Parent Survey Response Now Available:

Thank you for all of those families who responded to our annual survey. You will find an all school response here in the All School News section and individual level responses in their respective sections. Please click the following link to access the survey for this section. All School Survey Response 2006-7.

Grandparent’s and Special Friend’s Day is May 11, 2007

Next Friday will be Journeys School's first Grandparent’s and Special Friend’s Day! This is a wonderful opportunity for grandparents, great-grandparents, and special friends to visit children in school, participate in learning activities, share their knowledge, enjoy lunch with the school leadership, and see Journeys School “in action.” Details of the program to follow. If you have any questions you can contact Julie Steele (307-733-3729 x1222) or e-mail julie.steele@journeysschool.org

Westbank START Bus Riders!

There has been a change in pick-up times for westbank morning START Bus. These times are effective until May 25th.  The pick-up times are as follows:

Teton Village:  7:50am

The Aspens:  7:58am

Stilson:  8:03am  

Arrive Journeys School:  8:10am

Re-Enrollment Deposits are Due Now!

Deposits for 2007/08 are due now. The deposit secures your child's spot for next year. If you haven't already paid the deposit ($1,000 per student for grades K-12 or $500 for PreK), please contact Rhonda.

Teton Science Schools’ Teacher Learning Center
Upcoming Events for Teachers and Parents

Read Right Community Presentation

May 2, 2007 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Featuring: Dr. Dee Tadlock, Past President of the College Reading and Learning Association and Founder of Read Right Systems
Location: Teton Science Schools’ Jackson Campus Dining Lodge
Presented by TCSD #1 in collaboration with the TSS Teacher Learning Center

Gender Differentiation Conference

A Workshop on May 18 and 19, 2007

Featuring: Dr. JoAnn Deak and Dr. Michael Thompson

Gender Differences: How the Research Informs Our Work
Location: TSS Jackson Campus - Education Center Tuition: $150

This conference includes the community presentation that is listed below.

Boys will be Boys and Girls will be Girls
A Community Presentation on the evening of Friday, May 18, 2007
Location: Jackson Hole Center for the Arts Pavilion Theater
Free Admission

For more information contact: bonnie.jones@tetonscience.org
307.733.1327 ext. 1108

May Community Lunch Menu

May 4th

Cinco de Mayo Lunch

Roasted Vegetable Quesadillas & Chicken Fajitas

Spanish rice & Refried Vegetarian Black Beans

Citrus Salad

Dessert

Click here to see the entire May lunch menu.

Science Fair this Friday! 3:30-4:30

Come see our first Journeys School Science Fair! Science Fair Projects from students PreK through 8th grade will be on display and Olympic competition finals will begin at 3:30pm in the Education Center. Even if your child is not participating this year, come check it out!

Teton County Library Events

May Day Celebration

Saturday May 5th at 10-noon the Alta Branch Library serves up May Day merriment with a May Pole dance, old-fashioned games, mural painting and much more. The community is encouraged to bring blankets and picnic lunches. Dessert and snacks provided. Cost: Free. Location: Alta Branch Library, 15 Alta School Road. Contact: Alta Branch Library, 307-353-2505.

Japanese Children’s Day Festival

Saturday May 5th at 1-4:30 p.m the Teton County Library and Vista 360° invite kids, ages 4 to 8, to join a Japanese celebration focused on the happiness and health of children. Activities include storytelling, Haiku writing, koi banner making, dancing, martial art demonstrations and a display of traditional Japanese dolls. Snacks provided. Cost: Free. Location: Storytime Room and Ordway Auditorium. Contact: Youth Services, 733-2164 ext. 103. Sponsored by Wyoming Arts Council and Teton County Library Foundation

Support the Journeys School Annual Fund by ordering Journeys School Organic Coffee.
Online: www.FreshOrganicCoffee.com/journeys.html or call (307) 733-8046

Pre-Kindergarten

Announcements

Parent Survey Response Now Available

Thank you for all of those families who responded to our annual survey. You will find an all school response in the All School News section and individual level responses in their respective sections. Please click the following link to access the survey for this section

Pre-K survey response .

