Timber Wolves News

Thurs. 01/22 Math Olympiad Practice 3-4:00p PTA Membership MTG, Library, 3:15p

Sat. 01/24 Math Olympiad Derby at Cottonwood

Creek Elem. 8:30-1p

Mon. 01/26 Student Leadership Council MTG, 3-5p

Wed. 02/04 2nd Cup MTG with Principal, 8:35a

Thurs. 02/05 Field Trip: Jabali African Acrobats in

ANC

Sat. 02/07 Battle of the Books MSBSD Challenge,

Kinik and Goos Bay Elem., 8:30am

Mon. 02/16 Parent Teacher Conferences, No School

Tues. 02/17 Parent Teacher Conferences, No School

Week of 02/23-02/27 Artist in Residence Steve Gordon

Dear Talkeetna Elementary Families, I am watching the snow keep falling and falling as I write this to you. We are excited about finally transitioning into winter! Our ski program is ramping up and will start mid-February. Watch for more information coming home from Mrs. Pearson about the need for parent volunteers as we get kids out on skis as part of our PE program. We did receive a bike safety grant and are looking forward to a bike safety event in April. We are teaming up with a bike shop out of Wasilla, and will be providing helmets and safety tips. We also hope to do a bike-a-thon fundraiser for our snack fund. Speaking of which, THANK YOU is in order. We had an outpouring of support from parents to make sure that we can continue to provide daily snack to kids. Thank you for the great partnership! We are still planning to start Soccer (indoor for now) in March. We are working on purchasing equipment and will get a sched-ule out as soon as we get a little closer. We are still shooting for both a K-2 team, and a 3-5 team. I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter full of examples of all of the great learning and experiences happening at school. We are up to 99 students this year, and we are really enjoying all of our new friends! Enjoy the snow, and please come see us! Take care, Lisa

13930 Timberwolf Loop | Talkeetna AK, 99676 | 907-733-9400 www.matsuk12.us/tke | Lisa Shelby, Principal

January 26, 2015

Mrs. Schwartz’s Class ~

Spotlight On Kindergarten & 1st

Classroom Content

????What’s Happening in Kindergarten???? What a great first half of the year we have had in kindergarten. Since the beginning of the year we have added two new class-mates and we just got two more new faces. The girls in the class are so happy to add 4 girls to the 3 we started off the year with. This sounds like the makings of a math “story problem”. We are learning so much right now with our phonics reading skill getting stronger every day. We can sound out 3 letter words and get so excited when we see our sight words in sto-ries and books. In math we are learning about addition and are

having fun acting out number sentences. We are starting the 2nd half of our Wood and Paper Unit in science and exploring different papers for different purposes. We are so happy to share our enthusiasm for learning…so if you are out and about and want to stop in, come look us up!

Mrs. Holcomb’s Class ~ We would like to welcome Sydney Cable to our class! We are excited that you will be joining us. In math we have been learning about fact families. Before Syd-ney joined us our class had 13 students. We now have 14 students. We could say 13 + 1 = 14 or 1 + 13 = 14. If we reverse it and say we now have 14 students in our class, but before Sydney joined us we had 13, we could make an equation that says 14 – 1 = 13. We might also say 14 – 13 = 1. These four number sentences are a fact family. We are also learning about place value. Ask a first grader to tell you how many 10’s and 1’s are in the number 14? First grade would like to thank Fire Chief Ken Farina and Fire-fighter Caleb for talking with us about fire safety. We had a tour of the

fire station, got to sit in the big fire truck and saw all the gear that the fire fighters wear. They sound really funny when they have all the protective gear on. In reading we are finishing up our unit about maps and will soon be starting unit 7 which is called, I Think I Can. That is perfect because we have been working on building our stamina for “reading to self” or independent reading. We have learned about three ways to read a book: read the pictures, read the words, and retell the story. We can practice this outside of school as well. We have also learned about EEKK (sitting elbow to elbow, knee to knee). We use EEKK when we are listening to someone read and reading to someone. As we work on literacy this semester, we will be practicing something called the Daily Five which includes: Reading to self, Reading to someone, Listen to reading, Work on writing, and Working with words/spelling.

Happy New Year!!

