January 2025 Community News by Lincoln Public Schools

JANUARY 2025

Brilliant Ballet: McPhee students learn about choreography, costuming in school

It's just cool for them to be able to watch dancers perform right in front of them.

Teagan, Ada and Taryn turned their love of dance and choreography into heartwarming lessons at McPhee Elementary School in early December.

The three Lincoln Public Schools students joined leaders of the Lincoln Midwest Ballet Company (LMBC) in Backstage at the Ballet workshops. LMBC members taught the Mustangs about choreography, costuming and makeup during several class periods throughout the week. The entire school then gathered in the gym Dec. 5 for a performance of “The Nutcracker.”

Teagan attends Southeast High School, Ada is a student at Southwest High School and Taryn takes classes at East High School. All three said they were enjoying helping students practice classical ballet and dance movements during a morning session.

“Just seeing their reactions and the faces they make is super fun,” Ada said. “It’s cute.”

“I love seeing how excited they get,” Teagan said. “It’s just cool for them to be able to watch dancers perform right in front of them. It’s really neat.”

Shari True is the LMBC’s artistic director and has been leading dance classes since the 1980s. She has been an instrumental figure in Backstage at the Ballet, which has a goal of encouraging LPS students

to explore fine arts such as dance. McPhee was selected to be this year’s host school for the program.

True said it was exciting for the Mustangs to watch Teagan, Ada and Taryn display flexibility, agility, strength, endurance and balance in their workshops.

“I want them to understand that dance is athletic,” True said. “It requires all of the skills that every other sport does. The dancers that they saw today are athletes.”

True began the choreography workshop by talking to students about the physical benefits of dance. She said the standard length of a ballet is 90 minutes to two hours, which means everyone on stage must have each of the five athletic traits.

“Those are all skills in dance that we’re going to use,” True told a group of fourth graders. “We’ll be teaching all of those to you today.”

True led the class in stretching exercises before showing them movements from the second act of “The Nutcracker.” Students raised their hands, turned their legs and skipped on their feet for the next 30 minutes. The three high schoolers then led them in a short performance as ballet music played in the background.

Taryn said the experience could encourage many Mustangs to explore pursuing dance in the future.

“I feel like if they get to see it in their school at such a young age it’s easier to have your eyes opened to it and want to do it,” Taryn said. “Hopefully it will inspire them.”

At the same time, Maralee Maldavs was helping McPhee second graders become interested in the costuming angle of ballet. Maldavs is the LMBC’s head costumer and costume builder and guided students in a workshop in Megan Dworsky’s classroom.

Maldavs first showed students a full-sized Nutcracker headpiece. A bicycle helmet is attached to the inside of the head, and dancers wear the helmet when they put on the Nutcracker costumes. She also displayed several outfits from other members of the dance group at the beginning of class.

“There’s no talking during a ballet, so they have to wear the right costume when they’re on stage,” Maldavs said. “The costuming helps to show what’s going on.”

Students then had opportunities to design their own prince and princess costumes on paper. They used glue sticks to attach pieces of fabric to the outline of a person, and they then picked out jewels, ribbons and other artistic items from various trays. They placed those items on their paper dancers to finish their creations.

McPhee Principal Chris Boden said having the Mustangs participate in Backstage at the Ballet was a positive experience for everyone.

“This is such a wonderful thing to happen at our school,” Boden said. “I’m really glad our students were able to have this come here this year.”

WHAT’S INSIDE:

SECTION A:

A3 Lincoln TeamMates: Alyssa and Mary, Forever Friends

A5 Sustainability at LPS: Bike Bus

A6 Wellness: Six ways to support a positive mindset for kids

A9 Looking for a Book?

A10 Community Awareness Event: Keeping CurrentYouth Substance Use Prevention

A11 Menus

A12 Coding Confidence: Adams students design video games from computer class lessons

- Teagan, Student

Lincoln TeamMates

Alyssa and Mary, Forever Friends

When Mary met her mentee Alyssa almost nine years ago, she didn’t expect to be having a conversation with her about her trip to perform in a national honors band at Carnegie Hall.

“Alyssa was very quiet. Very shy. I guess that’s what has surprised me the most, where we started and where we are now.”

Alyssa remembers her young self similarly, unsure of what her mentor would expect of her.

“I was terrified. I was excited too, but I didn’t like to talk, so it was scary.”

A shared love of books helped ease Alyssa’s concerns. Mary picked up on that, suggesting at first that they spend their time together reading to each other.

“She’d read a page out loud and I’d read a page out loud. That’s all we did for the rest of third grade. We just read with each other.”

