The Seneca Way
From Puppets to Pastures
Trail Notes From Mrs. Durych
We packed a lot of learning and fun into our full four-day week! Our students are settling into their new routines, working hard, and becoming more independent each day.
MAP Growth testing is now complete, and we are absolutely loving our new Clever badges. They make logging in so much easier for our younger students—and much easier for the teachers helping them, too. Love, love, love!
We enjoyed another wonderful Forest Day on Monday. Next Monday, we’ll begin our first SEL lesson with Jennifer Reyes and enjoy an afternoon of art. We’re looking forward to another great week of learning, creating, and growing together!
We had an awesome week filled with rich stories, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. The students have also been working hard on their decodable books, and it is amazing to watch their confidence and reading skills grow. We tried out our new finger readers—little rings with transparent windows that help students track the words as they read—and they were definitely a hit!
In math, we explored multiplication tables from 0 to 12 using colored blocks and other manipulatives. As the students built each multiplication fact, they began noticing patterns for themselves: “I can just add one more group!” and “It increases by two each time!” Watching those discoveries happen was one of the highlights of our week.
In writing, we learned about authors and illustrators and then took our own turn at creating books. Each student designed a cover, chose a title and theme, and illustrated four related topics inside. Their creative ideas ranged from fairy tales and spooky stories to nature, caterpillars, butterflies, and praying mantises. We may have some future authors and illustrators in our midst!
- It was a busy and exciting week of learning, and getting creative! In Science, we continued exploring weather, seasons, clouds, and flowers. The students enjoyed building their understanding of the natural world and making connections to what they see around them each day.
- In Social Studies, our K–1 students learned about leaders and explored what leadership can look like for everyone. We talked about the different ways people can be leaders and how we can all demonstrate leadership in our classroom and community.
- In PE, we continued to stay active through movement and games while working on developing our balance and coordination through a variety of activities and challenges.
- We also had lots of opportunities for hands-on creativity this week! We brought our imaginary fish to life using beeswax, giving students the chance to create and explore with this unique material. To finish the week, we enjoyed rock painting and flower building to create decorations for our classroom. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our creativity and add some of our own artwork to our learning space! There was no downtime to our week!
A young writer sounded out this little message on our board this week—and it absolutely made our day! Two simple words that capture the spirit at Seneca: learning lots, working hard, and having fun together. 💛
Many of our stories this week focused on helping others. We talked about what it means to be a helpful friend or family member and shared examples of ways we can lend a hand, offer encouragement, and notice when someone needs us. We are learning that even small acts of kindness can make a big difference.
Our district’s strategic plan comes to life in big and small ways each week at Seneca.
Goal 1: Excellence in Our Staff
Each week, Desiree introduces our students to four new Paiute words. We love the time and care she puts into preparing these lessons and helping our children build a meaningful connection with the language and culture of our area. Our students are fortunate to benefit from her knowledge and enthusiasm.
Goal 2: Every Student Is Known
As we settle into our routines, we are getting to know each student’s personality, interests, strengths, and learning needs a little better every day. This week, students had many different ways to show what they know—from working with math manipulatives and reading decodables to creating illustrations and imagining their own books. Their ideas, observations, and wonderfully individual ways of looking at the world make our days together so much fun.
Goal 3: Community Connection
Our Facebook page has become a wonderful place to connect with Seneca families, neighbors, and former students. This week, a neighbor who attended Seneca School brought us a graduation program from the Class of 1959. Sharing it sparked memories, comments, and connections among members of our community. We love seeing Seneca’s history and its present-day school community come together across generations.
Sometimes the best signs of growth are found in the smallest moments—a student discovering a pattern in multiplication, a young reader gaining confidence, or two simple words left on the board: “Love school.”
This week, our routines began to click, our students worked hard, and our classrooms were filled with creativity, curiosity, and laughter. Those are the days that remind us why this work matters—and why Seneca is such a special place to learn and grow.