Category Archives: Academics

Kindergarten Registration will be Friday, April 19, 2013 from 8:15 to 11:30 a.m. in the Kindergarten room. A child must be 5 by July 31st to register. Please bring a copy of your child’s certified birth certificate, social security number, and immunization record. The 2013 Kindergarten will visit school Thursday, April 25th from 8:00 to 11:00. If you are unable to attend registration at this time please contact the school at (308) 638-4434.

During the month of February, students in Mrs. Efta’s Spanish I and Spanish II classes made masks. After viewing examples of Puerto Rican carnival masks in the Smithsonian museum, the students made their own out of paper-mache and paints. Next, they photographed their masks and used Google Presentation to write captions in Spanish that describe the artistic details of their masks.

This learning project was based upon the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) standards for Communication and Cultures. Through mask-making and writing about art, students exercised language skills in accordance with ACTFL’s Proficiency Guidelines for intermediate and novice listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish. They used creative thinking and technology in new ways. In addition, they had fun learning about Carnival in Latin America through mask-making. Thank you for viewing the PowerPoint of our masks.

The Quiz Bowl teams met last week for an organizational and informational meeting.  Sixteen high school students and eighteen middle school students showed interest in competing this year.  For some of these students this will be their fourth year competing.  The sophomores competed as seventh graders in the first Panhandle Middle School competition.

Edgemont will be hosting this year’s competition on Friday, March 15^th.  We don’t know the exact start time for the competition yet.  We will hold a practice meet with just the Hay Springs students so everyone will be familiar with the way the contest is run.  With this many experienced and enthusiastic students, I anticipate our teams doing very well.

Quiz Bowl participants, the links to study questions are up on the Hawks Library webpage.  Look for the Quiz Bowl link at the top of the page, or click here.

Each year libraries and schools celebrate Read Across America on or about March 1 – Dr. Suess’s Birthday.  Hay Springs School will celebrate on Thursday, March 7^th. However, you can start the celebration early by reading to a child on March 1^st.  The National Education Association estimates that more than 40 million children and adults will celebrate the joy of reading this year.  Join the celebration and read to a child.  Share a favorite book from your childhood, read a new book, or re-read a family favorite.

Read Across America

You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild,
To pick up a book and read with a child.
You’re never too busy, too cool, or too hot,
To pick up a book and share what you’ve got.

In schools and communities,
Let’s gather around,
Let’s pick up a book,
Let’s pass it around.

There are kids all around you,
Kids who will need
Someone to hug,
Someone to read.

Come join us March 7th
Your own special way
And make this America’s
Read to Kids Day.

The State Board of Education and Nebraska Department of Education developed a state accountability system as required by state law 79-760.06. The State Board of Education adopted a system that is based on student scale scores within grades, buildings and districts. The system, Nebraska Performance Accountability (NePAS), is intended to inform educators, parents, school board members, community members and policymakers about the learning progress of Nebraska schools and school districts.

Key Components of NePAS:

1) Nebraska Performance Accountability System (NePAS), is effective for the first time this year.

2) The basis of the new accountability system is NeSA statewide test results, which indicate student learning based on state standards developed to measure career and college readiness.

3) The state’s goal for students is that they will be college and career ready when they graduate so they have a successful work, military and/or college experience.

4) The purpose of NePAS is to inform policy makers, the public and school officials about school district performance.

5) The new accountability system provides information about the progress of districts by looking at state test scale scores in a category

called STATUS as well as IMPROVEMENT and GROWTH.

6) NePAS ranks districts by the following grade level configurations:

Elementary grade-level configuration (grades 3-5)

Middle level grade-level configuration (grades 6-8)

Secondary grade-level configuration (grades 9-12)

District configuration (grades 3-12)

GRADUATION RATE- ranks districts by comparing the percentage of high school graduates.

What the rankings mean: The NePAS results rank school districts from 1 to 249 in reading, math, science, and writing.  If you ranked 2 on the writing test you were the second highest ranked of the 249 school districts in Nebraska. If you ranked 249 you were the lowest ranked school in Nebraska.

Hay Springs Schools scored quite well on all NePAS tests – scores were published in the school newsletter.  When you compare all school districts in Nebraska from Omaha to Hay Springs our test scores and ranking was outstanding.  We are all proud of our student success, quality teaching, and the overall quality of the education provided in Hay Springs Public Schools.

After studying states of matter in Science class the first graders created a graphic organizer showing examples of the three states of matter. They were created using Inspiration, a visual mapping and organizing program that has many applications for class use. Here are a couple of examples: