SWIMS November 2025 Newsletter
Mark Your Calendar
November
1st…Re-enrollment invitations for continuing students and their siblings for the 2026-2027 school year sent via email. Any remaining spaces will be open to new students on December 1st. Once your student is enrolled for the 2026-2027 school year they are eligible to enroll in Summer School. Contact bruce@soaringwings.org if you have not yet seen your re-enrollment invitation.
3rd – 5th…Fall Photos! Information has been sent via email. See details below.
6th…Friends for Sight will be at our school to check the vision of every student over 3 years old free of charge. Parents will be notified if there is a concern.
7th…Pumpkin Palooza! Bring your pumpkins to school between 2:30 and 4:30 in the Workman Field north of the building to see them fly. There will be a food truck offering warm snacks while you wait to see your pumpkin launch from the Evergreen Class-made trebuchet. Nice work, Evergreen!
10th…Rainbow Giveaway Deadline. Return donations in any amount in the envelope your student brought home. These funds will be sent directly to our Adopt-a-Native Elder, Navajo Grandma Frances Bahe, to help her with food and warm clothing for the winter ahead.
14th…Food Drive Deadline! Details to follow.
20th…Ski School registration due! Contact leah@soaringwings.org for more information.
21st…Feast Day! We will once again gather at one very long table for a community feast of student-made dishes based on our Native American studies. Look for sign-ups for needed supplies. All classes dismiss at half day to give you time to get over the river and through the woods!
23rd…Happy Birthday, Annie!
24th…Happy Birthday, Nicole!
24th – 28th…No School. Happy Thanksgiving!
27th…Happy Birthday, Sarah!
December
1st…Enrollment opens to new students for the 2026-2027 school year.
4th…Happy Birthday, Leah!
8th…Angel Tree Deadline!
9th, 10th, 16th, 17th…Ski days for students registered for lessons at Deer Valley!
19th…No School. SWIMS Winter Celebration at Park City Community Church
9:00am Owlets & Ducklings Infant Classes, Bumblebees, Chickadees, Sunflowers and Tadpoles Toddler Classes, Wasatch & Evergreen Elementary and Bridgemont Secondary School Classes.
10:30am Bluebirds, Ladybugs, & Turquoise Early Childhood Classes, Wasatch/Evergreen Elementary and Bridgemont Secondary School Classes.
Dismissal following the play. We will need lots of help with costumes, props, sets, and transporting infants and toddlers to the church for rehearsals on the 18th. Costume notices will come home soon with all the details.
22nd – 2nd…No School. Winter Break! School resumes January 5th.
School Bulletin Board
Thank you for your support of our Rainbow Giveaway. All proceeds go to our “adopted” Native elder, Grandma Frances Bahe. In November we are holding a drive for the Utah Food Bank and our annual Angel Trees drive to benefit Peace House. ‘Tis the season to do what we can to support others. Thank you to Claudia Bouvier for organizing the food drive, to Leah Linebarger for organizing the Angel Trees project and to our students for designing the collection envelopes for Rainbow Giveaway (if your envelope didn’t make it home, any envelope will do!).
You should be hearing from us about once a week on the goings-on at school. If you are not getting regular emails, please contact duna@soaringwings.org so we can make sure we have your correct email on our distribution list.
Parent Days have begun! Our goal is to get all parents into class for a 20-minute observation. Parents of infants and toddlers may want to schedule an observation of a class other than your child’s since young students are distracted with parents in the room. Some teachers are scheduling “Peek-Ins” via Zoom, but being in class in person gives you the best impression of what your child’s day is like. If you’ve not already done so, make sure you schedule with your child’s teacher right away before our holiday preparations are upon us!
Re-enrollment is coming via email for 2026-2027 for returning students and their siblings. Summer School enrollment will come along with your re-enrollment confirmation.
Our Bridgemont Secondary students just sailed through their Parent/Teacher Conferences with high reviews! The expectations are huge in the Bridgemont program and the classes are rigorous. And our students are making us proud of their diligence and aptitude for everything that comes their way. Congratulations, Bridgemont!
We approach the winter months ahead with anticipation of the long indoor work periods that bring progress in development for all of us. All classes are planning their Thanksgiving Feasts to be prepared by the students and enjoyed at one long community table. The Winter Holiday curriculum will involve the whole school in celebrations of Las Posadas and Hannukah. Our Winter Celebration all-school play is an important piece of our Theater Curriculum bringing all students onstage to tell a story with song and dance. This year the script was written by Evergreen students Amelia Ben-Shahar and Beatrice Adelson. We are again offering two shows so parking and seating isn’t such a challenge and all grandparents can come along, too! Infants and toddlers will be the focus in the first show and early childhood in the second show with Upper School bringing the framework of the story and entertainment in both. Putting on a play involving the whole school is not done any more in most schools because it takes a lot of commitment by students, teachers and parents. But seeing the children gaining confidence as the years go by, until they are the stars of the show and experiencing the community effort that goes into a project this big is always worth the work.
We will see our Grandmother Frances supported with what she needs for the winter through the Rainbow Giveaway, we will collect food for the Utah Food Bank and goods for Peace House through our Angel Tree project beginning right after Thanksgiving. Generally, the winter months are a time of progress in all areas along with celebration, gratitude and caring for others. We will be asking for your help often. Thank you in advance for your support.
From the Admin Desk…
Our school has resisted growth all these 38 years because we love a small school where we know everyone’s names, interests, talents and what you grow in your gardens. In 1993 when parents saw what early childhood students are capable of, emerging often with 2nd and 3rd grade level skills, they begged for more and Bruce quit his job in engineering to take the elementary training. When he decided to retire from teaching, parents circled him with their checkbooks in hand imploring him to start a middle school. He declined, but the middle school finally happened just a few years ago. Bruce initially suggested a toddler class and Duna resisted but Leah suggested, a toddler class would give these young students the day focused on their education rather than being shuttled between adult- and sibling-focused activities. EC teachers immediately noticed the confidence, sense of responsibility, and attention to detail of the toddlers now coming into their classes.
One year we found ourselves with an extra classroom so we began a Parent/Infant Class just on Fridays, introducing families to the Montessori philosophy for infants. This filled a need in our community and the infant program was launched. Now toddler teachers noticed the difference in the children coming into their classes, with executive function skills already developing. Meanwhile the elementary classes were bulging and at the same time the Bridgemont Montessori online secondary program was born. Now the high school instructors are seeing the mindfulness and intellectual talent of our secondary students.
In almost four decades we have so far never heard of a SWIMS graduate who has not done well – they are artists, athletes, scientists, writers, professors, doctors, environmentalists and entrepreneurs. Although the town has grown around us so SWIMS grads are a smaller portion of the population, we still open the newspaper and magazines to see our “kids” excelling in the things that they love.
We never dreamed our school would one day provide education for infants through high school. And as we see the importance of each level, we still aim to keep the community small and connected.
Administrator meetings are often on the spot, pulling from the skills of all five of us to lend support wherever needed. Any of us can step into a classroom, give a tour, take over security or plunge a toilet. And anyone on faculty can also do almost any task because the nature of our community is one of mutual support.
We love the connections that continue after all these years. We see families who met when their children were 3 and are still very good friends with their children in adulthood. Many of our students are still in contact and now professionals, networking with one another. And we love it when faculty from years past stop by just to visit or come back to work with us because they miss our community.
As a school we take pride in our educational values but also in our community. It’s our community that makes it great. Thank you for your role in supporting our school. You are an important piece of what keeps our little community strong.
Lower School
Infant & Toddler Impressions – Notes from Owlets & Ducklings Infant Classes, Bumblebees, Chickadees, Sunflowers & Tadpoles Toddler Classes
In November we study plants. We will learn the names of all kinds of vegetables and scrub, peel, chop and cook them for our Native American Feast on November 21st. Then we will set our places at the school community table that runs the length of the school and come together to enjoy our feast. Check with teachers on what will be needed for this event.
We continue our study of North America and Native American people, focusing on Grandma Frances, our “adopted” elder through Adopt-a-Native Elder. Thank you for your support of her through our Rainbow Giveaway. Each class has artifacts such as moccasins to try on, dolls, photos to match and examples of the “sister plants” – beans, corn and squash – which will likely be included in our Stone Soup for our feast. We will get to know some of the native wildlife in North America as well.
We began our Winter Holiday curriculum with Diwali, creating a rangoli in class, then joining the school community for stories, songs, dancing and a special Diwali snack. From there we prepare to celebrate Las Posadas and Hanukkah in December concluding with our Winter Celebration December 19th at Park City Community Church. Infants and toddlers will be onstage at 9:00am. There will be songs, dances, story-telling, costumes, props and sets to create in the next several weeks. And we’ll need help getting infants and toddlers to the church and back for rehearsal on the 18th. Let any teacher know if you would like to be involved.
We like to approach all holidays with simple crafts, cooking, songs and stories to emphasize healthy ways to celebrate. We recommend keeping your holiday plans at an infant/toddler’s pace so the whole family can take time to enjoy the season together. Consider saying “no, thanks” to some of the parties and house guests and put some of those sugary treats in the freezer to keep your home life as consistent as possible for the young ones in your family. We notice that when we keep things consistent for the students we adults benefit, too!
