Homecoming

Homecoming!  At St. Croix Lutheran we recently celebrated our homecoming week.  There were 2 main parts to the excitement.  First a parade, and second the game. Everyones spirits were high and St. Croix held a parade before the game.  At this parade there were a lot of floats representing all the different extra-cirricular activites avalible at St Croix.  For example, the marching band, cross country, the international program and many others.  The parade ended in the school parking lot and soon after the parade the game started!  St. Croix was playing Concordia.  During the game you could stay in the stands and cheer the team on, or play in the second field with friends, buy food at the bake sale or just walk around.  At half time selected people went onto the feild for the kick, pass, and spike competition. The kick, pass, and spike competition is where you kick a soccer ball,throw a football, and spike a volleyball as far as you can. The students who represented St. Croix were:
8th grade: Adam and Jade
7th grade: Nathaniel and Kat
6th grade: Bubby and Lauren
No one this year won the competition but everyone who participated had fun!
 The score at the end of the game was 56 to 24. St. Croix won!
By Gabby and Mandi.

Eagle Bluff Field Trip

Our trip to Eagle Bluff was exciting and fun. We got to experience new things. We also got to know each other more and meet new friends. The classes that we attended were insects, treetops ropes course, archery, and stream lab. We learned about coyotes and unwanted wildlife in the United States like the Starling. We got some recess time after lunch to be active. Some people played football, soccer, volleyball, tether ball, or tag. We had no food waste at all while we were there. That means that we got to sign the Golden Plate and won the zero hero award. Eagle Bluff was a lot of fun and we learned new things.
By:
Lisa Beltz and Josh Kirchert

Welcome Mr. Wendland!

St. Croix is excited to welcome a new teacher to our school this year. We decided to ask Mr. Wendland some questions to learn more about him. Mr.Wendland  is married and has been blessed with 3 kids. Stella is 5 years old, Carys is 4 years old, and his youngest is Micah who is 2. Mr. Wendland has been teaching for 8 years. He used to teach at Immanuel Lutheran in Salem, Oregon where he also served as principal. He is excited to meet new students and get to know us. We also asked him if he likes kids just to make sure! As a result he likes kids.
By: Lisa Beltz and Josh Kirchert

2011-2012 School Year!

The 2011-2012 school year is just a couple weeks away! We are looking forward to seeing all the excited students walking down the hallway ready for another great school year! Make sure all of your school supplies are bought and ready to go. The faculty is excited for another great year at the Middle School!

Spring Sports

          St. Croix Lutheran High School joined New Life Academy to form a coop and the first ever boys’ tennis team for the high school. Eighth grader Jesse wrote about his experience.

During my first year of tennis I felt weird not knowing much about the game. Also I didn’t know anyone around me. The coach was very nice. I practiced with everyone and got to know them. In practice, we practiced playing singles, doubles, and our serves. Sometimes we would play a fun game of king of the hill. Each person had their own technique of serving as well as playing.

We had a lot of meets during the season. Every once and a while we had to miss or reschedule our game because of the weather. I tied one game and lost all my other ones. I mostly played exhibition matches because we had lots of extra players. Everyone tried hard and did their best.

Eighth grader Daniel golfed with the St. Croix High School golf team for the first time. This is what he had to say.

This year for Boys Golf, we had head Coach Mr. Mortell and Assistant Coach Mr. Wood; both were wonderful and very supportive. Our Captains were Jacob Mortell and Joe Lillo. Our home course was The Ponds at Battle Creek and we played there numerous times. Our record for the year is 8-2 but there is still some more matches coming up. It was my first year on the team and I had lots of fun.

Middle Schoolers Bekah, Chelsea, and Haley joined the high school students to participate in JV softball. Below is Bekah’s recap of the season.

