School Photos are Ready!

In case you missed the flyer last week, student photos are available. Simply type in your child’s last name to view the proofs. Click on one and “add it to the cart” in order to see the packages that are available. If you do not have computer access or a credit card to use for on-line purchases, call Rhonda for assistance.

Thank You, Health Screening Volunteers!

Thank you to the many parents that helped Janet Garland screen approximately 150 students over the past few weeks. Your time and efforts are much appreciated!

Parent Gathering

This Wednesday, November 1, the Parent Council will host the second parent gathering in the Welcome Center from 8:15 – 9:00 AM. Please join us for informal conversation with other parents. All are welcome to attend.

November Lunch Menu

11/03        Cheese & Sausage Lasagna

                   Butternut Squash & Apple Soup

                   Garlic Bread

                   Carrot Sticks & Apple slices

                   Ice Cream

11/10        Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry with Fried Rice

                   Apple slices

                   Cookies

11/17        Turkey & Gravy

                   Mashed Potatoes & Stuffing

                   Brussel Sprouts

                   Apple slices

                   Pumpkin Squares

11/28        Pizza

                   Carrot sticks

                   Ants on a log  (Celery with peanut butter & raisins)

                   Apple slices

                   Magic Bar

Nuestra Ofrenda

Día de los muertos is a time to gather together as a community, and Journeys School students are doing just that! Each grade level is preparing components for our altar to honor deceased loved ones and the local Latino community. Pre-K students created a colorful chain with illustrations of their favorite foods, which are an important component of the altar. They also created beautiful displays using calabazas y flores.  K-2 students enjoyed creating bright papel picado, and 3-5 students represented the traditional flowers that are used as pathways to each gravestone.  Middle school students integrated art and Spanish with pastel still-life drawings, and upper school students will represent death with their interpretations of El Chupacabras. Finally, MUPS students worked together to bake pan de muerto and decorate calaveras de azúcar. Journeys School will have a small display at Jackson Whole Grocer; our main ofrenda will be on display at Harvest. Ask your child about this unique holiday that celebrates a blend of many cultures!

Day of the Dead: Altar Walk

Thursday, November 2, we’ll meet at 5 pm at Chili Pepper Grill Restaurant (380 west Pearl St) and then visit Teton Tails, Bon Appe Thai and Snake River Brewery.  We will end our tour at The Center for the Arts for a special presentation from Dancer’s workshop at 5:45 pm.

The Ladrillos para las Artes (Bricks for Arts) invites you to enjoy the altars exposition made by artists, students and community people from October 30, 2006 through November 10, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

En Español...

Día de los Muertos: Camino de las Ofrendas

Jueves 2 de Noviembre, nos reuniremos a las 5 pm en Chili Pepper Grill Restaurant (380 West Pearl St.) y visitaremos Teton Tails, Bon Appe Thaí y,Snake River Brewery. Terminaremos en el Centro para las Artes para una presentacion especial de Dancer Workshop a las 5:45 pm.

El Centro Cultural Latino Te invita a disfrutar de la exposicion de altares creados por artistas, estudiantes y gente de la comunidad, desde el 30 de Octubre al 10 de Noviembre del 2006, en Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Pre-Kindergarten

Announcements

Thanks to an Amazing Bunch of Parent Volunteers this Week!

Thanks to Remy and Cathy O'Shea for coming in for focused exploration time, it was wonderful to have you in the classroom.

Thanks to Dave and Bari for taking Pre-K students on a journey to the job site and building a beautiful bench for the classroom!

Thanks to Nancy and Matt for volunteering on two journeys this week! We were so glad to have you.

Thanks to Liza for bringing home classroom blankets to wash.

And lastly, thanks to Michelle Quinn for enthralling our young children with her violin...they really enjoyed your music!

(It is so fabulous that this list is so long!)

HalloOoween!

