Scott R. Galvin / AP

Amish women fill-up the school house to listen to their children sing during the final day of class before the end of the school year on April 9, 2013 in Bergholz, Ohio.

Bergholz, Ohio — The Amish schoolhouse quiets as students in first through eighth grades settle into tight rows of scuffed metal desks to begin singing, their voices rising and dipping like the surrounding hills.

A warm breeze carries the religious lyrics, in German, through the room's open windows and over the fields where their families will mingle after this ceremony marking the school year's end. Typically all this happens in late April, but the festivities have been moved up to allow some youngsters a few more days of family time before their parents head to federal prison.

Come Friday, four women and one man from this tight-knit group in rural eastern Ohio will enter the prison system in various states, joining nine already behind bars on hate crimes convictions for hair- and beard-cutting attacks against fellow Amish.

Scott R. Galvin / AP

Girls play softball during an end of the school year celebration. The celebration was also part of a farewell picnic for those sentenced in the hair and beard cutting scandal earlier in the year.

Scott R. Galvin / AP

Freeman Burkholder crosses home plate during a game of baseball at the farewell picnic. Burkholder was sentenced to prison for his part in the hair and beard cutting scandal.

With that timing, the end-of-school celebration Tuesday served as the last big community gathering before the five depart, and they gave The Associated Press a rare window into their largely insular world. Men played baseball in buttoned shirts, work boots and blue pants with suspenders. Their wives, some barefoot, sat on simple wooden benches and chatted, their long-sleeved, blue and green dresses and white head scarves fluttering in the wind. Their children relaxed nearby, dressed like smaller versions of their parents.

"It's a happy day on the outside, but not on the inside. On the inside, a lot of times we're crying, but we have to keep our spirits up for the children's sake," said Martha Mullet, whose husband, Sam Mullet Sr., was accused of orchestrating the hair-cutting attacks. Read the full story. 

Scott R. Galvin / AP

Boys watch the baseball game.

Scott R. Galvin / AP

Emma Miller holds her daughter during the farewell celebration, which was held for Miller and other community members leaving for prison soon.

Scott R. Galvin / AP

Boys walk to the school house for their final day of class.

Scott R. Galvin / AP

Men sit in the school house to listen to their children sing.

Pool via Reuters

T.J. Lane takes off his shirt to show a white T-shirt with the word "KILLER" spelled out on it at his sentencing. Lane was sentenced to life without parole for killing three students in a shooting rampage at a high school in a small town east of Cleveland.

By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

Geauga County Judge David Fuhry sentenced T.J. Lane to three life sentences without eligibility for parole for three counts of murder, plus 8 years for a fourth count of attempted aggravated murder, 6 years for a fifth count of attempted aggravated murder, and 6 years for a sixth count of felonious assault.

In handing him the sentences, Fuhry said Lane lacked remorse for the killings. Lane was ruled mentally competent enough to stand trial last year despite evidence he suffers from hallucinations and psychosis. Fuhry said Tuesday that court examinations showed Lane faked mental illness and was such a smart student that he was set to graduate from high school early, Reuters reported. 

Read the full story.

Duncan Scott / The News-Herald, pool via Reuters

Dina Parmertor, mother of shooting victim Daniel, speaks during the sentencing of T.J. Lane in Cleveland, Ohio, March 19.

Jeff Kowalsky / EPA

Nina Bush reacts as she casts her ballot on an electronic voting machine at the Toledo Police Museum in Toledo, Ohio on Nov. 6 in this combination photo.

Nina Bush said that she was happy that she was able to cast her vote, believing she had done 'a good thing' by voting in the presidential election, according to photographer Jeff Kowalsky.

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Campaigning with Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, voting and election results.

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Supporters listen to Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney during a rally at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Marion, Ohio on October 28, 2012.

Michael O'Brien of NBC News reports that auto industry politics is dominating the closing days of the campaign in the all-important battleground state of Ohio:

The Romney campaign circulated on Sunday several newspaper endorsements — the Des Moines Register and the Cincinnati Enquirer among them — to argue that the Republican ticket had made inroads in crucial swing states. The Obama campaign responded in kind by sending reporters endorsement editorials from the Youngstown Vindicator and the Toledo Blade, both of which referenced the 2009 auto industry bailout as a point in Obama's favor.

The auto bailout — which Romney had opposed, memorably, in a New York Times op-ed entitled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" — has assumed a central role in the closing days of the campaign, especially as the election plays out largely on a Midwestern, industrial and economically-battered playing field. Read the full story.

From tramping through cornfields to munching ice cream cones to holding babies – the time-honored traditions of the campaign trail leave President Barack Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney looking surprisingly alike.

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Larry Downing / Reuters

Jeff Bitting, right, from St Augustine, Florida, speaks back stage with fellow full-body tattoo contestants before judging at the National Tattoo Association Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio on April 13, 2012. In his 33 years of getting tattoos, Bitting says he has had about 500 hours of work and will complete his other leg in his bid to win more full-body contests.

Reuters Senior photographers Jason Reed and Larry Downing traveled across the country recently to attend two different tattoo conventions in Hampton Roads, Va., and Cincinnati, Ohio, while working on a multimedia project entitled, “Addicted to the Needle” which opens a window into the private world and the culture of tattooing.