The St. Croix Lutheran junior varsity softball team did well in their games this spring season. They won several games, and most games that they lost were only lost by a couple of points. Achieving second in the tournament at the end of the year, they played three games and only lost one. Their conference record at the end of the year was 2-5-0, but their Overall record after the tournament was 5-6-0. We are very proud of how they played and know that during their games they played to the best of their abilities and displayed their Christian attitude. Though a couple games were rainy, and some were quite cold, overall it was a good season for the JV softball team.

The middle school students have the opportunity to run track with the high school track team on the varsity and JV level. They can also participate on the middle school track team, as long as they are not a member of the Varsity team. Adam is a seventh grader who participated on the middle school track team. Here is his post.

          For the last two years the middle school had a track team. This year our team was very good. We had some kids from Salem Stillwater join our team because their school didn’t have enough kids to form their own team. The Salem kids added some depth to our team. So we had an amazing track season.

          This year if the kids in track were really good they could be on the high school track team too. The kids that made it to the high school team are Jacob Buller, Bethany Hennen, Ben Kittleson, Alexis Sievert, Marrisa Sievert, and Jade McDaniel. Last week we had our conference meets and our team got second but we won both shotput and discus thanks to Ben, Randy, and Trevor. We each got ribbons for the individual places we got. Next year we are hoping to get more kids in track.

Dig It

            After months and months of practicing, students at St. Croix Lutheran Middle School performed our musical, Dig It, last Friday night. We had learned dances and lyrics to all eight songs. The actors and actresses had memorized their lines and we were ready for an audience. Actually most of us were worried that we weren’t ready to perform the play on Friday night, but we had last minute practices that day, so we were ready to perform.

            To start the night our band played three songs: “Coastal Guard March,” “Extreme,” and “Americana.” We also had one solo and one duet. Jayden played a solo on his trumpet with the help of Gaby. Katya and Alexis played a duet.

            After that was done we had a short break to set up for the musical. Some people were nervous, but others were just excited. We waited backstage as the music to start the musical began. Before we knew it the musical was over. It was a success and we all had a fun time performing it as well.  
                                                                                                                                                    By Alexis

Rosetta Stone Field Trip

           On Tuesday, March 8^th, the Rosetta Stone students went to the Wabasha Street Caves and the Swedish Museum. Mrs. Strehlow and Mr. Hulse chaperoned us. We took a mini bus and drove there. We explored the caves and heard cool stories about them, like mushrooms grew in them for a while. Gangsters hung out in them, and some were killed in the caves and never found. It was very interesting to learn about the types of things that went on in St. Paul years ago.

            After we left the caves, we went for an early lunch at Boca Chica’s. They had great Mexican food. Then, we just cruised around and looked at different gangster hideouts. We went to the Swedish Museum next. It was a mansion/castle and was gorgeous. When we got inside, we went on a tour of it. It was amazing. Much of it was restored to how it originally looked. We learned a lot about Swedish people and their traditions. It was also really cool to hear other things from history, like a very intricate stain glass window. The whole experience was fascinating and educational. We were glad that we got to do it.

By Monica and Jenny

Science Museum Experiential Trip

     On February 18, 2011, the whole Middle School got on a bus and headed to the Science Museum. During the field trip, we learned about optical illusions, the human body, rocks, and roller coasters.  Most of the groups watched the optical illusion show and learned about how the brain works hard to try to figure out what the image is. In the human body, we found out that if you weigh 80 lbs there is 5 pints of blood in your body. We learned that the main three types of rocks are igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic; we also learned that sand is made up of little rocks. Everyone took a roller coaster class during which we learned about speed, and how they are slowed down. We all had lots of fun and learned many new things.

By Bethany and Gaby 

Orchestra Hall Experiential Trip

 

                On January 27^th, 2011, the St. Croix Lutheran Middle School students all climbed on a bus and set out for Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. We were accompanied by Mr. Russ, Mr. Hulse, Mrs. Strehlow, and for this trip, our music teacher, Mr. Pufahl. We were all dressed in our finest just as instructed and after a fairly short bus ride, arrived at our destination. We exited the bus and made our way into Orchestra Hall and then to our seats. 

