Adventure Dilemmas Lead To Problem-Solving

You’re a thirsty pioneer on the Oregon Trail, and you’ve discovered that the only spring nearby is guarded by four armed men. Four unfriendly armed men. How will you get water?

This is one of the problems facing third-graders at Pioneer School as they study pioneer life this fall.

Their answers show a combination of 8-year-old whimsy and downright practicality.

“You had that idea of hypnotizing them,” Russ Wagstaff reminds classmate David Smentek.

“Or we could wait until after dark and capture them all and take the water,” David replies.

In the end, though, they barter, using salt, spices or food.

“I traded five pounds of vegetables,” says Grant Evans. What kind of veggies?

“Well, celery.” After that, his imagination falters.

The students are keeping track of their adventures in journals, which they will share later at a Spokane Valley retirement home.

Photos to illustrate their journals were being taken last week. These pictures aren’t the old, stiffsmile, traditional poses. Each group of students, dressed in colorful pioneer garb, worked out their own pose.

A handful of second-grade girls wanted to emphasize how hard life was for pioneers. In the center of their tableau, Teale Cresswell leaned tiredly over an old-fasioned washboard and bucket.

Rebecca Wolf slumped into a rough-made chair.

“In the second picture can I be on the floor and you be picking me up?” Mackee Moland asked, eager to show how exhausted she is.

Then, there are the Christmas tree ornaments. On the Oregon Trail or not, Christmas is coming. The third-graders created burlap Santa face ornaments. The kindergartners made mitten ornaments. But the second-graders got the prize assignment, making garlands with beads, bits of gingham and gingerbread cookies.

“They smell very gingerish,” observed second-grader Savannah Rogalski.

And indeed they did.

The ornaments will deck out a Christmas tree for the Festival of Trees to be donated by Pioneer School.

WV honors grandmother

West Valley School District recently honored Dawn Slaughter with its You Make a Difference award.

Slaughter is raising her four grandchildren and is an active volunteer at Orchard Center Elementary School.

Math specialist at Pratt

Pratt Elementary School is one of only 16 schools statewide to benefit from a pilot project this fall that the state hopes will help kids in math.

Called the Math Helping Corps, the yearlong project assigns participating schools a math specialist who helps in every aspect of math instruction - curriculum, student instruction and even teacher refresher and advanced training.

At Pratt, longtime District 81 teacher MaryJo Ormsby has assumed that job.

“She’s a wonderful resource that will help us better prepare for the WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning),” said Principal Steve Barnes.

Pratt’s math scores on standardized tests have been below average. Barnes said he applied for the program as part of an effort to improve students’ proficiency in math.

“We were aware that our math scores needed some work,” he said.

Because the program is new, Pratt is still developing and experimenting with how to implement Math Helping Corps, and the state is watching closely, Barnes said.

“We are really on the cutting edge of this,” he said.

Staff writer Carlos Acevedo contributed to this report.