Hoff. When they are done with the book, they will write reviews for the author. He will choose the best review, post it on Amazon, and send that person a signed copy of the book! Awesome!

Third Street Celebrated Fine Arts Night on Thursday night. Thanks so much to all the staff who stayed to greet parents and showcase the great student work samples! Particular thanks to Wendy Everson and Stephanie Brueggen for hosting LC parent information sessions as well as Jody Gawron and Stephanie Cowles who assisted the students with Seussical the Musical! We also appreciated a guest speaker, Mr. Scheckel who amazed the audience with tons of flashy science experiments and knowledge! (Thanks Deb McClintock for organizing his presentations!) It was a great night for families!

Gebhardt News from Shelly Severson

On Friday, May 3, 14 students from Gebhardt Elementary attended Kids' College at UW-La Crosse. The students took part in three classes with the majority of them emphasizing hands-on learning activities. They were able to work alongside UW-La Crosse faculty and experts in various fields. For example, News 8 anchorwoman Jennifer Livingston taught students about news reporting and anchoring, and students were able to practice interviewing and taping. Another class offered was the Climbing Wall where students learned about rope belaying, climbing procedures, methods, equipment, and proper climbing etiquette. Some other classes offered included Fun Photo Editing, Korean Percussion, News 19 Weather Academy, Unhuggables, and Improv Station. Overall, the students had 14 classes to choose from.

Middle School News from Dave Roou

Candis Spindler's 8th grade English class participated in the Tuesday Club Creative Writing Contest. The contest included eighth grade students from Black River Falls, Alma Center, and Melrose-Mindoro. Each student was to write a 300 to 500 word creative essay about anything they chose. The essay also had to be completed during class time and could not be worked on outside of school. The Tuesday Club then read all of the essays and chose two top winners and two honorable mentions.  All four of the winning essays were from Black River Falls this year.  

Sixth grade students last week were busy writing research papers in English. So far, they have collected resources, formulated a thesis statement, and outlined the main points of their paper. They learned how to turn their outlines into paragraphs and, further, will learn how to correctly cite sources.

One component of the 6th grade social studies curriculum focuses on world religions. This past year students studied many religions including Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Judaism. Over the last couple of days they have been exploring the Islamic faith. This week in social studies, Iftikhar Memon, middle school Ho-Chunk tutor, shared his faith and culture. What a great opportunity to have this firsthand resource in the classroom!

Our annual middle school variety show was held this Friday at 10:00. Parents and guardians were invited and the entire school was treated to an entertaining 90 minutes of comedy and singing acts, skits, and more. Thanks so much to Megan Kundinger and Jennifer Krista for taking the time to coordinate the show, hold practices for the kids, and make sure everything ran smoothly.

Weekly Update
May 3, 2013 - 4:09pm

The School District of Black River Falls is committed to creating a learner-responsive environment that ensures educational excellence and life-long learning.

A Special Thanks from the Elementary Schools

Thanks Troy Tande and the 8th grade band...we LOVE having you come visit!

Forrest Street News from Mike Lichucki

Congratulations to Jen Sweeney! She begins her term as president of the Wisconsin Art Education Association.

Thanks to Jen Sweeney and Jody Gawron for organizing and staffing a highly entertaining fine arts night. There were over 150 parents and students in attendance. Author Katie McKy put on a highly engaging show! Thanks to all the staff who volunteered their time to give the students and families of our school a memorable event.

Kindergarten is doing an "alphabet countdown" to the end of the year. Each day has a letter associated with it along with a fun theme. Amazing Artists, Beach Towel Buddy Reading, etc. Thanks to Bridget Beinborn for the great idea that she shared with the whole grade.

On Friday, we had a tree dedication for Alton Burnhardt and family. Alton was the Forrest Street Principal when the building was opened.

Please spread the word to get children signed up for 4k and 5k!

Thanks to Julie Warmke for all of her organization skills in getting the Earobics intervention for our students.

Thanks to Theresa Hunter and Kari Dougherty for their organizational expertise and helping design the 2013-2014 master schedule.

Third Street News from Shelly Severson

We have a "For the Good of the Group" committee at Third Street that organized a fantastic luncheon for everyone! Instead of everybody bringing something in, they really treated us...they asked Connie Seiber and her crew to cater in salad and sandwiches. As if a meal prepared for us wasn't enough, they secured several donations of delicious pies from Perkins! THANK YOU!

This week while they were talking about inventions, Kathy Hanson's class took a walking field trip to the Art of Optometry and Dr. Hanson shared with them the many ways inventions have assisted in his work. The kids learned a lot about optometry as well as the importance of people continuing to explore and create new ways of doing things!

Gebhardt News from Shelly Severson

Five peer educators from the high school presented a skit called "Middle School Nightmares" to all 5th graders at Gebhardt on Friday. This is designed to help students feel more comfortable transitioning to middle school.

Last week I commented on the great work cleaning out the Gebhardt basement, here is why it needed to be cleaned! Thanks to some hard working kids, the book room has moved to the basement! A huge thank you to Dan Nortman's and Heather Bluedorn's classes for volunteering and doing the heavy lifting!! It was a pretty slick process!   

Middle School News from Dave Roou

Brian Stemper’s 3rd hour technology and engineering students are finishing up the exterior sheetrock on the school store. They should be taping and mudding next week! Joe Jackson, commercial building inspector, was called in Friday to okay progress up to this point. Even though there is plenty of work to get done in the next few weeks, the students are really engaged and proud of what they are accomplishing. The students and Brian would like to thank Chip Elliot and the cooks for putting up with the mess that they make on a daily basis. They are very tolerant.

Lee Amborn’s 7th and 8th grade Art students have been busily making ceramic bowls for the “Empty Bowls” fundraiser that they are doing in conjunction with the Alma Center, Merrillan, Humbird Schools. The fundraiser will benefit the local food banks. Additionally, the 7th graders have completed creature relief and hand drawings. The 8th graders have completed batiks and cardboard guitars.  The 6th graders have been busy with Japanese Cherry Blossoms, cartoons and portraits. Now they are tackling face cards.

The annual penny war benefiting our local animal shelter was a big hit!  Students raised over $1,000 in one week! 

Sarah Anderson took 26 science students to the Science & Math Expo at the LaCrosse Center on Thursday.  Students in the 8th grade completed a scientific method project where they chose their own research question and conducted their scientific experiment. Students with the most unique, well done projects get to present theirs at the expo.  Again, Sarah was told by the expo evaluators that Black River Falls’ projects are by far some of the best of the 600 entries there.