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Tesseract Times and Breaking New Ground Newsletters
Click Here to Find Out About our Founders' Merit Scholarship!
Come Visit on Tesseract Tuesday ! Meet Parent Ambassadors and get a parent's perspective on their child's education experience at Tesseract! Call the Admissions office to set up your tour today! 480-991-1770
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June Week of 06/02/08 Students from Tesseract School earned a total of two gold, two silver and two bronze placements along with 16 honorable mentions on the 2008 National Spanish Examinations. Eighth-grade students, John M., Jasper L., Maria V., Natasha K. and Austin E. scored in the 99th, 97th, 93rd, 85th and 76th percentiles respectively, and seventh-grade student, Juliana B., scored in the 75th percentile. Seventh-grade students, Emilie Fabricius A., Ash G., Sammy J., Arron L., Alex L., Chris P., Ben R. and Hannah T., and eighth-graders, Sam A., Laura B., Madison H., Katie H., Austin K., Riley N., Lucy O. and Jack S. all received honorable mentions.
Tesseract School held its fifth annual Herpetological Showcase with the Phoenix Herpetological Society (PHS). The showcase is the culmination of the nine-week native and exotic reptiles unit that the fourth-graders study at school with the (PHS). The program teaches students to understand, respect and conserve reptiles native to Arizona, and as summer approaches, it also helps instill critical safety tactics to prepare students for how to respond if they encounter snakes. Each student selects a reptile to study, and on the PHS’s ninth visit, the fourth-graders invite the entire school into the Kathleen Ferris Auditorium (KFA), where each student presents the research and answers other student’s questions about his or her specific reptile, with that reptile present in the KFA. May Week of 05/26/08 Tesseract School held its fourth annual el Mercado de Tesseract. After extensive research, learning and activity, Tesseract students created a Mexican Mercado based on the markets in Oaxaca, Mexico, and were responsible for planning, organizing and implementing the festivities for the event, with Spanish educators, Jessie Soto-Tolman, Blanca Patino and Virginia McClain, overseeing the project. Students dressed in Mercado-style clothing and conversed solely in Spanish, and the eighth-graders created their own companies for el Mercado, participating in all aspects of business planning and marketing for the event with the assistance of middle school educator, Tina Kanelos, who worked with the students on the business and economic aspects of el Mercado in their history classes. All proceeds from the sales of student-made crafts at el Mercado will be donated to UNICEF. Tesseract’s seventh and eighth-grade digital perspectives class continued its explorations of art and technology with a visit to The University of Advancing Technology (UAT). While there, they saw UAT students creating digital artwork, and were able to experience robotics in action. A student from UAT had previously visited Tesseract’s digital perspectives class, and introduced the students to Photoshop. These skills were then utilized for group projects wherein the students broke into groups and developed thesis statements based on their current social studies curriculum. They then took photos and created, manipulated and merged them into multiple images to support their thesis statements. Week of 05/19/08 After months of hard work by Tesseract students, parent volunteers and Terri Scullin, Tesseract School’s music and drama educator, Tesseract School’s spring musical, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” was a huge hit, selling out all four days it ran. In the spring semester, middle school students have the option of selecting musical theater from a variety of performing arts elective including band, music classes, drama and chorus. Through the drama and theater classes students learn pantomime, improvisation, character development and how to deliver monologues, as well as scene study and backstage elements of the theater Tesseract School’s early childhood students put on a wonderful show for family and friends, and held a special performance for their friends at Encore Senior Village, with their evening concert. Led by Sandy Champion, Tesseract’s early childhood music educator, the concert was a celebration of spring, and included the songs “You are My Sunshine,” “The Ladybug’s Picnic” and “The Rain Fell Down.” Tesseract Summer Learning Adventures provides fun, educational summer sessions for preschool through ninth-grade students. Offerings include Dynamic Desert Animals, Musical Theater, Digital Filmmaking, Mysteries & Puzzles, Step Up to a New School Year and Organization 101. For more information visit www.tesseractschool.org or call 480.991.1770 Week of 05/05/08 After nine rounds played over two days, Tesseract School’s chess team came in third, out of 71 schools, for K-3 at the 2008 Governor’s Cup State Chess Championship. Second-grader, Henry Learner, won all four matches on the second day of the tournament, which earned him a tie for fourth place. To qualify for the Governor’s Cup, teammates, Jacob H., Henry L., Andy M. and Anson N., each had to score thre Tesseract School’s middle school students organized a “Marathon of Service” day as part of TAFFY (Tesseract Action Force For You), part of Tesseract School’s Kids Who Care service learning program. Students started their day by running a “marathon”—each of members ran/walked one mile to total the miles in a marathon to raise funds to support service-learning projects. The day was then continued with service projects for Home Base Youth Services and Scottsdale Parks & Recreation. Tesseract Summer Learning Adventures provides fun, educational summer sessions for preschool through ninth-grade students. Offerings include Dynamic Desert Animals, Musical Theater, Digital Filmmaking, Mysteries & Puzzles, Step Up to a New School Year and Organization 101. For more information visit www.tesseractschool.org or call 480.991.1770.
