Happy Holidays to our students and their families!

Santa visited Okoboji Elementary on December 22nd as students were dismissed for Winter Break. The staff wants to wish each of our families a happy and safe holiday. We look forward to seeing everyone when we return on Monday, January 3rd.

Work Continues on the Outside of the Addition

Last week, the bricklayers started to lay brick on the southeast corner of the new addition. The bricklayers worked on scaffolding covered in plastic in order to maintain about a 60 degree working environment. They will begin laying brick on the west side of the addition next week. During Winter Break, Hander Plumbing and Christian Sheet Metal will begin running pipe and duct work in preparation for the heating system renovation.

The 1st Look Upstairs In the New Addition

This picture was taken from the top of the stairs in the new addition looking from west to east. When completed there will be 5 rooms upstairs as well as downstairs. The roofers are working on sealing the roof so concrete can be poured in the 2nd floor classrooms.

The picture to the right is looking east down the new 2nd floor hallway. This hallway will have a boys and girls restroom in the middle and a staff restroom at the east end. Eventually this hallway will turn left at the east end and connect to the existing 2nd floor hallway.

Donation from the Milford Masons

The Milford Masons have made a generous donation to Okoboji Elementary in the amount of $500. This donation will be used to purchase cold weather clothing for students who are in need. Pictured above is Norm Winter, representing the Milford Masons, presenting the check to Mr. Olsen.

The 1st inside look at our building addition!

After Thanksgiving, the mason crews began work on the inside of the lower level of classrooms. You can see here that they are building the walls for the bathroom and storage closet. Each of the downstairs rooms will have a storage room and bathroom for the students to use.

The picture to the right shows the completed walls and doorways for the bathroom and storage room within the classroom.

The exterior brick is scheduled to arrive today and masons will begin laying brick on the outside of the building in the very near future.

WOW! That is a lot of pop tabs.

I BIG thank you to Faith Pearson and her family for bringing in 6 buckets full of pop tabs for the school. At the end of each year, we donate these pop tabs to the Ronald McDonald House. Please keep collecting your pop tabs and bring them to the school. This is an excellent ongoing CHARACTER COUNTS! project for all of our students.

OES Early Childhood Playground

Last week, work began on our early childhood playground. H&L Construction was awarded the bid to complete work around each of our playground structures as well as concrete work for our trike path. We are asked to follow a set of standards from the State of Iowa for our playground that provides a safe fall zone for our students when playing on and around the equipment. As you can see from the pictures, the areas around the play structures will have a 12" deep soft surface for woodchips. A concrete trike path will also be completed for this project. We want to thank both the Kiwanis of Milford and H&L construction for donating the concrete for the trike path project.

New Developments

This picture shows the hallway where the new SW entrance will be located after the building addition is completed. All of the classrooms on the lower level have the concrete poured for the floor. The steel is also in place for the ceiling of the lower level.

On November 19, crews continued their work on placing steel on the second floor to support the new roof. The next steps include finishing the steel for the roof, enclosing the new windows and doors and making preparations for pouring the concrete floors for the 2nd floor classrooms.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Members of the Milford American Legion, led by Kirb Walters, visited with our 3rd grade students today in honor of Veteran's Day. The students and staff wore red, white and blue in recognition of our veterans. We want to thank and honor all of our veterans and active military for their sacrifices so that we may enjoy the freedoms we have today.

Putting the Floors Down

On November 9, crews began to pour concrete for the floor in the first classroom on the east side. The bricklayers will finish all the load bearing walls this week. Also this week, the steel rafters will begin to go in place for the first floor classrooms. You are welcome to stop by and see the progress for yourself.

Starting To Take Shape

During the first week in November, the bricklayers continued to build the walls on the southside of the new addition. As you can see from this picture, the wall is 2 stories high and each classroom will have 2 windows facing south.

This picture is taken from the west looking east as the addition to the elementary is starting to take shape.

School-wide Expectations

We have been working on school-wide expectations for areas throughout our building. This is a poster hanging in the lunchroom of the 3 expectations we have for our students when eating in the lunchroom. All students were trained yesterday and today in the lunchroom about the expectations.

The poster on the right can be found throughout the hallways in the elementary. Once again we have 3 expectations for our students as they travel throughout the hallways in the elementary. Classroom teachers taught and practiced with their students the expectations for the hallway.

