Week 10

Weekly Greetings!

It is almost Halloween, and the students can hardly contain their excitement! On Friday they can wear a costume to school and at 1pm there will be an all school Halloween event for K through 12th grades, similar to the celebration we had last year. Students will be released at 2:15pm as usual. It is also Red Ribbon week, and this year's theme is "Respect Yourself, Be Drug Free".

We had another full week of activity in our classroom starting with a visit from two Tetlin Refuge biologists on Monday to share information on the Lynx study they are involved in. The biologists shared a lynx hide and skull to generate interest, and then explained about the food and habits of the animal.

To help the students better understand the information, they had fun activities to simulate the population cycles if the hare food source is plentiful or scarce.

In one activity, the students were the lynx and marshmallows were the hares. The students had to seek out the food source.

They also learned about how the biologist collar and track the lynx. They had to find the collar hidden in the woods while listening to the beeps coming from an antenna.

Now that we have a new Kindergarten student in the class, we also needed to redo our real graph that shows the number of boys in relationship to the number of girls in our class. We now have 9 boys and 6 girls, so there are 3 more boys than girls in the group.

In Science the students have been learning about composting with worms. On Thursday, we check the compost bags they made five weeks ago to observe the changes. Mr. Groat also shared his composting bin of worms and what his class has been doing with composting organic materials.

Last week in writing with the 1st and 2nd grades, the group brainstormed things they are afraid of when it is Halloween. They agreed that the haunted house at the Community Hall was scary every year, and wrote about why it scared them. I put a large box just outside our room for them to make their own haunted house and they had fun drawing pictures on the inside and outside. 

I have shared a couple of examples in the photos to follow.

The last two weeks, the class has been studying bats and on Friday they made bats decorations using their hands as a pattern. The bats will be part of our class door decoration for a school-wide composition for Halloween.  

Thank you for helping your child with the "Spirit Week" event last week. Congratulations to the 3rd through 5th grade who won the pizza party! Our group tried hard, but the nerd and twin day was difficult for them to dress for...

Have an awesome week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 9

Weekly Greetings!

It is hard to believe that we are already half way through October and almost at the end of our first quarter! We have a full five day week to look forward to, but please note that we will start 1 hour later on this Wednesday due to our monthly staff meeting. Also, I will need any book order forms returned by Friday if you want to purchase books for your child.

With only three days last week, we did manage to fit in a few fun activities. The class always loves searching for the Zoo Phonics animals and matching them to the letter sound the animals start with.

In Social Studies, they also learned about Christopher Columbus and the holiday celebrated in his honor on Monday. They were able to decorate "Columbus Crowns" and color a poem paper to help them remember certain details that took place in this historical event.

On Monday this week, we will have a special presentation from the Tetlin Refuge and on Friday Mrs. Lundy, the district councilor, will be visiting for her biweekly visit.

I hope you have a great week!

Kind Regards,
Julie Brown

Week 8

Weekly Greetings,

Last week was not only a productive week academically, but the students had some special things to celebrate! They were treated to a pizza party on Wednesday, which Alexis earned when she was the September student of the month, and on Thursday Kayann had a birthday! She was our queen for the day and shared special treats with the class!

In Science, the class has been learning about spiders and their role in the ecosystem. We have talked about facts and opinions, since most people feel spiders are creepy creatures. In art on Friday, the students made a spider on a web to add to our Halloween decorations.

I am sending home a new book order form for October. Please return it to me no later than October 23rd, so that the books can be here by the end of the month. Also, there is only three days of school this week due to teacher in-servicing on Thursday and Friday.

Enjoy your week and stay well!

Kind Regards,
Julie Brown

Week 7

Weekly Greetings!
Last week was full of special events, starting on Tuesday with the first "Instant Challenge" for this year. We competed with a number of schools across the state to build a ping-pong ball launcher with a few specific supplies.  The students can see other classes through the internet on our SMART Board, and everyone has a set amount of time to complete the challenge.  I have included a few pictures of the groups in our class working together to make the launcher.

In Science, the class has continued to study types of soils and this week's focus was how water can change soils. Below are pictures of student investigating how fast each soil settles when in water.

On Thursday, we started the day with an assembly to recognize the student of the month for the whole school. Alexis Dillard had won that honor and will be sharing a pizza party with our class this week sponsored by the school. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera that morning but there is a photo posted on the Walter Northway School Facebook page...

Later that day, the class left for Tok to compete in the final Cross Country race. In the Kindergarten through 3rd grade group, Terrence Nutting-Titus took first overall, and Brandy Jimmie took 2nd in the girls group along with Alexis Dillard taking 3rd place! All of the students in our class except two that were absent, participated and finished the half mile course. I am very proud of them all!

After the group raced, we spent some time on the Tok playground before the awards ceremony. Fortunately, it was a nice day despite the cool breeze.

By 2:45pm, there were a lot of people assembled for the awards ceremony and the bleachers were pretty well filled.

Three out of the six places for Kindergarten through 3rd grade, were taken by our students! I cannot wait to see how well they do next year!

This will be another full week, and please look over the extra sheet attached to your child's homework on Monday that explains the concepts to be covered in reading and language arts.

Have an awesome week!
Kind Regards,
Julie Brown