In Our Schools: Feb. 7

Brookfield Academy

The upper school student art exhibit opening reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. April 13 in Patriots Hall.

Brookfield Christian

Brookfield Christian is hosting the 5/6 Grade LACC (Lake Area Christian Conference) Basketball Tournament for boys and girls on Friday and Saturday. It's open to the public, with free admission. The eighth-graders will host a bake sale during the tournament to raise funds for their year-end class trip.

Brookfield East

The Spartans debate team participated in the Wisconsin State Debate Tournament in January. Eighteen East debaters qualified over the course of the season for the right to be crowned state champions. In the Lincoln-Douglas category, freshman Nithin Alexander and sophomore Mihir Trivedi made it to the quarterfinal round. Seniors Alyce Ge and Elaine Andersen were semifinalists. Senior Advik Shreekumar repeated as the state champion. In the Public Forum category, seniors Aneesh Mathur and Zack Vrana were double octofinalists. Juniors Collin Steen and Mark Horvatin were octofinalists. And juniors Archit Baskaran and Jonas DeMuri-Siliunas and seniors Aditya Trivedi and Chih-wei Wu both won their semifinal rounds and were declared state co-champions. It was a fitting end to a fabulous season for the debaters.

Brookfield Elementary

Artist Michelle Stitzlien is visiting through Friday. Families have been cap collecting for over a year. All the caps will be made into a work of art, a bottle cap mural. Each class is working with Stitzlein. The caps are being screwed onto sheets of plywood in a mosaic style. Stitzlien taught tool safety and how to properly use the drill.

Dixon Elementary

Tuesday, Dixon hosted ACE (Arts in Community Education), connected with the Milwaukee Symphony, Family Night Concert. This year the school community enjoyed a performance from the indie rock band "I'm Not a Pilot." This band features electric cello, bass guitar, keyboard and drums. The class with the most kids in attendance gets a special day in the music room in which the students will play musical games and have treats.

Hillside Elementary

February is a great month to initiate Acts of Kindness. Classrooms brainstormed a list of examples and then developed their Top 10 list. The mission is to set a goal in each classroom, and then spread the word throughout the whole school.

Immanuel Lutheran

The forensics team is gearing up to begin their competition season. Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, under the direction of John Meulendyke, present in the categories of humor, drama, poetry, group acting, impromptu and infomercial.

Pilgrim Park Middle School

The Pilgrim Park MathCounts team finished second in the regional competition Feb. 4 and will advance to the state meet in Madison. Top individual finishers for the Panthers were Suchir Bhatt (fifth place), Katy Charnesky (ninth place) and Sean Wei (10th place).

St. John Vianney

Students in fourth through eighth grades have been participating in an in-house roller skating program during physical education classes. This unit is being implemented because of its emphasis as a lifetime activity. Skating provides a variety of benefits, which include balance, coordination, motor skills and a top-rated cardio-respiratory workout. Students will learn basic skating skills such as starting, stopping, forward skating, backward skating and cornering, and a number of safety tips for being a smart skater.

St. Mary's Visitation

St. Mary's Visitation made a clean sweep of first-place presentations at the annual Wisconsin State Spanish Pronunciation Championships at Pius XI High School. Five St. Mary's junior high students took first place in both the prepared poetry and Prepared Reading competition. Winning first-place honors in the Memorized Reading section were eighth-grader Molly Carrig and seventh-grader Elizabeth Janowski. Winning first-place honors in the prepared poetry section were seventh-graders Martha LoCoco, Madeline Thew and Emily Steybe.

Swanson Elementary

The fourth-graders have finished an ITL survey project. It incorporated math and writing skills along with technology. It began with students choosing a survey question, writing five choices and predicting the outcome. Next they learned about setting up an email account, email etiquette and guidelines. Each student sent a survey question to their classmates. As the responses came in, the students collected and tracked the data. They put that information into an Excel spreadsheet and created a bar graph, then exported it to Word. Finally, they wrote a reflection and conclusion on the Word document.

Tonawanda Elementary

The second grade raised the most of all grade levels in the school's fourth annual Penny Drive for the Milwaukee Rescue Mission, bringing in $408.31. The school's grand total was $1,907.60. The PTO will host its annual Parents' Night Out Auction at Western Racquet Club this Saturday.

Wisconsin Hills Middle School

What's new in the Physical Education Department? Depending on the teacher, students will participate in badminton, floor hockey or fitness. Finishing touches are being put into the Yoga/Pilates room. New fitness equipment continues to be purchased for the Wildcat Fitness Center. The department will host the Wildcat Fitness Fundraiser in late February/early March. A table tennis tournament will be added.

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