Park River Area School District #8

🎉 PONY PRIDE ALERT! 🎉 Park River Area Elementary School has officially surpassed our 20,000 Pony Pride Proud Moments goal, reaching an incredible 20,671 moments of positivity! 🏆💙🤍 This milestone reflects our commitment to Positive Behavior Supports—a system that helps create a welcoming and successful learning environment for all students. By: ✅ Establishing clear expectations 📖 ✅ Actively teaching appropriate behaviors 🎓 ✅ Consistently reinforcing positive actions 🌟 ✅ Fostering a positive school climate 🤝 …we’re preventing problems before they start and celebrating student success every step of the way! 💪🎉 Thank you to our students, staff, and families for embracing Pony Pride every day. Let’s keep the momentum going! 🐴

🎶 Meet the Music Department Staff at Park River Area School! 🎶 At Park River Area School, we believe that music is a powerful tool for learning, creativity, and connection. Our dedicated music educators, Mrs. Kristi Seim and Mr. Zach Fischer, bring passion and expertise to our students every day! 🎵 Mrs. Kristi Seim – Elementary Music 🎵 Mrs. Seim introduces our youngest learners to the joy of music! Through engaging lessons in rhythm, pitch, and melody, she helps students develop essential listening skills and an appreciation for music’s role in history and culture. Her classroom is full of movement, creativity, and fun as students build a foundation for lifelong musical enjoyment. 🎼 Mr. Zach Fischer – 5-12 Band & 6-12 Choir 🎼 Mr. Fischer guides our middle and high school students as they deepen their musical knowledge and skills. From exploring various genres, cultures, and time periods to learning about composers, instruments, and musical elements like rhythm, melody, and harmony, his students gain a well-rounded understanding of music’s impact. Whether in concert band, jazz band, pep band, or choir, students are challenged to grow as musicians and performers. 📚 The Power of Music in Education 📚 Research shows that music enhances academic achievement by strengthening memory, boosting problem-solving skills, and fostering creativity. Students involved in music often perform better in subjects like math and reading, develop strong teamwork skills, and gain confidence through performance opportunities. We are incredibly grateful for the dedication and passion Mrs. Seim and Mr. Fischer bring to Park River Area School! 🎶👏 #PRAspiration #MusicMatters #MeetTheStaff #ThankYouTeachers Upcoming Concerts Almost Spring Concerts March 17th 6th - 8th Grade March 18th High School Spring Concerts May 1st Elementary May 8th High School May 12th. 6th-8th Grade

📚🔥 Battle of the Books - Regional Competition! 🔥📚 Get ready for an epic showdown as young readers put their book smarts to the test! 📖✨ Join us on Thursday, Feb. 20th at 9:30 AM in the Park River Area Elementary gym for the Regional Battle of the Books competition! 🏆 Competing Schools: 📚 Cavalier Public 📚 Valley-Edinburg Public 📚 Grafton Public 📚 Cavalier Homeschool 📚 Park River Area - Chapter Smackers & The Final Chapter 📍 Enter through Door 12 and cheer on these incredible teams as they battle it out for book supremacy! Who will turn the page to victory? 📖🏅

We are now accepting registrations for preschool for the 2025-2026 school year. To be eligible, children must turn 3 or 4 years old by July 31, 2025. Click on the QR Code for more information and sign up links.

🏆Tomorrow night the Aggies and Cardinals match up in the North Dakota Class B, District 3 Championship Game. Estimated time of tip-off is 7:00 PM. The game is set to be livestreamed on the NFHS Network with play-by-play call from Jake Kulland of KNDK Radio. 📺 https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/schools/rolla-high-school-rolla-nd 💛The color theme for the night is GOLD. ❓What's at stake? Tournament seeding at next week's Region 2 Basketball Tournament in Devils Lake is up for grabs. - The winner of tonight's game will earn the #1 seed from District 3 and play the #4 seed from District 4 @ 6:00 PM on Monday, February 24th. - The runner-up of tonight's game will get the #2 seed from District 3 and play the #3 seed from District 4 @ 4:30 PM on Monday, February 24th. GO AGGIES!

The Spoilers knocked down the door to the East Region Tournament by beating Fargo South-Shanley 5-3 in the tournament play-in game today. The Spoilers will now play the Grand Forks Central Knights in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, February 18th @ 7:00PM.

