Winter Ski Program Survey

If you haven't already done so, please click here to complete a one question survey to indicate your preference for a ski program at either Snow King or Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.  We would like to hear your opinion. Thank you.

Health Screenings Continue...

They will be conducted this Wednesday the 18th and the following Wednesday the 25th.  If you are available to volunteer on either of those days please contact Rhonda.

October Lunch Menu 

October 20th: Parmesan chicken strips, carrots & broccoli, potato wedges, fruit & cookie

October 27th: Pizza, fruit & cookie

Student Picture Update

We are putting the finishing touches on the website and double-checking to make sure it is in working order. We expect to send out a flyer this week with information on how to access your student’s photos. Thanks for your patience as we try something new (on-line lab).

Drop Off/Pick up Reminders for K-12 Families

In order to ensure a safe drop-off and pick up, please follow the guidelines below:

1. The access road on the left side (west) is open from 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM for pickup and drop-off during the middle of the day.  If using this road, you may park at the top of the campus and walk down to your child’s building.  Please do not use the hill in front of the Elementary School as it was not designed as a path.  You also can have your child meet you at the Welcome Center at the front of campus.  Please communicate clearly with your child and their teacher about the time and location of the pick-up so that we can help it run smoothly.

2. Between 7:45 AM – 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM, please park at the front of campus and walk up as there is limited parking up at the top of campus. 

3. Parents may park at the top of campus for all After School programs and walk down to the appropriate building to find their child.

Please contact Nate at x1113 if you have any questions.

Pre-Accreditation Visit

As many of you know, Journeys School is undergoing its first accreditation review for the Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools in order to move from a Candidate Member to an Accredited Member.  Part of this process is a visit by the Chair and Vice-Chair of our accreditation team on Monday, October 23.  Rob Camner, Head of School at Charles Wright Academy in Washington and Marja Brandon, Head of School for the Seattle Girls School will be visiting with members of the Journeys School administration and Board to arrange final details for our formal visit in March.  Look for more details about this process over the next few months as we prepare to take this important step.

Pre-Kindergarten

Announcements

Thank Yous

Many thanks to parent volunteers this week, Joann and Yazmina, for coming into the classroom to help in an area of their expertise and comfort.

Thanks to Susan Kortum, a mother of two in Journeys School, for donating wooden baskets and wooden kitchen items for our dramatic play area in the Pre-K.

Pick-up

Parents we would kindly like to remind you that pick-up is at 2:30pm and there is a ten dollar charge for picking up your child at or after three o'clock.  Between 2:30 and 3:00 pm each day we have a classroom teacher cleaning and preparing for the next day. Please do not use the playground door to enter or exit the play yard.  We encourage you and your child to walk through the classroom to view projects in progress and documentation, but please discourage your child from taking items out to play with as we are in the process of cleaning up at this time.  Pick-up is a valuable time to talk with classroom teachers, socialize with other parents and see your child engaging and playing with other children. Please continue to take advantage of this time without running over three o'clock.  Please also be mindful that when you sign-out your child we are handing back the responsibility and well being of that child to you and focusing the majority of our attention on the children that have not been picked up yet. If you wish to play or watch your child's play please help us by looking out for their safety.

Curricular Updates

Social Skills: Listening

Last week's social focus was on listening.  Children were instructed to practice good listening skills by stopping what they were doing, looking at the speaker and listening to what they were saying.  We engaged children in many different practical and fun ways to challenge their listening skills.

Curriculum Night Re-cap

We greatly appreciate the attendance at this past week's meeting and would like to re-cap some highlights for those parents that were not able to attend.

"The Importance of Play"

Play promotes: development of cognition, socialization & communication, self esteem, and large and fine motor skills

Types of play: dramatic, imaginative, creative and expressive, social-parallel & cooperative, constructive, and sensorimotor

How teachers encourage healthy and productive play:

Observe, research, document, ask leading questions, discuss with other teachers, and design appropriate and engaging spaces.

