• Minimum Day: February 1
• Family Dance: February 10
• Ski Skate Week - No school: February 20-24

The Telfer Crew is wrapping up our 'Ramp Up the Learning!' Expedition with our final challenge: Can you use the design process to build a marble roll that will make a marble change speed AND change direction AND move an object? Students are working with buddies to use the engineering design process to create a marble run that does all three things. Groups have had huge success and they have enjoyed watching presentations of the final designs.

In January, we used adventure and strength by going cross country skiing in Tahoe City. Thank you to Tahoe XC for this fun experience!

Next up is our mini expedition on weather. Students will learn about different types of weather and how to be prepared. They will observe and document, with school-wide forecasts done each day by individual students as the final product.

The Bell Crew has eased into the New Year with a complex art project that will complete our fall learning about Mountains. The first graders are creating meditation pillows to complement the Pebble Meditation (Thich Nhat Hanh) they learned. Meditation is a practice of sustained, deep breath work that is proven to clear the mind and settle the body. This particular meditation uses four symbols to ground and focus our energy: Mountain, Flower, Still Water, and Space.

Art expert, Ms. Lobo, has worked with the students to create contour drawings of a local peak of their choice to block-print onto muslin. The prints will then be sewed onto the pillows to provide students with a personalized meditation pillow with which to continue their breathing practice at home. 

Students are wrapping up their Truckee history expedition, Fire and Ice. They researched, wrote, and performed Chautauqua based on various historical figures from Truckee: Chief Tro-kay, Eliza Donner, Moses Shallenberger, Patty Reed, Snowshoe Thompson, and more.

We partnered with the Kid Zone for Celebration of Learning performances since the museum's current theme is Sierra Settlers. The Kid Zone’s painted scenery perfectly fits with our look at Truckee’s past. 

Students took scripts through the writing process using graphic organizers, producing multiple drafts, and using a computer to work on typing skills.

A wonderful evening CELEBRATING the learning of Welch Crew students had everyone smiling and proud during our Celebration of Learning. Students worked tirelessly to research, write, and present historical fiction personal narratives on early Truckee emigrants and Native Americans. Characters from Chief Trokay to Eliza Donner were present at the KidZone Museum to share their learning with family and friends.

Our crew also studied the historical buildings in downtown Truckee while under the guidance of our Art Specialist, Ms. Lobo, to create beautiful watercolor paintings. In honor of the most amazing baskets woven by the Washoe Tribe, our crew designed, created, and hand-weaved baskets to finish off our Fire and Ice Expedition.

We feel more connected to our historical community and want to extend a huge THANK YOU to our historical experts that helped us throughout this expedition.

After a successful Celebration of Learning, the Akers crew has embarked on a mini expedition, Electric Inventors. Using Ben Franklin as our lead scientist, we are conducting science experiments around "energy." So far we have examined light bulbs, used circuit balls to create our own closed circuit, and experimented with static electricity. Next we will have a science talk based around the question, “What is energy?” They'll be making circuits, studying reverse light bulb models, and learning what engineers do for their jobs. Finally, this month, we will have a chance for students as engineers to create their own circuit game to share with other crews. 

Students in the Brisbin Crew are excited to wrap up their previous expedition, Bills and Gills, with a big Celebration of Learning appearance. After stuffing portfolios with quality work and taking down the expedition wall, students are now embarking on a new expedition!

Ms. Landis is leading them into an Electric Inventors experience. To kick off the expedition, students were given the same amount of materials to invent something with, then present their inventions. After, students participated in a Science Talk with the guiding question, "What is Energy?" and students truly dug deep into their ideas to ask questions and provide hypothetical answers around this topic. Students are currently observing phenomena like light bulbs and electricity around their homes to observe how it works.

Twenty four delegates from four ancient civilizations came together to put forth their arguments for which civilization has had the most impact on today's society. Arguing in topic groups, delegates presented evidence for why their civilization had the most influence on mathematics, government, philosophy, literature, science and technology, or art and architecture.

All students put so much energy and dedication into crafting and memorizing their speeches, that everyone walked away proud. Thanks to all the parents who came to create an authentic audience for this fun event. 

The Santos Crew worked very hard in the first few weeks of January to finish their Explorer Board Games. Each pair of students researched an important explorer from around the world and created a board game that showed their journey. Not only did they show their learning about their particular explorer, but they also included trivia questions that covered everything they learned in our expedition, from navigation to the medieval world.

At Celebration of Learning, students gave their parents a tour of the world and then challenged their families to learn all about their explorers. What a fun way to celebrate!

This month, we started by putting the finishing touches on our Planet Earth Expedition final product, a Google Earth tour telling the story of millions of years of geologic time. To check out students' work, you can look here.

After wrapping that up, we kicked off our spring expedition, Power to the People, by analyzing the founding documents of the United States. Then, we kicked off our first case study: Voices of Native Americans. We got to hear from the Washoe Tribe Cultural Director, Herman Fillmore, and continued to use primary sources to describe and analyze early interactions between Native Americans and the United States. Students are also researching specific indigenous tribes to teach other students at our Ravenwood Cultural Gathering next month.

In language arts, students are presenting book talks on memoirs and autobiographies and evaluating how authors use their own voice to engage readers. We also conducted research on our social action issues in order to write informational essays. The crew did a great job of showing craftsmanship by engaging in a peer review and giving each other constructive feedback. This month, we also got to go on a cross-country ski tour with SWEP, and even collected snowpack data to send to NASA!