On both Monday and Tuesday we will celebrate Halloween...all children are encouraged to wear costumes and come to school early on those days.  We will have a special morning meeting to share costumes and then we will change out of them, so please pack a change of clothes.  Following our morning meeting we will have fun Halloween choice activities...such as face painting, baking pumpkin cookies, reading Halloween stories with a lantern, and making ghosts. Please remember to leave plastic weapons at home and you may want to refrain from including dessert in their lunch on these days.

Volunteer Opportunities

Having parent volunteers during focused exploration has been so successful and interest so high that we are adding more volunteer times. Check the parent zone for the sign up sheet.

Curricular Updates

Fire Safety

On Monday and Tuesday we journeyed to the Fire Station to learn important fire safety information from Captain Christy.  She explained what to do in the event of a fire in our home and what to do if our clothing was to catch on fire.   Children had an opportunity to practice "get low and stay low" to crawl out of a house and "stop, drop and roll" to put out a fire on their clothing. Children also enjoyed trying on fire fighter hats and coats and seeing the fire trucks. Remember to check your fire alarms at home and have a meeting spot outside your home that everyone knows to go to in the event of a fire.

Long Term Projects

Smells

As a continuation to our exploration of smells we invited three officers and their well trained dogs to demonstrate to us how well a dog can smell. The dogs were able to pick up scents through car doors and other hidden spaces.  The search and rescue dog, Buster, demonstrated to us how he can find a missing person.  It was really fascinating to watch the dogs in action. Thank you to officers: John, Chuck, and Dave and their dogs: buster, pepper and duce.

P.E.

On Mondays and Thursdays Ryan Bolton joins us to teach children gross motor activities and initiatives.  Children recognize him on campus and take pleasure in their focused time with him.  Right now all P.E. activities take place outside. Ryan incorporates a lot of activities from Project Adventure curriculum. 

Announcements

Check Folders for Scary Details

Do not forget to check your folders for details about tomorrow’s Halloween extravaganza.  Remember: no gore, no weapons (plastic included), and no blood…or else!!!  Please remember to send warm clothes for recess.  Students will take off their costumes at 10:00 for the rest of the day and they will go out to recess twice…and you know how frightfully cold it can be on Halloween here in Jackson Hole.

Thanks

Thanks to all the parents you have volunteered to help with literacy centers on a regular basis.  Those parents include: Anne Ladd, Karla Tessler, Kathy Coosaia, Jennifer Reichert, and Jennifer Foley.  This is a management intensive time for us at school and parent help is greatly appreciated by both students and teachers.

Thanks to Lynn Lathouwers, a student teacher, for coming to do read aloud in our class as a part of her children’s literature class!

Curricular Updates

Kingfisher (Kindergarten) Math

The Kingfisher math group has been busy.  We have been exploring numbers into the twenties, counting backwards and skip counting, comparing lengths and other attributes, learning the value of coins and matching one to one.  We have learned songs like:  5 Green and Speckled Frogs, 3 Black Ravens and 5 Little Pumpkins (ask your child to sing these songs for you!).  Our projects have included number story boards, using our class store, integrating our theme study of seeds with seed counting and graphing and Halloween Number Flags.  We are in the midst of pumpkin math which allows us to explore pumpkins in all ways.  We will weigh them, estimate circumference, height and number of seeds and talk about shapes as we design our jack-o-lantern faces.  Come and see our handy work during the costume parade on Tuesday!

Music

So far this fall, K-2 music has been about exploring our sense of rhythm and melody in the songs we are learning. Initially, we felt the rhythms in our names by tapping them out with our hands and acting them out with our bodies. We sang familiar songs like "A Yam, Sam, Sam" to further feel rhythm in these simple songs. We have moved onto learning how to sing in rounds. We started with "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and we learned a new song called "Sarasponda" over the past two weeks, with which the kids are doing great things! In the coming weeks, we will begin songs for the Winter Celebration, which is very exciting. Music has been so much fun this fall and we're looking forward to exploring new avenues in music in the coming months!

