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Colorado students held their annual Craft Fair this week.

FRANKLIN ELEMENTARY

Kindergarteners in Miss Harder's class have been enjoying the awesome weather by taking our learning outside this week!

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Students celebrated Earth Day in Mrs. Weeks fifth grade class at Franklin. Students planted wildflower seeds and built homes for mason bees. The flowers and bee houses will be put in the courtyard at Franklin.

GRANT ELEMENTARY

First graders in Mrs. Abbott's and Mrs. Dusenberry's classes went on a field trip this week. From Mrs. Dusenberry: "Mrs. Abbott's last official field trip after 35 YEARS of teaching took place this week! I couldn’t have asked for a better partner for the past two years! I’ve learned more from her than any college days EVER taught me! I like to call her “angel Abbott” as she is the most loving and caring person to EVERY child that has walked through her doors and she has the patience of an angel! I will miss these days together! I know you will be deeply missed by all your students, staff, and parents of 35 years!"

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Grant held their annual Battle of the Books with 4th- and 5th-graders last week! Special thanks to Amy Danay for providing books, prizes, and her time!

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Grant had a special visitor this week! Webster, the trained duck stopped in to visit some of our classrooms!

JEFERSON ELEMENTARY

Students at Jefferson School had the opportunity to learn more about coding at this week's STEAM Club. Students used scratch.mit.edu to create a sprite and make it move, talk, dance, and speak. They recorded sounds and added backgrounds to create their own video games. Students demonstrated a growth mindset when they collaborated with each other to share when they learned something new and to help each other through stuck points.

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Jefferson Principal Corry Spies really loves his bacon! To celebrate selling over 8,000 raffle tickets for our school carnival, students got the opportunity to watch their principal, Mr. Spies, kiss a pig! Luckily, Frankie, Franklin School's therapy pig, volunteered to take one for the team. Students and staff enjoyed seeing Mr. Spies taking selfies and puckering up with a pig for a great cause. Thanks for being such good sports Frankie and Mr. Spies!​

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Spring into Reading! Students and families from Jefferson School participated in our Spring into Reading celebration. There were games, crafts, food, prizes and lots of fun. Families enjoyed reading books together and learning about Musser Library's Summer Reading Program. Thanks to all the families and to Miss Betty Collins for coming to celebrate the joys of reading with us!

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Jefferson 3rd Graders in Mrs. Todd's class decorated rocks and hid them around downtown Muscatine on a walk to the river front. We planned out what we would draw on the rocks then wrote stories on what we think would happen to the rocks after we hid them.

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Fourth Graders Shine Bright. Fourth graders at Jefferson have been busy learning how to build electrical circuits to light a bulb. They collaborated to create series and parallel circuits that could be turned on and off with a switch. Then they were challenged to build six different types of parallel circuits. It was illuminating!

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Jefferson 5th graders in Mrs. Manjoine's class took a Brain Break with a little Just Dance.

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Jefferson graduating Seniors honored at Leadership Day!

MADISON ELEMENTARY

Mrs. Skidmore's Kindergarten Class learned about baby chicks.

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Madison's Music Makers performed "Mystery Math" the musical. Thank you to all who participated.

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Miss Lofgren's 2nd grade class went to the Discovery Center today.

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Ms. Shepherd's 5th grade class finally earned the attendance A for the week! They are the attendance kings and queens! Even Thumper got to wear a crown.

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Madison students and staff choose kindness!

MCKINLEY ELEMENTARY

2nd graders in Mrs. Stych's class built cubes in math this week.

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McKinley fourth graders in Ms. DeVrieze's class did a fantastic job presenting their biographies! They also took advantage of the warm weather and did some writing outside this week!

MULBERRY ELEMENTARY

Students district-wide have been participating in the Ride For Success Program at the Ag Learning Center. Students were featured in the CBS2 Iowa News out of Cedar Rapids and the Muscatine Journal! Below are Mulberry students who finished the Riding for Success program!

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On Thursday, first graders in Ms. Vogeler's class at Mulberry were treated to a visit from Webster the therapy duck! Webster is owned by Phil Blanchard, who is the uncle to one of our students. We had fun visiting with him and asking questions about Webster! Some of them were even lucky enough to have Webster hop onto their laps! Thank you for sharing Webster with us, Phil!

CENTRAL MIDDLE SCHOOL

Congratulations to our superhero students in 6th grade at Central Middle School. These students have been recognized for working hard, being responsible, and showing strong leadership skills. Keep up the great work!​

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Students at CMS are encouraged to Choose to be Kind Over being Cool.

