Friday, October 8th: NO SCHOOL for students
Professional Development/Grading Day
Friday, October 15th NO SCHOOL for students
Professional Development/Grading Day
Thursday, October 21st: NO SCHOOL for students
Student Conferences
Friday, October 22nd: NO SCHOOL for students
Student Conferences
2021-22 School Year Calendar
Snack Donations Needed
When level 2 students go out to 2nd recess, they are welcome to bring their water bottle and a snack. There are many kids who need a healthy snack each day, and our classroom supply is running out.
If you are able, please consider donating a box of individually wrapped snacks to the Puffin nest.
What works best? Easy-peel Clementine oranges, granola bars or fruit leather make great individually wrapped snacks.
Just send your class donation in with your kiddo. Our Puffins thank you!!
What’s happening in the Puffin Nest?
During our Out & About in the backyard garden, students learned about the legend of the Three Sisters, a Native American folklore tale. The legend describes 3 sisters who worked together to grow strong and flourish, and are represented in the story by corn, beans, and squash. When planted together, these crops grow in harmony by providing different things to one another. For example, squash provides shade to the soil for the corn and beans to grow. This lesson introduced students to customary Native foods, agricultural practices, and the important relationship that existed between Native communities and their land. The Puffins made their own models of companion plants. Students also got the chance to record field notes and make observations in the garden.
Project Launch: Storypath Begins!
What is Storypath?
Storypath is an instructional strategy for developing and organizing social studies units which incorporate language arts. It uses a narrative structure to give a sense of context and connection to the information that is being taught. Students are engaged with investigations framed as stories in which characters experience certain events and are affected by them.
Our current Storypath: “Early Northwest Coast People”
Students will explore the history of early NW coastal people through the creation of a story that centers around a community living on the Pacific Northwest Coast in the 1800s.
This week, our level 2 students began their study of the people of the Northwest Coast by creating the setting. Our first episode of this Story path began with a discussion of the elements of story: setting, characters, and plot (critical incidents). In this episode, students considered the time period, climate, important geographical features, and pant/animal life as they created a classroom mural illustrating the setting for our story— the Northwest Coast.
What we're learning in science this week
Many people know on some vague level that muscles are responsible for the body’s movement… but what *exactly* do the muscles do? As your kiddo discovered this week: the muscles work by pulling on bones at the joints. The muscles do this via strings called tendons. Our students created a paper model of a finger based on their understanding of this process.
Any visit to the grocery store is an opportunity for you and your kiddo to observe exactly what muscle looks like! The meat on display at the grocery store--whether chicken, fish, pork, or beef--is the muscles of those animals.
Game Friday
Puffins are building reading stamina each morning by coming in quietly, selecting a good fit book, choosing a comfy reading spot and diving into their books. By doing this each day, they earn GAME FRIDAY!