Jefferson-Intermediate – Page 19 – Fairbury Public Schools

Jefferson County Spelling Bee

The 2017 Jefferson County Spelling Bee was held Monday, February 6th at Tri County School. Participants from Jefferson Intermediate School included sixth graders Jorjia Shellhase, Salvador Chavez, Jackson Martin, Brant Gillham, Moirah Neal, Brittany Kroeker, Allison Davis, Ellie Livingston, Jax Biehl, and Elizabeth Rogers. After 13 rounds of challenging spelling, the winners were announced. Fairbury and Jefferson Intermediate placed one student in the top ten. Congratulations to Salvador Chavez for earning 7th place. Great job Jefferson Intermediate and congratulations to all spellers!

Human Notes on a Musical Staff

The vocal music class at Jefferson played a game to practice identifying note names. Students had to work together and use their bodies to spell out 3 and 4-letter words on a giant music staff. In preparation for this game, students came up with words using just the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, and coding them as notes on a staff.

TeamMates Welcome Tom Osborne

In honor of the 25th anniversary of the TeamMates Mentoring Program & National Mentoring Month, the Fairbury TeamMates Chapter invites you to attend a celebration with a special appearance by Dr. Tom Osborne. He will be the keynote speaker on Wednesday, January 18, 2017 at 4 p.m. at the Burkley Fine Arts Center, Fairbury High School.

Golden Sower Reading Challenge

Congratulations to Mrs. Christiansen’s 5th grade class. Winners of the Nebraska Golden Sower Reading Challenge. They enjoyed decorating christmas cookies & watching a movie for their reading efforts. Good job & keep on reading.

Two Schools One Cause

Two schools came together for one cause. The cause, to raise awareness and support our students that deal with the chronic, lifelong disease of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). On December 6th, Fairbury Public Schools and Superior Public Schools participated in the Gray Out to raise awareness for the students with T1D during the girls and boys basketball games at Fairbury High School.

This was the 3rd annual Gray Out sponsored by The IN Group and the Fairbury FCCLA. The IN Group, is a type 1 diabetic support group, that works to support families of students with T1D, while raising awareness of the disease, raising money to help the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation find a cure and support kids with camp scholarships.

This was the first Gray Out for Derek Anderson, Assistant Principal/AD for FHS, “I was impressed with the support of individuals and businesses from both communities as we united to find a cure,” he stated. “It was great to see gray shirts filling the gym and a great environment to play basketball games.”

There are currently six students at Fairbury Public Schools and one student at Superior Public School with T1D. They range in age from 3rd grade to 11th grade. One of the students was diagnosed at the age of three.

Between the girls and boys varsity games The IN Group and Superior Public Schools presented checks to Laura Eberly, Development Coordinator for JDRF in Lincoln, to further research to hopefully one day find a cure.

“We are grateful for the community of Fairbury to support such a wonderful cause that hits so close to home,” Eberly said. “With having 6 students living with Type 1 Diabetes, the IN Group has made tremendous achievements in funding T1D research and spreading awareness of the disease.”

The students and their families were overwhelmed with all of the support. Over $2000 were raised through business sponsors, t-shirt sales, 50/50 raffle, and the halftime shoot for a buck games.

Type 1 Diabetes happens when the body destroys its own cells that make insulin. Insulin is a hormone that everyone needs in order to get energy from the food they eat. Our bodies need insulin to survive.

T1D usually starts in childhood; however, adults can get it too. No one knows what causes T1D to happen or how to prevent it from happening.

Insulin is NOT a cure for Type 1 Diabetes. It is the person’s life support.

Newbery Reading Challenge

Congratulations to the 6th graders in Mrs. McAllister’s room….winner of the Newbery Reading Challenge. They enjoyed a movie and a “berry” smoothie for their efforts in reading the most Newbery books. The Newbery Medal is awarded annually to an American author whose book makes an outstanding contribution to children’s literature. Keep on reading!

Reading by Flashlight

Fifth grade students got into the spirit of Halloween today by reading their daily reading story by flashlight. Students earned this privilege by earning strips on their theometor charts or earning student points in the “student/teacher” game which are both part of an incentive program built into their reading series.

(Captain Underpants) Author Dav Pilkey Meets Mrs. Shinn

Mrs. Shinn attended an event at Concordia University in Seward, NE where author Dav Pilkey, who’s written such children’s books as the “Captain Underpants,” series and “Dog Man” talked to a crowd of fans. He stressed the importance of reading and children need to have time to read books of their own choosing. Mrs. Shinn visited with Dav Pilkey and the Scholastic representative about her students love of reading. They were so impressed that they sent her home with many items for her classroom. Including autographed posters for each student and “Reading Gives You Superpowers!” capes. Mrs. Shinn’s students were so excited with their gifts they put on their capes and went to the Library for some pictures with their favorite books.

Snowstorm in Mrs. Ruhnke’s Class

Mrs. Ruhnke introduced a new “closure” strategy to her fifth grade social studies students. Closure is the act of reviewing & clarifying the points of a lesson. This particular closure strategy is called “Snowstorm.” This strategy consists of students writing down what they learned on a piece of scratch paper and wadding it up. On a given signal, they throw their paper snowballs in the air. Then each student picks up a nearby response and reads it aloud.