Blog – Page 11 – Chrysalis School

LAN Party: The Day You Get to Play Video Games at School!

March 7, 2013 By:Alison McNee

“They came, they saw, they conquered”… let us rephrase that: “ They came, they played, they ate…and ate, and ate…” On Saturday, February 23rd, 30 Chrysalis students conquered worlds and rescued virtual damsels at the LAN party. These multi-talented individuals can hold off armies of zombies with their left hand and text 90 words on their smartphone with only their right thumb! The students each brought their own home computers which filled the whole activity room. It’s strange–listening to them screaming at each other side-by-side in the room while they had earphones on! Wouldn’t it be wiser to just take the earphones off?? These students (oh yes, and teachers too) kept the playing going from 8am -10pm! Needless to say, this is one of the few Saturdays kids come willingly to school.

Where else can students say they played video game at their school WITH their teachers for an ENTIRE DAY?

Puppy Update!

March 4, 2013 By:Alison McNee

Wondering how our Guide Dogs are doing?

Yannah and Yuri, are 6 months old already! Time flies when you have puppies to train. The pups recently had their first quarterly evaluation with Guide Dogs For The Blind. The evaluation looked at their basic obedience skills, behavior in public and also a questionnaire about their behavior in the home. This training took place in a both a cafe and downtown Woodinville. The puppies are progressing along nicely and they are learning a lot! Their next 6 months will be working on more advanced obedience skills, and longer outings in busier places (like malls and busy parks).

How are the puppies spending their days?

The puppies spend their school day getting lots of attention and learning good manners. Being at a school provides a perfect atmosphere for impulse control because there are always students walking past.

What are the students learning?

The students are learning they have their work cut out for them. Time management is a very important skill they have been learning. Puppies need to have a schedule so they know when they will have potty breaks, that way they can avoid accidents. Balancing school, outside activities and puppy raising takes practice too. Being responsible for another living being is not easy. Although this class is hard work, our puppy trainers are enjoying it. They are doing a great job!

We hope to add more puppies to our program in the coming year, so let us know if you’d be interested in raising a Guide Dog puppy!

Second Annual Arts Curriculum Night

February 25, 2013 By:Alison McNee

Arts Night.. Festivities Galore!

What a fantastic evening of creativity and comedy, artistry and aria! Our Second Annual Arts Night was bigger and better this year with over 100 participants arriving to browse beautiful artwork and celebrate student talent. Eighty students shared their designs, sculptures, posters, films, songs and even a little improv from the drama classes. This year, our Photography students graciously contributed their masterpieces so that friends and family could make a contribution and take home a keepsake! This event raised over 500 dollars in donations for our Arts Fund! Parents and fellow students purchased beautiful and original photos from the exhibition which will help provide new lights, cameras, theatre equipment and art supplies for our school. A tremendous thank you to everyone making Arts Night at Chrysalis such a success!

Thirteen Ways To Look at the SKY

February 25, 2013 By:Alison McNee

One of our favorite things to do at Chrysalis is to brag about our students. Every once in a while, we get a student that will lets us showcase their work on our blog. This poem is written by a 5th grader.

Elli’s assignment was taken from a high school poetry writing assignment. It’s based on the poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens. Elli did a shared reading with her teacher of Steven’s poem and discussed it. She was then asked to write her own poem of seeing something thirteen different ways. The only requirement was that the item she chose needed to have growth or movement, it could not, for example be a cup or book.

The following week, Elli had Thirteen Ways to Look at the SKY. Elli shared that she really wanted to know how interconnected we all are through the sky; the sky we see here is the same one seen in Australia.

Get ready to be astonished!

Thirteen Ways to Look at the SKY
By Elli, 5th grade.

I
Lives wind like a million threads
And fates meander like a million roads
And destiny overlords like the great sky

II
The sky was as dark as a chalkboard
While lightening scrawled across it
And thunder clapped like erasers at the end of a school day

III
Oh, for a fair day
When the sun travels its path
So lightly, so happily
When the night waits until the last second
To push the sun aside
When the clouds burst like dandelions
As the wind touches them
So the sky can blow and wish
For another fair day

IV
She closed her eyes
And made a wish
And let it fall into her hands
She blew it and let it float
Like a maple seed
Out the window
And into the sky

V
The sky carries voices on the air
And love on the wind
And dreams on snowflakes
And hope in the sun
And when the rain comes
It brings them back to earth

VI
Between land and island
There is sea
Between city and country
There is ground
Between earth and infinity
There is sky

VII
Earth is a marble
Adrift in a paper boat of air
In black ink
Its path lighted by a lone lamp
Drowning
If not for the blanket
Of sky

VIII
When the sky has a mind to
It twists itself into
A feared shape
That sends millions turning
Gazing with terrified eyes
Not daring to look back as they run
But compelled by the power
Of the sky

IX
Gentle
Powerful
Angry
Serene
Stargazing
Earth-covering
Calming
Startling Sky

X
Fed by a desire
To keep flying
To finish what it started
To live through the storm
The lone tern makes its route
Forages ahead through the opposing wind
I’ll show you,
Sky

XI
Wolves to sing to
Fireflies dance through
Birds journey on
People gaze at
Fish dream about
Raccoons hide in
Bats need
Owls want
The deep shroud
Of night
Sky

