Oshki Ogimaag Community School
December 06, 2024
Boozhoo Oshki Ogimaag Community School Families and Community Partners,
Zoogipoon - It snows!
Our Makwag classroom (2nd grade) in their Language Arts Module, the current unit is focused on reading and writing informational texts, and the theme of the unit is Challenges in Going to School. Students are researching schools around the world from the text Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools around the World by Susan Hughes. Students have been exploring why is it hard for students to go to school in some communities and how communities work together to solve these problems so that children can attend school. Students have been learning about how issues such as weather and location can create obstacles making it difficult for children to go to school and learn about the solutions communities create to overcome these challenges.
Students have studied schools deep in the remote rainforest village of Xixuaú, Brazil, Tent Schools in Haiti, after the devastation of the 2010 earthquake, Boat Schools in Bangladesh, created so students could attend school through months of monsoon season and flooding, and Doorstep Schools in India, which is school on a school bus, created in areas where lack of resources prevented students from receiving education. Students have been writing about the similarities and differences between these schools and our own school.
One of the themes throughout the units is Why is school important? Another connecting theme across learning about these schools in different parts of the world, is addressing why it is important for students to go to school in their own communities. Through the text students read about the importance of learning that is relevant to the local community and culture.
Students are making connections as to how these concepts apply to our own school. Going to school in their own community, students at Oshki Ogimaag Community School are learning about their culture within the context of their culture, learning cultural knowledge from educators who share their cultural identity and live within their community. This not only facilitates a deeper cultural understanding for students but fosters a sense of belonging and a deeper sense of connectedness to culture and Community. Students at Oshki Ogimaag learn from Elders and other Community members, and experience hands-on, community-based projects, rooted in Anishinaabe culture and language.
It is meaningful that students plant, care for, and harvest produce that becomes part of their own school meals and is used at Feasts; students learn and experience all the steps of ricing from Community members and the rice they’ve harvested and processed is used for school meals and Feasts; students learn to set up sugarbush camps from Elders and Community members, and the maple syrup and maple sugar is used at school and shared with Community members; students snare rabbits, and the meat is used for Feasts. Students learn drumming, beading, ribbon skirt making from Community members.
Students learn Ojibwemowin from their teacher and school leader, who is also a Band Member, and learning Ojibwe is crucial to preserving Anishinaabe language and culture. These are just some of the experiences that students access, which also teaches them what it means to be a member of the Community. They are learning that helping others and teaching others is a way that communities come together not only to survive obstacles, but to thrive.
Chi-miigwech to all the Elders and Community members who work with our students. Your support helps to create unique and powerful learning experiences for students that will have lifelong impacts upon them that will benefit generations to come.
We have a special announcement to make: Ms. Jeana and her partner E.J. are expecting their firstborn early this summer!
Congratulations to Ms. Jeana and E.J., we are so happy for you and sending your growing family lots of love from your Oshki Ogimaag family!
After spending the summer with her little one, Ms. Jeana plans to return to school in September!
A Peek Into Our Week
Waagoshag - In Reading, Kindergartners continue to read poems and are working on recognizing sight words and rhyming words within the poems. In Reading, 1st graders are working on reading short stories, identifying sight words within the stories and working on answering comprehension questions. In Writing, Kindergartners continue to work on letter recognition and 1st graders are working on writing full sentences. In Math, Kindergartners are working on writing numbers and developing counting skills, and 1st graders are working on addition and subtraction story problems. In Science, the class is studying winter and how animals prepare for winter in their environments. In Social Studies, the class is learning about holidays around the world.
Makwag - In Foundational Reading skills, students are reading poems that include 2nd grade sight words and are practicing reading with fluency (reading accurately, with expression, at just the right speed), learning to read and spell words with closed syllables, learning to accurately use an apostrophe when forming a contraction, and learning to break words into syllables and identifying phonemes (sounds within words). In Math, students moved into a new unit and are working on adding and subtracting numbers within 100, using strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and the relationship between addition and subtraction.
In Language Arts Module, students are working through their unit researching schools around the world, and comparing and contrasting the schools with our own. Students worked in research teams and presented their research to their classmates. As we move towards the end of the unit, students will work on synthesizing what they’ve learned to identify why schools are important and write about this topic, including details from their research.
In Social Emotion Learning, students are learning how to collaborate in small groups and how to disagree respectfully. In learning how to have collaborative conversations, students practice adding onto each other’s ideas with new details, respectfully disagreeing, asking clarifying questions, and asking each other for more details.
Migiziwag - The class is working on a new Language Arts Module with themes of biodiversity in the rainforest and animal defense mechanisms. Student are reading nonfiction texts, working to understand how the text is structured, and comprehension of complex concepts within the text. While reading, students identify the main idea of the text, identify supporting sentences, and identify unfamiliar vocabulary words and research the definitions. In Math, 3rd graders are working on finding the areas of objects, and multiplication. 4th grade is working on fraction equivalence, comparison, and extending operations into fractions. 5th grade is working on fractions with quotients, fraction multiplication, and fraction division. In Writing, students received letters from their pen pals from a school in the Twin Cities and are working on writing letters in response. They are excited about getting to know students from another school!
Holiday Program in the Old Log School Building
When: Thursday, December 19th 5:30pm (Students should arrive to the Log Building at 5pm to prepare for the program)
Where: The Old Log School Building
What: Oshki Ogimaag Community School's Annual Holiday Program, followed by the Grand Portage Community Center Gift Distribution at 6:30pm (candy bags will be available at the program)
The Snowy Season has Begun!
If your family faces barriers preventing you from providing these items for your students, please reach out, we often have donations of winter gear and can connect with Human Services to ensure all students have warm winter gear. Please include sizes and color preferences, when reaching out.
Hands-On, Community-Based Projects Happening at Oshki Ogimaag
Sue Hennessy from the Grand Marais Playhouse is working with Ms. James and students, in preparation for our holiday program! The program includes telling a sacred story in the form of a play. We were thankful for the snow on the ground, so we could begin telling the story! Students will also sing holiday songs in Ojibwe and one in English. For this year’s holiday program, Ms. James lead our staff dialogue and we discussed rooting the program in the mission of our school, so that what we are doing is relevant and meaningful to our mission and doing this work is infused with joy for students. Our focus is on learning and joyful experiences together versus perfection, and we work to role model this for students.
Mr. Gene Boshey is working with our boys, drumming each week. While boys are drumming, girls engage in other cultural learning experiences (such as beadwork, making ribbon skirts, dancing). The boys look forward to drumming each week, with great excitement! While drumming Gene provides many cultural lessons, time in the drumming circle is a deeply meaningful time for connection, culture and Community.
Miigwech to Sue and Gene for their important work with our students!
