DISTRICT
The next school board meeting is March 21, with a workshop at 5:30 p.m., followed by a regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the boardroom, located in the Sequim High School auditorium building. 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, e-mail Marilyn Walsh at mwalsh@sequim.k12.wa.us or call 582-3262.
March 14-18 is Classified School Employee Week and we’d like to express gratitude to these hard-working men and women who do so much to support education. Sequim School District’s 184 classified employees positively impact our students and our schools every day, including maintaining school buildings and grounds, providing secretarial and clerical assistance, preparing and serving meals, providing safe transportation, keep school facilities clean and orderly, assisting in the classroom, providing a secure environments and many other specialized services.
Each and every day they do amazing things for the staff, students and community. The next time you have an opportunity, please thank them for all they do!
GREYWOLF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Librarian teacher Dena Riccobene would like to share some letters students wrote to say “thank you for coming to visit our school” to author and Bainbridge Island resident Jennifer K. Mann. She is the author and illustrator of “Two Speckled Eggs” and “I Will Never Get a Star on Mrs. Benson’s Blackboard.” In addition to providing a brief personal history and talking about what she does as an author and illustrator during an assembly, she engaged students in an interactive story/character exercise and a short Q & A session.
Dear Jennifer K. Mann,
I loved the assembly. I can’t believe some of the stuff you shared, like how you rewrite your story at least 10 times. I thought it was really brave of you to share your stories. I mean you really defined grit. Thank you so much. Kendall Hastings, grade five
Dear Jennifer K. Mann,
Thank you so much for coming to Greywolf. I would love to buy all your books if I could! I was thinking you that you could write a book about two girls named Ally and Ellie and it was their first field trip and they were super scared. Well anyway, thank you so much for coming to Greywolf. Sincerely, Kendra Dodson, grade three
Dear Jennifer,
My idea for the fishing book is to be about your son. You inspired me to be an artist when I grow up and express my feelings and my happiness to draw horses. Also, to express what I love. I love when you talked about your pony that you shared with your friend. Thank you! From and love, Joanna Seelye, grade three
Dear Jennifer,
I’m Jade and I really truly think you are inspiring from the pictures to the influence you have on everyone. By the way, for the pictures of your pets you could write a book about them in a pet store and have them go crazy. They would need a miracle to clean up the store before the owner gets back. From, Jade Reynolds, grade three
Dear Jennifer K. Mann,
I really liked that you showed us your books and your adventures and your children and your animals. Also, your family times. You inspired me to read your books and be an author. Sincerely, Rylee Evans, grade two
Dear Jennifer K. Mann,
Thank you for coming to our school. You encourage me to never give up on my drawings. You also encourage me to read more. My favorite books of all time are in the series Emily Windsnap. Love, Emily Crosby, grade five
Dear Jennifer,
Thank you for being a great book artist. I liked the page where the girls used their party hats as bird beaks. From, Dillon Foster, grade one
Dear Jennifer,
I am very glad you came to school. You taught me lots of tricks and tips about writing and painting. You also inspired me to become a great writer no matter how long it takes me! I also loved your cats and dogs, I am very sorry your dog died though. I loved your books too. Our librarian read them to us. I am very glad you came to Greywolf Elementary. Never give up, Jennifer — go, go, go! From, Nekadius Scoulter, grade three
Dear Jennifer K. Mann,
I have an idea for your picture you showed us. When the man goes fishing he could not find his dog. When he wants to catch a fish he catches his dog! From, Carter Jurgensen (Art is in my name) grade one
Dear Jennifer K. Mann,
Thank you for telling me that it is OK to make mistakes and go back and fix them. I also want to thank you for telling us how you get ideas for your books and how you should always check your work. I think you inspired everyone to write and draw. From, Olivia Duran, grade five
To Jennifer K. Mann,
I liked how Rose made her desk messy, and then made her desk clean, and then she made her desk messy and then made her desk clean. Sometimes I am messy too. From, Jay Geniesse, grade one
HELEN HALLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Teacher Patrick Caron shares that fourth-graders are working on geometry in math class. They are exploring shapes and lines and using protractors to measure angles. Mr. Caron’s class can often be seen walking the campus, calling out the degrees of the angles as they make turns and looking for intersecting lines.
