Halloween Safety

(Information from the National Safety Council)

Halloween Safety On and Off the Road

Kids love the magic of Halloween: Trick-or-treating, classroom parties and trips to a neighborhood haunted house. But for moms and dads, often there is a fine line between Halloween fun and safety concerns, especially when it comes to road and pedestrian safety.

In 2016, 7,330 pedestrians died in traffic or non-traffic incidents, according to Injury Facts. Non-traffic incidents include those occurring on driveways, in parking lots or on private property.

NSC research reveals about 18% of these deaths occurred at road crossings or intersections. Lack of visibility because of low lighting at night also plays a factor in these deaths.

Here's a scary statistic: Children are more than twice as likely to be hit by a car and killed on Halloween than on any other day of the year. In 2017, October ranked No. 2 in motor vehicle deaths by month, with 3,700. July is No. 1, with 3,830 deaths.

Costume Safety

To help ensure adults and children have a safe holiday, the American Academy of Pediatrics has compiled a list of Halloween safety tips. Before Halloween arrives, be sure to choose a costume that won't cause safety hazards.

• All costumes, wigs and accessories should be fire-resistant
• Avoid masks, which can obstruct vision
• If children are allowed out after dark, fasten reflective tape to their costumes and bags, or give them glow sticks
• When buying Halloween makeup, make sure it is nontoxic and always test it in a small area first
• Remove all makeup before children go to bed to prevent skin and eye irritation

When They're on the Prowl

• A responsible adult should accompany young children on the neighborhood rounds
• If your older children are going alone, plan and review a route acceptable to you
• Agree on a specific time children should return home
• Teach your children never to enter a stranger's home or car
• Instruct children to travel only in familiar, well-lit areas and stick with their friends
• Tell your children not to eat any treats until they return home
• Children and adults are reminded to put electronic devices down, keep heads up and walk, don't run, across the street

Safety Tips for Motorists

NSC offers these additional safety tips for parents – and anyone who plans to be on the road during trick-or-treat hours:

• Watch for children walking on roadways, medians and curbs
• Enter and exit driveways and alleys carefully
• At twilight and later in the evening, watch for children in dark clothing
• Discourage new, inexperienced drivers from driving on Halloween

Students Learn About the Moon!

Recently, students had the opportunity to learn about the moon.  Susan Rolfsmeier, Chadron Public
Library, facilitated the program.  Three stations were set up for students to learn about the moon and its
surface.  The highlight of the program was the lunar disk on loan from NASA. The six Apollo missions
that landed astronauts on the Moon returned a collection of rocks and sediment samples weighing 382
kilograms and consisting of more than 2,000 separate samples.  The lunar disk contained small samples
of lunar material. Descriptions of the samples were discussed.

Students created a model of the surface of the moon.

Students worked together to classify different types of moon rocks.

A digital microscope was used to get a closer look at the lunar disk.

CHS Graduates Outscore State and National Averages Again on the ACT!

Note:  THESE ARE NOT THE STATE TESTING RESULTS FOR JUNIORS.

When looking at this data compared to other states, an important piece to interpret is the number (or percent) of
graduates who have taken an ACT. Nebraska has ranked very high each year with typically around 80% of
graduates that have taken an ACT prior to graduation compared to Eastern states that might have as few as
10-30%.  However, due to the new State testing changes, this is the first year that Nebraska will report on 100%
of graduates since all students are now required to take the ACT during their junior year. As you can imagine, if a
school (or state) has 50% of graduates take the ACT, chances are that they are high performing students. Whereas
states like Nebraska, where 100% of graduates take the ACT, will have a lower overall average.

So, this is the first year that all graduating seniors at Chadron High School took the ACT test due to the new State testing requirements that began when these graduates were juniors.

Here's a summary of our data with comparisons to trends from past years.

