News Bytes

NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) held their national conference for 4,200 attendees in Seattle recently. SCDS teacher Ellie Peterson, school counselor Amy Colfelt, K-3 Division Head Jackie Bradley, and 4/5 Division Head Dan Sweeney (pictured L to R) were chosen to present their work on our school's anti-bullying policy.

Click HERE to view their presentation slides as a PDF>>

The SCDS Middle School Boy's Teams finish up the season with winning records:

The 8th grade team (pictured above) went an impressive 8-2 in the Cascade Middle School League this year, and a tenacious 4-3 in the CYO League. The team proceeds to the CYO playoffs this weekend. Congratulations on your great effort, and good luck in the playoffs!

The 6/7 grade boys finished out the season with a spectacular 11-0 record in the Cascade Middle School League. High fives to everyone for a job well done!

Middle school girls basketball teams are on fire! The 8th grade girls (pictured below) continue their incredible undefeated streak of 12 games spanning two seasons. The 6th graders are on a hot streak having won three games in a row, including a tough road game at Evergreen in early February.

On Saturday, January 28th, eighteen members of the SCDS Chess Club traveled to Medina to compete in the All-City Chess Tournament. Over 200 area students from Kindergarten through 6th Grade participated in this tournament.

SCDS students won the First Place Team Trophy in the 1st-3rd Grade Division! Our team edged out Open Window, Medina, Evergreen, Bear Creek, Lowell, Bush, Lakeridge and West Mercer to win this prestigious Chess Cup.

 

On Wednesday, December 14, Middle School students enjoyed a day of service. The 6th grade helped out feeding the homeless at the Compass Center with Operation Sack Lunch. The 7th grade sorted food for needy families at NW Harvest and the 8th grade helped Woodland Park with grounds keeping. SCDS families generously donated canned food and assorted clothing and toiletries items. 

It’s where a dozen students, some of the brightest Seattle has to offer, take inquiry-based learning to new heights. The classroom has rows of desks and lab stations behind them, but on the periphery are scrap PVC pipes, tape, plastic wheels, rubber bands, toilet paper tubes, wire, cardboard, plastic forks, tape-measures, spools of tubing and boxes of random junk. The scrap marks the starting point where students begin developing their experiential, spatial, problem-solving, creative and fine motor skills.

Continue reading at http://www.queenanneview.com/2011/11/09/engineering-a-scientific-historic-connetion/

 

Our MS 6-7 boys had another strong performance Thursday, as they defeated Eastside Prep 43-13. We were led by the hot shooting of Walker Frankenberg and Matthew Zinn, and dominant interior play by Noah Etzioni and Ryan Ressmeyer. A strong team defensive effort and a controlled offensive approach set the tone for the game. Matthew and John Randolph also contributed impressive 3-point shots. After starting the season strong, we are now looking forward to a short break as we prepare to finish equally as strong in the second half of the season.

MS 8th Grade Boys had a resounding win over Eastside Prep 38-18 with superior defense and shooting. They showed that great hustle and teamwork pays off!

FAR-OUT! Despite a damp and dark morning on October 21, our parent community still showed up in force for this year's Annual Giving Day. In just over an hour, we collected $81,723...and counting! We surpassed last year to break yet another record!

A huge thank you to everyone who got into the SCDS spirit and brought in their contributions or made pledges. We're well on our way to making our $375,000 goal, having raised a total of $212,000 thus far. Special thanks to our fabulous Chairs, Elle Lyons and Greg Jones, and to our swingin' Annual Fund Leadership Council volunteers for making this such a fun and fund-filled morning!

SCDS joined in the nation-wide celebration of  "Mix-It-Up Lunch Day" on Tuesday, October 18th for the second year in a row. The  Mix-It-Up Lunch Day goal is to break down boundaries between students, whether it be age, economic, race, religion, popularity or any other types of divisions that can keep peoples from understanding and respecting each other. Students and grade levels were "mixed and matched" and ate lunch at small tables in various classrooms. A few impressions:

Mix-it-Up Organizer, K-3 art teacher Winnie Young:  "I heard from a quiet kindergartener that he is quite taken by Alice Baggett after having lunch with her and other students in her tech room. He worked on a beautiful portrait of her during art class."

Librarian Debbie Pearson: "We had a great time in the library. A first grader very apologetically interrupted someone to point out a beautiful raptor circling just outside the library window. We all gazed in awe until the bird flew off. It was a worthy interruption of our table conversation."

K-3 Division Head Jackie Bradley: "As one of the kindergarten students left from eating lunch in my office she turned and smiled and said, 'This is the best day ever!'"

 

With the assistance of SCDS Emeritus faculty member JoAnn Sims, co-director of the World Friendship Center in Hiroshima, SCDS Head of School Michael Murphy brought nine paper cranes from SCDS (representing one for each grade level) that were formally installed at the Children's Memorial at Hiroshima Peace Park, August 4.  A statue of Sadako ( from the book "Sadako and a Thousand Paper Cranes") whose death from leukemia or "A-bomb disease" at age 11 galvanized a peace movement in Japan, sits on top of the memorial.  Each year, thousands of paper cranes are sent to the Peace Park from around the world, many from schoolchildren.

Last school year,  SCDS students folded 3,500 origami paper cranes as a fundraiser bringing in $9,000 for Japanese relief from last spring's devastating earthquake and tsunami.