Alyssa is pretty sure one of the early titles was “Because of Winn-Dixie,” a book that features a dog. It only makes sense since she loves all types of animals. She keeps ferrets, guinea pigs and lots of cats as pets.

“I don’t even need to go to a cat cafe,” Alyssa chuckled.

Mary is clearly proud of her mentee and knows that without Alyssa’s strength and perseverance, her story could be unfolding so differently.

“It would have been easy to quit, wouldn’t it?” she asked her young mentee.

“Oh yeah,” Alyssa replied. And, she believes that Mary has played a key role as well because she is very reliable and trustworthy.

“With the things I’ve been through, that’s important to me. And, I know she’s not airing my business. She always asks if she can help me, which is great. Sometimes I don’t want anything other than someone to listen to me.”

One of the key things Alyssa feels she has gained through TeamMates is confidence.

“It’s been good to be able to come out of my shell.”

Maybe that’s why Mary is not completely surprised to learn that Alyssa spoke with the band director in charge of the honors performance at Carnegie Hall about the possibility of joining the color guard at the University of Alabama after she graduates.

“From that quiet girl to one who talks all the time, is determined, talented and has great goals for her life, I’m so proud of her.”

Both of them see themselves being friends forever.

Student

Parent

Six ways to support a positive mindset for kids

By Michelle Welch, RD, LMNT LPS District Wellness Facilitator

Together we can make 2025 one of the best yet in supporting the health and growth of our LPS students and community. Here are six ways that you can support a positive mindset for kids.

• Do the right thing. Kids are bigger sponges of our choices than we ever realize. Each time we choose honesty, kindness, loyalty, support of the disadvantaged, acceptance, you name it, our kids absorb it. Imagine our world if each of us focused on only this goal for the year? It starts in the mirror.

• Realize there’s no better time than now. Being too future focused may lead to us missing the best part of getting to where we are going. Be careful not to miss the now. Put down devices. Soak up those spirit league games, first concerts and blanket cuddles. Give both of you the breathing space to just thoroughly enjoy today. You’ll be glad when you look back in a few years if you do. Being over-

booked will steal the joy. Be slow with the yes to protect time, energy and resources.

• You don’t have to have it all figured out. We put insane pressure on ourselves and our kids to know what the next ten years of life will hold. (Meanwhile, just figuring out supper takes too much energy sometimes.) Knock it off. Life holds abundant plot twists. Cut yourself and your kids some slack. Give both of you room to explore and grow. Keep exploring to help find your paths, but leave some room for magic. By the way, the answer to supper is most likely quesadillas.

• Live a grateful life and teach your kids that mindset. Repeat after me. There will always be people who have more than us and less than us. Gratitude is about weaving in an attitude that makes kids thankful for not having missed the sunrise or sunset, orfor seeing the silly license plate on your commute. It starts with pleases, thank yous and notes to Grandma. It continues with car conversations

and how they see us react to others. Keep looking in that kid mirror to see your approach reflected in them.

• This too shall pass. There are some rough ages and stages to parenthood and to life in general. It might be the biting toddler, the testing ten-year-old, the tweens or the teens. Maybe it’s transitioning in schools, locations, relationships or jobs for yourself. A powerful grounding tool is to remind yourself that this moment, though super trying, will pass. It will.

• We are in this together. The benefit of having kids in the LPS school system is access to an amazing group of professionals with experience, expertise and awareness of resources that no adult has on their own. Stay engaged with your student’s school experience. Communicate with teachers and go to conferences. Collaborate with staff if you see changes. Ask early. We want each student to succeed. It takes effort from students, from you as their adults and coordinated

March

Hands-on learning experiences for K-8th grade students

Variety of STEAM-infused topics

Half-day and full-day camps

Before Care and Lunch Care options at select locations

Scholarships available

BrightLights.org

NEBRASKA TEACHER APPRECIATION DAY

Nebraska Teacher

Appreciation Day is Tuesday, March 1, 2022. It is time to say “Thank You” to a teacher who has made a difference.

Recognition Day is Tuesday, March 4, 2025. It is time to say “Thank you” to a teacher who has made a difference.

The annual Thank You Teacher contest gives students and former students the opportunity to tell teachers they are appreciated.

Five teachers and the students who nominate them will be invited to a special breakfast at the Nebraska Governor’s Mansion on Tuesday, March 4.

The annual Thank You Teacher Contest gives students and former students an opportunity to tell teachers they are appreciated. Five teachers and the students who nominate them will be invited to breakfast at the Governor’s Mansion on Wednesday, March 2.