After a hard fought quarterfinal win over North Star on Friday night, the Aggies find themselves in tonight's second semifinal game vs Midway-Minto. Both teams will be looking to earn their way to the District 3 championship game on Monday night, as well as punch their ticket to the upcoming Region 2 Basketball Tournament. 🏀Tip-off is estimated to begin at approximately 5:30 PM. 📺Livestream and play-by-play is available on the NFHS Network. https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/schools/rolla-high-school-rolla-nd

Good luck to our GPR Spoilers boys hockey team this weekend. They travel to Fargo on Saturday, February 15th for a regional tournament play-in game with the Fargo South Bruins. Puck drop is scheduled for 1:00PM at the Farmers Union Insurance Rink at Scheels Arena.

The (2) Aggies will match up against the (7) North Star Bearcats in the quarterfinals of the District 3 Girls Basketball Tournament being played in Rolla. This game will begin at approximately 6:00 PM. Livestream coverage is available using the link below: https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/schools/rolla-high-school-rolla-nd GO AGGIES!

📢 Exciting Events Coming Up! 🎉 ❤️ Elementary Kindness Week (Feb. 24-28) ❤️ Let’s spread kindness with fun dress-up themes each day! ⚽ Monday: Team Up for Kindness (Wear your favorite team jersey) 🟢 Tuesday: We Don’t Hide from Kindness (Wear camouflage) 🏋️ Wednesday: Work Out Problems with Kindness (Wear workout clothes) 🌈 Thursday: Peace, Love, & Kindness (Wear tie-dye) 🎲 Friday: Kindness Bingo Day – Theme chosen by students!

📢 Exciting Events Coming Up! 🎉 🌟 High School CTE Week (Feb. 17-20) 🌟 Join us in celebrating Career & Technical Education Week with fun activities and dress-up days! 👕 Dress Up Days: 🇺🇸 Monday: America Monday 🌴 Tuesday: Tropical Tuesday 🔴🔵 Wednesday: FCCLA & FFA Colors 🎶 Thursday: Throwback Thursday 🔥 Participate in the CTE Games Rally, Trivia Contests, and Dress-Up Days to earn points for your grade! Don’t forget—you can wear a hat for just $1 per day or $4 for the whole week!

📚✨ Park River Area’s America’s Battle of the Books – A Celebration of Reading! 📖🏆 ✨📚 The pages have turned, the battles have been fought, and WOW—what an incredible showcase of literary knowledge and teamwork at this year’s America’s Battle of the Books in Park River Area! 🎉 This nationwide reading program challenges students to dive into an amazing list of books, testing their comprehension and teamwork in a thrilling quiz-style competition. Our young readers didn’t just rise to the occasion—they soared! 🚀 Grades 2-3: Small but Mighty Bookworms! These incredible students tackled a 15-book reading list and brought their A-game! 🏅 🥇 1st Place: The Invisible Readers 🥈 2nd Place: Space Readers 🎭 Team Spirit Award: Tickle Timson Club 🏅 Sportsmanship Award: Space Readers Grades 4-6: A Chapter Well Read! These dedicated readers took on a 20-book reading list—most of them over 150 pages! Talk about dedication! 📖💪 🥇 1st Place: The Chapter Smackers 🥈 2nd Place: The Final Chapter 🎭 Team Spirit Award: The Five Little Pigs 🏅 Sportsmanship Award: The Final Chapter 📢 Special Shoutout: Two students went above and beyond by reading EVERY SINGLE BOOK on the list! What a feat—Bravo!! 👏👏 📖 What’s Next? A huge congratulations to The Chapter Smackers and The Final Chapter, who will advance to the Regional Battle of the Books on Thursday, Feb. 21st at 9:30 AM right here at Park River Area School! Let’s cheer them on as they take their love of reading to the next level! 🎉🎊 We are beyond proud of every participant for their hard work, dedication, and passion for reading. Whether they won a trophy or simply discovered a new favorite book, every student came out a champion in the world of literature! 🏆📚 #BattleOfTheBooks #ReadingChampions #ParkRiverReaders #BooksAreMagic

