Jazz in the Park: May 25th

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Fine Arts Night

On Wednesday night, April 27th, the Music and Art Departments, along with the Forensics Team celebrated Fine Arts Night. A nice crowd assembled to view the art work on display and to watch 14 student performances. New this year was the staff art work on display as well. It was a celebration of all of our talented Middle and High School artists, musicians, singers, actors, and orators!

Staff Art Work and Photography

Capitol Conference Art Show Winners!

The Capitol Conference Art Show concluded with a ceremony yesterday (4-24) at UW-Madison's Pyle Center. Amber Kolste won Best of Show from her work below from Mr. Benash's 1st Semester Graphics class. It is Belleville High School's first Best of Show winner! Kaylee Yelk also won Best of School. According to Mr. Benash, "The kids who participated all did a fantastic job!" Each artist will display their work at Fine Arts Night on Wednesday.

Last Improv Club Performance of the Year

On Friday night, Belleville High School's Improv Club put on their final performance of the school year in the auditorium. This truly is a student-led and improvised club, with weekly early morning practice sessions to hone their skills. It is another group that makes Belleville a special place!

BHS Celebrates Earth Day!

The National Honor Society picked up trash at the Community Park after school on Friday in honor of Earth Day. Despite cooler temperatures, a dedicated group helped to beautify the area. Thank you for your efforts!

Crystal Apple Award Winner: Mrs. Smith

Belleville High School Science teacher Meredith Smith was surprised today by Leigh Mills and NBC 15 by receiving a Crystal Apple Award! She was nominated by Associate Principal Virginia Schween and was one of only 5 teachers in southern Wisconsin to receive the honor (out of 260 applications submitted). Mrs. Smith was joined by her husband and mother. Thank you to Mrs. Smith for all that she does! This year that includes a summer student trip to Puerto Rico and starting a state-qualifying Science Olympiad team. The broadcast of Mrs. Smith's presentation will air on Tuesday, May 3, on the NBC 15 6pm newscast.

Excellence in Speech Award

Belleville High School has once again received the Excellence in Speech Award from the Wisconsin High School Forensic Association. This places Belleville in the top 5% schools in the state. Only 18 of the 340 schools participating received the honor this year! The only other conference school to receive the award was Lakeside Lutheran. What a great accomplishment for Coach Alsteens, Coach Walejko, and our talented students! It is a great day to be a Wildcat!

State Forensics Results

Belleville High School Forensics students performed fantastically on Friday night. They recorded the highest scores in BHS history! Eight entries received a perfect score of 25 out of 25 for Critics' Choice Awards. These include:

• Jered Barclay in Solo Acting
• Kira Elmer and Lauren Severson in Play Acting
• Jade Halvensleben, Rylee Hubbard, Anna Nolden, and Abby Winterburn in Group Interpretation
• Julia McNamar in Farrago
• Lauren O'Connor in Prose
• Joey Sokol in Radio
• Taylor Vesperman in Poetry
• Brian Weasner in Radio

Four more Belleville High School entries received scores of 24 out of 25. Seven additional BHS entries scored 23/25. Three Wildcat entries scored 22/25.

It was a banner night of performances for Belleville Forensics!

Not pictured: Jared Barclay

Belleville FFA Banquet

Last night (4-17), Belleville FFA celebrated their past year at their annual banquet. It started with a potluck meal in the cafeteria and then moved into the auditorium for the degree ceremonies and awards. Members received Greenhand and Chapter Degrees and were recognized for holiday sales, speaking contests, local proficiency awards, chapter membership awards, and other various agriculture-related awards. The night wrapped up with a year-in-review video, door prizes, and the installation of the new chapter officer team. The 2016-2017 Belleville FFA Officer team includes: President Clarice Loeffelholz, Vice President Denise Rankin, Secretary Leah Hanna, Reporter Brianna Halverson, Treasurer Tony O'Connor, and Sentinel Dan Meier. It was a great night to look back on another successful year! [Submitted by Melissa Knudson]

Belleville High School's Coffee Cart

Belleville High School has Special Education students working with the School Store ("The Catty Shack") student managers to provide a Coffee Cart service to teachers at the school. Check out this promotional video!

Middle School Students-of-the-Month

On Friday, April 15, Belleville Middle School staff recognized their Students-of-the-Month. In a ceremony during Homeroom, teachers called up the students that they had nominated to acknowledge their accomplishments and efforts. Students received a certificate and pencil, along with a Catty Shack Buck for the School Store. Mr. Gentilli then assisted them in adding their handprints to the walls of the Commons. Congratulations to this month's students!

