The PTC will be granting two $500 scholarships this year to SELS Alumni who are graduating from high school! Essays will be accepted soon. Pass the word along to others you may know. Questions? Email David Manahan here.

The SELS PTC had a very productive meeting this month, where we discussed spending ideas for the rest of this school year. The minutes can be viewed here.

Our next meeting is on February 16 at 5:30 PM - location TBD.

Together We Are Crew, Not Passengers

-The SELS PTC

The Bell Crew is in the final throes of hammering, sawing, screwing in, papier-mâché-ing, sewing, painting, and glazing their handmade ABC projects! These kindergartners continue to astound their teachers by showing great determination and commitment to completing these makerspace projects despite the many COVID-19 quarantine disruptions.

Kindergartners, we salute you and your strong spirits! As we complete the Makerspace Expedition this month, the Bell Crew will reflect on their use of the SIERRA norms and the design process to finish their projects.

The Seaborg crew returned from winter break ready to wrap up our final product, a historical newspaper from the 1860s. Each informative newspaper article is a true testament to students’ knowledge of why the transcontinental railroad was built and its positive and negative impacts on all Americans.

Students worked hard to take their articles through the writing process, demonstrating empathy by giving and receiving feedback to make it our best work and responsibility to complete their final drafts at home while in quarantine. We’re looking forward to a special delivery of newspapers for our at-home Celebration of Learning.

As the Welch Crew concludes their Fall Expedition, I've Been Working on the Railroad, students have managed to learn the true story of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. Beginning with Theodore Judah's CRAZY IDEA to build a railroad across the country to the final Golden Spike being hammered into the rails at Promontory Point, Utah, the Welch Crew are now railroad experts.

Students also worked with our art teacher, Ms. Lobo, to create beautiful locomotives with oil pastels, using artistic techniques of lines and shapes. We look forward to showcasing our knowledge by video to share with our family and friends in the next few weeks.

The awesome 4th graders in Akers Crew have been working hard on their final products for their expedition's third case study. They created a replica of a mining technique used during the California gold rush. They worked collaboratively to design and produce mining techniques such as coyote holes, hydraulic mining, long toms and rockers.

Our next step will be our culminating product of creating a living history mining town in our classroom and celebrating a commencement of our Gold Rush expedition! The students have brainstormed what the Town of Akers Diggings needs such as merchants, silversmiths, and saloon owners (of course!) and will create a living history town inside the classroom next week.

Covid can't stop the Worster Crew from the popsicle-stick bridge challenge! Blueprints, budget spreadsheets and round-one construction were followed by an exciting day of breaking bridges. We were fortunate enough to have engineer Bill Quesnel join us virtually to analyze videos of the bridge breaking and talk each team through potential improvements. Now it is time to reiterate, redesign, and rebuild for round two. Wish them luck!

The Santos Crew spent January putting together board games that depict the life and journey of explorers from around the world. They drew maps, created questions, and tested their games. Their hard work paid off—they turned out great!

We recently started our reading challenge. Students experimented with finding unique and creative places to read and acted like characters from their books for a photo challenge. These kids have shown their incredible resilience and responsibility throughout this year's challenges.

McMains Crew Ravens know how to pivot—they are flexible and resilient and handled the Celebration of Learning challenges and changes with such good spirits!

We launched our spring social studies expedition, Power to the People, with a QFT (Question Formulation Technique) on a primary source photo from the time of the Japanese internment. Your child can show you the Padlet of their questions - maybe you have some of your own?

Our first case study, Listen: The Voices of Native Americans, is underway with readings from Howard Zinn's, A Young People's History of the United States and crew discussions around self-selected podcasts about current Native American experiences.

Eighth-grade math class shifted into the geometry domain with an exploration of shape transformations through digital tools. For our Who Am I expedition, we introduced Thrively, a site dedicated to student self-discovery of strengths and passions. Please ask your child to share their results, and if you want access to them, they can add your email.

And finally, to round out the month, we host the Ravenwood Golden Globes, screening all the historical fiction book trailers they created for their January book talks.