📚✨ Meet the Park River Area Elementary Kindergarten Team! ✨📚 At Park River Area Elementary, our Kindergarten team is laying the foundation for lifelong learning! We are excited to introduce Mrs. Molly Flaten and Mrs. Larisa Solseng, two dedicated educators who are passionate about helping our youngest learners become skillful readers. 👩‍🏫 Mrs. Molly Flaten and 👩‍🏫 Mrs. Larisa Solseng work every day to develop strong foundational reading skills in their students. Using phonemic awareness, they help students recognize and manipulate sounds in words, setting the stage for early decoding. Through phonics instruction, they teach the critical connection between letters and sounds, ensuring that students build confidence in reading. Beyond that, they focus on fluency, helping students read smoothly with expression, and vocabulary development, introducing rich language through engaging stories and hands-on activities. With comprehension strategies, they guide students in understanding text by asking questions, retelling stories, and making connections. But what truly sets Mrs. Flaten and Mrs. Solseng apart is their patience, creativity, adaptability, and deep understanding of early childhood development. Their warm, welcoming classrooms foster curiosity, joy, and a love of reading from day one. Thank you, Mrs. Flaten and Mrs. Solseng, for making Kindergarten a place where every child grows, learns, and thrives! 🎉💜 #PRAEKindergarten #MeetTheStaff #BuildingReaders #PhonicsFun #KindergartenMagic

⚠️ UPDATE! JV tip-off is now scheduled for 5:00 PM and will only be 2 quarters in length. The varsity game will follow (estimate a 5:45 PM tip-off). 📺https://fan.hudl.com/usa/nd/warwick/organization/113027/warwick-high-school

Congratulations to our MathCounts Team! Seventy-one middle school students from area schools of Cavalier, Fordville-Lankin, Grafton, Minto, Park River Area and Valley-Edinburg competed in the Walsh-Pembina Counties MathCounts competition held Friday, February 7, 2025 at the Walsh County Courthouse. MathCounts is a national program designed to improve math skills among U.S. students. The program focuses on middle school students, who are at a crucial stage in developing and sustaining math interest and ability. The top three Mathletes with the highest scores from Walsh County Area were: 1st Place, Charley M of Fordville Lankin; 2nd Place, Logan R of Park River Area; and 3rd Place, Adley G of Park River Area. The top two teams with the highest scores from Walsh County were: 1st Place, Park River Area Team, consisting of Trey A, Chris S, Gabe S and Lauren S, coached by Mr. Jonathan Berg; and 2nd Place, Minto Team, consisting of Noah, Isaac, Bennett and KcKenna, coached by Ms. Olivia Norman. Following competition, the students were treated to a pizza party through a generous donation from Kadrmas, Lee & Jackson. The Walsh County MATHCOUNTS Chapter is sponsored by the Walsh-Pembina School Administrators. More information can be found at https://www.mathcounts.org.

Congratulations to Senior, Rhett Lindell, for being named to the ND Class B Academic All State Bronze Team! Way to go Rhett! The North Dakota Association of Secondary School Principals is excited to announce that the 2025 North Dakota Academic All-State Teams have been selected. Two hundred ten high school seniors were nominated by their school principal and competed for statewide honor in the Class AA, A, and B divisions. Student selection is based on grade-point averages, ACT or SAT scores, extracurricular activities, community involvement, and leadership qualities. The North Dakota Association of Secondary School Principals will award Gold, Silver, and Bronze Team members an honor medallion. The medallions will be presented to the students at a ceremony at their school. In addition, WDAY and Forum Communications will also air a digital presentation honoring all the medalists. The Class B presentation will air on Friday, March 7, between the two semifinal games in the afternoon. The Class A presentation will air on Friday, March 7, between the two semifinal games in the evening. The Class AA presentation will air on Friday, March 14, between the boy's semifinals. There will be no in person presentation of awards. All medals and certificates will be mailed to each school from the North Dakota Association of Secondary School Principals. This Program is co-sponsored by the North Dakota Association of Secondary School Principals and WDAY-TV in Fargo, WDAZ-TV in Grand Forks, KBMY-TV in Bismarck, KMCY-TV in Minot, and Forum Communications Companies.

Congratulations to Liam Miller for taking 2nd place at the Walsh County Spelling Bee!

📚🔥 Get ready for an epic showdown of literary knowledge! 🔥📚 Join us for Battle of the Books on Thursday, Feb. 13th at the Elementary Gym! 🏆✨ 🕘 Grade 2-3 Teams: 8:45 - 9:45 AM 🕙 Grade 4-6 Teams: 10:00 - 11:00 AM 📖 Parents are welcome! Please enter through Door 12. Let’s cheer on our young readers as they compete in this exciting book trivia challenge! Please note that not all grades 2-6 students elected to participate.

The Spoilers will wrap up the regular season at home vs the Grand Forks Central Knights. JV puck drop is scheduled for 4:45 PM with the varsity to follow. 📺 https://www.youtube.com/live/lnkZf0bkTos

The Aggies will battle the Langdon Area-Munich Cardinals in a crucial late season District 3 matchup. The JH doubleheader is scheduled for 4:00 PM with JV and varsity to follow. 📺https://www.youtube.com/@thestable1100