the bridge 2011 october

October 2011 [THE LARUE COUNTY BRIDGE]


The BridgeThe BridgeThe BridgeThe Bridge October 2011

LaRue County School District Continues to Show Improvement

The 2011 Transition Index for all Kentucky elementary, middle, high schools, and

district are out. Here are the rankings:

• LaRue County School District – tied at 41 out of

174 (our highest ranking to date!!!)

• LaRue County High School – tied at 61 out of

230

• LaRue County Middle School – tied at 40 out of

323

• Hodgenville Elementary School – tied at 372 out

of 714

• Abraham Lincoln Elementary School – tied at

430 out of 714


LaRue County High School Café’

gets a Makeover

This past summer, LaRue County High School

cafeteria was completely gutted and

renovated with a custom serving line, café-

style tables, chairs, stonework and new floor

tile. The new "branding" of the cafeteria also

included renaming the cafeteria "Café LaRue"

in place of the Hawks Nest. The serving line

serves students fresh fruits/vegetables

BEFORE they are served their entrees which

has increased the student consumption of

these healthier choices and should help

promote the new proposed meal patterns.

There is also a new Grab & Go unit that serves

students complete meals in a clear container

that includes hummus, sunbutter, fresh fruit and vegetable choices. This has been extremely popular

with students and staff. We are so excited about the new look and ambience of our cafeteria. This has

been really a great environment for our students to utilize their laptops, which all LaRue County High

School Students have and provides them with an "internet café" feel!

Zachary Lee Commended in the

2012 National Merit Scholarship Program LCHS Principal, Paul Mullins announced earlier this month that Zachary Lee has been named a

Commended Student in the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program. A Letter of

Commendation from the school and National Merit Scholarship (NMSC), which conducts the

program, will be presented by the principal to this scholastically

talented student.

About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation

are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise.

Although they will not continue in the 2012 competition for

National Merit Scholarships, Commended Students placed

among the top five percent of more than 1.5 million students

who entered the 2012 competition by take the 2010

Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test

(PSAT/NMSQT).

“The young men and women being named Commended

Students have demonstrated outstanding potential for

academic success,” commented a spokesperson for NMSC.

“These students represent a valuable national resource;


recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role their schools play in their academic

development, is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation. We hope

that this recognition will help broaden their educational opportunities and encourage them as

they continue their pursuit of academic success.”

LC Speech Gearing up for 2011-2012 Season

The LCHS and LCMS Speech teams

are busily preparing for the

upcoming season by cutting,

memorizing, and perfecting their

speech pieces. Though the team

lost several seniors last year, this

year’s team is certainly not suffering

in numbers. There are 26 high

school students participating in

speech and 17 middle schoolers.

According to head coach Katy Cecil,

the year is getting off to a

“promising start.”

Most of the students are competing

in events like storytelling, prose or

poetry reading, dramatic or humorous interpretation, or oratory, but there are a handful of

students who are more interested in the debate aspects of speech. Mr. Cecil has taken on the

task of training these students to prepare them for competition across the state and the

country.

The team also gained two new coaches this year

in the form of Mr. Bill Thompson, a former high

school and college competitor. Thompson was

actually coached by Mrs. Cecil when he

attended WKU in the early 90s. He is a

graduate of Bethlehem High School and WKU,

and is currently employed as an intake

counselor at Safe Place YMCA in Louisville, KY.

Mr. Thompson drives to LaRue County twice a

week from Louisville to work with middle and

high school students, and will travel with the

LCHS speech team this fall and spring.

Another addition to the coaching staff is Ian

Mather, former LCHS student and speech


team member. Mather was a prolific winner for LCHS over the past three years, and has lent

his talents this year to helping find pieces for his younger successors. He will use his breaks

from college to help coach the students and travel with the team when possible.

The season kicks off in late October with a trip to Bardstown, and the team will also travel to

national level tournaments in Chicago and Washington, DC this semester. Be checking The

Bridge and the local newspaper for results from week to week!

LCHS Athletes Attend KHSAA/HYPE Student Leadership Conference

In August, the LCHS Athletic Department sent 15 student-athletes to the Lexington Convention

Center for the KHSAA/HYPE STUDENT LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE.

The conference is open to all high school (9-12) student-athletes (including cheerleaders) and

chaperone/administrators. Over the last four years, LaRue County High School has sent

captains of sports teams and other representatives from each athletic team. The program

included four breakout sessions and a featured closing guest speaker. This year’s featured

speaker was Patrick George. Mr. George discussed leadership and conduct. Group discussion is

the main focus with college/high school facilitators utilized to drive discussion and ideas.

