DISTRICT

For the most up-to-date information on school events, go to the district website at www.sequim.k12.wa.us and click on the Calendar button.

The last day of class for all schools before winter break is Dec. 16. Winter break is Dec. 19-Jan. 2. School resumes Jan. 3.

The next school board meeting is at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 3, in the boardroom, located in the auditorium building, 533 N. Sequim Ave. To view the agenda for this meeting, go to www.sequim.k12.wa.us and click on “Board of Directors.” Time is set aside at every board meeting for public comments.

The district held a staff celebratory taco dinner for Greywolf Elementary School’s National Distinguished School award in the high school cafeteria.

Assistant Superintendent Ann Renker said, “What an awesome event! This event saw folks from all our buildings and programs come together with the Greywolf staff and their families to celebrate this amazing accomplishment. Greywolf principal Donna Hudson surfaced the fact that there are 98,000 elementary schools in our country and only 100 are selected for this honor.”

Mark Knudson, a Sequim High School teacher who attended the event with his wife Kim Knudson — who teaches at Greywolf — quantified Hudson’s remark, adding,” Great celebration! Based on Donna’s numbers, Greywolf falls approximately in the top one-tenth of 1 percent of elementary schools in the U.S.”

GREYWOLF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Bill Koenig Jr., from Koenig Subaru, surprised all first-grade students with the Subaru Gives Back to Education Program. Each first-grader received a puppy bag which included a book, school supplies, tennis ball and a treat. In addition, they received a science topic book on chicks, microbes, Mars or the octopus.

The giving didn’t stop there. Because playground equipment diminishes over time and usage, Koenig Subaru also purchased new playground balls, soccer balls, basketballs and footballs to help keep our students active.

All fourth-grade classes learned about the Middle Ages as part of their reading curriculum in October and November. To culminate the unit, they enjoyed a visit from the Knights of Veritas on Nov. 29. The Knights of Veritas is an organization from Moses Lake that specializes in interactive educational demonstrations of medieval arms, armor, combat, knighthood and chivalry.

The students were able to see knights in authentic clothing and add to their existing knowledge base about knights. The demonstrators commended Greywolf students on exemplary audience behavior and intelligent questions.

HELEN HALLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Thank you to everyone who visited our Scholastic Book Fair! It was a big success, with book sales exceeding last year’s sales by nearly 20 percent. An extra special thank you to all of the PTO volunteers and the Sequim High School Honor Society who helped make our book fair successful.

Proceeds from our Book Fair will fund book giveaways to students at Helen Haller.

— Sheri Kruckeberg, Helen Haller Elementary teacher-librarian

Helen Haller Parent Teacher Organization’s Turkey Trot event held at the end of November raised $15,610.92. Principal Becky Stanton said, “Wowzer! That’s a lot of money. Thank you, Haller community, for your generosity!”

Proceeds from the Turkey Trot will be used to purchase the Heart Tech Plus system, a wearable wrist technology fitness platform that displays live tiles containing biofeedback metrics for group fitness activities.

For more information on the Haller PTO or the Turkey Trot, e-mail SequimHHEPTO@gmail.com.

Sixty students were rewarded for consistently exhibiting respectful, responsible and safe behavior at school at a Shout Out event. Parents and other immediate family members were invited to join their Shout Out students for a special breakfast in the Haller cafeteria on Dec. 8.

After breakfast was served, principal Becky Stanton presented each student with a certificate. An entire section of the wall in the cafeteria was decorated as the Shout Out wall and featured photos of the students with a short write-up by their teachers about their good behaviors. Several parents photographed their student in front of the Shout Out wall.

Another breakfast event will be held later in the school year.

Here is another example of a personal narrative from Eric Danielson’s fifth-grade students:

“The Foursquare Fumble Foot Fracture” by Danielle (Dani) Herman

I was exactly 10 years and 1 week old on Tuesday April 19, 2016. That day I was at the Sequim Boys &Girls Club playing foursquare outside. I was running around in the second square waiting for my friend Kika to serve the oversized, red, foursquare ball. When I wasn’t paying any attention, Kika served the ball. I was running in the square so I tripped. I was crying like my foot had been chopped off, so Riley (a staff member) came to help.

