Aanin Oshki Ogimaag Community School Families and Community Partners,
Ziigwan! Thursday marked the first day of Spring (despite our traditional Spring Break snowstorm)!
When we return to school we will have only 9 weeks left of the school year! Spring is a time when the world around us wakes up, things become brighter and louder. After long slumbers under blankets of snow; plants, insects and animals awaken and the world is anew.
The birds will be chirping and insects will be buzzing and these last weeks of school are equally buzzing with joy and much to do, as we prepare for the end of the school year! We have Sugar Bush, Spring Testing, Earth Day Celebration, Spring Parent/Guardian Teacher Conferences, Step-Up Days, Field Day, and our End of Year Celebration all coming up as we close out the school year!
When we return from Spring Break, we will be visiting the Sugar Bush to tap trees on Tuesday, April 1st! We will head to Sugar Bush Camp at Waaban after lunch, at 12:30pm. Families and all Community members are welcomed to join us!
On Monday, April 07, Oshki Ogimaag will have a full-day at Sugar Bush Camp at Waaban! Teachers will bring Instructional Materials to Sugar Bush Camp. Educators from 1854 Treaty Authority will also join us, providing some instructional learning experiences. We will have lunch there and spend out entire learning day at Sugar Bush Camp! Families and all Community members are welcomed to join us!
Note: Sugar Bush days/times are tentative, dependent upon weather conditions.
Please email Ms. James with any questions!
A Peek Into Our Week
Waagoshag - In Reading, Kindergarteners continue to sound out CVC (consonant vowel consonant) sight words, identify sight words in poems and identify rhyming words. Kindergarteners are exploring changing individual sounds in words to make new words and noticing the difference between similar words by identifying different sounds of letters. In Reading, 1st graders are working on reading short stories and answering comprehension questions. 1st graders are learning about sight words with suffixes -s, -ed, and -ing.
In Writing, Kindergartners are working on writing simple sentences that include more than one sight word, and 1st graders are writing sentences that include more than one sight word and are learning about homophones (words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings, origin or spelling) and plural nouns.
In Math, Kindergartners are working on addition and subtraction and 1st graders are working on addition and instruction within 20, reading story problems, and adding three numbers in an equation. In Science, Kindergartners are working on a study of weather and 1st graders are studying the sun, moon, and stars.
Makwag - In Foundational Reading Skills, students are learning to identify and read words with the prefix im- (e.g. imperfect, impossible), and learning to read and spell words with common phonograms (letter or letter combination the represent a sound), such as the /kəl/ sound, spelled c-a-l or c-l-e (e.g. musical, magical, physical, bicycle, obstacle, uncle). For Poem Launch, students read The Talent Show, a poem utilizing the sight words and foundational concepts students explored throughout the week. The Decodable Reader was The Silver Lake Barnacles, continuing with the character Mable, who is determined to show others that she can be in a wheelchair and be an excellent basketball player on a team! The Decodable Reader is filled with current sight words and practice with the suffixes and phonograms the class is learning about.
In Language Arts Module, Makwag are learning about different types of fossils and learning to answer questions about the different types of fossils, using evidence from their text. Students learned to write museum display labels about a fossil, using information from their text! Students practiced using evidence from the text, Fossils and the Earth Long Ago, to answer questions about how fossils tell us about the Earth long ago. Student learned how to make inferences about animals from long ago by examining pictures of fossils. Students created their own “fossils” and refreshed their minds about what a fossil is/can be, and how paleontologists find them and learn from them.
In Math, Makwag continued to work with number lines; locating whole numbers on number lines, making sense of the structure of a number line, describing the structure of a number line, representing whole numbers on a number line, and describing the point in terms from its length from 0, and using skip counting patterns to locate numbers a number line.
In Social Studies, Makwag continue their Geography unit, learning about the physical characteristics of state geography (vocabulary words: coasts, border, capital, community). In Physical Education, on Monday, Makwag played “Leprechaun Says,” working on locomotor skills (movements that involve traveling from one location to another) and non-locomotor skills (movements performed while staying in one place). and also played “Capture the Gold” (Capture the Flag), working on running and team building. In Social Emotional Learning (SEL) students listened to the read aloud, Your Fantastic Elastic Brain by JoAnn Deak, Ph.D. and Sarah Ackerley, and engaged in classroom discussion about the different parts of the brain and how doing challenging things can make our brains grow stronger! Ms. Clara has been promoting the joy of reading with her class and they’ve been checking out books from the school library to read in class and at home! Students have been very excited about checking out books!
Migiziwag - In Math, 3rd grade students are learning about the relationship between multiplication and division, place value understanding, and the properties of operations to multiply and divide whole numbers within 100. 4th grade students are reading, writing, and comparing numbers in decimal notation. Students also extend the place value understanding for multi-digit whole numbers and add and subtract within 1,000,000. 5th grade students are using a standard algorithm to multiply digit whole numbers. Students divide whole numbers up to four digits by two digits.
In Reading, 3rd and 4th grade students are applying the research they completed earlier about their expert animal and defense mechanisms to write a Choose Your Own Adventure narrative about their animal. 5th grade started a new unit on factors contributing to the success of professional athletes as leaders of social change. Their first book is about Jackie Robinson and how he contributed to social change. Later in the unit, students will research an athlete of their choice to compare and contrast the athletes they’ve read about throughout the unit.
In Writing, the class finished their book about the ocean and Ms. Jeana sent it in to get published! The students are super excited to see the final product! The class is finishing up their biographies. Once the class finishes their rough drafts, they will edit, and type their final draft. Ms. Jeana has the class handwrite the rough drafts to practice handwriting, grammar, and spelling skills. The final draft is completed on the computer to practice typing skills.
Hands-On, Community-Based Projects Happening at Oshki Ogimaag
We have Intergenerational Yoga with Ms. Carly each week on Thursdays. Yoga sessions are 20 minutes long and work to support students with focus, attention, mindfulness, emotional regulation, and bodily awareness. Each session, Elders are invited to participate! See flyer below for details and reach out with any questions!
Susan Ferguson from North House Folk School, assisted by Ms. Kat, provides Woodworking classes after school on Wednesdays.
Mondays 3:30-4:30, Dr. Erik Redix is leading Ojibwe Language Table, located in the OOCS Conference Room! Join us to learn and/or increase your Ojibwemowin skills! See flyer below for details! Special Note: Dr. Redix has EXTENDED Ojibwe Language Table to go through Monday, May 19th!
Chi-miigwech to Ms. Carly, Susan Ferguson and North House Folk School, Ms. Kat & Mr. Redix!
Each Friday afternoon, the whole school joins together for hiking in the woods along trails, creeks, adventuring to different local areas in nature, including the shores of Gichigami. Forest Fridays are lead by our Environmental Education Coordinator, Ms. Jeana Van Dyne, and Forest Friday activities target meeting our Environmental Education goals with our authorizer, Osprey Wilds.