How parents can promote meaningful play with children at home: Watch and listen- observe your child's affinities and social behavior, research- provide age appropriate toys and activities with realistic goals, teach by example- listen and follow the child's lead, creativity- provide engaging materials for art, as well as, engaging play spaces in your home.

"Long Term Projects in the Classroom

Long term projects are at the core of our curriculum because we believe that it is a dynamic and reciprocal approach to learning.  A long term project provides opportunities for children and teachers to embark on a journey of discovery together and promotes a cycle of inquiry and deeper thinking.  Under the daily documentation board there is a documentation panel on "Long Term Projects" that describes in detail our process, our approach and the importance of these projects in the classroom.  Throughout the year we encourage you to take a look at the walls for documentation on current projects.  We value documentation as a means to make learning visible and to reflect on an experience.

Parent Questions:

What should we be doing to prepare our children for Kindergarten at home?

Reading to your children at home is one of the most important ways that you can help your child prepare for Kindergarten and beyond. It strengthens parent/child relationships, increases vocabulary, and general knowledge. So pick up another book and read!

How much will our child be engaged in projects outside dealing with the natural environment and resources on campus?

Each week during focused exploration time one teacher will invite children to come outside and engage with our local environment beyond the play yard.  Children have previously gone on hikes to collect natural objects for the studio, collect leaves for leaf prints, notice smells and follow tracks.  These types of explorations will continue to be an importance aspect to our place-based curriculum.

Will children be encouraged to participate in a variety of activities throughout the year and in the classroom?

We believe that we can extend a child's interest in many different ways that allow them opportunities to develop fine and large motor skills, communication, socialization, and critical thinking, among may.  We do however ask all children to go outside twice a day when weather allows and participate in Spanish, Chinese, P.E. and art with our guest teachers.  If we noticed that a child is only using one area of the classroom space, we will encourage them to explore or create opportunities for them to be involved in activities that are outside of their normal choices.  We additionally hope to foster several long term projects throughout the year that will involve different children from the classroom.

As more questions come up, please contact your child's advisor.

Reading Buddies

Every Wednesday morning we meeting with our third-grade reading buddies.  On most occasions they come into the pre-K classroom and read in small groups with our students.  However this past Wednesday was a special occasion and we all took a journey to the Teton County Library together. The third graders gave our Pre-K students a tour of the library and all of their favorite places.  These children together are developing strong relationships that promote reciprocal learning and self-esteem.

Threads in the Classroom

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs were present in almost all aspects of the classroom this past week.  Children could be found reading dinosaur books and discussing their current theories or revelations, drawing baby dinosaurs on rocks in preparation to make clay eggs, using tissue paper to make a collage dinosaur, and making dinosaur foot prints outside in the mud...in addition to the ever-increasing dramatic and constructive play of dinosaurs in the block area.

Announcements

K-2 Curriculum Night- this week!

Our first K-2 Curriculum Night is Tuesday, October 17th from 6- 7pm. Please join us to participate in some curricular activities to experience a day in the life of your K-2 student. First, we will be discussing our Exploration theme for the 06-07 school year. Then, we’ll be showing photos from our fall journey, and sharing accomplishments of the journey. There will also be an opportunity for you to write questions regarding K-2 pedagogy, which will be addressed throughout the year in Basecamp News. Childcare will be available from 5:50- 7:05 in the K-2 building.

Online Photo Album

We have an excellent opportunity to share the pictures we take throughout the year online through Shutterfly.  This is a password protected website that allows us to upload school pictures taken at school for families to view. A Shutterfly announcement will go home in folders soon.

Warm Clothes Reminder

The October Chill is in the air!  Please make sure your child is dressed properly for the long walk up campus and two outdoor recesses.  It is time for tights, pants, hats, mittens and warm jackets.  Layer, layer, layer!

