Our Primary students have had a fun week full of celebrations and presentations.
Noelle’s Tea Party
Our Primary students have been working with Noelle in Language Arts this month on “All About Me” books, which are books all about their interests and what they want to learn. After school on Thursday, they presented their books to their parents. Afterward, they had blooming tea, piu cakes and rice crackers, and played “mystery bag.” For the rest of the year, Noelle will plan units around what the students said they want to learn!
Las Azaleas Presentation
This Friday, Las Azaleas from the Fox Theater came to Kino to perform mariachi music for our students! They learned about what a guitarrón is and had a lot of fun dancing to the music. The Primary are excited to see the performers on stage next week with Vane at the Fox Theater for Fiesta!
Some of our high school students earn community service hours by working as teacher’s assistants! It is a great opportunity for older students to develop job skills and build stronger relationships with younger students. Check out Madeleine helping Buffy, a primary student, with Math.
Joseph (left) has been gaining work experience as an intern in our afterschool program. He helps Jade and Amber plan activities for the students, maintain logs, and facilitate games.
Primary Trip To the Gem and Mineral Museum
Mike took the primary kids on a field trip to the University of Arizona’s Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum! It was a hands-on exhibit with a natural history collection spotlighting minerals from Arizona and Mexico.
Project Week was a massive success this year! Check out the impressive creations of our students. These are just a handful of the dozens of workshops and projects offered this year. There were also fabric arts, movie workshops, writing projects, origami, cooking, baking, digging a new mechanic bay in the shop, and so many more that we cannot fit them into one newsletter.
Beautifying the Playground!
Check out the before and after shots of the playground painting project. Danae brought her talents to a mini mural that mirrors the desert views from the basketball court.
Foursquare Court, Before and After!
Shout-out to Rowan, Noah K, Tre, Bee, and Fey for their turning the foursquare court from messy to magical with their bold colorful designs.
LEGO Race Car Competition
Charlie put on a very popular LEGO race car building workshop culminating in a race.
Wheel-throwing Workshops
Students and teachers alike took advantage of the wheelthrowing opportunities Vanessa and Kaitie offerred all week, turning out some incredible pottery.
Beading and Bracelet Making
Jen K’s students are decked out in their beaded creations.
Dirty Pot Dying With Devin
Banyon’s mom, Devin, led a plant-based dying workshop. Look at the unique shirts and scarves our students created!
Making Cuneiform Tablets
Noelle taught our primary scholars about the ancient history of writing with this hands-on clay project. We can’t wait to see what their cuneiform etchings will look like once the pictographic tablets have been fired in the kiln!
Throughout this school year, Serena and Vanessa met with the junior high and high school students every so often, which served as a space to discuss students’ questions and concerns, and express what kinds of topics they would like workshops to address. As part of this, they also implemented anonymous mailboxes, one in the library and one near Serena’s desk, for any student to submit anonymous notes, suggestions, and concerns, if needed. They got both some cute and serious ones!
In anonymous surveys, many junior high and high school students requested to learn about stress, mental health, and conflict resolution. In March, TeenLifeline came for a set of three workshops to talk about stress and coping skills (JH and HS), conflict resolution (JH), and suicide prevention (HS).
College and Career Support
Serena took older high schoolers to a college fair last month. To aid in the college application process, Serena also created a 10 page guide to applying to college that is featured on Kino’s parent page on the website. It includes information about tests such as the PSAT, finding a school and major, the application, financial aid, and school resources. Serena also collaborates with Vanessa about the students’ post-graduation plans, and is always available to help students and families through the application process, whether it’s for college, technical education, or jobs.
Another major focus of Serena’s is making sure all kids are receiving age-appropriate comprehensive sex education. Since there is no sex education teacher and class, for older kids this largely took the form of a set of various workshops and presenters. In the fall, the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault (SACASA) came to talk to both JH and HS about consent and sexual assault, then Esperanza Dance Project (EDP) came for a powerful multimedia presentation about similar topics just for high school. A graduate student studying human sexuality came to talk to both JH and HS about anatomy, identity, sex, and sexuality. Southern Arizona Aids Foundation (SAAF) came for two workshops just for high school, the first talking about STIs and HIV, and the second about safe sex and contraception.
We are so grateful for all that Serena does for Kino! 😍
This week’s newsletter is part 1 of a new newsletter segment called Counselor’s Corner all about the work our counselor has been doing this year! Part 1 will showcase their amazing work with Primary and Midlevel, as well as homerooms.
Last year, Kino got our first ever counselor, Serena! Though they are only able to come in two days a week, they’re excited to be part of the team and have been a wonderful addition to our community, adding many services and benefits for our students.
Homeroom Visits
In pursuit of building and strengthening emotional regulation and friendship skills for students of all ages, Serena has done a series of homeroom visits, involving reading a book and doing an activity. The books in chronological order were Have You Filled A Bucket Today?, Moody Cow, and Giraffes Can’t Dance. The content of these books are more geared for younger kids, although all ages can enjoy and benefit, and older students were encouraged to act as role models for the younger ones and some junior high and high school students even helped Serena read the book aloud! ‘Have You Filled A Bucket Today?’ addressed friendship and kindness; Moody Cow was focused on emotional regulation; and Giraffes Can’t Dance touched on self-esteem, accepting others/your own differences, and the importance of persistence.
Serena’s Workshops
Serena talked to primary and mid-level, separately, about bodies, consent, and appropriate touch in terms of age and setting. They went over scientifically accurate names of body parts and identifying the more private parts of our bodies, then talked about appropriate vs inappropriate touch (such as hugs and gentle tagging vs hitting/kicking or touching others private parts) and how to make sure consent is present. Emphasis was placed on the necessity of both conditions, being appropriate and giving consent, to be met. The primary kids were super engaged, interested, interactive, and respectful! They requested to do a lot of role plays where they got to practice asking and giving consent for various types of appropriate touch.
High school theater aficionado, Reese, started an improv club this semester! Junior high and high school kids have been meeting every Tuesday in the library to cultivate their improv skills. They play classic theater games like “Yes and…” and work on core improv skills like not upstaging your scene partner and telling a cohesive story. According to Miguel (left) improv club is always fun!
Upgrading the Library!
Everyone who has seen the Kino library cannot miss how cool it is -from the loft to the murals to the cozy nooks! What you may not see is how desperately it needed an overhaul. Our resident librarian, Cézanne, has been working tirelessly along with her Library Projects class to evaluate, re-organize, and curate our collection of books. Some of their goals include developing a robust and up to date reference section for classes to use, as well as designing eye catching and engaging displays that reflect the interests of Kino’s students!
This week, Library Projects students learned all about the art of discerning whether a historical book is well-researched and a good source of information. For example, it is important to stock books with accurate accounts of indigenous life and culture. They learned how to use the American Indian Library Association’s resource to identify books that are solid historical accounts that do not contain misinformation.
Meanwhile, Caroline and Serena worked on adding modern perspectives on mental health and neurodiversity to our library. There are now fiction stories, reference books, and memoirs for all reading levels and age groups that address topics like ADHD, Autism, and philosophy.
