This semester Intro Early Childhood Education has been added to the Family and Consumer Sciences course offerings.  This course provides students an opportunity to gain dual credit through NCC. 

Instruction given includes: applying developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) and teaching lessons to children, maintaining a healthy environment for children, and developing positive relationships with children. These skills are then utilized through work experiences with children in a professional setting thanks to support from Kids Club and MOPS. In addition to the hands-on experiences, this course will strengthen comprehension of concepts and standards outlined in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education.

    The 2019 6th Grade Math Bee went well for Central Lyon. We took a great group of ten students to the competition: Team 1 - Sam Christensen, Jacob Downard, Alex Brenneman, Oliver Harms and Quintin Sprock. Team 2 - Liza Jans, Alexandra Flores, Auna Koob, Avery Harman, and Georgie Oedekoven. The Math Bee took place on March 29th @ Dordt College. There were 25 teams at the competition, and they gave recognition to the top ten teams. Team 2 was recognized for finishing in 7th place, and Team 1 missed placing in the top ten by one point - resulting in an 11th place finish. Had Team 1 managed to score one more point, Central Lyon would have been one of two schools with two teams placing in the top ten! 

    The first picture shown is our ten students we took along to the competition, and the second picture is of the group of students from all different schools who were recognized for great individual performances. Sam Christensen is pictured in the second picture, and he received a medal for his individual performance. We also had a few other students who were close to earning themselves medals as well. We had a great time at the Math Bee, and I am very proud of our well-rounded performance. The future of mathematics at Central Lyon is bright!

We started the week by reading The Strongest One, a Zuni play retold by Joseph Bruchac.  The students were given parts in the play, where they had to design a costume of their character.  They also had to learn their lines for the play. After working hard on their costumes and learning their lines, the class presented the play to the three 1st grade classrooms on Friday. After the play, the students then went back to the classroom and made videos of their responses of this experience using FlipGrid.  Most of the kids described making the costumes as hard, but really enjoyed this project!  

Thank you to Rosie’s for hosting a Mock Trial presentation for the public April 3, and thanks to Frontier Bank for the monetary donation for state competition starting April 4 in Des Moines.  We greatly appreciate all of your support and hope to bring the level of interest in Mock Trial up throughout the community!  Thanks again!

On April 4th and 5th, the HS Mock Trial team competed at the state competition at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines.  The team started their competition Thursday against Roosevelt HS (Des Moines) as the Defense side of the trial.  The team won the first round and headed on to the next two rounds on the 5th. 

The next day, the team faced a team from Marion Home School Association in their next round of competition as the Defense once again.  Marion was a very tough team, and ended up besting the Central Lyon Mock Trial experts in this round.  The Marion team would go on to win the state championship on Saturday afternoon; moving on to represent the state of Iowa at the national competition in Athens, GA. 

The final round of competition for CL matched the team against a team from Harlan HS as the Plaintiff side of the trial.  The Harlan squad did end up beating CL in a hard fought round.  It was a long day of competition, and the CL squad really represented the school well.

At the end of the Friday competition, an awards ceremony was held for all 34 teams that competed.  The CL team received a plaque for making it passed regionals and to the state tournament.  Zach Springer also received an award as an All State Attorney.  Zach was nominated by all the judges in each round he competed in; which is quite an accomplishment.  Cael Schulte, Jace Schrick, and Ian Wells received honorary mention votes for their parts as witnesses.  Noelle McCarthy and Jay Waagmeester received honorary mentions on our ballots for their parts as attorneys. 

Mock Trial is coached by Sam Kruse and Brad Raveling. Thanks to attorney Jen Wippert and county attorney Shayne Mayer for all their work helping the mock trial teams.  We couldn't have done it without you!  I also want to thank all of the Mock Trial parents who have supported us through practices and competitions!

April’s Senior of the Month has proven to be a devoted student who exhibits a quality work ethic and a positive disposition. Many would describe her as a quiet, yet a dependable leader. She was involved with basketball and track for two-years and choir for three years. Four years of band, including two years of jazz band where she has been honored as outstanding soloist, as well as her four-year commitment to the Central Lyon’s FFA chapter has been highly appreciated and successful. She worked diligently on a Central Lyon FFA website which qualified for state this spring. This past fall she was recognized as an inductee into the Central Lyon National Honor Society. It is with great pleasure that we announce this month’s senior student of the month is Reese Borman.

