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| School News Continue... The information below may be old school news. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to call the school for more information. We celebrated our expansion into Cleveland as a PreK-8 school with guest speakers and fun activities for everyone. Our guest speakers were Lt. Col. Jill Long who came and shared about her dreams and goals as a pilot. On Thursday, September 11, "Digger" Duane Carey visited Farnsworth and Cleveland with the message to do well in school! Lastly, Ron Caswell, an engineer with International Space Station came and challenge students to be the next engineer at NASA. We had a big parade planned but rain kept all of us in. Thank you to our guests, partners and parents for supporting our school. View the Agenda... Thank you for coming to parent/teacher conference this past week. We had an outstanding turn-out! If you missed your time and would like to reschedule, please contact your child's classroom teacher directly or call the office at 651.293.8675. Sixth graders returned form Space Camp 2008 on Friday, October 10. They started the journey last Sunday, October 5. You can view what they are doing here. "Meet the Teacher Night" is scheduled for Thursday, August 28th from 4:30-7:30 pm. A shuttle bus will run continuously between the two sites to accommodate parents with students at both buildings. Come and meet your upcoming teachers. Tuesday, September 2 will be the first day of school (grades 1-12) for the 2008-09 school year. Please view school supply list below as you prepare for the upcoming school year. Note that Kindergarten begins Monday, Sept. 8th. A Memorial Day celebration was held to honor our veterans and loved ones. An assembly featured Iraq War veteran David Carlson and a performance from Mr. McGee's band highlighted the event. A special ceremony was held in honor of Chu Joshua and Ia Amanda Xiong where a Magnolia tree was planted outside the Ivy entrance with cooperation from all fourth grade students and relatives of the family. Additonal resources about Memorial Day may be obtained from Education World. Our 2008 band/vocal Spring Concert was on Thursday, May 15th. Only 4th, 5th and 6th graders performed. There was a 2:00 pm assembly for the whole school and then a 6 pm concert for families and the community. It was a well-prepared concert and we had a few former students returned for the event. Thanks for your support!! Science Fair mania!! Wednesday, May 14 we had all students in grades 3-6th present their science experiment to our judges. Presentations began at 9:30 am. Here are the grand prize winners: Anthony V. (4th)-"Batteries, Magnetism and Electricity Dagan O. (4th)-"GOAL!!!" Pao T. (4th)- Melody V. (5th)-"Crazy Jumps" Gunnar E. (5th)-Parachute Physics" Sam B. (5th)-"Tap or Bottle" Isahak O. (6th)-"Crazy Chemicals" Jonas C. (6th)-"Evaporating Ice" Allyson S. (6th)- A few current and former students participated in the St. Paul Art Crawl Exhibit in downtown St. Paul. The mission of the Saint Paul Art Crawl is to create an artist-run venue which facilitates a mutually beneficial and meaningful interaction between the arts community and the public. Take a look at the students and their work below. Track and Field was held at Bethel College form 9:00-2:00 pm at the Sports and Recreation Center. We did not finish quite a few events due to the time. The FSA Family Picnic held on Thursday, May 29th from 5:30-7:30 pm had lots of inflatables for children of all ages. Everyone enjoyed hot dogs and chips with lemonade while having fun at the same time. Thanks, FSA, for bringing our families together. Final video-conferences with the NASA challenges for Aerospace SEM students are set. Mrs. Johansen has worked extensively with fourth, fifth and sixth grade students. Ask to see their projects and have them tell about their research. We will also video-stream live broadcasts of all the video-conferencing sessions below: Grade 6: "Mission To Mars" Monday, May 19 at 11:20-12:30 pm Grade 5: "Return to the Moon" Wednesday, May 21 at 11:20-12:30 pm Grade 4: "Can a Shoebox Fly?" Friday, May 30 at 11:20-12:30 pm Retired astronaut Duane "Digger" Carey visited our school on Tuesday, May 6th! We had grade level assemblies and a big group assembly for all grade levels. View the pictures below. Mayor Chris Coleman will make an unexpected visit to our school today, Friday, May 2. Third grade students were going to meet the Mayor at Phalen Lake to plant trees. Due to the weather, we will hold an assembly here at 2 PM instead. Come and join us! One more State Mandated test to go! The Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments—Series II (MCA-IIs) for Science has been rescheduled to May 19-21st. We have until May 23 to administer the test. This test will be on-line and only fifth grade students will be assessed. Hot Air Balloon Day was on Wednesday, April 30th. Beemster Cheese came and demonstrated for everyone in the school playground at 9:30 AM. Due to the weather condition, the hot air balloon was not inflated. We also had assemblies in the gym (4th-6th, 10-10:45 AM; K-3rd, 10:50-11:20 AM) for students as they learned more about hot air balloons. NOTE: Thank you for visiting Beemster Cheese!! Board