                This year (we also took a trip to Orchestra Hall last year) we had seats on the main floor, which was very different from the previous year where we sat in the balcony. We heard several wonderful and unique pieces during the performance, including: Tubby the Tuba Kleisinger, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Bachianas Brasileriras No. 2: The Little Train of the Brazilian Countryman, Mi Chiamano Mimi Verdi, Haydn Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in D Major: II Un poco Adagio,  and Haydn Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in D Major: III Rondo all’Ungherse.   

                 The architecture of Orchestra Hall is also very impressive, there are large cubic figures sticking out of the walls and ceiling of the hall to improve the way the sound echoes throughout the audience. There are plans for Orchestra Hall to be remodeled in 2013, with how amazing the hall is currently, once remodeled it should be extravagant. So, after the performance ended and all of the clapping had subsided, we made our way out to our bus to enjoy lunch on the way back to St. Croix. I think that the trip allowed made us a difference for all of us, it really opened our eyes, and ears, to the beauty and importance of music.

By Sofie and Leah

Twin Cities Fine Arts Festival

On Saturday November 6^th the St. Croix Middle School students performed at the much anticipated Twin Cities Fine Arts Festival, TCFAF for short. We’d spent the music classes from the beginning of the year preparing the pieces that we were to perform. We sang the songs Bonse Aba with our entire Festival Choir, all of the middle school students, Night of Silence with just the St. Croix Girl’s Choir, all of the girls in the middle school, and finally, , with all of the other schools attending the festival because it was chosen to be the mass number for this year. We were directed by our music teacher, Mr. Pufahl.

We performed our pieces before a judge and over all received very positive feedback; we also took into consideration the tips that she gave us to make our performances even better.

TCFAF was also an opportunity for some individual performances. There were several vocal and instrumental solos, duets, and one ensemble that the students put together. Each performance was judged and scored into a certain category and the performer received the award corresponding to what category they’d been placed in. There was also the best in site award which was awarded to the top scoring performer in each site, vocal and instrumental. This year the Best in Site Vocal Award was given to our very own Erika Rider who sang the song, “Temporary Home” by Carrie Underwood, and Katya Gurgel, who is also one of our students, was awarded the Best in Site Instrumental Award for her flute solo. Those awarded best in site were also asked to perform in the Evening Concert at the end of the festival.

So, our school as a whole did very well at the festival. The Evening Concert was also a great experience; it was a chance for us to perform in front of the students from other schools and their families, and also to watch them perform and learn from them. St. Croix had some very exciting pieces to bring to the table. Our best in site performers also did very well with their pieces at the concert. So, the St. Croix Students brought a lot of great music to the Twin Cities Fine Arts Festival and hope to do the same next year.

by Sofie & Leah

The Middle School Experience of Homecoming

      The middle school experience of homecoming was pretty exciting. Although we did not get to dress up with our school spirit as the high school students did, we had a lot of fun looking at them in their crazy get ups.   We will be able to show our school spirit in a week in December.

The middle school students were allowed to go to the pep rally, and the homecoming game.  The first day of homecoming, we saw all the high school students walk in as if they had just gotten out of bed, and forgotten to change their clothes! This day was pajama day for the high school students. The next day was also pretty exciting for our eyes. It was Nationality day. People came as their families’ heritage. And all the days that followed were character day, class color day, and spirit day (the craziest of them all). On Friday they kicked off their homecoming game with a Saint Croix parade. The Game was amazing! At halftime, there was the kick, pass, and spike competition. Competing from St. Croix Lutheran Middle School were sixth graders Kat and Kyle, seventh graders Connor and Haley, and eighth graders Beth and Jake. Kat took first place in the sixth grade division! 

The Crusaders demolished the Centaurs  by a landslide. Spirit week is definitely something to look forward to when entering Saint Croix high school.

 By Sam, Adam, and Owen