Physical and Health Education

 It’s been an adventurous fall thus far in P.E.  Students have been participating in outdoor, physical games that emphasize working together, being safe during play, and having respect for yourself and others.  Many of these activities are similar to games we all played as kids, with the only difference being that no one is ever losing or “out of” the game, their role just changes.  This enables students of all levels and abilities to find their strengths and then utilize those strengths to enhance the game for the entire group.

Art

K-2 artists are on a roll with art explorations this fall. Just as we have been learning how to explore the world around us, we are exploring the world of color and materials in art. We have spent time recently learning about color and color mixing using tissue paper as a medium. We created “stained glass” windows for our classroom and watched how light affects the colors as it shines through. We made landscape collages where we have explored how layering pieces of tissue paper on top of each other changes the intensity of the color. Most recently we have drawn and painted using oil crayons, tempera paint, and watercolor paint to explore how various media combines or separates. Looking ahead, we are moving into the 3-dimensional realm with paper mache sculpture. We will continue to explore color and materials throughout the year as we add more media and projects each week. Please come see our amazing creations in the K-2 classrooms.

Spanish

In K-2 Spanish this Fall we have been learning some universal greetings and how to express our feelings (‘Como te llamas?’ What is your name?, ‘Como estas?’ How are you?). We have also been studying los partes del cuerpo (the parts of the body) and playing lots of Simon Dice! (a.k.a. Simon Says). This month we have been learning about the ‘tools of a naturalist’ and nature vocabulary. We have also been learning about the weather, el tiempo. Cual es el tiempo? Asoleado (sunny)? Nublado (cloudy)? Nevando (snowy)? Look in your child’s folder for Spanish vocabulary home links! In the coming week we will be learning about Dia de los Muertos (or Day of the Dead, November 1st and 2nd) with the Upper School Spanish students. Dia de Los Muertos is traditionally a time when the people of Mexico remember those who are deceased. Read more about Dia de los Muertos, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day at: http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/muertos.html

Announcements

Halloween Celebration

Students may come to school in costume on Halloween Day. We expect costumes to be G-rated: no weapons, please, and no gore. Elementary school students will participate in a Halloween parade through the campus starting at 8:30 a.m. After the parade, students in Grades 3-5 will participate in a special Halloween activity until recess time. During recess, students will change out of their costumes into their regular clothes. Please send a bag to school with your child so he/she has a place to store his/her costume after it has been removed. We will have a normally scheduled day after recess ends. Parents are welcome to join us for all or part of our Halloween celebration.

Learning Team Meetings

Learning Team Meetings provide an opportunity for parents, child, and advisor to formally check in about student learning. Fall Learning Team Meetings for Grades 3-5 will occur during the weeks of Monday, November 6 and Monday, November 13. Learning Team Meetings will take place after school from 3:15-4:00 or 4:15-5:00 in the Grades 3-5 classroom. The Monday letter that was sent home today has a Learning Team Meeting form attached. On this form, you will find your scheduled meeting time as well as space to suggest discussion topics for your child’s meeting. Please return the bottom half of the form two days prior to your meeting date. We are looking forward to meeting with you and your child!

Thanks to Parents

Thank you to Tessa Johnson for donating geraniums and a Christmas cactus to our classroom. Thank you to Lynn Jamison and Ellen Speers for laundering the dish towels in the Grades 3-5 kitchen. Thank you to Mimi Slaughter for providing yummy snacks for our journey. The popcorn, buffalo sausage, and gluten-free choices were appreciated by all!

Curriculum Updates

Murie Center Journey

Our Fall Extended Journey to the Murie Center was a great success. During the journey, we continued exploring our Pathways theme through lessons in animal tracking, phases of the moon, and printmaking. We learned about the Snake River Watershed from Watershed Specialist Lindsay Patterson, and created postcards in Spanish for the middle school students during a special class with Charlotte Quesada. We also completed a service project, visited the Moose Visitor’s Center, and did the “Around the World” hike while learning about the Murie family. Our students continually impressed the Murie Center staff with their zest for learning and sense of community. Thanks to Mimi Slaughter, Remy Levy, Katie Pierce, Lynn Jamison, Evan Daily, Jill Wright, Bobbi Reyes, Regena Field, Tim Dykema, and Anne Ladd for joining us as chaperones on this journey.

