Upcoming Field Trips

On Friday afternoon, the Wolves will be take a short walk down to Ralston Creek to begin looking at the quality of the water in this creek.  Please have your child dress appropriately (shoes/sandals and clothes that can get wet). 

Next Wednesday, September 7th, the K-6 classes will head to Kent Park to begin our yearlong study of the prairie.  Students will meet with a naturalist and learn about the attributes of tall grass prairies.  Students will be outside for most of the day and should dress appropriately for that day's weather.  We will all be taking a bus to the park and we therefore ask that each family contributes $5 per child to offset the cost of transportation.  Please send this money to school with your child by Tuesday, September 6th.

As always, please contact me with any questions.

Wolves Camping Trip!

As many of you may have heard from the excited buzz of your children, the Wolves will soon be going on an overnight camping trip! This trip will serve not only as an incredible community building activity, but also give students the opportunity to challenge themselves both physically and mentally. Camping together this early in the year is exciting, as it will foster your child’s growing independence. I am personally thrilled to spend this time with the class and have the opportunity to watch their independence continue to grow between this early overnight and our extended trip at the end of the year. What a perfect way to work together, push our limits as individuals and as a team, and use the natural world as our classroom. With the goals of personal growth and team building as well as our water curriculum in mind, students have worked together to come up with an itinerary that includes canoeing, orienteering, wetland activities, shelter building, cooking over an open fire, a night hike, and much more!

The trip will take place on September 19th at Lake Macbride. We will leave Willowwind at 8:45am on the 19th and will return by the end of the school day on the 20th. Carly, Christine (our new Movement teacher who has worked with School of the Wild at Lake Macbride), and I will be chaperoning the trip. In terms of group supplies, we are in need of tents and canoe transportation (Lake Macbride’s boat rental will be closed for repairs and we therefore need to rent canoes from another location). If you have either a tent that we can borrow or a way to transport canoes, please email me as soon as possible. In the coming weeks, students will work together to create a packing list and plan menus for every meal. I will send these details out when the students finalize plans but please let me know if you have any questions in the mean time.

After School Enrichment Classes

Don't forget to sign your child up for our optional After School Enrichment program. Let the learning continue after school! Willowwind is offering a variety of exciting classes for your child to participate in. The After School Enrichment classes begin on September 14th and go through November 17th. Classes are $110 for one or $210 for two. If your child is a full-time ASP friend just pay $190 for two courses.

After School Enrichment Classes Include:
Fiber Arts and Textiles (Every Wednesday 3:30 - 4:30)
Painting (Every Wednesday 4:40 - 5:40)
Spanish Club (Every Thursday 2:30 - 3:30)
Creative Drama (Every Thursday 3:40 - 4:40)

Please see this flyer for more information.

Willowwind's Nutritional Practices

Willowwind students are continually thinking about their impact on the world around them.  We have been spending our first few group discussions talking about the impact of food waste and what we can do to reduce our own waste.  Please check out this link, nutritional practices, to find out more about these practices. There's also a nutritional section under the curriculum tab. Thank you for supporting our students' efforts!

Running Club!

I am extremely excited to announce the first session of running club!  Sessions will occur every Wednesday from 3:15 - 4:15pm and will begin this Wednesday, August 24th.  Please add your child's name to the spreadsheet at the link below by Tuesday afternoon if you would like your child to join.  They will need to bring running clothes appropriate for that day's weather and running shoes.  

Running Club

We will be spending the next several weeks preparing for the Run for the Schools 5K on Sunday, October 9th.  It is not mandatory for running club members to run in this race but it would be great for as many members as possible to participate.  Additionally, once a week sessions will not be totally sufficient for students to prepare for the length of this race.  I ask that all students that are participating in running club (even if they are not attending Run for the Schools) run at least once or twice a week aside from running club to ensure that they are continually getting their bodies ready for long-distance running.  Students are welcome to do this running during recess if they are not able to do it after school.  Please let me know if you need suggestions on length of runs, locations, or safety concerns.  

This year, I am opening up enrollment to all Burrowing Owls and Wolves (3rd-6th grades).  However, I am unable to safely supervise this many students on the run because of varying running levels and will therefore need parent volunteer(s) each week.  Please add your name to the spreadsheet at the link given above if you can help out any Wednesday between August 24th and the end of October (if the weather stays warm, we will extend sessions into November).  You DO NOT need to be a runner to help out.  If you'd like to use this as an opportunity to start running yourself, please join us!  We would love to have you!  If I do not have enough parent volunteers, I will need to limit numbers so please help if you have the time.  We also need parent volunteers to lead both walking and running groups at Run for the Schools.  Please add your name to spreadsheet if you are interested.

Hope to see your child on Wednesday! 

Surveys

Parents and students: please check the sidebar for links to our parent and student surveys.  We'll use this information to help create goals for this year.  The surveys will also help me get to know you.  Students, please submit the survey by Monday, August 22nd.  Parents, please submit by Friday, August 26th.  Thanks and please let me know if you have questions.

Using the Blogs

A great way to interact with our class is through our blogs. Just click on the comments button right under the post that you would like to comment on. Post questions under the blog tab or make recommendations for books under the shelf tab. Students, if you’d like to make a comment on one of the blogs and do not have your own email address, you can use your parents email address. You can also receive updates whenever this page is updated by filling out the email form at top of this page. If there is a particular blog post that interests you and you want to be updated every time someone makes a comment on that post, just click on the “Subscribe by Email” button when you make a comment and you’ll automatically get email updates. Happy posting!

Wolf Class Website: Now Open for Viewing!

Welcome to our website! Browse around and check out all of the features of this website. Parents and students, if you want to see something on this site that isn’t already here, drop me an email from the contact tab. Any feedback is welcome! This is YOUR website so let’s make it what you want it to be.