April Week of 04/28/08 Tesseract Summer Learning Adventures provides fun, educational summer sessions for preschool through ninth-grade students. Offerings include Dynamic Desert Animals, Musical Theater, Digital Filmmaking, Mysteries & Puzzles, Step Up to a New School Year and Organization 101. For more information visit www.tesseractschool.org or call 480.991.1770. Tesseract’s student government ran a two-week toothbrush and toothpaste drive to support the Golden Gate Community Center. Students collected more than 1, 519 containers of toothpaste and toothbrushes. Thirty-six students were inducted into Tesseract’s Spanish club, Jóvenes sin barreras (Youth Without Barriers). The program included student read poems, sponsorship updates and service-learning project updates. The first-grade concert, “Three is a Magic Number,” and the third-grade concert, “Beethoven,” were recently held for family and friends. Week of 04/22/08 Tesseract School students’ artwork was showcased in a nation-wide cultural exhibit, "New Orleans: Feast for the Eyes." The exhibit was first unveiled in New Orleans at the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Convention. Tesseract was invited to be part of the exhibit via artsonia.com, an online children’s art museum. Tesseract celebrated the efforts made by its students and faculty to conserve natural resources and elicit long lasting behavioral changes at its 2008 Earth Day Celebration. Representatives from each class shared the results of classroom conservation projects; student speakers shared what Earth Day means to them and how they show respect for the earth in their daily lives; and students in all grades enjoyed a variety of environmental awareness activities. Tesseract School announced that its new high school program is providing an unprecedented scholarship opportunity for students who have demonstrated considerable academic potential in middle school. Potential candidates for this scholarship should contact Kyla Johnson, at 480.991.1770 x124 or kjohnson@tesseractschool.org for an application. Week of 04/14/08 Families are invited to learn about Tesseract School’s exciting, innovative high school program, and meet the head of school, director of high school and faculty at High School Information Night on Thursday, April 24 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Please RSVP to Kyla Johnson at 480.991.1770 or via e-mail at kjohnson@tesseractschool.org. Tesseract School announced that its new high school program is providing an unprecedented scholarship opportunity for students who have demonstrated considerable academic potential in middle school. Potential candidates for this scholarship should contact Kyla Johnson, at 480.991.1770 x124 or kjohnson@tesseractschool.org for an application. Tesseract’s IT specialist, Randy Thomas, has been selected by the Arizona Board of Education to participate on a technology task force to review and improve IT within schools. Thomas has also been selected to present his virtual environment proposal at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) conference in Orlando this fall. Week of 04/07/08 Tesseract first-graders held their annual Fairy Tale Ball, and invited their Pappas Pals to participate in the event’s projects and festivities. This celebratory event concluded the students’ year-long efforts to raise funds for Free Arts of Arizona as part of Tesseract’s school-wide Kids Who Care service-learning program. March Week of 03/31/08 Students created shelters for reptiles at the Herpetological Society, cleaned playgrounds at Sojourner Center, helped with trail maintenance at Pinnacle Peak Park, made and sorted food bags at Desert Missions Food Bank and much more on Kids Who Care Day. Kids Who Care is Tesseract School’s all-school service learning program. Week of 03/10/08 PARADISE VALLEY, ARIZONA –March 13, 2008–Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school—preschool through eighth grade, with its inaugural ninth-grade class scheduled for fall 2008—announced today that the curriculum for the ninth grade at its new upper school has been officially accredited by the North Central Association (NCA). “It is both remarkable and unusual to receive accreditation for the ninth-grade before we have even held our first ninth-grade class,” said Nigel Taplin, Tesseract’s head of school. “It is a huge compliment to the strength and power of the program based on the diligent work of our founding head of upper school, Chris LaBonte.” More Week of 03/03/08 PARADISE VALLEY, ARIZONA –March 4, 2008– Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school—preschool through eighth grade, with its inaugural ninth-grade class scheduled for fall 2008—announced today that Tesseract students have been invited by Terri Rundle of the SOCA Art Gallery to exhibit their group canvases for the month of March. The SOCA Art Gallery, located at 4160 N. Scottsdale Road, will hold Tesseract’s "Sustainable Elements of a Mortal World" art show opening on Thursday, March 6 from 6:00-9:00 p.m., the same evening of Scottsdale’s monthly ArtWalk. More
February Week of 02/25/08 PARADISE VALLEY, ARIZONA -February 29, 2008-Tesseract School, a non-profit,
independent private school- p Week of 02/11/08
Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school—preschool through 8th grade, with its inaugural 9th-grade class scheduled for fall 2008— announced today that it will hold its groundbreaking ceremony for the new middle and high school campus February 12, 2008. The campus housing the new middle and high school will be built at the southwest corner of 40th Street and Shea Boulevard. More Early childhood students and their fathers enjoyed Tesseract’s annual Early Childhood Dad’s Cookout.