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Central Middle School's 6th grade Book Battle team came down to the final question. The student team of LARA pulled out the win against the teachers while Rock 'em Sock 'em won the student battle. Mrs. Schlawin challenged all groups with crazy questions and a fun atmosphere!

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This week, students in Ms. King's Pre-AP ELA classes participated in MTSS Enrichment. After writing analysis essays on various comedians and comic texts, these students were challenged with the task of making the comedian, text, or skit "un-funny." Some strategies to do this included putting a comedian in an intervention setting, using Ellen-inspired "What's Wrong with these Photos" to share serious PSA information, and transforming a humorous Seinfeld monologue into a rant-session ("Seriously, what's the deal with that?"). These students went above and beyond in creativity to make the lesson a truly enriching experience!

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The 7th graders in Ms. Beale's science classes at CMS had a busy week! They visited the University of Iowa to participate in a STEM program put on by the health care department. They also had an afternoon of guest speakers from the library, Discovery Center, the police station, the fire department and the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, where they had the opportunity to have their blood typed. The week was full of unique learning opportunities.

WEST MIDDLE SCHOOL

Macy Underwood is shown holding her trophy for placing 2nd place in the Junior/Individual category of the State of Iowa's Future Problem Solving competition. Congrats Macy!

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From now until the end of the school year, ten 7th grade students will be recognized for going above and beyond school expectations. Here is the first installment 7th grade quality student recognition at WMS!

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8th grade science students in Mrs. Fox's and Mrs. Castillo's classes at WMS tested their balloon cars that they built.

MUSCATINE HIGH SCHOOL

The 2018 Iowa FFA State Convention was held in Ames on April 23rd and 24th. The State Convention is a chance for students to compete against the best in Iowa in both career and leadership development events for the chance at a state championship and to represent at the national level. Most of the contests had to qualify at a sub-District or District level before earning a trip to state. Also at convention there is a college and career show, awards are handed out, speakers are listened to, new skills are developed, and friendships are made.

Lane Miller was named the FFA Talent Show State Champion! Hannah Spies was top 5 and Gold in Extemporaneous Speaking. McKenna Riess was Silver in Creed Speaking. Sarah McKillip was Silver in Individual Ag Sales. Alley Grey was Silver in Job Interview. Lane Miller and Andrew VanNice acted as delegates for the business sessions.

The Poultry Team finished Gold and 5th overall (out of 90 teams): Kyle Tomlin, Alli Youngbauer, Deja Carter, Lexy Donath, Hope Reichert, Daylin Garrett. Alli Youngbauer was in the top 10 overall at 4th place and won egg grading.

Team Ag Sales finishes Gold and 3rd overall out of 69 teams: Allen Tien, Taylor Crane, Summer Neece, Dalton Petersen, Tyler Moeller, Jonah Koch. Tyler Moeller was in the top 10 at 4th overall. (Terribly sorry we do not have a single picture of the whole team...)

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Come out and see the MHS Drama and Music Department production of "Curtains! The Musical Comedy Whodunit", playing Friday and Saturday, April 27th and 28th at the MHS Auditorium! Show times are 7:00PM Friday, and 2:00PM & 7:00PM Saturday. In this year's production, the cast, crew, writers and producers of "Robin' Hood: A New Musical of the Old West" struggle to bring together a dying show lead by a terrible leading lady--Jessica Cranshaw--who ends up dead on opening night! Quarantined in the theater following Jessica's murder, the cast and crew continue rehearsals while Detective Frank Cioffi of the Boston PD investigates. But amid rehearsals and the investigation, two more people end up murdered! It's a race to opening night with a new leading lady and a murderer on the loose--can the cast, crew, and Detective pull off the show and catch the murderer?? Come out for a night of laughs, great acting, and music--and discover whodunit! But whatever you do...don't reveal who killed who, or it just might be Curtains for you! Tickets are available at the door and only $10 for adults and $8 for seniors (60+) and students K-12. The box office will open 45 minutes prior to each performance. See you there!

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Geometry students in Ms. Hirschfeld's class at the high school had fun going on a photo scavenger hunt for three dimensional shapes around the building.

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As the final piece of their AP Capstone exam, juniors, Kaylei Fear, Mateo Rangel, Alicia Johnson, Anahi Gonzalez, and Trinity Christy presented topics of inquiry to a panel of teachers, counselors, and administrators. In the year-long AP Research course, students have engaged in their own research studies and employed research methods to reach conclusions regarding a topic of interest. Congratulations to these scholars!