Thank Yous
Thank you to Jackie and Dave Baxa for their continued work with our students to design kids’ web pages.

Thank you to Heather Overholser and the Recycling Center for letting our class tour through the facility. Heather taught our class some really interesting facts about trash and recycling. Did you know that the average person makes 5lbs. of trash per day? Did you know that one bail of crushed recyclables weights 1600 lbs. and that is more than the weight of four adults and our whole class?

Thank you to Rosi De Haan for joining us on our journey to the Recycling Center.

Thank you to Ana and Tom Chapman and the Snake River Sports Club for the opportunity to learn with their naturalist (former TSS graduate student), Phil Cameron. We explored the grounds and learned about the three essential ingredients to wildlife survival: food, water and shelter and the distance between those items.

Thank you to Ian for being our musical accompanist for the town parade on Wednesday morning. He played the Jack Johnson song “The 3 R’s” on his guitar as students marched and sang along.

Thank you to the crew of parents, Eric and Maria Wilson, Allison and Steve Pachoe, Liza Kimmel, Vonde Smith and David Watson, that joined us in town for the parade. It was great to have your support!

Thank to parents of MWF kids for sending in green t-shirts. The kids looked fantastic and the parade was a success! We all had a great time singing “the 3 r’s” and marching proudly in our t-shirts and with our banners! Click here to see a picture of is in the parade.

Be Ready Rain or Shine…
Please continue to send your child to school with appropriate clothing for the unpredictable weather…leave those backpacks packed with raincoats, hats and mittens just in case and start getting in the habit of applying sunscreen before coming to school.

Colored Paper Scraps!
We are starting a papermaking project at school and need more paper to recycle. We are looking for bright colors that you can’t recycle at the Recycling Center…construction paper, scraps, tissue paper, copy paper. If you have a bin of half used pieces of paper or unwanted art work please send them to us in a paper bag that can also be made into recycled paper. Thank you.

Pre-K Wants Your Junk!

Looking to clear out some cobwebs and used goods for a refreshing Spring feel? Well, the pre-K students would love to use certain items for their tricycle alley – extra tricycles, an old hose for the car washing station, bubble wrap for speed bumps and any other exciting and fun tools for tricycle maintenance.

Curricular Updates
Doctor’s Office
After a journey to Stone Drug and a visit from Jean Jorgensen, our students have a better sense of both Eastern and Western medicinal practices. This week, Jean Jorgensen came in to teach students some holistic ways of how to help yourself feel better through natural scents and relaxation practices. In May, Jean will return to hike the hill in Coyote Canyon with students in search of plants that have some healing benefits. During focused exploration, students have used their newly acquired knowledge as they play the role of pharmacist to create medicines. Our class pharmacy shelves are quickly filling with remedies for all sorts of ailments. You can find healing for broken bones, common colds, and much more!

Changing Phases
Every Friday, students have been learning about the differences between solids, liquids, and gases. Through games, sensory experimentation and discussion, students have learned that molecules are tiny things that move around in everything. In solids, molecules are really close together and cannot move much. But in liquids, molecules have more space to move, and in gases, they have lots of space to move! This week, we will be exploring how solids can change to become liquids and vice versa.

Journeys
This week was full of journeys…we went to the Recycling Center, the Snake River Sports Club and downtown for the parade! Journeys are at the core of our curriculum because they connect us to the community and our natural world. Journeys promote inquisitiveness; it is instinctual to ask questions about new places and objects that you have never seen before. Through these experiences children gather knowledge about their world and become more capable of making connections and creating imagery for literature.

Working with Computers
On Thursday, David and Jackie Baxa introduced computers to the class using a simple kids' painting program. The children got to explore a variety of features including different paint brush strokes, a gallery of art images, and typing their names into their artwork. For both children new to and familiar with computers, this project made for a fun exploration of an essential technology that will be part of all their futures. In addition, it proved to be a great exercise for developing fine motor skills. The Baxas will be returning next week to introduce the Internet, during which they will unveil their individual Kids' Pages, including the art files they created last week.

Announcements

Parent Survey Response Now Available

Thank you for all of those families who responded to our annual survey. You will find an all school response in the All School News section and individual level responses in their respective sections. Please click the following link to access the survey for this section

K-2 survey response .

Muchas Gracias

As usual, we have many parent helpers to thank for their participation in the K-2 classroom.

We want to extend a special thank you to Carrie Geraci for guiding our students through the process of painting beautiful canvases that celebrate our earth. Carrie put her artistic and teaching skills to work as our students designed compositions, mixed colors and completed a finished product. Look for these gems to be displayed soon with an artist biography that introduces the artist and explains each piece. Thanks, also, to Caroline Vohrs and Bobbi King for taking the photos for the biographies.

Thank you to our Super Hands to Work crew: Jen Reichert, Dana Nagel, Libby Hall, and Ellen Spears. Your elbow grease is deeply appreciated.

For our character study celebration, special snack was provided by Caroline Huser, Dana Nagel, Caroline Vohr, Katie Pierce and Libby Hall (hopefully that’s everyone!). Thank you for the delicious and healthy treats.

Lastly, thank you to the families and students who showed some community spirit by volunteering at EcoFair.

Mark your calendars for May 3!

The I CAN Book Project’s celebration is Thursday, May 3rd from 4-7. The 2nd graders will be sharing their book titled, Our Journey to the Mysterious Island promptly at 6:10. Please join us at the Teton Literacy Project for this special celebration for all 2nd grade authors and illustrators in Teton County. Refreshments will be served!

Science Fair

Families of students participating in the Science Fair, you have this week to complete your projects! The Science Fair and Olympics will be held on Friday May 4th from 3:30 to 4:30pm.

Learning Team Meetings

Learning Team Meetings will be taking place during the weeks of April 30- May 4 and May 7- May 11. If you have not yet scheduled a time to meet with your child's advisor, please take advantage of this opportunity to discuss your child's learning in depth, and contact his/her advisor right away. We look forward to the opportunity to meet with all of you!

Spring Journey

The next K-2 Curriculum Night will be held on Tuesday, May 8th from 6 to 7 pm. The topic for the evening will be our spring theme and spring journey. We hope to see many of you there! Child care will be provided.

Curricular Updates

Black Bears Literacy Group with Elise

The Black Bears Literacy group has just completed our unit of character study. We focused on the character of Lilly who is featured in a number of books by Kevin Henkes. We discussed many literary aspects, including problem and solution, envisioning, predicting, and putting ourselves into the characters shoes and relating their experiences to our own lives. Our culminating play of ‘Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse’ was a great success and students thoroughly enjoyed taking on the role of the characters from the book. Thank you for all of your help practicing lines at home. Through daily independent, partnered, and guided reading students are expanding their recognition of words as well as their fluency and confidence as readers. Students continue to bring home books daily to continue their practice and challenge themselves appropriately. We have completed our Handwriting Without Tears books, and have moved on to a new notebook of various daily handwriting practices. During word work, we are beginning to look at our spelling when we write and as a tool to help us in our reading. Look for lists of words to practice at home, both for sight recognition as well as spelling. Through our daily practice of the ‘Phonics Dance’, students continue to gain awareness of letter blends and vowel patterns, which they apply in their writing and just right reading. Our upcoming units of study will include a focus on poetry and Readers Theater.

Nuthatch Math

The nibbling nuthatch math crew recently embarked in a unit that explores multiplication and division in greater detail. Throughout this unit, students will work on “automaticity” of basic math facts using similar strategies they used while learning addition and subtraction such as fact families, fact triangles and many fun games that help to keep the monotony out of memorizing math facts. The use of parentheses to indicate the order of operations with longer number models was recently introduced to students. As the unit progresses students will work with extended facts (3x6=18à 300x600=1800), estimation, ratios and comparing similar geometric figures. At home, you may help your little nuthatch nibble away at memorizing those multiplication math facts with flash cards, games and impromptu quizzes. Presenting your child with number stories is a great way for students to be reminded of the concept behind the math fact: I have 4 bags of apples, each bag has 6 apples. Will I have enough apples to give one to each student in our class of 38 kids?

Community Day

Last Wednesday, we had a wonderful day celebrating Earth Day as a Journeys School community. Activities included picking up trash, raking and seeding outside and planting native plant species in biodegradable cups. The K-2 students participated in a Green Design scavenger hunt on our campus with their 3-5 family group members. We all learned a lot about how our school is designed in an earth friendly manner. After a delicious community lunch and a recess that included pre-k through twelfth graders playing in the sunshine, we met with our family groups and designed and built “ornaments of awareness” using recycled materials. The ornaments were wonderful creations and were displayed at Eco Fair on Saturday. We always enjoy our community days, when we get to use our bodies and minds to strengthen our school family.

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing…

We are excited to be working with Dancers workshop over the next month to learn more about movement and body awareness. The students used their bodies to explore positive and negative space and think about their surroundings. Thank you to Ryan for helping to arrange this special physical education program for us!

Announcements

Parent Survey Response Now Available

Thank you for all of those families who responded to our annual survey. You will find an all school response in the All School News section and individual level responses in their respective sections. Please click the following link to access the survey for this section

Grades 3-5 survey response .

Spring Journey Meeting
Thank you to all of the parents who attended the Spring Journey Meeting last Tuesday. If you were unable to attend the meeting, important information about the upcoming journeys was sent home in your child’s folder last week.

Thank You
Thank you to Janet Garland, Diana PiPaola and Jill Wright for taking photographs during our Earth Day Community Day. We can’t wait to see documentation of the students’ hard work! Thank you to Remy Levy for helping Laura’s math class finish their bookshelf construction project.

New Toothbrushes
If you have not already done so, please send a new toothbrush to school with your child. He/she will exchange his/her old toothbrush when a new one is brought in. Thank you!

Curricular Updates

Learning Team Meetings
Learning Team Meetings provide an opportunity for parents, child, and advisor to formally check in about student learning. Spring Learning Team Meetings for Grades 3-5 will begin today and continue through Friday, May 11. Prior to the meeting, each child will prepare reflections and select work from across the curriculum to share with his/her family. For the first 15 minutes of the Learning Team Meeting, the child will present what he/she prepared and answer questions. The child will then leave the meeting, and the advisor will discuss the child’s social and academic progress. Finally, there will be time at the end of the meeting for parents to ask questions or air concerns. The advisor will take notes during the meeting and follow up with parents, teachers and students as necessary.

If you have not already signed up for a Learning Team Meeting, please contact your child’s advisor as soon as possible. In student folders, we sent home a sheet to remind parents of their scheduled meeting time. On this sheet, you will find space to write specific comments or questions you would like to address during your child’s meeting. Please return the bottom portion of this sheet to school at least two days prior to your scheduled meeting time. Thank you!

Earth Day Celebration
Students in Grades 3-5 participated in a school-wide community day last Wednesday. In celebration of Earth Day, our students completed service projects and a conservation scavenger hunt.
Service projects completed by students in Grades 3-5 included planting wildflowers, raking gravel, and picking up trash around the Jackson Campus. Students planted buckwheat, yarrow, and lupine seeds into small cups. We will later transplant these native seedlings outdoors. Our gravel team discovered that raking gravel is hard work, but the center path looks significantly better. Finally, our trash pick-up teams were surprised by how much trash they found along Coyote Canyon Road and up on the hill. One group found two plastic tarps, a fork, car keys, a wire sculpture, and an eye patch!

For the conservation scavenger hunt, students worked in K-5 family groups. Grades 3-5 students helped lead their family group around our campus, following clues that took them to 10 special features of our school. At each spot, students learned about one way our school works to conserve energy, recycle, or care for the earth. For example, one clue led students to the cleaning supply closet, where they learned the Journeys School uses only biodegradable, earth-friendly cleaning products. Another clue led them to the mudroom, where students learned that the carpet was actually made out of old tires! The students enjoyed dashing from clue to clue, and seemed proud to attend a school that makes an effort to care for the environment.

Announcements

Parent Survey Response Now Available

Thank you for all of those families who responded to our annual survey. You will find an all school response in the All School News section and individual level responses in their respective sections. Please click the following link to access the survey for this section

Grades 6-8 survey response .

Parent Communication Brainstorm Opportunity
In response to some requests for more effective communication between parents and teachers, we have planned two opportunities for middle school parents and teachers to share suggestions and brainstorm improvements. If this issue is a concern of yours, please try to attend one of these two meetings which will be held Wednesday, May 9 from 9:00 – 10:00 am and Thursday, May 10 from 5:00– 6:00 p.m. before the parent council meeting. Both meetings will be held in the education center.

Film Elective Stay After School May 16
Parents we are asking that your film elective students stay after school for a few hours on the 16th of May for the filming of their short film. Their will be a detailed email sent out shortly. Please call Dennis at 733.1327 ex. 1139 for any questions and concerns.

Summer Study Opportunity

The organization Summer Institute for the Gifted, or SIG, which has been in operation for over twenty years, is again coordinating summer education programming for students in grades four through eleven at college campuses all over the US. There will be residential sessions at Amherst College, Bryn Mawr College, Drew University, Emory University, UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Michigan, and Vassar College. There is a program for students in grades seven through eleven at Princeton University, too. Courses vary from traditional to innovative including college prep. Campuses are safe in suburban settings and have campus security as well as nursing available around the clock. Journeys School has received limited information about summer programming offered by SIG. If interested, you can contact Amanda Ritz at 866-303-4744 ext. 5159 or aritz@giftedstudy.com for more information or to order a catalog.

Thank you

Thank you to Jana Roice, Ruth Patterson, Nancy Shea and Jill Wright for helping to proctor the ERB tests before Spring Break.

Thank you Nate, Brenda and Lindsay from CRC, for a fabulous service experience on Earth Day removing old fence and planting willow along Cody Creek.

Curricular Updates

Science
So far this term students have gained an overview of ecological concepts involving food interactions and population dynamics. Last week we applied these concepts to issues of predator management. Who are the predators that live in our ecosystem and what is their conservation status? Ask your child what they have learned about our local predators last week. Level 2 and 3 read Aldo Leopold’s “Thinking like a Mountain” and discussed how mentalities toward predator management have changed since the 1920s. We ended the week with a look into the lives of other major predators around the world and compared their conservation status and interaction with humans to our local predators. This week we are examining issues of landscape succession and disturbance ecosystems. How has our management of fire ecosystems changed over the past century in the US? Talk to your child about your experience with fire. We will examine the mistakes that lead up to the Yellowstone fires of 1988 and what we have learned from them.

Spanish
Over the past few weeks in Spanish, we have been learning about markets and food. Students learned common food vocabulary before they translated recipes from the magazine Comida y Familia from Spanish to English. With this understanding, they brought in their own favorite recipes and translated them into Spanish. This activity helped students better understand the different grammatical constructions we have been studying throughout the year. After spring break, students began to compare markets in Mexico and the U.S. They learned about how to request items for purchase and performed skits in a small market. Then they researched prices for foods in a Mexican supermarket and compared them to prices at home. Ask your student about his or her favorite food (¿Qué te gusta comer?) or have her or him explain the different types of markets available in Mexico.

Social Science
Social science has been examining the beginnings of the Environmental Movement in America. Topics studied included Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, the Second Great Awakening and the utopian communities that were established around the country during the nineteenth century. Ask your student to explain what the “Great Awakenings” were. They enjoyed learning about these little known events in American history.

This week students will investigate how the development of uniquely American art and literature contributed to the Environmental Movement. Ask your student about the significance of artists such as Bierstadt, Moran and Jackson in developing our present day attitudes about nature.

Fine Arts
This trimester students are focusing on music in fine arts, with an emphasis on percussion. Many of our instruments are found objects such as tubs, metal pans and wood just to name a few. If you haven’t heard Jalaya and Luke play, keep an ear out when on campus…they are amazing!