Congratulations to April senior of the month, Reese Borman.

 4th Grade Assembly Line Study

    The 4^th grade classes were studying different events leading up to the Industrial Revolution.  Mrs. Schram had an idea to put the students into a situation much like many other individuals were in during the early 1900’s.  Before the Industrial Revolution, most Americans lived in rural areas and produced their own goods which were needed for everyday life.  They produced food, clothes, shoes, along with many other things.  These rural areas produced skilled craftsmen who learned their trade over a long period of time.  The students learned the quality of work done by the craftsmen was usually excellent, but to produce things like furniture and even cars took a long time to do.  Americans wanted products cheaper and faster.  The 4th grade students researched different inventions like the power loom, sewing machines, and the automobile led to finding a quicker way to produce goods, the assembly line. 

    In day #1 of the activity, the 4^th graders were to assemble an in-line skate, made out of paper, as fast as possible working as individual craftsmen.  Each student was to produce one skate and record their individual time.  An average time of the entire class was calculated.  Students made observation and commented on the process and quality of the work done by all the individual skates produced by the students.  The students comment that most of the skates looked very well made.  Personal care was taken to put each skate together.  One student commented, ‘it took a long time to make one skate.  Can we make them any faster?’ 

    On day #2 of the activity, the 4^th graders assembled skates again.  This time the 4^th graders used Henry Ford’s idea of using an assembly line to produce their skates.  Using the average time for producing one skate from day #1, the student learned when individuals focused on only one part of the skate, more skates were produced.  Again, observations were made.  Students discussed more skates were produced, but looking at the quality of the skates produced was much different.  The students learned how assembly lines worked, and there are products produced better in mass production and some better by an individual craftsmen. 

    The Pros and Cons for using an assembly line were discuss and recorded by each Student here are two lists of stating them.

                                    Pros                                                                                                                                        Cons

    - More products in a short amount of time.                                            - Not many women working in the factories

    - Cheaper to buy the products due to large supply                                - Working conditions were dark and dangerous in the beginning

    - More jobs for the people                                                                      - Workers were watched and timed every second during the day

    - Pay was pretty good but very competitive                                           - Got boring = made people quit

    - The workers did not have to move... the parts moved to them                                                    - 

The After-Prom Committee would like to thank the following business for their donations which helped to make the Central Lyon Prom a fun, successful, and safe night for our students. Ninety-one Central Lyon students plus their dates participated in the activities which included mini golf, 9 square, spike ball, dodge ball, canvas painting, bingo, a hypnotist show, a snack station, and loads of prizes. The support of business sponsors and work of parents are greatly appreciated.

Again, thank you for your generosity and continued support of Central Lyon students!

Preschool sign-up is available now. This is sign-up only, you will still need to register your child in August. Call the Elementary/Middle School Office at 472-2664 and choose Extension 1. Your child must be four years old on or before September 15, 2019 to attend preschool. Visit day for preschool, along with Kindergarten|Transitional Kindergarten, is April 26. More information will follow.

The 8th graders have swapped their literature textbooks for some newer, more modern reading experiences from now until the end of the school year. This past week, students voted for and were put into reading groups according to which book they want to read. I chose a selection of novels that are #1 in a series.  Through using 'series' novels, I hope to motivate students to want to read the rest of the series on their own. 

As the unit progresses, students will hold meetings with their groups and have a 'book club' type of atmosphere where they will discuss their books.There are a variety of roles students must be ready to discuss for each meeting.  Each student has a different role.  Students will also have quizzes throughout the unit where they will discuss literary elements throughout their novels including, but not limited to: character development, conflicts, flashback/foreshadowing, plot development, and figurative language.

The book selections students are offered for this fiction unit are pictured in the image gallery at the right of this PowerPoint: Book Sets

When we are finished with this unit, we will end the year with a non-fiction unit with the following books pictured in the top image gallery of this PowerPoint:: Non Fiction Books