Fourth graders attended the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies presentation on bird banding. While we were there we saw the nets the birds fly into, banding of the birds, weighing of the birds, and we got to hold a felt bird that was a model of a real bird. Students also got to use binoculars and bird books to identify birds and play a bird survival game. We found out that only around 30% of birds that migrate make it to their destination.
Fifth graders participated in an egg drop challenge to help them learn about the practices of science and how to think like a scientist. After asking questions, they had 30 minutes to design and build a model with the available materials that would protect an egg in a drop. We tested the models and, afterwards, analyzed the data to think about how they would revise their initial models to make them better.
Today the first grade class released 18 butterflies. The class has watched their butterflies metamorphosize from caterpillars. Mrs. Marie Nelson and Mrs. Melissa Mracek from our county extension office have visited with us over the past few weeks. They taught us many things about the life cycle of the butterfly and the parts of a butterfly. If you see any painted lady butterflies flying around town, they might be ours!
Fifth graders traveled to Chadron State Park for their Trout in the Classroom field trip. We started off the cool, wet day with some fishing in the pond. We got our hands dirty baiting our hooks and caught several bluegill and a couple smallmouth bass. We even had one student catch his very first fish ever! Next we released our trout. We received these trout eggs in January from Nebraska Game and Parks, and raised them in our classroom fish tank. Students were a little sad to say goodbye. Finally we went on the hunt for aquatic macroinvertebrates aka water bugs. Macroinvertebrates are helpful in determining water quality. The damselfly nymphs and dragonfly nymphs are indicators of potentially good water quality.
Second grade had “Camp Learn A Lot” this week. We brought in tents, sleeping bags, flashlights and a campfire! We read so many camping books under the “stars”, learned and wrote about how to eat a worm, wrote and shared spooky campfire stories, read maps and made maps, constellations, bees and how they make honey, and we had a couple special readers come to camp! Turns out, learning can be fun!
April is financial literacy month. Today a few of our students got to meet and have a conversation with Congressman Adrian Smith.
He spoke to students about how important it is for students to not take out the full amount of student loans given to students. This will help with not accumulating so much student loan debt. The Congressman also spoke in detail about what inflation will do to the price of goods and services. He talked to us about what we need to do to reduce the inflation rate. The inflation rate is currently at 8%. There are a few ways this can be reduced but first the government has to stop spending so much money. Another way to achieve lower inflation is to increase the interest rate above the inflation rate. This would create different problems. Imagine going to purchase a new car and having to pay interest over 8% on a car loan.
Students learned what the war in Ukraine will do to crop prices here as their supply will be down. Also the reason our fuel prices have increased is due to the halting of mining our own resources.
Congressman Adrian Smith came to Hay Springs High School because our business classes are participating in the Capitol Hill Challenge in which they are playing the Stock Market Game against other schools.
Fifth graders have been busy learning about molecules! We have been exploring what causes different types of molecules to dissolve. To further understand, we first investigated the attraction between molecules of the same kind. We placed drops of water on a penny then did the same with oil to see which liquid would gather the most drops. We observed that water molecules held together better than oil molecules.
Next, we tested different emulsifiers to see which would keep two liquids, water and oil, from separating to create a stable mixture. After testing flour, cornstarch, and lecithin, we found that lecithin is the best emulsifier to keep oil and water mixed.
The 3rd Quarter assembly was held on Tuesday, March 15th. At this assembly, “A” and “B” honor roll students(3rd-12th grades) were recognized. When you see one of these kids, congratulate them on a job well done!
Mr. Lechtenberg took Hay Springs High School Juniors to an ACT Prep Workshop in Bridgeport on Wednesday, March 16th. The workshop was very informative and the Juniors should have come home with some good tips and techniques for taking the ACT Test.
The 3rd Quarter assembly was held on Tuesday. Students worked in teams to create a project that measured more than 80 on the ruler. We then talked about our school improvement goal of “80% of Hay Springs School students will meet projected growth and/or 80% of students will be proficient on NWEA MAP assessments in Math, Reading, Language Arts and Science.” This will be our final year in this cycle and we are so close to meeting this goal! Students made posters to help others to do their best on the test. PBIS drew for K-8 Breakfast of Champions and A and B honor roll students were recognized.
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