member, Tom Goldstein, visited our school on Monday, April 28th. He toured the building and visited classrooms. We hope you enjoyed being at Farnsworth!! The Farnsworth basketball exhibition game at Johnson H.S. this past Friday, May 9 was a success! Both team played hard and the score was very close. At the end, team Blue edged out team Red by one basket. Mr. McGee provided prep-rally style tunes during the game and Mrs. Reynolds lead the cheerleaders to a half-time show. See more pictures below. Kindergarten Round Up was this past Thursday, May 8th from 5:30-7:30 pm. We had a great turn-out. Many parents and future students were able to see the Kindergarten rooms and meet the K team. If you have any questions or need additional help, please don't hesitate to call our office. Several Farnsworth students were named winners in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) "Next Giant Leap" student art contest. They include Elise Lothrop, Perry Yang, Gaozong Lee and Timly Moua. Among the honorable-mention award winners were Vaneda Her, Melody Vang, Linda Yang, Lisa Thao and Hly Vang. As part of NASA's 50th anniversary, the contest theme was "50 Years of Space Exploration: Taking the Next Giant Leap." Students were asked to visually represent the achievements of the past 50 years or to imagine what spaceflight might be like 50 years from now. AIAA received more than 300 entries from across the country. ~Pioneer Press February 18, 2008. This past weekend, Wesley C. (Mrs. Tevlin, 5th) and Derek X. (Ms. Peterson, 2nd) participated in the Southern Open Chess Tournament at Metcalf J.H.S. in Burnsville, MN. This was an all-day tournament. The Chess Club is holding its own in-house tournament on May 1st and May 8th. Come and see them in room 313 from 3:45 PM-4:45 PM. Snacks is provided for all participants. This will be the last two meetings for the school year. We had evening conferences on March 18-19 from 5-8 pm. A full-day conference was held on March 20th. If you missed your conference times please reschedule another time with individual classroom teachers. Thank you for supporting your child's education. Students in grades 3-6 will participate in the Minnesota TEAE (Tests of Emerging Academic English) Test starting this Tuesday, March 11. The tests are designed to assess the progress of Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students in academic English acquisition. Additionally, the test results will be used to determine the amount of funding distributed to districts. View PDF from MN Dept. of Education for more information. Engineer Family Night was on Monday, March 10th. We had some awesome engineers and
activities! View Cool Engineering Websites
from the Family Night: http://discoverengineering.org http://engineergirl.org http://engineeringsights.org Marcus Freeman visited our school in February 2008. He is a member of the NFL Super Bowl Champion New York Giants. Marcus met with students during an assembly and shared his Super Bowl experience as well as his determination to be a NFL player. Both his parents work for St. Paul Public Schools. Jamail Larkins returned to our school on Friday, February 15. An assembly was held at 2 PM in the gymnasium. Mr. Larkins talked about his involvement in the Young Eagles program and his current DreamLaunch Tour. Thank you for visiting and we hope you come again! February is Black History Month. On February 11 we celebrated the National Parent Involvement Day at Farnsworth. The day included: visiting classrooms, having lunch with your child, and an assembly with a special program at 1:30 PM in the gym. **A small lunch was provided for families and guests that participated in this event.** Sixth graders just finished Robotics Week. This was a two-week session (Feb 4-15) where students from the three classes were divided up into four groups (Papa-Sierra-Quebec-Romeo). The main attraction was the Lego Robotics challenge where students engaged in programming and building Tankbots that competed against other teams. View pictures from Mr. Barrett's class page. NWEA (Northwest Evaluation Association) test was administered in the computer lab the last two weeks, Jan. 29-Feb. 7. Make-ups will be Feb. 26th. No computer classes on Tuesday-Thursday. Only students in grades 2-6th will be tested. Congratulations to Farnsworth for receiving the National Title I Distinquished School Award. The award will be presented at the National Title I Conference on January 31st in Nashville, TN. Read more from Star Tribune... Parent Family Night featuring Jim Fitzgerald, NASA Aerospace Educational Specialist and Fourth Grade PEP Grant Activity set for Jan. 14th. Read more... SPECIAL GUEST TO VISIT FARNSWORTH on Wednesday, January 16! Betty Shanahan, Executive Director and CEO - Society of Women Engineers The Poetry Contest Awards Assembly for fourth, fifth, and sixth grades was held in the gym on Monday, January 28 @ 2:00 PM. There were many honorable mentions and a first and second place finish for every grade level (4th: Ashley E. and Jeff A.; 5th: Andie M. and Shelly T.; 6th: Gabriella M. and Ebony H.). Please contact Ms. Stohr for more information. As well, Mr. Fitch, St. Paul letter carrier who rode his bicycle from Seattle, Washington to Washington, DC came and shared his Message of