Charter News • March 17, 2019

 

“Watch your thoughts, they become words;  watch your words, they become actions;

watch your actions, they become habits;   watch your habits, they become character;

watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”   ~ Frank Outlaw

Dear Parents,

We are finally getting a touch of Spring and it certainly feels good.

Many of our programs are gearing up for extended field trips, such as to Headwaters Outdoor School, Catalina Islands or Ashland Shakespeare while at the same time working on their many classroom projects and preparing for the annual State testing, which will begin in some of our programs after our Spring Break. Our Spring Break is the first week of April.

There are quite a few special events right around the corner so please read on to learn more.   

Also, take time to read Robin’s article about Managing Boundaries. As a reminder Robin supports our students on Tuesdays and Thursdays, both in the classroom, in small groups and one-on-one.

Thanks for sharing your students with us!

~Rhonda

Special ALL Charter Event!   All Charter Talent Show

Calling all acts for our All Charter Talent Show, to be performed at the SLV Performing Arts Center (PAC) on Friday, May 10, at 7:00 pm.

Acts should be no longer than approximately 3-4 minutes in length. Solo dancers, group dancers, solo musical artists, bands, monologues, stop-motion videos, short films...any and all visual and performing artists are welcome! - Student/parent collaborations are also highly encouraged!

We will display 2D and 3D artwork in the lobby of the PAC.

*This year we are auditioning Emcee's! If you are interested in being the emcee for our show, please respond to this email.

Please respond to Amber Walker: [email protected] with the following info by Wednesday, April 24:

Thanks so much! We had a fantastic Talent Show last year with performers from all of our charter programs. Let's do it again! Please email me with any questions you may have.

Sincerely,   Amber Walker   Teacher/Quail Hollow Integrated Arts

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from our Master Gardener, Melanie Burgess: - NA Garden needs a few dripping faucets to be fixed and some goldfish to eat up the mosquitos in the black pond.  We also need to pull out some of the Papyrus plants that are taking over the pond. - All gardens can use food grade (blue) 55-gallon barrels that will be cut in half or whole wine barrels or anything else we can grow something in that is about this size.    - All gardens need at least one Macabee "Mole" Traps to trap our CA Gophers.

Don't Forget:  All Charter May Plant Sale will be Monday, May 6th 2:30-4:30 pm at CRHS

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PARENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Please come: NOTE CHANGE OF DAY: Thursday, March 28th from 3:00-4:00 pm.  It is time to start looking at the priorities for next year.  As part of our LCAP priority review, we send out a parent survey.  Each year the Parent Advisory Committee reviews the survey with me to review and edit the questions asked.  We will be focusing on the LCAP goals and will review the parent survey questions at our next meeting.

Please attend this meeting to discuss what is important to you for the coming year.  If you would like to learn more, please feel free to contact me directly. [email protected]  The Parent Advisory Committee is a critical component to ensure that parent input has a consistent say in the development of our programs that make up the Charter school.  

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Preparing for next year: Application time: We have had our two general information nights are now taking applications for all of our programs. Please visit our website http://charter.slvusd.org/  or call our office at 831-335-0932 if you or your friends would like more information from any of our programs.   CRHS will be hosting an 8th-grade parent/student information night on Tuesday, April 16 from 6-7: 00 pm at CRHS in room P3

Lottery Application Process: Nature Academy and Quail Hollow Integrated Arts

In accordance with our charter petition, student enrollment will be on a first-come, first served basis at the beginning of the predetermined application window unless applicants exceed space available by the predetermined lottery cut-off date at 3:00 p.m. of that date. Should applicants exceed space available, a lottery will be held at 3:00 p.m. on a predetermined date, in the Charter School Office located at 325 Marion Avenue room 27, Ben Lomond. Our most recent Charter petition and additional information may be found on our website. Charter Information Nights & Applications

Charter Petition (2016 board approval)

 

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SUMMER PROGRAMS:

 

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What’s Going on in Our Charter School?  ..little snippets of some of our programs.

CRHS: HEADWATERS ADVENTURE IN THE FALL Wade, Brian, and Kay will be leading a group of CRHS students to Mt Shasta's Headwaters in September. Planning has started and deposits are being accepted. More information will be coming to you next week. High School Students Win Major Awards at Santa Cruz County Science and Engineering Fair. SLV students took home nearly half of the awards given out to high school students last week at the Santa Cruz County Science and Engineering Fair.  Coast Redwood HS was represented by 12th grader Ruby Howard. Ruby enrolled at CRHS her sophomore year and found her interest in engineering through ROP and AP courses at SLVHS. Ruby figured out early in her high school career how she could design an academic program for herself by enrolling in a mix of onsite classes and independent study classes. Ruby also discovered through her flexible school schedule she could fit in academic travel adventures that supported her interest in the marine sciences. 1st Place: California Botanical Award: Katherine McCormick, Helen Schafer-Dews, and Ruby Howard (CRHS) Stockholm Water Award: Katherine McCormick, Helen Schafer-Dews, and Ruby Howard (CRHS)

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CRMS: Hydrosols: We went into hydrosol-production-amazing-teamwork-industrious-student-mode and now have significant amounts of hydrosols ready to sell. With lotion, each student was invited to make direct sales at some point during the year. With hydrosols, it would be great for each student to have some involvement in the sales or order-filling/delivery of our products. We worked on constitutions for our Governments, which we'll be wrapping up soon and start having interactions between governments and scenarios to see how a constitution can or may need to be amended. One of our parents used her expertise in dance to teach the kids line dancing. What a cool skill to be able to share!  Headwaters: Please have your Headwaters information in to me ASAP.