Why was I crying? My hands were dirty, that wasn’t it. My knee was scratched and bleeding, but that wasn’t it either. My foot felt like it was broken. Yes, that was why indeed.

Two of my friends had to be my “human crutches.” At least that’s what I called them. Once I was inside I sat down in the cafeteria area. About 10 minutes later I got picked up by my mom.

By Wednesday, my foot was fatter than a cucumber is wide. On Wednesday, I also limped around all day long, so after school, my mom brought me to her work (Jamestown Family Health Clinic) to get an X-ray. Wesley and Keaton Stromberg’s (from Emblem 3) mom did the X-ray! I even met Keaton and Wesley’s younger brother.

On Thursday night, my mom got the news, my foot was fractured! Whoopee. My mom called me to the couch where she was and told me the news I wasn’t allowed to walk on my foot for the rest of the night.

On Friday morning I was late to class because my mom and I had to go Rite Aid to get crutches for me.

Later, when my class went to specialist, I had to go to the office (still on crutches) so that my mom could pick me up for a doctor’s appointment. At the appointment, my doctor said that I couldn’t go back to school that day. The doctor also said that at 2 p.m. my mom and I had to go pick up a walking boot for me.

So my mom and I went back to Helen Haller Elementary (my school) to get all of my stuff. Then at 2 p.m., we went to pick up the walking boot and I was extremely happy to walk again!

Eight long, stressful weeks later, I was out of the boot and finally walking on my own two feet! Now I am healed and a dumb little walking boot isn’t holding me back from chasing my dreams (and my younger, 6-year-old brother).

“A Big Project” by Lars Wiker

It was about 9:15 in the morning. It was a Friday at the end of the summer. I just opened my eyes when I heard a growl. It came from my stomach. So I got out of bed, put some clothes on and walked to the bathroom but then I heard it again but this time it was louder, way louder. I thought it might have caused a 7.5 earthquake.

So I turned around and ran to the pantry. I grabbed the Honey Bunches of Oats. I took a bowl and put it on the counter top, then I snatched the milk out of the refrigerator. It was about half full. When I was pouring my cereal I made sure I got a lot. That was good and filling, I thought.

My older brother Sven just walked out of his room when he said, “You want to watch TV?”

“Sure,” I replied.

So we went to the couch and watched TV.

“What time is it?” I said.

“About 12:30,” Sven answered.

“Wow! It felt like an hour. Man, we should get off our lazy butts and do something,” I said.

“Well, if you want to do something, Frank is outside working on a project. I think he said he wanted your help,” my dad said

“OK, I’ll help him,” I answered. I got up ran to my shoes and put them on.

When I went outside Frank was mowing the lawn. My mind was blown. I mean mowing the lawn, just amazing, such a cool project. Before I had the chance to turn back and go inside my stepbrother Frank said, “Hey Lars, want to help me?”

“Sure,” I replied.

My insides were boiling. Why did I have to come out here?

After five minutes of watching Frank mow the lawn I asked, “What are we making?” He didn’t hear me so I cleared my throat and repeated, “What are we making?”

“What?” he said as he turned off the lawn mower.

“What are we … ?” I started but then I realized my brothers were racing toward us.

“I won.”

“No, I won.”

“Whatever. What do you want us to do Frank?” my older brother Taig asked.

“Well, let’s see. You can get all the spray paint you can find. It doesn’t matter what color,” Frank replied.

“OK,” my brother said. And when he was running away Frank said the answer, “We’re gonna make a football field.”

“What?” I said amazed. “We’re making a football field?”

“Yeah,” Liam said.

“We’ve been talking about it for weeks,” Frank said.

“Oh,” I said, confused. “Well, what you do want me to do?”

“I don’t know.”

