Our Clothes - Enough?!

Throughout the year, in advisory, classes and special assemblies, we will be exploring this year’s sustainability theme: ENOUGH!? Through this lens we can ask revealing questions about material and non-material aspects of our lives. When do we have enough? How much is enough? How much is too much?

We recently looked at our personal collection of clothing through the perspective of “Enough?!” Then, students collected their excess clothing to make a donation. This clothing drive took place in the spirit of “Thanks –Giving” for the plenty in our lives, at least around clothing.

The beneficiary of our clothing drive was Community Services for the Blind and Partially Sighted. CSBPS was founded as an independent not-for-profit organization in 1965, the Northwest’s leading vision rehabilitation agency and specializes in helping older people cope with age-related and traumatic vision loss. CSBPS works with individuals, families, and communities to restore, maintain and enhance the independence and well being of people with impaired vision.
It turns that one person’s excess can fill another person’s need.

Story Day with Westside School

Budding authors and illustrators unite! Westside School's Pre-Kindergarten students are teaming up with Explorer West students in an exciting and creative project that brings art and story-telling together. The youngsters in Claudia Ross-Weston's and Nancy Levine's Pre-K classes create the artwork and, later in the week, the story within the picture is reported and written out with the help of an Explorer West student from Aurora de la Cruz's or David Kelly's advisory. (On an interesting side note, several Explorer West students are former Pre-K students from Claudia and Nancy's classes.) Our students listen, help elicit responses from the younger students, and then write exactly what they hear.

Some stories included characters like rainbow-colored aliens, snakes dressed in paper towels, a trio of girls with super-powers, and, of course, super mommies and daddies. We just started this collaboration and will continue to meet once per month. We're very happy to have this opportunity to have "story buddies" and look forward to the imagination and cameraderie that will, no doubt, continue to develop throughout this endeavor.



submitted by Aurora de la Cruz

Boats 2.0

The 6th graders have been clambering to prove what they've learned since their last boat-building project, and today they got underway. Using what they learned from a previous boat as well as research on famous boats,the students were eager to apply the lessons learned from famous, and not so famous, sinkings. Plans were drawn, materials collected, and construction begun on boats that will hold pennies in calm and rough seas as well as fresh and salt water.

This year's Sustainability theme, Enough, lends itself to this project as students explore how many pennies are enough and how many will sink the boat under various condidtions. They will determine safe "load lines" for their boats just like the ships in Puget Sound. To inspire boat-think, the students listened to sea shanties while they worked.

Silence is Golden: Cultivating Lifelong Readers at Explorer West

Ever notice that we live in a loud and busy world? EW performs a simple daily ritual to quiet things down and gain a little quality time with ourselves – but together!

For about 6 years EW has enjoyed a tradition of 15 minutes of quiet choice reading after lunch, 4-5 days each week. The rules are simple. Sit by yourself (all together in the gym) and read what you like, but not homework, magazines, or comics. Read a book that fuels your curiosity, imagination, or your personal interests. Reading preferences are as varied as the students themselves, from science fiction to mystery and horror, from fantasy to the science, and from teen romance to literary classics.

Here is a sampling of EW student comments about silent reading:

It gives us a chance to get lost in our own world before returning to school.

What I’m reading is like a little movie.

Everyone is together.

You can take a break from your life and get immersed in another person’s life.

You don’t have to read on a schedule.

I get to read horror books that are about vampires and demons.

It opens a world of imagination and opportunities.

Everyone is totally silent and engrossed in their books.

Everyone is connected in silence.

It feels like a library – silent for once.

People don’t yell!

Alone, with a book, you don’t have to care about anything else.

I can slip into my book and block everything out.

EW STUDENTS CAME UP WITH THESE METAPORS FOR SILENT READING AT EW, WHICH IS LIKE…

Silent dew on a mountainside.

The last snowflake of winter.

Going to the movies with your friends.

Living in a book.

The quiet lushness of a high mountain valley.

Eating a pickle. You can enjoy it right now, but not all day.

Research on Sustained Silent Reading has shown that it does not necessarily improve reading comprehension or guarantee higher test scores. That is not our goal with “SSR.” There is broad consensus amongst researchers and practitioners (like us!) that SSR succeeds in developing lifelong readers when choice, regularity, and staff involvement are its central features.

Our outdoor education program helps students learn to be self-sufficient and happy in the wilderness and many of our graduates will pursue the outdoors into adulthood as a source of lifelong recreation and joy. Similarly, it is our hope that by supporting personal reading we are cultivating lifelong readers.

8th Grade Revels on Mt. Rainier

The 8th grade fanned out to three different destinations on Mt. Rainier for early September backpacking: Owhyhi Lakes, Berkeley Park, and Glacier Basin. We enjoyed perfect weather, wildlife and blueberries galore, and spectacular vistas.
Mt. Rainier is absolutely teeming with wildlife! Our early fall sightings included black bears, mountain goats, marmots, pika, a doe with it's fawn, and elk. And we heard coyotes howl!

As usual, the trips sought a balance between the outdoor skills of packing, hiking, tents, cooking and safe, leave-no-trace wilderness travel, as well as the human skills of self-care, cooperation, leadership, and communication.





Diagramming glaciers, journals, group games, solo sits, solo hiking, and talking stick councils were valuable activities.




And no Explorer West adventure is complete without some SERIOUS fun -- like a boys versus girls costume contest!
We look forward to our winter adventures beginning in January with snowshoeing, Nordic skiing, alpine skiing and snowboarding!

