Chalk Talk April 27, 2016

Kindergarten registration, Master Gardeners, art and more highlight the latest Chalk Talk from Sequim schools.

DISTRICT

The next school board meeting is May 2 with a workshop planned for 5:30 p.m., followed by a regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the boardroom. The boardroom is within the auditorium building at 601 N. Sequim Ave.

An agenda is available on the district website under Board of Directors. The public is encouraged to attend and time is set aside at each meeting for public comment.

For more information, email Marilyn Walsh at mwalsh@sequim.k12.wa.us or call 582-3262.

Kindergarten registration for fall 2016 will be held at both Sequim elementary schools on Monday, May 2:

• at Helen Haller Elementary School (350 W. Fir St.) from 4-6:30 p.m. in the school’s library. For questions, call the school office at 582-3200.

• at Greywolf Elementary School (171 Carlsborg Road) from 4-5:30 p.m. in the school’s multi-purpose room. For questions, call the school’s office at 582-3300.

The Sequim School District offers an all-day kindergarten program. Remember, your child needs to be 5 years old on or before Aug. 31 in order to attend kindergarten in fall 2016. The elementary school your child will attend is dictated by where you reside. A map showing the Elementary School Boundary Line can be found on this website under “Our District,” then “Schools.” If you still are unsure, call the district at 582-3260.

 

GREYWOLF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Science specialist Carla Morton has first- and second-grade students exploring geology and Earth’s materials. They use various sizes of screens to separate a mixture of pebbles, gravel and sand. Students then add water to the sand in vials in order to further separate the clay. Classes make careful observations before and after the earth materials settle in the vials.

 

HELEN HALLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

In mid-April, 15 Master Gardener volunteers visited each of the second-grade classrooms armed with soil, seeds, flannel boards, puppets, photos and real plants.

The enthusiastic volunteers shared lessons about the life cycle of a plant and the many ways that plants make our lives and our world better. Each child was able to plant five seeds in a root viewer cup provided by the Master Gardeners that they will observe and record the growth and development of the seeds over the next couple of weeks.

It was a wonderful visit that the students have followed up by writing poetry and creating posters of the plant life cycle.

 

Susan Dufner’s class wrote about the process. Here is more about Herbie and how to make a Root Viewer:

 

Hi I am going to tell you how to make a root viewer.

Step 1: Grab a plastic cup and make a little hole anywhere on the bottom of the cup.

Step 2: Roll up a paper towel and put it inside the cup and then put your hand inside the cup and tape it on the sides.

Step 3: Get a Popsicle stick and put your name on the top of the Popsicle stick and then you get soil and pour it in, then get your Popsicle stick and stick in the stick on the side of the paper towel. Stick in your seeds and put them in the middle on the side of the paper towel. Make sure the paper towel is all wet and put your stick in the middle.

You are done!

by Violet Phillips

 

Hi, my name is Kaylee and I am going to tell you how to grow a Root Viewer.

Step 1: Get a wood stick and put your name on it.

Step 2: Get a cup and put it in front of you

Step 3: Get a paper towel and roll it up and put it inside and spread the towel a little bit.

Step 4: Get a corn seed, two radish seeds, one sunflower, one pea, and last but not least, one bean seed. But first, put some dirt inside the cup and the paper towel.

Step 5: Get your wood stick and put it close to the cup and over the paper towel. Put your seeds in it.

Step 6: Get tin foil and wrap it up.

Step 7: Put some water in.

Step 8: Put it on a window and done.

by Kaylee Torres

 

Herbie the bean puppet taught us how to grow with a life cycle. First, a seed. Second, roots. Third, root hairs. Fourth, four leaves. Fifth, a tulip. When the tulip dies, the seeds fly away, then a seed grows again.

by Mackenzie Worley

 

The bean puppet was so funny. It even had a face and eyes and a mouth. The bean developed from stage to stage because it was growing. In the end the plant died. The bean puppet helped us know how plants develop.

by Koa AllencastreManders

Teresa Thorson’s second-grade class wrote Nature Poems after the Master Gardeners lesson.

Here are a few:

 

“Nature” by Sofia Divinsky

The power of wind

The wind is so

Strong and so light.

Thank you wind for

Giving the beautiful day.

The leaves fly and

Kids try to catch them.

With wind it is

Beautiful to go biking

In nature.

The kids are writing

The sun rising and

The flowers blooming.

The wind is so

Strong and so light.

 

“Sun” by Cayden Corbin

The sun is bright and hot.

Hot as flames.

The sun is gold.

 

“Nature” by Gauge Castillo

Oh nature

You’re so beautiful and dangerous

Your way is many colors.

Green, yellow, white and brown

Bugs, insects, animals, arachnids

The dandelions, trees, and the

House is beautiful.

The twists and cracks are

All beautiful.

 

“Poem” by Hayden Rayburn

A blue bird flies by.

A leaf fell from the biggest tree.

I see a bee flying by.

The bee landed on a flower.

Flower to flower

A ladybug perched on a branch

People laying on grass

In the sunlight

Hundreds of flowers

Different colors and

All sizes.

 

“Nature” by Max Souza

Nature is one thing

We people cannot forget

Nature is what brings

Life to the earth.

Wind blows paper far, far away

The same with seeds and

Every time that happens

It gives the earth

Way more life.

Kaylee Kinsey’s students will spend the coming weeks journaling about their seeds’ growth.

 

SEQUIM MIDDLE SCHOOL

Eighth-grade art students Tane Ridel and Brianna Jack made stippled drawings in pen that art teacher Joshua Capps submitted in a local student art competition.

Ridel has a piece of a man with a hat walking in the woods, which is being shown in the Heatherton Gallery in Port Angeles.

Jack has a piece of multiple snails crawling up a branch which is being shown in the Landing Gallery, also in Port Angeles.

Both pieces of art were selected by the gallery owners to show individually all month in those galleries after having been shown for the entire prior month as part of the Olympic Peninsula Art Associations “Sequim Arts” Student group show.

SEQUIM HIGH SCHOOL

Steve Mahitka, agricultural sciences teacher and FFA advisor and Career Technology Education director, wants to get the word out that the annual Sequim High Spring Plant Sale will be from noon-5:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 4; from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 5; from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday, May 6; and from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, May 7, at the greenhouse.

Student’s viewpoint by junior Andrew Juntilla:

Attention! Sequim High School is going under a school-wide exam (aside from the freshmen class). During the dates of April 19-29, we are undergoing a statewide exam known as the Smarter Balanced Assessment test.

Although the typical student is not fond of these assessments, this one has its perks. Benefits including bypassing the compass placement test and end-of-course exams.

Students may ask their counselors for more information.

On a brighter note — literally, due to the recent sunshine — a track meet was held in Sequim on Wednesday, April 20. This meet was Senior Night and the only track and field competition to be held in Sequim.

A junior class barbecue was held in conjunction to raise money for the Class of 2017’s graduation party.

Thank you for supporting our Wolves athletes!