Volunteer Opportunities

If you have already signed up or are interested in joining the Classroom Support Committee, we will be meeting after the K-2 Curriculum Night from 7- 7:30p to discuss volunteering opportunities in K-2! This committee is for parents who are interested in helping in the classroom, on journeys or even substitute teaching when there is a need. We hope to see you there!

Quote of the Week

(Thanks for the idea middle school team!)

“Trust me; these dictionaries are addictive after you’ve read them once!”    - Will Dykema (1st grader)

“I am a little tired this morning. I only got one minute of sleep and the rest I was fake sleeping,” said Brennan Speers.

Thank Yous

A big thank you to Missy Brickl, education coordinator of the Conservation Research Center, and the Americorp volunteers for helping our students with a seed collection and planting project inspired by the conservation efforts of Olaus and Mardie Murie.  Students collected seeds from sagebrush, lupine and buckwheat plants during their fall journey on the South East property. Missy and several Americorp volunteers returned to the Journeys School the following week to help our students plant the seeds they collected on the disturbed areas of our campus.  Thanks for creating a meaningful service project that our Kindergarten, first and second graders could experience from start to finish and into the future with the growth of the new plants!

Thanks to Libby Hall for cutting and preparing all of the canvas that will be used by each all-school family group to create their place-based family crest.  For a better idea of what this means, please peek into the dining lodge over the next month to see the family crests.

Thanks to all parents for making the effort to ensure that your kids arrive to school on time.  Students are better able to mentally and physically “prepare” for the school day when they arrive on time and engage in the social “free-choice” activities of every morning.  This time allows children to see and talk to friends, get the wiggles out and participate in games, puzzles and imaginative play of their choice.

Announcements

Learning Team Meetings

Grades 3-5 Learning Team Meetings will take place during the weeks of Monday, November 6 and Monday, November 13.  Learning Team Meetings will occur after school from 3:15-4:00 or 4:15-5:00.  Please stop by the classroom or contact your child’s advisor to sign up for a Learning Team Meeting slot.  We are looking forward to meeting with you and your child!

Thank You

Thank you to Ella’s mom, Cathy Smith, for donating numerous boxes of Kleenex to our classroom.  We really appreciate this donation!

Health Screenings

Grades 3-5 students participated in health screenings on Wednesday, October 11 from 9:00 a.m. -noon.  Students’ height, weight, hearing, and vision were checked.  Thanks to all the Grades 3-5 parents who helped with health screenings this year.  Please contact your child’s advisor with any questions or concerns about these routine health screenings. 

Parent Council Meeting Rescheduled: Grades 3-5 will NOT host a Curriculum Night on the evening of Thursday, October 19, as originally scheduled.  This meeting was moved to September because of our Fall Extended Journey.

Curriculum Updates

Fall Extended Journey

This week, students in Grades 3-5 will travel to the Murie Center in Moose, Wyoming for our Fall Extended Journey.  Students in the South Den will visit the Murie Center from Monday through Wednesday, while students in the North Den will visit from Wednesday through Friday.  Stay tuned for details of our journey in the next Basecamp News. 

En La Clase de Español

Over the past month in Spanish, we have been busy learning new ways to greet friends and ask and answer questions about one another.  In addition, we have reviewed the alphabet and numbers up to fifty.  Because of the different scheduling in the North and South dens during the beginning of the year, some students have not yet had as much exposure to Spanish, but this should change as we settle into our weekly routines.  The expectation is that students will participate in class by speaking Spanish and will practice the new words at home as well.  We had our first Pruebacita (little quiz, or opportunity to show understanding) last week.  The study sheet that was sent home for this quiz is a great source of words to practice with your child at home.  You can encourage your son or daughter to teach you the new sayings and practice spelling the words, reciting phone numbers, or doing simple math, or number guessing games.  We also discussed the Tainos after reading the book Encounter, by Jane Yolen.  Ask your children about why we celebrated Dia de la Raza in addition to Columbus Day here at Journeys School.

