The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

F.E. Miley Elementary school closed it’s academic year with their traditional Open House/Extravaganza last week. The extravaganza is an opportunity for the community to come into the school and see what the students have been working on during the spring semester. This year’s extravaganza featured some changes over previous years’ offerings.

I spoke with Superintendent Dan Schrock about the event. He commented that the year end open house events are common to schools throughout Montana, but “I am biased. I think we do it a little bit better than some. I think we see the value and the partnerships and inviting parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, community members into our school. Then they can witness that firsthand and take the pride in our students that we do.”

The 6th grade class occupied the cafeteria this year, putting on a mini science fair. The science projects are a change over previous years. The 6th grade typically does “food truck” businesses, complete with business plans and miniature food truck models. Mrs. Worrall, the 6th grade teacher, explained the change “This is a very bright group, and I just thought it’d be fun if they did their thing and they did great.” All of the projects were excellent, though the “secret science fair judge” selected London Keane’s project as the winner.

The 4th and 5th grade brought back the long running favorite extravaganza events: The Wax Museums. The 5th grade projects featured various figures from American History. Students dressed as individuals from American History and explained their historical figure’s life story when visitors pressed a button on their project board. Shelby Darlington commented on the event: “The extravaganza is always a good time. We get to have the community come in and see what we’ve been working on. For the fifth grade kids, it’s a really nice end of your project to put together everything they’ve learned throughout the year. And it’s just fun to see them dressed up of course and to mess with them and make them say their speeches. It’s always a fun day.” Figures featured in this year’s 5th grade projects included Jim Henson, Walt Disney, Teddy Roosevelt, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, and others.

The 4th grade class wax museum focused on individuals from Montana History. Mrs. Keller explained that the project itself begins May 1st, when the students begin their Montana History Unit. “We’ve learned all about Montana. The students choose an individual that has either lived in Montana or has a story within Montana. The figure also has to be deceased.” Students research their figure’s life and do a project telling their story. She went on to explain that “I always appreciate when the kids find new people to work with.” This year’s wax museum featured Meriwether Louis, Sacagawea, Fanny Sperry Steele, and many others. Of particular note in these projects was Tyra Parker, portrayed by her sister Bentlee Parker. Bentlee’s project told the story of her older sister, who was diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of 11. After battling the illness and living cancer free for a year when she died in a car accident. Bentlee’s project was heartfelt and a special addition to the day.

The Kindergarten’s extravaganza projects came out of their learning about Farm and Ranch Agriculture. Mrs. Weaver explained that, “It was the theme for our whole year.” I remarked that it is “sort of theme for the whole town.” Mrs. Weaver explained “That’s why I picked it, because it’s the foundation of our community. I thought it would be really great for the kids to learn more about just what the people in our community do. So we learned about Montana crops and we learned about the livestock in Montana. We learned what’s made from the crops that we grow and what products the livestock in our area provide for us. They also learned about where the food comes from that’s on your plate. The kids had a great experience.”

The 1st grade class did projects on camping and outdoor activities, which was also their theme for the school year. “We’ve had a camping theme, and we just built off of the camping theme. We broke it into different groups and talked about camping and talked about the different things you can do when you’re camping. They did everything. They drew pictures, they researched. They got to build stuff. And then we got everyone in the mood for Memorial weekend camping trips.” Student projects included camping guides and fascinating books shaped like s’mores instructing the reader how to make s’mores properly. Students also made up their own constellations with colorful names like the “snowboard constellation” or the “Black Imposter” (named after a character in the Among Us video game). All of the students wore camping vests they had made themselves out of construction paper.

The second grade class studied natural disasters throughout the second half of the school year. Their presentations included an illustration of how hurricanes work using water and food coloring. They also built miniature volcano projects that they “erupted” for guests. Ms. Stellpflug explained, “We did natural disasters the last semester of school. They learned about tornadoes, volcanoes, hurricanes and earthquakes. So we kind of just stuck with that theme. They wrote a lot of papers and did a lot of research on these natural disasters. They decided to pick this for their theme this year.”

Mrs. Moore’s 3rd game class featured a Sloth theme this year, which they showed off in their Spectacular Sloths projects. Guests were greeted at the door by Titus Sietsema (my son) who told hilarious sloth jokes. “The children each chose something that was their strength for their sloth presentations. Some of them chose poems or jokes. Some of them chose to do dancing and singing. Some of them chose just to do slot facts.” One set of students built an impressive sloth model. The sloth projects are a change from previous years, when students would do their own books, writing the stories and illustrating them. Though the class did the books this year, they opted to do the sloth projects as their extravaganza presentations.