6th Graders Explore Weird Properties of Oobleck

"What is it?" "Ew, it's gooey AND hard." "Whoa! Why does it do that?" This is how science class started today. Students were given a container of mystery substance (Oobleck) and charged with the task of identifying as many properties of matter as they could. They quickly dispatched with the easier ones: color, odor, and texture. Phase proved to be the more challenging and thought-provoking property. Sometimes a solid and sometimes a liquid, the students experiemented with different scenarios in order to nail down just exactly when it was each.

Going Nordic with Dead Bugs, Wedges, Cold Solos -- and Lots of Laughs

We at Explorer West are ever more amazed at how adept 7^th graders are at cross-country skiing. They have the perfect blend of budding coordination; let’s “just do it” hunger for learning, and a whatever attitude about falling.

This seventh grade is setting a high mark with their quick progress. Despite crunchy (icy and hard) conditions for the first two weeks, they are moving quickly through the basics of Dead Bug (rotating while on your back to get your skis downhill and under you after a fall), diagonal striding (the classic kick and glide), and a variety of turns (step, kick, wedge).

Their prowess at gaining skills quickly lets us get right to the real business of backcountry travel. They are heading out snowy tracks around Mount Catherine to log miles, take in snowy beauty, share a trail lunch, have council talks, and sit solo.

Explorer West borrowed the council talk from Native Americans. All students speak to a meaningful topic or question, but one at a time. Everyone else listens. No interruptions. Explorer West students never fail with their honesty and insights.

The solo sit is also a fixture in our backpacking program, where students will sit (safely monitored at a distance by adult trip leaders) to journal (or not) and think (or not). The idea is to be quiet and alone in nature, humbled by our wee spot in the universe – and glad to be there. A solo snow sit has the added value of the profound silence offered by sound dampening crystals. Plus, there is the confidence that you can get yourself there and back, safe and warm.

Congrats to Kirt, our Outdoor Ed director, for his careful communications with the avalanche beset Summit Nordic Center, for helping to formalize our Nordic skills and learning sequence, and for bringing in Morgan Miller, instructor extraordinaire.

We are grateful for the assistance of all the EW parents who joined us for our Nordic days. Special thanks to Karl “Knut” Guntheroth, an alumni parent and expert skier. Knut knows the snow, and knows that fun in the snow is a combo of adequate skill and plenty of laughs.

That’s how we roll in the snow.

Bjorn (Ben)

Our Trip Up To the Mountains

by Autumn, 6th grade
We went out on our homemade snowshoes, and we went through a lot of stopping to fix our snowshoes and add modifications. We managed not to destroy our snowshoes, but we took them off at lunchtime and played a lot of games. We played Camouflage; you play with one person it and the other people get 20 seconds to run and hide. The person who is "it" cannot move from the place that he or she is in. The people who hide must be able to see the person who is "it". The person calls the people in witch they see getting the people out.

My friend and I built a house in the snow. We did this by accident when we fell into a really really deep tree well. We dug it out a little more, and we put a tarp over it, and we had a nice little snow house under ground.

We also went sledding down little hills on tarps and bags. We went flying down the hills rolling and laughing and slamming into the snow at the end. We found a few big hills where we went really fast, especially on my tarp. We also played run and scream. We play this by running as far as you can scream. When you stop screaming, you stop. The person who can run the farthest wins. I lost!
My friend and I kept getting stuck in postholes and I got pretty wet by the end of the day! Kristin showed us how to use compasses, and we played some games with them. I found out that compasses are pretty handy and a pretty easy to use. But we need some practice!
On our way back, we took off our snowshoes and went sledding on a hug hill. My tarp went so fast! We even made a little jump for our sledding, but it did not work. Next week we will be building snow caves.

Sixth Graders Begin Building Their Snowshoes

One of the most exciting things about building the snowshoes is that the students are exposed to many different tools and skills. With a solid plan under their belts, the 6th graders have begun the process of assembling their 2008-2009 snowshoes. They began last week with the bindings which involved cutting the fabric and using a punch and grommet set. The buckles were sewn to the laces with a needle and thread, and they used a drill insert the "crampon" screws through the fabric and metal plate.

This week Kirt gave a presentation on the native willow being used for the frame, and then the students went outside to trim the branches off the whips. Several brave families took the whips home to soak overnight in bathtubs filled with warm water and biodegradeable fabric softener. Today the bending and shapin gof the frames begins...

World Religions in 6th Grade Ancient Civilizations

One goal of the Ancient Civilizations” social studies sequence at Explorer West Middle School is basic literacy in world religions. While there is no prayer or promotion of any particular religion at Explorer West, we believe it is valuable for students to gain basic knowledge around the practices and beliefs of different religions. Public schools are often hesitant to venture into comparative religions because of controversy over the separation of church and state provisions of the U.S. Constitution.

Religions guide some of humanity’s highest aspirations to ethical behavior, as well as giving rise to remarkable art, music, and dance. Of course, religion has also been at the heart of conflict at many times in history.

In order to give students an insider’s perspective, Kumar’s mom, Rinku, visited the 6^th grade to share the artifacts and rituals of puja (worship) in Hinduism. Students viewed artifacts and icons representing different deities, and the class ended with them enjoying traditional sweets.

As the 6^th graders study civilizations from different continents, they explore world religions originating in those regions. Beginning with Paleolithic cave art connected to Cro-Magnon hunter-gatherers, students examine the purposes, symbols, and rituals of religious practice. Major religions covered in this Ancient Civilizations course include Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Taoism, and Confucianism.

One of the important and typical realizations for students in our study of world religions is that, although diverse in their outward expression and organizations, religions have more in common than not. Also, it usually comes as a surprise to students that Islam, Christianity, and Judaism all share the same god, as well as the succession of Old Testament prophets. Religion, one of humanity's common roots, deserves careful exploration.

Thanks to Rinku for making the mysteries of Hindu puja less mysterious!