Gladstone School News Blast
Gladstone Schools • Growing Great People • 12.7.22
Book battle lights a fire in young readers
Fourth and fifth graders at John Wetten Elementary have the opportunity to participate in the Oregon Battle of the Books [OBOB]. Participants start in the fall, with each child reading six to ten titles from the OBOB list. In the spring, they compete in teams to answer questions about each book.
Typically 50 students participate at John Wetten. While some are enthusiastic readers, other children discover a love of reading after joining the program with friends. This was the case for Katy Raymond's stepdaughter Haylee Butler, a fifth grader.
"Haylee is not someone who is naturally drawn to reading. Last year, i was completely shocked to hear she had signed up to do it with a friend," Raymond said. "She was so proud of their team at the end."
This year Haylee has two friends participating in OBOB, and they regularly talk about the books they are reading. "This has been the very best peer pressure," Raymond said.
Haylee usually prefers books about sports, but thanks to OBOB, she is now reading a wider range of titles from fiction and biographies to graphic novels. She has been part of the school's new OBOB club after school, which gives children the chance to read aloud together and get to know their teammates.
Free preschool focused on playful inquiry
Thanks to a Preschool Promise Grant from the State of Oregon, the Gladstone Teaching Preschool recently added 10 free openings for students. Some spots are still available for low-income families. Apply now by contacting Chelsea Hamilton at 503-650-5680.
The full day program serves children age 3 to 5 at the Gladstone Center for Children and Families [GCCF] a hub of early childhood programs and social services. The preschool is a partnership between Clackamas County's Education Service District, Gladstone Schools, and Teaching Preschool Partners.
The preschool is founded on a Reggio Emilia model, which encourages learning based on playful inquiry, hands-on activities, social interaction, and student-led storytelling. Teachers Joelle Flegal and Yahaira Sanchez lead students in songs, storytelling, counting, art projects, and play.
"We listen to children's interests and design class explorations around that," said Flegal. "Along the way, we help foster children's habits of mind, like focusing their attention to pursue an interest."
Rotary gives dictionaries to third graders
Students were excited to explore their dictionary, which includes not only words and their definitions, but also the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, biographies of the U.S. Presidents, maps of the continents, and facts about the 8 planets and the 50 states.
Rotarian Baldwin van der Bijl told the children how the dictionary helped him learn English when he arrived in the U.S. from Holland at age six. "Whenever there was a word I didn't know, my mother would say, 'Look it up in the dictionary.'" he said. "Now you can do the same."