Save the Date!

There will be Amangani party to benefit the Journeys School Annual Fund on Saturday, December 9, 2006. Laura Wyckoff will be the contact for this event if anyone has any questions. Her phone number is 307 733-1313 ext 1313.

November Lunch Menu 

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

School Photos are Ready!

Please make your purchases by this Friday, November 10 to finish out the process for the lab and for the photographer. A link to the website will be sent through an email.

START Bus Stop Parking

If you drop your child off at a START bus stop, the drivers request that you park your car past the stop rather than before the stop. This will leave the approach open for the bus to get completely into the stop area and not block traffic.

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

Thanks

Thank you to many parents who stayed for our Halloween celebrations and parades in and outside the classroom. The children had a really enjoyable time. Special thanks to Brian and Vonde who have a special talent in face painting and to Michelle for helping control Halloween mayhem.

Thanks to parent classroom volunteers, Joann and Dave for bringing in a color collage project for afternoon F. E and Janet and Mac for providing a music and instrument assembly on Friday.

Thanks to Maria for washing blankets this week.

As cold chilly days become more frequent...

Please remember to always pack your child a warm coat, hat, and pair of mittens so that they are prepared to journey outside. Please also instruct your child how to hang up his or her coat in their cubbie, put hat and mittens in their cubbie as well, and put boots against the wall. We transition in and out of a small mudroom many times a day and believe each child is capable of picking up and properly putting away their belongs if instructed and encouraged to do so.

Lost and Found

There is an overflowing white bin of lost and found items to the right of the mudroom door as you enter.  Please take a look through the bin this week to claim any lost articles of clothing.  On Friday of this week we will be cleaning it out.  Thank you.

Halloween costumes

If you have unwanted or outgrown costumes sitting lonely in a closet or on a shelf, we would gladly make room for them in our dramatic play area and many children would make use of them.

Learning Team Meetings

These past two weeks we have had a steady flow of learning team meetings. It has been a wonderful opportunity to get to know our Pre-K parents a little better and to acknowledge two sets of goals for our young children, parents and teachers. We believe that these types of conversations will strength our program, our relationships with parents and our ability to support each child in the classroom. Thank you for taking the time and energy to make these meetings a priority. 

A reminder that if you took our child's portfolio home to share and look over, please bring it back this week.

Classroom Remodeling...

You may have noticed that things are being moved around in the classroom...we are making room for improvements. In the next two weeks we are looking to revamp our classroom environment with the help of parents. (Certain parents have shown interest in helping design and organize various areas of the classroom, if you are interested look in the parent zone to sign up.) More noticeably there will be changes to the block area and the studio.

Curricular Updates

Threads

Simple Machines

Simple machines are in motion in the classroom. Our young children are discovering physic principles through the manipulation of our ball course. We are starting with the exploration of a ramp and various inclines. As children change the angle of the tubes on the course they observe the change in motion of the ball on the course.

Castles

This past week children decided to begin a project of transforming the loft into a castle. They had conversations about what should be in a castle and sketched their ideas on paper.  We began by making flags and prepping the walls of the castle.  Children worked for two days last week painting a wash of grey onto large pieces of cardboard to prepare them.

Announcements

Warm Clothing

The November chill has arrived and warm hats, mittens, and coats are needed to keep those little bodies warm! Please make sure that your child comes to school prepared to go outside in all weather conditions. 

Learning Team Meetings

Learning Team Meetings will continue this week in the K-2.  It is a joy to share with families the learning and growth that the children are experiencing.  The opportunity for student reflection and meaningful dialogue enables the “learning team” (parents, teachers, and student) to further support the learning process at home and school.  Thank you for taking the time, energy and effort to continue nurturing your child’s overall development at Journeys.

After school routine

A note was recently sent home requesting the routine traveling arrangement for your child. Please return this form to school if you have not already.  As a reminder to all K-2 families, please send a note in your child’s folder or leave a voicemail at school before 2:30 p.m. if your child is traveling to a different location than usual after school.

