I know that we weren’t able to get up to the OEC or Upper Kenai for our overnight rafting trip, but Michelle Ostrowski from the KNWR was able to work with our students and teach them about the Leave No Trace principles. They participated in a “One Pot Meal” challenge field trip at the refuge, as part of the principal of plan and prepare. Student teams did very well; meals were planned, cooked, and eaten. I would say about half of our students liked the meals their team planned. Only one pot was harmed on this field trip. Thanks to all of you who helped students with meal items, and a special thanks to our parent volunteers/chaperones; Mrs. Clark, Mrs. Heath, Mrs. Kahn, Mr. Kasdorf, Mrs. Linton, Mrs. Paulk, and Mrs. Williams.

I’d like to welcome back our retuning students and extend a special welcome to new students in our class. We are very excited to learn and grow with all of you this year. We hope to see you on Monday the 19th, from 12-1 for our school meet and greet. If not, I will see all of you on Tuesday the first day of school. The first week will be a time for us to get to know each other, make connections, figure out procedures, make commitments, and take a few assessments. The second week of school we will jump right into math groups and guided reading groups, along with practicing procedures, and some more assessments. Please look for our class newsletter in your child’s folder on the first day of school. It will have more detailed info. Once again, welcome to our school and our class!

Mr. Faris

I just would like to express my gratitude to all of you who helped with the food for our Peterson Bay field trip. Our students had a great time, even with sideways snow the first morning. We also must thank our parent chaperones; Mrs. Kahn, Mrs. Grimshaw, Mrs. Lay, Mr. Kincaid, Mr. DeRaeve, and Mr. Wilcox. I hope everyone was able to hear about the wonderful experience we had, and all the invertebrates our students found. Thank you all again for committing to our hands-on field trips which allow curriculum to come alive.

I can’t believe we are already through half the school year! We had a great time the last week before break with; arts and crafts activities, Secret Snowman, pancakes and a read-in, and partnering up with Mrs. Larned’s Class to go caroling in our community. I can’t thank you all enough for the help, your support of our programs, and the gifts I received.

We are kicking off third quarter with community groups- a favorite activity of mine. 4th grade student will be helping the kinders, and going to Creative Play to help. 5th grade students help out at the Food Bank, and 6th grade students are helping at the Assisted Living Center.

We have a couple of fundraising events planned to help defer the cost of our Peterson Bay and Alyeska field trips. We are selling Valentines Brownie Mixes and we will have a Read-A-Thon in class. For more specifics, take a look at our weekly class newsletter. Thanks for all you do!

Pictures from our Ancient Civilization presentations:

First, I want to thank all of our parents, and our students for making our celebration such a success. We had so much food and drinks- we will be enjoying them for another couple of weeks. A special thanks to those students who helped plan, decorate, and set up our games and activities.

I would like to thank all of you for helping us have a very successful and fun field trip rafting and learning about wetlands at the OEC. Everyone had students prepared, and many of you helped with food. We have been using the leftovers for snacks in our classroom. A special thanks to our parent chaperones; Mrs. Kahn, Mrs. Hunt, Mrs. Spalding, and Mr. Lautaret. We had unbelievable weather, and students enjoyed rafting, our dinner skits at the OEC, and they learned so much about wetlands from Ranger Ostrowski.

Here we go! I hope everyone had a great summer and was able to enjoy their families- I certainly was able to, even while working. We’ve just finished our first few days of school and students have been wonderful.

We are going to hit the ground running. Our class is going to host the first all school assembly of the year on the morning of Friday, the 7th of September. We will be working on preparing for it these next two weeks. The focus will be on kindness.

We also have an overnight field trip on September 11th and 12th. It will include an Upper Kenai River rafting trip, and a KNWR wetlands/wildlife program. We will stay out at the Swanson River OEC. We will need drivers/chaperones. The cost for each person going will be $40. Permission slips and more specific info will come home in your child’s Thursday folder. We will be requesting food for the class as well.

I am very excited about this school year, we seem to have a wonderful group of students!

We blasted through third quarter, and after testing this week we will barely have time to catch our breath before we go to Peterson Bay! The students accomplished many great things over the third quarter: learned about human body systems and animal cells, dissected a frog, presented a forensics piece in front of the class, learned about wildlife in winter and snow-shoed at the KNWR, went to the Challenger Learning Center for a mission or a workshop, volunteered for Community Groups all quarter, and went skiing/boarding at Alyeska.

Our fourth quarter will be busy as well, mostly in our prep for Peterson Bay field trip, and putting together our all-school assembly video and the 6th grade slide show. Speaking of 6th grade students, they will have swimming lessons and Middle School Prep week. We also have various assemblies and presentations coming up. Please check the most recent newsletter for specific information.

Eliana and Zoey learning about frog anatomy.

Volunteering at the Food Bank

Getting ready for KNWR Trip

Russel and Golden at Alyeska.

I hope everyone had a nice, restful, relaxing break; that you were able to enjoy your family. We hit the ground running this quarter, Performance Series assessments, studying body systems, and community groups.

Community groups happen each Monday and Wednesday. Mrs. Moore is taking the 4th grade students to Ridgeway Preschool, Mrs. Carter is taking half the 6th grade students to Heritage Place, and the other half are working on the Mini-Food Pantry. I am taking the 5th grade students to the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank. So, each student is going one day a week (either Monday of Wednesday) to help out their community. We are so proud of our students and their efforts!

We have several upcoming field trips; Wildlife in Winter program and snowshoeing at the KNWR, Challenger Learning Center, Alyeska, and Peterson Bay. The last two have a cost associated, and we are having a class Read-A-Thon as a fundraising opportunity for students. For more detailed information on all of this, please click on the newsletter page and look at the most current newsletter.

I just wanted to thank all of you for coming in to conferences. It was great to check in and share your child’s learning/growth. We are coming up quickly upon our holiday season; there are many events and activities in December. Please take a look at the latest newsletter for more information. I will have the December calendar posted after Thanksgiving. The PTO is hosting several great events; movie night, craft night, and the Holiday Shoppe. We are also trying to schedule a Challenger Center trip before the Holiday break.

A special thanks to all of our veterans past and present. We are blessed by your service to our country!

Golden and Ella K. with a successful double mummy!

Girls at our read-in; Grace is not happy I interrupted her reading!

Who is with Ashley, Bennet and Peyton?