Reading and Writing Workshop

We launched our second unit in reading and writing workshop last week.  In reading workshop, this unit will focus on the theme “Parts of a Story and Character Studies.”  We will work on cultivating theories about the characters in our books and supporting these theories with specific details from the text.  In writing workshop, our theme for October is “Raising the Level of Our Personal Narrative Writing.”  During this unit, we will revisit personal narrative writing, with the goal of increasing the quality and sophistication of our narratives. 

Last week, we sent home a progress check for our first unit of writing.  If you have not already done so, please look over this progress check with your child, sign it, and return it to school.  These pieces of writing will be added to your child’s portfolio. 

Announcements

Curriculum Night

The first middle school curriculum night will be held on Tuesday, October 24th from 7-8 p.m. in the middle school building downstairs. This is an opportunity to learn about academic themes, preview upcoming projects and explore classroom spaces. In addition, we will solicit topics for future curriculum night meetings and information to publish in upcoming Basecamp News mailings. Chris and Jo will be leading the evening and look forward to seeing you there. If you have any specific concerns you would like addressed, please send them to chris.horne@journeysschool.org – perhaps we can add your ideas to the evening’s agenda.

Dónde estuvieron Chris y Karl la semana pasada?

Spreading the wealth, deepening the skills~ Last week, Chris headed to Seattle to present ideas of cross-curricular collaboration at the PNAIS All Schools Conference, while Karl attended a conference to explore graphing calculator technology for outside the math classroom.

Curricular Updates

Now that Physical/Health Education is in full swing (along with Life Skills) we have added it to our updates. Lastly, but certainly not least, Art updates will begin next week.

Quotes from the Week

During a casual debrief of Life Skills during Hands to work last week…

Owen: “It is harder for boys to become drama queens.”

Arthur: “Boys are just friendly in a mean kind of way.”

Level 1A math

In Math 1A we have been pushing ahead with examining what makes a number a square number.  From here, we have been practicing squaring numbers, as well as working backwards to find the root of a square number.  Students are regaining familiarity with square numbers and square roots, building on previous practice with factoring.    In addition, we have been practicing using the symbols for greater than and less than, and manipulating these symbols by comparing fractions and decimals.  We are looking ahead to our first test next week which will cover all the concepts that we have reviewed thus far (unit 1 in their math journals).

Level 1 math

Level 1 math class just finished up the first unit, Prime Time. These skills were an important foundation for our next unit, Bits and Pieces 1 – an examination of fractions, decimals and percents. During the first month of school, an emphasis has been placed on communicating about mathematical concepts. By incorporating specific math vocabulary and using precise language, students are beginning to translate their intuitive math understanding into words, both in writing and in discussion. Organization is another hidden skill of the course. Weekly binder checks encourage students to keep their notes in order and save graded homework in order to see their progress and to study for tests. Everyone is making positive progress, and the class is lively with sharing and discussion.

Level 2 math

Level 2 math students are rapidly approaching the end of their first unit. They have been creating tables, graphs, and simple symbolic rules that describe patterns of change. Identification of rules from patterns is one of the first steps in understanding algebra! Students are also working to understand the relationships among forms of representation—words, tables, graphs, and symbolic rules. They are making decisions using tables, graphs, and rules and using their graphing calculator for making tables and graphs to find information about a situation.

Level 3 math

After “Thinking about Mathematical Models” for the last month, level 3 math has added a geometric perspective to our algebraic lens as we begin “Looking for Pythagoras.” In this unit, we develop important relationships connecting algebra and geometry through the Pythagorean Theorem. The need for irrational numbers was recognized by early Greek mathematicians as they searched for integers to represent the length of the sides of a square with certain given areas, such as 2 square units. Last week ended with a spectacular class collaboration to agree upon the areas of bizarre shapes. The ease in which they handled the challenge of group intellectual consensus and self-assessment demonstrates the level of respect and maturity these young thinkers bring to the community. This week we will tackle the meat of the Pythagorean Theorem and its practical application. Be sure to take this opportunity to have your child brush you up on these ancient concepts!