Middle school students staged and performed a Living Newspaper for family and friends. The performance was the culmination of the time they spent with Chaz Mena, Tesseract’s artist in residence. Mena assisted the middle school drama and music classes in creating the Living Newspaper performance, in which the students selected a news topic and then staged and performed their own opinions and reactions to it.
The application deadline for Tesseract’s Founders’ Merit Scholarship is March 1 . Potential candidates for this scholarship should contact Kyla Johnson at 480.991.1770 x124 or kjohnson@tesseractschool.org for an application. Week of 02/04/08 Tesseract School’s 7/8 girl’s soccer team won the MVAL championship; Tesseract’s 5/6 girl’s soccer team won second place at the MVAL tournament. Tesseract School submitted films from the 5th and 6th-grade students for the Arizona Student Film Festival. The fifth-grade films won first, second and third place, the sixth-grade films won second and third place; the students’ prize-winning entries also won a new camcorder kit for the school. January Week of 01/28/08 Chaz Mena will be Tesseract School’s 2007-2008 artist in residence. Mena will work with lower and middle school students in Tesseract’s musical theater program for two weeks. During his visit, he will assist the middle school drama and music classes in creating a “Living Newspaper” performance, where the students will stage and perform their own opinions and reactions to a current news topic. Families have the opportunity to learn about Tesseract’s middle school and new high school programs—including the one-to-one upper school laptop program—Thursday, January 31 from 6:30 p.m.—8:30 p.m. at Meet the Middle and Upper School Night. Please RSVP to Kyla Johnson at 480.991.1770 x124 or kjohnson@tesseractschool.org . Tesseract School announced that its new high school program is providing an unprecedented scholarship opportunity for as many as five students who have demonstrated considerable academic potential in middle school. Potential candidates for this scholarship should contact Kyla Johnson, Tesseract’s director of admissions, at 480.991.1770 x124 or kjohnson@tesseractschool.org for an application. The application deadline is February 14, 2008. Week 01/14/08 Families have the opportunity to learn about Tesseract’s middle school and new high school programs—including the one-to-one upper school laptop program—Wednesday, January 16 at Meet the Upper School Night or Thursday, January 31 from 6:30 p.m.—8:30 p.m. at Meet the Middle and Upper School Night. Please RSVP to Kyla Johnson at 480.991.1770 x124 or kjohnson@tesseractschool.org . Tesseract School announced that its new high school program is providing an unprecedented scholarship opportunity for as many as five students who have demonstrated considerable academic potential in middle school. Potential candidates for this scholarship should contact Kyla Johnson, Tesseract’s director of admissions, at 480.991.1770 x124 or kjohnson@tesseractschool.org for an application. The application deadline is February 14, 2008. Week of 01/07/08 Families have an opportunity to learn about Tesseract School’s unique, thematic kindergarten program, meet its faculty and explore the classroom on Thursday, January 17, 2008 from 6 p.m.—7:30 p.m. or Friday, January 18 from 10:30 a.m.—12:00 p.m. at Meet the Kindergarten Day/Night. Parents with older children have the opportunity to learn about Tesseract’s new high school and its programs—including the one-to-one laptop program—Wednesday, January 16 from 6:30 p.m.—8:30 p.m. at Meet the Upper School Night Please RSVP to Kyla Johnson at 480.991.1770 x124 or kjohnson@tesseractschool.org for either event.