Moon Journals

Our final day of moon journal observations was last Saturday.  Students’ understanding of moon phases was greatly enhanced by this experiential opportunity. We have heard from many parents who also enjoyed learning and observing with their child.  Moon journals will be kept at school and this winter grades 3-5 students will share their journals with K-2 students.  Last week in science, students took their first progress check of the year.  The progress check assessed students’ understanding of concepts covered this year including ecosystems, moon cycles, and watershed.

Announcements

Thank you

Thank you to all the parents who came to the Curriculum Night last Tuesday. It was quite a turn out and we really appreciated all your thoughtful questions and insights. If you’d like a copy of the handouts from the meeting, please email Chris or Jo.

Thank you to Gus Jacobson for the donation of the 3 Revolutionary War DVDs to the MS library.

Also thanks to parents who joined the Parent Council Committee conversation that directly followed. If you could not make it but still want to get involved, please contact our fabulous MS rep, Katie Pierce. (katiepierce@bresnan.net)

Curricular Updates

Level 1a math

In Math 1A we have moved into the second Unit and are currently practicing addition and subtraction of decimals and fractions.  Students are applying fractions to parts of whole numbers to find the correct ratios.  For example, “How many centimeters are in 2/5 of a meter?” We are building on prior knowledge, and applying his to new concepts that are beginning to be introduced.

Level 1 math

Fractions are often taught over several years starting in elementary school through high school, with more advanced concepts being introduced each year. This year students will develop a deeper understanding of how fractions, decimal and percents are interrelated. Right now, Level 1 math class is using fraction strips (folded strips of paper) to explore equivalent fractions, the concepts of numerators and denominators, and fractional relationships. This phase of the unit is intellectually messy – there are many questions from students and many ways to come to correct answers. This exploration and discovery approach to math often provides a rich foundation when we begin to learn the algorithms to manipulate fractions soon.

Level 2 math

Students began a new unit last week. They are now investigating the concept of similarity in geometry. This important, and fun, unit has many learning objectives. Chief among these are making enlargements of simple figures with a rubber-band stretcher, describing in an intuitive way what the word similar means, considering relationships between lengths and between angles in simple, similar figures, reviewing locating points in a coordinate system and graphing figures using algebraic rules. In addition, students are actively predicting how figures on a coordinate system are affected by a given rule, learning that corresponding angles of similar figures are equal and that corresponding sides grow by the same factor, comparing lengths and angles in similar and non-similar figures informally and experimenting with examples and counterexamples of similar shapes.

Level 2 is seeking donations of six to eight Barbie or Ken dolls. We need these dolls for an upcoming bungee jumping investigation. The dolls need to possess all their body parts.

Level 3 math

“Don’t try to rationalize with an irrational number, just leave it alone!” Still using the Pythagoras Theorem, level 3 math is exploring the many special ways this formula allows us to explore triangular situations! (Ask your child to show you the cool pattern for our two special right triangles). Next week we conclude our work with geometry (for now) by exploring the various aspects of irrational numbers.

Language Arts

In our study of “Revolutions” this fall, students are reading My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, and Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. In My Brother Sam is Dead we are exploring the themes of sin and how the ideas of good and bad are blurred by war and what makes us come of age. We are also investigating the stages of a revolution both in the American Revolution, but also in the revolution (development) of characters. Throughout, we make connections to ourselves and our world, in particular how war impacts us.

The play Inherit the Wind is an allegory based on the 1925 Scope’s “Monkey” Trial in which Tennessee high school teacher, John Scopes, is prosecuted for teaching evolution in his classroom. Written in the early 1950s, during Senator MacCarthy’s hearings to root out Communism in America, the play parallels the “red scare” trials with the anti-intellectual fervor of southern opponents to evolution. The play uses the historic trial to explore many themes including: the danger of a limited perspective; the class between North and South, urban and rural; intellectualism versus fundamentalism; and the value of multiple perspectives for innovation and progress.

Physical/Health Education 

Half of the middle school students just finished their 6 week lacrosse unit.  We finished the unit with full game play after learning the fundamentals of the sport in the beginning weeks.  Starting this week, the second half of middle school students will start their lacrosse unit.  We will start by learning the rules of the game and then progress to learning pertinent skills and then finish with game play.  Conflict resolution and cooperation are reoccurring themes throughout the unit.

Life Skills

We have just completed the first section of Life Skills for the year, and students that were in Life Skills class for the first part of the year will now be moving into a 6 week section of P.E.  Those students that were in P.E. will now begin Life Skills for the next 6 weeks, starting this Wednesday, Nov. 1.  Building on concepts already identified in the area of social cognition, we ended the class discussing conversation skills, and how both what you say and how you say it can have a large (and sometimes unintended) impact on your audience.  Ask your children about the concept of “code switching”, referring to the different ways one speaks depending on the audience that they are talking with.

In addition, Life Skills has been combining with Margot’s writing workshop component of Language Arts.  Students have been writing essays for writing workshop, based on content we are covering in Life Skills.  Please ask your children what advice they gave to that bully who was giving a student a hard time.  Margot and I are looking forward to combining on a few more projects over the next few weeks.

Student Quotes from Language Arts

Students in language arts wrote thoughtful, creative and informative biographies about their classmates. Please continue to enjoy these excerpts from their biographies.

“We can all learn from Arthur. We should all be friendlier to everybody, and of course give a hug once in awhile.” –Hayden Shea, 8th grade

“If only the world could joke around like [Zoe].” –Finn Johnson, 7th grade        

“I can learn from [Peyton] that if you work on something, you can be good at it. Peyton has kayaked for a year and she is good at it. We all can learn from her by doing community service like building fences with our school.” –Ellie Wright, 6th grade

“Gus is a great kid and we can learn many great things from him. He has a great sense of humor and is an intelligent kid. He can teach us some important things in life.” –Timmy Watters, 7th grade

Announcements

Thanks to all the parents who attended our first upper school curriculum night last week. We enjoyed sharing the fall curriculum and providing information about the upper school program. It was also great to meet new parents and re-connect with those whose children have been at Journeys for several years.

Curricular Updates

¿Qué observamos?

This fall, upper school Spanish students have been examining how they observe the world while developing vocabulary and skills to communicate about their world. Students have been working in teams to prepare Obras de Teatro (skits), either live or video, addressing themes such as family reunions, sports teams, driver’s education and disk jockeys. Their latest presentations focused on the legendary creature, El Chupacabras. These humorous interpretations have helped to build a strong learning community and vocabulary base. We are now using the background of El Chupacabras to explore the concepts of Día de los Muertos. We created some traditional and nontraditional components—in keeping with the holiday’s importance of blending ancient and modern beliefs. Ask any upper school student for more information (but be prepared for a laptop to appear with a hilarious example!).

Advanced Spanish

The Advanced Spanish course has a strong emphasis on Spanish literature and grammatical skills. Current events are also tracked though a variety of online resources. We are currently reading Bendíceme, Última and completing a reading guide in preparation for quizzes and a final essay. Additionally, we have created paintings and maps to compare religions and cultural values found in the text. I had to sit back and smile last week as we were wrapping up a discussion about the use of religious language as a thematic and cultural tool . . . IN SPANISH!  It is delightful to see the growth of Journeys School Spanish students.

                     Look here next week for the editorial.

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© 2005, Basecamp News, Journeys School of Teton Science Schools.