OME was chosen to be an International Model PLC School by one of the leading K-12 educational professional development companies in the world, Solution Tree.  We are only 1 of 175 schools in the country who have been given this honor.  In order to be considered for this award, OME had to provide evidence of the following:

• Demonstrate a commitment to PLC concepts.
• Implement those concepts for at least three years.
• Present clear evidence of improved student learning.
• Explain the culture, practices, and structures of the school or district, and submit it for consideration to the PLC Review Committee using our online submission process.
• Update school or district information on the site each year to show your data continues to meet the criteria of the PLC at Work process.
• Demonstrate a shared understanding and commitment to the PLC at Work process. 
• Demonstrate a culture of continuous improvement in our school. 
• Describe the process that our school uses to create and implement a guaranteed and viable curriculum. 
• Describe the strategies our school uses to monitor student learning on a timely basis. 
• Share how we are creating and implementing systems of intervention and extension to provide students with additional time and support for learning. 
• Explain how our high-performing, collaborative teams focus their efforts on improved student learning.

Our staff, students and community are dedicated to helping all children achieve at high levels and the PLC process has been a invaluable asset to our student's education.  Thank you Solution Tree for considering us, we are extremely humbled and honored!

Registration for the upcoming 2019-2020 school year is open. Families of NEW students to our school, should use the "New Student Registration Link" and families of RETURNING students to our school, should use the "Current Student Registration" link to register. Everyone needs to register, new students for obvious reasons and returning students to update information.

We encourage everyone to get registered ASAP as we use these numbers to determine if we need to hire additional teachers. The sooner we can do this the better. Also if your children will not be returning to OME in the Fall, please contact our school immediately to help keep our enrollment numbers accurate. Please pass on the word to any new move-ins to your neighborhood as well.

OverDrive Summer Read is an annual program for schools in the US and Canada designed to encourage your students to keep reading all year long. This year’s 10-week program, running June 6 – August 15, is our longest ever. We’re also offering more titles than ever before. Thirty free and simultaneous use juvenile and young adult ebooks (and select audiobook and Read-Along options) will be available to students in participating schools. These titles will be prominently displayed in Sora so it’s easy for students to find their next book and chill out and read.

If your students read them all, they can always check out more books from their public library without ever leaving Sora.

https://resources.overdrive.com/summer-read/

 . 

This week at Old Mill students have been learning techniques for using chalk pastels to help get ready for the Chalk Drawing Festival.  Old Mill will be having a chalk drawing festival on Tuesday, May 28 from 9am to 3pm.  Each teacher has signed up for a time to come outside and draw with their class.  Parents are welcome to come join in the fun with their students. Thanks to our Beverly Taylor Sorenson (BTS) art teacher, Liz Brown for organizing this!  We look forward to having a fun time creating beautiful sidewalks the day after Memorial Day!

Other news in Art:

A huge thank you to the Heber Valley Arts Council for their donation to Old Mill.  Our second and fifth grade students were able to create with clay they purchased.  The second graders made flower bowls to celebrate Spring.  The fifth graders made pinch pot animals. 

Third graders reviewed what they had learned about the phases of the moon in an art project with our BTS Art teacher, Liz Brown.  They learned about an artist, developed some drawing skills in perspective, explored liquid water colors to paint their landscapes.  They used bubble art to create “moon paper” to add the phases of the moon to their landscape.  Third graders studied the art of Eric Carle and created collages of animals or creatures inspired by his art.

First graders did an abstract art work after learning about Piet Mondrian.  They used tens and one in their art.  All students had a secret number hidden in their art work from their tens and ones.  Student had a lot of fun counting each other’s secret numbers!

Fourth graders were studying habitats and got to draw animals using pictures or their imagination.  They created environments for their animals as well.  They did an amazing job and were so proud of themselves!

Fifth graders have been working on a printmaking project.  After making a printing plate they used brayers and printing ink to make multiple prints of the image they created.  Kids had fun learning about the process.  To finish they created altered prints and wrote about their images!  Such happy faces printing!

 . 

First grade students had the opportunity to visit the Bean Museum at BYU last Monday. They participated in a class where they learned about how scientist classify animals. Not only were they able to group animals, but also see some live animals. They were able to see a tarantula close up and personal. The museum worker let the tarantula crawl all over her hands while students looked at him. They learned that tarantulas can live up to 15-30 years! Wow!  Students were also able to see and touch a turtle. He was not shy and held his head proudly while all the student pet him. Students, parent volunteers, and teachers had a very good time!

Teachers at OME were spoiled by our amazing PTA this last week. Not only with Disney themed lunches, snacks and treats but raffle prizes too. All of our teachers felt the love

Old Mill owls have been working  hard this year to learn and master new concepts.  To celebrate this learning the week of April 22-26 was Growth Mindset Week.  Each day of the week was themed around always thinking positive and doing your best.  It was fun to wear our pajamas to school and also our  favorite team jersey as we were reminded that it is important to be part of the team and not sweat the tests we had coming up.  Students  are currently taking end of year assessments where they have a chance to show what they have learned.  It is a very exciting time to celebrate all the hard work and growth that has taken place this year.

