We are so excited to be able to celebrate an annual SELS tradition that helps raise money for your child’s classroom!

Send your student dressed in their Halloween finest and ready to walk, walk, walk laps around the track! Pledge envelopes can be turned in to the SELS office or your child's Crew Leader through November 12.

Stay tuned for more information about a PTC Coffee Cart during elementary drop-off on Friday, November 5.

We'll have free coffee for parents donated from our sponsor, Zuri Coffee Co. as well as sharply discounted spirit wear items that are being discontinued, plus a few surprise new ones! An email reminder will be sent out next week with exact location and details.

The next PTC meeting is on Wednesday, November 10 at 5:30 PM - location TBD.

Minutes from our last meeting can be found HERE.

Stay in the know on SELS events and fundraisers by following SELS on Facebook and Instagram!

Happy Halloween from the SELS Parent Teacher Crew!

Together We Are Crew, Not Passengers

-The SELS PTC

​

Change is constant, but one thing remains the same— Excellence in Education's support of local education, whether it’s Chromebooks, science equipment, or art supplies.

You can help by making a monthly contribution and becoming a Friend of Education—even $10 a month makes a difference! Consider setting up a monthly donation to Excellence in Education today. Donate HERE.

The Bell Crew has had an exciting month of making things and much, much more! Our Wood/Metal/Textiles/Ceramics/Paper Shops are up and running each day. The kindergartners are acquiring new skills in using hammers and screw drivers; creating metal coils and springs; tying knots, threading needles and making stitches; creating pinch pots; experimenting with papier-mache.

Those little hands and bright minds are hard at work using adventure as well as the design process, "make…test…improve.” Students are simultaneously learning to employ a growth mindset to overcome challenges in their work.

The Bell Crew recently received the Gold Sugar Pine award for collecting the most tree seeds for our school reforestation project (sponsored by the Sugar Pine Foundation). The 7th graders came to deliver the Golden Sugar Pine trophy amidst great applause and cheering.

Finally, on Summit Day, the kindergartners led the entire school in a rousing chorus of our new SELS Welcome Song. They are certainly becoming well-versed in using ADVENTURE this fall! Hip-Hip-Hooray for the Bell Crew!

The Seaborg crew has taken their learning outside the classroom walls. With railroad and Truckee history experts, students toured through train tunnels and the snow sheds on Donner Summit. With flashlights in hand, students saw old blasting holes from explosives and the infamous center shaft of the longest of the 15 tunnels, Tunnel #6.

Students also walked to the Kid Zone to explore the Truckee History exhibit, where they used dramatic play to deepen their understanding of Truckee’s early days. Teachers are very impressed with their plentiful knowledge of the obstacles that railroad workers faced and what life was like in the mid 1800s.

"I've Been Working on the Railroad" could be heard by students in the Welch Crew as they walked along the trail of the Transcontinental Railroad on Donner Summit. As part of our expedition, we met with experts to learn about the difficulties laborers faced while laying the tracks through the Sierra Nevada mountains. Due to extremely dense granite, harsh winter conditions, and a labor shortage, it took thousands of Chinese workers to complete the task of digging tunnels for the passage of a train. Tunnel #6, the longest tunnel, took 18 months to complete! Students were able to walk through these tunnels and see first hand the tools used in digging the them.

The 4th graders are finishing up their first case study of our Gold Rush Expedition. We had some great field work! One day we walked along the Truckee River where students learned the components of maps. On another field work excursion, we went to the Donner Party site, where an archaeologist did a dig looking for evidence from the Donner Party. The students became archeologist as they had to “dig” treasure out of a chocolate chip cookie. We then brought both of those experiences back to the classroom.

The students created maps of the three routes to the California Gold Rush and worked on informational writing pieces for their first case study, The Adventurers. Students were exposed to factual evidence in the story of the onset of the Gold Rush and were introduced to the motives behind why prospectors chose certain routes.

Students learned about the prospector hardships and the lessons pioneers learned in their travels. As we close up our first case study, I feel confident that our crew has a great understanding of how the gold rush began, how people traveled to California, and the growth that occurred during this time.

This month, the Brisbin Crew participated in the 5th Grade Sagehen Project. This is a tradition for 5th graders at SELS and, due to COVID, was relocated to Donner State Park. The program is run by Tahoe Institute for Natural Science (TINS) and Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships (SWEP). Lessons included team-building, local ecosystems, flora and fauna of the Sierra Nevada, migration, macroinvertebrates, water quality, plant and animal identification. Some activities included the Isopod Olympics, painting with soil, and camouflage identification.

In addition to field work, students have been examining the many facets of the Gold Rush and what it was like for prospectors during the migration to California in the mid-1800s. They have been creating maps that highlight the different routes they took (Panama, Cape Horn, and the Overland Trail) and looking closely at what it was like for the 49ers on their journey, including what life was like once they reached the gold fields. Students will continue to investigate the Gold Rush and how it shaped California's history by learning about the Outliers who “mined the miners” and were the first migrants to settle in California after it became a US State.

Team building is an important part of the curriculum at SELS. Worster crew students worked on collaboration skills by engaging in effective communication in order to stack cups in a series of challenges. They then used those skills to identify and provide evidence for where they each saw the characteristics of civilization in the ancient Sumerian "Standard of Ur."

The Santos Crew has been working hard learning about and using maps. The students used topo maps to reconstruct the Pacific Crest Trail along with the local mountains it crosses. Students used triangulation to locate geocaches at Palisades Tahoe. We also had a great time collecting Sugar Pine needles to be genetically tested for resistance to a disease that is affecting many trees in our area. Kids took turns using a slingshot to retrieve the needles. They marked the coordinates of the trees with a GPS. We had so much fun while doing service learning!

Our Ravens have been officially initiated after a very hilarious and competitive Goosechase challenge! I hope they shared some of their creative contributions with you.

8th-grade math is all about Functions this month; analyzing the relationships among algebraic rules, tables, and liner graphs.

In ELA, crew used scientific evidence to write strong arguments around Earth Science Mysteries. The October book talk theme is Teen Social and Emotional Wellness and students are presenting workshops to their peers on best practices to stay physically and emotionally healthy from their chosen books. We are loving our partnership with the Truckee Library, where Piret prepares activities and book displays to support our monthly themes! Thanks to our Coffee Shop treat providers—we wish you could join us for the high-energy exchange of book love while we feast on your goodies.

Our current science expedition case study, "It's Dynamic!" has crew drawing chalk models of Earth's Systems, digging for 10-million year-old stickleback fish fossils in chunks of the Nevada desert, and developing interactive displays to teach about the geoscience processes that change Earth's surface. You'll get the full experience when you show up for Celebration of Learning in January!