Looking at the Inside

These pictures were taken facing east and looking at the 2 classrooms on the east side of the lower level of our 10 room addition. It is fun to see the classrooms starting to take shape!

November 9 - OES McDonald's Family Night

On November 9, Okoboji Elementary will be hosting McDonald's Family Night from 4-8 PM. Please bring your family and friends out for an evening of fun as some of the elementary staff will be preparing and serving you your meal. All proceeds will go toward technology for the media center. We will be purchasing Kindles for ebooks and MP3 players for audio books to continue to meet student needs.

Did you know?

Did you know? The masons will be laying 22,000 cinder block as they build the walls of our addition. They will also be laying 35,000 bricks like the ones you see in the picture above to cover the outside of our addition. On October 19th, the plumbers continued to install the rough plumbing necessary for drainage and restroom facilities.

The Wall

 I wonder where this doorway will lead? This door will lead into one of 5 classrooms on the 2nd story of our addition. We look forward to seeing the other doorways appear as the wall continues to go up. 

On October 15, mason crews finished the day with their scaffolding standing tall and the wall continuing to grow. We will be looking for more nice weather next week.

One Block At A Time

On October 14, the masons erected their scaffolding and continued building the second story wall on top of the existing building. They will continue to move east as they build the second story wall. Milford Electric is also working behind the scenes installing the electric infrastructure needed for the addition. 

The Walls Began from the Ground Up!

On Tuesday, October 12, the mason crew began building the walls from the ground up. Pictured here is the west wall of our addition. These walls will be approximately 21 feet tall in height from the ground level. If you get a chance, drive by and take a look at the impressive scaffolding used by the mason crew.

Walk to School Day 2010

 Students and staff at Milford Nursing Home preparing to walk to school Wednesday morning.

 A thank you to the Milford Police Department for assisting our students, staff and parents cross our city streets safely as they walk to school on Wednesday, October 6.

 Students, staff, parents preparing to walk to school from Okoboji HS on Wednesday.

Thank you to Mrs. Dorenkamp for organizing this event and to the other elementary staff for participating and walking with our students and parents.Everyone had a great time!

Changing the Face of the Elementary

On Thursday, October 7, crews finished removing the exterior brick and material from the south side of the existing building. As you can see, this completely changes the look of our building. As you can see from the pictures, the foundation walls have been finished and sealed and the backfilling is almost complete. The masons will be back on Monday to start building our walls up from the ground level.

What happened to our SW entrance?

Construction crews went to work today to remove the SW entrance to our existing building. The removal of the entrance was necessary to prepare the area for the last footing as we continue to lay block for our foundation. Check back here often as there are many changes each day.

When the masons came, the masons came!

On Monday, October 4th, the masons arrived and started working feverishly at laying block for the foundation as we prepare for our new addition. The picture above shows the first few blocks laid on Monday morning. The picture below shows their progress throughout the afternoon. Please take a moment to drive by and see the progress for yourself.

The concrete is here!!!

On the morning of September 30, concrete trucks arrived and crews went to work pouring the concrete footers needed to support the thousands of concrete blocks used to build the walls and support our addition. We look forward to watching the masons as they go to work next week building our new walls.

Thank you parent volunteers!

Thank you to some parent volunteers for planting new bushes and shrubs in front of the school and in the courtyard for everyone to enjoy. Parents and children "dug right in" and helped change the appearance in front of our school. Thanks again to everyone for helping!

The footings are dug.

On September 28th, the footings were dug in preparation for the contractors to begin building forms and pouring concrete. You will notice there are some large piles of dirt piled up from the footings being dug as well as some concrete block that was delivered. Everyone has been excited to see the progress during the first 2 days.

What an exciting day as construction crews break ground!

You could find the students and staff watching from the windows and along the construction fence at recess to watch the construction crew tear up our old playground. It was very exciting to finally see some progress being made on the elementary addition. Construction crews tore up the blacktop and hauled it away today. They are now ready to start digging to set the footers and pour concrete.

Look what arrived at Okoboji Elementary school today!

YIPPEE! We had construction equipment arrive at the school today. At our monthly construction meeting, we were told they will be starting to break ground next week. Please stay connected with the Okoboji Elementary blog for construction updates.

An Opportunity to "Question" the Elementary Staff

On our September 20th professional development day, the Okoboji Elementary staff learned, practiced and developed lessons with "good" questions. Staff worked on the strategy of Questioning and developed questions that will create student responses that require higher order thinking and create better thinkers and more in-depth learners in our classrooms. Look for some of these types of questions to come home with your child and on their teacher's classroom blog.

