Quyana, ConocoPhillips!

In October of this school year, our school had a visit from a longtime friend of mine, Deborah. She spent a week volunteering in the classroom assisting with reading groups, supporting writing assignments, and preparing materials for our after school activities program.

Deborah also sent a tube of toothpaste out for each of our kiddos, as brushing their teeth is part of the daily routine out here in the 4th grade classroom.

This week, on behalf of her employer, ConocoPhillips, our classroom was awarded a $500 grant and a classroom set of Arctic Animals coloring books and crayons!

Thank you, Deborah, for your volunteer hours here in Chevak! And, thank you, ConocoPhillips, for this generous award! The class of 2021 is excited to bring some new materials into the classroom to include science activities and great books to add to our classroom treasure chest!

Each year we have been blessed with someone partnering with our students in order to enhance and enrich their educational experience-- these things do not go unnoticed, and provide more for our children than you will probably get to see. As their teacher, I thank you all!

If you are interested in partnering with our class, please contact me. Quyana!

Quyana, Donlin Gold!

Our morning group with their brand new dictionaries!

Excerpt taken from the Donlin Gold letter sent with the dictionaries:

"Donlin Gold is participating in The Dictionary Project (www.dictionaryproject.org), a national project to reach and provide every third grader in the United States with a dictionary. Donlin has sponsored the distribution of dictionaries to 744 third graders in the Yukon-Kuskokwim area. In the spirit of encouraging our youth to be life-long learners, Donlin Gold would like to present the 3rd grade level students at Chevak School with their own dictionary to keep. Using these dictionaries will enhance their reading and comprehension and, we hope, challenge students to seek answers from them. Donlin Gold would like this to be an annual event for years to come."

A beautiful picture of living in two worlds... she can have both! On the left is her poster of a Cup'ik Value: "Learn to do things on your own." On the right, her new dictionary! A beautiful blend!

The kids were all smiles!

Donlin Gold,

We are absolutely thankful for these treasured gifts! The students' excitement would have been worth recording! :) For now, the students are using the dictionaries during class and will be able to take them home by the end of the school year. They are having a fabulous time perusing through the "big book." They are finding our vocab words, new words, the longest word in the English dictionary, the alphabet in sign language, a year-long calendar, and so much more! Quyana cakneq for giving them another reason to love learning and love literacy. What a wonderful gift!

Warmest regards,
Miss Nelson