Sacajawea Receives Playground Grant from Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation

The students at Sacajawea are looking forward to an upgrade to their playground equipment, made even better by the generous support of the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation.  The foundation distributes charitable funds donated by the employees of Blue Cross of Idaho.  As the primary partner in the Sacajawea community school initiative, the United Way of Treasure Valley wrote a grant on behalf of the students at the school to help us upgrade our playground equipment.  Much of our equipment is decades old, and some of it is becoming unsafe. 

The district plans to invest about $65,000 of the district plant facilities levy funds to help upgrade our equipment.  This generous $10,000 grant by the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation will allow us to do even more to provide our students with a fun, healthy and safe playground experience.  Representatives from Blue Cross, United Way, the Caldwell School District, the City of Caldwell, and Sacajawea Elementary were present for the grant announcement and delivery of the check.

Construction of the new playground equipment is scheduled for this summer.

Nora Carpenter, President and CEO of United Way of Treasure Valley talked about the partnership they have with Caldwell School District and about the community school initiative at Sacajawea Elementary.

Dave Jeppesen, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Blue Cross of Idaho spoke about the Blue Cross employees supporting this project through their donations to the foundation.

Justin Roth, a Blue Cross employee, talked about why the project at Sacajawea was selected, and the value of providing great places for kids in our community to play.  He spoke specifically about spending time with family and friends around the Sacajawea campus.

Mayor Garret Nancolas talked about the value of schools and community partnerships.

Sacajawea student council members receive the big check on behalf of United Way and the Caldwell School District.

Sacajawea’s Family STEM Night was Fun for All!

It was so fun hearing the happy families and watching them conduct experiments on our Family STEM Night.  They were able to make ocean habitats, build cup phones, dissect plants, build bridges, measure their pulse rate, and build constellations.

We also had Deer Flat National Refuge, Micron, Caldwell High School Robotics Club, Caldwell City Wastewater Treatment Plant and  Caldwell Police Department attend to show experiments and give out information.  Thank you to the Idaho STEM Action Center for providing a grant that paid for the supplies for each student to do an in-class experiment and each grade level to have the supplies for the interactive science experiments.  The evening of experiments was capped by a chili dog dinner.

College of Idaho's Planetarium Visits Sacajawea!

Thanks to a grant from the Idaho STEM Action Center, Sacajawea had the privilege of renting the College of Idaho mobile planetarium on October 24. The fifth grade students had lessons about the Greek and Native American Constellations prior to the visit. All grades had the opportunity to visit the planetarium while it was at the school.  Please join us on Thursday evening, November 2nd, from 6:00pm to 7:30pm to see and conduct more STEM activities.  Thanks to the Idaho STEM Action Center for funding the materials for these science activities! 

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Gracias a una beca del Centro de Acción STEM de Idaho, Sacajawea tuvo el privilegio de alquilar el planetario móvil del College of Idaho el 24 de octubre. Los estudiantes de quinto grado tuvieron lecciones sobre las Constelaciones Griega y Nativo Americanas antes de la visita. Todos los grados tuvieron la oportunidad de visitar el planetario mientras estaba en la escuela. Vengan el jueves 2 de noviembre por la tarde, de 6:00 p.m. a 7:30 p.m., para ver y hacer más actividades de STEM. ¡Gracias al Centro de Acción STEM de Idaho por financiar los materiales para estas actividades científicas!

Teaching About the Solar Eclipse!

Having a solar eclipse in our area became quite a unique teachable moment!  Students did several activities in class activities to learn about solar eclipses.  Some of them included:

• Watching videos explaining what occurs during a solar eclipse 
• Building models of the moon orbiting the earth and the earth revolving around the sun
• Testing how the moon’s shadow could fall on the earth with a flashlight (the sun), a ball of clay (the moon), and an orange (for the earth)
• Studying and testing that shadows move based on the position of the sun in our sky
• Mimicking and drawing the stages of contact during an eclipse using Oreo cookies 

Many students watched the solar eclipse with their families.  When talking about it in class the next day, one girl said, “It looked like the moon took a bite out of the sun!”  Another boy said, “It was the best day of my life!”
Our staff would like to thank Donor’s Choose for donating the glasses so families could look at the eclipse safely.

4th Grade Trip to Celebration Park

4th graders enjoyed their field trip to Celebration Park! A big thank you to the parents who chaperoned and made it possible! Pictures of wikiup, Guffy Bridge, and throwing the atlatl.

Grants for Science

Congratulations to Sacajawea Elementary for receiving two grants. Each grant will fund science experiments for all students and an interactive family event. The Family Science Night, sponsored by Micron, will be held at the school from 6:00 to 7:30 on May 12th. The Family STEM Night, sponsored by the Idaho STEM Action Center, will be held next fall. Thank you to Mary Friddle and Kathy Braun for writing these grants.

Sacajawea Receives $10,000 Science Grant

During our awards assembly on October 24th, Sacajawea Elementary was presented with a $10,000 check from the Monsanto Fund. This will fund a project we call "Scientific Inquiry as a Gateway to Reading, Writing, and Math."

Elissa W, Yasmine V, Callie Mae W, and Juliana H (Left to right above) were selected to receive the check on behalf of the school. They have already demonstrated excellent online writing skills through their classroom blogging project in 3rd grade and through their online writing projects in 5th grade. Brett Lolley, Project Manager at Monsanto Seeds in Nampa, presented the check during our school awards ceremony.

Mr. Miller and Mr. Webster worked together to write the grant application this spring, before we left for summer vacation. We will implement hands-on scientific inquiry units at each grade level. The most important aspects of each unit will be building student inquiry skills and the knowledge and curiosity on which to build future scientific investigations. In addition, we will use these units to provide leverage for increasing student reading, writing, and math achievement. A special emphasis will be placed on internet-based nonfiction reading and high quality writing, supporting the Common Core State Standards. We will purchase another small mobile computer lab that can be moved from class to class to engage our students in authentic online written communication through blogging and other formats.

Why do we want to do this science and technology project?

• Because students need to have a strong understanding of science to be successful in the next generation. 
• Because science is naturally engaging to students. Inquiry skills need to be developed beginning early in our school careers (as early as preschool and kindergarten). 
• Because one of the most important skills for success in the next generation will be clear written communication.

See a news article about this at The Press Tribune.