Thanks

Warm fuzzies and thank yous to Carol Chesney and Leila Sandlin, Paul and SJ Huser, and Gary and Lia Silberberg for sharing their personal and family journals from adventures near and far.  Sharing these journals exposed the children to a plethora of ways to document explorations and memories in a variety of places.  It was truly an insightful experience!

Family Buddies

Our Family Buddy program is off and running.  Thank you to all the families who volunteered to partner up with a new Journeys K-2 family! 

Curricular Updates

Halloween

Our Halloween celebration on Tuesday was filled with spooky, silly, and creative creatures!  Many students embraced the personality of their characters and costumes, which uncovered a playful and silly laughter and fun for all!  With a parade through the Middle and Upper School, the children enjoyed showing off their costumes and greeting older and younger friends.  With much energy, excitement, and eager participation, the K-2 children split up into six groups for a Halloween Station Rotation.  The activities included: Pin the Wart on the Witch, Halloween Charades, Pumpkin Math, Dia De Los Muertos paper flag and flower making, Edible Creepy Creatures, Bone Math, and Bat Cave Creation.  If you haven’t already, take a peek in the North Den teepee that has been transformed into a bat haven! 

Theme

If you have visited the K-2 classroom recently, you may have heard the students joining together in joyful song.  Music is an exciting and powerful way to integrate our learning and explorations at Journeys School.  With two new “theme songs,” the students gather together enthusiastically and engagingly to sing “Observations” and “Explorations.”  Thanks to Betsy Trowbridge for using her creative juices to write these songs!  Encourage your child to sing these songs to you at home.  Here are the lyrics and verses to one song (Stay “tuned” for more!):

Observation

(to the tune of Clementine)

While I was walking, in the forest, observing all around,

I heard above me, a cackling bird call, it was raven calling down.

(Chorus)

I’m an explorer, an explorer, an observer of the world, 

I look closely and carefully

I explore near and far!

As I was skiing, down the mountain, swishing quickly by the trees,

I saw a moose, eating willows, eating willows while I skied!

(Chorus)

I’m an explorer, an explorer, an observer of the world, 

I look closely and carefully

I explore near and far!

As I lay dreaming, in my bed, in my bed, oh so warm,

I heard an owl, hoot hoot hooting, hoot hoot hooting in the night.

(Chorus)

I’m an explorer, an explorer, an observer of the world, 

I look closely and carefully

I explore near and far!

Upcoming Journey

The K-2 students are embarking on a two part series involving the exploration of the National Museum of Wildlife Art. Part one will occur on Wednesday, November 8th.  Associate Curator of Education, Amy Goicoechea, (and wife to Journey School Upper School faculty, David Porter), will visit our classroom to focus on mammal observations and the artistic representations by Carl Rungius and Olaus Murie.  To explore the art first-hand, the K-2 students will journey to the museum on November 15th for Part two.   

Our Amazing TLC Volunteer

Maggie Valiante, our wonderful volunteer from the Teton Literacy Center, has been working with the first and second graders to write collective stories about their journeys.  This is an interesting process to observe.  Maggie facilitates a group of students as they work together to create a cohesive story about an experience that they shared.  She is a wizard with guiding the process while still letting the students use their own words and expressions.  The students must learn to speak up, be patient, give and take and let go of some ideas.  It is a challenging process, but one that always results in a wonderful story full of life and color.  Thank you to Maggie for continuing to add to our classroom with her wonderful teaching style.

Kindergarten Library

The Kindergartners have begun to visit our school library every three weeks.  At this time they may check out two books.  Please help them remember to return these books to our school library after three weeks have passed so they can check out new books.  This is a time for them to learn about library skills with Erin Smith and to share books with you at home.

Announcements

Halloween Thanks

It was wonderful to see so many parents in our classroom on Halloween Day.  Thank you for participating in the Grades 3-5 Halloween traditions.  Special thanks are owed to Jill Wright, Caroline Vohr, Pam Terkovich, and Lisa Daily for providing Halloween snacks last Tuesday. 