“I found some paint. It’s blue,” Taig said.

“Good. See the wire?” Frank asked.

“Yeah,” Taig replied.

“OK, well that’s going to be the sideline. So just paint over that,” Frank said.

When we were done with the paint we only had two sidelines and one end zone. So we had to go to Walmart to get more paint.

“To the Frankmobile,” Liam said.

When we got there I unbuckled my seat we all got out of the car. I was last because I was in the middle. We went through the garden section. We all started walking toward the back. The spray paint was next to the video games and my little brother knew that.

“Can I go check the games out?” Liam asked.

“Yeah, go with Taig,” Frank said. Liam ran faster than the Flash and Taig was walking like a zombie.

“Well let’s get nine of these,” Frank said pointing to white spray paint cans that cost 97 cents.

When we got home we went straight to the field. We made little hashes on the sideline. Every five yards we made a line that goes across the whole field. We only had one end zone. The field is about 15 yards wide and 30 yards long.

“Well, we did it. We made a football field,” Taig said.

“Yeah, we did,” I said.

“Well, after a long day of work we should go to the bratcave,” Liam said. That’s what he calls our game room.

“The Chinese Gift Exchange” by Kika Oldham

I wake up wondering if I should wake up my family, but instead I decide to snoop around and look, shake and even smell the presents. Once I hear either my brother or mom getting out of bed, I take cover and hide. If they are going in the kitchen, I try to get to the closet and hide in there. If they are going to the bathroom, I hide until I hear the bathroom door close and then I quickly tiptoe to my room and pretend that I am sleeping.

How I know that my brother is awake is he usually goes on the computer and I hear his fingers clacking the keyboard and I hear him swearing and cussing when he loses or dies. While he’s doing that, then I go on my computer and play games, but never cuss or swear when I do that.

By the time I’m starving, I go and get some breakfast. Sometimes my mom would have the energy to get up and make breakfast. When I’m about to go to my room, I look at the tree and see presents. Then I start to think to myself and wonder if I should finish my mission. I say to myself, “Yes!” After I’m done with that, I go to my room and wait for my mom to come home for lunch.

After she comes home from work for the rest of the day we go to the store and we pick out one present without anyone else seeing. Once we are all done we go home and wrap them. Then we put them under the tree with no name.

When it’s about 6 p.m. my family from Seattle comes over and we play games and eat dinner. After we are done with dinner we open presents. After everyone’s presents are open we take the presents with no name and start the Chinese gift exchange.

How you play is everyone buys a present that’s not made for anyone, so we pick a name from a hat or go youngest to oldest or do oldest to youngest. So you pick a present but you don’t open it yet. When it’s another person’s turn to pick they can either pick another present or steal someone else’s present. That means that the person has to pick a different present. After all the presents are gone we open them and see what we have. When everyone’s gift is open the game is over.

So that is my family tradition the Chinese gift exchange.

OLYMPIC PENINSULA ACADEMY

Hannah Shaddock, a junior at both Olympic Peninsula Academy and Sequim High School, has been a student at OPA since fourth grade. Her desire to place books in the hands of every student and parent at OPA helped her design and create this OPA Book Nook.

Hannah fills the Book Nook with books she finds and purchases at thrift stores, the library and any other place that she can locate reading material.

Because of the generous donation of Sequim Education Foundation, we were able to purchase two book shelves to house all of the treasures Hannah finds. Hannah’s love for books is contagious and she wants every person to have access to free books at any time.

SEQUIM HIGH SCHOOL

Last chance to pre-order a yearbook ends on Dec. 16. They are $55 and can be purchased in the main office.

Cap and gown orders for seniors are due to National Achiever by Dec. 15. Orders can be placed on line at nationalachiever.com.

Don’t miss the choir concert at 7 p.m. Dec. 14 in the auditorium. The choir program is under the direction of John Lorentzen. The band will perform several numbers at their concert at 7 p.m. on Dec. 15 in the auditorium. The band program is under the direction of Vern Fosket.