• “It was a different type of conference. Not the typical sit and get lectured to. You were

just as much a part of the presentation as the presenter. Really enjoyable.” Drew

Newberry

• “It was a fun experience, and made you come out of your shell a bit. It provided

leadership skills that can be used in all aspects of life, not just sports.” Nick Paden

• “It was very helpful. It taught me how to solve problems and accomplish things by

myself, and as part of a group.” Kyle Sheeran

Those who attended were: Caleb Canter, Courtney Clyde, James Crosswhite, Cole Hughes,

Wesley Kessinger, Zac Lee, Paige Nalley, Drew Newberry, Slade Owens, Nick Paden, Austin

Puryear, Megan Smith, Shana Zajdel, Kelton

Ford, Shaila Winston and Kyle Sheeran.

Hands on Math

Students in Mrs. Mullins 4th period math

seminar are exploring patterns using centi-

cubes and blocks. They practiced the age old

adage, seeing is believing. The students were

given a series of numbers beginning with one,


asked to build a model with the cubes, and transferred the three dimensional objects to two

dimensional representations on paper.

The series of numbers starts with 1 and adds 4 each time. Along the way, they discovered a

couple of issues with how to write an expression because the pairs of students sometimes see

things differently. Questions they discussed were, “how do I find the 10th term, and the 100th

term without using blocks and how do I write out what I see?”

Students discussed how to write an algebraic expression to describe the pattern using the nth

term number for any number in the pattern including the 100th term. In the end, students

could put their minds together

to revise the expressions and

write a single algebraic

expression 4n – 3. Try it and

see if it works using the 1st

term n=1, the 2nd term n=2,

the 3rd term n=3, the 10th

term n=10 and the 100th

term n=100.

Sixth Grade Art The sixth grade

students at LCMS recently completed work on

a fun mural project in Art class. Drawing

inspiration from world famous Latin American

mural artists like Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros,

and Jose Orozco, each team worked together

and individually to create artworks that

measure 4 feet tall by 7 feet wide! The main

imagery shown captures the spirit of LCMS in a

Hawks logo, and each student contributed

something special about the community from

his or her point of view. The students discovered the fun and challenges that mural painting presents.

When asked what they learned and enjoyed most about the mural painting process, students

commented that they learned to practice painting skills like using good brush strokes as well as getting a

better understanding of what it may have been like to paint a mural with Diego Rivera. Students also


learned some valuable social skills. Taylor Kyle said, “It was fun. I learned that I could make stuff that I

thought I couldn’t make.” William Pearman commented, “My favorite part was getting to see what

everyone else was painting and getting to try something I had never done before.” Dylan Gordan

offered insight when he said, “What I liked most about creating the mural was all the squares are unique

in their own way. It just makes it look amazing!” Skyler Hornback mentioned that he “liked it all. It was

a lot of fun. We all got to add our own touch while bringing it together.” Rachel Sheffer said, “It was

fun, but don’t wear good clothes ‘cause you might get paint on you!”

You can check out the artwork created by LCMS students on our website (Click on Teacher Websites,

Andy Arendt.)

ALES Blood Drive

Abraham Lincoln Elementary School hosted the U of K/U of L

Governor’s Cup Blood

Drive in the gym on

Tuesday, August 30,

2011 from 3-8

PM. Red Cross,

school staff and PTO

volunteers worked

all hours to assist

donors but only with

the help of lots of

great student

volunteers

too! Bean bags and

books as well as

coloring activities were provided for youth while

educational computer games were provided for teens

making it a great time for all ages. All donors even

received a UK/UL Governor’s Cup T-shirt and have a

chance to win a gas card or vacation by registering online at

www.redcrossblood.org! With over 35 donors and several rare and double donations, the

annual blood drive at ALES was a great success!

Pictured: Kalli Flanders, Marissa Cecil, and Ty Morris (student volunteers) Garnett Chappell

(donor).


Getting Fit at ALES

The school year has gotten off to a smooth start. We have

started out physical fitness testing for the fall. This is a pre-

test to the Physical Fitness Awards sponsored by the

President’s Challenge in the spring. The tested areas are sit

ups, right angle

push-ups, 1/4

mile or 1/2

mile run,

shuttle run

and the v-

stretch. These

activities help the students and myself

determine how the students are doing in the

five components of fitness, muscular strength,

muscular endurance, flexibility, body

composition and cardio-respiratory endurance

as well as incorporating the FITT Principle(

fitness, intensity, type and time) into their

regiment of physical fitness vocabulary.

