Headlines  -                                                                  October 26, 2012

On Tuesday evening, the school’s Quaker Life Committee hosted a dinner and discussion featuring the film Mother Nature’s Child - Growing Outdoors in the Media Age.  In the film, several experts were featured presenting theory and research that supports the benefits of children having unstructured outdoor time.  It seems that all children need outdoor time to explore and discover, to dream and make believe, and to practice and play.  Outdoor time can increase imagination, decrease aggression, develop muscles, improve moods, and build confidence among children of all ages.  Time outdoors becomes even more precious as video games and other forms of media compete for the attention of our children. 

The film highlighted several school and outdoor programs designed to deepen student interaction and understanding of nature.  We watched as preschool teachers led their charges, without ropes, into the wooded park for stream study.  In Washington DC, youth groups had the opportunity to experience guided hikes at Rock Creek Park while others learned to fish at a local pond.  After watching, I wondered whether our school was doing enough to help our children connect to something other than an electronic screen.  I decided to check with our teachers on what our student did outdoors this week.

As it turns out, we were pretty busy this week.  Tr. Dorothy’s K/1 class took a field trip to the park to look for seasonal changes and recorded them in their journals.  Tr. Lisa’s K/1 went out on an ant and insect hunt.  They collected a few and are now observing their behavior in a homemade ant farm. The 2/3 classrooms spent part of Thursday afternoon using a special telescope to observe solar flares while Tr. Nick’s 4^th grade class practiced observation skills by watching his dog Flower run, fetch, scratch, and sniff.  Our Middle School took a fungi walk this week and, as I write, those students are paddling canoes on the Juniata River.  Beside these classroom excursions, all-school recess happens every day and is an essential part of our curriculum.  During recess this week, in addition to the usual assortment of organized and impromptu games, I saw students digging in the dirt, setting up house in the bushes, and collecting colored leaves for an art project. 

No matter your personal affinity for the outdoors, there is no denying our connection to and dependence on the natural world for life and health.  Our teachers do a wonderful job incorporating the outdoors into their classrooms and providing all students with quality outdoor experiences each week.  However, nature is fickle and early next week we may be in for some very severe weather.  This time, we will observe it from the safety of our building.

Announcements
Blood Drive:  Friends School will soon be hosting a blood drive in conjunction with the American Red Cross. Our event will be held on Friday, November 9 from 3:00 – 7:00 p.m. in our Community Room. You can schedule a time to donate on the slip that’s enclosed in today’s Friday Folders, or you can do it online at redcrossblood.org. (Our sponsor code is FriendsSchool.)

In the blood drive information you’ll find in Friday Folders, you’ll notice a mention of a gift for each child who invites an adult to donate. Since many of our students will be helping in many ways, all of them will receive a small token of appreciation.  So, although we hope you’ll donate to this worthy endeavor, please feel no pressure.

Parent-Teacher Conferences:  Our fall parent-teacher conferences will be held on Thursday and Friday, November 8 and 9. Conferences are scheduled for 30 minutes in length, and will be held in your child’s classroom. Fall conferences are especially important, an ideal time for parents and teachers to discuss goals for the year, as well as any areas of concern.

Please call (237-8386), email (scfs@scfriends.org) , or stop by the front desk to schedule your conference. As you can imagine, teachers have busy schedules on those days, so we ask that you make every effort to arrive on time for your meeting and stick to the half-hour that’s scheduled for you.

Because there will be no school for children on our conference days, we will have child care available as we do on all inservice days. Child care hours are from 8:00am to 5:30pm each day at a rate of $4 per hour. If you would like to sign your child up for child care for all or part of either or both days, please be sure to let us know when you make your conference appointment.

RSVP for S.P.I.C.E.S - Tickets are available now for the S.P.I.C.E.S. of Life Gala social and silent auction to raise money for the school’s Annual Fund.  The event takes place Sunday, November 11^th from 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at The Atherton Hotel.  A suggested donation of $40 to $60 a ticket makes this event an affordable evening of friends, community, music and food.  Free childcare will be available for parents attending the event. Answers to FAQ’s is available online at www.scfriends.org.

Dan