Week 17

Weekly Greetings!

It felt so good to get back to school on Thursday, even though I had to hobble around with a crutch! They kids were full of hugs, with lots of get well pictures and cards waiting for me. I was so pleased to see how well all the material for each grade was completed in my absence! I cannot thank the aids and staff enough at school for covering the class so wonderfully.

I made it back in time for the NYO activities, and also for two students birthdays on Friday. There were so many goodies brought in to celebrate that we had to send much of it home with the students at the end of the day. I have included a couple pictures of the event to follow.

This is our last week before we have a two-week break for Christmas. We will be using the week to prepare for the holiday, and do some fun enrichment activities. I will also be giving the make-up party after school on Tuesday, for the eight students that earned it by participating weekly in the Seasonal Readers incentive program I started last September.

Other important information for the week are: Wednesday, the students come to school an hour later; Thursday is the Christmas music program at 1:00pm, and early release after; Friday, we will have a Christmas party and Christmas movie. I would appreciate it if the kids could bring a treat to share for the party, and it will begin at 11:15 after the Council from Tok is done with her lesson. There will be an early release that day too, and you should get a notice from the principal later this week about the exact time.

Have a warm and happy Christmas break, and many blessings in the New Year!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 16

Weekly Greetings!

I apologize for not having any photos to share this week... Many of you may know that I had an accident last Tuesday morning, and have had to stay home to heal my injured leg. The class has been in good hands and the regular schedule has not been disrupted in my absence. My leg is taking longer to heal than I had hoped, so I must continue to elevate it until the swelling goes down. I am hoping to be back to school sometime this week.

Anyway, there are a few exciting things happening at school this week for the class! On Tuesday, there will be NYO training happening for students in every grade and a competition for 3rd on up for two days starting on Thursday. I am sure there will be more posted about this special event from the principal.

As soon as I get back to school, I will reschedule the party for the eight students that participated in the Fall Seasonal Readers program.  In the meantime, please continue to read with your children so they can participate in the winter reading incentive program.

Stay well and kind regards,
Julie Brown

Week 15

 Weekly Greetings!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of good food, family time, and fun! During out three days of school before the break, we finished our Social Studies unit with an imaginary time machine field trip back to the first Thanksgiving. The picture below shows a few things the students saw on the trip.

 The class also made the last of our Thanksgiving decorations after studying about the important roll Squanto and the Native Americans played in helping the pilgrims survive in the new world.

 All of their work was displayed in the lunch room for the Thanksgiving meal on Wednesday at the school.

 There was a great turnout and the lunch room was very festive!

The Seasonal Readers wall has been completed for fall, and we will start a new wall for 3 months of winter. This week I will be having an after school party for 8 students that participated regularly in reading, or being read to, at home each night for 3 months of fall. They were consistent in returning their book log list to me by Friday each week.  I will have another after school party at the end of February for students that participate in the 3 months of the winter Seasonal Readers wall.

There are just 3 full weeks of school before Christmas break and we will be working on preparations for the music program, in addition to holiday crafts, etc.

Have a lovely week!

Kind Regards,
Julie Brown

Week 14

 Weekly Greetings!

Things went really well when I was gone for two days last week and as we think of things to be grateful for during this holiday seasons, I am so thankful for the classified staff I work with! They do a wonderful job and it was comforting to know the class was in good hands while I was away.

A real highlight of from last week was the awards ceremony. It was well attended and I am really pleased at how well so many students are doing academically. 

 The event started off with recognizing students that had perfect attendance. There were 4 from our class!

Next was honor roll for students with a "B" average or above. It was so good to see a few students from my last year's class.

I like to acknowledge the students from my class that did all the assigned homework for the quarter. There were 12 of the 15 students from our class that got an award. Two of those students, Quinten and Brandi, also received an award for earning an "Excellent" in content areas for the quarter.

There were 4 students from our class that won the 100% on test drawing. Every student in our class had at least one ticket in the draw, but some students had more than others. They were given $5.00 each!

 For Art on Friday, the class worked on making decorations for this week's Thanksgiving dinner at the school. It will be on Wednesday at 12:00pm. Students will be free to leave with parents afterward.

