News and Events

Congrats to all the students from Scandia and Chisago who submitted stories to the Internet Story Contest sponsored by the City of Scandia and Midco. A few of the best stories were chosen to be featured at the story path at Lilleskogen Park in Scandia. People were able to walk along the story path, read the stories and vote on their favorites.

Midco was proud to award the eight finalists with $50 and the top vote getter received $250 for their classroom. Read all their amazing work and see their incredible drawings below.

Football Brings Kids Together
By Chase, Grade 5

Almost everybody knows I love football. I play football at recess with my friends almost every day, even in the winter. My football card collection is up to more than 400 and I just started it last year in 4th grade. But one of the best things about football is watching the amazing plays that the pros do in the NFL.

I use the internet to watch clips of many of the players, even when they were in college. I also watch clips of college players who are going to go pro someday. The clips are short videos that show cool plays and EPIC catches. My friends and I will talk about the best plays that happen during the regular NFL season and we talk about the highlights from the games. We mostly talk about the Vikings plays and I watch Vikings clips on YouTube.

Sometimes when we play 500 at recess, which is another football game, we accidentally recreate the plays me and my friends saw on TV or on the internet.

We tell each other that what just happened looked like one of the clips. It's pretty cool when that happens.

So I think the internet can bring kids together when they have a thing in common like football. I am going to use the internet this year to run a fantasy football league too. When I am older, I am sure I will use the internet to scout and track players for fantasy leagues and just for fun, too. Plus I want to be a GM or a scout for the NFL when I am older and I am sure I will need the internet for that.

The internet is good for a lot of things but it is pretty good that it brings me and my friends together.

 

A Little Person with Big Dreams
By Adelia, Grade 6

Mike is a regular eight-year-old boy, aside from the fact that he is extremely smart, which means he understands the good and the bad in the world. Mike dreams that one day the world won't be scary, but an enjoyable place where people are equal. He only dreams of people bringing good back into the world, unlike most children his age, who usually just dream of having more toys or being cool. Mike also has the dream of solving, or at least putting a big dent in world hunger and homelessness. His parents always told Mike that that's just the way the world is and if good people can only feed some children for a little while, he surely couldn't do it. Mike wanted to prove his parents wrong, so he started thinking of ways to help the needy and came up with the idea to use the internet.

Mike decided to use the internet to set up a website as a reminder and as a place for some donations, because if Mike wanted to feed people, he needed some money first. After a long two weeks, Mike had finally made enough money to feed some people and after he did so, he posted a recording of his deed so others would hopefully make the video go viral and help out around the world.

People apparently did get the message and many more helped out with this good cause! Mike was so delighted that he made an impact on the world using only the items at his fingertips and decided, at eight years old, when he grows up, he wants to continue to do good in the world, from helping the hungry and homeless to giving out money to strangers, Mike knows that he will do good with his time on earth.

Mike only wanted to do this because of the internet and seeing how happy those people were when someone noticed their suffering and need and helped them. He later grew up to do great things including going to places where people need love the most. Throughout his life span, Mike did everything in his power to spread goodness and tell everyone why the world needs help and love from other people. This extraordinary person could not have done all this without the help of the internet.

Drawn by Adelia.

 

Kady’s Big Idea
By Pearl, Grade 5

One beautiful summer day a girl named Kady was swimming with her family at their lake house. Kady was swimming and felt a plant of some sort brush against her leg. Kady was scared and she wanted to do something about the weeds in her lake. She talked to her mom and her mom told Kady that those weeds that she had come upon were invasive plants. Kady researched more about those invasive plants in her lake and found out that the two names of those plants were Eurasian watermilfoil and curly-leaf pondweed.

Kady researched more about those plants and what could get rid of them. Kady figured out that 2-4-D fluridone killed the Eurasian watermilfoil and that Hydrothol 191 Granular could kill curly-leaf pondweed. Later that week Kady went to the store and none of those chemicals were in stock, so when they got home from the store Kady went to look online and they were in stock so Kady got them shipped to her house by the end of the week.

