Fish and Wildlife

This week, we had Fish and Wildlife come and visit again.  There was Julia Pinnix, Tom Prang, and Susan Savage. Tom is an archeologist and Susan is an ornithologist.

This time they talked about birds, their work with birds, and their migratory patterns. Susan explained about tracking birds with neck and leg bands, how it helps with tracking migration, and they even gave us some date about a bird migrating for us to plot on a map. They showed us different size leg bands, and the tools they use to capture the birds and put collars or leg bands on. 

We also got to go outside and they talked about the different types of marine habitats. Such as the saltwater, the fresh, and the mixed brackish water. We found different kinds of animals to look at under a microscope. We found some “sand fleas”, barnacles, “china men caps” or limpets, and some larvae bug cases. I don’t remember the name for all of them so I am sorry. We took them back to the school and looked at them under microscopes.

Tom explained about binoculars, compasses, GPSs, and spotting scopes. They gave each of us a pair of binoculars and told us how to change the focus. Tom talked about the compasses, how to use them, and how they work. Tom explained what the difference between true north and magnetic north were. They explained how to use GSPs and how useful they can be. We got to go down to the beach and release the creatures that we found and used our binoculars and the spotting scopes.

The last day they were here, they showed us different things that they might find in “midden”. A “midden” is when layers of dirt surround and protect artifacts for a long time. They talked about what purposes different artifacts had, such as sharp rocks. Tom had then started talking about how sometimes they will find materials and try to make arrowheads or stone knifes or bone tools. He brought out some bone and antler that he had and let us start and try make our own bone tools. We worked on those for a while and they then had to leave. Tom let us have the bone that we started on so we might be able to finish if we wanted.

We had so much fun this week and we are all happy that they got to visit with us again. We hope to be able to see them sometime again in the future.

Cross-Country Pictures!

Here are the pictures I took at cross-country. I am sorry I couldn't post them yesterday, I was very busy and I will tell you all about that tomorrow.

View from the airplane when we were flying out

Demonstrating the NYO "One Foot High Kick"

Explaining another NYO event

"Two Foot High Kick"

Explaining again

Me, doing the "Alaskan High Kick"

"One Foot High Kick

Shooting at targets during archery 

The balloons we shot at during the competition

Retrieving the arrows

The start of the girls race

Lovely view of one of the roads at NON

A guy running up a hill

More running up the hill

Cross-country

I'm sorry I didn't post this on Friday. I got lazy and just decided to do it on Monday.

Last week I went to our cross-country meet in Nondalton. I was there for three days and two nights. Erin didn't get to go because she got sick, but everything was fun. We got to do a lot of different activities; such as archery, a service project, icebreakers, mix six volleyball, and lots of other things. 

There were 18 girls and 27 boys that ran. We had a separate boys and girls race. I got eighth place out of 18 and I shaved four minutes off my time last year. They are sending seven boys and five girls to regionals.

The service project was filling in potholes in the roads at Nondalton. It was a service project that the student’s originally started about a month before. We also did a workshop on volunteering. Some definitions of volunteering is working without pay, doing a service, or helping someone without expecting anything in return.

Archery was fun. They had compound bows with about 30 lb. pull weight. We had a competition, which involved a "shoot off". We would put up targets on the bulls eye and we would shoot at them. They looked like upside down triangles and whoever got the closest to the point at the bottom, was picked first for the teams. Then once everyone was on a team, the teams each blew up six balloons and put them on the targets. As you might have guessed, we had to pop the balloons with the arrows. It was fun. 

The iLead students did not get to go to the "iLead retreat" because of weather. So we had a meeting and decided that somehow we were going to think of a lesson plan centering on "kindness" and the north leaders will do it at the North Volleyball Jamboree and the south leaders will do it at the South. We will also try to do a presentation on drugs, if the jamborees fall on Red Ribbon Week.  

Four other kids from other schools and I were accepted to go to a Youth Leadership Symposium in a place called "Dillingham". We are going to be there for one weekend and there will be about 60 other kids from different towns there. We will each receive one college credit. I am very excited to be able to go.

We start volleyball practice next month on the 13^th. I’m not sure whom we will have as a coach but we will have enough people to have a full three-person team and then a couple extras. The South Volleyball Jamboree will be in Port Heiden. The North will be in Levelock.

That is all for this week in my school. I will post pictures on Wednesday because there is a lot of pictures.

CHIGNIK LAGOON SCHOOL ROCKS!

This week in Chignik Lagoon School (dun dun DUN!) the caterpillars have turned into beautiful butterflies. The butterflies are called Painted Lady butterflies and the elementary will take care of them for about a month. 

Next Tuesday, I will be leaving for an “iLead retreat”. Me and some other student leaders from the school district will be going to Nondalton a day early to make a lesson plan for the elementary students of Nondalton. My teacher was informed that I was supposed to bring a book about the leadership trait of kindness. I choose the book, The Giving Tree. Instead of everyone leaving on Saturday the 17^th, everyone will now leave on Friday the 16^th! Kasie; our school counselor will be traveling with Erin, the other cross-country runner, on the 14^th. I will be traveling with another teacher from a different school.

Next week I will try to get my regular post in on Friday but I may be too tired when I get home. These meets and jamborees are very draining on everybody, especially the teachers and chaperones.

We have all been working hard at our online classes. We have had a couple problems with logging on but we will sort it out.

Over all this has been a good week. Kasie, our counselor and cross-country coach, came back yesterday from Chignik Lake. That is all for this week at Chignik Lagoon School (dun DUN DUN!!!!)

Beautiful Creatures, Cross-country, and Paper Clips

This week, the caterpillars in the elementary classes caterpillars made their cocoons or chrysalis. The caterpillars will be in their cocoons for about another week and then the elementary students will have butterflies hanging out in the classroom.

The cocoons

The mesh container
There are some interesting books this year such as Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Another student and I having been going through our Battle Book list pretty quickly. Margaret Stohl. Another book is Little Brother by Scott Westerfeld. We will soon be spending time studying what authors wrote what books. In the competition, getting the book right gets five points and getting the right author gives you another three points. All together we can earn eight points.
Cross-country is approaching very quickly. We leave for the meet on the 14^th and come back the 17^th.  We have been running everyday, so I think we will do well. Many other schools from our district are going to compete, too. I will make sure to take lots of picture because I know everybody loves pictures! Our school counselor, Kasie Pletcher, is coaching us this year and she will be going with us to the meet.

We watched a movie yesterday called Paper Clips, which was about how this one school studied the Holocaust and they wanted to see what 6 million of something looked like. They decided to collect paper clips. The paper clips represented the 6 million Jews that the Nazis killed. Another significant reason they used paper clips was that the Norwegians used to wear paper clips on their lapels during World War II to silently protest against the Nazis. The movie took place in a small town, called Whitwell. It was a very good movie, in my opinion. 

We all have been working hard in school and been making this year very fun.