Not only do Old Mill students work hard to improve their academic knowledge they also have opportunities to practice social interactions.  The second graders have been practicing their cooperative skills in physical education.  They had the challenge of keeping a beach ball up in the air and getting it back and forth over the net for the most consecutive number of times.  Mrs. Fife's class were the champions with 27 volleys back and forth over the net before we let it hit the ground.  Way to work together class!

Picture captions

Growth Mind Set week was celebrated by students dressing up in variety of ways.  Fifth grade students show off their nerdy looks.

Second grade students all dressed in their sweats to remind them their is no reason to sweat end of year assessments.

The third graders at Old Mill recently completed a unit where they worked very hard at becoming the “class expert” on a famous person.  This was an intensive unit with many components.  Each student read a book about a famous person from the Who Am I Series, took notes on the book, wrote a research paper, created a one-minute poster/book talk, and created a bio-riddle about their famous person. 

 The best part of this unit is it gets students involved in thinking about men and women who have made a significant contribution to our world. They make connections between what types of character traits these heroes possess and what similar traits students share. 

  One of our many goals from this unit was for students to think about the potential within each of them to pursue their own dreams and what contribution to the world could they make to the world. 

Beautiful, breathtaking, and majestic are just a few words used to describe Utah Biomes or Ecosystems. The 4th grade students at Old Mill Elementary have been learning about Utah Ecosystems, or plants and animals that occupy a distinct region. Deserts, wetlands, and forests are the most common Biomes found in Utah. As part of this science core subject area, students had the opportunity to have an indoor field trip brought to them. 

An instructor, from the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum, came to our 4th grade and presented an engaging, hands-on learning experience. Students were able to learn firsthand about animal adaptations and how these animals use their physical traits and behaviors to fit into their habitat or environment. Students were able to see and touch various kinds of amphibians and reptiles. Thanks to the Bean Museum for a wonderful learning opportunity.

Registration for summer school is available at www.wasatch.edu or at the school office.  Classes run Monday through Thursday from 9:00 AM to noon at Heber Valley Elementary.  A courtesy bus stops at each elementary school for pickup and drop off.

Art education offers opportunities for students to grow in many different ways and Old Mill is very fortunate to have  an excellent art and music program.   Students have the opportunity each week to attend these classes. 

 This past week the music classes, taught by Shelli Gladwin, enjoyed over 300 talent performances. Talents ranged from dance routines to cello, piano, violin and vocal performances just to name a few.  To give the young 1st grade classes an opportunity to start performing, they experimented with many different instruments while playing in front of their classmates and parents. Mrs Gladwin is seeing growth in all the grades as they are developing as musicians and performers. 

Third graders have been creating Geodes in art class for the past month.  They have learned about color, space and form to create  beautiful gems. Students used watercolor to blend each layer of their geodes and then finished up with markers and glitter to create their masterpieces. Mrs. Mickelson, the art teacher, was beyond proud of how creative these kids were.

Old Mill Elementary thanks Mrs. Gladwin and Mrs. Mickelson for providing such quality art experiences for our students.

Kindergarten students at Old Mill Elementary are currently learning about the weather and the seasons.  How fortunate that our students have opportunities to learn directly from their own community.  Chris Covington, an avalanche forecaster and an Old Mill Elementary parent, visited some kindergarten classrooms last week and taught students about the causes of avalanches in our mountains and the importance of avalanche forecasting in protecting and informing the public.   He shared and demonstrated some of the avalanche safety equipment, essential for doing his job in the snow and essential for mountain snow safety.

OME Reading Brag Tag Challenge

Let's get reading OME...

We spent some time chatting with adults and children alike about what hooked them into reading and almost every one of them said it was a particular series, character, genre or author that peaked their interest.  Therefore, we created the OME Brag Tag Reading Challenge.  Students choose a book series that they would love to read and then get a bookmark from Library.  After they read each book in the series, students then complete a graphic organizer to share what they have learned and loved about the book and turn it into their teacher.  Students then check out the next book in the series.  When they finish all the books on the bookmark, they turn it in at the office. Mrs. Discher will come around once a week with the Reading Brag Tag cart to award the students with their grade level super cool Converse keychain and a new brag tag or two for their efforts.  The goal is to have students fall in love with characters, settings, genres and authors, as well as allow their imaginations to take them on amazing adventures!  (Currently we have students who are completing 2-3 series a month and we are struggling to keep up with them, which is great and we are up to the challenge)  Students proudly display their keychains on their backpacks with all the brag tags that they collect.  We hope students will "brag" about the books they are reading to share their excitement and encourage others to do the same.  The journey of a lifetime could start with the turning of a page...Happy Reading OME!

 OME Brag Tag Challenge Video

1st Grade Bookmarks

2nd Grade Bookmarks

3rd Grade Bookmarks

4th Grade Bookmarks

5th Grade Bookmarks

6th Grade Bookmarks