Week 29

Weekly Greetings!

It is sure feeling like spring, and there is still a full week and two days next week before we all get a few days break to fully enjoy the beautiful weather. I am trying to organize a field trip for next Monday, but the contact person I was working with went on vacation last week so hopefully I can get the final arrangements in place by the middle of this week. I will send permission slips home at that time, if it all comes together as I hope. If it will not work for the Monday that we have a short week due to Spring Break on March 18-20, I will try again for another date later this spring.

In Science, we have been between the completed unit on "Solids and Liquids" and the up-coming unit on "Organisms" due to a delay in permits for the critters used in the new unit. I had planned a short unit on "Sea Creatures" for this week, and found out that Ms. Ruth class was studying oceans so I invited them in last week to share what they had been learning. Here are a few photos from that afternoon.

They did a wonderful presentation to help stir an interest in the younger students of my class for this up coming week as we explore "Sea Creatures".

Since we did art earlier in the week to complete pictures for the Federal Duck Stamp competition by the March 5 deadline, there was Show and Tell on Friday. The students always eagerly wait to see who has brought something to share. They are all getting so much better at speaking about their item while they show the class. In addition, the group that listened are getting great at asking good questions rather that just making a statement like, "I like ...."

  

We are just about at the end of the 3rd quarter and it is amazing how fast this year is going by! I will continue to send homework home nightly through Thursday and please look for you child's completed weekly class work on Friday as usual. It is wonderful to see how consistently most all of the students are at bringing their homework back each day!

Have a fantastic week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 28

Weekly Greetings!

All the extra work some of the students put in over the last two months really came together last Thursday when they competed in the district competition of the "Battle of the Books." Though all three groups from Northway came into the competition fairly strong, there were a lot of teams participating and the Kindergarten in particular got very shy and froze for the first few rounds of questions. After they relaxed, they did well and they will know more about the process next year.

The first grade really did well and took 1st place out of seven teams! They only missed two questions in the hour-long competition. The first picture is of the team just before starting and the second picture was just after they had won.

It was after lunch at the Tok School when the 2nd grade team had their turn at 12:30pm. The early morning departure and already long day, was catching up to them.  Even though they had worked hard, they were no match for Eagle and the Tok 2nd grade groups that took the top places.

Since the groups had been inside watching the competitions since 9:00 am, they got to go out to the Tok School playground to run around before the long drive back to Northway.

We also had a victory treat at Fast Eddy's, as it was getting later in the day and lunch had been earlier than they were used to at our school. The "Battle of the Books" was a new experience for the students and I am really proud of them all. Next year they will have a better understanding of how the process works and should do even better! By the time they get to 3rd grade, there is a state competition and by starting young, they will be very prepared.

On Friday, we had a special visitor to our class in the afternoon. Rowena from the local health agency, came in to read a lovely book about staying strong by not using tobacco. It had an Alaska theme with beautiful drawing to illustrate the animals of our state that were making good choices to not use tobacco.

Afterward, the class colored the books to take home as a reminder.

We have two more weeks before Spring break, and also next Sunday is the "Daylight Savings" time change. Please remember to turn your clocks ahead 1 hour. In addition with the warmer weather,  the class has been going out to snowshoe regularly and they need their snow gear daily.

Have a wonderful week!

Kind Regards,
Julie Brown

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