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.

What does it mean to be literate in the 21st century?

I have posted this video to help provide a framework from which our staff is learning during each of our professional development days to provide your children with the best possible education. The Okoboji Elementary staff will continue to be at the forefront of the education world and in being a part of the best practices in education. Please take the time to view this video and provide a comment about how you think we should provide the necessary literacy teaching and learning in the 21st century. What do you want your child to be learning?

Heritage Landing visits with our 1st Graders

1st graders receive a visit from Heritage Landing before Christmas. We are fortunate to have Heritage Landing as one of the 1st grades partners for their service projects as part of our CHARACTER COUNTS! program. Later this year the 1st graders will be visiting Heritage Landing and reading to their residents.

Back In School

As you can see our playground is full of snow and the students have been indoors for recess due to the subzero temperatures. The staff and students look forward to the day when we can return to the playground for recess. With more snow and cold temperatures on the way, we may have to settle for staying indoors for recess the rest of this week.