Each month, Principal Susie Prather spotlights learning happening at our school. This month, the Principal's spotlight focuses on Lifelong Learning.

Dear OHA Students and Families, 

Lifelong learning inspires our students to actively pursue knowledge, skills, and experiences throughout their lives. We aim to foster curiosity and empower all Zephyrs with the agency to guide their learning journey. Learner agency means giving students the power and responsibility to take ownership of their education, make informed choices, and work toward their learning goals. To cultivate lifelong learners with strong learner agency, we encourage our students to develop key attributes such as self-awareness, responsibility, a willingness to take risks, a growth mindset, curiosity, collaboration, and integrity.

We encourage curiosity daily at OHA.  Our new resource, Wit and Wisdom poses essential questions students are pondering about during their modules.  

Here are some examples for this year: 

During literacy, science, and other content areas students are using the sentence stems I notice… I wonder… 

Here are some examples of what we have learned and still wonder about in our first Wit and Wisdom module that we are finishing up.

3rd Grade: Why do people explore the sea?

I have learned…

• “I didn’t realize the impact Jacques Cousteau had on studying the sea.  He invented the sea flea and aqua-lung.”  Russell 3-Dworak

• “Phytoplankton helps the food chain.” Jovie 3- Nestrud

I wonder….  

• “How does the ocean give us oxygen?” 3- Zemke

• “How much salt is in the sea?” 3-Zemke

• “Why isn’t the sea protected?” 3-Zemke

• “How does the ocean repair damage done to it?” 3-Zemke

• “How many shark attacks have there been on people?”  Milky 3-Dworak

4th Grade:  What does it mean to have a great heart, literally and figuratively?

I have learned…

• “A great heart literally is a healthy heart inside your chest and figuratively is being courageous.”  Charlie 4- Schaal 

• “The heart has 4 chambers that pump blood to the body.”  Etta 4- Merges

I wonder….

• “I wonder what would happen if you only had your brain and heart and no other organs.”  Ivy 4- Merges

• “I wonder how many times your heart beats in a year.”  Beau 4- Schaal

5th Grade:  How do cultural beliefs and values guide people?

I have learned…

• “Native people used every part of the animal they killed.”  Sasha 5- Geis

• “The Ojibwe use cradleboards to hold babies.”  Annie 5- Geis

I wonder….

• “How many animals were on the island with the Ojibwe.” 

• “I wonder if the Native Americans ever made underground houses.” Jace 5-Geis

Here are some great sentence starters for dinner conversations at home:

• "Today I learned..."

• "I'm still curious about..."

I encourage you to share with your child how you, too, are curious, are continuing to learn, and how you embody the qualities of lifelong learning mentioned above.

There will not be an eNews next week, November 28

Mahtomedi High School Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) students recently visited OHA to talk to students in grades 3-5 about the importance of helping others and participating in the Zephyr Service Project. During the visit, the high school students gave a short presentation reviewing how service learning projects make a difference in our communities, help all of us (students and adults) learn and grow, and that by helping collect holiday gifts for Zephyr families, we learn to think of others, that we can help out our friends, and that it is okay to ask for help. Click here to see more photos from the visit.

If you want to celebrate a teacher or staff member please fill out this Zephyr Celebration Form. It makes a staff member's day for going the extra mile. We will deliver the kind wishes to them and we will celebrate how they make a difference in the lives of a child.