Thursday, March 1, 2012

Voting Results at Prairieview



We finished our book award voting this week. Fourth through eighth graders throughout Illinois are invited to vote for the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award. The results at Prairieview , from left to right, were:



Students in third through fifth grade are invited to vote for the winner of the Bluestem Award. The results at Prairieview were, from left to right, as follows:















Friday, February 17, 2012

Monarch Award Winners at Elizabeth Ide

The students at Elizabeth Ide voted for their favorite books from the Monarch Award Nominees this week. The local results for the first four places are as follows:































Friday, February 10, 2012

Book Awards selected by Illinois Students











The students at Elizabeth Ide are in the process of voting for their favorite books on the Monarch Award list. I have been reading as many as I can to them since we came back from Winter Break. Thanks to Miss Hagensee, we have paper ballots to work with. The ballots have pictures of all the 20 book covers from the list. Each student circles his or her one favorite choice. Voting for kindergarten and first grade is going on this week. The second graders will vote next week, giving me a chance to read a few more of the selections to them.







At Prairieview, the emphasis this year has been the Bluestem Award, as it is in intended for 3rd through 5th graders. I introduced the list of nominees to the students in the fall. They need to have read or listened to at least four of the twenty choices to be eligible to vote. Voting will be on the computers, using our library L4U system. Students will be voting for their first choice books during books check-out times in the next two weeks.

The Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award is intended for 4th through 8th graders and is available for the Prairieview students, as well. The books tend to be more for the older students so we do not emphasize this one as much. Student have to have read at least three of the twenty titles to participate. They can vote on our computers and will have the opportunity during book check-out sessions during the next two weeks.



Thursday, January 26, 2012

Center Cass District Spelling Bee





On Tuesday, January 24th, Principal Schultz and the specials team got together to conduct our annual district spelling bee. There were twelve contestants, two from each grade level from third grade through eighth grade. The Prairieview student body and staff made up the bulk of the audience. In addition, there were quite a few parents, grandparents, and other friends of the contestants.










It was one of the most exciting bees I have had the pleasure of running in my 24 years in the district. It took about an hour and fifteen rounds to determine the winner. Lakeview student Max Magnino was the champion, with Amy Wang as runner-up. All of the contestants were well prepared. While we were getting organized before the bee, I joked with the contestants about stopping for dinner during the bee, if necessary. I confess that there were a few moments when I thought that might come true.










The audience was exceptionally well behaved this year. We asked them to remain quiet and applaud only at the end of each round and they did a great job.










Many thanks to Mr. Mena and his crew for setting everything up. Also, many thanks to the specials team and Mrs. Schultz for all their judging and great support through the years. I believe it is a great thing to acknowledge the many talents our students have and spelling is one of them. Spelling is a valuable skill in many of the paths they will follow.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Math-A-Thon Results

Even in a tough economy, our students and thier families, friends, and neighbors came through. We had 48 children who participated in the Math-A-Thon. They did their math and collected $3,218.50 from their sponsors.

The prizes have arrived and I am distributing them during I.M.C. classes this week. Our participation in the program makes it possible for St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee to treat patients regardless of a family's ability to pay. St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatments that are not covered by insurance.