This year Spring Lake Faculty recognized Cindy Wilkinson as the Classified Employee of the year. Craig Harvey with Horace Mann Insurance came to make the award. Her colleagues said of her that: she is completely awesome, she is creative, she goes above and beyond, she is always willing to help, she cares about every single child, she has an awesome attitude, she is a good mom, positive, smart, really good at what she does, and goes the extra mile, and even works from home.

Watch out, our sixth-grade Spring Lake Headhunters created shrunken heads, from fall apples.

Students started with an apple, peeled it, and then carved a face into it. After the apple was dried they discovered that their heads had morphed into totally different faces.

Students decided what their face could be and began creating the finished product. Great job head Hunters!

On Monday November 25th Mr. Todd Lambourne, the manager of Zion’s Bank in Payson, came to talk with third-grade students. He presented each third-grade student with their own dictionary as part of a partnership with the Spanish Fork Rotary Club. He played some games with students to see who could find some word first in the dictionary. Third-grade will have a spelling bee later on in the year. Thank you Zions Bank and Spanish Fork Rotary Club for providing these each year.  

On Friday November 22nd Third-grade had their annual Thanksgiving feast. Students made glyphs about Thanksgiving that they used as placemats and then sat down to the feast as either a Pilgrim or an Indian. Pumpkin pie was served after lunch. Later that afternoon they had a turkey bowl where they used a frozen cornish game hen as a bowling ball and tried to knock down 2-liter bottle bowling pins. Thanks to all the parents who helped cut out hats, decorate, and donate items for the feast.

The students at Spring Lake Elementary collected $365.53 worth of pennies during Red Ribbon Week for what they called Pennies for Prevention. The money was given to Steps Recovery Center which is dedicated to helping people recover from and overcome substance addictions. Congratulations to the 6th graders who brought in the most pennies weighing in at 39.2 lbs!

6th grade students and teachers, Spencer Sainsbury (Principal), and Christian Smith and Wendy Jensen of Steps Recovery Center.

The 6th graders at Spring Lake Elementary had a rare treat. Dr. Orullian who has worked in the past as a NASA Ambassador came and taught our 6th grade students. He had all the students attention as he talked about the universe, distance in space and  planets.  The students were especially interested in discussing black holes and what happens to stars that die.

Third-grade students brought in some orange looking friends. This term’s activity was to decorate a pumpkin that looks like a character in a book they were reading at home. We had a great response from students. You could really tell which book  the students were reading because of the great way their pumpkins were decorated. Students had fun sharing book summaries, and describing their character. Well done third-grade students.

Spring Lake Elementary teachers have been working with Mrs. Lisa Bean a district art specialist to integrate drama in with their core. Here students are involved in a decision alley where they are trying to convince the person walking down the middle to side with them. The task was to decide if they should build the settlement near the river or not. Some said it could flood, others argued they did not want to carry the water a long distance to camp.

Kindergarten:  Leah Bryce, Corbin Richins, Rylee Ross, Joshua Trevino, Jaxten Moss, Jill Baxter, Brielle Morena, Joseph Trevino, Emily Oldham, and Hogan Bates.

First-grade: Gunner Hall, Kaylie Durfee, Carter Lindsey, Natalie Gordon, Avery Orme, Layna Hatfield, Allie Rapier, Lincoln Jockumsen, Jaycelyn Keisel, Jared Buchanan, Carter Tingen, and Mary Williams.

Second-grade:  Trevor Bulow, Ethan Laypath, Summer DeSoto, Beckam Higley, Zach Jensen, Kate Slack, Mckinley Olsen, and Xane Harmon.

On October 31st we had a dead word funeral.  Miss Stephens told us to pick two words we think we use too much and write those two words on a certain piece of paper.  Miss Stephens encouraged us not to use those words in our language or writing.  We lined up chairs and had tissues.  We expressed our experiences with the class(audience).  Miss Stephens sent us one by one to say goodbye to our words and set them in their grave.