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Nature Academy: The second trimester has ended and students are already busy with their next units of study. Thank you to all who helped with the 6th grade trip with ONeill Sea Odyssey. Everyone had a great day with even better weather. We are finishing our study on Ancient Israel and we will be moving into Ancient India. Students are finishing their Informational Essays this week. Please make sure to help your child with parent edits. 7-8th grade classes are working on their ‘This I Believe’ essays and their Middle East studies. Plans for Catalina are moving forward!

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Quail Hollow Integrated Arts (QHIA): What an incredible experience at Berkeley Repertory Theater’s production of Paradise Square! It was truly “mind-blowing” as many students said. The historical context of Irish Immigrants, Free African Americans, and runaway slaves living together amidst the Civil War was incredibly profound. We have begun our choir and Tahitian traditional dance and rhythms classes. Our 6th graders began a social issues book club and finished up informational books, while the 7th graders started sharing their Research Papers and began a new project on Causes of the Civil War. The 7th and 8th graders are showing their maturity and thoughtfulness during our Teen Talk sessions each day, and are focusing on a group project involving art, narration, and filming to study causes of the Civil War. 6th graders are working in groups to create life-size models of either the digestive, circulatory, muscular, or respiratory system and working with their social issues book clubs. Yesterday was Pi Day; so wonderful! Students completed a conceptual math challenge, created “Pi in the Sky” art, and worked in groups to make homemade pies, which were delicious;

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Quail Hollow Homeschool: We celebrated Read Across America Day in class. Students wore their jammies and brought their favorite book to read and/or share with the class. We have begun work on our play. Students have been practicing in class as well as at home in preparation. We learned about some amazing landmarks across the European continent.  Friends wrote letters from their Travel Buddies from one of those places that interested them. They addressed their envelopes front and back as well. We are into Full Play Mode and time is ticking!  Please make sure you practice lines with your child this weekend, work on projecting their voice and knowing their cue lines. Performance Dates and Times at PAC Monday, March 25: 10am-11:15 am Tuesday, March 26: 10 am- 11:15 am Evening Performance begins at 6:30 pm Dessert Reception Immediately Following Wednesday, March 27: 10 am- 11:15 am

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Fall Creek Homeschool:  K-1 played number games with dominoes, the 2nd-4th grades did geometry exercises with squares and cubes and the 5th grade worked on their geological timeline. We added colored sand to our mandalas resulting in beautiful and unusual sand paintings. The 5th grade went to the garden. We had a lesson on constructing hexagons within a circle and then tried our hands at doing them free hand and also using rulers for accuracy. We discussed the correct use of the microscopes. We listened to a presentation from Evanne on earthquakes. We did the next step in making our puppets: we had a discussion about skin color and compared our hands with our neighbor’s hands and saw all the variations of color. We wrote in our Rainbow Books about the process of making a puppet. The fifth graders organized the information about their era in geologic history in preparation for instructing their classmates in drawing the appropriate life forms. We will have a field trip to the Pinnacles next week.

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Mountain IS: Our class play was a great success and the students all did a wonderful job! We're now exploring the continent of Africa and learning the geopolitical boundaries through our Africa puzzle, song (Ghana), art (Egypt, Ghana, etc.) Music (Morocco, Mali, etc.) and stories (Kenya). We'll continue to link these puzzle piece shapes to rich beauty of African cultures. We are really finding our groove in work period again. They are taking more initiative with their work plans, completing more work, requesting lessons in areas of interest (i.e. Reptiles of Africa, Gem/Crystal Identification, language arts materials, etc.), and sharing their accomplishments with their peers. Africa continues to engage our hearts and minds, generating a ton of questions for Oakes to uncover on his trip!  We're learning a little Swahili too, as well as discussing 'body language' and how we communicate in different ways, sometimes without knowing it. While learning more about Owen & Maze, and how they communicate, we see that our behavior/actions really matter.

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Dates to Remember: (Please refer to your program’s newsletter for greater detail regarding dates and details specific to your program’s Field Trips and class events.)

• March 19: Information Night: Nature Academy
• April 1st-5th: No School-Spring Break
• April 16th: Coast Redwood High- 8th Grade Information Night 6-7pm
• May 3rd: Lottery  for Nature Academy, if needed.
• May 6th: All Charter May Plant Sale 2:30-4:30 pm at the CRHS garden. Proceeds benefit all Charter Gardens.
• May 10th: Lottery for Quail Hollow Integrated Arts, if needed.
• May 16th: Fall Creek Homeschool Advancement/End of Year celebration
• May 23rd: Quail Hollow Homeschool Advancement/End of Year celebration
• May 27th:  No School-- Memorial Day
• May 30th: Quail Hollow Integrated Arts 8th grade Advancement Ceremony
• May 31st: Coast Redwood High Graduation Ceremony 12:30-2:00 PM
• June 5th: Nature Academy 8th grade Advancement Ceremony