The Missouri Owney Project

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.