On October 22, 2020, the preschoolers did a project with pumpkins. They got their pumpkins donated by Shane’s Melons. The preschoolers got to decorate their pumpkins with small pumpkin face craft kits. The different faces they got to choose from were a witch, bat, cat, vampire, silly pumpkin, and a regular pumpkin. Some of the kids picked the same faces and some picked different faces. Even though some of the kids picked the same faces it was cool to see what they did differently than the others. They all had cool looking pumpkins that they got to take home to their parents and show them what they did in class today. After all the preschoolers got done with decorating their pumpkins, they got to have a snack and watch a movie.

Mrs. Uecker is a preschool teacher here at Sanborn Central. While she does crafts and teaches them how to read and write, she also has two groups of that. She shares half of a class with another pre-school teacher, Mrs. Severeid. Mrs. Uecker says, “It’s somewhat challenging sharing half of a class. It’s a very good learning experience and good use of testing my patience since I’m still trying to get my teaching degree. I enjoy knowing every one of my students better. Sharing groups let me get one on one time with each student just a little longer than before.”

The activities that she is working on currently are all Halloween related. Activities they do in a day include, reading Halloween stories, making bat puppets, PE, learning about a new letter of the alphabet each week, and having speakers come in to talk about bats. The preschoolers' favorite activities include PE, recess, and building and making crafts. Mrs. Uecker’s favorite activity to do with them is crafts and reading a story to them every day.

Mrs. Uecker says that with all the fun and activities they get to do, they still struggle in some areas. She says something they struggle with is, “Their fine motor skills haven’t really developed quite yet, so reading and writing is still a little bit of a challenge.” I also had asked her how this year was going since Covid-19 has appeared. She said, “Since it has come about, we are split into two groups. I see that as a positive because we get to spend more time doing an activity and we get more opportunities to be together.” Mrs. Uecker has worked very hard this year as everything has changed due to the pandemic. She plans to get her teaching degree soon.

The kindergarteners have been learning a lot this year; they have learned spelling, social studies, math, and much more.

For spelling, they have been learning three letter words and they are also learning that the vowel goes in the middle. The kindergarteners have been doing two-word families, so they are working on words with AP and AT endings. The kindergarteners have writing journals, and they get to write and draw in them, then they make a sentence that goes with their picture. Mrs. Schmit said she is very proud of them and that she keeps telling her students that she is proud.

Currently, in social studies, they are learning about the past and present and what it’s like today vs. back then. Mrs. Schmit has a lot of pictures on the board and one on the side, it has pictures of a person and how they dress in the olden days vs. the present and how a school looks now vs. back then and so on.

In math, the kindergarteners are learning how to write their number 1-25. They have also been learning about shapes, how to make patterns, and solving problems in their ten frames. When using this they learn all sorts of ways on how to get to ten and what you can add together to get ten. So having the ten frame putting four dots in it and then what’s left? (six), so then the kindergarteners would add four and six and would get ten.

In science, they have been learning all about animal groups and what they need. They then learn if it’s a mammal, bird, or reptile.

Mrs. Schmit’s favorite thing to do with her students is teaching them how to read. She said when they start understanding and blending words. Mrs. Schmit said, "It makes them feel more confident,’’ and when they learn it and it just clicks she said that is a really good feeling that she just taught them how to read and now they get it and they start to sound it out on there own. Mrs. Schmit said, “They get that moment where they get it, and she loves that feeling that she can teach them and they understand it.” She also said, “Even after 30 years of teaching I still enjoy it”.

In September they celebrated Jonny Apples birthday and they made apple sauce and with them all pitching in and bringing an apple, they ended up making apple sauce. Another thing that the kindergartners are learning is sign language. They really enjoy doing this, and they also bring it home to there families and teach/show them how to do it, so far they have learned all the days of the week in sign language.

The kids do centers and during this time Mrs. Effling comes in and helps, and Mrs. Trebel is the ‘’para’’ in kindergarten and she also helps with centers. Maggie Meier said she likes to do centers and Hannah Pollard said she likes to ‘’play research’’. Play research is where Mrs. Schmit sets out six centers and lets everyone pick where they want to go, and they can stay there for how ever long they want and if they start fighting then Mrs. Schmit said she let's them try and figure it out.

Ms. Larson is the first grade teacher who has been a teacher for 21 years. She is still 29 according to all of her students. She loves her class because they are hard working and love having fun. Ms. Larson first wanted to be a teacher when she was in kindergarten, from then she has worked her hardest to become one. Every Friday the kids get “smart pills” smarties, to help with their spelling test, this is a tradition that has been carried on for years. Same with hatching butterflies, and gingerbread houses, she has done these things since I was in her class.

Ms. Larson's favorite time of day is the morning because they have language arts. The kids like that Ms. Larson is funny, likes learning, “gives us good math,” sometimes she's crazy, she has good books, giggles a lot, and likes the rules. The kids’ favorite activity is to illustrate their books, morning calendar, math, language arts, short vowels, and iPad time. Their favorite days are p.e. days, days they get to do “go noodle” music days, imagine learning and Halloween parties. Ms. Larson's favorite thing about teaching is the kids’ stories, one kid once said she likes Ms. Larson's dots, she meant freckles.

Mrs. Reimer’s second grade class has been productive this school year. With 15 kids in her class, they all have some different opinions on the activities they participate in. Many of the kids in her class love to read; daily reading is one of their favorites. The students take AR tests over the books they read which they also enjoy doing. The things that are the most challenging for the students in the second grade class are the spelling tests and math lessons.

Lately, the students have been playing soccer outside for recess. They learn all the rules and play together. Recently, they have been working on some Halloween projects for art class to get in the spirit. Make sure you stop by and see all of the artwork that the kids work hard on.

Mrs. Miller and her 3rd grade class are quite enthusiastic about their class and the activities they do. Mrs. Miller got her inspiration to become a teacher from her own kindergarten teacher and the simple fact that she just loves doing it. Her favorite part about teaching her kids is working with them and the hugs, if it weren't for the COVID regulations. The classes favorite activities include: art, math, science, reading, writing, and IXL. This year, so far, they have made a few art projects and a golden gate bridge. They are looking forward to doing: experiments over several things, reading more books, and improving on their reading scores. The 3rd grade class has enjoyed practicing: handwriting,, roman numerals, art, math, their bingo number of the day, and science. Although, it seems the class loves learning about all these things from Mrs. Miller, a few of them have their disliked subjects. The students in this class love playing together at recess doing: car lot, soccer, basketball, digging in the sand pit, and swinging.

I got the pleasure of interviewing the fourth grade class and teacher. Mrs. Moore said that her high school volleyball coach and psychology/social studies teacher got her into teaching. Her favorite part about teaching is watching the students really understand what is going on in a subject. Her favorite thing to teach her class is South Dakota History. If she could teach any subject, she couldn’t teach now she would teach Reading Recovery, because it happens in first grade and that is when they really understand how reading works, “it is really rewarding to see them grow.” Some of the kids favorite part of the class is math, reading, and free time. Some of their favorite parts of the class are art, Chromebooks, and free time.