First and Second Grade Campout

Dear camping families in K-1-2,

      The campout is almost here!  We’re really excited.  Here’s some information for you to help in planning.  The fee for the campout for your child is included in the annual activity fees.  If you have not paid the activity fee, please understand how important it is and pay now! The fee for the campout for other family members is $15.00 each person.  Children 3 and under are only $5.00.  Please pay by Friday May 14^th.  Pay your child’s teacher directly, please. 
      All three classes are going together. We will leave Thursday, May 20^th and return on Friday, May 21^st . We are staying in yurts at Cape Lookout, which sleep 8 rather cozily.  You will need to expect to share with another adult or 2.  What a great opportunity to meet new people!  The yurts have a queen bunk, extra large twin, and a queen futon.  You will need your own sleeping bags and pillows and maybe extra sleeping mats, but it’s mostly comfy.
      Due to the fact that we have 120 spaces in the yurts and if each child were to be accompanied by one adult that is 116 people, we are limited on our space.  We have booked two tent sites as well.  We would really like this to be a campout for the kids and one of their parents.  It is a time for them to bond and for parents to meet and bond as well.  If all family members come it changes the feel of the campout.  We would like to encourage all families to have their child attend and one adult family member.  If you cannot attend, you can decide if your child is ready for an away-from-home sleepover.  We would really like to discourage older siblings from attending as they completely change the experience of our campers.  We do understand that younger siblings may need to tag along.  Just remember it will be cozy.  If you really want to bring the whole family we would like you to rent your own campsite to assure your comfort and the comfort of the group.  You will still be welcome for meals and all group activities. We will have a pre-campout meeting on Monday, May 17^th to go over details before we leave.
       If you are driving please be here about 9:00 to load vehicles.  We will be staying at Cape Lookout state park again.  We can check into the group site right away. We have to wait until 4:00 or so to check into the individual yurt spots.  We can have one car at each yurt included in the cost.  Additional cars must have a parking permit which we will make sure you have.  Two at each yurt is the limit, otherwise parking is allowed in the overflow area with a fee too.  We will have structured and unstructured activities and meals and snacks.  We have to be checked out by 1:00 on Friday.
      We have a sign up sheet for our planning.  Please return these to us by Friday, May 7^th.  It is very difficult to estimate the amount of food and yurt assignments without necessary information.  Thanks for your help on this.  Any parents planning to attend have to complete a criminal background check form.  This is required by the Portland Public School district and Trillium.  We’re sure everyone will feel more confident knowing that we have documentation of no criminal history while other parents may be with your child. This form must be returned by Friday, April 30^th.  We need time to process them so that we have the information back in time for the campout. If we do not have one completed you cannot attend.  If you have one from last year you do not have to fill it out again.
      Each year water safety is an issue.  We are at the beach, but none of us are lifeguards.  We invite you to enjoy beachcombing or playing on the beach but children can only enter the water up to their knees if an adult is holding their hand.  We really cannot have exceptions to this rule.  It really is a matter of life and death.  If you want to stay at the campground and extra day and play according to the guidelines that your family feels comfortable with that’s great.  However, we need the adult supervision in the water rule to be followed by all.
      DO NOT Bring electronic games.  Also, although you may allow your child to use a knife while camping with your family this is a school outing and therefore dictates that knives are NOT allowed.  Please do not bring them or any other potentially dangerous items.  If your child were to bring one, or exhibits behavior that is unsafe to themselves or others they will have consequences that could include leaving the campout.  Bring along acoustic musical instruments if you have them.  This should be fun!  Let us know if you have any further questions.

Children should bring the following items, MARKED WITH PERMANENT MARKER, in an easy to pack bag.  Space is limited when driving to the coast.

• Sleeping bag
• Pillow, if needed
• Flashlight
• Coat – Windproof is best
• 3 Pairs Pants
• 3 Shirts
• 2 pair shoes
• 5 pair socks
• 4 pair underwear (more if your child has problems in this area)
• Pajamas
• Towel
• Bag to keep it all in
• Board games, kite, Frisbee, beach game (optional)
• Toothbrush & toothpaste
• Optional – sleeping mat

Last week of the 2010 Raffle!

