Owney Visits Northwestern R-1 School at Mendon, MO

The students of Northwestern R-1 School thoroughly enjoyed Owney’s visit to our school during the week of January 3-7.  Northwestern is a small rural school comprised of 180 students in grades PreK-12 and is located in Mendon, Missouri.  The school district is made up of several different communities, each with their own special attractions.  We were unable to take Owney on a tour of our area, but we would love for fellow Missourians to visit our special sites of interest. 

Area attractions include “Maxie,” The World’s Largest Goose, in Sumner, Missouri.  The Swan Lake National Wildlife Refuge is nearby and was established to provide nesting, resting and feeding areas for waterfowl.  The refuge is considered a primary watering area for Canadian geese.

We also boast the “World’s Largest Pecan” in nearby Brunswick, Missouri, where visitors can buy the best pecans from the many area pecan farms.  Brunswick is located along the banks of the Grand River in Chariton County.  In 2005, The Lewis and Clark Discovery Expedition traveled the Grand River to reenact the explorers’ original route.  Visitors can stop at a marker along the Grand River banks and try to visualize how the area looked in the early 1800s.

In nearby Rothville, visitors can drive down

Laura Ingalls Wilder Road

to a marker for one of the homestead places of the famous author.  Laura lived in our area for a very short time when she was a young girl.  She does not mention Rothville, Missouri in her series Little House on the Prairie, but we are very proud to be a part of her history. 

To our north fifteen miles, visitors can tour the boyhood home of General John J. Pershing.  General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, one of America’s highest ranked military officers, spent most of his childhood years in the small town of Laclede, Missouri before becoming Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I.  If you are ever in the area, please visit our school or the local area attractions.

Owney had a great time visiting the elementary students and he even ate lunch with us!  Please watch the video and see where Owney has been in our school. 

Wow, what a time for Owney to visit us at Sullivan Elementary. Just as Owney arrived at our school we had a snow day and then we were told our library would be remodeled over Christmas Break. Owney spent time with us packing up books and the box he was packed in to go to the next school accidently got moved with some other boxes. Was it a race to find him and get him on his way!

Here at Sullivan Elementary Owney spent time with 4 different grade levels. The 5th graders were studying the Solar System so Owny spent time watching them work on their projects as well as checking out the completed projects. There were some interesting 3D solar systems out there. One class did lots of measuring the playground to make a solar system out there and then the snow came so they made a mini solar system in their classroom. In 4th grade classroom they were studying Missouri History but one classroom had something extra going on. Mrs. Jo, the librarian lives on a farm and her ducks and turkeys had laid some eggs that she brought in so Mrs. Smith's class could study the life cycle. One of the turkey eggs hatched and it was huge so they named it Petri. Petri went back to the farm for Christmas. We hear he is really growing! Third grade was working hard on multiplicatio tables so Owney got in on the practice one day. And in second grade they were preparing for the big school-wide spelling bee so he practiced spelling some really new and big words.

Sullivan Elementary is near Meramec Caverns, you know, Jessie James' Hideout! He headed down there because he heard about a river boat trip down the Meramec but the weather had caused the boats to remain at the dock. He did see lots of stalactites, stalamites and other cave formations. It was a great tour. He even checked out the Jessie James Museum. Then he headed for Fisher Cave and Ononadoga Cave to see other cool things that are in caves and visit with some conservation agents that take care of the animals that live in caves. He began to wonder if all of Missouri is covered with caves. He learned at Onondoga to be very quiet because the bats were hibernating. It was interesting because Owney didn't get too hot or too cold when he was inside the caves.

We here at Sullivan Elementary hope you will make a trip to visit us and see some of the wonderful things we have to do in this area.