St. Lucas Chess/Robotics Update

Exciting opportunities await you at St. Lucas!  Chess and Robotics Updates below!

1-30-19

Robotics/Chess Calendar for Printing

Get excited about this awesome opportunity!  St. Lucas is hosting a robotics clinic for grades 2-8th!  An introduction to robotics, a tournament with trophies and prizes, and all things FUN will be at this clinic.  Information below...

Tournament/Clinic HELP!

Please consider helping for the tournament and clinic.  I am going to need a few parents to help with concessions and admission for the robotics clinic Feb 9th.  Shoot me a text or email of available times and dates you are able to help.  Thank you so much!

ROBOTICS UPDATES

 

This last weekend four St. Lucas students attended a VEXIQ Robotics Tournament in Whitehall.  The long journey paid off big time with team 80801B scoring a second place in the team work challenge and qualifying for state!  Way to go Braedan and Emmett!  

 

Thank you Mr. Homuth and Mrs. Rider for getting up early to drive and for bringing a ton of tasty snacks!  We all had an exciting day!

 

The Robotics Clinic/Tournament is coming up soon.  Please sign up your child on the St. Lucas School website.  It is going to be a fun day of learning and competing.  I also need a few more parents to help.  Please shoot me a text if you are able that day, 920-960-7640.

 

Our last state qualifying tournament is coming up February 16th.  Please let me know if your child is planning on attending.  Everyone will be ready for this tournament.  Anyone can sign up!  Please let me know asap if your child is interested.  We have limited space in vehicles so first come, first serve!

 

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.  The last robotics meeting is Tuesday, February 19 from 2:30 - 4:00pm.  We will be cleaning, organizing, and having a pizza party!!!  

 

Thank you to Brad Homuth and Joan Rider for helping out this year!  Brad is our master builder and has helped out in so many ways!  Joan has filled in and been a huge help at tournaments!  Thanks to both parents for being so kind and generous with your time and talents!

 

Thank you to the parents who signed up for snacks and were supportive with kind and encouraging words.  We have a wonderful group of parents at St. Lucas and very appreciative students!  Thank you!!

 

ROBOTICS TOURNAMENTS 

February 9th - St. Lucas Robotics Clinic/Tournament

Sign up for this event on the St. Lucas School website home page.

 

February 16 - McFarland Robotics Tournament (near Madison) 

All 4 robots are registered for this event.  I will need at least 8 students to commit and a few more to rotate in or sub.  Please let me know asap if your child is able, or not able, to attend.

 

March 3rd - VEXIQ State Championship

Please keep this date in mind in the case we might have anyone going to state this year.

 

For Robotics Students:  Please keep working in Scratch and sharing your projects.  This will get you ready for programming your robot!  A trophy is awarded to best project at Award Night!

 

Snack Sign Up:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0c48a9ab22a6f58-robotics

 

WHITEHALL TOURNAMENT VIDEO

A Message from Master Builder Brad

 

I just wanted to give everyone a little update about robotics. Most of the groups either have a working robot or are very close to it.  In order to compete in a robotics tournament you must have a working robot.  Tournaments are an opportunity for students to qualify to compete on the state level. There are two tournaments left before the state competition.  St Lucas will be hosting one of these tournaments in less than two weeks. However, at this tournament there are no qualifying spots for state.  The final state-qualifying tournament will be held in March at McFarland School in Madison.  I realize that everyone has a different reason for participating in the robotics program at St. Lucas and not everyone is actually interested in competing, but I would like to encourage you to come to one or both of these tournaments.  So far we have one team that has qualified for state and I hope we could have more.  My job in the robotic program is to encourage the kids to think about what they want their robot to do and guide them in their quest to come up with a design that does what they want.  This helps them learn to think creatively and to problem solve.  Generally, their robot should be a result of their vision, not mine.  That being said, if they do intend to use their robot competitively, there are some ways to build parts of the robot that are proven to work efficiently in the tournament setting.    In order to get the most points, it helps if the robot is built with what we call a 4 bar lift system. We have three teams that are using this now and there are a few others that have something that is fairly close but even fairly close will make it a struggle to get to state.  If your child is serious about trying to get to state I would encourage the use of this system, and I will gladly help them figure out how to build them if they would like advice.  In the end though, my goal is to continue to encourage the kids to take ownership of their robots and how they want to operate them.

