Sandburg ES enjoyed wonderful attendance and participation at the annual Community Meal on January 16th. More than 200 family members joined the Sandburg students to enjoy a spaghetti lunch and spend some extra time at school. The PTA and Sandburg staff provided volunteers to help serve the meal and the Eatery provided the meal. It was another great day at Sandburg School!

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In January Sandburg was fortunate to have John Coy, an award winning author, spend a day at our school. This visit was made possible by Mary Riley, a former 4/5 teacher at Sandburg. She requested that a $1,000 award given to her for excellence in teaching be used for the purpose of bringing an author to Sandburg.

John Coy was chosen because not only is he an award-winning author, but he is a gifted teacher himself. His rapport with students and staff is remarkable. He always seems to find a leadership role for those students who most need to be recognized. His presentations emphasize audience response.

Primary students were treated to a slide show reading of a book with the audience coming in on cue. Intermediate students got a chance to perform a reader's theater of a book. The entire school participated in his morning sessions.

Mr. Coy conducted a unique workshop in the afternoon for twenty-three select 4/5 students. For two hours, these students played basketball and wrote poetry in their notebooks under the guidance of Mr. Coy. What a great opportunity to combine sports and writing! His work includes Night Driving, a Marion Vannett Ridgway Memorial Award winner and a Horn Book Fanfare title, Strong to the Hoop, an American Library Association Notable Book, Two Old Potatoes and Me, a Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book, a Nickelodeon Jr.'s Best Books of the Year, and a featured book on Reading Rainbow, and Vroomaloom Zoom, a book of excellence on the Children's Literature Choice List. His newest picture book Around the World is about international basketball, and his young adult novel CRACKBACK is set in the world of high school football.

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Sandburg's Spanish Spelling Bee — In addition to the traditional annual elementary school spelling bee, Sandburg hosted a Spanish spelling bee for their ESL students that was attended by all 4th and 5th grade students on January 23rd. The Spanish Bee is one of many activities at Sandburg that celebrate the diversity at the school. Pictured is Sheri Boser, LMC director and coordinator of Sandburg's spelling bees.

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Sandburg ES - During the month of December, students from Kris Gruninger's art classes at Sandburg Elementary School exhibited their art work at the Alliant Energy Corporate Offices. Alliant teamed up with NBC 15 and several other businesses supporting the 11th Annual NBC 15 Share Your Holidays Food Drive. The Sandburg art work for the event focused on the theme of giving and sharing.

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East HS: Just south of the Badlands National Park in South Dakota is the Pine Ridge Reservation. Pine Ridge is located in both Shannon and Jackson counties — the second largest Indian Reservation in the country with a population of around 30,000 Lakota people. Shannon is also the poorest county in the nation, with an average annual family income of $3,700. The unemployment rate is around 80% and the alcoholism rate is the highest in the United States.

This fall, Mary Paulson's geometry class at East began learning a little bit about the impoverished Pine Ridge Reservation. Students learned about Lakota history, culture, and the Lakota star quilt. The class was even visited by a Lakota native, Kelly Looking Horse, who spoke in detail about the conditions on the reservation and taught students how to make authentic dream catchers. After learning about the Lakota, students began constructing their own Star Quilts in groups of four — first designing them on the computer. Students used math to calculate the fabric needed and to measure the strips that would be sewn together to make their quilts. After months of hard work after school, the quilts are finally finished, and they look wonderful. (Pictured working on a quilt from l-r are East students Anna Spiekerman and Alex Douglas.)

To top off the project, a group of Ms. Paulson's students are traveling to South Dakota over spring break along with students from Shabazz. They will be delivering the quilts to families in need and helping out by building bunk beds and painting houses.

As one new quilter stated, "I found this project to be a great learning opportunity. Not only did I learn the many skills needed to make a quilt (such as how to use a sewing machine on my own), I learned a lot about working with other group members to achieve a goal. This project also opened my eyes to the poverty that some are struggling with in our country." For more information please contact Mary Paulson, Geometry teacher, East HS.

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Gaming with the First Lady — Can you think of a better way to spend a snowy Wisconsinafternoon than playing Scrabble at home with family and friends? How about if the "home" was the beautiful Governor's Mansion? On Wednesday, February 13th, approximately 50 students from MMSD middle schools were invited to do just that! These students made history themselves in one of Madison's most historic settings, the Executive Residence, as they took part in the First Annual Scrabblefest. As part of literacy awareness month, First Lady Jessica Doyle invited them to participate in a predominantly non-competitive event as a means to enhance their literary skills and socialize with students across the district. Mrs. Doyle was typically gracious as she assisted students, listened to their personal stories, generously treated them with snacks, and presented them with a new novel of their choice at the end of the afternoon. University athletes were also on hand to assist students, several of whom had never played Scrabble, and even autographed their new books (or their shoes!) at the completion of the afternoon. It was undoubtedly an experience these students will never forget!

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Decadance at Affiliated Alternatives — Members of the Decadance Theater troop came to Affiliated Alternatives - Lapham School site on Tuesday, February 12th. Defying hip-hop stereotypes, Decadances all-female group of artists aims to take urban dance from street to stage. Decadance uses a combination of underground dance styles to explore the international cultural phenomenon that is hip-hop. The two dancers presented to the students of AERO, Cluster, SAPAR, and WLC on the history of hip-hop and on the images of women in hip-hop. The subject was controversial, that of the objectification of women in mainstream hip-hop videos and resulted in provocative discussion between the dancers and the students. The dancers main message was for members of the Hip-Hop Culture to not just be consumers of the culture but to be creators and innovators for the future of the culture. The students from SAPAR were able to attend a Decadance performance at the Overture Center on February 15th.