SWIMS November Newsletter
November
1st…Re-enrollment invitations for continuing students and their siblings for the 2024-2025 school year sent via email. Any remaining spaces will be open to new students December 1st. Contact bruce@soaringwings.org if you have not yet seen your re-enrollment invitation.
3rd…Parent/Teacher Conferences – No school.
8th…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.
3rd…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.
19th…Happy Birthday, Arielle!
20th…Ski School registration due!
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!
22nd – 24th…No School. Happy Thanksgiving/ Family Holiday!
December
1st…Enrollment opens to new students for the 2024-2025 school year.
4th…Happy Birthday, Leah!
15th…No School. SWIMS Winter Celebration at Park City Community Church 11:00am! Dismissal following the play. We will need lots of help with costumes, props, sets, and transporting infants and toddlers to the church for the rehearsals on the 14th. Costume notices will come home the last week in November with all the details.
18th – 1st…No School. Winter Break! School resumes January 2nd.
School Bulletin Board
We were delighted to see our first high schooler pass her first round of tests with flying colors! The expectations are huge in the Bridgemont program and the classes are rigorous. But she answered questions correctly that most of us didn’t see until college. Congratulations, Bridgemont!
We approach the winter months ahead with anticipation for the long indoor work periods that bring so much progress in development for all of us. All classes are planning their feasts to be prepared by the children and enjoyed at one long community table. The Winter Holiday curriculum will involve the whole school in celebrations of Diwali, 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 middle school class has created the script and we can’t wait for rehearsals to begin! 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 and we will collect goods for Peace House through our Angel Tree project that will begin 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 generosity!
Lower School
Infant & Toddler Impressions – Notes from El Nido, Bumblebees, Chickadees, Sunflowers & Tadpoles 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 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 begin our Winter Holiday curriculum with Diwali this month, creating a rangali in class, then joining the school community for stories, songs and dancing and a special Diwali snack. If you have celebrated Diwali and have something to share, let any teacher know!
It will soon be time to start our Theater curriculum in preparation for our Winter Celebration December 15th at Park City Community Church. There will be songs, dances, story-telling, costumes, props and sets to create in the next several weeks. 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 a toddler’s pace so the whole family can take time to enjoy the season together.
Every Day in Early Childhood – Events in the Bluebirds, Ladybugs and Turquoise Classes
The study of our Navajo Grandma Frances in particular and Native Americans in general has led us to a closer look at the Wampanoag of the region now known as New England. We are taking a look at 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 idea as a base 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 family meals and feasts.
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, 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.
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 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.
And somewhere in November we will begin working on our class songs for the Winter Celebration school play at PC Community Church on December 15th at 11:00am. Costume notices will come home in the next few weeks.
Upper School
Elements of Elementary, Middle School & High School – News from the Wasatch, Evergreen & Bridgemont Classes
We were delighted to see our first high schooler pass her first tests with very high scores! Testing is not something we do a lot of and the Bridgemont classes are very rigorous, so we worried that it might be a little much. But she soared through! She attends classes online with students from all over the world. There are a bevy of teachers
In November we begin to transform into the SWIMS School of Performing Arts as we put the finishing touches on our script for the Winter Celebration play. Classes prepared by attending Swan Lake at the Santy Auditorium by BalletNEXT, noticing the magic of 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 and Park City 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!
There are so many things our Upper Schoolers can do, everyone has new project ideas! Their Halloween Spooky Forest was masterful! They had written the script, planned the staging and produced an eerie, but not too scary, walk-through story that delighted children and adults. They conducted tours for all students and by 11:30 they had struck the set and no traces remained, as if by magic!
Since they will be cooking their feast in a Dutch oven, Leith gave them a lesson on how to build a fire and how to extinguish it safely. He also helped them to erect the tipi in the Workman field next door. School is not about sitting in desks all day any more!