Week of 12/17/07 Tesseract students, faculty and parent volunteers delivered holiday gifts to the Wesley Community Center. The Tesseract Spanish Club sponsored this year’s Tesseract Angels Project holiday gift drive. Tesseract middle school educators Tina Kanelos and Tami McDaniel went to the National Council for Social Studies Teachers, San Diego. Thousands of educators from the United States, Canada and Japan attended workshops led by other educators on various topics. Educators also viewed latest resources for teaching social studies and learned about new student travel opportunities and enrichment opportunities for Tesseract’s class trips. The third-grade students enjoyed a field trip to the Orpheum Theatre to see "Don Quixote." They were excited about the opportunity to see the play, as last year the class had a wonderful time studying the story of Don Quixote. The 5th grade is currently learning the story; eventually, students will act out different parts of the book in class. Week of 12/10/07 Tesseract School Announces Founders’ Merit Scholarship Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school—preschool through eighth grade, with its inaugural ninth-grade class scheduled for fall 2008—announced today that its new high school program is providing an unprecedented scholarship opportunity for as many as five students who have demonstrated considerable academic potential in middle school. More
Tesseract students Angelique C. and Danny M. auditioned and were chosen for the “Beauty and the Beast” production at Desert Stages Theatre in Scottsdale. Students at Tesseract School celebrated America Recycles Day, a nationally recognized day dedicated to encouraging Americans to recycle and buy recycled products, at their morning meeting. Representatives from each classroom shared the results of a five-day project designed to raise awareness and incorporate the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) into the classroom. The outcome was incredible and included results such as reducing the amount of packaging waste generated from snack food items by 50 percent by reusing bags or plastic containers. Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school—preschool through eighth grade, with its inaugural ninth-grade class scheduled for fall 2008—announced today their celebration of “America Recycles Day”, a nationally recognized day dedicated to get Americans to recycle more and buy recycled products. In a five day project, a representative from each class incorporated the three R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) into the classroom. More November Week of 11/12/07 Tesseract’s fourth-grade students made dog biscuits to raise money for the Arizona Humane Society and Arizona Animal Welfare League (AAWL). A total of $340 was raised in two days, which was then split between the Humane Society and AAWL. Students were able to hand-deliver the donations during a field trip to both organizations. Throughout the year the fourth-graders will continue to raise money and collect supplies for the Humane Society and AAWL as part of the Tesseract Kids Who Care program. Week of 11/05/07 On their Kids Who Care day, Tesseract students helped various Valley organizations. Kids Who Care is Tesseract’s school-wide service learning program. On this day students helped the Phoenix Herpetological Society by building tortoise habitats out of straw, the Luv Shack Ranch by helping with general ranch maintenance for the horses, the Sojourner Center by sprucing up their playground, the Phoenix Zoo by assisting with plantings and the Desert Missions Food Bank by organizing and stocking their food pantry and putting together emergency food bags. Docents from the Phoenix Art Museum gave Tesseract 5th-graders a wonderful presentation about math and art, and utilizing lines, shapes, balance and perspective. Using slides of pictures from the Museum’s collection, students were told how the artists chose to arrange their compositions with these various elements to direct the viewer through their artwork. October Week of 10/29/07 As part of Tesseract School’s Kids Who Care service-learning program, the third-grade students are participating in a two-week read-a-thon to raise money to adopt an owl at Liberty Wildlife for a year. The owl, and two other owls from Liberty Wildlife, visited the third-graders on Halloween. Tesseract School’s “Meet the Middle and Upper School Night” is Thursday, November 15 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Join us for a short presentation about the middle and new upper school programs, meet the faculty and tour the campus. Please RSVP to Kyla Johnson at 480.991.1770 x124. Week of 10/22/07 Tesseract’s lower and middle school parent presentation for October was “Raising a Healthy Child.” The presentation by the school’s counselors focused on what parents should expect from their children socially and emotionally as they age, how to better communicate with them and the school, and things to look out for. The 5th/6th-grade student government had fun at their first movie night of the year. Chris LaBonte, Ph.D., founding upper school head for Tesseract’s new upper school, was selected