Hi all,

Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend and is ready for the final 3 week push.

Lots of info to share:

  • Spirit wear orders due today, Tues May 29. If you need to, fill it out this afternoon. There will be more orders in the future if you miss this one.

  • All-school picture orders are due this Friday, June 1. Information is in the Library.

  •  
  • Yearbook order forms coming this week; please look for them as orders are due next Tues, June 5.

  • Sun-Wed, June 6-9 I will be with the Brisbin Crew in Yosemite National Park.  Zach Williams will be staffing the office if you need anything.  His emergency contact number is: 541-968-9537

  • If you have not already done so, please return your permission forms for the June 13 swim day.

  • Details of Celebration of Learning on June 7:

    • 5-6 pm, 6th grade presentation on ancient civilizations, M-1 (door locked at 5 pm to minimize interruptions)

    • 5:30-7 pm, BBQ in SELS courtyard

    • 6-7:30 pm, open classrooms for visitation

    • 6:15-6:45 pm, Kindergarten presentation on ponds, M-7 (door locked at 6:15 pm to minimize interruptions)

  • Details of Passages on June 14: [Passages is an Expeditionary Learning ritual in which students who are changing teachers the following year present and reflect on classwork to represent their learning and pursuit of academic and personal excellence over the prior year(s)]

    • All morning students will create a chalk mandala; all-student lunch at 11:30 am

    • 12-12:30 Reflection/Appreciation of school year

    • 12:30-1:45: Group 1 passages ; Group 2 PE

    • 2-3:15: Group 2 passages ; Group 1 PE

    • Groups will be figured out by next week and families notified ; parents of Passages students are encouraged to come.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Greetings SELS Community,

SELS is proud to participate in Tahoe Truckee Reads, an exciting new community wide campaign to support literacy efforts. This year, we are focused on addressing summer learning loss.  Research spanning 100 years has proven that:

  • Students lose ground academically when they are out of school for the summer. 

  • Low-income students lose an average of more than two months in reading achievement in the summer while their middle-class peers, who are more likely to be in enrichment programs or reading at home, actually make slight gains over the     summer. 

  • Researchers at Johns Hopkins University attribute two-thirds of the achievement gap in reading to unequal summer learning opportunities in the elementary school years. By the end of fifth grade, disadvantaged children are nearly three       grade equivalents behind their more affluent peers in reading.  Check out a 2 minute video that clearly articulates this challenge (cut & paste into your browser): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahhj3wxxkdM 

The SELS community has a couple of great opportunities to help prevent the “summer slide” and embrace the Expeditionary Learning principals of service and compassion: 

  1. As a school, we are “adopting” Truckee Pines Apartments, an affordable housing development next to the Truckee Regional Park. We will be holding a weekly mobile book club for kids every Thursday from 9-10 starting July 12th. We are looking for 2  volunteers weekly who will spend just 1 hour at Truckee Pines, reading to kids who live there and distributing books. We will supply books & a couple of blankets to sit outside. Bring your kids! To volunteer, contact Sue Shimmons at sshimmon@ttusd.org. 

  2. Participate in the all school wide book drive beginning May 29th through June 8th. Bring in your old favorites that you would like to pass on! Our goal is to get more books into the hands of kids who need them, and bring them to Truckee Pines for distribution during our Thursday mobile book clubs. We are hoping that we will be so successful in our book drive that every SELS student will also be able to go home with a book they pick out, but our first priority is to have enough books for the Thursdays at Truckee Pines. Bring your books to the library starting this Tuesday.  We are also looking for a few volunteers to help sort books the afternoon of Friday June 8th. Contact Alison Schwedner at aschwedner@gmail.com if you have any questions or can help sort books.

Thank you for your contribution and helping all kids in the Truckee community have a fun, enriching summer!

ANNOUNCEMENT:

The McMains Crew, aka Blue Bear Productions, is proud to invite our entire SELS family and the Tahoe Truckee community to share in the public premiere of our film Geology of California: 4,500,000,000 years in the making.  The photography, scripts, interview questions, artwork, graphics, and editing were done by the twenty-four sixth grade students of Sierra Expeditionary Learning School in Truckee, California. The film is an extraordinary and visually stunning look at the forces that shape our state.

  • Please join us Wednesday evening, May 30th at The Resort at Squaw Creek, Alpine Room A-B.

  • Doors open at 6:30.

  • Show time: 7:00-7:30 followed by a student panel Q&A session

The Resort at Squaw Creek is also generously offering a 10% discount on food at Sandy’s Pub for those who would like to enjoy a meal prior to the film! Copies of the DVD will be available for sale. Proceeds from film sales will help fund future expeditions. Please contact Reenie McMains at Sierra Expeditionary Learning School for additional information. rmcmains@truckeecharterschool.org

ANNOUNCEMENT:

** New time and place: Board Meeting, Wed May 30, 5:30-7 / 7:30-9 (if needed), at the Resort at Squaw – room to be posted at Resort entrance. (change due to McMains Crew documentary premier explaned above)