COMMUNITY UPDATE
Chloe Hayes reading to the K/1 Picas at the end of a long day.
The 2024-2025 school year is off to a fantastic start! The middle school Rippin’ Raccoon’s have been quite busy since late August. Between journeys, projects, and core classes the middle schoolers have already accomplished a ton in the first quarter of the school year. So far since the beginning of school the Rippin’ Raccoons have been on a backpacking trip in Bridger-Teton National Forest, have been over the pass to Grand Teton National Park and to the Jackson Campus’ ropes course, and they have been into town for food rescue and community building efforts. They have set phenomenal examples for their reading buddies and all of the younger students on campus, through leading bi-monthly community meetings, and taking charge for the Harvest Party. As the year progresses, and picks up momentum the middle schoolers will continue to take on responsibilities and lead the school through many different opportunities.
HUMANITIES
This year’s Humanities theme is the first half of American history, from the arrival of the first peoples to 1899. The diving question that will frame the year is, “Are all people created equal?” We started the year with a visit from local author Jim Hardee, who came and shared his knowledge and fascination with the early days of human habitation in Teton Valley. Jim helped hit home some of the concepts we explored and discussed on our backpacking trip up Moose Creek, one of the key trade and migration routes of both the natives and trappers who used Teton Valley in the past. Since the first weeks, the Rippin’ Raccoons have explored topics in early American history from local historical indigenous groups, creation myths from North America, European contact/colonization, Puritanism, and witch trials. They are currently deep into their first assigned book of the year, The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Part of learning history is staying up to date with current events and students becoming more aware of the world around them. Each student is assigned a short five minute window in the first semester to share about a current event they find interesting. This semester we have been updated with lessons on hurricanes Helene and Milton, 399, Pearl Street Bagels, and other important local and global topics.
MATH
It’s been a busy first quarter in both math and science so far. In 6th grade math, students have been reviewing operations with fractions and are now investigating area of funky polygons. They are currently designing “to-scale” dream houses using different polygons for their rooms. In 7th grade, students have been working with all types of rational numbers and awareness around negative numbers, or integers. They just started a unit on proportional relationships and writing equations to match proportional situations. In 8th grade, all students have been working on geometric transformations and identifying congruent and similar figures. Algebra 1 crew has just started a larger unit on solving and working with one-variable equations and expressions. On Wednesdays, we all come together as a middle school to work on fun, unique math topics. To start the year, students designed their own trundle wheel and measured out our mile run for Life Skills using the circumference of circles! We are also just starting a mini-project on math in elections and how voting and electoral college works in The United States.
PROJECTS
Middle schoolers have been deeply immersed in numerous projects in many different classes in the first quarter of the school year. Our new fantastic art teacher, David, has been off to a hot start making miracles turning the Snake River House back into the Art Barn twice a week. Students have been engaged in his class so far painting incredible GYE animal murals that will soon be on display on the exterior of some of the TVC buildings. In cross curricular project news, Science and History combined last month to journey across the pass to explore topics under the theme of ‘creation’. In Geology, Kelsie led a fantastic field lesson on the creation and formation of the Teton range. In between Geology lessons, students took turn reading their very own ‘Creation Myths’, inspired by indigenous origin stories, in the shadows of the Grand, on the shore of Taggart Lake. In Maker, the middle schoolers just completed their first challenge of the year, designing and constructing cardboard toys for their reading buddies. Since delivery their gifts, the middle schoolers have moved onto their second challenge of the year, a carving project. Each student is practicing their safe cutting and carving skills with Irish Spring soap, before they graduate to basswood. The classroom currently smells like soap, and students are very excited to dig into the new challenge. While Project Lab, takes a few weeks to really kick off due to student brainstorming and topic selection, we are underway with our first full class project of the year. The students are excited to announce they will be exploring topics in Film and Photography. To get some a base of background knowledge the students have been learning about the history of photography and the science of photography.
