June Highlights
On June 14th we celebrated our own Day of the Tree. This marked the start of our solstice and spirit week. It was a fun filled week which involved many team building games, and extra curricular activities.
In eco class with teacher Joshua, the Explores, Architects, and Innovators planted various trees that were donated from the community. They were planted on our school grounds and in our neighborhood for this momentous occasion.
Ten almond trees were donated by Maycol Varrios, a Guanabana tree was donated by Pete Wenzel (owner of Coconutz Bar and Grill), and Jake Ellis gave the school a Carambola tree, as well as some Criton, and three Plumeria cuttings. We were delighted to have ten Jocote cuttings from Fredi Benavides. Five special Guanacaste trees came from Kruz of Sea Wonders Academy. Kruz started these Guanacaste trees from seed and watched them grow into a young saplings. Our students love Guanacaste trees, and so these were admired gifts that our students eagerly planted in properties adjacent to the school.
Included in our celebrations, I presented a puppet show. The puppet show was a rendition of my story Treedom. Treedom is a story in which I am currently seeking publication. I wrote it some time ago while working with Learning Through the Arts in Toronto, Canada. I have presented the story through illustrations and was thrilled to share the story with my students through this new medium. Please enjoy the video of the presentation below.
On the Monday of our spirit week we enjoyed Karaoke. Jace stole the show with Everything is Awesome - a close runner up was Keelan with Particle Man.
Tuesday of Spirit Week we wore bright colors, and Wednesday we had an art activity and made sunflowers for our school. Thursday was dress up! We came to school in solar system themed outfits. Friday was a special snack day and we made mandalas with our bite sized goodies. We took time at the exact minute of solstice to celebrate the special moment in a circle all together.
Of course one of the June highlights must include Father's Day! The students of NDS worked very hard this year, sewing slippers for our dads. Teacher Jennifer spearheaded the project, while teacher Alexandra wowed everyone with her inspirational cards. Siblings worked together, and by Father's Day, we had made something unique and very special.