 

Sincerely,

Brad Homuth

920-266-3144

 

 

CHESS UPDATES

Our chess season concludes Friday, February 22nd, with a DQ Cake Party!  

 

Thank you so much to Karen Yttri, Joan Rider, Laurie Pickering, Tom Jahnke (chess master and Peyton and Stuart's uncle) and Jenell Enright for all of your help making the St. Lucas Chess Tournament a huge success!  We had the second largest K-12 division chess tournament attendance in the whole state of Wisconsin and a record number of Michelangelos pizzas sold!  Thank you so much for your help parents!  It was so appreciated!

 

Thank you to Ted Molkentin for teaching during his winter break from college and Mr. Pickering for helping with crowd control while I was on vacation.

 

Thank you parents for bringing snacks, your kind words, encouragement, and support for the chess program.  It is really a joy sharing chess with this excited bunch!   

 

Tournament Results

Congratulations to our K-6 team for taking a first place at the St. Lucas Chess Tournament!  In the K-6 division Ranen Enright took a second place, Peyton Scheuneman came in 4th, and Matthias Yttri took an outstanding 5th!!  Way to go St. Lucas!

 

Congratulations to Garret Pickering for taking home a trophy at the Random Lake Chess Tournament by placing 3rd in the U700 division!  WOW!  Way to GO!

 

DISCOVERY WORLD TOURNAMENT

WSCF has brought back the Discovery World Chess Tournament!  The tournament is held at Discovery World and it is a ton of fun.  For more information on this tournament go to...

CHECK OUT HERE

 

ACUITY TOURNAMENT

I had a few parents ask me about the Acuity Tournament.  Registration isn't open yet, but the date is posted for March 9th.  This tournament is so FUN!  It is completely free with tons of hand outs.  They have a ferris wheel in the building and give free rides, snacks, pizza, t-shirts, small toy items and so much more. It is open to the first 350 students in our counties.  Acuity is very generous to host such a chess promoting event!  

ACUITY TOURNAMENT HERE

 

These tournaments are not team events on the calendar.  They are fun activities I highly recommend!

 

 

KMLHS CHESS CLUB WRITE UP

Here is a write up by Angie Molkentin, KMLHS chess advisor, posted on the KMLHS Chess Website!  Thank you to Angie for supporting the federation school chess clubs.  Ted and Angie have done so much to bring chess to our school and other schools.  Their work has had a huge impact on many lives and I am so grateful for their generosity and support! 

 

St. Lucas Hosts Fun, Friendly Chess Tournament

For young chess players in grades K-8, the St. Lucas Chess Tournament in Kewaskum was a great opportunity to see what it is like to play chess competitively, complete with time controls, a pre-game handshake with your opponent, and trophies/medals awarded at the end. At these events, many beginner-level players learn that you don't win every game, and it's how you learn from your mistakes and come back to the board that determines what kind of player you will be.

Isn't that true for all things in life?

For high school players, this year's St. Lucas tourney served as the site of the annual match-up between Kewaskum High School Chess and KML Chess. The teams have had a friendly Washington County rivalry going for the last few years. This year, St. Lucas got the best of KML, scoring 12 points to KML's 9 points in four rounds of play. Senior Ben Polheber came in third overall for the day, winning 3 of his 4 games.

 

 

 

Here is a link to the snack sign up if you wish to sign up for a snack!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0c48a9ab22a6f58-chess
 

 

Chess Tournament Video
Katrina Janz
920-960-7640

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