Lars Wiker says, “Geometry is a fun subject. My favorite part is measuring angles and saying if it is acute, obtuse or a right angle. It is also fun learning attributes of shapes. Like a square can be a rectangle but a rectangle can’t be a square.”
Dani Herman says, “Geometry is fun because of all the different symbols. For example an upside down “T” means two lines are perpendicular.”
Aiden Albers likes parallel lines. “They stay the same distance apart and go on forever and ever!”
Ava Fuller says she loves geometry because she learned that you can draw line segments but a real line goes on forever in both directions and can be represented with a number line.
With the approach of spring comes state testing, so students are busy preparing for testing as well. To help students feel confident going into testing, they have made charts to remind themselves of positive test-taking strategies. One of their favorites involved creating an acrostic poem using the word
R-E-L-A-X. Here is one example a group of students created:
R: Read all parts of the question carefully twice and highlight what you need to do
E: Examine every answer choice before picking one
L: Look back in the text for proof for your answer
A: Always answer all parts of every question
X: “X” out (strike through) answers that could not possibly be correct.
OLYMPIC PENINSULA ACADEMY
Our Destination Imagination Team earned first place at the regional tournament held at Klahowya Secondary School in Silverdale on Saturday, March 5. Advisor and enrichment coach Dee Dee Nielsen explained that this year’s team chose the fine arts challenge “Get a Clue.” For this challenge, the team research a time period before 1990 (they chose the 1960s) and then wrote a mystery story that had three suspects and three possible endings. They were required to build a set appropriate to their chosen time period without any assistance from adults.
They then had to perform an eight-minute skit that provided the possibility of all three characters as suspects, but the culprit was not revealed until they opened an envelope live on stage. At that point, they had to finish the story with the ending revealed in the envelope.
The team received rave reviews from all of the appraisers, audiences and regional directors. Although most of the team are in middle school grades and lower, they had to compete at a high school level, since one team member is in 11th grade. They scored high and are now slated to move on to state level competition in Wenatchee on April 2. If they do well there, they will be off to global finals to be held in Knoxville, Tenn. Team members are Tanner Berryhill (11th grade), Cadence Biehler (sixth grade), Xander Bolinger (seventh grade), Aiyana Dennis (sixth grade), Gianna Halo (seventh grade), Emily Nielsen (eighth grade) and Devin Rynearson (fifth grade).
SEQUIM HIGH SCHOOL
Jack Webber’s fourth-period World Studies class has been discussing the presidential nomination process. They have been comparing and contrasting the candidates’ views on some of the issues using their official websites as a source, and following the results of Super Tuesday, and as more states’ results are in.
Some announcements from Leadership student Andrew Juntilla, junior:
Our school is up and blooming, with the help of spring showing its colors, of course! Recently, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) has opened a student store in the main office corridor. The SHS students’ store retails items from pencils, paper and even erasers for a student’s every day needs. (Now, you’ll never have to bother your math teacher for graph paper or your literature teacher for a pencil again!)
The annual Fine Arts assembly will be at 9:50 a.m. Friday, March 18, in the gym. The program will highlight student art projects ranging from ceramics and pottery to amazing canvas paintings and drawings. In addition, our breathtaking color guard team and the prodigious All-State choir group will perform. Parents, please sign in at the main office first before proceeding to the gym, if you wish to attend.
TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT
Bus driver Karen Dinius reported that several members of the Transportation staff have adopted a section of U.S. Highway 101. On Saturday, March 5, they picked up 27 bags of garbage along the north side of Highway 101 between Dryke Road and Shore Road before they ran out of garbage bags! They plan to set up another pick-up date to complete the north side and pick up the entire south side of the road in the near future.
