DISTRICT
Kindergarten registration for fall 2016 is ongoing at both elementary schools. Your child must be 5 years of age on or before Aug. 31 to attend kindergarten in fall 2016. To determine which elementary school your child should attend, go to the district’s website at www.sequim.k12.wa.us, under Our District. Registration packets and enrollment information are available on this webpage as well. Please bring your child’s official birth certificate, immunization record and proof of residence (rental agreement, driver’s license, mail with your physical address, etc.) to the school office. Helen Haller and Greywolf elementary school offices will close for the summer on June 22-Aug. 16.
The district office remains open all summer, 8 a.m.-3 p.m.
The next school board meeting is June 20 with a workshop at 5:30 p.m., followed by a regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the boardroom. The boardroom is within the auditorium building at 601 N. Sequim Ave. An agenda is available on the district website under Board of Directors. The public is encouraged to attend and time is set aside at each meeting for public comment.
For more information, contact Marilyn Walsh at mwalsh@sequim.k12.wa.us or 582-3262.
The last day for OTE (Opportunity to Excel after-school program on Tuesdays and Thursdays) for the elementary schools was May 26. The last day for OTE for Sequim Middle School and Sequim High School will be June 9. OTE bus routes 1-4 will continue to run as regularly scheduled for the middle school and the high school through June 9.
GREYWOLF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
A tale as old as time, Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” was performed beautifully by the drama students on May 25, showcasing beautiful Belle (Julia Jeffers), smarmy dreamboat Gaston (Rae Douglas), hideous but endearing Beast (Ethan Bratsman), the bumbling Maurice (Jordan Kidd) and a cast of enchanted objects.
The play, narrated by Garrett Little, Anastasia Updike, Clara Bonheyo and Jameson Seaver, opened with the Prince (Jamison Gray) receiving a cruel, but deserving, turn of fate from an Enchantress (Sylvia Trudell) and moved on to a small town coming alive in the morning with a wonderful song.
Belle has a lovely voice and filled her songs with emotion. Gaston was all ego and it was so much fun to watch interaction with his sidekick LeFou (Owen Douglas). The silly town girls (Sophia Treece, Ava Welch, Hannah Albaugh) that spend their days fawning and crushing over Gaston were so darling and funny. The sets for the show transported the audience from town to woods to castle inhabited by Mrs. Potts (Isabella Williams), Chip (Rylan DeMucha), Cogsworth (Mia Pozernick), Lumiere (Norah Schmidt), Madame De La Grande Bouche (Makayla Allen), and Babette (Kendall Hastings), along with Plates (Nahayla Drenell, Michaela Green), Cups (Delaney Sisemore, Alexia Constant), Napkins (Lyly Hardin, Kinzley Henrikson, Mattea Brilhart), Fork (Quinn Davidson), Spoon (Haley Dunn), Salt (Nikoline Updike) and Pepper (Kirra Henderson).
Every student in the play, including the dog who was turning into a footstool (Gianna Riccobene), the Happy Patrons (Dawn Hulstead, Arianna Stovall) and Villagers (Jelissa Julmist, Abby Henning), Maurice, and the Wolf (Kirra Henderson), other Villagers (Hannah Bates, Lauren Stephens, Raquel Hermosillo, Tilly Lundstrom, Darian Johnson, Haley Dunn, Ethan Doig), and Village Merchants (Finn Marlowe, Ashton Drew, Jamison Gray, Leah Jones, Sofie Feik, Kya LeStage, Taryn Johnson, Leah Wolfe, Jorel Bessey) lived up to expectations. They sang their hearts out and performed in an outstanding manner. (Look out, middle school — some talented performers are coming your way, as many of these students are fifth-graders).
Special thanks to Sequim High School ninth-grader Damon Little for assisting with direction. Teachers Shannon Green and Sheri Burke said, “We are so very proud of these students. Backstage, we had goosebumps and our hearts were filled with pride!”
HELEN HALLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Betsy Smith, reading specialist, and Rhonda Cays, reading para-educator, join the second-grade Star Readers in offering very appreciative smiles for the Clallam County School Retirees’ Association, whose $300 Isabel Whitfield Teacher/Classroom Enhancement Grant paid for books for the Star Readers throughout the year.
The Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce very generously donated its inventory of last year’s maps of Sequim to the Sequim schools to be used for classroom projects.
Sheri Suryan’s fifth-grade class utilized the maps during a recent math lesson. Students are learning about coordinate pairs and plotting them on grids in math. They practiced using coordinates to locate places on the maps. Working in table groups, each student was able to find their home and popular landmarks, along with some challenging places, such as Paradise Cove. The students used cardinal points, north, south, east and west and other mapping skills learned in social studies, as well.
Suryan said, “They loved finding places and were very engaged. Now they appreciate that learning in a real life situation. Thank you, Sequim Chamber of Commerce, for the maps! They were easy to use and colorful.”
SEQUIM MIDDLE SCHOOL
Fifth-graders from Greywolf and Helen Haller elementary schools visited the middle school on June 1-2. To help ease the transition to a new school in the fall, these soon-to-be sixth-graders observed sixth-grade classrooms and met their future teachers.
Counselor Cathy Shea explained, “Our eighth-grade WEB leaders were trained last summer and spent a half day helping with WEB (stands for Where Everybody Belongs) orientation for incoming sixth-graders last fall. They also conducted tours this spring for the fifth-graders who will be incoming sixth-graders this fall.”
“The leaders divided the visiting students into small groups for the tour and to answer questions about middle school,” Shea continued. “Many fifth-graders wonder, will I get lost when changing location for different class periods? Most classes for sixth-graders are located in one hall to help keep their transition between classes simple. Another concern voiced by some visiting fifth-graders was, Are people nice here and will I find help? The answer is there are many helpers on hand, including teachers, supporting staff and students!”
The tour is one of several transition activities for fifth-graders. After spring break, fifth-graders visited the school for a Fine Arts demonstration to help them choose an elective class. The Fine Arts demonstration included sample performances by drama, band and choir classes, as well as a guided tour to observe displayed work by the art class. On June 1, fifth-grade Parent Night held in the cafeteria gave parents an opportunity to learn about the middle school and ask questions. The WEB orientation for new sixth-graders will take place in the fall during the morning of the first day of school.
What do you envision for a Parent Teacher Organization at the middle school level? Middle Matters, a newly formed PTO group at the middle school, is looking for participation from all middle school parents. Parents, we want to hear from you! Feel free to share your thoughts here, or email us at sequimmiddlematters@gmail.com.
Marcia Garrett’s eighth-grade students participated with Powell Jones from the Dungeness River Audubon Center at Railroad Bridge Park to do a field study on the school campus this month. Students counted flowering plants, measured soil temperature, water content and pH levels of the soil to see if there is a correlation between the growth of flowering plants and any of these variables.
SEQUIM HIGH SCHOOL
Ninth-grade students in Jack Webber’s World Studies classes are in the process of giving presentations as part of the state required CBA (Classroom Based Assessment). The topic is: Humans & the Environment, and students each wrote a research paper and developed a PowerPoint presentation to deliver in front of the class to their peers.
The target of the lesson is to help the students develop responsible citizenship, which requires understanding of how humans interact with their environments. Students had to explain in their own words the interactions between human cultures and their environments by researching, analyzing and presenting a reasonable solution to an environmental issue of a Third World country.
Damien Cundiff talked about the effects of floods. In following the assignment rubric, Cundiff analyzed the interaction between humans and the environment across the world by describing how seasonal flooding displaces people and destroys crops. He presented his ideas for solutions, which included the construction of barriers such as dams that control flooding. The downside of his solution, he admitted, was the terrific monetary cost of building such a structure.
Madeline Patterson’s presentation covered the plight of endangered species. She developed her position by including endearing photos of baby animals who are on the endangered species list in her PowerPoint. “Studying the plight of other countries helps us to develop a more selfless point of view,” she said. “Many of my classmates have been motivated to pursue activism after graduation. There was a lot of enthusiasm for this assignment and I feel like I gained a lot of knowledge.”
Graduation ceremony is 6 p.m. Friday, June 10, at the high school stadium.
The last day of school is June 15 and students will be released at 11 a.m. High school summer office hours begin June 16 and are 8 a.m.-noon and 1-3 p.m. The office will be closed for the summer from June 23-Aug. 9.
