Olympia West

Both IEPs and 504 plans support students with learning challenges, but how are they different? What plan is right for my student? Join us for a 30-minute message and learn how these plans might support your student. Register today! https://t.e2ma.net/click/mjrzli/6iwimkp/6u1eg3

National Honor Society is hosting an Easter Egg hunt for district children on Sunday, March 17 from 1-3 pm. There will be games, crafts, face painting and a bouncy house. Take photos and dance with the Easter bunny!! There are two egg hunts. Ages 2-4 will take place at 1:30 pm. Ages 5-8 will take place at 2:15 pm. Come celebrate spring with us! $5 per child You can reserve a spot with this link: https://payments.efundsforscho... Tickets will also be sold at the door.

Our brains are great at using past experiences to make quick decisions on the fly, but these shortcuts can also lead to bias. "Confirmation bias" is our brain's tendency to seek out information that confirms things we already think we know. Help your students learn to recognize this when they encounter news online, as a way to examine competing opinions and ideas and to avoid drawing questionable conclusions.

Mrs. Jennings (OWE 4th Grade) and Mr. Keith (Bus Driver) were the recipients of the last Fresh Cookie Friday celebration. Congratulations to these two staff members!

Come out to Family Fun Night, tomorrow. Bid your chance to get lucky and win the 5th Grade Lotto Cake Basket!

Family Tip Sheet: bit.ly/OlyNMFR2 Wikipedia.org is where millions of people stop first for information. Tools like it are what make the internet so valuable. But they also teach an important lesson, one you can start teaching your kids now: don’t believe everything you read.

Let the fun begin!! First grade has made your next family game night easy!! This tote is full of games that work for all ages. Included is a variety of snacks, as well as Casey's giftcard so dinner will be apiece of cake. Bonus- the tote is perfect to re-use for an Olympia sporting event! Find it in the silent auction tomorrow at Family Fun Night from 4-7 pm!

Check out this list of trustworthy resources to help you learn what's true (and what is not!) on the web. You can even use one of them to look back in time and what was on a website in the past!

Show your children how you get news and information from different places, and explain how you make your choices. Use words like "credible," "trustworthy," "respected," and "fair." Ask them where they get their information, and if they think about those same words when choosing. As kids get older, introduce the ideas of bias, satire, and clickbait. Is generative AI, like ChatGPT, a trustworthy site for news and information?

If a picture's worth a thousand words, do the words always tell a true story? One way to find out is through a reverse image search. Search with an image instead of a keyword and see what you discover!

Play around with ideas, deciding which are facts and which are opinions. Ask: How tall are you? What's the best food in the world? Do you like dogs? Point out that both facts and opinions show up in the news, but opinion is usually labeled.

Be A Deceptive Detective! If you want to know if someone is trying to trick you with a headline, think through a few of these five questions each time you read a shocking story. Don't let them pull the wool over your eyes Spartans!

Video: bit.ly/OlyNMV1 Family Activity: Decoding Images. bit.ly/OlyNMFR1 Kids find and read news in lots of different ways. But studies show they're not very good at interpreting what they see. How can we help them get better? Teaching your children about the structure of online news articles is an important place to start.

The Olympia Board of Education approved naming the OHMS baseball field the 'Ron Smith Field'. The District is working with OPBA to plan a dedication on OPBA Day - April 6th. Thank you Coach for the positive impact you have had on so many student athletes!

Use real-life examples to help kids understand how people can view the same situation with totally different perspectives. One child might experience a game on the playground as fun, while another might feel like the rules are unfair. Sibling conflict can be a great example of how two people can have wildly different opinions about the same event. With older children, talk through controversial subjects and take turns arguing for different sides to help kids understand various viewpoints.

Fake News has been around for a long time. Track its history from 63 B.C. through present day in this infographic. Where do you see Fake News today (AI anyone!?)? How does it impact your life? Does it impact the type of media you consume, or where you consume it?

5th Grade Bigger Buddies doing Valentine's Day Activities with Kindergarten.

https://youtu.be/mh1dLvGe06Y - BBC video When we get news from our social media feeds, it often only tells us part of the story. Our friends -- and the website's algorithms -- tend to feed us perspectives we already agree with. Check out these ways to escape the filter bubble and make sure your ideas about the world are being challenged.

Early voting begins today! Check out details for your county at www.olympia.org/vote #MaintainRetainInnovate #TaxSwap #VoteMarch19

When you see advertising on TV or on a billboard, ask your children to figure out what the ad is selling. Sometimes it's obvious, and sometimes it's not. Help them explore why certain pictures, sounds, or words are used to sell certain products. Could AI be being used in the ad?