as a fellow for the Arizona Education Policy Fellowship Program. The Arizona Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP) is co-sponsored by the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics, the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education and the Division of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (ELPS) at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Week of 10/15/07 PARADISE VALLEY, ARIZONA—October 16, 2007—Tesseract School, a non-profit, The second-graders enjoyed their fieldtrip to the newly renamed Arizona Museum of Natural History. The trip tied in with the students’ archaeology and Hohokam themes; they were excited to view the new Hohokam exhibit at the museum. Docents from the Phoenix Art Museum visited the fourth-graders this week. The students are currently studying all about the state of Arizona (plants, animals, geography, people, government, history, etc). TO tie in with the fourth-graders’ studies, the docents showed them examples of Arizona-themed paintings and sculptures and they showed the students the “five C's” of Arizona art: contour, contrast, change, color and culture. September Week of 09/24/07 Tesseract Students participated in the “Jumpstart Read for the Record” campaign by reading the book “Ferdinand,” by Munro Leaf. The campaign is designed to encourage hundreds of thousands of children and adults from across the country to read the same book on the same day to raise pubic awareness and funds to support Jumpstart’s early education efforts for early education programs in low-income communities. Tying in with their classroom units on Arizona and weather, Tesseract’s 4th and 6th-grade students joined other Valley students at Chase Field for an interactive program about weather and the climate. Week of 09/17/07 PARADISE VALLEY, ARIZONA—September 20, 2007—Tesseract School, a non-profit,
independent private school—preschool through 8th grade, with its inaugural 9th-grade
class scheduled for fall 2008—announced today that local children’s author, Conrad J.
Storad, will be visiting the school to give readings, presentations and slide shows to the
students of early childhood, lower school, and fifth and sixth grades on September 26,
Tesseract’s sports teams got off to a rousing start this past Friday, sweeping the season openers. Sixth-grade student Spencer W. wowed the crowd with his one-handed catch in Friday’s 5/6 boys’ football season-opening game against Camelback Desert. Tesseract won at home, 24-0. Tesseract’s 5/6 girls volleyball beat PCDS in their match 2 -0 at home, 7/8 girls (W) volleyball team beat PCDS 2-1 at Phoenix Country Day and 7/8 girls (B) volleyball team beat PCDS 2-0 at Phoenix Country Day.
Week of 09/03/07 Tesseract School held its middle school retreat in the cool pines of Prescott at Camp Sky-Y. The annual middle school retreat focuses on team-building and organization, gets the year started on a bright note and provides students and staff alike with shared memories and laughs.
August Week of 08/27/07 Congratulations to Kathleen Dunne Millar, Tesseract School’s new head of lower school. Kathleen has been with Tesseract since 2003, where she most recently taught third grade. Millar completed her graduate work at the Curry School at the University of Virginia with concentrations in supervision, gifted education, and curriculum and instruction. While there she taught undergraduate and graduate classes, supervised student teachers and was a master teacher in the Summer Enrichment Program. Week of 08/20/07 Tesseract Participates In Chinese Bridge Delegation Paradise Valley, Arizona – Tesseract School, a nonprofit, independent private school - preschool through 8th grade – announced today that Nigel Taplin, Tesseract’s head of school, and Michael Rucki, Tesseract’s head of middle school, participated this summer in a U.S. educator Chinese Bridge Delegation organized in cooperation between the Chinese Language Council International (Hanban) and the Chinese Language Association for Secondary Elementary Schools (CLASS). More
Tesseract students in art show! The collection, "The Art of Printmaking" features diverse student artwork, including watercolor prints, silk f
Summer 2007 2007 Tesseract Summer Learning Adventures We invite your child to join us this summer for thematic, innovative adventures in learning and to experience first-hand what makes Tesseract the pathway for children’s academic and social success! Programs include: Creepy Crawler World, Cultural Caravan, Animal Explorations and more. For questions please contact Kathleen Dunne Millar via e-mail, call 480.991.1770 ext.120 or visit our Web site's summer programs page. Strategic Plan Update - Letter from the Chair of the Tesseract School Board of Trustees; Click here to read. May Week of 06/04/07 Tesseract School’s fourth-grade students have been studying reptiles for the past nine weeks, and wrapped up the unit with the Reptile Fair. The Phoenix Herpetological Society has been working with Tesseract on this unit for several years, and for the fair, brought the reptiles that the students have been studying to Tesseract. Congratulations to Tesseract’s graduating class of 2007!