Every Day in Early Childhood – Events in the Bluebirds, Ladybugs & Turquoise Classes
The study of Native American cultures in general and our Navajo Grandma Frances in particular has led us to a closer look at the Wampanoag of the region now known as New England. We are learning about their lifestyle in 1620 – their homes, clothing, foods, games and families. In the fall the Wampanoag and surrounding tribes practiced a feast of gratitude called Nickommoh. We will use this as a basis for our Feast on November 21st. Children will scrub, chop and cook vegetables, including the sister plants – corn, beans and squash – for our feast of Stone Soup. Children will assemble tables and chairs into a long community table down the hall. They will set the places, create centerpieces and serve one another. You may want to put your ec student to work in preparing your own family meals and feasts. They are great at flower arrangements and scrubbing and chopping vegetables. Be sure to pick up some child-sized kitchen tools from Montessori Services!
Our Art History Timeline has passed through the time of Rembrandt when the Separatists were preparing to leave Europe may have crossed paths with the artist or had their portraits painted. The story has moved into Mary Cassatt’s world of color and emotion. This is a good time to play memory games with matching sets of art notecards. We choose topics that are familiar to children – families, landscapes, children, animals. After a little practice we are quizzing each other on artists and titles of paintings. Or picking a Rembrandt from a selection of many artists’ work. Or copying the masters just like artists do!
As the Wampanoag show us their traditions in our History studies, our Geography studies are taking us on a walk across the continent, stopping to notice native plants, animals and features along the way. And Cassat applies the layer of families in her warm portraits.
As we plan our feast of Stone Soup we are simultaneously learning botany nomenclature and the edible parts of plants. Students will be bringing home plants they have grown from seeds.
Tomie DePaola is the author for November and we enjoy his Native American stories as well as his funny, sweet and sad stories from his own life. On your next trip to the library check out a few of DePaola’s works. Try Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs and it’s okay to cry. We all do.
We will soon begin working on our class songs and dances for the Winter Celebration school play at PC Community Church on December 19th at 10:30am. We are again offering two shows to help with parking and to allow as many family members as possible to attend. Infants and toddlers are onstage at 9:00am, early childhood at 10:30am and Upper School leads both. This year the script was written by Evergreen Class students Amelia Ben-Shahar and Beatrice Adelson. We love how they have combined some of our usual themes into a creative story that allows every student their moment to shine. Costume notices will come home in the next few weeks.
And even with all the excitement of parties, rehearsals and the community projects we have undertaken these last two months of 2025, we hold our work periods sacred as these young children move from the simple tasks of Practical Life into the big work of working on increasingly challenging math and language lessons. We look forward to the fun that is to come and the long, quiet winter work periods of 2026.
Upper School
Elements of Elementary, Middle School & High School – News from the Wasatch, Evergreen & Bridgemont Classes
Wasatch and Evergreen Elementary students did a beautiful job on their Spooky Sanctuary, an indoor version of their Spooky Forest of previous years. Their ideas drive the next evolution of each project. And their Punkin Chunkin project has grown into a Pumpkin Palooza as Evergreen Class puts the finishing touches on this year’s trebuchet. Be sure to bring your pumpkins by from 2:30 – 4:30 on November 7th to see them fly. This year Evergreen Class has added a food truck so you can have a toasty grilled cheese snack while waiting for your pumpkin to launch.
The Upper School history and geography lessons weave together to inspire the Feast that is to come on November 21st. Stay tuned for details!
Our Bridgemont Secondary students envelop themselves in their studies. There are a bevy of talented Montessori instructors on the Bridgemont faculty, all prepared to take these middle and high school students as far as they need to go, often into the college level. And the students are from all over the world, often attending in the middle of the night because they want to be in class. One student attended online class nonchalantly from the Cayman Islands last year as the hurricane pounded at her door. When they met in person in Moab last spring they fell into their roles of cooking, cleaning and recycling together between river rafting, rock climbing and hiking adventures. And after class these students work on their Wild Pine Design entrepreneurial endeavors this year featuring floral arrangements. Need flowers for your holiday table? Contact leith@soaringwings.org.
In November we begin to transform into the SWIMS School of Performing Arts as we put the finishing touches on our Winter Celebration play. Classes prepared by attending Giselle by BalletNEXT, noticing the magic of the theater. Classes are getting to work on choreography and ideas for set design. Our Theater curriculum grows as the student does, allowing more ownership of the production as they acquire the necessary skills.
In Geography, classes are learning about the tribes who historically lived in Utah, Park City and across the U.S. and what their feasts may have consisted of. For Feast Day students will prepare their meals themselves, create centerpieces, and set tables in the hall to join the rest of the school community for their meal in gratitude. Take advantage of these skills and invite your students to prepare a dish for your family feast. These students are capable of just about anything!