4th Graders Skype Around the World

Fourth grade students in Mrs. Brecher's class use technology and Skype with a US soldier in the country of Qatar, near the Persian Gulf. Students had the opportunity to ask questions about refueling planes and the other duties of the military. Students used the responses to their questions as a springboard to research new ideas and topics in their classroom. Check back here to find out where these students will travel next with the power of technology.

Students from Germany visited Okoboji Elementary

The students and staff at Okoboji Elementary were fortunate to have visitors from Germany visit our school on September 8. There were 18 high school girls and 3 teachers who visited the elementary in the morning. These students stayed with host families in the area and were given an opportunity to experience the IOwa culture through a variety of activities. The girls and teachers make up an instrumental band, similar to a jazz band, that performed a concert at the Okoboji High School on September 8th.

Construction at Okoboji Elementary

As students arrived at school for the first day of the 2010-2011 school year on Tuesday, August 24th, they were greeted by orange construction fence surrounding the south part of the elementary. I appreciated the cooperation and flexibility of our parents as they dropped off their students to start the first day. Students lined up to enter the building in different places than last year to accommodate our new construction area. I want to thank our parents in advance for their cooperation as construction will begin soon for the elementary addition. The addition is slated to be completed the middle of May 2011. Look for future updates right here!

New Bus Lane and Parking

New construction has begun at the elementary this summer. Pictured above is our new bus lane and parking. Finishing touches will be made to the bus lane next week. Construction work on the new elementary addition should begin soon. Check back here often for new updates and pictures.

Author, Jeanette Hopkins, Visits Okoboji Elementary

As part of our February Reading Month, Jeanette Hopkins, author of The Ladybug Waltz visited Okoboji Elementary and spent time with each class. She read her story to them and then followed up with a craft of ladybug hats. Jeanette is a very talented writer and shared some writing expertise with our students. Jeanette was very impressed with the amount and types of writing we do throughout our school.

February is Reading Month

Theme: Reading Feeds the Minds of Youth!

We will enjoy special reading activities each Monday! Guest readers will visit on Monday, February 1st and we’ll have “Mystery Readers” the remaining Mondays. We will be collecting boxed or canned food donations for the UDMO food pantry as well as “Help for Haiti” cash donations. These will be collected in the media center and delivered at the end of the week!

A reading competition will be held at OES throughout the month. Each family is to record their total number of books/chapters read each week. That form must be returned EACH FRIDAY to the classroom of the oldest/only child in the family. We will chart the weekly progress and the winning team will get to celebrate at the end of February!

Author, Jeanette Hopkins, will visit each classroom, PreK through 3rd grade, on February 18th and 19th. Book pre-order forms have been sent home with students: if you wish to order, please return order forms and payment by Wednesday, February 3rd. The author will then deliver a signed copy of the book during her visit.

Hunger Hurts: How YOU can help! Visit our school website at www.okoboji.k12.ia.us to find links to MORE ways you can help fight world hunger!

Please contact Kristin Johnson, OES Media Center Coordinator, with questions: kjohnson@okoboji.k12.ia.us or phone 338-2458.

Scholastic Book Fair

Sales ~ Tuesday, March 23rd and Thursday, March 25th: 3:00 – 8:00 p.m.

For more information and to browse the books, click on this link:

http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/okobojielementary

Thank you to everyone for their donations!

Pictured above is Josh Myers with the coins collected last week. We raised about $240 from our penny drive. This money was used to sponsor Josh and his family last Saturday as they participated in a Diabetes Walk in Sioux Falls. The Diabetes Walk is for the purpose of finding a cure for juvenile diabetes. You should feel proud to assist in raising money for such a fantastic purpose.

Professional Development Day - Jan 18

The focus of our professional development this year has been reading comprehension for our staff and students in grades TK-4th. There are 7 comprehension strategies we will be working on for the remainder of this year and next year. Our goal is to have consistent language and concepts in every classroom throughout our school. In November and January, our focus was on the strategy of Sensory Imaging. Staff members have learned about this strategy and have participated in a variety of activities to develop lessons and implement this new strategy with integrity in each classroom. I have included a couple of pictures from January 18th while the staff members were sharing ideas about how they have been teaching sensory imaging. There was a teacher from each grade level in these groups so they could share their ideas with staff members other than their own grade level.