Week of 05/28/07 Tesseract School’s architecture and design classes visited theUniversity of Advancing Technology (UAT) in Tempe, where they learned hands-on how computer generated 3-D “characters” are created. The students dressed in special motion-capture suits and then had a computer record their movements. These movements then went through a process where the end result was a graphic superhero-like person. At Tesseract, computer technology is integrated with the art program at several levels, including the utilization of Google SketchUp by architecture students. Week of 05/21/07 After finishing 5th in the State Chess Championships for his rating level, Henry L. went on to the 2007 National Elementary (K-6) Chess Championship in Nashville, Tennessee where, pitted against players of all ratings, he tied for 25th place in the K-1 Championship Division. With approximately 3,000 participants attending the national championships and approximately 275 players in his division, Henry won 5 out of 7 matches. The third-grade students enjoyed a visit from author, Jamie Gilson. Gilson shared her writing process and how she develops the ideas for her books with the students. Gilson’s books include “Stink Alley,” Bug in a Rug” and Gotcha!” Week of 05/14/07 Tesseract’s 2nd-grade student’s electricity unit culminated in their creating original circuit boards. Students had to design a question and answer circuit board consisting of three wires with alligator clips, a bulb, and a battery. The questions for their boards were selected by the students and focused on such subjects as history, artists and more. The second-graders were excited to premier their boards to their kindergarten buddies before sharing them with the rest of the school. Tesseract’s eagerly anticipated, sold-out spring musical, “Annie,” was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Terri Scullin, Tesseract’s drama and music educator, parent volunteers and students all worked tirelessly to make this event so outstanding. Students had a thorough understanding of “Annie,” having learned about the history of the character of Little Orphan Annie, from her beginnings in as a comic strip character to her famous radio shows, and even listened to a recording of an actual “Orphan Annie” radio show from 1936. The students also learned about the time period in which the musical is set.
Week of 05/07/07 Tesseract 7th-graders recently experienced the StarLab. The StarLab is a portable planetarium that comes with a projector and has a huge inflatable dark dome to project evening sky stars and nighttime images into. Students crawl into the StarLab through a tunnel and then sit, look at the projected images and learn some of the 7th grade astronomy standards (such as constellations, etc.) Earlier this year Krista Gavlinski, Tesseract’s 7th and 8th grade science educator was trained to use the StarLab at ASU.
Tesseract Summer Learning Adventures offer a variety of fun and educational programs for the summer including drawing, painting, musical theater, Creepy Crawler World and much more. For more information about this program contact Kathleen Dunne Millar at 480.991.1770 or visit www.tesseractschool.org. April Week 04/30/07 Dr. Chris Dede, a professor with Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, Dr. Brian Nelson, from ASU’s Educational Technology Graduate Program and Linda Davenport, a doctorial candidate from ASU, visited Tesseract sixth-graders for a Q&A session about River City. River City is an online, multi-user virtual environment that teaches middle school science students about disease transmission and scientific method. Tesseract’s 6th-graders utilized River City in their science class over an eight-week period to learn how to track clues to help identify causes of illnesses, form and test hypotheses, develop controlled experiments to test their hypotheses and make recommendations based on the data they collected. Dede, who developed the concept of River City, worked with Nelson, who was one of his students, to develop this interactive program. After months of preparation, study and work, Tesseract students held the school’s third annual el Mercado de Tesseract, based on the markets in Oaxaca, Mexico. While participating in the market, students were required to speak only in Spanish—Spanish is a core curriculum at Tesseract, and starts in preschool at the age of three—when purchasing and selling items. The 7th and 8th-grade students were responsible for planning, organizing and implementing the event. Both “Mercado money” and real currency were accepted at the fair, with all proceeds going to the Arizona Animal Rescue. More Week of 04/23/07 Tesseract School’s second-graders will be running a clothing drive for Camp Courage, a summer camp for children with severe burns. The clothing drive is part of Tesseract’s Kids Who Care community-service program. Gently used or new clothing items will be collected in boxes at the front of the school. The clothing drive will run through Friday, May 4. Tesseract School’s Earth Day celebration included guest speaker Greg Peterson, creator of Urban Farm, who spoke to the students, staff and parents about sustainable living and simple ways of incorporating his Urban Farm concepts into their households and everyday life. Urban Farm is a 1/3-acre urban home site located in the heart of Phoenix, which showcases water harvesting, edible landscape, photovoltaics and recycled building materials. PARADISE VALLEY, ARIZONA –April 26, 2007 - Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school - preschool through 8th grade- announced today that Chris LaBonte, Ph.D., has been appointed Tesseract’s founding upper school head for its new high school. More
