HOOD CANAL

🎥 Did you know? All of our regular Hood Canal School Board meetings are video recorded and available online! 📚🎬 We believe in complete transparency, so you can check out our board meeting videos anytime here: 👉 https://www.hoodcanal.wednet.edu/page/meeting-recordings You’re also welcome to join us in person or watch live via Zoom! 🌟 Learn more and get the Zoom link here: 👉 https://www.hoodcanal.wednet.edu/page/school-board-info-page Stay informed and stay connected! 🐋

🎉 We're very grateful to Tracing the Fjord Magazine for featuring Hood Canal student Lin Spichiger, this year’s Mason County Forest Festival Button Contest winner! 🏅👏 In a separate article, we’re also thrilled they highlighted our brand-new guitar program led by instructor Chris Eakes—made possible through the generous support of the Hoodstock - Hood Canal Music & Arts Festival. 🎸🎶 We’re proud of our students and grateful to our amazing community partners for helping make opportunities like these possible! 💙 The complete spring 2025 issue of Tracing the Fjord Magazine is available here: https://issuu.com/northwestevent/docs/spring_fjord_2025?fr=xGAEoAT3_NTU1

Congratulations to our 6th Grade Honor Roll students for Term Three - they are serious about their learning! We’re proud to recognize these Orcas for their hard work, dedication, and academic success. Keep up the great work—you’re setting a great example for others! #HoodCanalProud #OrcaExcellence

🌎 Huge thanks to the Shelton-Mason County Journal and reporter Gordon Weeks for joining us at our Earth Day celebration this week! We appreciate the coverage and loved seeing the great photos featured in the paper. 📸 It was a fantastic day of learning, service, and community in partnership with the Skokomish Indian Tribe. 💚🌿

🎉 Our amazing ASB students have planned another great Spirit Week — happening Monday, April 28 through Friday, May 2! Let’s show our school pride and have some fun each day: 👚 Mon: Pajama Day 🐋 Tue: Orca Spirit Shirts or Blue, Black, or White ⚫⚪ Wed: Wear Black & White Day 🎨 Thurs: Monochromatic Day (wear all one color) 🏖️ Fri: Beach Day (dress like you’re headed to the beach — no swimsuits, please!) Let’s go, Orcas! 💙🖤🤍 #OrcaPride #SpiritWeek #HoodCanalStrong

🎲📏 Family Math Night – Wednesday, May 30! 🧮🃏 All Hood Canal families are invited to our Family Math Night on Wednesday, May 30 from 4:30–6:00 PM in the Hood Canal School Gym! 🍽 Free dinner for the whole family 🎁 Free game bag for each family—includes cards, dice, and dominoes 🎯 Multiple math game stations by grade level to reinforce key concepts 🏡 Take-home directions so you can keep the learning going at home It’s hands-on, fun, and family-friendly—don’t miss it! 🙏 Huge thanks to Lucky Dog Casino for their generous support of this event!

🌎 We celebrated Earth Day in spectacular weather today, and our students had a terrific time outdoors! ☀️🌿 The event was led by Ms. Akiyama in partnership with the Natural Resources Department of Skokomish Indian Tribe, and kicked off with a beautiful opening ceremony featuring a song by Skokomish students and tribal members. Students took part in a wide range of hands-on learning activities, including: 🌱 Removing invasive species from trails 🎨 Creating cards using plant prints 🍽️ Tasting foods made from native plants 🦀 Learning about invasive green crabs in Hood Canal 💧 Exploring pH levels and water quality 🌾 Identifying local plants …and so much more! It was a meaningful day of learning, culture, and community—thank you to numerous volunteers and staff who made this special event possible! 💙👏 Here are a few photos, but we have many more on Facebook at: https://tinyurl.com/3nhppw36

One 3rd, 5th, and 6th grade small group at Hood Canal had an egg-citing day of learning! 🥚✨ Students started with an Easter egg word hunt, searching for hidden eggs filled with r-controlled vowel words like “after” and “sister.” Afterward, they put their sequencing skills to the test by filling in the missing ingredients for Rice Krispy treat eggs 🍚🍬—then followed the directions to make their own! 🧑‍🍳🐣 Their classroom motto is: “You have to do the hard stuff before you do the fun stuff”—and today they got to do both! Check out these great photos from their learning adventure!

What a game! Our 2025 Students vs. Staff Basketball Showdown was one for the books! After the students took the win last year, the staff came ready to play—bringing the heat and hustling hard for a 51-45 victory. Big shots, big laughs, and big school spirit all around. Check out the highlights and see who brought their A-game to the court: https://youtube.com/shorts/VAnsVA6Lc3c?si=etMg5DiDy2E0tW1L

🏀 Huge shoutout to The Sounder for their amazing full-page cover story on our boys basketball team! We’re so grateful to the Skokomish Indian Tribe for their continued support and to author Tony Herrera for capturing the heart and hustle of our team so well. 🙌💙 Check out the story here 👉 https://skokomish.org/.../2025/04/April2025Sounderweb.pdf 📸 Cover image below!