The day Kady got them chemicals she wanted to get started cleaning up the lake right away but it was 9:30 and it was time for Kady to go to bed. The next morning Kady eagerly waited for her mom to wake up so Kady could start cleaning. Once Kady's mom woke up katy rushed to the cabinet in their storage room and grabbed the 2-4-D fluridone and the Hydrothol 191 Granular and headed to the lake. Finally Kady measured and poured both liquids in the lake.

Kady could not wait until there were no more invasive weeds in the lake so she searched up how long it takes for both chemicals to work. Kady calculated around 3 weeks and in exactly that time, her parents were so proud and the lake was so much cleaner.

Drawn by Pearl.

 

The Story of The Little Owl
By Marshall, Grade 5

There once was an owl named Carl. Carl was a fierce little owl in his first stages of life waiting for his mom to feed him and was learning how to fly. Carl had many brothers and sisters who all at once were hungry and desperately waiting for Mom.

One day a group of kids thought it would be funny to throw rocks at the nest, by choosing this terrible idea the nest was knocked down and the Owl and his brothers and sisters fell out of their nest leaving only the little owl who got blown out by the friction of the fall of the nest.

It was late Autumn when it happened so the days and nights were getting colder, and the food was getting more difficult to catch. The little owl landed on a hill, and he was confused and hungry. The next couple of days he learned that he was on his own, and when it rained, he ate bugs and small mammals and would hide in the daytime. He was so sad and didn't know where to go or what to do and only hoped he would see his family.

People would pass and would comment on the large nest that was down and could see many rocks and realized it was vandalized and they had posted this on social media and the neighborhood became very concerned and were hoping to get answers.

And then it turned Winter, and the little owl was growing larger, and he finally found a good tree and learned how to hunt even larger prey.

It was almost Spring, and the little owl was now an adult, and it was mating season and the little owl was now looking for a female in which he found one special lady name Birdie. The months passed and they were so excited to venture through the forest and sooner or later there was chirping in the trees and they had created their own little family. Carl lived a hard life but he survived.

Today, after many videos being posted all around the town by the local community trying to locate the kids who had damaged the owl nest, they were finally caught. The owls will now always be safe and protected.

The END

Drawn by Marshall.

 

Not Sure What We Would Have Done Without the Internet
By Sophia, Grade 6

Imagine you are living your normal life of going to school. hanging out with your friends, and being able to go places and do things when all of a sudden that changes. That's what happened to many of us when the pandemic hit. We were no longer allowed to go to school in person but rather had to do distance learning. Thank goodness we had the internet to help us still learn.

Through the internet we were able to still go to school but it looked a lot different. Instead of in the classroom I was at grandma's house (who isn't the best at working the computer), but I was still able to meet with my teacher over Zoom and learn math and reading.

One day stands out as it was a bit of a mess. It was the first day of distance learning and grandma was a bit frazzled with my brother, my sister and I all having to get on to do Zoom meetings for school. I had to help grandma get my sister logged in to her class because grandma had a hard time figuring out all our distance learning.

Later on in the day the real disaster happened when the router for the internet fell off the desk and broke where my brother was working.

Grandma was really freaking out because we needed to still go to school but couldn't without the internet. Grandma was able to call the internet company and told them that we needed the internet now for school, so they sent out a new router the next day so we could continue with distance learning.

I think grandma is still traumatized from distance learning but we made it through it and were still able to learn because we had the internet. The internet helps us do research, learn, keep in touch with friends and family, video chat, pay bills, watch movies, play games, check the weather, get directions, have doctor appointments, and I was still able to go to therapy through telehealth.

The internet helped a lot of us not feel so alone when we had to be in quarantine. Even today my family and I use the internet every day.

Drawn by Sophia.