Welcome to a new school year!

Plans are underway for Octoberfest. Put Saturday, October 3rd on your calendar. There are plenty of volunteer opportunities and ways to get involved. Funds raised will be used to help add to the playground equipment.

We have a special presentation this Friday, the 4th by Randy Nadler. We have enjoyed his presentations at St. Paul's for years now. He is a retired teacher who spends his summers touring another country. During the school year, he travels to different schools and does programs about that country. Students, teachers, and parents love his programs. It begins in our gym at 1:30 and everyone is welcome to attend. This year's country is Italy.

We have begun learning about cartography in History class. Students made some wonderful mini posters showing the layers of the earth in science class.

We are reading The Leanin' Dog aloud together. We're just getting started, but the students seem to enjoy it so far. The class learned about the book report requirements this week and have begun the book challenge. I already see some books listed on the bulletin board.

Gaga ball has been an extremely popular addition to our playground. Thank you to Mr. Weber for making the pit for us. Mr. Ryan made a climbing wall that students are also enjoying. Parents have put in quite a lot of work on the playground and we are grateful!

The class received their email accounts and passwords. We will be working with our computers more and more.

God's blessings to you and your family!

Dear Parents,

What a wonderful talent show this year! They just get better and better. The students enjoyed painting the stars and setting up the gym. I thought band, choir, and each performer did wonderfully! Thank you for your support of the wonderful grilled burgers and the rest of the food.

Our walk for the Senior Center was very successful. Students raised enough money to  buy at least 120 meals for seniors. The students also had a wonderful time playing at the park. They were served their choice of ham, turkey, salami, or bologna sandwich, chips, drink, granola bar, and fruit chews.

Our standardized testing had to be moved to the week  of May 11. Please make sure your child is present and well rested. Our cave field trip is on Friday that week (May 15), but we should be finished by then. I still need another driver for the field trip. If you can help, please let me know.

Our class is working on a simulated cave project. They will put a “cave” on the stage and will give tours by flashlight to other grades. They are finishing up a “powerpoint” type of presentation on their section of research to present to the class.

May 20th is 8th grade graduation at 6:30. Band will play and choir will sing. There is usually cake served afterwards.

The last day of school is May 22. We have chapel at 9:00 with awards presentation. We will dismiss by 11:00, but students are free to leave after this program.

Mr. Grass asked me to share the following in your newsletter. Students and staff presented him with $499 and some change. What a help this will be for him. He was truly surprised.

Thanks: Parents, students and faculty, thank you for the wonderful cake and money tree that you gave me. What a awesome surprise! All of you kept the secret well, and that made the whole thing so special. I'm very blessed to be apart of this great community here at St. Paul’s. This was truly a wonderful gift, that meant so much to me. Thank you to everyone and God’s blessings.

Mr. Grass

God’s blessings to all of you. If you have questions or concerns, please let me know.

Rhonda Tull

Dear Parents,

     Students have been learning about the periodic table of elements in science class and were able to conduct tests to see if a variety of liquids were bases or acids and their strength. They grew crystals using charcoal for a substrate and mixed a solution of salt, bluing, ammonia, and water to make them grow. It was exciting to see God's hand in the creation of even the smallest particle. Coming up for us next in science is a study of mining and caves in Missouri. We will be visited by a miner on April 28th. I was fortunate to hear him speak at a Missouri Mining Seminar for teachers that I attended last summer. His company is reopening the old LaFarge mine near Dresden and we will visit that surface mine in the afternoon. They have an asphalt plant one site that we will visit as well.
     Students will learn about cave safety, formation, speleothems, and creatures. They will learn about the layers of a cave and create a "cave" with formations and creatures on the darkened stage. They will give "cave tours" by flashlight for the rest of the school. We will be going to tour Jacob's Cave near Versailles in May.
     We are finishing a study of ancient Persia and will begin learning about ancient Greece. Our textbook does a wonderful job of showing how historical events and Bible truths go hand in hand.
     Students have been learning about the literary elements of allusion, hyperbole, and imagery in reading. We finished reading The Midwife's Apprentice together and have begun probably our last novel of the school year, Milkweed. The Midwife's Apprentice's setting is during the middle ages. A young orphan girl who has no self worth becomes an apprentice to a midwife who ends up teaching her a skill and helps her see her value in the world. Milkweed is a fictional account of the beginning of the holocaust in Europe from the perspective of a young orphan who lives on the streets and doesn't remember his parents. The book report for April is a mystery. Students will be developing a "Power Point" report.
      In religion class students are learning about Pentecost and the beginnings of the early church. If you don't have a church home, or would just like to visit, you are always welcome to attend services here at St. Paul's. Saturday night services are at 5:30. Sunday morning services are at 9:00 followed by Bible Study for adults and Sunday School for children. You are also welcome to attend our Wednesday chapel services at 9:00. You will find St. Paul's to be a welcoming and friendly church family.

