CHIMACUM — The question, first thing on this summer-school day, is “What Do You Do with a Chance?”
That’s the title of the book Michelle Moseley read aloud to her students at Chimacum Elementary School.
They’re a combination of kids about to be first- through fifth-graders, and they’ve spent their August in the classroom, garden and playground.
Summer Sorensen, 9, gave a visitor reasons why she has appreciated the summer-school curriculum.
“I hang out with my friends and learn math,” she said, “and I learn how to be more nice to people I don’t know. And I’m making new friends,” all during the sessions from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Summer and her classmates listened closely to Moseley as she made her way through the pages of “What Do You Do with a Chance?”
It’s Kobi Yamada’s sun-yellow picture book about reaching out and grabbing a good opportunity.
At first, the youngster in the book is unsure about having the courage to do it.
Should one give up? Moseley asked.
“No. Keep trying,” a student answered.
The next time a chance comes around, “I was ready,” our book’s hero says.
“I reached out and grabbed it and held it with all my might.”
Next up: Moseley and summer school reading specialist-English learner coordinator Josette Mendoza led their students in a sentence-expansion exercise.
They talk together about nouns — such as dragon and school — then the kids call out adjectives for them, such as scary, spiky, nice, fun, helpful and chunky.
Mendoza, conversing with her flock of children, switches from English to Spanish and back again, never skipping a beat. Some students have arrived recently in Chimacum, speaking only Spanish.
“Mask up, please,” Mendoza reminds the kids.
Tomorrow, she promises, you’ll get to build paragraphs out of these sentences.
Chimacum’s summer school program, which has four teachers working with the class of 16 to 20 students, can provide individualized instruction, said Jason Lynch, principal of Chimacum Elementary and of the Chimacum School District’s Pi alternative learning program.
By offering the summer session, “we’re targeting students that needed extra support,” he added.
Along with math, reading and writing, there has been science and gardening on campus, while Chimacum Elementary has partnered with the Olympic Peninsula YMCA to provide breakfasts and lunches the kids can have outdoors.
“I love this setup,” Mendoza said as her class moved into study groups at work stations around the room.
“The small groups are just beautiful,” in the way they help teachers connect with each student on his or her level.
“We’re here to support the whole child,” Mendoza said.
Today is the last day of school, “fortunately and unfortunately,” the veteran teacher added.
She can use the break before the 2021-22 school year starts Sept. 7, but she wants to give these kids as much attention as possible.
Near the end of the “What Do You Do with a Chance?” book, the protagonist — and teacher Moseley — remark that it can be mighty scary to try new things.
But when you take that chance, the story suggests, “it might be the start of something incredible.”
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News “Brain breaks,” aka recess periods, are built into the summer-school day for students, including first-grader Emmanuel Moralex Vazquez.