Announcements

Parent Survey Response Now Available

Thank you for all of those families who responded to our annual survey. You will find an all school response in the All School News section and individual level responses in their respective sections. Please click the following link to access the survey for this section

Grades 9-12 survey response .

JHHS Prom

Junior and senior students who are interested in attending the JHHS Prom on Saturday, May 5 that need to go to JHHS to buy their tickets in advance. Tickets are on sale every day from now until Prom. Tickets are available from Beth Auge (JHHS Student Council Advisor) in room 1610 before and after school, as well as every day at lunch. Tickets will not be available at the door. Also - the Promenade will be at 5:45 at JHHS. Parents should come to the HS and not come out to the museum. Please Contact Beth Auge for more information (bauge@teton1.k12.wy.us)

Summer Study Opportunity

The organization Summer Institute for the Gifted, or SIG, which has been in operation for over twenty years, is again coordinating summer education programming for students in grades four through eleven at college campuses all over the US. There will be residential sessions at Amherst College, Bryn Mawr College, Drew University, Emory University, UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Michigan, and Vassar College. There is a program for students in grades seven through eleven at Princeton University, too. Courses vary from traditional to innovative including college prep. Campuses are safe in suburban settings and have campus security as well as nursing available around the clock. Journeys School has received limited information about summer programming offered by SIG. If interested, you can contact Amanda Ritz at 866-303-4744 ext. 5159 or aritz@giftedstudy.com for more information or to order a catalog.

Summer Job Fair

All upper school students are invited to a summer job fair on Wednesday, May 9, 2-4 PM in the Jackson Hole High School commons. Contact Sue Johnstone at the Jackson Workforce Center (733-4091) for more details.

Earth Day!

On Wednesday, April 25th, Journeys School celebrated Earth Day. For Upper School and Middle School, the day began with a shared daily practice in which students reflected on the meaning and history of Earth Day. Both levels then headed across Highway 22 to work on two service projects facilitated by the Conservation Research Center: willow harvesting/replanting and fence removal. The weather was fabulous and a healthy, happy and productive time was had by all. After all their hard work, students were quite ready for a community pizza lunch with the rest of the school. Following recess, the whole school re-convened in family groups, and worked on creating Earth-Day themed works of art from clean trash and recyclables that had been collected in previous weeks. The celebration concluded with an all-school meeting during which family groups shared their creations and gave thanks for the Earth’s

Curricular Updates

Math 4: Algebra

This spring, Math 4 students are moving beyond linear relationships to investigate exponential relationships. The progression begins with a review of the different properties of exponents and scientific notation, and then applies them to model real-world scenarios through exponential equations. Through the rest of the spring trimester students will be introduced to functions through code breaking, work within function notation to interpret real-world data, and then manipulate functions through transformations. Finally, Math 4 students explore quadratic equations and projectile motion.

Juniors Tackle Mini-internships

Over the past several weeks, Journeys School juniors have developed mini-internship experiences and will be pairing with local organizations May 1-3. The “Individual Professional Internship” course encouraged students to examine their personal and professional goals. Students assessed their current abilities and work ethic and took surveys to highlight their strengths and interests. After conducting research and practicing professional skills (such as leaving phone messages), students contacted local businesses and organizations such as Jorgensen Engineering, the Art Association, the Four Seasons, the police department, Jackson Hole Film Institute, Square One Robotics and St. John’s Hospital. Students have prepared professional proposals and will assess their performance with individualized rubrics designed for each unique experience. The internships give students insights into potential careers and develop communication and professional skills critical to their 12th grade capstone year and beyond!

Film Studies

Hello from Hollywood! (aka the Journeys school introduction to film program, taught by community member Trey Chace). So far so good with the Film Course 07'! With many returning students and some novices with great vision, great things are expected from this year’s productions. Thus far the class has reviewed film history, modern techniques, composition, storytelling, and structure. Next up is writing scripts, story boarding, and casting, followed by production and posting. See you at the premiere! If you have any questions please contact Dennis at ex. 1139.

                       Editorials returning here soon!

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