God's blessings,
Rhonda Tull

Dear parents,

Spring finds us with many activities being planned. Below are some important dates:

April 17- Grades 3-8 will go to Heit's Point for the day. Your child has been given a permission form to have signed. I need some parents to help drive and help Mrs. Sprinkle as I won't be able to go with the students that day. I'm serving on Cole Camp's accreditation team and Mrs. Sprinkle will substitute for me. Lunch will be provided by Heit's Point. We have no control over what is being served, so if your child has special dietary needs, send a lunch with him/her.

April 21: 9:30 in the gym. St. Paul High School Band will give a performance and our band will be able to play a song with them. Parents are very welcome to attend as well.

April 24: Book report project due. They are reading a mystery and doing a power point presentation.

April 28: Presentation on mining in our classroom. At 1:00 students will go on a surface mine and asphalt plant tour near Dresden. They will need to ride a bus so I don't need drivers. If you are interested and would like to attend, let me know.

April 30: Talent show and Meal. Food is served at 5:30 and the show starts at 6:30. Band and choir members are expected to attend.

May 1: Walk for Senior Citizens. Watch for information about collecting money for the senior center. We will leave school at 10:00 and walk to Katy Park where students will be served a hot dog lunch. We have no control over the menu so send a lunch if your child cannot eat this. We will be back to school by dismissal time.

May 4- 8: Standardized Testing- Please make sure your child is in attendance and well rested.

May 7: PTL Meeting

May 15: Class field trip to Jacob's Cave and possibly the museum in Versailles. We will leave school at 8:00 and eat lunch at the park in Versailles. Watch for a permission form. We need help with drivers. I'll need to know if you can drive in advance because there is a cost involved for students and adults which I'll have to arrange ahead of time. This is a wonderful cave tour if you're interested.

May 22: Last day of school.

Students have enjoyed growing crystals this week as we study about atoms and chemical compounds in science class. We will be working with rocks over the next couple of weeks and will do a study of caves. The class will create a “cave” on the stage and will be giving flashlight tours to the rest of the school before our cave trip.

Mr. Rehmer gave a wonderful presentation about his mission trip to India for our class and the 7^th and 8^th graders. Mrs. Brandt's sister-in-law also gave a presentation about her many mission trips to Haiti. We continue in history studying about ancient Persia.

Both grades are studying pronouns in English. We read excerpts from Tom Sawyer this week in reading. We studied irony this week as well. The class is finishing reading The Midwife's Apprentice. I'm hoping we can finish another novel before the end of the year.

Your family is always invited to attend St. Paul's Lutheran Church whether you are looking for a church home or would just like to visit. You will find it a very welcoming and friendly experience. Saturday night services are at 5:30 in the gym. Sunday service is at 9:00. There is a short fellowship time after church followed by Bible Study for adults and Sunday School for children. You are always welcome to attend Wednesday chapel services at 9:00.

As always, please feel free to contact me with questions, ideas, or concerns.

God's blessings!

Rhonda Tull

Dear Parents,


Please note that we have no school on Monday, February 23. Day Care will be available. We have a teacher/pastor circuit meeting to attend.

I've attached some information about our celebration of Lutheran Schools Week. Note that there will be a field trip on Wednesday and there is a permission form to complete. Your child also has some information about the annual Fine Arts Festival. All students are expected to attend. We are having a taco bar this year to raise money for the music program. If you would like to sing with choir or play an instrument with band, we would love to have you join us. Let us know and we will get you the music.

Students are learning about ancient China in history. The test over ancient India went very well! The students seem to enjoy learning more about these countries. We've begun a chapter on plant classification in science. Students combined what they learned in English class this week about the parts of a book with a review of some plant related books from our library. We said goodbye to our meal worms/dark-wing beetles this week. The students enjoyed watch their metamorphosis.

