OLE NEWS
Issue #2 November 2016
***** MARK YOUR CALENDARS *****
Dear Otter Lake Families:
Conferences: Conferences will be held on November 21st and 22nd. Please use the Sign-up Genius
to register for a 15 minute conference with your
child’s teacher.
The leaves are falling and the weather is changing. It’s hard
to believe, but we have finished two months of school here
at Otter Lake. First quarter will come to an end on November 7th, which means we are nearly 1/4 of the way through
the school year. Sometimes I wish time would slow down.
Here are some noteworthy items from the month of October.
Football Readers: We had many White Bear Lake High
School football players come to read stories to our students in the afternoon of home games. The students really
enjoyed having them in their classrooms.
Chip Shoppe Fundraiser: Our Chip Shoppe Fundraiser ended on October 11th. I have not heard the final results, but I
know the students worked very hard.
Apple Crunch: On October 13th, every student at Otter Lake
received an apple from the Pine Tree Apple Orchard for the
Great Lake Apple Crunch. Thanks to Pine Tree Apple Orchard.
Bear Scare: : Our Bear Scare Fun Run took place on October 29th. The event was very well attended and everyone
had a great time. Thank you to our Bear Scare Committee
for their hard work on this great event. Next year promises
to be bigger and better.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/
d/1t8qvqUsZ2y4UKecrtCQsxJzb34D_TKohy6KVJa
hp8hc/edit?usp=sharing
Picture Re-Takes: Lifetouch will be here on
November 11th for Picture Re-takes.
Chipotle Night: November 15 is Otter Lake night
at Chipotle. Come to Chipotle in Vadnais Heights
from 5pm—9pm that night to support Otter
Lake. Watch for flyer coming home on 11/14.
You must present the flyer when you order.
Mention Otter Lake and 50% of the proceeds
come back to the school.
FROM THER DESK OF MR. LANGSDALE
Kitchen Corner:
We offer a
snack that students can buy
in the kitchen everyday. Fresh fruits and
veggies along with yogurt, cheese sticks
and a few other proteins when available.
The cost for snack is .50 cents. Snack does
not qualify for the free and reduced program, so all students must have the money
in their accounts at the time they are purchasing snack. We do not let students go
into the negative for snack.
Call 651-407-7540 for school closing
information.
Thanks
Deb Gefre
Kitchen Manager.
OTTER LAKE ELEMENTARY
CONTACTS
651-653-2843
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PRINCIPAL
651-653-2831
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OFFICE
651-407-7540
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SCHOOL CLOSING
651-653-2846
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HEALTH OFFICE
651-653-2834
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EXTENDED DAY
651-407-7538
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TRANSPORTATION
651-653-2832
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ATTENDANCE
651-653-2839
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KITCHEN
OTTER LAKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
1401 CO. ROAD H2
WHITE BEAR LAKE
If you are interested in Volunteering at
Otter Lake or would like to attend your
child’s field trips as a volunteer please make
sure you have a background check. It is
easy to do. Just check in with Ursula in the
main office. She will email you the link so
you can apply online. There is no cost to
you and it is valid for 3 years from the day it
clears. Typically, it takes 3- 5 days to
process.
We depend on parents to check their child
for Lice.
Is My Child Well Enough To Go To
School?
We would appreciate you informing the
school if your child has head lice. Please remember that head lice can infest anyone,
anywhere and is not a sign of being dirty.
Thank you for your cooperation.
_____________
________
~ If a student has had a fever of
100 degrees or more, the student
should stay home for 24 hours
after the temperature returns to normal and
remains normal without fever reducing medications.
~ If a student has vomited or had diarrhea, the
student should stay home until 24 hours after
the last episode.
~ If a student has had any rash
that may be disease-related or
the cause is unknown, check
with the family physician before sending the student to
school.
~ If the student is ill, please call the
attendance line at 651-653-2832 to report an
illness.
Thank you for helping to keep our school
healthy!
___
MEDIA MAGIC
BY
MRS. POKORNY
Greetings Otter Lake Parents!
I am assigned to Otter Lake again as your Library Media Specialist. I have two other
buildings this year. I am at OLE afternoons, except Wednesday. This means I teach
grades 1,2,3,4. We are working on research, literature and digital learning skills.
In other news, the Book Fair is happening in November. Proceeds benefit the library and
I purchase books to support the curriculum. Please come! Dates and times for the book
fair are as follows:
Tuesday Nov. 15
9:30am—12pm and 12:30pm—3pm
Wednesday Nov. 16
9:30am—12pm and 12:30pm—3pm
Thursday Nov. 17
9:30am—12pm and 12:30pm—3pm
Friday Nov. 18
9:30am—12pm and 12:30pm—3pm
Monday Nov. 21
4:30pm—8:30pm
Tuesday Nov. 22
3:30pm—8:30pm
Thank you volunteers and especially Joe Larson for being the PTA rep for the book fair.
Kelly Rivers, our Media Secretary has been working hard to get everything in place for
the book fair also. Thanks Kelly!
Mary Pokorny
Library Media Specialist.