Send a written description of how your teacher made a difference in your life to:

Thank You Teacher

Lincoln Public Schools

Communication Services Department 5905 O Street Lincoln, NE 68510

You can also submit nominations online at lps.org/go/recognize Nominations must be received by 5 p.m., January 31, 2025.

Or submit online at: http://lps.org/go/recognize Nominations must be received by 5 p.m., Friday, January 28, 2022.

LOOKING FOR A BOOK?

ELEMENTARY

Christina Li

By Pari Thomson

Ray Anthony Shepard

Recommended

Coding Confidence: Adams students design video games from computer class lessons

Adams Elementary School students created the keywords of “fun,” “happy” and “exciting” this fall with their newfound computer coding knowledge.

Fourth graders in Mary Abebe’s computer classes built their own video games through innovative design lessons. They learned how to write computer code for items such as falling pizzas, happy kittens and gem-gathering characters during the semester. They then tested each other’s designs and helped them fix glitches in their algorithms, scripts and variables.

Emma and Braden worked together to create a game that contained almost two pages of computer code. In their game, a chicken tries to collect point-scoring gems while hopping from platform to platform. Players who gather all three gems on the first level advance to the game’s final stage, where there are another three gems to pick up.

At the same time, the chicken characters must avoid running into pizzas that are falling from the sky. Players win the game if they dodge all of the pizzas and reach 15 points by the end of Level 2.

Emma said if she could rate her level of game-coding fun on a scale of one to ten, it would be “a 100.” “I want to do this every day in class,” Emma said.

Braden said it was exciting to get feedback on their game from their classmates. Students gathered in teams of two or three to review each creation in early December.

We just had to make mistakes and try new things.

- Lanie, Student

They could look at each game’s code, examine its storyline and make suggestions if something wasn’t working on the screen.

“It’s really fun to have them be able to see our game and how we built it,” Braden said.

Caitlin Provance is coordinator of the K-5 computer science curriculum at Lincoln Public Schools. LPS uses material from an educational nonprofit called Code.Org as the foundation for its elementary coursework. The lessons teach children many important skills that they can use in other school subjects.

“With this being such an engaging unit of study, students often don’t realize they are learning some pretty challenging concepts,” Provance said. “In addition to applying their knowledge from computer science, students are utilizing their experiences from the classroom such as math skills and storytelling to create their video games. Video game design helps to strengthen the skills of problem-solving, creativity, perseverance and collaboration.”

Code.Org released a video game design unit for fourth graders for the first time this year. Emma, Braden and their classmates began having some exposure to video game design in first grade, but this was the most demanding coding platform they had encountered.

“We use Code.Org all the time because it’s our main curriculum that we work from, but they’ve never

had to create a game in Code.Org, and it’s a little bit different from the other apps that we use,” Abebe said. “For their first time, they did a great job.”

Lanie and Rozie said they were happy to have successfully worked through all of the coding challenges. They built a game called “Rainbow Madness” that featured a kitten as the main character. Players who used the kitten to collect four rainbows were rewarded with a happy bubble image.

“We’ve coded a different game (before), but it wasn’t as hard as this,” Rozie said.

“Sometimes we would get everything, and then we would want to add a new thing, and it would mess up something else,” Lanie said. “We just had to make mistakes and try new things.”

Ruby and Aubrey also based their game on kittens. They called it “Kitty Escape” and asked players to rescue every kitten within seven seconds. Players also had to avoid other animals during their adventures.

“One of my favorite things about this game is that we could say it was raining cats and dogs,” Ruby said.

Aubrey said she and Ruby felt a sense of accomplishment from the design process. They learned about the behaviors of characters and objects, how to animate them and how to make them interactive in their games. They also discovered how to program and modify the

code so data would change based on player interaction.

“I was telling her how crazy it was that we went from a square background to an entire video game in just a couple of days,” Aubrey said. Students also strengthened skills such as unity and empathy in the class. Oliver alerted Abebe about a coding glitch that appeared in his team’s game, and she asked the other fourth graders to inspect the code from their laptops. Everyone dropped what they were doing and came together for a solution.

“It makes me feel special that everybody is taking their own time to work on a game that we needed help with,” Oliver said. “I worked on Sunday at home to do this to try and get this to work so it could be ready, and something that we were working on must have gone wrong, and everybody here helped us. I really liked that.”

“I love how they work together,” Abebe said. “That’s my favorite thing.”

Teammates Parker and Ethan said experiencing those keywords of “cooperation” and “helpfulness” made the video game process a winning part of their school day.

“It was good,” Parker said. “I liked it. It was fun.”

To learn more about our computer science curriculum, visit our Career and Technical Education page at https://home.lps.org/ cte/cs/