November Newsletter

We had such a wonderful experience during our parent teacher conferences! Thank you for your partnership in your child’s education. Our caring teachers are providing an engaging learning environment, which sparks curiosity and a love for learning within each child, but we cannot be successful without our partnership with you. We are grateful for your continued commitment to your child’s learning and please know that we are all working as a team toward the success of your child. Thank you!

Our students are continuing to show positive behavior in many areas of our school. We have filled up our school pom pom jar for the second time this school year. Great job, Caribou!

Students will be celebrating this accomplishment by participating in an hour of fun activities with their grade level teachers this week. Some of the choice fun activities are an art project, board games, and "Minute to Win It" games.

Congratulations to our students who earned a Positive Office Referral during the month of October. Way to go!

Noah King

Kylei McKoon

Lincoln Udelhoven

Asher Kircher

Thomas Ocel

Cason Hartman

Asher Lawson

Macy Riggins

Lincoln Udelhoven

Hunter Langley

Michael Conrad

Toby Kirby

Genevieve Chaffee

Uzziel Samarin-Ruiz

Brody McGiff

Brycen Turner

Landen Gray

Harper Madrid

Sawyer Leake

Lewis Bliss

Mason Kvamme

Josie Crabtree

We would like to thank all of those who were involved in the Great Caribou Migration. It was an incredible day of exercise and positive interactions. Our herd was able to run a grand total of 6,721 laps! That is equal to over 611 miles! That is greater than the distance from Soldotna to the North Slope! We also beat our fundraising goal of $10,000 by raising a grand total of $18,063! Your support will help us purchase Chromebooks and educational software for our students. Thank you!

Student Who Raise the Most Money: Zipporah Radtke

Class Who Raised the Most Money: Mrs. Bryan

Class with the Most Laps: Mr. Daniels class with 530 total laps, average lap per student 22.08

Most Laps Run:

6th Grade: Gavin Hughes 42

5th Grade: Gus Cothran 35

4th Grade: Trent Grasso 34

3rd Grade: Landon Musgrove 31

2ndGrade: Max Boehmler 28

1st Grade: Minoa Manolakakis 30

Kindergarten: Lincoln Udelhoven/Cooper Dyer 27

We had a wonderful time at the Kenai Pumpkin Festival! We were lucky enough to have some students from our Student Leadership Team join us to help with the face painting.

Weekly classroom lessons have focused on skills for learning that include focusing attention, listening, using self-talk, and being assertive. Our very youngest students have been practicing their listening skills (eyes watching, ears listening, voices quiet, and bodies still) as well as their assertiveness skills (asking for what you need or want in a calm, firm voice). Older students have been focused on the importance of changing negative self-talk to more positive self-talk to positively impact our thoughts and feelings.

If you have not visited the Counselor Corner on our school website, I would like to encourage you to check it out. This resource is full of informative content to help you understand why our school counseling program is essential at K-Beach Elementary School.

Students might recognize and enjoy sharing with you the program resources found in Mr. Bultsma’s Virtual Office. There are lots of interactive activities in the calming corner that support some of our students’ favorite ways to calm down big feelings like mad, sad, or worried.

More specific information about the school counseling program is found in the Google Slides titled Connecting with Mr. Bultsma. The Counselor Corner also includes a variety of community resources to support family wellness.

Please see the areas K-Beach intends to grow this school year:

1. By May of 2023, eighty percent of our first and second grade students will make annual growth on the AIMS ORF assessments. By May of 2023, eight percent of kindergarten students will make annual growth on the AIMS LSF.
2. By May of 2023, seventy percent of our second through sixth grade students will make annual growth in reading as measured by either the winter or spring MAP assessment.
3. By May of 2023, the number of unexcused absences will be reduced by 50%.

Each year our school leadership team selects three goals that help us to improve our learning outcomes at K-Beach Elementary. This year we decided that one of our goals would be to improve school attendance by reducing the number of our unexcused student absences by May of 2023.

You might be surprised to know that 82 out of 412 students have been in school 42 out of 42 days during the first quarter. Although we are excited about that number, we noticed that 1,498 days of school have been missed during the same 42 day period - that’s almost nine years of school with an average of about 3.5 days of missed school per student so far this year.

Attendance matters! Coming to school on time every day, helps our students now and later. Did you know missing 10 percent (or about 17 days) can make it harder for students to learn to read?

We were surprised to learn that 687 student absences this year (about 45% of the total) were unexcused. This is one of the reasons why we decided to make attendance a priority this year. Illness and appointments make absences during the school day unavoidable, and we trust you to make the best decision about whether or not your child should attend school.

We are asking that you join our effort to reduce the number of unexcused absences by 50% this year. We cannot achieve this goal alone and are asking that you help us by contacting the school office in the event of student absence from school.

It is that time of year, once again, when the weather begins to change and students return to school. It is also the time when Head Lice (or Pediculosis) begins to make its presence known! Do you know that anyone can get head lice? In fact, these parasites infest over 12 million Americans of all ages and socioeconomic status every year. And while head lice are annoying and upsetting, head lice are not life threatening.

Important Documents

• Helpful Facts about Lice
• Pediculosis Examination and Evaluation

Once you have treated your child, they may come back to school. They must, however, see the school nurse first to make sure treatment was successful. If not, your child will need to return home until treatment is successful. (Success = no live lice.)

Also watch, LICE: The Movie

We would like to welcome Ms. Judy Cox to our herd! Ms. Cox is our new second grade teacher. She comes to us with many years of teaching experience and a big heart. By adding a new teacher, we were able to reduce class sizes in our first and second grade classes. Welcome to the herd, Ms. Cox!

A big thank you to Kenai Walmart for donating gardening supplies to K-Beach Elementary! Coach Fallon was very helpful and patient in the process of picking up the supplies. They will be put to good use for our gardening and high tunnel projects!

November 10th: Veterans Day Assembly 8:00 a.m. (Families Invited)

November 11th: Early Release 12:55 p.m.

November 17th: PTO Meeting 3:00 p.m.

November 17th: Bingo for Books 5:00 - 6:30 p.m.

November 24th and 25th: No School - Thanksgiving Break

December 9th: Early Release 12:55 p.m.

December 19th - January 3rd: Winter Break (No School)

January 13th : Early Release 12:55 p.m.

January 16th: School is in session (Make-up Snow Day)