2018 National Average:    20.8

2018 Nebraska Average:   20.1 (first year that all graduates took the ACT)

2018 Chadron Average:  20.7 (first year that all graduates took the ACT)

Chadron High School Historical Trend of ACT Composite Averages

• 2018  20.7 (first year that EVERY graduate took the ACT)
• 2017  22.6
• 2016  21.2
• 2015  20.4
• 2014  20.8
• 2013   22.7
• 2012   21.4
• 2011   21.9
• 2010   22.8
• 2009   20.6
• 2008   21.3
• 2007   20.6
• 2006   21.9
• 2005   20.2
• 2004   21.5
• 2003   21.0
• 2002   22.3

Of interesting note, last year 84% of Nebraska's graduates too the ACT. Again, this year Nebraska reported on 100% of graduates taking the ACT. Nebraska scored as the 5th highest
scoring state of the 17 states that have a 100% participation rate! Nebraska's average of 20.1,
narrowly trailed Wisconsin which held the highest average of 20.5.
Congratulations Nebraska!

Two years ago, ACT updated the 'college readiness benchmark scores', making minor changes to the English
and Science benchmarks. Benchmark scores are set through collaborative research with postsecondary
institutions nationwide to show student readiness for college-level coursework.

Percent Of Students Meeting All Four Benchmarks (English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science):

• CHS   29%
• State   22%

As you can imagine, we are very proud of the academic achievements we have been maintaining. We strive each
year to improve our system approach to student learning beginning in elementary grades all the way through our
high school classrooms.

A special thanks to all of our teachers and students for their efforts!!!

For parents or students specifically interested in ACT preparation, I'd encourage you to visit with our guidance office for materials and to utilize some of the many online test prep materials including the ACT Online Prep.

Physical Science Students Design Water Filters

Check out Mrs. Gregory's classroom blog. Mrs. Gregory is in her first year teaching Physical Science and Chemistry at Chadron High School.

https://mrsgregorysclassroom.home.blog/

Clean Water

Yes, I know it’s been a while. Trying to balance blogging about my class with planning for my class and grading for my class and cleaning up after my class is…. formidable! However, my physical science kiddos just completed a super neat project and I would feel like I’m short handing parents if I don’t tell you about it.

Physical science just completed a unit about types of substances, matter, and materials. I wanted to break of the monotony of typical, 40-point unit tests so I threw in alternative assessment. The focus of this assessment has been water: what materials pollute water and what materials can clean water. The kids kicked off the assessment with 30 (that’s right, 30!) whole minutes of writing about global water crises. The students researched what materials pollute water, what countries face the most debilitating water crises, and solutions to the global water crisis. I’m a huge writing nerd so reading about the kids’ research has been a joy for me.

The next part of this assessment was a Google Science Fair project called Dirty Campers. In this project, students designed a water filter that would provide water clean enough to bathe in using a variety of materials including activated charcoal, sand, filter netting, cotton balls, and kitty litter. The waste water for filtering came from the drainage ditch in front of the school. I don’t think the kids have ever really looked at the water before based on the disgusted looks on their faces. 

After a test-run, students modified their design to make more effective filters. While not every student obtained crystal-clear water, all kiddos learned a little bit about the materials that can remedy water pollution. Below are some pictures from the experiment and recaps of the experiment written by students.

          From top, left to right: the materials, the wastewater, some initial designs, first round of filtered water collected, some reworked designs, second round of filtered water collected.

“In this experiment, we all made a filtration system using various materials and dirty water. What I did is gather cotton, sand, soil, pasta, and activated charcoal to proceed with constructing two different filters. The first time we got better results than the second. I can infer that charcoal does a good job of filtering water. In conclusion, I probably would never use this filter system.” -Brinnley H.

“We put in three cotton balls and 20 mL of sand, and potting soil. Ours worked the first time because the filter cleaned the water.” – Brianna L.

“We filtered 100 mL of dirty water. We could use a coffee filter, sand, soil, activated charcoal, cotton balls, and a netted filter. We used sand, soil, cotton balls, and a netted filter. Ours worked but would have worked better if we used more materials. -Dawson D.

“Throughout the world, water crises is a major problem. In physical science, we planned, designed, and tested our own water filters. We used a recycled plastic bottle, a rubber band, cotton balls, sand, activated charcoal, a net, pasta, and cat litter. Our group then poured 100 mL of dirty water into our filter. Even though we only got 50 mL of water back, our water was clean and has a pH of 7. All in all, our water filter worked well and it showed me that there are easy ways for places with no clean water to filter their water.” -Leila T.

