CCHS
Students in Kirsten Ritchie’s Special Topics class used their observation and evidence-collection skills to investigate multiple crime scenes around campus. Ritchie started the day with an all-staff email stating, “Our campus had a lot of crime occur last night, and our teachers are stressed. No need to fear. Our student forensics team is on it.” Students wore official badges and were required to examine each crime scene, find trace evidence for further analysis, interview witnesses around campus, and use proper crime scene protocols. “For students to fully understand and learn the concepts of this lesson, I wanted to apply as many real-life applications to this assignment as possible,” said Ritchie. Students and staff throughout campus had a great day trying to solve each crime. “It is always so fun when our teachers do lessons that are not only hands-on for their students but get other staff and students involved as well,” said Vice Principal Reema Pulsifer.
CCMS
Last year, CCMS started a new tradition that is back for the 2023-2024 school year. Every week, the students and staff nominate a staff member who demonstrates school-wide expectations as the Gerka Staff of the Week. At the beginning of each week, a Google form is sent to students and staff to nominate someone deserving. Last week, the staff nominated Julie Dolan. One of the staff members shared in their nomination that "She is always here early and goes home late, and she always has excellent activities with the kiddos." The students nominated Courtney Aguilera. One student who nominated her said, “She makes learning fun, and she is a really great teacher.” Each week, different staff members will be selected, and the roving Gerkas' will be passed to the subsequent recipients.
Numa
Students in Trudy Mills’ and Lisa Solinski's fifth-grade classes learned how shadows change throughout the day. They traced and measured their shadows and used a sun tracker to see how shadows changed direction and length in one day. “We are using these activities to help students understand the movement of the sun across the sky and the Earth's rotation,” said Mills.
E.C. Best
Students in Melissa Humphrey’s class learned about Constitution Day. They colored a picture of George Washington and made a book about the Constitution. On September 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met for the last time to sign the document they had created. Every year on September 17, Americans observe this important day in our nation's history. “I feel like it is essential for us, as teachers, to celebrate Constitution Day in our schools through activities so our young students, the future leaders of our nation, establish an appreciation for the United States of America and the freedoms our Founding Fathers secured for us,” said Humphrey.
Lahontan
Julieann Chappell’s first-grade class has talked a lot about feelings, and the students have had to learn how to identify different emotions in the stories they read. This last week, they read “Corduroy Goes to School.” “We have been focusing on identifying feelings because being aware of different emotions can help young students know how to talk about their feelings more openly and clearly,” said Chappell. The characters in the books the class has read all experienced different feelings like hunger, sadness, fatigue, happiness, etc. In “Corduroy Goes to School,” students discussed the different emotions they thought Corduroy experienced at school during the day. “He had a lot of good feelings. Like being happy, comfortable, excited, and playful. A lot of the same feelings I have when I am at school, too. We are similar,” said student Harper Ritchie.
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