 Below is a picture of the finished project.

As for this week, we will only have three days of school and we will continue to focus on the reason for Thanksgiving in Social Studies. I will only send homework home for two nights this week.

I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving full of good food and fellowship!

Kind Regards,
Julie Brown

Week 13

 Weekly Greetings!

It was great to see so many of you at parent/teacher conferences last Monday! If you were not able to attend, I hope you have received your child's report card in the mail by now. We started the week off with a visit from Lorraine Titus, who has committed to coming one day a week to teach culture and language to the class. The students really caught on quickly and are looking forward to her visit again this week on Tuesday.

It was a pleasure to see how the community honors the local veteran at the dinner last Wednesday night, and how seriously so many students participated in the patriotic event. I have included a few pictures I snapped of the opening.

my last letter, we ended our Science unit on soils by investigation mystery mixtures of the three soils we studied. The groups looked back at the properties of humus, clay, and sand to decide what was in each mystery mixture.

Please note that I will be gone the first two days of this week to Fairbanks, but the class will be in good hands with my regular aides. On Wednesday this week, we will have our one hour later start to school for this month so that all the staff can meet and discuss school issues. Also, at 2:30pm that same day there will be an awards ceremony for the first quarter. In addition, if you want to order books for your child this month please return the forms and money to me by Friday.

Have an awesome week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 12

 Weekly Greetings!

It is already two weeks since the 2nd quarter started, and I have been very pleased with all the academic gains each student has made in the class so far this year!  Everyone seems to enjoy coming to school and are enthusiastic about the concepts presented daily.

Last week Rita Abel was in to do a special activity with the students that blended nicely with our soils Science unit. I have included a few pictures from her presentation and hands on activity using pipe cleaners and beads to symbolize the needs of a plant.

The class also got a close up view of our compost worms and we discussed the worm's anatomy. This will be the last week for our soils unit.

There are a few important events happening this week that I want to remind you about. The first will be on Wednesday, when the community will be honoring veterans with a dinner at the school starting at 4pm. Our class will be saying the pledge. On Friday  there will also be a special event at the Tok School with basketball celebrities. I hope you got the notice sent home last week.

Also in class on Friday, we will be having Show and Tell. Each student can bring something in their "All About Me" bag to share. It has been a while since we could fit this into our schedule with so many other special activities over the last few weeks.

I hope you have a great week!

Kind Regards,
Julie Brown

Week 11

 Weekly Greetings!

We had a fabulous time last week as we ended our first quarter! There were many events to round out our regular schedule. On Tuesday we had the monthly "Instant Challenge" that we participate in statewide, and the students had to create a turbine that wound spin when blown by a hair dryer. The turbine had to pull up a cup with pennies in it. The groups came up with lots of wonderful and creative ideas as shown in the pictures to follow.

To follow up with the Halloween theme of the week, we carved a pumpkin for another class decoration. The students voted on the face design and estimated how many seeds were in the pumpkin. They cleaned and sorted the seeds, and after roasting them we found out there was 600 seeds in our pumpkin. The highest estimate was 170.

 On Wednesday, we crowned another birthday queen for the day, with a celebration in the afternoon!

 

 One of the specialists that works with the district was in the building on Thursday and shared her pet friend, CeeCee, with the class. This tied in nicely with one of the thematic units in our reading series.

 Of course, the real highlight of the week was our Friday Halloween fun! The class enjoyed wearing their costumes to school and all the goodies sent in by their families!

 The afternoon activity for the whole school was a lot of fun also. It consisted mostly of team relays that all the students participated in. Unfortunately, most of the pictures that were snapped were blurry as the relays were fast paced events. I have included a few were the students were more stationary.

This week will be the start of our second quarter and Rita Abel will be visiting on Monday to add variety to our soils Science unit. The class will also get an extra PE class with Mr. Cronk on Wednesday, and Mrs. Lundy will be in on Friday for her biweekly counseling time. In addition, there will be Junior High basketball games starting at 11:00am on Friday. I know we will have another full and enriching week!

Enjoy your week!

Kind Regards,
Julie Brown