Bubble fun at recess! These two—one from 1st grade and one from Kindergarten—enjoyed some serious bubble magic yesterday. Love seeing our littlest learners building friendships and having fun! #RecessJoy #HoodCanalOrcas #KinderMagic #1stGradeFun

A huge THANK YOU to the Hood Canal Lions Club for their generous $2,500 donation! Their support is helping us restock our school food pantry to better serve families in need and replace robotics and STEM equipment in our library so students can keep exploring, building, and learning in exciting hands-on ways. We’re grateful for our community partners who make a real difference for our students every day!

We’re excited to welcome you to our upcoming Indian Parent Committee (IPC) meeting at Hood Canal School! This is a wonderful opportunity for families of Native students and anyone who serves or supports them to come together, share ideas, and strengthen our community. This meeting we're pleased to welcome Sui-Lan Ho'okano who has been working with our staff and the Skokomish Tribe on the development of our Since Time Immemorial curriculum. She'll be sharing about the progress so far, discuss next steps, and answer your questions. 🗓 When: Wed., April 16 at 5:15PM 📍 Where: Hood Canal School Library 🍕 FREE pizza and childcare will be provided! Feel free to invite other families and supporters to join us. We can’t wait to see you there! You can also join us remotely! Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82500230490 Meeting ID: 825 0023 0490 ❓ Questions? Reach out to our Chair, Amber Hanson, at amber@skokomish.org.

Our 2nd grade reading group had some fun during reading time by rocking some stylish glasses (no lenses included!). The big question of the day: Do glasses make us smarter… or is it all the hard work we’ve been doing? Spoiler alert: It’s definitely the hard work—though the glasses do make us look extra studious!

Here are some great photos from Hood Canal’s Kindergarten Earth Day clean-up project! 🌎✨ During their specialist time, Kindergarten students learned all about garbage, recycling, and how they can help care for the planet. They put that learning into action by cleaning up around the school campus and nearby trails. 🧹♻️ Along the way, they collected colorful (and cleanable) items for an upcoming recycling art project! The Earth Day lessons were co-taught by Mr. Max, our art teacher, and Mrs. Lankford, our librarian—what an awesome team! 🎨📚

BOOTS Outdoor Ed Tackles the Skokomish South Fork! Despite nearly nonstop rain during their multi-day BOOTS trip, students stayed warm and dry thanks to new Gore-Tex and fleece gear ☔️🧥. The river rose a couple of feet, leading to wet feet—but not dampened spirits! Students shared plenty of laughter, trail jokes, and deep conversations about the comforts of home—especially real beds and post-hike meals 🛏️. The 10-mile round-trip hike with full packs pushed everyone to their limits. Each student reached the trailhead with a powerful sense of accomplishment and a bond built through challenge and teamwork ⛰️🎒. These were three “school days” none of them will ever forget.

Here are some snapshots from our amazing third quarter cooking class, taught by the wonderful Ms. Lankford! This quarter, students rolled up their sleeves and created some delicious dishes: lasagna, French crêpes, Belgian waffles, quesabirria, strawberry agua fresca, and English muffin pizzas! 🍝🧇🌮🍓 Before getting started in the kitchen, students completed their food handler’s course to earn their permits. They also learned about the cultural origins of each dish, cooked with supervision, wrote food reviews, and estimated food costs. So much learning—and tasting! The class favorites this time? Quesabirria and strawberry agua fresca—yum! 🌟 Huge thanks to Ms. Lankford for leading this tasty adventure. Great job, student chefs! 👩‍🍳👨‍🍳

🐟 Salmon release success! 🐟 Our 3rd and 7th grade students had an unforgettable field trip releasing salmon they hatched right in their classrooms! It was a beautiful day filled with hands-on learning, thanks to the amazing coordination by Mr. Akiyama and engaging activities provided by the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group. Check out the photo with the trash bags—our students took time to help clean up the area while rotating through the stations. So proud of their efforts to care for our environment and local salmon habitat! 🌲🧤♻️

Big thanks to Hood Canal Food Bank for donating a some fresh fruits and veggies for our weekly food bag program! This week we had a little extra fruit—so some lucky students got to enjoy a fun (and healthy!) snack at school. We love our community partners! #HoodCanalStrong #CommunitySupport #HealthyKids #ThankYou

📚🎉 Thank you, Hood Canal families, for helping make our Book Fair a huge success! With your amazing support, we reached $7,386.26 in sales! That means our library will receive $2,500–$3,000 to go toward new books, STEM materials, book covers, and more great resources for our students. 📖💡 A special shoutout to our amazing librarian Melanie Lankford and all the staff, volunteers, and families who helped with setup, shopping, cashiering, clean-up, and our Share the Fair donation fund. We couldn’t have done it without you!