Learning Team Meetings

Fall Learning Team Meetings for Grades 3-5 will occur this week and next week.  Meetings will take place after school from 3:15-4:00 or 4:15-5:00 p.m. in the Grades 3-5 classroom.  We sent home a Learning Team Meeting form last Monday.  On this form, you will find your scheduled meeting time as well as space to suggest discussion topics for your child’s meeting.  If you have not already done so, 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!

Schools Attuned

You may or may not be aware that Journeys School faculty are being trained in the use of a program called Schools Attuned.  This program, developed by Dr. Mel Levine, is based on brain-based research and is designed to help teachers and students understand how learning occurs best for each individual.  Last weekend, Grades 3-5 teacher Sydney Daniels led a continuing education workshop on the use of the program for teachers from Journeys School, the Teton County School District, and other schools in Wyoming.

Curriculum Updates

Author Visit

Grades 3-5 were pleased to welcome Lydia Griffin into our community on October 26.  She is the author of BeBa and the Curious Creature Catchers and the president of the Colorado Independent Publishers Association.  We enjoyed learning about her publishing company, Laffin Minor Press, the publishing process, and the life of a person who has chosen writing as a career.  Lydia told us that “there is always something to write about,” and that she “writes all day!”  She fielded our questions graciously.  Some questions included: When did you start writing? (Third grade), How did you feel when your book got published? (I cried with happiness), Do you write everyday, and if so, how long each day? (Nine a.m. until six p.m. each day), What is your next book about? (A donkey named Prunes), How many drafts does it take a book until it is published? (Hundreds).  After listening to Lydia’s inspiring talk, students in Sydney’s Writing Workshop group set goals for themselves to work on as writers.

“I will get better at showing, not telling, in my writing.” Katie Blann

“I would like to get better at brainstorming.” Alex Lang

“I will get better at writing with dialogue.” Ellie O’Shei

“I will revise my stories more.” Tige Wilson

“I will start my stories with action, or something exciting.” Daniela Contreras

“I will take a deep breath before writing, and make sure I have the story in my head when I start.” Garrett King

“I should work on the exciting parts of the story so I really grab the reader.” Katie Broyles

“I will get better at using juicy words in my writing.” Connor Field

“I need to work on planning more clearly.” Mia Tompkins

“I need to get better at generating ideas for my writing.” Caden Garland

“I need to work on making my stories more of a seed than a watermelon!” Madeline Carlman

Upcoming Reading and Writing Celebration

Unit Two of our Reading and Writing Workshop is coming to a close this Friday, November 10.  We will celebrate what we have learned during this reading and writing unit from 8:15 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Friday.  Grades 3-5 students and teachers have enjoyed exploring the themes of our unit this month.  Our reading theme for unit two is “Minds on Fire: Studying Characters and Parts of a Story.”  Our writing theme is “Raising the Level of Our Personal Narratives.”  Through discussions and improvisational acting, students will demonstrate their understanding of one character they have studied closely during this unit.  Students will also present their second published narrative piece to the community.  Visitors are welcome and encouraged to attend!

Life Skills

In life skills class last week, students discussed the leadership traits of the three main characters in our fall read aloud, The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford.  The story is about two dogs and a cat who work together to accomplish a phenomenal task: they travel over 100 miles through wild, uninhabited land to find their beloved owners. The book sparked rich discussions about different leadership styles as students used the text to support their ideas.  At the end of class, students decided which of the three characters has leadership skills most similar to their own.  Please ask your child about their favorite character in The Incredible Journey and the lessons they have learned from this character this fall.

Announcements

Please make sure kids come to school with a lunch. We are not equipped to supply food. If your child has a tendency to forget, we suggest leaving a back up in their cubby.

GAP! will not meet this week but any interested middle school girls are invited to attend next week. On Wednesday, November 15th from 3-5 pm at the middle school, the girls will be working on editing short movies about each other. Contact Charlotte at charlottequesada@jouneysschool.org with any questions.

Each trimester regular math classes are suspended en lieu of an integrated math project which applies mathematical concepts to everyday life. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving break we will be exploring probability.

