R.I.P. Salmon

Hello! My name is Katy Jurney Scrivo and I'm one of the teachers at Igiugig School.

Katy Jurney Scrivo and Andrew Scrivo, teachers at Igiugig School

I know this is a blog kept by our students and not our teachers, but if you'll be patient and keep reading, you'll get to the students' part of this entry.

When we returned from spring break, we learned that all of our salmon had died. Igiugig School has a lot of copper in the water, and even the tiniest amount of copper will kill salmon. Because our continually changing weather made the lake ice unstable (we normally get water for our fish tank from Iliamna Lake), we had been using water from the faucet and treating it with special chemicals to make it fish-safe. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be fish-safe. Even though we were planning to kill the fish at the end of the project (we can't release them into the wild), it was still a disappointment to come back and see they had all died.

During spring break, Andrew and I attended a teaching conference where we learned about writing using RAFTS--that is, Role, Audience, Format, Topic and Share. This morning, three students completed quickwrites using the following RAFT: Role-Igiugig School fish; Audience-Igiugig students; Format-a letter; Topic-"How could you just let us die?!?". For the S, we decided to post responses on our blog. They're very silly and entertaining and we hope you enjoy them!

Kaleb:
Dear Kids from the Igiugig School,
How could you let us die? We weren't even one yet and we only got to the stage of fries. I should have known that you guys were so young so you thought that we were actual french fries. We were terrified when you guys sucked us up into a bucket and when we were burying our dead all you did was scoop us up and throw us in the sink.
Sincerely,
Your Dead Fish

Dolly:
Dear Igi Students,
How could you kids just let us die?!? We were so young and you just left us to die! We were going to die anyway some other day, but we didn't want to now. Now you students have no pets. You guys lost your snake and now us. What kind of students are you? Well, yeah, so write back soon...as soon as you get this "How could you just let us die?!" letter, and if you don't, you will get another "How could you just let us die?!" letter! And you wouldn't want another "How could you just let us die?!" letter, would you? No, I'm sure not.
Sincerely,
Your Dead Fish

Blaise:
Hello people of Igiugig.
How could you just let us die in that small, little, dirty fish tank? You are evil. Remember me, Scoliosis Fish, with the messed up back? Well if you do, then run and hide. It does not matter; I will find you.
Sincerely,
Scoliosis Fish

Last Week

Hi my name is Kaleb and I am here to talk about last week. Last week was pretty fun for all the students of Igiugig because we had a Valentine's Day Dinner at the Igiugig School. All the girls got dressed up and were servers while the boys were either working in the store or being cheese boys. The parents made spaghetti in the kitchen and it was really, really good. We ate spaghetti and all the workers got to eat free. While we were eating, we got to watch the love movie Lady and the Tramp. The dinner went untill 7:30pm because no one watched it.

Kaleb and Caleb working in the student store.

Andrew sturing spaghetti.

Mr. Creepy being creepy.

The spaghetti crew   in a picture.

Andrew crying because he got fired.

Andrew feels better now and is holding Erika.

The second thing that was fun this week was skyping with some of the kids in Boston. They asked a lot of questions which was good because they probably learned a lot about us and I know we did as well. I think we should do it every week at least once, but that's up to the teachers, not me. Our kids can't wait to meet them in Boston.

Well that's all for this week. For more come back and read our blog in two weeks--next week is spring break! Good bye.

Battles & Slumber Parties!

Hi we are Kaylee, Kiara and Benise, we are Team Party Rock in 2nd grade battle of the books.

We won our first battle! Each battle has 16 questions, we had three battles! We got tired of all those battles! FFEEWWEEE. Our other Battle Book teams were Team Keil, the BOB cats, Team Wolverine and Dolly Ann. We battled on Skype, it was really fun.

After all the battles were done we had a spend the night at the school. We had lots of snacks and we played lots of games. On the second movie we passed out. We watched Mr. Poppers Penguins and Narnia. We played lots of games, like dodgeball, ghost in the graveyard and capture the flag- WHOLE SCHOOL!

In dodgeball Benise was the only one left, Andrew called, "pass over the ball" and when Benise did Kaleb caught it and we lost.

We also play wii, Mario and Star Wars and we set up the mats and we slept on the mats. We were going crazy until Andrew said, "Settle down and watch a movie, and relax."

Kaylee and Dolly under a blanket

The wild Caleb, hatching his eggs

Josephine sleepyhead

Kiara drinking her popcorn

Dodgeball

Andrew being crazy

Everyone Gaming

Team Party Rock, rocking a battle.

BOB cats

Team Wolverine

Mr. Keil

This past week & Battle Books madness!

The student government is hosting a movie night tonight at 6:00 there will be snacks, drinks and much more...

We also had a LSAC meeting at the school with Andrew and some parents of Igiugig, at the meeting we give a report about what we are doing in student government and Andrew gives one about school.

Dolly Ann also won her Battle of the Books Competition, she got 39 points.

The other kids are in battle of the books and battle on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Here are som pictures of them practicing:

 3rd and 4th grade team Kaleb, Jolynn and Katelyn.

 Look at all of those practice questions!

 Caleb writng answers

 Coach Hill quizzing 1st and 2nd graders

 Keilan reading

Kaylee reading

Fishing for Water and Writing Poems

By: Charmaine A.S. and Josephine D.

This week we got fresh water for the fish from the lake, twice. 

 Keilan W bringing water to the tote.

 Walking back to the truck.

 Charmaine A.S bringing water to the tote.

 Katelyn G on the 4-Wheeler, and Benise T walking back to get in line for water.

 Standing in line.

Caleb D bringing water to the tote.

We also wrote Cinquains. First, we started off with writing about animals. It didn't take us long to figure out which animals we wanted to write about. I think we wrote them in less than 15 minutes. (The poems aren't very long, they're only 5 lines.) Then we wrote on about ourselves.

Here's an example of one that Kiara N wrote:

Kiara

Smart, funny

Running, jumping, exercising

Jumping in the water

Helper

There are also four new students at Igiugig School this semester! Bobby G he's in kindergarten, Katelyn G Bobby's sister, she's in the 3rd grade, Josephine D In the 9th grade, and Charmaine A.S in the 10th grade.