See more photos here

Larry Downing / Reuters

A tattooed participant holds her baby in the Hampton Roads Tattoo Festival in Hampton Roads, Va. on March 3, 2012. The hobby of collecting tattoos has exploded into mainstream society with tattoo conventions and festivals held year-round across the U.S.

Larry Downing / Reuters

David Billings, from Abingdon, Md., wears a full-back tattoo featuring all nine members of his favorite band, Slipknot, as a woman admires the art at the Hampton Roads Tattoo Festival in Va. on March 2, 2012. Billings said he's had over 150 hours of tattoo work done over a 12-year period, now covering over half his body. He says tattoos are now as main stream as the Coca-Cola Co.

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Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign rally at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, May 5. Obama officially kicked off his re-election campaign with visits to Ohio and Virginia.

With his wife at his side and Air Force One as a campaign plane, President Barack Obama was holding his first political rallies of the 2012 presidential race on Saturday -- targeting two swing states, Ohio and Virginia, that could be critical to his bid to retain the White House.

The events at two universities, Ohio State and Virginia Commonwealth, were billed as the official kickoff of Obama's re-election bid, even though he's been solidly engaged in his campaign and over a year ago filed the necessary paperwork to run again.

Read the full story

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Amy Sancetta / AP

A May Apple grows in Moreland Hills, Ohio, on Earth Day, April 22.

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Cyndi Condit / Toledo Area Humane Society via Reuters

English Bulldog puppies play around their mother at the Toledo Area Humane Society in Maumee, Ohio on April 11, 2012.

Reuters reports — An Ohio man has been charged with animal abandonment after a litter of six English bulldog puppies was found in a suitcase with a tag bearing his name, according to Humane Society authorities.

Cyndi Condit / Toledo Area Humane Society via Reuters

The puppies, three male and three female, are estimated to be four weeks old, too young to be separated from their mother, so they will spend at least another four weeks in foster care before they are eligible for adoption.

The mother of the puppies was found pacing around the suitcase, which attracted the attention of a passerby.

Related story: Founder of dog rescue group arrested after 128 dogs found in U-Haul truck

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Slideshow: Voters head to polls on Super Tuesday

Michael Reynolds / EPA

See pictures from around America as 11 states hold contests that will award a combined 424 delegates in the Republican primary.

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A voter enters a polling place during Super Tuesday voting on March 6, 2012 in Youngstown, Ohio. The two top Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are running neck and neck in the state.

See more Super Tuesday photos in our slideshow.

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Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

Students leave the gravesite of Chardon High school student Daniel Parmertor after his burial in Chardon, Ohio, March 3. Three students were killed and two others wounded by suspect TJ Lane in Monday's shooting rampage at Chardon High school.

Jeff Swensen / Getty Images

A crowd of well-wishers holding American flags stands along the road in front of St Mary's Church to pay respect for Danny Parmertor on March 3, in Chardon, Ohio.

Hundreds of people stood shoulder to shoulder along the street on a cold, windy Saturday morning to honor one of three teenagers killed in a high school shooting.

The service in Chardon for 16-year-old Daniel Parmertor is the first of the three funerals. Services for 16-year-old Demetrius Hewlin and 17-year-old Russell King Jr. will be held next week.

Parmertor's family said they planned to bury him with his first paycheck — still unopened — from his new job at a bowling alley, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.

-- Reported by msnbc.com and wire services

Related content: PhotoBlog posts on shooting in Chardon, Ohio

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Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

The casket of slain Chardon High School student Daniel Parmertor is carried to his gravesite in Chardon, Ohio, March 3.

Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

Students walk to a memorial remembering the victims of the Chardon High school shootings before returning to school for the first time since the shootings in Chardon, Ohio, on March 1.

Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

Students and parents gather outside a memorial remembering the victims of the Chardon High school shootings before returning to school for the first time since the shootings in Chardon, Ohio, on March 1. Three students were killed and two others wounded by suspect TJ Lane in Monday's shooting rampage at the Ohio high school.

Slideshow: Deadly school shooting in Ohio

Aaron Josefczyk / Reuters

Three students was killed and 2 were injured in a shooting Monday morning at an Ohio high school, officials said.

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CHARDON, Ohio -- The deadline to file charges in a fatal Ohio high school shooting loomed as students still reeling from the slaying of three teenagers marched by the hundreds to their reopened school Thursday.

The students, many with their parents and wearing the school colors of red and black, started the day gathered around a courthouse square gazebo, quietly singing the alma mater.

Students hugged each other and parents as they left the gazebo, which was decorated with a growing memorial of candles, flowers and handwritten messages of support.

"I'm just scared for everybody and I don't know how everybody is going to act going back into school," said Theodore Rosch, 16, a freshman, as his father, Will Rosch, wrapped his left arm around his son's shoulders.

Read the full story.

-- Associated Press

Mark Duncan / AP

Hundreds of students and parents march to the Chardon High Schooll in Chardon, Ohio, on March 1 to honor the three students who were killed in a shooting there Monday.

Mark Duncan / AP

Students and parents march to the high school in Chardon, Ohio, on March 1 to honor the three students who were killed in a shooting there Feb. 27. The school re-opened to parents and students Thursday and classes resume Friday.