HOPE. The NNAT (Naglieri Non-verbal Ability Test) is used to identify students who are eligible for gifted services within the school district. We will administered this test on January 7th. Everyone will take a practice test before taking the actual one. Students who previously have been identified as eligible for gifted services are not affected by this test and will continue to receive services. Please make sure your child attends school on the test day. Families will be notified of final results before the school choice deadline on March 14, 2008. Some fifth and sixth grade students and staff ventured off to Bloomington, Illinois on January 6 and returned home on Jan. 9, 2008. They visited the Challenger Learning Center and took part in some classes at IWU (Illinois Wesleyan University). View pictures below. About fifty or so 2nd/3rd grade parent/child will make a trip to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX on Jan. 19-22. Please contact Mrs. Wall if you have any questions. Winter concert was Thursday, December 20. The 2 pm concert was for the whole school and the 6 pm concert was for parents, families and the community. K-3 grade students sang chorals while the band was performed by 4-6 grade students. We had a packed house!! Hmong New Year is set for Friday, Nov. 30th at Johnson H.S. (1349 Arcade St.) Please plan to attend our annual celebration of the Hmong culture. We will provide an overview of Reading First, Aerospace Education, entertainment and food for everyone!! Food and Fitness Fair was a success on Tuesday, Oct. 30. Students, parents and staff enjoyed everything from the Rice Village to Break Dancing. See pictures below. On Monday, September 10, over 80 students, staff and chaperones attended Minnesota Business Partnership's 30th year celebration. The students sang the U.S. National Anthem "The Star Spangled Banner" and our school song to more than 700 business leaders throughout Minnesota. Farnsworth, along with Kelliher Elementary, received MBP's Future Awards. On the first day of school, a B-25 Mitchell bomber plane flew over our school to help us mark the fifth year of aerospace and aviation! The students stood outside and spelled out "FARNSWORTH" as it flew over 4-5 times. More info. here. Before the flyby, Shannon Moriarty, a Boeing Engineer, came to inspire student's to seek out their dreams. She shared her accomplishments and her current work on the new 787 Dreamliner with the students. See photos from the assembly below. STS-118 Endeavourlaunched into space with the first ever teacher astronaut, Barbara R.Morgan. Specialist Morgan follows the dream of former teacherastronaut Christa McAuliffe who died during the Challenger disaster in1986. Two Tuskegee Airmen visited our school on Wednesday, June 6. Hiram E. Mann (Lt. Col., USAF, Ret.) and Charles E. McGee (Col., USAF, Ret.) spoke to all 3-6 grade students about their experiences and the challenges they took on during WWII. Earlier this month, fifty-three Farnsworth fourth graders spent three days and two nights at Aviation Camp in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. All the students agreed it was Science Saturday for Girls Recently, some fourth, fifth, and sixth girls from Farnsworth attended Science Saturday at the College of St. Catherine. This event encourages girls to develop an interest in the areas of science and technology. The girls had a wonderful day and the sessions were all excellent as it gave the students an opportunity to spend time on a college campus. Some of their comments included, "I wish every girl in our school could join us," "..the best Saturday ever!", "I hope I can go next year, " and "I loved it!" Thank you St. Kate's for providing this great experience for our girls. Gabriella Moore, fifth grader, was one of the two students honored this past Sunday at the Minnesota Timberwolves game. She participated in the Read To Achieve program, a literacy campaign aim to help young people develop a life-long love of reading. She read 10, 250 pages. Ms. Stohr's class won the class award for the most pages read, 64, 204. Congratulations! Farnsworth was recognized by the Minnesota Academic Excellence Foundation for their 2006 MAEF School Spotlight Award. A plaque was given to Dr. Vincent and the staff during a recognition dinner on January 30, 2007. Great job students and staff!! In honor of National Engineer’s Week, the NASA Glenn Research Center Digital Learning Network held a special event video conference, Women in Engineering, on Feb. 22 from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm (ET). The event featured a live discussion with a panel of women engineers at NASA about their careers in engineering, including theireducation, career path, and day-to-day responsibilities and research. Approximately 80 sixth grade students had the opportunity to have their questions about engineering careers and NASA research answered by the panelists. The websites below were used during our Robotics Week and Aerospace Family Night held on Monday, January 20, 2007. Associate Director Dr. James Flaten and representatives of the Minnesota Space Grant Consortium (MnSGC ) came and presented to students, parents and community members. NASA Website Links: NASA Kids' Club NASA Spinoffs Memory Game | ||||
