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Kindergarten students learn about rhymes
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Little Bo Peep found her sheep and took it to school with her last Friday.
Boyd Christian School kindergarten teacher Amanda Burks has been teaching her students about rhyming and fictional characters the first nine weeks of school.
Burks asked her students to memorize their favorite nursery rhyme for school and to dress as the nursery rhyme character portrayed in the poems. The students then recited the rhyme in front of the class, their teacher and principal. Burks titled the event, Mother Goose is on the Loose.
Student Cydney Jane Perry said she dressed up as Little Bo Peep because she wanted to be able to take her sheep and a came to school with her.
“I have the students do some type of oral presentation every nine weeks,” said Burks. “Nursery rhyme day was wonderful. No one needed any help this year. And, everyone was in costume. They all did a great job.”
Principal Tabetha Sullens said, “I had the honor of being asked to watch them recite and I was amazed at their level of confidence in kindergarten. They were not nervous at all. I was thrilled to be asked to be a part of this fun day. There is truly a future drama star among them.”
 In addition to Little Bo Peep, characters present included the Itsy Bitsy Spider from the poem of the same name, Jack from “Jack and Jill,” the cow who jumped over the moon from “Hey Diddle Diddle,” and a frog from “Five Little Speckled Frogs.”

Local farm partnership brings fresh beef to Warren County Schools
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Warren County Schools has beefed up lunch menus this school year through a new community partnership. Thanks to a collaboration between the district’s School Nutrition Department and Barton Creek Farms, students at Warren County High School, Warren County Middle School, West Elementary, Eastside Elementary, and Dibrell Elementary are enjoying locally sourced, farm-fresh beef in their lunches as part of a pilot program.

The initiative, spearheaded by Terri Mullican, Director of School Nutrition, has already shown great promise in its first few months. The partnership with Barton Creek Farms, located in Rock Island, Tennessee, ensures that the beef served is not only local to Warren County but of the highest quality. Barton Creek Farms specializes in farm-to-fork beef, with grass-fed and grain-finished cattle. Each calf is born and raised in Rock Island and goes through USDA-inspected processing, ensuring it meets the strictest safety and quality standards.

“When the opportunity arose to provide fresh, local beef, we knew it was a no-brainer,” Mullican said. “The fact that it’s a product from right here in our community makes it even more special. We can’t wait to implement it district-wide.”

Barton Creek Farms delivers fresh ground beef to the district monthly, and the nutrition

department incorporates it into homemade recipes such as lasagna, meatloaf, chili, and tacos.

As of now, the beef is being served at five schools, but the ultimate goal is to expand the program to all ten lunch-serving schools in the district.

The pilot program originated from a conversation between Mary Roller of Barton Creek Farms and Mullican. Roller, recognizing the farm’s potential to support local schools, reached out to gauge the district’s interest in serving local beef to students. Around the same time, a Warren County school board member contacted Mullican to share information about a similar partnership in neighboring Dekalb County, which helped push the initiative forward.

The timing worked in the district’s favor, as the nutrition department was able to fund the purchase of the beef using existing resources, eliminating the need for additional funding. Now that the pilot program is enjoying a successful run, the department has budgeted to extend the partnership district-wide for the 2025-26 school year.

Dr. Grant Swallows, Director of Schools, praised the program’s economic approach to student nutrition.

“This pilot is a perfect example of how we can use local resources to continue providing nutritious, healthy meals for our students,” he said. “We are grateful for partnerships like this one that benefit both our students and our local community. We always strive to support our local businesses when we can because our community is so good to us.”

In addition to working with Warren County Schools, Barton Creek Farms also partners with local restaurants to offer farm-fresh beef on their menus. The farm’s offerings include ground beef, steaks, roasts, and custom cuts by the quarter, half, or whole cow, meeting diverse consumer needs.

As the program continues to grow, the district hopes to expand its focus on farm-to-school meals, benefiting students’ health and connecting them to the agricultural roots of the community