A donde van Jo y Chris?
Jo will be gone Thursday and Friday at a conference in Boston called Learning and the Brain: Using Brain Research to Enhance Student Achievement. The conference is mainly sponsored by Stanford and Harvard Schools of Education, with several other prominent education and medical institutions. “Research shows that healthy brain development in children is linked to physiological development. Stress, exercise, obesity, nutrition, sleep and classroom environment significantly affects students’ ability to learn, think, and remember.” Jo hopes to bring back a wealth of brain-body and classroom environment strategies to enhance student memory, cognition and learning.

Chris will be traveling to Japan as a participant of the Japanese Fulbright Memorial Fund program from November 11 – December 1. Each year, 600 teachers from the U.S. participate in the program in order to learn about Japanese culture and educational system. While in Japan, Chris will attend lectures and seminars by Japanese educators and administrators, visit schools, observe teachers, and visit cultural sites. During his trip, Chris will spend half of the time in Tokyo and half in Okinawa. While gone, Chris will correspond with students and teachers via e-mail and possibly a web cast. Upon his return, Chris will be sharing his experiences with the class and incorporating what he has learned into lessons, especially as we study World War II this winter.

Thank you
The a cappella elective gives a big thank you to Cynda Peralto-Ramos and Kristen Coyne for sharing their dulcet voices and musical talent on Friday afternoons.

Thank you to Laurie for the fabulous Halloween flowers!

Thank you to Jill Wright for a great initial conversation about this winter’s performing arts collaboration with Dennis and Margot. We are very much looking forward to working closely with you!

Curricular Updates

Social Science

Social science classes are concluding the unit on the American Revolution and the Documents of Democracy. The students have been working together closely to create a preamble for our class constitution. The results of their work will appear here next week. In the mean time, enjoy some of the more insightful, and humorous, ideas from their brainstorming sessions.
     - Behave in all situations, good or bad.
     - There shall be no potty language.
     - Laugh hard and have fun, it makes the MUPS go 'round.
     - Middle schoolers should be treated like rock stars.
     - Leave school happier than at the start.
     - Don't mess with the teacher, especially during class.
     - You don't have the right to bare arms.
     - Harmonize yourself.
     - Respect nature and others and their property.
     - Boys, don't hit the girls, and don't hit on the girls.

Science
Students have explored the process of natural selection by examining the evolution of real and fictional populations based on specific environmental pressures. Last week we brought these concepts home, examining the evolution of Homo sapiens and where we stand today. Are modern humans cheating natural selection? In other words, do the mechanisms of natural selection apply to modern humans? These are interesting questions and students turned In their personal opinion statement today, using examples to support their position. We invite you to explore these ideas at home! The purpose of exploring these issues is to expose students to the diversity of perspectives surrounding human interactions with nature. Several students used the same example to support very different positions.

From here we will look at where these debates lie in the modern American culture. What distinguishes scientific theories from other cultural ideas? We will examine different ideas of evolution that exist in our culture today and determine which are scientific and which are not. This will connect our discussion with those occurring in language arts, surrounding the play Inherit the Wind, and current events.

Spanish
During the past two weeks, we have been studying the Aztecs (Mexicans) and comparing them to the Inca and Taino cultures. After mini-research projects and presentations, we began to explore the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan and compared it to the town of Jackson. As they noted, both places had schools, markets, play fields and streets, but Jackson does not have pyramids, palaces, or floating gardens. With this understanding, we used the city vocabulary and created maps of important places in our town.

In addition to learning about the Mexican culture, we also looked at how Aztec and Spanish traditions and beliefs helped shape the Mexican holiday of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). We created tombstones for the all school altar at Harvest Café and honored our deceased family members on the 2nd of November. You can see our altar and others from the community until Friday November 10th at various locations around town.

The first examen (test) of the year is this Thursday, November 9th. Students should be reviewing the vocabulary to describe nature, the house, and the city, as well as the verbs ser, estar, tener, and haber.

