Fairbury Community Food Market
10 Years of TeamMates
TeamMates of Fairbury was recognized at the Annual Partnership Meeting on July 24th for reaching its 10th year of mentoring. Fairbury, among other communities, has been making quality matches based on shared interests and the school and community has benefited from the program’s presence. Statistics based off of data collected last school year showed some promising numbers; over half of our local matches are staying together for at least 3 years, 90% of students in the program had fewer disciplinary referrals, and 100% of matches in Fairbury had fewer unexcused absences. The goal of the Mentor is not to tutor or fix the student, however, our statistics show that TeamMates helps engage both students and volunteers alike with 95% of Mentors claiming to leave their weekly visit in a better mood than when they arrived. If you would like to become a part of this fun and advantageous program, please contact coordinator, Tiffany Ebke at tebke@fairburyjeffs.org to learn about the application process and learn about upcoming training dates!
Saving Fred!
On the first day of school Mrs. Shinn’s third graders had to learn to work together as a group to figure out how to save Fred!
Fred is a worm and he loved to sail the sea. However, Fred never learned to swim so he always takes his life preserver with him in his boat. He was sailing along on his boat when a strong storm capsized his boat. Fred ended up on top of the upside-down boat. Unfortunately for Fred, his life preserver was under the boat. Their job was to save Fred by figuring out how to get the life preserver out from under the boat and firmly around Fred’s body, The students couldn’t touch Fred, the boat or life preserver with their hands. They could only use four paper clips. Each group was able to complete the task of saving Fred and had a lot of fun learning to work as a team.
Elementary Back to School Night
Families are invited to attend Central and Jefferson Intermediate’s Back to School Night on Tuesday, Aug. 14th between 5-7 pm. This is a great opportunity for students and their parents to meet teachers and visit the new classrooms.
Strategies For Keeping Your Sanity With Homework
Welcome back to the new school year! For some parents, homework can be a nightmare so here are a few tips to help make homework time more efficient and less stressful for you, as well as more productive for your child(ren)!
- Identify a space in your house for homework completion. This might be the kitchen table, the student’s room or an office space. All spaces have advantages and disadvantages and it’s really up to you and your child to identify the best space. If your child is easily distracted, it might be the best space is his room or an office area. If your child needs more supervision, a kitchen table might be a better space.
- Keep a schedule for homework and maintain it. For many families coming home right after school and completing homework is the best plan for them. For example, your child might come home and have a snack from 3:45-4:00 and then have “Homework Hour” from 4:00-5:00 every day. Choose a time that works for your child and family. Even if your child says they don’t have homework, keep the schedule. This is a great time for students to do some personal reading if there is no homework!
*A good rule of thumb is for every grade they should have 10 minutes of “homework time” after school. So first grade = 10 minutes and their “homework hour” is only 10 minutes long. Second grade =20 minutes so their “homework hour” is 20 minutes long, and so on.
- Pre-correct for obstacles in getting homework done. For example, if your child is disorganized and will “forget” pencils and paper, have them ready to go. If your child will “forget” their reading book have a book or magazines for them to read stored in your homework space. If your child puts everything off until the end of the day and THEN remembers he or she has homework, schedule your homework time for right after school and not in the evening. You could even make a rule that there is no free time, video games or time with friends until homework hour has been completed.
If this is something new you are trying for the first time, don’t be surprised if your child tries to ignore, argue or escape from this new routine. But be persistent! This is not only helps them get homework done and reduces your stress, it also teaches them good study habits for whatever is next for them, Intermediate school, Junior high, High School and post-high school education.
Finally, if you ever need any help, I’m here to provide it. Call me or email me anytime!
Jill Timmons, Ph.D. NCSP
School Psychologist
Fairbury Public Schools
TeamMates Attend Spring Game
15 TeamMates in Fairbury helped set the school’s the spring game attendance record on Saturday, April 21st. A total of 86,818 people gathered to watch the Red and White game, making Nebraska number one nationally in attendance for spring games this year. Before the game, they honored seniors in TeamMates at a special ceremony at Haymarket Park, where graduating seniors and their mentors walked across home plate together.
Top, Left to Right: Mark Schoenrock, Deb Ebke, Dannie Gasper, Natalie Julin-McCleary, Alex, and Lexi.
Bottom, Left to Right: Jordan, Aidan, Makena, Megan, Sophie, Shelby, and Jayleigh. Not Pictured: Chad Sprunk & Tiffany Ebke
Freshmen Attend Hastings College
The Freshmen Class was able to visit Hastings College yesterday as part of the EducationQuest College Access Grant that Fairbury High School was awarded a year ago. Students were able to tour the campus facilities, dorms, classrooms, and even eat lunch in the cafeteria. The visit allows students to see what different types of college campuses have to offer.
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!
Central & Jefferson Family Night, Give the Gift of Reading was held Thursday, March 1st. Families gathered at the Fairbury Jr/Sr High School to enjoy a pancake supper sponsored by the Fairbury Kiwanis. Teachers, staff and volunteers operated many Dr. Seuss-based activities. Students and families enjoyed playing games, making arts & crafts, taking silly Seuss pictures and listening to guest readers. Each PreK-6 student received a free book from the Kiwanis pancake feed. It was a SEUSS-tastic night!
Fairbury Beef Month
March has been dubbed “Fairbury Beef Month” at Fairbury Public Schools! Due to the generous beef donations from Rich & Kitty DeBoer and Mark & Lori DeBoer and the money donations from the Fairbury Chamber of Commerce and Sharon and Jerry Ebke to help cover the cost of processing, we are finally able to kick-off our Farm 2 School program!! On Tuesday, March 6, 2018 marked our first student lunch using 100%, locally raised beef! Students and staff enjoyed hamburgers and potato salad/baked beans. We will be serving Fairbury raised beef each Tuesday during the month of March. The menu items will be Hamburgers, Beef and Noodles, Tacos and Roast.
Our dream began over a year ago to be able to serve locally raised products in our lunch program. We held informational meetings where local producers came and learned how we can partner with them to serve their products to our students. Our goal would be to serve locally produced meats twice a week each for week of the school year!