Week of 04/16/07 Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school - preschool through 8th grade - announced today it will host an Earth Day Celebration from 8-11a.m. on Friday, April 20. This year’s Earth Day celebration brings Greg Peterson, creator of Urban Farm, to Tesseract for a presentation on sustainable living. Urban Farm is a 1/3-acre urban home site located in the heart of Phoenix, which showcases water harvesting, edible landscape, photovoltaics and recycled building materials. MoreSheri Klug, director of the ASU Mars K-12 Program, visited Tesseract to give an overview of Mars and to discuss Earth-Mars comparisons and why scientists are so interested in studying it. This session served as an introduction to the 8th-grade Sustainability of Life Unit: Looking Toward Mars. The students will be studying the surface features of Mars and assessing various areas for signs of past life. They will also be creating a Mars rover robot, programming it to investigate certain areas of interest, and trying to determine what is necessary for life to exist on Mars, and for astronauts to visit it. M. Scott Johnson, teacher, writer, conservationist and senior outreach representative for Defenders of Wildlife, visited Tesseract and gave a one-hour presentation for Tesseract middle school students and parents, about global warming and climate change. Mr. Johnson is one of a select few individuals who recently trained with former Vice-President Al Gore and his faculty to teach about global climate change. Week of 04/09/07 Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school - preschool through 8th grade – announced today that M. Scott Johnson, a local conservationist who is one of the select few who trained with Vice-President Al Gore, will give a presentation “An Inconvenient Truth – Challenges and Opportunities of Global Warming” ...More Henry L. has qualified for both the state and national chess championships. Henry recently tied for 1st place in The Typhoon chess tournament, and previously placed 5th in the Arizona State Grades Chess Championship in the 1st-grade division in addition to teaming up with Noah G. to bring home 2nd place in the state in the first-grade division for Tesseract School.
PARADISE VALLEY, ARIZONA –April 12, 2007– Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school – preschool through 8th grade – announced today that their spring fundraiser, Peace. Love. Tesseract. A Groovy 70s Celebration will take place at 7:30 p.m. on April 21, 2007. The event is open to the public and will be held at the Phoenix Hard Rock Café with special musical guest, the Funky Hippeez. More
Week of 04/02/07 Tesseract’s third-grade students held their annual science fair. The science experiments included the effects of sunlight versus manmade light on various papers and plants, the effects of soda versus water on plants and the differences in the speed of tires with and without tread. Tesseract’s 8th-grade students recently returned from their class trip to Costa Rica. The lush cloud forests, rich biodiversity and the Costa Rican government’s work to protect its forests and set aside land for parks and national preserves provided a perfect location to further Tesseract students’ studies on sustainability; the study of sustainability has been integrated into Tesseract’s curriculum. In keeping with Tesseract’s theme of service learning, while at the San Geraldo Biological Station in Costa Rica, the students helped build and maintain hiking trails. March Week of 03/2607 Tesseract’s fifth and sixth-graders returned from their class trip to San Francisco. While there, students visited Camp Arroyo, in Livermore, CA, a YMCA camp that focuses on sustainability issues. The students learned about such topics as eco-design and sustainable agriculture. Tesseract’s fifth-grade students are studying biomes, one aspect of which includes learning about environmental issues in the biome they are currently researching; Tesseract’s sixth-graders are currently studying water conservation and polluted rivers. They are working on a joint project that started before and is continuing after the trip, with the fifth-graders. Week of 03/12/07 Tesseract's first-graders raised $3,216 for Free Arts of Arizona with their Fairy Tale Ball. Sir Crispin Tickell, one of the world's foremost authorities on climate change, presented his views on climate change and sustainability and fielded questions from students, faculty members and guests on “Special Person’s Day.” Week of 03/05/07 Tesseract School welcomes one of the world's foremost authorities on climate change, Sir Crispin Tickell, to their campus. Sir Crispin will present his views on climate change and sustainability to students, faculty members and guests March 8 from 2:10-3:15 p.m. as part of “Special Person’s Day.” More Tesseract students and their guests celebrated the school’s annual Special Person’s Day. This year’s event