This year cross-country running started even before school started. The District meet was on the 19th of September so the runners had more than a month to practice. Gail Fitka was the cross-country coach and their practice started at 4:00 p.m. and lasted until all the runners made it back to the starting point.

When practice began there were 17 runners who went to practice. The elementary runners ran 1.5 miles and the high school runners ran 3.1 miles. But as the month started winding down some of the runners quit and left Gail with only 12 runners. There were only three high school girls (2 short of a team) and 9 elementary students (4 girls, 5 boys).

They left for the district meet in Hooper Bay on the 19th of September. The elementary students were required to run 1.5 miles and the high school had to run 3.1 kilometers on the Hooper Bay coastal sand dunes. They ran according to different age groups. Altogether there were over 250 elementary students who participated in the races.

Some quotes from the coach and Marshall High School participants:

Coach Gail Fitka: "I hope there are more students that join cross-county next year. Everybody did well and several participants placed in the top 10."

Charlotte Alstrom: "I had fun, and I got to see my friend Wassily. But it was hard to run on the sand dunes."

Rose Fitka: "It was funky because they had a dance in the afternoon.

In Annie's Kindergarten they have been reading the story, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." The activities taught are based on the story and the characters. We made Goldilocks and Three Bears masks and the students will use them to act out the story. We discussed the difference between real bears and make-believe bears. In a large group activity the children acted out and identified the concept of opposites. They also cut and pasted bowls, chairs, and beds under the right category of the Three Bears.

In math the students were introduced to AB-AB patterns. They used unifix cubes of two colors to make their own patterns. They also used boy-girl-boy-girl, short-long sleeves and long-short hair patterns.

Annie said she used bean bags and trays to teach them the concept of "in-out." The students took turns tossing bean bags while the others told where they landed. They located objects by telling their position, above, below, on, off, in front, in back, etc. I used the student work books to cover these concepts and also manipulatives like bear counters and interlocking cubes. I also plan to use colored macaroni or something similiar for an art project using the AB-AB pattern.

The first and second grades are working on English, Spelling, Phonics, Math, Reading, Science, File Folder Reading, Yupik, and Olga's computers. They've also started to learn Spanish. They've learned how to say lots of words in Spanish. It is fun to speak Spanish. They can speak Spanish any time.

Third and Fourth Grades

The third and fourth grades have begun their Spanish language class with LYSD's Step Star Program. Colors and greetings were in the first lesson. They are also enjoying their new Health reading series with fiction, non-fiction and poetry about cats and bears. Their D'Nealian cursive handwriting is getting easier to write. All Math groups are continuing with basic skills, and the "Mad Minute" timed practice is helping to increase our speed in addition. Our class would like to thank everyone who took such good care of our classroom plants during the summer. They all enjoy them as our continuing science project.

5th & 6th Grades

Tom Andrew reports that,

"We've had a very enjoyable first quarter. The 4th through 6th grades just recently had the "IPT" test. This test is given by the Bilingual Dept. It measures the reading and writing abilities of students grades 2-12.

Although we had a slow start, we are trying to catch up in the Young Astronauts II satellite program that we participate in twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m.

We also started the Middle School Spanish II about three to four weeks late this year. We still do not have the necessary materials to successfully learn this language. However, we are striving to learn.

As the school year continues, we are getting into harder math problems. This is when students really need to be on top of their math. Each student must know the steps to solve problems. Remember that a student can solve the current problems by what has already been taught."