Week 27

Weekly Greetings!

As always, our time together last week was full of learning and new experiences. One highlight was on Wednesday afternoon when a visiting team of scientists from UAF came to help the students explore properties of snow. There were 3 stations in the gym where students could look closely at snow. In the photos to follow, students saw how different each snowflake is and then created their own using coffee filters.

 At another station, they looked at a model of snow molecules and then tried to recreate the model using candy and toothpicks.

They also looked at snow under a microscope and then drew what they saw as it was projected on a computer screen. It was a challenge to draw the snow, as it could clearly be seen changing while it melted.

To stress the dangers from avalanche, the students participated in adding salt, oatmeal, and flour onto a board made to show different types of snow fall and textures that can be found on a mountain slope. Then as the board was lifted to make an angle found on a mountain slope, the students watched the simulated avalanche take place. We all went outside after that to look at and measure layers of snow.

Friday afternoon, 2 Quarter awards were given for perfect attendance and honor roll. Two students from our group were recognized for perfect attendance.

I also gave out a special award for perfect homework participation. The students pictured next have never missed doing their homework for a full semester.

These students from our class had tickets in for a drawing for having 100% on a variety of subjects they were tested in throughout the quarter.

On Thursday this week, I will be taking some of the students from each age group to Tok that have been working hard to compete in the Battle of the Books. It will be a long day, and not all the students in the class will be able to go. There will be a substitute covering the class, and I will leave assignments for the others while we are away for the day.

Please continue to send your child with warm snow gear to go outside, The PE teachers have been taking them out on the snowshoes in the warmer temperatures, and I try to take them outside on Wednesday afternoons.

Have an awesome week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 26

Weekly Greetings!
Our four days were full of fun activities last week. Monday was our 100th day of school, so the day was busy with things to do around the number 100. To start the day off, all the students in attendance were crowned for the occasion. We did a few other activities, before searching for 100 chocolate Hershey Kisses hidden in the room.

 It took a bit of effort, but every one of the Kisses were found and placed on the 100 number chart. We then weighed them and some other bags of 100 treats. The Kisses ended up being heavier than all the items except 100 gummy worms.

 

Another activity began with dividing students into teams to sort objects into 10 groups of 10 to make 100. 

Then they placed the objects end to end to see which group of 100 was the longest. We used yardsticks to see how many feet and inches each line of objects were.

After recess and a special snack using a variety 100 goodies put together for a trail mix, the students worked on two 100-piece puzzles.

Just before lunch, we played a game called "Mix Up the Animals" using the animal masks all the students had made. Attributes of different animals were called out, and if their animal had that attribute they had to move. Everyone had to move if "mix up the animals" was called out. We were trying for 100 moves, but ran short of time.

These are just a few highlights from a full day of special activities to celebrate all the learning that has taken place so far for 100 days of school. 

Additional things from the week were our usual two days of PE with the itinerant PE teacher on Tuesday and Thursday. The students have really taken off with learning Soccer. Also, on Wednesday we made it outside again to use the snowshoes. It had warmed up some, but there were still a few students that got cold mostly from wearing lightweight gloves.  If it stays above -10 below this week, we will go out again on Wednesday. Please make sure your child has their cold weather gear, or they have to stay inside.


Thursday, before we had our afternoon party the students were given a bag of candy hearts to sort into colors and graph. We discovered that there are fewer white and a greater number of purple hearts in the variety packs.

 Thank you so much for all the great treats that were sent in for the party! There was so much, we sent bags of food home after even sharing with the high school students!

We will be having a normal five-day schedule this week, but there will be an award assembly this Friday at 1:15pm to recognize student achievement for the 2nd quarter. I hope to see many of you then!

Have warm and safe week!

Kind Regards,
Julie Brown

Week 25

Weekly Greetings!

As I promised last week, I have pictures from the Native Youth Olympic competition in Tok last Monday.  It was a really fun event, and all but one student attended. Thank you for getting your child to the school for the early departure that morning! I tried to get photos of everyone participating, but the students were split into a boys and girls competition area and sometimes there were students from Northway competing at the same time in each group. Here are a few of the best shots from the three areas the students competed in. The first event was the Knee Jump.

 The second event was the Eskimo Stick Pull.

 The last event was the Seal Hop.

 Our students did really well, and took home a number of awards! Terrence placed 2nd in the Knee Jump and 3rd in the Eskimo Stick Pull in the boy's competition.

 Marion placed 2nd in the Eskimo Stick Pull for the girl's competition.

 Seth took home a 2nd place for the boy's Eskimo Stick Pull and a 3rd place for the Seal Hop.

 Talise won a 1st place in the girl's Seal Hoop, and two other awards for 3rd place in the Eskimo Stick Pull and Knee Jump.

Cadence also got a 3rd in the Seal Hop, but in all the hurry at the end to get in snow gear and on the highway back to Northway, somehow I missed snapping her picture....The1st and 2nd grade students are very enthusiastic now about the games and even practice on their own during some of our recesses.

On Monday, it will be our 100th day of school this year and we are going to celebrate! Most of the day will be spent doing special activities surrounding the number 100. I sent a note home on Friday about some of the activities we will be doing.

 Also, there will be no school next Friday for teacher in-servicing, so we will have a simple Valentine party on Thursday, February 12,  in the afternoon. If you can send in a special treat, it would be greatly appreciated. I also sent a class list home on Friday, if students want to exchange Valentine cards. I will have pictures from the special activities in my next blog.

Hopefully, the weather will warm up later in the week so that we can go out to use the snowshoes again.

Enjoy your week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 24

Weekly Greetings!

There is always a lot happening in our classroom each week. We are still working with the Solids and Liquids Science Unit and will be investigation the properties of liquids this week. Last week, the students find which objects were attracted to a magnet. They were surprised by some of the findings.

I had hoped that if the weather was warm enough, we would go out again on the snowshoes but the cold temperatures remained all week. So just for fun, we had a make believe snowball fight using crumpled paper. After we cleaned up the mess, the students wrote about the activity and drew a picture to go along with what they had written.

On Friday, the students were involved in another "Instant Challenge" with students from other places in the state. They had limited materials and had to build a tower in 30 minutes. Each small group came up with some interesting designs.

I will have pictures next week of the NYO completion that the students take part in on Monday, February 2.

Have a great week!

Kind Regards,
Julie Brown