Today, Mrs. Buck's 6th Grade Science Class was doing a simulation on offshore drilling. They had been discussing rocks and fossil fuels. In our area of the country, there is a great deal of oil drilling going on, so they spent some time discussing oil, where it comes from, and how we depend on it. This led to a conversation about offshore drilling and Mrs. Buck had this simulation to give the students a better understanding of the process involved and the risks in doing it. First, they made models with play-doh representing the different parts of the ocean floor. Then, they buried some black in the play-doh to represent oil. Next, they swapped models for the simulation so they would not know where the oil was located. In their group, they had to learn and understand the process and the general cost of a drilling project. Then they had to review the environmental risk of drilling and make a decision on where to drill. Then they were ready to drill for oil! To drill they poked a straw into the play-doh to see if they found any black (oil). Some of the groups hit oil the first time and were able to finish. Others missed, and had to weigh the risk of drilling again while consulting with an environmental specialist to measure the impact of another drilling attempt. Finally, they had to finish recording all of their data and information and calculating the final cost of their drilling project. This was a great project that forced the students to think about a real world issue that we are facing and gave them some background knowledge to help them form an educated opinion on offshore oil drilling!
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| Here are some preschoolers getting ready to accomplish their "Monday Mission". Everyone is excited to see this group out and about! |
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| Cindy Brungardt comes to the school each fall for Indian Summer Days and helps the First and Second Grade students make stick horses to ride in the parade. It is a blast and the kids always enjoy it! |
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| Cowboy and Indians day during homecoming week. |
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| Face Painting for Homecoming |
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| Mini Cheerleaders |
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| Ranger Rick visits the school to help the kids understand the rules |
Finally, the Stuco purchased new welcome rugs for the school. The rugs came in last week and they look great! Thanks to Mrs. Buck and the Stuco kids this year! |
| Mrs. Farrar's Kindergarten Class |
This week we had our first Indian Pride assembly at school. We will be having an Indian Pride assembly every month to talk about the new character trait for the month and to showcase the many talents of our students and staff. We started this in an effort to boost our school pride as well as to recognize our outstanding students. Our character trait this month is respect. Ms. Hill will be discussing respect in the classrooms and helping our students understand what that looks like in their lives. For each trait, we have a poster that is in the hallway and in the teachers' classrooms to help the students remember. This month's character is Respect Reggie, pictured to the side with a list of ways he shows his Indian Pride. We have drawings at the assemblies to reward students for earning Character cards or as we call them "Zing Cards". All of the staff have these cards to give to students when they do something that demonstrates great character. We were blessed to have many of the local businesses donate money and gift cards to help us with the prizes. Overall, it went very well, and the kids had a great time! Thanks to all of you involved for helping us make it happen! |
| John and Lainey |
One of the big focuses we have academically is for our students to become more proficient at writing. We are trying to help students put their thoughts down on paper in a way that makes sense to the reader. I saw an example of this when I visited Mrs. Rambat's Science class this week. When I came in, Mrs. Rambat was showing many leaves collected by Jacob Eck and they were discussing why the leaves had different shapes. The students then had to write a prediction abut how the shape of a leaf affects the way a tree gets sunlight. 
