“The Historical Center Needs Us” 3rd Grade students spent Better World Day cleaning up the grounds (sticks, pinecones, and pulled tree saplings) outside at the Kettle Falls Historical Center and creating posters to raise awareness and collect donations for the reconstruction of the museum. The KF Historical Center flooded this winter and is going through major reconstruction to repair, restore, and replace parts of the building and a number of artifacts. For many years it has been an important resource for the schools in our area, the community, and tourists to learn about our local history. Would you consider helping with the Kettle Falls Historical Center reconstruction?
"Pollinators in our Gardens" 2nd Grade students were very busy for Better World Day! They cleaned flower beds and planted flowers in front of the school, and created a pumpkin patch at the back. Students raked, put plant blocker down, and planted pumpkins they had started in their classroom. They also made seed packets of wildflower seeds that can be picked up at local businesses. Pollinators will LOVE Kettle Falls!
“Teaming Up to Help the Pollinators” On Better World Day, 2nd Grade students completed projects to address the needs of pollinators and plants that they have learned about in class. Then they worked with high school wood shop students in Mr. Axtell's class to build bat houses. How do you help pollinators in our community?
"Marbles & Math" For the last math unit in 2nd Grade, students designed, built, and tested ramps with wood, glass, and steel marbles. Then it was time to race! Students found that different ramps were better with different marbles. Collaboration was the key to success!
“Growing Gardeners” 2nd Grade students planted beans and grass as a part of their study of plants and pollinators. They also planted flowers to help pollinators near our school. Have you been out gardening? What are you growing?
“Animal Adventures” On their last adventure of the year, Kindergarten visited the Barton Farm to meet and learn about all their animals. A big THANK YOU to the Barton family, especially Angie and Ellie, who gave students the tour. Running a farm is a lot of hard work, and it was definitely a special treat for Kindergarten to love on all the animals. What’s your favorite farm animal?
Have you ever done something that really was a challenge? A second grade student wrote a book about stuttering and then read the book to the class. He showed great courage, effort, and perseverance in this challenging task!
“STAR Creators” Our youngest elementary students get to build and invent with magnetic connect toys. Show us your creations!
“Hike and Bike” 3rd graders got to bike and hike for a second time this school year, blazing down more challenging trails at Locust Grove Park. One student even mastered riding a bike for the first time! What’s your favorite place to bike and/or hike?
"Calling all Lost Boys” The 3rd Grade Peter Pan Play is in full rehearsal with performances set for June 1st at the Woodland Theatre. Mrs. Graves/Mrs. Edwards' cast perform at 4:00 pm, and Mrs. Thompson/Mrs. Edwards’ cast perform at 6:00 pm. Which one will you attend?
"Poster Time” 3rd Grade is building 1-digit by 2-digit numbers with base ten blocks. Do you remember using base ten blocks to help you understand the size and place value of numbers?
“Caring for Our School” 2nd Grade spent some time cleaning up the plant beds across the front of the school. This combines both their new learning about plants and character development. Have you been out gardening yet?
Are you feeling Ducky? Students in Mrs. Maier’s Kindergarten class had some special feathery visitors. Maverick brought his new baby ducks (Mallards and Khaki Campbells) for show and tell. The students got to practice holding them and ask questions to learn more. They learned the Khaki Campbells grow to be bigger than the Mallards and that as babies they need to stay very warm.
"Sight to Sidewalk” Kindergarten students in Mrs. Donnelly’s class have been practicing their sights words outside their classroom on the sidewalk. Do you chalk your sidewalk too?
"Divide and Multiply” 4th grade students in Mrs. Woods’ class are trying out new strategies to solve multi-digit multiplication and division problems.
WINGS PAPER SKY First graders have been learning about birds in expedition. This week they learned how to fold paper airplanes to mimic birds and their wing shapes. After their airplanes were folded, they took to the sky! Students completed this task by filling in a venn diagram to compare and contrast the way each airplane flew.
The Kettle Falls Elementary and Middle school students and staff participated in an all school challenge to be more understanding and including for Autism Awareness month in April. An assembly was given to each school to present information on autism and to begin the challenge. Each puzzle piece on the trees represents a student or staff who signed their name, saying they pledge to see past the label.
2nd Grade wrote pollinator stories after learning how plants need pollinators, how they move pollen, and how the parts of a plant work. Each student picked a pollinator choosing from moths, butterflies, beetles, flys, and wasps. Students had studied bees earlier to practice researching the other pollinators. They wrote, edited, and self published including a scientific drawing as the cover of their book. Then, Mrs. Rubin’s Current World Affairs class came to the elementary school so that both the 2nd graders and the seniors could share books with each other. The seniors wrote books about different careers. The opportunity energized and built confidence in all the students to share the hard work they had put into the writing process.
4th Graders wrote poetry during their 1st expedition, then after Christmas, they began working on performances combining poetry reading, music composition, and speaking and listening standards. In small groups students composed music played by other students in their group. Families were invited to come watch the performances, and then afterwards everyone joined up to participate in a whole group drum circle. Students also shared other learning about the Oregon Trail. Overall, it was exciting to introduce a new KFES tradition to the school especially one to share with families.
Kindergarten has been busy starting a new expedition about weather. They wrote about 3 components of weather including temperature, wind, and moisture. Students used the word wall and anchor charts for support. They also learned about weather through activities like a puzzle of weather around the world. In math students have been using a manipulative cogs to make patterns.
