Cascade View students offer salmon to bus shelter
July 1, 2009
Forget about bird watchers. It’s the salmon that are on the loose.
This summer, Metro riders at the Railroad Avenue Southeast bus stop near Sahara Pizza will get a fishy eyeful at their bus stop. As part of a beautification project, the third-grade students at Cascade View Elementary painted the bus shelter panels with salmon swimming against a blue background.
Cascade View PTSA President Lorraine Thurston first thought of the idea when she noticed some painted bus shelters in downtown Seattle. After some research, Thurston learned the Metro Bus Shelter Mural Program donates all of the materials, including the panels and paint, so long as a group submits a graffiti-discouraging design.
Amanda Wright, left, and Jessica Conlon work on a fish mural for a bus stop shelter in Snoqualmie.
Mount Si High School honors its volunteers
July 1, 2009
They volunteer as chaperones, scoliosis screeners and copy room assistants. Mount Si High School’s parent volunteers can be found just about anywhere before, during and after school hours.
But, June 18, the volunteering crowd stopped their work and gathered at the Wildcat Café to be honored for their services. The dozen volunteers sampled punch and cake prepared by Mount Si High School culinary students as two Mount Si musicians entertained them with music.
Wildcat Idol Emily Beekman sang “Never Alone” for the volunteers as her sister, sophomore Amanda Beekman, accompanied her on the piano. Mount Si Assistant Principal Beth Castle followed the presentation with a big thank you to volunteers from the PTSA, Learning Improvement Team, Music Boosters and more.
Parent Lynette Smallwood sat back and sipped on her punch, enjoying the concert. Smallwood, who has a sophomore and a senior at Mount Si, spends her Monday mornings in the high school’s copy room.
Every week, she spends between one and eight hours copying worksheets for the busy teachers at Mount Si. Smallwood also volunteered at Chief Kanim Middle School, but acknowledged she had to go more behind the scenes, as her children grew older.
Still, she figures her volunteer hours help both her children and their school.
“They know I’m here and I get to know their teachers,” Smallwood said.
There are three copy machines at Mount Si, two of which produce double-sided copies. To volunteer, call Mount Si High School at 831-8100.
Pam Stewart, whose son Blaine is a sophomore at Mount Si, chaperones at school dances.
“I get to look at all of the beautiful girls in their dresses and watch everyone dance around,” Stewart said. “It makes you feel good if parents are around.”
She not only gets to know her son’s friends, but also befriends other parents who volunteer, connecting her more with the community.
Noelle Rollins has volunteered in the schools since her children started second grade, but said that volunteering changes as children age.
“It’s not even remotely the same,” said Rollins, who is PTSA co-secretary. “Elementary volunteering is more hands-on, like cutting out silly things and organizing parties. At the high school, it’s more supporting the teachers.”
Teenagers may notoriously tell their parents little, but volunteering can bridge the gap, at least a bit.
“They want their independence and they should have it,” Rollins said. “But I have a connection.”
Volunteering helps Laurie Edwards bond with her daughter Nicky, a freshman at Mount Si.
“Wherever I go, she goes,” Edwards said, ticking off the places the duo had volunteered together, including eighth-grade orientation and Wildcat Days.
“I like it because I get to be around the school before everyone else and I get to know people,” Nicky said.
Mount Si PTSA President Beth Burrows commended the volunteers for their hard work and invited more parents and community members to offer their time to the schools.
“I know this is public education with public dollars,” Burrows said. “They need people to help.”
Reach reporter Laura Geggel at 392-6434 .221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
Elementary students score well on prestigious test
July 1, 2009
Six Snoqualmie Valley students in the Highly Capable Program recently took a high caliber test.
Opstad students Megan McCullough, Samantha Bleha, Jimmy Morris, Jacob Engdahl, Ashley Buzard and North Bend Elementary’s Savanah Nanos each participated in the Johns Hopkins Talent Search Exam, which tests children on mathematical and verbal reasoning abilities. Last year, about 63,000 children worldwide took the university’s Center for Talented Youth exam.
Engdahl and Bleha scored high honors on the exam and received the Johns Hopkins Washington State Award. Students who receive this award are given the opportunity to take university classes at places like the University of Washington or Stanford University.
Coordinator for the elementary Hi-C program Marcia Townsend offered students who had scored well on the WASL the chance to take the exam. Students had to pay their own admittance fee and take the test on their own time.
“What’s different about the Johns Hopkins is that they’re compared to other children at that high level,” Townsend said. “It’s above grade level and they’re being compared to kids at above grade level.”
Students happily return to boomerang lessons
June 27, 2009
Ian Raley-Silva noted the direction of the wind before bending his right arm behind his head and flicking his boomerang into the sky. It took an impressive loop, spinning back to earth and into Raley-Silva’s waiting hands.
Raley-Silva is one of 12 seventh- and eighth-grade students attending Two Rivers School. Like many of his classmates, he learns better by doing things. Two Rivers middle school teacher Joe Burgener understood this and started the boomerang project nine years ago. It incorporates elements of math, social studies, writing and science into the month-long mission.
“What is most important is how are the kids involved so they can learn?” Burgener said. “We try to unravel the mystery of the boomerang in here.”
Ian Raley-Silva shows a right-handed phoenix scoop, a student-made boomerang with measured scoops on its inside and outside wings.
Math students construct walkway
June 25, 2009
From the view out his math classroom window, Twin Falls Middle School teacher John Spiess used to notice that students sometimes take eccentric routes. They would walk onto the science patio, through the landscaped plants and across the parking lot to get to the track and field.
“Every time we went out, we’d go out here to go to the track,” eighth-grader Emma Greer said. “We were always tromping through the plants.”
The plants were worse for the wear, but Spiess had trouble getting his students to change their walking patterns. After some thinking, he found a way to save the leafy bushes and teach students at the same time.
Chelsie Brannan, left, and Samantha Haverfield sweep sand between the cracks of the new brick path at Twin Falls Middle School.
Summer school registration open
June 25, 2009
Not all students will put away their textbooks for the summer holiday. The registration for the Snoqualmie Valley Extended Learning Summer School is open until July 2 for students wishing to take classes the month of July.
Classes, which cost $215 per session, will be held Mondays through Thursdays from July 6 to July 23. Session I is from 8-10:30 a.m. and session II is from 10:45 a.m. — 1:15 p.m. Scholarships are available to those who qualify.
The elementary and middle school summer classes of language arts, math and transition are designed to reinforce critical classroom concepts. High school credit retrieval courses allow students a chance to replace a fail with a pass on their transcript. High school students have the option of taking algebra 1 and 2, biology, earth science, language arts, U.S. history, world history or a transition class focusing on study skills and time management.
Outer space comes to Opstad students
June 17, 2009
Opstad Elementary students recently got a rare glimpse of a Phobos, one of two moons belonging to bright red Mars, the fourth planet from the sun.
Jeff Sturgeon shows, from left, first-graders Corwin Sturgeon, Max Crowder, Opstad teacher Susan Baysinger, Sarah Bailey, Erika Mickelson, Jaedin Scoones and Mia Landon his portfolio. Photo by Laura Geggel
Hi-C students showcase final projects
June 17, 2009
Many fifth-grade students participate in activities like classical ballet, horseback riding and guitar playing, but few dive into several month-long projects exploring their talents.
For the past six years, the Hi-C students under the tutelage of Desi Hart at Cascade View, Fall City and Snoqualmie Elementary have completed culminating projects by the end of their fifth-grade year. Read more
Students strap on their boots for dance
June 11, 2009
The scorching heat broke just in time for the Snoqualmie Elementary PTSA Barn Dance June 5. More than 300 students and parents filled the gymnasium and playground for good eats and lively dancing.
At the dinner tables outside, parent volunteers grilled 500 hotdogs for hungry dancers. Inside, students jumped on top of a saddle surrounded by haystacks for photo-ops. At a nearby decoration table, children personalized their photos with markers and stickers.
Many students took the barn dance theme to heart, dressing in cowboy boots and straw hats, along with bandannas from the PTSA goody bags. Some dug far into the recesses of their closets looking for Wild West gear, before finding the right props.
Second-grader Olivia Noel and Aleyna Kleinhaus dance to Cotton Eyed Joe in a circle around the Snoqualmie Elementary Gymnasium.
A day of windy learning for Valley students
June 10, 2009
It may have been only slightly breezy on the ground, but at 221 feet, a steady wind stream blew the giant turbines at the Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility in Ellensburg. Wearing hard hats, the Twin Fall Middle School Green Team squinted up at the turbines during a tour of the facility June 5.
“When you looked up, it went so far up,” seventh-grader Rian Ruyle said of the turbines.
Martin Volken, owner of Pro Ski and Guiding Service in North Bend, made the daylong fieldtrip possible. He donated $800 to fund a school bus and two substitute teachers while he, 36 students and Green Team advisors Dawn Frearson and John Spiess traveled to the wind farm.
Twin Falls seventh-grader Rian Ruyle pauses in front of the wind turbines in Ellensburg.
