Scroll down to see our students and staff in action This Week in Our Schools!
Featured this week:
- District-Wide: Elementary Gifted and Talented.
- Grant: Ms. Hull's Preschool Class.
- Grant: Mrs. Morton's 2nd Grade Class and Mr. Valenzuela's 5th Grade Class.
- Grant: Student Leadership Team at KWPC.
- Jefferson: Mrs. Reichert's 1st Grade Reading Class.
- Jefferson: Mrs. Reifert's 2nd Grade Class.
- Jefferson: Snowy Recess Fun!
- Madison: Sound Tapes.
- McKinley: Mrs. Strouf's 1st Grade Class.
- McKinley: Student Leadership Raises Money for Staff and Students.
- Mulberry: Kindergarten and 3rd Grade Buddies.
- Mulberry: Mrs. Evans' Kindergarten Class.
- Mulberry: Introducing Finley!
- Mulberry: Raffle Ticket Winners!
- CMS: 8th Grade Honors English Language Arts Classes.
- CMS: Mr. Edkin's 8th Grade Automation and Robotics Class.
- CMS: Musical Students with Visiting Musician J.M. James.
- MHS: Mr. Schmelzer's Transition Class.
- MHS: Girl's Bowling - Ragan Carey.
- MHS: Muskie Baseball Players Give Back to the Community.
- MHS: Campus Tours - DMACC and Grandview College.
- MHS: Happy Birthday to the Mighty Muskie Band!
- District-Wide Staff: December Employee Awards!
DISTRICT-WIDE ELEMENTARY
MCSD 4th grade gifted/talented students participated in a Mystery Festival on Monday, December 5. They examined a mock crime scene and conducted multiple forensics tests to examine evidence from the scene. Students used observation, experimentation, and logical reasoning to propose an explanation for the scene.
GRANT ELEMENTARY
Ms. Hull's 4 year-old preschool class created their own "North Pole." Our friends dressed like elves while wrapping presents and making gingerbread cookies; ...
and danced and sang at Grant's holiday program on Monday!
Mrs. Morton's 2nd grade and Mr. Valenzuela's 5th grade classes celebrated their growth on FAST progress monitoring during DEAL (Drop Everything and Lead). They enjoyed snacks and some music. Also, buddy partners shared what they were thankful for!
Grace Zorich, Autumn Glenn, Cameron Kelley, and Jeni Jarrett drop off Toys for Tots while promoting the Grant Student Leadership Team Craft Fair on KWPC!
JEFFERSON ELEMENTARY
Mrs. Reichert's first grade reading students enjoyed a new game purchased with PTO funding.
Mrs. Reifert's 2nd graders read books by the library's book tree built by their library clerk Kris Smith!
Jefferson students had fun in the first snowfall of the year. They LOVE snowy recess!
MADISON ELEMENTARY
Students at Madison like listening to sound tapes.
MCKINLEY ELEMENTARY
A few fifth graders came and played learning games with the first graders in Mrs. Strouf's class!! The first graders had a blast!! and...
These kiddos are proudly wearing their "goal met" necklaces to tell everyone they meet their sight word or words read per minute goals they set for themselves!!
McKinley's student leadership team planned a bake sale to help raise money for the two teachers and two students at McKinley undergoing cancer treatments. They raised over $1000 dollars!!
MULBERRY ELEMENTARY
Kindergarteners and their 3rd grade reading buddies celebrated with a feast the day before Thanksgiving. There were full bellies and lots of smiles that afternoon!
Kindergarteners in Mrs. Evans' class are practicing their measuring skills with a little Christmas fun.
Meet Finley! He is Mulberry's new therapy dog, and he's already working hard, meeting all of the students and staff!
Mulberry students were quite the sales people, and sold over $5,500 in raffle tickets! Yay! The top sellers were treated to a pizza lunch with Mrs. Beilke. Way to go Mulberry Eagles!
Because the students raised more than our goal for the raffle, principal Mrs. Beilke agreed to wear a costume ALL day today!
CENTRAL MIDDLE SCHOOL
8th grade Honors ELA students hosted an Oppression Expo to present culminating projects in the annual event. Community members including school board members Aaron Finn and Randy Naber, along with city mayor Diana Broderson were among those judging the event. First place winners will participate in an internship day at the Muscatine Diversity Center.
Mr. Edkin's 8th grade Automation & Robotics class created and programmed spinning signs.
Students will special musical gifts and talents at Central Middle School spent the day with musician J.M. James composing music.
MUSCATINE HIGH SCHOOL
Students and staff from Muscatine High School’s Work Experience Program took the first shift of the Giving Tuesday – Food Packing Event with KIDS FIRST sponsored by the United Way of Muscatine and held at Faith United Church of Christ. Twenty-one students and staff along with several other community volunteers worked cooperatively to pack 1,000 Apple Oatmeal and 1000 Mac and Cheese meals during the morning shift. In the evening, fifty-seven community volunteers worked to put together an additional 12,000 meals.
Everyone had a fun morning working together toward this worthwhile effort. There will be another packing event in the Spring of 2017. Go to the United Way of Muscatine website http://unitedwaymuscatine.org/ for further details.
Since January 2014, local organizations, churches, and the United Way of Muscatine have supported this project by either volunteering to work at the event or through monetary donations to make possible the assembly or 49,000 meals in Muscatine. This year’s meals will be donated to the Muscatine Food Pantry and Salvation Army.
The Giving Tuesday Food Packing Event is part of a program supported by United Way. All food items come from a program started by Outreach Inc. in Union, Iowa. Outreach’s mission is: “Providing safe water, food, medical care and education to children and those in need at home and abroad.“
Congratulations to Ragan Carey on her nice 299 game during Saturday's meet with Clinton. Ragan is now in the record books for having the high individual game for a female bowler in the MAC Conference!
Last week, members of the Muscatine High School Baseball team participated in the "Freezin' For Food" drive. This food drive helps fill the food pantry at the Salvation Army for the entire year. Muskie Baseball along with Muscatine Youth Baseball, Jr. Cardinals, Muskie 14U team, Muscatine Flames, and the Muscatine Road Runners generously made a donation of 250 bags of food. All programs also volunteered their time to unload the food from the Hawkeye Hauler on Saturday, December 3.
The MHS Speech and Debate team competed this past Saturday at Davenport West. We took 16 students with 14 competing and 2 novices observing. Due to the lack of schools showing up they had to combine Duo Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation Program, Oral Interpretation and Dramatic Interpretation. Original Oratory results: Kjirsten Osland - third place, Erin Elizalde - fourth place, Abby Haller - fifth place. Combination Event results: Jeramiah Daniels - first place; the team of Ezekiel Ellis and Destiny Williams - second place; the team of Wyatt Foor and Kevin Aguilar – third place; Daniel Salazar – fourth place; Seery Awbrey – sixth place; and Lauren Lettington – seventh place. Congratulations Muskies!!
On Thursday, December 1st, over 40 Muscatine High School Seniors and Juniors visited Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) and Grandview University. Both places included a tour of the campus, an admissions presentations discussing majors offered and the admissions process, and lunch was provided by both schools.
DISTRICT-WIDE STAFF
Each month, five employees are selected from a pool of nominees to be recognized for going above and beyond for students, staff, and parents. Employees are nominated by their peers and community members. Here are December's Best of the Best at MCSD! (To read the full write-up: December Employee Awards)
Anyone can nominate an employee! Select the button below to be taken to the quick and easy form and nominate an employee who has gone above and beyond on a continual basis!
To see past editions of This Week in Our Schools:
Thank you to all who submitted pictures and video for this week's edition of This Week in Our Schools!