We discussed more about February's book report project, Living Wax Museum. Your child chose a book about someone from the Bible or from the Heroes of the Faith series. They will be making a poster about their person to display at school next week. I plan for them to “dress up” like their character and they will “come to life” for younger grades as they tell about themselves. They may need your help with some costume ideas. I don't want parents to purchase anything, just use items you have around the house...bathrobe, grandmother's dress, dad's old suit jacket etc. as the character may be. We will make the posters and practice the presentations here at school before Friday when they will be presented.


Grade cards will be given out March 2^nd. Please sign the back and return them to school.


God's blessings on your week.

Dear Parents,


I wanted to let you know that the 6th graders have an awesome opportunity to attend the lock-in for grades 6, 7, and 8 at St. Paul Lutheran High School in Concordia on February 20th. I am sending home the information today, so check with your child.

We will be participating this week in the Lutheran Hour Ministries Online Misson Trip to Latvia. Your child received a bank and a travel tag last week at chapel. They are to put any extra change etc. into the bank and bring it back next week at chapel. We will meet in the gym each day this week at 1:00 for a real/time visit with missionaries to Latvia. Throughout the week we will learn about their work there and will learn about the country and the people.

A committe of teachers is beginning to plan activities for Lutheran Schools Week-first full week in March. One thing we will be doing is going to chapel at St. Paul's Concordia and then attending a concert by the group, Lost and Found. Teachers got to hear this duo at a conference one year and they were very good. We belive students will eat lunch there, but I'll let you know.

We have been learning about animal classification. I"m sure you heard about the snails and saw your child's habitat. We will be working on seashell collections this week and are raising meal worms. I promise not to send meal worms home. :)  We did an experiment with meal worms last week to see if they would go toward black paper or white paper. It has been interesting to see them molt. Students wrote reports about insects last week and learned how to use an outline. It was a good combination of English and science. They will be writing reports about either a reptile or amphibian this week.

We just began a chapter on ancient India in history class. Mr. Rehmer is planning a missionary trip to India and we can hopefully have him tell us about it when he returns.

Book reports for January will culminate in a book chat project. Your child will be given guidelines for the book chat. February's book report project will be based on a Heros of the Faith biography. We will then have a living wax museum project where they will become their character and tell younger students about their lives.

In English class students have been learning about helping verbs and continuing with sentence patterns and diagraming. They are getting better at finding subject/verb, direct/indirect objects.

We've been trying different techniques to study spelling words. This week students are making board games that will require them to practice spelling their words.

Math is going well. The students in the 7/6 book learned to graph coordinates and how to change fractions to decimals last week. The 6/5 students are learning to read and write decimals and how to read a scale with decimals.

God's blessings!

Rhonda Tull

December 12, 2014


Dear Parents,

I wanted to make sure you got an update on next week's events. First, the Christmas program for grades 5-8 is on Thursday evening. If your child is in band, they need to be here by 6:10 in our classroom to warm up together. If they aren't in band, they should be here by 6:15. The program starts at 6:30. If your child is in the chorus only or a card presenter (they know who they are) he/she should wear church appropriate clothes. If your child is a Rhymer, he/she should wear black pants and long sleeved black shirt- shoes are your choice.

Our party is on Friday. I plan to bring small sandwiches and maybe some soup. If you want to send your child's favorite snack, that would be great. We'll put it out and have a snack buffet. If your child wants to bring a favorite drink, that would be fine too. In case of bad weather and school is closed, we will have our party on Friday afternoon the first week back from vacation. School is dismissed at 11:00 and no lunch will be served.

Students took a history test, math test, and spelling test this morning. We are finishing up a chapter in science as well and will have a test next week. We have a nice display in the hallway of pyramids the students made that have information about ancient Egypt on them. They have also created some Egyptian artwork, and made a poster about a topic on ancient Egypt. The test went very well this morning and they should have it in their take-home folders.

We started doing sentence dictation on our spelling test this week. I started with just one sentence. This will count as a separate grade from their test. A great way to practice spelling words with your child at home is to take the list they bring home with you on errands. Ask them to spell a word while you wait at a traffic light, wait in line, etc. Ask them to use the word in a sentence to check their understanding of its meaning.

We've began studying Jesus' parables in religion class. This next week we will read the accunt of Jesus' birth.

Students have been working on capitalization this week. Next week we will be working on punctuation review.

I hope your family has a blessed Christmas. Remember that it isn't the gifts they get that your child will remember all their lives, it is the time you spend with them creating memories that will last a lifetime. I hope you can attend a worship service with your child as well.

God's blessings and best wishes for a Merry Christmas and wonderful new year in Christ,

Rhonda Tull