Art
We have had an exciting week here at the MS arts. We just finished our charcoal drawings with an emphasis on the Day of the Dead Celebration! Please take a moment and enjoy our drawings on display at the Whole Grocer. Currently we are starting an installation project with wire and exploring how we deal with space. We will finish the trimester with painting projects in acrylic. The culminating project will take place the week after Thanksgiving break. ******Artist of the Week is Andy Goldsworthy******* Thanks- Dennis

More Student Quotes Language Arts:
Students in language arts wrote thoughtful, creative and informative biographies about their classmates. Please continue to enjoy these excerpts from their biographies.

“Breezy is a truly amazing person who cares for everyone and everything. I love that Breezy and I we are both outdoorsy and love to hike. I think we can all learn to cherish and protect the natural world.” –Veronica, 8th grade

“Taylor is a really kind and intelligent person; we can learn a lot from her. For example, I learned that I have a lot in common with Taylor. We both like skiing better than snowboarding, we like camping better than staying in hotels and our favorite subject is science.” –River Graue, 7th grade

“Montserrat is a nice girl and a nice person to talk to.” –Ellie Finnegan, 7th grade

“We are both passionate about a sport.” –Cait O’Shei, 6th grade, on Gus Pierce

“There are many things our community can learn from Dani. First of all, she knows how to be organized. She taught me how to keep everything for school in one binder.” –Gus Jacobsen, 6th grade

“As I finished my interview with Mikey…I could see that he will accomplish things he puts his mind to…In conclusion, I feel that Mikey will be very successful in life.” –Brooke Blann, 6th grade

Curricular Updates

Math 5: Geometry

The Geometry class continues to develop the prerequisites for deductive proof. We have defined many of the basic terms of geometry, making sure that our definitions are concise and sufficient—that is, that our definitions describe the term and do not allow for counterexamples. To exercise our reasoning skills we have tackled a variety of problems involving finding rules for sequences, and other problems that require “thinking out the box”. As a special project, students used Sketchpad to help discover “Pick’s Formula”, which relates the area of a polygon drawn on a dot grid to the number of interior and exterior dots contained in the polygon.

Math 6: Pre calculus

The Pre calculus class is continuing its in depth study of trigonometry. Students have explored how the unit circle generates all the trigonometric functions and their graphs, how to transform the graphs, and how to apply trigonometry in problem solving situations. As a break from the curriculum, students tackled the “Locker Problem”: At Franklin Lane High School, there are 1000 lockers in a row in the main corridor of the school. A student comes along and opens every single locker. A second student comes along and closes every other locker (beginning with locker #2). A third student comes along and changes the state of every third locker…a fourth student changes the state of every fourth locker….and so on and so on, until 1000 students have gone by. After the 1000th student has passed, how many lockers are left open?

Student Committees

Every other Wednesday morning for a half hour the Upper School breaks up into committees that focus on benefiting our Journey School Community.

The “Pet” committee focuses on creating environments for household animals that the students take care of and play with. So dig out those old fish tanks if you have any to help benefit our learning environment. We would be grateful for any donations! If you have any questions or spare fish tanks please contact Bryn Windle, Devon Wallace, Kevin Lucy, Fielding Lewis, Patrick Finnegan or Aaron Nydam at extension 1114. Sincerely, the Pet Committee

The Campus Art committee is designing art to beautify the MUPS building. We would greatly appreciate any donations of paint, canvas or brushes.

The Social Activities committee hosts fun events for the Upper School. This Halloween they organized a costume contest, and provided movie tickets as first prize. Fielding Lewis won with his impromptu legs-in-his-jacket strange green pumpkin-like impression--simple, spur of the moment, but extremely hilarious.

The Yearbook Committee is getting organized early this year. Please collect memorable photos, quotes and stories!

The Outdoor Leadership Committee, in association with the new Outdoor Club, has gone on two trips so far. Matt Shlim was the only participant for the first climbing trip, but they had a good showing and lots of fun on last Wednesday’s hike up Snow King. A large snow-maker drift at the base provided an opportunity to warm up their winter skills.

The D.O.G. Committee is responsible for orienting and welcoming 8th graders to the Upper School. They are also working on “school shwag”—that is, sweatshirts, stickers and other ways to show our school pride!

Sorry no editorial this week; there will be one on the 13th and the 20th of November.

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