XII
By touching all, the birds bind us
In an unending dance
Where animals circle around humans
Strangers bump into each other
While friends try to get closer
Life forms a ring
That twists and spins
So that nothing can remember
Who was next to it the last second
Or why they need them
When they’ve never even met them
It’s hard to understand the words
Everybody and
Each other
Unless you understand the sky

XIII
We dream
That we can fly
Because the sky represents
Aspirations
The unreachable
That we know we can get to
If only only understand
The secret
Of how a human
Loves the dark
Of a flitting mystery
To tantalize
When they want more than anything
To smash it wide open
And toss its remains in a fire
So that they never see it again
And then they turn back
And listen to the smoke whisper
As it floats away
It’s the sky
The sky
That keeps us
One
Whole
Hoping
Dreaming
And then they ponder
And wish for a miracle
A blackbird appearing
Carrying
A message
An answer
So we toss and turn as we sleep
And wonder
And we dream
About the sky.

Fruit Flies Experiment

February 6, 2013 By:Alison McNee

In our Biology classes, the students are studying genetics. One of the best ways to analyze and understand the genetic process is to study the mating patterns of Fruit Flies. Fruit Flies are wonderful organisms for genetic experiments because they reproduce quickly, produce large numbers of offspring, are easy to keep in the classroom, and have easily identifiable traits. After studying genetics, students can see the principles they learned about in action by crossing flies with different mutations and studying the results. However, this requires very detailed record keeping in order to keep all of the different crosses and their offspring organized. We are using the fruit flies to study sex-linked traits (traits that are on the sex chromosomes, usually X), sexual selection (if females preferentially mate with red-eyed or white-eyed males), and genetic drift (how the traits in a population can be influenced by chance events). It’s a great opportunity to prepare for more rigorous college labs!

Project Based Learning in Geometry

January 22, 2013 By:Alison McNee

One of our newer Chrysalis Students, loves building things. In his Geometry class he is studying three-dimensional objects made of polygonal faces. Instead of just reading about these shapes, our student set out to build his own, to truly experience it. There are only eighteen possible convex shaped where every face is a regular polygon. The shape he built, a rhombicosidodecahedron, consists of twenty squares (rhombuses) and twenty triangles arrayed in an dodecahedral shape with twelve pentagons arrayed in an icosahedral shape. Who said geometry couldn’t be fun?

Photosynthesis Biology Lab

January 15, 2013 By:Alison McNee

In this lab, students are looking at photosynthesis, which is the process plants use to create their own food. This is often considered the most important chemical reaction on the planet, because plants are the base of the food chain; even carnivores couldn’t survive without plants because they eat animals that ate plants. However, photosynthesis is a really complex reaction that takes place in multiple steps, and it is something that you can’t usually see happen.

We wanted to see it happen! What we did was use syringes to create a vacuum that forced the gases out of spinach leaves. This made them sink instead of float like they normally do. We then put them in a solution of baking soda and water and used lamps as a source of light energy, like the sun. The baking soda provides carbon dioxide. Plants need light energy, carbon dioxide, and water to make glucose (food). As plants do photosynthesis, they bring carbon dioxide gas into their cells and they release oxygen gas. This gas production makes them float again. So as they move from sinking to floating, you can literally watch them do photosynthesis!

Advanced Biology: BioExpo!

January 8, 2013 By:Alison McNee

We are excited to announce that this year, our Advanced Biology students are participating in a citywide program called BioExpo! This is a unique, hands-on opportunity for students to apply their science coursework and be mentored by a real-world expert. In this yearlong program, students choose a field of interest and contact a corresponding science professional to coach and instruct them for a final project. A few of the chosen mentors have included: Physical Therapists, Cancer Researchers, Sports Medicine Doctors, and PHD professors. One student has been invited to sit in on her professor’s college class, and another has received an ongoing hospital position, shadowing her mentor and gaining hands-on experience. These professional relationship builds great connections for the students and opens doors for future jobs.

Throughout this process students learn life skills such as; writing professional emails, practicing interviewing, time management, and organization. Students utilize OpenCourseWare from MIT’s Introduction to Biology throughout the program giving them a glimpse into the college class experience.

This Advanced Biology takes classroom learning to the next level. Check back in as we continue to follow our students progress.

Science Center Field Trip

December 18, 2012 By:Alison McNee

There’s nothing more exciting than seeing a butterfly break free from its Chrysalis and emerge into the world! On Friday, our South Campus students experienced this phenomenon first-hand on their monthly field trip at the Pacific Science Center. Our students enjoyed the day exploring new concepts, participating in exhibits and experiments while expanding their knowledge. The invigorating day came to an end by laying under the stars in the planetarium, watching the lights illuminate the skies and sharing observations from the day’s events.

Curriculum Night With a Twist

November 30, 2012 By:Alison McNee

Our second annual Foreign Language Curriculum Night was filled with cultural crafts, ethnic music and of course– delicious food made by our students! Guests were transported around the world with authentic cuisines and a *taste* of students’ studies. Posters and projects lined the walls, highlighting different countries and their cultures. Our host teachers tested student and parent knowledge on international topics with a game of “Who Wants to be an International Millionaire.” We were also serenaded by two of our students playing music inspired by a foreign language. The festivities ended viewing a fun and informative Japanese video demonstrating how to make origami. This night provided a little “spice” and lifted our spirits from the mid-autumn humdrums!