Field Trip Information!!

Dear Parents,

The end of the STAR program is quickly approaching! This will be a busy last week of the program for students and staff. Several remindres for this week are included below.

Ropes Course Reminders:

• Label all items with your child's name


• Bring LOTS of cold water


• Bring a sack lunch


• Dress comfortably, wear closed-toe athletic shoes and socks, hats are recommended


• Wear sunscreen, and bring sunscreen to re-apply


• Students will return from the field trip at approximatly 1:30 p.m. Please pick up your student in front of Centennial Middle School.


• LIMITED bus stops will be available at the following locations: Pueblo, Aprende, KMS, Elliot Point Apartments, Guadalupe Mercado, and Baseline stops at Safeway and Wal-Mart.

If your child will be absent this week, please call Amanda at 480-783-2505 during program hours or email at ahamm@kyrene.org

Field Trip

Parents and students,

Half of our group will be attending the high ropes course on Tuesday and the other half will attend on Wednesday. A few reminders of what students need to bring and wear for the field trip.

* Sack lunch
* Water
* Closed toe sneakers
* Sunscreen
* Hat
* Towel (optional) the last event, will involve water!

If your child will be absent please remember to call the attendance line at 783-2468.

STAR Students

We asked four STAR students what they like best about the program, here is what they had to say. Thank you students for sharing with us!

Touching Spirit Bear

We have continued reading the book, Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen. Cole is an angry teen who has agreed to live on a remote island in Alaska instead of serving time in jail for his crime. Cole thinks he’s taking the easy way out. Little does he know what awaits him on the island.

After an unsuccessful attempt at swimming away from the island, Cole confronts the Spirit Bear, and is badly mauled. As he lies near death, Cole begins to see the beauty in the world for the first time in his life, and chooses to do anything he can in order to survive.

Garvey and Edwin return to the island a couple of days later to find Cole in bad shape, and half dead. They take Cole to the nearby village to get him patched up. No one believes that Cole saw a Spirit Bear. Cole finally realizes that it’s time he stops lying, and promises himself to tell the truth from now on.
After six months of surgeries, and rehab, Cole finally leaves the hospital to return to the detention center. While he’s there, the Justice Circle meets, and is persuaded by Edwin and Garvey to let Cole return to the island under certain conditions. Cole must sell all his belonging to finance his stay on the island.

Cole returns to the island with Edwin and Garvey. Cole learns many lessons from these men as he begins to build his shelter, and prepare for a year- long banishment. Cole no longer has the use of his right arm due to the mauling, and struggles to complete the shelter. His biggest challenge is to overcome the fear of being alone. Edwin teaches Cole that happiness and anger are habits. Cole must learn to “roll away” his anger, which he begins to do as he starts each day soaking in a freezing pond, then climbing a mountain with a huge rock. Edwin teaches Cole how to dance at night by the fire. They dance the whale dance, and later Cole dances the wolf dance.

Each time, Cole reflects on the lessons he has learned.
Cole finds a log, and first begins to make a canoe, then realizes his error, and begins to carve a totem. When we left off on our reading today, Cole has established a daily routine on the island. Cole know that he needs to dance the dance of anger, but he isn’t ready. His biggest challenge is yet to come! Check back next week to find out how Cole finds out what it means to be “invisible.” You won’t believe who comes to stay on the island with Cole!

Math Week 3

Today's post by Susie Sosa, STAR Math Teacher:

It was another exciting week at STAR in the math department! We can’t believe that we are in our third week already. The students have been busy little “adults” in the world of life. After successfully purchasing homes, or renting apartments, purchasing cars and the dreadful insurance that goes with that car, the students are figuring just how far their paychecks will go. We have moved from the computer lab back into the classroom to punch the numbers on their calculators.

First, the students had to figure out how much they would be paying in utilities. This was done by drawing three dollar amounts for each utility they needed. The utilities included electricity, phone, cable TV, and the internet. Sorry, we didn’t figure out the cost of a cell phone and text messaging, maybe that will come next year. After drawing their dollar amounts, the students figured out the mean of the three numbers for each utility, and that was their final cost.

Each student received their own checkbooks followed by a lesson on how to fill out a deposit slip, the proper way to write a check, and how to fill out a check register. After recording their starting monthly income, each student needed to write a check for each utility, then keep a running total of their monthly expenses in their check registers. The students were AMAZED at how fast their money was spent, and how little was left after paying all their bills. WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!!!!!

The end of this week the students will be reviewing rates and ratios, then take what they have learned back into the computer lab to start shopping again. They will log onto different grocery story websites and begin purchasing food for their families. After filling their cabinets with food, they will move onto the other necessities of life, shoes and clothing.

The students seem to be enjoying finding out just what it takes to run a household, and they are commenting on how expensive life really is. They have all been working so hard and are proud of the purchases they have made so far. Please take the time to ask your children about their purchases and what they have learned. They have come so far in just three short weeks. As always, thank you for sharing your students with us, it has been a pleasure teaching them about Math in the Real World!

STAR Leadership, Week Two

Robert Harding, STAR Leadership Teacher summerizes the conclusion of week two of the STAR Summer Program:

Our second week together, Star Leadership classes continues to go and your student’s continue to grow. This week, Star Leadership classes shared examples of things we like, and learned how much we have in common, as well as how to accept each of our differences. We examined things in life we can control, and things we can’t control. By the way Mom, some of our students believe they can control the dinner you make. That might make a good topic for discussion?

We are looking further into choice making. We have learned that the Event + Response = Outcome (ERO), and regardless of the event, we have the freedom to choose our response however we see fit. Our response can influence the outcome. Another influence we examined, when it comes to choice making, is peer pressure. Students took a survey about their friends and we examined their friends influence on them. For some, I feel, this was a real eye opener. This week’s lessons all continued to reinforce leadership and an overall theme, personal responsibility,

We can’t control what other people say or do, but we can control how we respond to what people say and do to us. Each day, through the daily challenges of being adolescents, your students are applying what they are learning in Star, and in Star Leadership, and my hope is your seeing some of this application at home too.

The following post is by Nancy Zimmerman, STAR Math Teacher and today's guest blogger.

Continuing with “The Game of Life” in STAR math this week, students have established a budget for themselves based on a chosen career and whether they are married with children or single, are now looking for housing. We challenged our students to find both an apartment and a house based on their monthly budget. They had the opportunity to live anywhere they wanted....the Phoenix area and California were the areas selected most often! Some students chose to share an apartment or house in order to stretch their budget dollars

Another area that students are exploring is to purchase a car. Three scenarios were presented and students were to find financing based on 12, 36 and 60 month loans. Our students also have to figure in insurance, maintenance and fuel costs and of course, all of this has to fit within their budget. One student mentioned that he didn’t realize buying a car was this much work!

Ask your son or daughter about their housing and car choice. We believe they will have fun describing what they have found and all the work that they had to do!