This year both our seniors, Diego and Nico, are working with Charlie to add workshops to the Animal Center for their Senior Projects!
Nico is adding a Kino Department of Land Management Headquarters (DLM) on the west side of the woodworking/storage building. Nico founded and leads the DLM, which is devoted to maintaining and preserving the trails and desert on our 10 acres of property. This outdoor office/classroom space will be used for Kino DLM meetings. So far, Nico and Charlie have made a frame for pouring concrete and installed water lines. They also plan to add half-walls to the south and west sides of the space, and Nico is having a custom sign made for the space. Jack, a freshman, has been helping with both projects for community service, and he will get the Presidential Volunteer Service Award this year for all the community service he’s done!
Diego is adding a Welding/Shop space to the east side of the building. He also made a frame for pouring concrete and installed water lines. Diego is passionate about shop and welding, and he hopes to pursue that for a future career. Diego and Charlie recently brought all the shop and metalworking supplies and tools down to the Animal Center so that we can have a dedicated space for Industrial Arts. While shop students have started welding at the Animal Center, there wasn’t a flat space to work. Diego’s outdoor classroom space will be perfect for welding and shop projects for future classes!
Charlie has been spending weekends helping Diego and Nico finish these laborious senior projects, and they will be pouring concrete this weekend. We’re so excited to see the finished products in May!

This week, Dawn and Caroline took their Anatomy and Physiology, Human Nature, and Psychology classes to U of A’s Flandrau Science Center to their Psychology Discovery exhibit. Students were able to participate in a series of hands-on activities on a variety of topics, including “sensation/perception, memory, social psychology, wellbeing/emotion, and the functions of neurons in the brain.” Some highlights from the trip were wearing immersion goggles while playing catch, a timed assembly of brain models (Joan won!), participating in a social conformity activity, and getting to see an EEG of Caroline’s brain. The kids had so much fun that Caroline is already thinking of how to host our own series of brain games during project week! 

This year, in addition to teaching Spanish and music, Cezanne has also taken on the role of Kino Librarian. She’s got a troupe of volunteers, self-titled the “Library Gremlins,” that have been helping her upkeep the library, shelve books, clean, decorate, and make displays. Andrew and Nico even designed a fully operational book pulley to the loft so that books could easily be transported up and down. They used it to bring the chess table up!
This month they put a variety of black authors on display in honor of Black History month. They’ve also been working on posters to celebrate Love of Reading month. Today, they went on a field trip to Bookmans to buy books and do market research on the most popular books to get for the library. Nathan was their 50th customer of the day and got his books for free! 

On Wednesday, February 14th, we are inviting students to come in wearing PJs and with their favorite book. If they don’t have a book, Cezanne and her library gremlins organized a “Blind Date with a Book” activity, where students are encouraged to “not judge a book by its cover” and pick one of their wrapped books to read. Robert Bonilla, a parent and firefighter, will come in to read to the kids in the afternoon.

Many of you may have noticed Mary Jane’s absence recently. Mary Jane has been a fixture at Kino for decades, first as a Homeroom Teacher, then the Director, and most recently as the Primary Language Arts teacher.  Unfortunately, due to health issues, Mary Jane will be unable to return as the Primary Language Arts teacher this year. She wrote this message for the community:

This week the Primary kids went to visit Mary Jane. She talked to them about not returning. She showed them a book called Prickly Pear by Jen Tucker (a friend of Kassia’s!). They also shared books they wrote with her, had ice cream, and played with her (terrified) cats. We know the Primary kids all miss her, and we plan to visit once a month. We also hope she’ll still be able to come in and volunteer when she’s feeling well enough. 

Lyra Rahner, Cezanne’s sister and a former Kino student, will be taking over for Mary Jane until the end of the year. Lyra graduated from the University of Arizona in 2022 with a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She has been a Kino Aftercare teacher, and currently she’s been subbing for us when she isn’t working at Laboratory of Tree Ring Research. Lyra will be working with Mary Jane to make the Primary lesson plans, and despite the sad circumstances, she’s excited to work with our wonderful Primary kiddos. 
It is hard to imagine Kino without Mary Jane. Kino has been lucky to have had such a dedicated, passionate leader and teacher. Kino wouldn’t have been Kino without her! Thank you for all your years of hard work Mary Jane. You’ll be missed. 

This week, the theater students performed three original skits at the Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre (located in the Historic Y downtown). Their teacher, Zac, spent the semester helping them collaborate to write their own takes on classic fairy tales. 

To prepare for the performance, students had a dress rehearsal in the theater. They learned their lighting cues, stage directions, prop use, and blocking. They also did a lot of warm-up activities to help teach them to project their voices and get comfortable on stage.

The first skit, put on by Joan, Grey, and Zach, was a reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood. In their version, a kind wolf wants to befriend Little Red, and unsuccessfully tries to win her favor with a series of presents. The wolf’s human grandfather tries to give the wolf advice, but all their plans fail. In the end, the wolf realizes he’d be better off going somewhere where people like him and leaves town.

The next skit, put on by Kat, Mari, Sierra, Janeya, and McKayla, is a spin-off of The Three Little Pigs, with a touch of Frankenstein. A mad scientist, obsessed with birds, accidentally turns themself into a snake when their bird potion is sabotaged. The now-snake scientist visits three birds; they are able to eat the first two birds, and they turn a scarecrow to life to help catch the third bird. However, the third bird, a crow, outsmarts the scientist-snake, and a group of crows attack and defeat the evil scientist. 

The final of the three skits, put on by Grace, Lailah, Brian, and Reese, is a modern take on The Gingerbread Man. A gingerbread cookie named Gingi, fresh out of the oven, emerges and is immediately labeled a “Gingerbread Man.” However, Gingi spends the rest of the play confused as to why a cookie would be labeled a “man” (or “woman”). After meeting a baby cow and an elder pig, who both are confused by Gingi’s refusal to be a “gingerbread man,” Gingi meets a wise fox and travels to a land of (gluten-free) bakers where they can live comfortably as a cookie.