Only one more week to sell raffle tickets!!

Our overall goal is $20,000 and so far $5,000 has been raised. There are approximately 200 families at Trillium; if every family sells 20 tickets, we can get there.

This our our school's main fundraiser. We've moved to a raffle, instead of an auction, so that we can reach out to the community... often an auction raises money mostly from families already within a given school. Also, it allows folks to contribute in smaller increments; $5.00 at a time, rather than $25 (or more) per person to get into an auction, then whatever money to bid on auction items. That can be out of reach for a lot of families; a $5.00 ticket may not be.

Thanks for all your hard work collecting donations and selling tickets so far... now let's bring it home!

P.S. Your friendly neighborhood liaison (me) will be working the Raffle Central table most afternoons this week. Stop by and check out some tickets! :)

Trillium Front Yard - Cob Wall & Gate - Meeting 5/1

Oh, but it's coming together beautifully!!

This is the latest draft of our Trillium Front Yard design: a curvy cob wall, with small benches inside and out, some planting spaces, a metal gate, and community bulletin board.

Notable changes from the previous draft:

• the planned roof structures over bike parking in the northwest corner, and the gathering corner in the southwest corner will wait for now (perhaps to be added this summer or fall).
• the gate has been moved a few feet south and angled, to allow for better access from the driveway (e.g., for an ambulance); a nice side benefit is that the gate now points to the front door.
• instead of small roofs over the top of the wall -- to protect the cob structure from rain -- the top will have wood shakes imbedded, which will shed the rain; it should be easier to build, and less visually cluttered to boot.
  

The next meeting is this coming Saturday, May 1, from 1:00 - 4:00 pm. Folks are needed for four main groups:

1. Artist and design types will create a scale clay model of the cob wall we want to build.
2. Welders (and those who want to learn) will begin to design and plan the 12 foot still fence.
3. A group will organize volunteers for the upcoming work parties, and find ways to encourage local businesses to participate in our effort.
4. Those with construction interest and experience will plan the foundation of the cob wall; the foundation needs to be in place before May 28th.
   

Remember: Village Building Convergence, the 10-day event when we'll build our awesome project, is May 28 - June 6. See you there!

Got Tickets?

Sooo... our goal for the raffle is $20,000. Amount currently turned in? Only $2500. Yikes!!

If you haven't done so, please stop by Raffle Central (the table just inside the front doors) and sign out some tickets to sell to friends, neighbors, family, or you know, the stranger walking by with their dog. These are *awesome* prize collections, worth between $1413 and $3039, and the tickets are just $5.00.

Ways people have sold tickets:

• sent an email to everyone on their contact list (*)
• set up a table at the Columbia Park Bike Fair
• placed a printed "table tent" on their desk at work, and talked to coworkers
  
• set up a display at place of worship
• talked to biking neighbors about Alternative Transportation tickets
  
• talked to folks with great gardens about Gardening tickets
• posted info on their Facebook page
  

Thanks for all your help so far; let's work to make this raffle a great success!


(*) To purchase a ticket, the buyer must be in the state of Oregon at the time of sale. So perhaps one can leave out-of-state friends and family off any mass emails. :)

Re-Imagining Trillium: From Ideas into Action 4/17

On Saturday April 17th (from 9:30 am to noon) we will be breaking up into teams to help plan for the big work party (May 28th-June 6th). While we will be working with City Repair and The Mud Girls (a collective of cob designers and builders), there is much that our community needs to do to get ready for this big construction project.

• The Design Team will be working to finalize cob structure ideas.
  
• The Fundraising Team will be working to find ways to go out into the community to encourage involvement.
  
• The Volunteer Team will be working to find people to help.
  
• The Materials Team will be working to secure materials for the project.

Please join us. We need your help and support! EVERYONE is encouraged to come.

(from an April 6 email by Rob VanNood, 3-4-5 teacher and Reimagining Trillium lead organizer)

Re-Imagining Trillium: May 28 - June 6

Save the Dates! May 28 - June 6

These are the dates of a huge work party at Trillium, when we'll transform the empty parking lot into an amazing courtyard enclosure. Our work party will be one of many across Portland, part of the Village Building Convergence organized by City Repair Project.

