On many sunny spring afternoons this multi-grade group of boys from the College Park neighborhood can be found playing baseball on the school field. These students from Greendale High School, Greendale Middle School, College Park School and St. Alphonsus in Greendale have fun hanging out together and taking part in a healthy, outdoor sport.

Fifth Grade students at College Park recently completed a science unit on Ecosystems. The students built terrariums and aquariums and learned about how an ecosystem is self sustaining. Students also had the opportunity to observe crickets, isopods, fish and snails in their habitat.

Greendale students Max, Grant, and Ana have been training on the high school track for this season’s Special Olympics track meets. The students are preparing for running and field events, including the 100-meter, 200-meter, 400-meter races, standing long jump, and softball throw. Max and Ana participated in the Special Olympics Regional Track Meet last weekend with excellent results! Max earned first place in standing long jump, first in 100-meter dash, and seventh place in the 200-meter dash. Ana placed second in the standing long jump, second in the 50-meter dash, and third for her softball throw. Congratulations and best wishes to these special athletes!

College Park held its first Try-It Club on Wednesday, April 24. Mr. Zei and members of the Hurling Club taught over 30 students the basics of the sport. It was a great afternoon to spend time outside and take part in a new and healthy activity.

On Thursday, April 18, College Park held its 2nd Annual Museum Night. The exhibits were based on our theme of "Building a Strong Community - Celebrating 75 Years in Greendale." After a brief opening and ribbon cutting, families were free to view exhibits throughout the school. We closed with a brief history of Greendale and an invitation to families to attend the Village's 75th Anniversary Events!

Students at College Park have begun working with "Kayla's Krew" to raise money for a playground accessible to children of all abilities. The group formed in memory of "Kayla" who was born with cerebral palsy and passed away last year. Her family worked to include Kayla in all activities available to children and they are honoring her life by building a playground in her memory. The playground, to be built in Franklin, will be accessible to all children. The College Park Krew sold butterfly clips at Museum night and donated its popcorn sale money to the group. All together, over $728 was raised for the playground fund. Students will be selling the clips, and taking donations, again at the Spring Concert and the district Nourish Event.

College Park 2nd graders are enjoying a variety of projects in art class this year! The students have created items using techniques like sewing, molding clay, and printmaking. Many of these materials and methods were new to 2nd graders and they had great fun exploring the possibilities. Recently, they discussed how artists make a printing plate and use it over and over to create a variety of prints. They were thrilled with the interactive and messy qualities of this lesson.

The past few weeks, the second graders at College Park have been preparing for their Museum Night, which is coming up on April 18. They have been studying the history behind our Village in conjunction with the 75th Anniversary. As they researched, they learned from special guest speakers including Village President John Hermes, Cathy and Jim Davenport from the Shoppe Around The Corner, and Betty Ferchoff from Frech’s. These amazing guest speakers shared their excitement and passion for Greendale. The students were amazed at the facts they shared. Stop by and ask any College Park second grader and you will be impressed.

Buenas noticias! Second trimester came to an exciting close as 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students at College Park worked with partners to prepare and present skits about food! Students asked and answered the question "Qúe vas a comer?" (What are you going to eat?) and got creative making props or puppets. Many pairs added extra Spanish to their scripts or made their classmates laugh with goofy acting skills. Creating skits is a challenging task, and it was excellent to see students using lots of Spanish!

Greendale Schools teachers, Colleen Korpal, from College Park, and Dan Rogaczewski, from Greendale High School, were recognized by the Herb Kohl Foundation for innovation in the classroom at a luncheon at Greenfield High School on March 23. Greendale High School Senior Katharine Loomis received a Kohl Excellence Scholarship. The Kohl Teacher Fellowship program recognizes and supports teaching excellence and innovation in the State of Wisconsin.Annually, the Foundation awards 100 Wisconsin teachers this honor.Kohl Excellence Scholarship program recognizes student leadership, citizenship, school and community involvement, and academic achievement.

In the evening of Friday, March 8, College Park hosted its annual Dinner and Raffle. The school’s gym was packed with families having a great time sharing a pizza dinner and tossing their raffle tickets in any of the numerous raffle prize buckets. Lots of lucky winners took home wonderful prizes at the end of the night. There was face painting and stations where the kids could make a fun chef’s hat or decorate a fancy mask. Many volunteers’ hard work paid off in this successful family event.

College Park students and staff celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday and shared a message of acceptance for others with a Readers’ Theater. This year's chosen book was, “The Sneetches” for its positive message of accepting and respecting differences. College Park staff narrated the story while the Student Council Attitude Committee acted out the scenes. Following the presentation, students shared their understanding of the message, beginning with Aliyah's quote, "We should accept everyone for who they are." The students challenged their peers to make respectful choices during the next three weeks. If they "fill their bucket" with stars to acknowledge witnessed acts of respect, the students will win a reward day.

With their Hearts for Heros effort, members of the College Park Student Council Empathy Committee decided to work toward purchasing two Long-Distance Bedtime Story Packs for military families. Around Valentine’s Day, they decorated paper hearts and sold them for $1 each. By raising $160, they were able to donate three bedtime story kits. A group of Wisconsin servicemen and women will be deployed in April, and because of this effort, three parents in the group will have the opportunity to choose a book and record themselves reading. The books will be given to their children as they are leaving. The College Park community is happy to help children in military families feel connected to their parents while they’re away and to help the parents stay involved in fostering a love of reading in their children.

On Friday, February 7, College Park held its Hawaiian Dance. A big crowd of parents and students joined in the fun. This is their first dance in several years and was a big success. A DJ played musical requests while students sported their most colorful Hawaiian-inspired fashions. When they wanted to take a break from dancing, they could work on a variety of crafts in the multi-purpose room.

For the last four months, 56 College Park students have been busy reading from a list of 20 award winning books chosen by a state-wide committee. Each team had the opportunity to earn points based on questions answered in a “game show” setting and total points earned in two battles determined the grade level winners. On Tuesday afternoon, the two grade level winners faced off at an assembly that determined the 5th grade team, Noodle Doodles Rock, will represent College Park for the online State Battle of the Books Competition the last week of February. Congratulation to all participants and thank you to College Park PTO for the trophies and providing all participating students with gift certificates to the Spring Scholastic Book Fair.

On Tuesday, February 12, College Park celebrated a special day in honor of teacher Colleen Korpal being named Greendale's Educator of the Year. Staff members and students wore yellow, Colleen’s favorite color.

Kindergartners at College Park learn through play every day! Their math games are a motivating way to practice the important skills and concepts in the curriculum. They are also learning to be good sports, cooperate, and problem solve...all while having a lot of fun!

The 4th graders at College Park recently had their Junior Achievement BizTown simulation field trip where they put together everything they learned in the classroom. They went to "BizTown" where they ran the town for the day. Many of the students dressed as if they were going to work. They worked in a business, took out a loan and worked hard to pay back their loan. They received two paychecks that they deposited into the bank. They then used the money they earned to be good consumers and support other businesses. There was a town mayor, law enforcement agent, CEO's, CFO's, disc jockey, bank tellers, and many more exciting jobs! The students did an excellent job being adults for the day. They impressed their teachers with their hard work and received compliments from the JA BizTown staff.