McClusky-Goodrich Schools

Third graders teamed up with the juniors and seniors to start off their animal research report last Friday! They spent time on National Geographic Kids picking out their animal, classifying it, and recording facts to use for their upcoming informational writing piece. Great teamwork, Dragons!

The annual FFA Pancake & Sausage Supper will be held on Thursday, October 2nd in the McClusky-Goodrich Elementary gym. The supper starts at 5:30pm, and the Labor Auction will follow at 7pm.

The seventh graders have been busy so far this trimester. We are just over the hump of our STEM unit with a trip to Mars. We’ve learned about what it takes to be an astronaut, with the students flexing their teamwork and problem-solving muscles. We’ve also learned some facts about Mars and how it differs from Earth. We have gotten to do four hands-on projects on our six “missions” – making straw rockets, constructing Mars landers, experimenting with Coke and Mentos, and testing catapults.

Ask your students:
What are the forces of flight that helped and hindered their straw rocket tests?
How did air resistance and shock absorption work with their Mars landers?

The sophomore Foundations of Agriculture class has been busy this year, starting off their Landscaping & Surveying unit by learning about landscape design and creating landscape plans. To take advantage of the nice weather, the class quickly moved outside to clean an area behind the shop to create a school garden. These students will be the first to use the garden as they plant vegetables in the spring, which will then be sold to benefit the FFA chapter. After completing that project, they worked on creating a simple flower garden in front of the Ag. room, and put to use the skills they learned. Next, they painted curbs around the school to mark the bus zones as a community service project. Students ended the unit by learning about legal land descriptions and surveying practices.

School flu shots are coming October 15th at both schools. To register, visit www.fdhu.org/school-flu-vaccinations and select McClusky School from the list.
Complete the registration form, including insurance information, and submit. You will get a confirmation email that includes contact information for the nurse who will be conducting your flu shot clinic. Please call First District Health Unit at 363-2506 with any questions.

Picture Day is coming!! Lifetouch will be here on Wednesday, October 8th at the elementary school. Parents/guardians can pre-order prints at mylifetouch.com. Create an account or login with the Picture Day ID (EVTGFHZ3P).

The first-grade class has just started their "All About the Human Body" unit in reading! They will be exploring all of the bodies' different systems. First up, the skeletal system! Students worked on cutting out their own body and painting their bones. Their models will be used as we continue to explore.

Some questions to ask your student:
What is the importance of the skeletal system?
Have your student identify their hips, spine, skull, and ribs.

Preschool learned that rain and sun makes a rainbow. They chose the colors and made a rainbow of their own.

Ag. IV students have been busy learning more about rangeland management, stocking rates, and range plant identification. After discussing the role of increaser and decreaser plants, they took part in a fun activity using different snacks to represent different types of range plants. Students rolled a dice to determine their “grazing strategy” for each round, and tracked how different plants took over their “pasture.” Students have also had the opportunity to get outside to put their skills to use in plant identification and collecting forage samples.

Myra Klein came to our schools teach our kiddos art last week! Students in grades PK-8 completed their first project – designing their sketchbook covers.

Ms. Klein will be stopping by each month to teach the kids something new. Their art projects will stay at the school, and will be on display for an art show during our spring music concert in May.

Thank you so much to the McClusky-Goodrich PTO for providing our kids with this amazing opportunity!

Congratulations to the 2025 Homecoming Royalty - King Cole Abrahamson and Queen Aubrey Majors! Braxxten Wanner, Harpyr Abrahamson and Haley Bobbins make up the rest of the Homecoming Court.

Students in Ag. Mechanics recently finished an in-depth lesson in farm machinery components, which included a lab activity in disassembling and maintaining a universal joint. Students learned about the role of u-joints in farm equipment, and used a ball joint press to remove the joint. They then learned to read a dial caliper and micrometer to check for signs of wear. They will use these skills again later in this unit as they work on restoring a sickle mower.

It's Homecoming time!! Check out the dress-up days for next week's celebration. Go Cougars!

The 4th graders have participated in some fun activities to kick off the school year. They did a science lab using their five senses to observe what was happening with the Skittles in water. They had to work together to plan how to save Fred the worm, get him back in his life vest, and back into his boat. They had so much fun and even got to eat some of the candy that was left over!

Happy August Birthdays to Mrs. Lauer, Mrs. Felchle and Mrs. Blumhagen!

The 6th grade science class practiced the scientific method with a very important lab entitled "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?"!  Ask any 6th grader what conclusion they came to or what the class data showed! If you want to impress them, ask what the independent and dependent variables were!

The fifth grade class visited the preschoolers to read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" and to do a brown bear craft.

Kindergarten has had some very busy first days of school! We read "The Hungry Caterpillar" and then made our own out of beads and pipe cleaners, munching on a paper leaf. We watched "The Tortoise and the Hare" and made our own turtles to remind us to slow down and take our time, we even broke out the paint to make the turtle shells extra nice!
In reading we are talking about and practicing Lines, getting us ready to form letters! Today, we drew a picture using Vertical, Horizontal, Diagonal, and Squiggly lines! Their papers were taped to the wall-adding the challenge of drawing on a vertical surface!

It is going to be such a great year!

Ask your student:
What does a Vertical line look like? Horizontal? Diagonal?
Why is it important to take our time and not rush?

Homecoming 2025 t-shirts are now available to order! Deadline is Monday, September 1st. (The shirts are updated, but the website may not be. Be sure to scroll down.)
https://cmchomecoming2025.itemorder.com/shop/home/