Homecoming Royalty Candidates and Class Attendant

The 2018 CHS Homecoming candidates for royalty and class attendants were voted on by students today. Here are the candidates:

Freshman Attendants: Olivia Reed & Brinnley Hudson; Dawson Dunbar & Gaurav Chima

Sophomore Attendants: Emily Beye & Kadence Wild; Daniel Wellnitz, Zach Haug, & Jiesinh Sayaloune 

Junior Attendants: Madison Sandstrom & Allie Ferguson; Cole Madsen & Tate Ryan

King Candidates: Keelynd Clinton, Dom Nobiling, & Clark Riesen

Queen Candidates: Alexys Fernandez, Carstyn Hageman, & Haley Mahr

2018 Chadron HS Homecoming Activities

Chadron High School’s Student Council has been preparing for 2018 Homecoming since the beginning of the school year. Now that the celebration is right around the corner, they are excited to announce what festivities will occur during the week of October 9th through the 12th!

With no school on Monday, October 8th, the Homecoming activities will begin on Tuesday, October 9th.

DRESS UP DAYS

Throughout the week, there will be a daily dress-up theme that gives students and staff the opportunity to show their Cardinal Pride. This year, Student Council will give out several Best Dressed prizes. Then, the group will choose the ultimate winner, who will be admitted into the Homecoming dance free of charge.

TUESDAY (Oct. 9): Decade Day. Students and staff are encouraged to wear clothes from one of their favorite decades (50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, etc.).

WEDNESDAY (Oct. 10): Color War. Each grade is assigned a different color:

• Freshman - Yellow
• Sophomores - Red
• Juniors - Blue
• Seniors - Green

Students will wear as much of their color as possible and try to dominate the school.

THURSDAY (Oct. 11): Meme/Vine Day. Students and teachers are challenged to recreate one of their favorite videos or posts on social media.

FRIDAY (Oct. 12): The dress-up theme is of course...SPIRIT DAY!!! Everyone is encouraged to wear Cardinal gear and colors to show their school spirit.

FRIDAY FESTIVITIES

The last day of Homecoming, Friday, will be filled with many other exciting festivities!

First, the pep rally will be held in the High School Gym at 2:00. Student Council has planned fun games for the annual fall sports competition, the CHS dance team will also perform, and the Cardinal Mascot will make a special appearance.

Next, the Homecoming football game vs. Mitchell will be held at 7:00 pm. At half time, the Dance Team will perform and Homecoming royalty will be crowned.

Last, but not least, there will be a Homecoming dance at the High School Commons lasting from 9:00 pm to 12:00 am. Cost of admission is $5. The night will be filled with singing, dancing, and making awesome memories! (All out-of-school dates must be pre-approved by administration)

For more information about Homecoming week, follow Student Council on social media:

Instagram - @chs_stu.co

Facebook - Chadron High School Student Council

Twitter - @ChadronHS_StuCo

We look forward to homecoming week and hope you plan on attending as many activities as possible!

Go Cards!

Parents: Help Stop Teenage Vaping and Juuling!

Parents:   We're hearing about an increase in student use of vaping products including Juul which looks like a USB device and comes in flavors including mint, mango, fruit medley and creme brulee.  I'm sharing the following video and information for your awareness of these products.  I hope you will take the time to be on the look-out for these dangerously addictive products.
~Mr. Mack

The flavored e-cigarettes with their trendy devices are luring teenagers into nicotine addiction without smoking a cigarette. The powerful dose of nicotine found in these products makes them extremely addictive.

“The tobacco industry is well aware that flavored tobacco products appeal to youth and has taken advantage of this by marketing them in a wide range of fruit and candy flavors. Their strategy is working too well, unfortunately,” - American Heart Association CEO, Nancy Brown

In reference to the rise in teenage use:  “These figures are particularly concerning because youth exposure to nicotine — whether it comes from a cigarette or an e-cigarette — affects the developing brain and may rewire it to be more susceptible to nicotine addiction in the future,” - FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb

Chadron Public Schools defines e-cigarettes as any vapor products or alternative nicotine products.  Use or possession of any vapor product or alternative nicotine product is prohibited and will result in student suspension. 

Examples of vapor products

No School for Students Wednesday, Oct. 3rd

We want to remind our families that there will be No School on Wednesday, October 3rd due to district inservice. Classes will resume at their normal times on Thursday.