Students create living wax museum for Black History Month

Several students at Military and Global Leadership Academy in Charlotte made their gym and hallways a "living wax museum" Wednesday in celebration of Black History Month.

They dressed as famous figures -- including Muhammad Ali, Harriet Tubman and Bill Cosby -- and recited facts as they mingled with other students.

The kids, grades K-12, spent the month preparing for the event by reading biographies, doing research and other projects and also delivering a one-minute speech during wax museum event.

Photos courtesy of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools

Cannon School senior to host "An Evening with the Beatles" fundraiser

Rachel Dyl, a senior at Cannon School, is hosting "An Evening with the Beatles" from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday at River Run Country Club to raise money for the nonprofit MusicMinds.

The event is part of her senior project. MusicalMinds is an after-school program at Blythe Elementary that teaches classical music, and the group wants to expand to other schools.

Music has been an important part of Rachel's life, she wrote online, and she wants other kids to have that experience too. She began playing piano at 6 and violin at 8.

"My goal is to give children in our area the opportunity to have music permeate their lives and provide structure, focus, but most importantly, freedom of expression," she wrote.

The event will feature performances by local musicians, refreshments and a live auction. Visit this link for more information.

Science & Superheroes Contest seeking student entries

Photo courtesy of Discovery Place

For the N.C. Science Festival, Discovery Place and Spandex City Comics are hosting the Science & Superheroes Contest for Charlotte-area students grades K-8.

To enter, students need to submit a drawing and written description of their own superhero who has STEM-related (science, technology, engineering and math) powers to solve real-world problems. Submissions are due March 8, and all participants will receive a free comic book.

There will be a category for grades K-2, 3-5 and 6-8. Winners will be invited to a ceremony at Discovery Place on April 6, where their work will be displayed.

For more information, visit Discovery Place's website here.

Three Mooresboro fifth-graders honored for DAR writing contest

A local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution awarded three Mooresboro fifth-graders for their submissions to the Junior American Citizens Writing contest. The students attend Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy.

Falon Smith, pictured in the center, won first prize in the short story category, Tate Smith, left, won second, and Zeke Hamrick, right, won honorable mention for poetry.

Photo courtesy of Joe Maimone

Two area schools to advance to regional theater conference

Students from Central Academy for Technology and Arts and Northwest School of the Arts are preparing to advance to the Southeastern Theatre Conference in Mobile, Ala., the first week of March.

Ten states in the region are sending their top two high school productions to compete. Based on their performances at the North Carolina Theatre Conference this fall, judges chose CATA and Northwest for the upcoming annual convention.

Schools will be given 45-minute slots to perform. At 7:30 p.m. March 6, Northwest will perform "The Rimers of Eldritch," which is about a murder in a small Missouri town. CATA will go at 7:30 p.m. March 7 with "The Parchman Hour," which is about the Freedom Riders of 1961.

Northwest will hold a final performance of "The Rimers of Eldritch" Saturday, February 22 at 7 p.m. as a fundraiser for the trip to Mobile. There will be a silent auction and bake sale starting at 6:30 p.m., and the school is also raising money to attend the competition through power2give.org. Tickets for Saturday's show can be purchased online here.

Kohl's looks for student scholarship nominations

Young volunteers between the ages of 6 and 18 can now be nominated for scholarships available through the Kohl's Cares Scholarship Program.

The department store chain will award almost $400,000 in scholarships and prizes to more than 2,300 young  people who have positively impacted their communities, according to a news release.

To be entered, students have to ask someone 21 or older nominate them online at www.kohlskids.com by March 14.

Two nominees from each of Kohl's stores nationwide (that's more than 1,100 stores) will win a $50 gift card, and almost 200 students will win regional $1,000 scholarships toward higher education. Ten national winners will receive $10,000 for college, and the company will donate $1,000 to a nonprofit of each winner's choice.

Local spellers prepare for regional bee

Top-area spellers are preparing for The Charlotte Observer's 60th Annual Regional Spelling Bee, set for Feb. 24.

Out of Cabarrus County come two contenders: Joy Jackson, a seventh-grader from Harris Road Middle, will represent the county's public schools, and Cannon School eighth-grader Osahon Tokunboh for the county's independent schools.

The match in Fort Mill came down to the Pollack twins, Charlotte and Madeleine, who are seventh-graders at Springfield Middle, according to the Fort Mill Times. 

Know what this is? Or how to spell it?

The competition will be steep: Charlotte beat out Madeleine with "poltergeist." Joy won with the word "insidious;" Osahon with "pangolin" (which, by the way, is an animal that looks like the one you see to the right).


The winner of the regional spelling bee will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., which takes place in May.

Elon Park Elementary students celebrate 100th day of school Friday

In anticipation of the hundredth day of school Friday, Elon Park Elementary students have been getting creative with the number 100.

Some classes chose to collect hundreds of items for charities while others aimed to read 100 pages or recycle 100 water bottles. Some fifth-graders made a list of the 100 reasons why they'll be sad to leave the school this summer.

Here's a quick look at a few of their projects:

Photos courtesy of Brian Hacker

Field to Fork program announces 15 schools to grow veggies

Students from 15 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will be growing vegetables in the classroom this spring.

Third-graders from Huntingtowne Farms Elementary make
pizzas at a Fuel Pizza location with their own ingredients in Dec. 2012. 

Through the "Field to Fork" program (partners: Fuel Pizza Cafe, Mecklenburg Co. Health Department, Mecklenburg Co. Fruit & Vegetable Coalition, CMS and LandSculptors, LLC), kids will learn about nutrition and grow garden vegetables at their school. 

They'll pick their produce after several weeks and take it to a Fuel Pizza location, where their ingredients will be chopped up. Then the students will make (and eat!) vegetable-laden pizzas of their own creation.

The elementary schools participating this spring:

Albemarle Road 

Bain

Berryhill

Blythe

Collinswood Language Academy

Idlewild

J.V. Washam

Lake Wylie

Lebanon

Newell

Selwyn

Statesville Road

Whitewater Academy

Windsor Park

Winget Park