Hawks Rise Elementary - News

4/25/08

Jump Rope for Heart
Hawks Rise students got their cardio workout this week when they took Part in Jump Rope for Heart. The covered area rocked with music and rhythm during PE classes as students jumped rope for 50 minutes each! Student pledges collected $5,330.69 for the American Heart Association. Thank you to all our wonderful parents and supporters.

First Grade Geologists
Last week our first grade students spent some time being geologists. A scientist from High Touch-High Tech, Mr. Brian Corbin, had the children panning for gemstones, sorting and classifying their treasures, and then running simple tests to find limestone. Students each took home a bag of gemstones to share what they learned with their families. It was a perfect day to be outside for this exciting event.

4/9/08

The Reading Corner
By Susan Koehler, Reading Coach

Our Authors¹ Celebration was held on Thursday, March 27, and it was a huge success! During the school day, we enjoyed wonderful presentations by two local authors. Carol Hair Moore, author of Marvin the Magnificent Nubian Goat, read, spoke, and sang to our kindergarten, first, and second grade students. Evelyn Gilmer, author of Maggie, the Beagle with a Broken Tail, read, showed a wonderful video display, and spoke to our third, fourth, and fifth grade students about the publishing process. Mrs. Gilmer was accompanied by Maggie, her talented and inspiring pet beagle. These lovely authors generously donated their time to speak to our young Hawks Rise authors, and both ladies returned for our evening event.

During the evening, we enjoyed a fabulous sight! Over 500 student books lined the beautifully decorated cafeteria tables. It was a magnificent display of talent by our young authors and illustrators. We had a remarkable turnout from students and parents coming to meet the authors, see the books on display, and pick up the reprints purchased earlier in the year. We enjoyed delicious refreshments, courtesy of Maupin House Publishing, Inc., and felt a great sense of pride and accomplishment after many months¹ work.

The Studentreasures school-wide publishing project, a division of Nationwide Learning, Inc., is free to participating schools and is funded by the cost of reprints purchased. Our only expense was minimal the school purchased stickers to serve as reminders of our Authors¹ Night event and gold seals to emboss each child¹s book. The school-wide publishing project was not a fundraising event for our school, but was an opportunity for our students to create beautiful keepsakes and know the satisfying feeling of accomplishment as they took the seed of a creative idea through the stages of the writing process and produced a beautiful, hard-cover book to treasure for a lifetime.

To borrow from a popular advertising campaign:

Cost of publication for the school: $0.00
Cost of author presentations: $0.00
Cost of refreshments and decorations: $0.00
Becoming an author: Priceless

2/25/08

Mini-Mu Competition a Success
The Mini-Mu Math competition for elementary and middle school students took place on Saturday, February 16th at Cobb Middle School. About 400 students competed. Hawks Rise was represented by: Farrah Lin, Albert Wang, Bryce Ponti, Christian Cunningham, Jessie Chi, Salma ElAzab, Bennett Baker, Nick Dietrich, Alex Merchant, Hannah Rowan, Ifrah Waris, Laurie Findley, Christopher Holmes, Daniel Zheng, Austin Coates, David Xia, Tishian Mahmud, John Bueller, Kevin Waldman, Amelia Bunnell, Kenny Lee, Rachel Struk, Aiman Waris, Nilay Patel, Tyler Mitchell, and Lillian Andrews.

The following students placed in their grade categories:

Albert Wang 2nd place 4th grade
Nilay Patel 3rd place 4th grade
Austin Coates 15th place 4th grade
Amelia Bunnell 16th place 4th grade

Daniel Zheng 4th place 5th grade
Jessie Chi 5th place 5th grade
Farrah Lin 11th place 5th grade
Ifrah Waris 16th place 5th grade

Congratulations to all who participated.

2/11/08

Creative Story Writing Contest
The language arts teachers would like to recognize some very creative students for going above and beyond what is expected by submitting a story to the Sixth Annual Creative Story Writing Contest sponsored by the Leon County Reading Council. All contest participants and winners were invited to attend an honorary Young Author's Reception on February 2nd and a Writer's Workshop with author Adrian Fogelin on Saturday, February 16th at the LeRoy Collins Main Public Library.

Congratulations go to the following students: 5th grader Sonny Herring, 4th graders Julia Dooer, Austin Dodson, Laurel Griffin, Jordan Griffin, Joshua Glogau, Meredith Johnson, Nikila Ojili, Saadiyah Qureshi, Mitchell Ramsey, Logan Robinson, Megan Walker, Hunter Flack, Nicholas Aronson, 2nd grader Cynthia Wang and 1st graders Abigail Stolp, Emily McDonald, Sydney Chatani, Jacob Paterson, Noah Paterson and Leon Kwan. Way to GO!

2/6/08

Third Graders Studying Rome
Third graders will turn their attention from studying ancient Greece to ancient Rome. They are learning about its government, myths, and about the creation of the modern day calendar.

First Graders Study Healthy Living
Our first grade students have been studying healthy living and will feature their newly acquired knowledge in a musical production on the evening of February 28th. We hope everyone can join us in the cafeteria at 7:00 p.m. Some of the first grade classes are having a special dad's breakfast on March 3rd honoring Dr. Seuss' birthday and our class dads.

12/11/07

Teacher of the Year
Hawks Rise is proud to announce that Mrs. Cheryl Mitchell, first grade teacher, is our 2007-2008 Teacher of the Year! This latest accolade follows Mrs. Mitchell's achievement of National Board Certification. We would like to congratulate Mrs. Mitchell on these well-deserved honors! She joins a sizeable group of Hawks Rise teachers who have completed the rigorous requirements for National Board Certification, including Debbie Warner, Carol Winger, Debbie Akins, Susan Davis, Sharon Hinsley, Beverly Kerrison, Carmen Conner, Trish Kilcoyne, Wanda Glass, Susan Reid, Diane Scheiner, Suzanne Wilkinson, and Susan Koehler.

12/07/07

School Wide Publishing Project
In January Hawks Rise students will become published authors, writing and publishing their own work in a hardback book. Kindergarten, first and second grade classes will each publish a class book; third, fourth and fifth grade students will publish an individual book. Teachers will be receiving a kit with materials on which the students will write and draw. Students can write and illustrate about anything they want -- self-portrait, about the author, sports, family, animals -- anything that piques their interest.

Students Giving Back
Hawks Rise students have shown their caring spirit through two projects this month. Ten enormous boxes of canned goods were sent to the Salvation Army at the end of the canned food drive this week. Every class participated and students brought many of their favorite foods -- macaroni and cheese, canned hams, beans and even baby supplies. Students also took part in the Helping Hands program, adopting children from 28 families to receive holiday gifts. Thank you, boys and girls, for your generosity.

Book Clubs Flourish
Almost 400 Hawks Rise readers are members of our newly formed book clubs! The book clubs are: The Mystery Detectives,The Classics Club, Fearless Fantasy Adventurers, Social Studies Investigators, Science Sleuths, and Sports Examiners. Students, teachers and parents can join a book club by reading five chapter books or 10 picture books in each genre.