Algebra  

Algebra 1 is in the midst of completing a unit on polynomials. We have begun looking at how these complicated equations can be simplified and graphed (jumping a little bit ahead to linear equations). Why are these skills and concepts important? They help demystify linear equations (you can actually plot x3 + x2 + 3x - 5!) and they help us understand properties of the arc of a swing, the arc of a basketball shot, or the way the light of a headlamp diffuses into the night. Ask Colin for more examples of the importance of understanding polynomials.

Language Arts

Hot off the presses! Classmate Biographies to learn about your peers. Ask your student how they set the scene of their biography to engage the reader. Also ask them who they wrote about, some fun facts about their classmate and how their classmate contributes to the community. These biographies will be on display as soon as the school photos are developed.

During national Banned Books Week (September 23-30), students learned the about their First Amendment rights, the difference between challenged and banned books, and chose a book to read on the 100 most challenged book list. This week students are writing persuasive essays that will explain why someone would choose to challenge their book. Ask your student what book they read and why they think it was challenged.

Life Skills

In Life Skills class we have been examining the concept of fitting in with a group of people and feeling good about it.  When finding a group of friends that a student feels comfortable associating with, they must strike the difficult balance between being like those individuals and sharing in their same interests and being yourself and holding on to your individuality.  Specifically, we have looked at the role peer pressure can play in tipping the balance between wanting to be like your peers and standing up for your own individual beliefs.  In addition, we have examined the various qualities that one looks for in picking friends, and how important those qualities are to individuals.  For example, some value friends that are a lot like them, while others value friends that are a lot different from them.  Each person has their own unique qualities they value in their friends, and that is what makes each friendship unique.

Physical/Health Education 

Although we have been in school for a full 6 weeks, students have only been participating in P.E. for the past 3 weeks due to journeys and other early school year activities.  With the help of local lacrosse expert Vicky O’Donahue, students have been learning the basic fundamentals of lacrosse and have recently participated in full game play.  Conflict and cooperation are reoccurring themes during class and we have been working on exploring the relationship between team sports and these two concepts.  Students currently in P.E. will have 2 more weeks of lacrosse and then will transfer to life skills with Charles for the rest of the trimester, whereas students that are currently in life skills will be transferring over to a 6 week lacrosse unit in two more weeks.

Announcements

Curriculum Night

Upper school curriculum night will be Thursday, Oct. 26, from 5:00-6:00pm in the upper school classroom. All families of upper school students are invited to learn more about the upper school curriculum. Families will have the opportunity to meet with teachers and learn about what is happening in individual classes as well as have an opportunity to meet one another. Please join us for our first upper school curriculum night.

Curricular Updates

Project Time

Each Wednesday, students have about one hour of Project Time.  Here is what is happening:

10th and 11th grade Project:

Sophomores and juniors are working on this year’s “Challenge 20/20” contest.  Inspired by J.F. Rischards’s book High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them, independent schools across the world are challenging students to come up with solutions to global problems such as poverty, bio-diversity loss, and terrorism.  This year, our students will work cooperatively with students in Ohio and Mauritius to address the issue of illegal drugs.  After introducing the topic, students generated five areas of interest: legalization, producer to consumer pathways, physiological effects, and production.  We are now in the process of collecting resources and establishing communication with the other schools.

Capstone project:

The thesis is a formal component of the 12th grade Capstone Program, which also includes course work, service, and a professional experience. Over the course of the school year Capstone students must accrue a minimum of 100 hours of research, planning, drafting, revising, editing, and orally defending a thesis. 12th grade students are using time in the schedule during which projects are developing to learn about the thesis process, check in with the thesis advisor, David, and “workshop” their progress. More information about Capstone theses will appear in subsequent Base Camp News editions and all will be invited to attend the oral defenses in the spring.

 Look for an editorial next week.

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