There are four goals this year:

1. Cob wall and metal gate along Interstate Ave.
   
2. Gathering corner, with bench seating and roof
   
3. Fencing between Trillium and IFCC
   
4. Removal of chain-link fence that divides playground from current parking lot

We'll have help from outside Trillium -- labor, material, food donations -- as well as from within. Students, teachers, parents and friends of Trillium will all be needed to make this magical transformation. In fact, right now we need the services of an engineer: if you have these skills or know a family member or friend that may, please share!

See you there May 28 - June 6!!

P.S. Support the Trillium Seed Company! These are 3-4-5 students who sell packets of seeds for $1.00 before and after school daily. All profits benefit the Re-Imagining Trillium Project!

Time to sell Trillium in Bloom raffle tickets!

It's time for the Annual Trillium in Bloom Raffle. Buy a ticket—or 10! Encourage everyone you know to buy a ticket. Take a chance on winning fabulous prizes! Click the links below for a description of each basket, all of which are awesome.

• Alternative Transportation
  
• Cooking & Kitchen
• Gardening
• Best of Portland
  

There are 1000 tickets for each basket, and each ticket costs $5. If we sell all 4000 tickets, we'll raise **$20,000** for Trillium! Raffle tickets are on sale through the month of April; the drawing will be held on Friday, May 7, and four lucky winners will be chosen.

Stop by Raffle Central in the front lobby to purchase tickets for yourself, or sign out tickets to sell to friends, neighbors and coworkers.

Spread the word about Trillium Charter School to the broader community. And raise much-needed funds for our wonderful K-12 public school!


P.S. The class that sells the most tickets wins a $100 gift certificate for its teacher; second place scores $50 for the teacher.

Run for the Arts on Fri, 4/23

Trillium is once again participating in the Run for the Arts jogathon, on Friday, April 23rd. (The rain date is one week later, 4/30.)

Here's a description from their web site:

"Run For The Arts is an opportunity for schools to raise the funds that make it possible to bring artists into their classrooms, pay for field trips to see performances and exhibitions and purchase art supplies. It is an annual jogathon conducted by individual schools throughout Oregon & SW Washington and coordinated by Young Audiences. Students secure pledges for laps run, earn points, win prizes and raise funds to ensure the arts are present in their school."

Look for opportunities to volunteer; one or two people are needed for each class, to mark the number of laps a child has run or walked.

Booster Seats & More Drivers for 4/7

A reminder: if your child uses a booster seat in the car, bring one to school tomorrow. It will be needed for the rides to and from the play, "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!"

Drivers are still needed, as well. At the end of school today, Brian's sign-up sheet listed room for only 10 students. If you can help, please let Brian know.

Arts & Architecture reference links

Students in grades 1 & 2 have been participating in rotating Arts & Architecture classes since early March. This week begins another 2-week session, and the topics are (1) Bridges, (2) Sky Scrapers, and (3) Landscape Painting.

Here are some online references to use if you'd like:

www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/
great site for both bridges & skyscrapers; interactive labs and challenges. Make sure to check out the "Webology" section for both bridges and skyscrapers, which provide more online resources.

www.emporis.com/application/?nav=skyscrapers
more info about the tallest skyscrapers

www.skyscraper.org/WHAT%27S_UP/COOL_STUFF/coolstuff.htm
fun Flash animations about tall vs. large buildings; also map of New York City skyscrapers, and how the city grew in time

www.artprojectsforkids.org/2008/03/acrylic-dry-brush-landscape-painting.html
describes some basic techniques for layering colors with acrylic paints, how to use accent colors

painting.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&zTi=1&sdn=painting&cdn=hobbies&tm=120&f=00&tt=14&bt=1&bts=0&st=23&zu=http%3A//www.hitentertainment.com/artattack/cheatslandscape.html
step-by-step tutorial for drawing a rural landscape; includes some neat tips on creating perspective

Field Trip! **Drivers needed**

Show time! The kids are headed to Northwest Children's Theater on Thursday to take in a play. We are leaving at 11:25 for a 12:00 show, and should be back by 1:30.

Here's the thing: drivers are urgently needed. So far? No one has signed up. Yikes! So, please sign up outside the classroom if you can drive. Thanks!