Oshki Ogimaag Community School
November 10, 2024
Boozhoo Oshki Ogimaag Community School Families and Community Partners,
Biinjwebinigen - Vote
An important part of the mission of Oshki Ogimaag Community School is to contribute to the wellness of future generations. A key component to achieving this aspect of our mission is to educate our young leaders to use their voices and their power to engage in actions that lead and influence, to make the world a better place, starting within their own communities. We teach students to think critically, so they have the tools to navigate the world, asking questions and pursuing knowledge using details from trusted sources to back-up their assertions.
This past week, Ms. James taught lessons in engaging in the democratic process of voting for the general election. Ms. James presented students with lessons on the presidential nominees. As educators, we aim not to teach our students what to think, but how to think, how to engage in discourse, and use their critical thinking skills to make informed, well though-out decisions, especially when the decision holds such great importance as choosing a leader for our country.
On Election Day, we held student elections, with students using ballots just as registered voters would, with our oldest students trained as poll workers, facilitating the democratic process for the younger students. Research shows a relationship between being encouraged to vote and educated on democratic processes and civic engagement later in life. Research also indicates that Indigenous students and POC are less likely to be encouraged to vote by educators and less likely to be taught about registering to vote and voting processes than white youth. We want to ensure that when students graduate from Oshki Ogimaag they take with them valuable tools that will support their lifelong earning, pride in their cultural identities, language and traditions, a strong foundation of academic knowledge, and to be citizens who think collectively, contributing to the wellness of future generations.
We take our school’s vision of teaching students to be new leaders seriously and all that we do and the plans that we make are rooted in the mission of cur school. Students were enthusiastic about engaging in this process and we hope that they will carry with them as they grow, determination to use their voices to lead and influence the world to contribute to the wellness of future generations.
To read more about research in teaching students to be civically engage see the link below:
Oshki Ogimaag Community School's Annual Meeting
- When: Wednesday, November 13 at 5pm
- Where: Oshki Ogimaag Community School
- What: The Annual Meeting is a time for Board elections, to reflect on the past year, viewing the Annual Report presentation, and envision the future for Oshki Ogimaag!
- The dinner will be pizza provided by Oshki Ogimaag and potluck. Please bring a side dish or dessert to share!
- We hope to see you there!
A Peek Into Our Week:
Waagoshaag - In Reading, Kindergartners continue to work on identifying letters based upon their sounds and matching upper and lowercase letters. In Reading, 1st graders are reading short stories and practicing responding to comprehension questions. In Writing, Kindergarteners are working on writing their letters and Kindergarten sight words. In Writing, 1st graders are working on sentence writing and spelling 1st grade sight words. In Math, Kindergartners are working on counting concepts and writing numbers. In Math, 1st graders are continuing their unit on addition and subtraction story problems. In Science, the class is learning about the life cycle of a turkey, and the concepts of camouflage and buoyancy. In Social Studies, the class is continuing their unit on Toys and Play.
Maakwag - In Foundational Reading skills, students continue to work in reading stations, focusing on high frequency sight words, building words, spelling, writing sentences, paragraphs and short stories, depending on their skills level, and working with Ms. Tina 1:1, reading texts tailored to their individual skill level, working on reading with fluency (speed and accuracy) and expression, and responding to comprehension questions. In Math, students continue their work on interpreting and collecting data for graphs, as well as drawing bar graphs.
In Language Arts module, students continue reading Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World by Susan Hughes. In this text, students explore challenges of going to school in schools around the world and how communities solve these challenges. This week, students read about the schools in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and how the community dealt with devastation after the 2010 earthquake. Students are beginning to learn to write informational texts, starting with a focus statement, following with information about the problem/challenge, followed by information about solutions to the problem, and finishing with a conclusion statement, summarizing the text.
In Social Emotion Learning, students engaged in social stories about how to have the courage to be who you are and show others kindness, recognizing that everyone has a heart with feelings. In Social Studies, students learned about elections and continue to learn about the history of
Gichi-onigamiing (Grand Portage). In Environmental Education, students planted garlic, harvested cabbage, fleshed moose hide, and took field notes during Forest Friday!
Migiziwag - In Math, 3rd graders are working on finding the areas, creating shapes using 1 inch manipulatives and finding the area for their shapes. In Math, 4th and 5th graders are working on fractions. In Language Arts, 3rd and 4th graders are studying biographies of poets, comparing and contrasting the different poets. In Language Arts, 5th graders continue reading and working with the text Esperanza Rising Rising by author Pam Muñoz Ryan. Students are exploring questions about character feelings, struggles, and motivations, comparing and contrasting, and answering comprehension questions using passages from the text to support their responses. The Migiziwag class will be working on essays about individuals who inspire them.
Conferences will be held Monday, November 18th, Tuesday, November 19th, and Thursday, November 21st
Please sign-up for a conference to meet with your child's teacher, for each of your students. We are aiming for 100% family participation! If you cannot find a time that works for you, please reach out and we work to find a time that works for all!
Click Below to Sign-Up!
November Weather is Here!
Soon students will need "The Big 5" (Winter jacket, snow pants, boots, hats and gloves or mittens) each day! If your family faces barriers preventing you from providing these items for your students, please reach out!
November 11th-15th
- Monday is Veterans' Day (School IS still in session), Sustained Silent Reading
- Tuesday is School Picture Day!
- Wednesday is our Annual Meeting at 5pm!
- Thursday, After School Theater Club 3:15-4:45pm
- Friday afternoons each classroom does a Forest Friday hike! We also hope to have a campfire Friday!
A Week of Hands-On, Community-Based Projects!
This week students started Yoga with Ms. Carly! This school year Ms. Carly will be doing Yoga with us each week! Students had After School Theater Club with Sue Hennessy, from the Grand Marais Playhouse. For Forest Friday, students went to Mineral Center gardens, to plant garlic and Emily Derke, Grand Portage Agricultural Coordinator, and Tess Bailey, Grand Portage Community Nutrition Educator, guided students through through these hands-on community-based projects.
On Friday, Melvin “Bun” Gagnon allowed students to assist in preparing his moose hide, students participated in the fleshing process. Students were guided by Erik Carlson, from Grand Portage Forestry, and Bun, with Rick Novitsky sharing Elder knowledge with students and documenting the event.
Chi-miigwech to all of the Community members and Elders who share their time, knowledge and gifts with our students so that are students may pass on this knowledge to future generations. A special chi-miigwech to Bun for allowing our students this special cultural learning experience!
We Need at Least 1 More Parent of a Currently Enrolled Student to Join Our Board!
We are looking for a minimum of one more individual who is a parent/guardian of a currently enrolled student of Oshki Ogimaag Community School to join our Board of Directors! The Parent Board Members are required per MN statute. We are looking to fill these vacancies ASAP!
The Board meets 1 time per month, the 3rd Wednesday of each month (unless otherwise noted on the calendar), at OOCS at 4:30pm. Board elections will take place at our Annual Meeting on November 13th! Please reach out if you are interested!
Participating on the Board is a great way to serve Oshki Ogimaag Community School and use your voice to play an instrumental role in supporting OOCS in meeting the goals of our mission! Also, we have amazing Community Board members that you would get to spend time with!
Please reach out (email below) or reach out to a current Board member (see our website) if you are interested!