Larue County: Birthplace of Greatness

As we experience cooler temperatures, rain, and the feel of

fall in the air, we realize that school is indeed in session again!

Another sure sign that school is in session is Abraham Lincoln and

the annual Abraham Lincoln art contest. As Hodgenville prepares

for Lincoln Days in October, the artists at ALES also prepare their

works of art for the celebrated Lincoln Art contest!

ALES students studied

this year’s theme: Larue

County – Birthplace of

Greatness and then began their

artwork by brainstorming and sketching their ideas. A

final draft is completed and then the coloring begins! As

students vie for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place wins within their

classroom, only the 1st place winning entry from each

classroom will move onto the district competition.

Winning entries from the two elementary schools

will be on display during Linc oln Days, so stop by and enjoy the talent and the variety of ideas

generated from this year’s theme, Larue County – Birthplace of Greatness. I guarantee that you


will know some of the artists and enjoy the festivities that Lincoln Days has to offer. Hope to

see you there!

Pam Glaab

ALES Art Teacher

Plants Are Cool at

ALES!

1st grade students at

Abraham Lincoln

Elementary are

learning about

plants. Mrs.

Gibson’s class

worked on creating

flowers in the style

of author Eric Carle.

Eric Carle is famous for using tissue paper as a medium

in his books. After creating our plants we worked on

labeling the parts.

Abraham Lincoln and Hodgenville Family Resource Centers

Invite you and your little one to “Wee Time” Have you heard anyone say lately, “Kindergarten is not what it used to be.” Well, it’s not.

Today children need to know before they enter kindergarten what you as an adult was taught

your first year of school. There are many

ways that you as a caregiver of a young

child can help prepare a child for school.

A child needs to develop and strengthen

small muscles in their hands so they are

able to write. Encourage your child to

dress and undress themselves, including

buttoning and unbuttoning. Let your child

cut with scissors, with adult supervision of

course. Children love to cut things out of

old magazines and catalogs. Encourage

your child to color and scribble with

crayons. Encourage your child to make

things out of play dough or let your child

help make cookies or dough’s that should

be kneaded or rolled into balls. All of these


things will help to build and strengthen those small muscles. If your young child attends a local

day care, preschool program or area Head Start they are already doing these things. If your

young child is home with you ort a neighbors or Grandparent I encourage them to attend the

“Wee Time” program sponsored by the ALES and HES Family Resource Centers. Wee Time is a

parent/child activity time designed for three, four and five year old children and will help them

to be better prepared for Kindergarten.

WEE TIME

Where: Hodgenville & Abraham Lincoln

Elementary Schools

Time: 9:00 – 10:30 a.m.

This is a great opportunity for the

Elementary Schools staff to get to know

their “future” students, as well as, a time

for preschool children to become familiar

with the school he/she will attend.

Hodgenville Elementary & Abraham Lincoln Elementary Family Resource Centers cordially

invite preschool children ages 2 – 4 and their parents to join us weekly for “Wee Time”. This

parent/child time will be fun, educational and will have developmentally appropriate activities.

Mark your calendar for the following dates:

DATE THEME WHERE

August 11th Numbers 1 & 2, Letter A, Shape – Triangle, Color - Red HES

August 18th Numbers 3 & 4, Letter B, Shape – Oval, Color – Yellow ALES

August 25th Numbers 5 & 6, Letter C, Shape – Diamond, Color – Blue HES

September 1st Numbers 7 & 8, Letter D, Shape – Circle, Color – Green ALES

September 8th Numbers 9 & 10, Letter E, Shape – Heart, Color – Red HES

September 15th Letter F, Shape – Triangle, Color – Purple ALES

September 22nd Letter G, Shape – Rectangle, Color – Brown HES

September 29th Letter H, Shape – Square, Color – Yellow ALES

October 13th Letter I, Shape – Triangle, Color- Black HES


October 20th Letter J, Shape Oval, Color – White ALES

October 27th Letter K, Shape – Circle, Color – Orange HES

November 10th Letter L, Shape – Triangle, Color – White ALES

November 17th Thanksgiving activities, Color – Brown HES

December 1st Letter M, Shape – Heart, Color – Red ALES

December 8th Letter N, Shape - Diamond, Color – Blue HES

December 15th Letter O, Shape – Star, Color – Red ALES

January 5th Letter P, Shape – Circle, Color – White HES

January 12th Letter Q, Shape – Square, Color – Green ALES

January 19th Letter R, Shape – Rectangle, Color – Purple HES

January 26th Letter S, Shape – Star, Color – Yellow ALES

February 2nd Letter T, Shape – Diamond, Color – White HES

February 9th Letter U, Shape – Heart, Color – Pink ALES

February 16th Letter V, Shape – Oval, Color – Blue HES

February 23rd Letter W, Shape – Rectangle, Color – Purple ALES

March 1st Letter X, Shape – Circle, Color – Yellow HES

March 8th Letter Y, Shape – Square, Color – Blue ALES

March 15th Letter Z, St. Patrick’s Day, Color – Green HES

March 22nd Review, Shape – Diamond, Color – White ALES

March 29th Dr. Seuss, spring activities, Color – Red HES

April 5th Bus Safety, Color – yellow ALES

If you have any questions please contact FRC Coordinator

Melissa Pearman (358-3506) or Machelle Durham (358-4112)

HES Principal, Sue Osbourne ALES Principal, Amber Thurman


Bella Thurman shines at the PAC

Hodgenville Elementary 3rd grade

student, Bella Thurman, was

cast in the original Broadway

production of the musical Annie

at the Hardin County

Performing Arts Center. She

auditioned through several lines

and was cast as the orphan

Della. Bella acted, sang, and

danced along with 44 other cast

members of all ages for 7 shows

on the weekends of September

8-12 and 16-18. The story line is

set in the Great Depression and

follows the life of young orphan,

Annie, as she tries to find her parents,

but finds a happy home with a billionaire father who adopts her from the

orphanage. Throughout the play Annie and her orphan friends make the most of their

conditions and have high hopes for brighter days tomorrow. With her bright smile Bella made

Hodgenville Elementary proud!

HES PTSO T-Shirt Design Winner

Kimberly Vazquez was the winner of the HES PTSO t-shirt

design contest. Over one hundred entries were turned in

from grades K-5, and of all the designs she had a great

understanding of what the PTSO was looking for, as well

as great artistic perspective. Kimberly loves art and

hopes to grow up to be an artist. Her design shows three

hawks growing in size as they come out of a book with

HES on the opened page, and “Hawks Growing Through

Education,” above it. For Kimberly’s hard work she

received a check from the PTSO for $25.00. One order of

t-shirts has been filled, but due to high demand another

order will be filled.


1ST Grade Grandparents Day

Ms. Angela Morris

especially enjoyed

Grandparents Day

this year when her

grandmother Mrs.

Oris Vessels;

daughter Shannon;

and granddaughter

Lexi visited her first

grade classroom!

Families of eleven of

Ms. Morris’ students

also visited the

classroom and read

what their

grandchildren had been

writing about them. The students spent the week reading and writing about their grandparents and

families.

Tour De LaRue 2011

The 8th Annual Tour de LaRue took place on September

17th at Hodgenville Elementary School. Although rain

forced the event inside for prize drawings prior to the

ride, the weather finally cooperated enough to allow

riders to take part in their choice of three ride options.

The event, which had close to 200 pre-registered riders,

allows families to enjoy being able to incoorporate both

family time and

fitness into

their day.

Water stations,

prize drawings, and a chance to ride with family and

friends make this an event that many families look

forward to each year. Those involved with the Tour de

LaRue would like to thank all the volunteers and sponsors

who continue to make this wonderful event possible for

the children and families of LaRue County.


Award Winner

LaRue County Board of Education

Superintendent - Sam Sanders

Board Members

Price Smith - Board Chairman

Dick Greenwell - Vice Chairman

Norbert Skees - Member

Ronnie Chelf - Member

Michael Hornback – Member

Tell your friends about The Bridge. To view the Bridge Newsletter archives visit http://www.larue.kyschools.us Subscribing to

The Bridge is simple. Go to the LaRue County Schools website and click on “The Bridge” located just below the banner. The link

to sign up is just below the image of The Bridge.

If you have questions, comments or suggestions about The Bridge, please direct them to the LaRue County Chief Information

Officer at [email protected]

the bridge 2011 october

Documents

larue county school

larue county middle

commended students

cafeteria caf larue

hodgenville elementary

students complete meals

national merit scholarships

high schools