The next monthly PTA membership meeting will be held Thursday, January 22nd at 3:15 in the school library. Members and non-members are welcome and encourage to attend. We had a very successful holiday bazaar on Dec. 6th! We want to thank all the people who worked so hard to make it all come together! The money raised will go a long way to help fund all the wonderful things happening at the school. The Talkeetna Elementary PTA just received money from two local Talkeetna organizations. Many thanks to the Talkeetna Youth Hockey Association for donating $200.00 to fund our fresh snack pro-gram. Talkeetna Bachelor Society has once again granted the PTA $500 for fresh snack and $400 to help fund the PTA sponsored art program. Their support has been instrumental in helping fund the PTA programs for many years. We want to thank both organizations for their generosity and for help-ing enrich our students! Here are some other activities coming up in the New Year: We will be sponsoring artist-in-residence, Steve Gordon, the last week in February. Steve is an Anchorage artist and teaches painting at the UAA Department of Art. You can view his work at www.gordonpaintings.com. Steve has worked with Talkeetna Elementary students twice before, help-ing them create collage murals and bird prints in 2012, and life-sized puppets in 2013. This year he will focus on drawing lessons and then the students will create an "art factory" designing, sculpting, con-structing, decorating, and assembling a flock of birds that will be installed in the school. It’s going to be awesome and we are so excited Steve is coming back! We will be looking for parent help the week Steve is here, by collecting supplies, helping with the project, and making meals for him. Karen Mannix has graciously offered to house Steve while he is in Talkeetna. We will continue our efforts to serve fresh salad bar twice weekly and fresh snack once a week for the rest of the school year. As always, we are looking for help in prepping and serving. Kids Kitchen – Monday morning and Wed morning for prep. Wed during lunch for serving. In mid-January, Principal Lisa Shelby, along with four other staff members and parents, will be attend-ing the first Alaska Farm to School Conference in Anchorage. Many thanks to Principal Lisa for making this happen! We look forward to having them share all they have learned when they return! The PTA is also planning to do Family Olympic Night once again during a February evening. Stay tuned for an exact date. This is always great fun and provides an active way to get kids and families to-gether during the long winter months. Art Classes taught by Becka Mathieson continues into the spring. There are some amazing projects coming out of the classes. Check out the beautiful array of student art hanging in the hallways! Also coming up in spring is Art Week, which will morph to include other activities reflecting the amazing pool of talent within the Talkeetna Community. This happens for 3 days in April. Community members are invited into the school to share their talents with the kids. It’s a great time to connect our community with our school! If you have an idea of a talent you would like to share with students, please call Kaki at the school at 733-9400 and let her know.

Several activities are in-the-works, here’s what I have as of January 21st: ●INTERMEDIATE KNITTING – A 5-night class with Ellie Henke, Mondays 7-9 pm, starting 1/26. For people already proficient with basic knitting, this class will teach a variety of stitches, multi-color design, double-pointed needles, etc, all in the process of knitting a cap. Call or e-mail to see if there is space and to get the infor-mation sheet. $15. ●Teen/Adult BASKETBALL – now on Wednesdays only, 7-9 pm, $10 youth/$20 adults. ●Teen/Adult INDOOR SOCCER – now on Mondays AND Thursdays, 7-9 pm; $15 youth/ $30 adults. ●FREE FRIDAY NIGHT MOVIES: “When the Game Stands Tall” is a 2014 sports drama based on a true sto-ry, about a high school football coach and team. Rated PG, runs 7-9 pm. SPECIAL: for about 15 minutes before and after the movie we’ll have knowledgeable folks showing us how to throw and to catch a football. “The Boxtrolls” is a 2014 animated film based on a children’s novel. Rated PG, runs 7:00-8:40, doors open 6:45. ●Friday After-School BASKETBALL – Let’s keep this popular activity going for 3rd-6th graders (incl. home-schoolers). 1/30- March or April???, 3:00-4:30, $10 indi-vidual child/ $15 per family. Notes will go home with students soon. ●BEE KEEPING – a 2-night class with Orville Grosz. Orville has had beehives in the TKA area for 10 years and has taught this class 3 times. If you’ve been curious or intending to collect your own honey, this class will prepare you, and in time to order bees. Wednesdays 2/4 and 2/11, 7-9 pm (sign-up deadline is 2/2). $10. ●SOLAR POWER – this will be a 3-night class taught by George Menard who has many years of experience sizing and installing home solar power systems. Yet to be scheduled, probably late Feb-early March. Call or e-mail for more info of to get on the “interested” list. Anyone interested in a 2-night class on BASIC STAR GAZING ? Call me! To contact Kathleen call 733-9431, or e-mail kathleen.fleming@matsuk12.us.

Update on our Title I Goals: One of our goals for this year was providing opportunities for our kids to expand their world views and gain more experiences outside of our school build-ing and community. Research shows that students with more background knowledge are better readers and writ-ers as their lexicon for vocabulary is larger. Our field trip to see Jabali in Anchor-age on Feb. 5th is one step towards this goal. We will be writing about this event upon our return, and connecting our experience to what we are reading.

Junior Nordic Ski Club

First Junior Nordic session was Wednesday, January 21 at 2:00

Sign-up on line @: www.denalinordicskiclub.org

This is not a Talkeetna Elementary Sponsored Event.

Call Ross Benischek for more info at 354-8080

Science Olympiad Science Olympiad is being offered as an after school activity to students in grades 4/5/6 in Mrs. Holcomb’s room from 3:00 – 4:30 on Mon. and Thurs. each week. Call the school for more info. (907)733-9400.

Fred Meyer is donating $2.6 million each year to local schools. You can link your Fred Meyer Rewards Card to Talkeetna Elementary by typing the URL above into your internet browser. It’s

fast, easy and every purchase you make at Fred Meyer can benefit our student programs. Please take a minute to link your rewards card today!

https://www.fredmeyer.com/account/create