East speech and language students host Access Hour on WORT Radio
By Helena White, East High Speech Therapist

On June 5th students from the East High School Speech and Language department were on WORT's Access Hour (89.9 FM). For one hour the Madison listening audience was treated to a smorgasbord of different vignettes and other presentations. The majority of these were pre-recorded, but student Molly Vang was live in the studio doing an excellent job of introducing the show and the individual pieces.

One student talked about his favorite heavy metal band; another described what happened when the East High Stunt Team competed at the National Cheerleading Competition. Interviews included East principal Alan Harris and a Liberian student on how the civil war in his West African country had affected his childhood. The Access Hour was a resounding success, receiving a plethora of compliments from all those who heard it.

East High student Molly Vang and Helena White, speech therapist, at the WORT studio on June 5th for the Access Hour radio show.

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Huegel Elementary recorder and orff concert

Huegel Elementary presented a 3rd grade recorder concert on May 25. This concert also included orff instruments, which are sets of xylophones and drums. The performance included several folk songs and a few contemporary songs. The concert was under the direction of music teacher Christa Kowert.

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Lake View Elementary mural unveiling

Lake View Elementary School unveiled a set of murals to the school community on Tuesday, May 30th. The murals were created by students and staff through the direction of artist Sharon Kilfoy, and art teacher Sebastian Vang. This project was part of an artist-in-residency with Ms. Kilfoy. She worked with students and staff for several weeks to design and create pictures which depict life at Lakeview Elementary.

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Stephens Elementary students benefit environment

Fourth and fifth graders at Stephens Elementary completed a year-long project to benefit area lakes. As part of the Environmental Science curriculum, students in Julie's class planned and planted a rain garden at the school. The garden is planted exclusively with native plants and is designed to help filter water before going into area storm sewers and helps rain to be reabsorbed into the water table, reducing flooding and erosion. The project was funded by the Stephens PTO.

Two students teaching their parents about the garden that they helped to plant.

Students show a parent a monarch caterpillar that has made its home on one of the milkweed plants. Many of the rain garden's plants are intended to attract butterflies, hummingbirds and other wildlife.

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Quilt made by Hawthorne students displayed in Oslo, Norway musem

As an extension of a history unit about slavery in the U.S., second grade and 2/3 grade students at Hawthorne Elementary, under the direction of art teacher Julie Olsen, made two quilts during spring of 2006: "Follow the Drinking Gourd by Day" and "Follow the Drinking Gourd by Night." The latter quilt will become part of the permanent collection at the International Children's Art Museum in Oslo, Norway. Follow the Drinking Gourd by Day quilt will be installed in the school's library.

The titles of the quilts refer to the song and story, "Follow the Drinking Gourd", highlighted in Jeanette Winter's book of the same title. The song was a coded song, the lyrics like a secret map which told of the route to freedom in the north and Canada, known as the Underground Railroad. The drinking gourd refers to the constellation, The Big Dipper (Ursa Major). Runaway slaves could easily see The Drinking Gourd in the sky and would follow the stars in the dipper which pointed to Polaris, the North Star.

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Sherman students compete in History Bowl

Sherman Middle School students Andrew Abeyta, Aerial Miller and Robert Weatherby, (pictured l to r) along with advisor Mary Helfrich, traveled to Atlanta, GA to compete in the National African American History Bowl Challenge in June. They won the six-day trip by taking first place at the district-wide competition in May. They were given a royal send-off by the students and staff at Sherman. The halls were filled with cheering and clapping as the team made their way our of the building.

Once they arrived in Atlanta the students continued to read and study for the history bowl. Many of the questions were multi-step questions that required more than one answer and they didn't know what materials would be covered until a month before the competition. Their hard work paid off as they made it to the semi-final round of the competition before being eliminated by the team that went on to win the event.

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First Lady Jessica Doyle and Sheila Briggs, Schenk-Whitehorse summer school principal, examine a student's work during a recent tour of the summer school site. Doyle wanted to see the scope of MMSD summer school offerings from enrichment to extended learning to MSCR recreation opportunties. Doyle also visited classes at East HS.