From Left to Right: Taylor Fredrickson, Samantha Deery, Chloe Smith, Elizabeth Case, Mason Markiewicz, Royce Clark, Kody Fahey, Ella Campbell, and Jillian Michaels

High School Students-of-the-Month

On Thursday, April 14, Belleville High School recognized their Students-of-the-Month from March. They were nominated by the staff, with each department selecting a student. Students were treated to a pizza lunch and Scotcharoos from Mrs. Schween. They also received movie passes donated by Marcus Theaters. After being presented with the nomination form from their teacher, students are always asked for their input on how to improve the school. Congratulations to this great bunch of Wildcats!

Front Row:  Brock Kelly, Amber Sies, and Taylor Legler

Back Row: Cash Hoffman, Devin Schramm, and Tim Wegehaupt

Not pictured: Noah Karr and Brandi Long

Apple Tree Pruning

This morning the Horticulture class went out to Ace's apple orchard in town and practiced their tree pruning skills! The students learned about pruning in class and applied the concepts to the orchard trees. They had a lot of fun working together, getting a better understanding of how to prune a tree, and of course enjoying the wonderful weather. We plan to make another trip out there this week.[Submitted by Mrs. Knudson]

Google Expeditions

Both Belleville Middle and High School students participated in Google Expeditions today. Students were fitted with a set of goggles.

Teachers went through a 1-hour training to be able to guide students virtually through different scenarios- including 1776 Philadelphia and the beaches of Normandy on D-Day in 1944. Belleville is one of only a handful of schools in the area to have this opportunity through Google. Thank you to Mr. Hodgson for his winning application to make this happen!

Think about how far we have come from technology in the 1950's!
THEN                                                  

http://www.salon.com/2009/05/28/zacharek_3d/

NOW

BHS takes 30 students to State Forensics

Our Wildcats will be participating at the State Forensics meet on UW-Madison Campus on April 15th. We are entered in 22 out of the 25 possible entries per school. Our journey to state has been an exciting one. We have several new members as well as our seasoned veterans scoring high marks. Some of these students will be performing at the BHS Fine Arts Night on April 27th. We wish them all the best at state! [Submitted by Mrs. Alsteens]

Yahara River Writers' Contest Winners

Forty-two Belleville School District 5th-8th grade students recently participated in the Yahara River Writers' Contest sponsored by the Greater Dane County Advanced Learner Network. This annual contest encourages students to write poems, editorials, and short stories and to create cartoons. Hundreds of entries from 23 Dane County area schools were submitted. Belleville had five top ten winners:

• 7th grader Jenna Blask won 1st place in the 7th grade short story category! 

• 8th grader Emma Veeneman in the short story category

• 7th grader Cassie Narf in the cartoon category 

The top 10 finalists for each grade in each category are invited to an awards ceremony and mini-workshop that will be held in May at UW-Madison. Each student will receive a copy of the Yahara River Writers' Anthology, which includes all the top ten finalists' entries. Congratulations to all our participants and our top ten winners!

Greenhouse Planting!

The Horticulture class officially filled the greenhouse today (4-6)!  The students grew many plants from seed, and some were transplanted from plugs. Mrs. Knudson's class has grown geraniums, petunia hanging baskets, calibrachoa, sweet potato vine, twister juncus, alyssum, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, marigolds, straw flowers, and dianthus. They just planted different varieties of squash, watermelons, and zucchini. The students have also been responsible for watering, fertilizing, and the general care of these plants. We are proud of what they have grown!

Students were also given the opportunity to grow plants to take home with them. A few highlights include Christian growing lettuce (some of the class enjoyed salads from his crop earlier this week!), Mariah grew strawberries from seed, Emily grew sensitive plants (you touch it, and it temporarily wilts), and Kyle is growing white and purple kohlrabi! Most of the plants grown will be sold at our plant sale which will be May 5-7. The profits from this plant sale will support the maintenance of the greenhouse and fund the supplies for future classes to have the same hands-on experiences. [Submitted by Mrs. Knudson]

State Science Olympiad Success

In its first year of existence, the Belleville High School Science Olympiad Team, coached by Mrs. Smith, took 5 medals in 22 events at this weekend's state meet. Belleville was competing against 50 other teams at UW-Stout.

Otto Anson and Britney Markhardt took 4th place in Green Generation.

Jaden Kieler and Grace Przybyl also took 4th place in Mystery Design.

Joey Sokol and Gary Salmela took 5th place in Geo-Logic Mapping.

Otto and Britney placed again (5th) in Invasives Species.

Grace and Connor Theis also placed 6th in Write It Do It.

It was a very successful year for the team and one to build on for next year!