PHY. ED. FACTS
BY
MR. KEN LIEKIS & MR. JON HURT
PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER
The students are in the units of Soccer (Mr. Liekis)
or Football (Mr. Hurt) and will be in these units for
the next couple of weeks. We will then get into a
short unit of different games, as we have our bowling unit coming in December.
The soccer and
football units
will work on
skills and then
get into different
games.
Soccer - will be regular games and then two games
being played at the same time.
Football - they will work with the flag belts and then
end with capture the football.
Please help remind your
child to continue to bring
their gym shoes. Without
those shoes they may need
to sit out of class. Any
questions please let us
know.
Thank you for your support!
Mr. Ken Liekis
Mr. Jon Hurt.
G
O
O
T
T
E
R
L
A
K
E
Hola from Profe Lowther!
We have had a busy start to the school year in the
Spanish Classroom.
4th & 5th Grades: Students in the 4th and 5th grades
learned about the Monarch butterfly migration from
Minnesota to Mexico. As a part of our study we participated in a symbolic migration by sending paper
monarch butterflies that the students created down to students
in Mexico. We did this through
an organization called Journey
North—an organization that looks
at wildlife migration and seasonal
change. We will receive paper
monarchs back to our classroom in the Spring when
Monarchs make their way back to Minnesota.
3rd Grade: We have been working hard on basic
high frequency vocabulary found in every day spoken Spanish. We have also been working on numbers up to 100. We are mastering asking someone
how old they are and being able to respond when
someone asks us our age.
2nd Grade: In second
grade we are working on
recognizing the color
words in Spanish. We
are working on being
able to read short sentences in Spanish. We have also started a study of
el maiz or ‘corn’. We are going to look at the importance of corn in many countries where Spanish is
spoken.
1st. Grade: First graders
have been working on
family vocabulary including mamá (mom), papá
(dad), abuela (grandma),
abuelo (grandpa), Hermano (brother), Hermana
(sister), el perro (dog), el
gato (cat). They have
done a great job with this
unit of study. We have
also reviewed color and
number recognition by sound. We are just starting
to work on asking someone how they feel and answering with feliz (happy), triste (sad), cansado
(tired), and enojado (mad).
Kindergarten: We have
had a great time learning
about Spanish as another
language and way to communicate. We have been
working on numbers 1—
10, words for big (grande)
and small (pequeña) as
well as colors. We used
leaves from the trees at
Otter to talk about fall colors. Students have been having a good time and
learning very fast!
3rd Grade: Most of our focus will be on learning
Concert Dates:
5th grade: January 24 @ 2:30pm and 7:00pm
4th grade: June 1st @ 6:30pm(only)
3rd grade: March 24th @ 2:30pm (only)
Kindergarten:
We continue to explore music through moving, singing, playing instruments and listening to music. Students are making improvement in moving to and playing a steady beat. We have been working on hearing
melodies that go up and down. We will focus in November on knowing our voice and that it can speak,
whisper, call and sing. Student’s are learning, to respond to music by learning, discussing and moving.
We also will begin learning about basic rhythm as
long and short sounds.
1st Grade: We have just learned to read quarter
notes, quarter rests and two eight notes. The language we use to read these rhythms are for quarter
notes: Ta, two eight notes Ti-Ti and a silent beat as
rest. We move to, listen for, read and play these
rhythms. We are working at singing in tune high and
low pitches. 1st grade students are mastering steady
beat of music through movement and playing instruments.
2nd. Grade: Students have been practicing our new
rhythm half note through moving and playing activities. In November we will also create 8 beat rhythm
patterns using the half note as well as quarter, eight
notes and quarter rests. We will be working on singing, listening for, and reading the pitches Sol, La and
Mi. These goals will be practiced with playing, moving, singing and games.
about the Orchestra and music we will hear on our
November 29th field trip. Permission letters will be
sent out first week of November and need to be returned by November 11th. Here is the link to the information and permission letter: Orchestra Hall Trip
Permission. Students will eat early that day and will
need to bring a lunch from home or order a bag
lunch from the kitchen.
We had a recording session in October with Shake
dem Halloween Bones. Here is a link to our recording. OLE 3rd Grade Shake dem Halloween Bones.
4th Grade:
Students are doing a great job playing the recorder.
Mr. Langsdale popped in last week and told us he
had never heard 4th graders play recorders so well!
Please encourage your student to practice and remember their recorder for music class. We have
learned the notes BAG in October. We have just
introduced Low E and will this week learn Low D.
All students will be recording either Merrily We Roll
Along or French Song for a grade in November. This
will happen during music class. We also will be
starting a composition project for our recorders this
month. Students can access background music to
play with at these two places: musicplayonline.com
User name; Student Password 1234 and their music
class in Google Classroom.
5th Grade: We have been working on our singing,
playing and reading skills. We have been solving
the puzzle of reading music and figuring out how to
play the music in groups. Students have done a
great job using their prior knowledge and problem
solving skills in this activity.
In November we will
explore the Medieval
Period of music history and discuss how
music began to have a
written language.