featured special guest speaker Sir Crispin Tickell, the director of the Policy Foresight Programme at the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization at Oxford University, who discussed the impact of environmental change on cities. Along with his numerous positions Sir Crispin has authored several books including the acclaimed “Climate Change and World Affairs.” Sir Crispin’s environmental work includes serving as chairman of the board of the Climate Institute of Washington, chairman of the International Institute for Environment and Development, president of the National Society for Clean Air and the convenor of the Government Panel of Sustainable Development. Students celebrated Music in Our Schools Week. As part of this celebration, students, faculty and staff were invited to sing a song or play a musical instrument in morning meetings. February Week of 02/26/07 Krista Gavlinski, Tesseract’s 7th and 8th-grade science educator, was selected to participate in the “Using Earth to Explore Mars” workshop, co-sponsored by NASA’s Mars Public Engagement Program, Arizona State University Mars Space Flight Facility and the ASU Mars Education Program. Of Tesseract School’s three anti-tobacco PSA entries for the Arizona Student Film Festival, one took second place, one took third place and one received an award of excellence. The students’ entries were also selected to be shown at Harkins Centerpoint Theatre. Week of 02/22/07 Tesseract School announced “Breaking New Ground, The Capital Campaign for Tesseract School” to raise funds for a second campus, which will house the middle school and a new high school. Speakers at the event included Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D., president of Thunderbird School of Global Management and a Trustee on Tesseract’s Board. In science class, Tesseract’s eighth grade students have been learning about local sustainability, including water resources, land use and urbanization. As part of this unit, students visited ASU’s Decision Theater which enabled them to visualize the concepts learned in class. The Chinese Yo-Yo Champions visited Tesseract and performed for the early childhood students. Week of 02/12/07 Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school announced “Breaking New Ground, The Capital Campaign for Tesseract School” to raise funds for a second campus, which will house the middle school and a new high school. As part of the school’s strategic vision, Tesseract’s Board of Trustees authorized the $9 million campaign, which will allow Tesseract to build upon the exceptional programs now offered at its existing campus on Doubletree Ranch Road. More
Tesseract families enjoyed the annual Celebration of Learning. This year included a special sevillana (flamenco) performance, in costume, by the students for their families. The students were taught the sevillana and its history by Tesseract’s artist in residence, a very special visitor from Spain, who has been with the students for a three-week program during Spanish classes.
Week of 02/05/07 The Tesseract Performing Arts Fundraiser: A New York State of Mind is Saturday, February 3 at 6:30 p.m. The evening will begin with a selection of food and beverages, followed by a musical revue by “Up An Octave,” a troupe of local musical theater performers, featuring Tesseract School’s music and drama educator Terri Scullin, as well as Tesseract alumni. All proceeds from the event will go to the Tesseract Performing Arts Fund, which supports the many different concerts and performances that take place at Tesseract for all grade levels. Contact Scott Kastel at 480-367-6639 x204 for questions or more information. The second-graders did an excellent job beginning the day at Morning Meeting. Each student was handed the microphone to share the class’s version of the book Super Hero ABC by Bob McLeod with the rest of the lower school, parents and faculty. The students each made up a superhero for the letters in the alphabet and then illustrated and narrated them. Dads and kids alike enjoyed a delicious barbeque lunch at Tesseract’s annual early childhood Dad's Cowboy Cookout. January Week of 01/29/07 The next Tesseract Parents’ Association meeting is tonight, Thursday, January 25, from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Cinema Night and child care will be provided for children three years and older. To wrap up their Reptiles and Amphibians theme, Tesseract’s first-graders compared and contrasted the habitats, characteristics and behaviors of reptiles and amphibians. They then visited The Phoenix Herpetological Society so they could visit many of the animals they studied. The Tesseract Parents’ Association’s Cultural Enrichment Committee arranged for children’s science author Mike Graf to spend a day with Tesseract students. While visiting, Graf gave a presentation covering weather, national parks, caving, science, writing children's books, the writing process and much more to the students.
Weeok of 01/22/07 Tesseract Tigers’ 2006-2007 Midseason Sports Banquet honoring the football, volleyball, basketball and soccer teams is Friday, January 19. Dinner and other refreshments will be served, followed by an awards program and slideshow. The Tesseract community collected 11,151 plastic shopping bags, yielding 20 60-gallon bags, in a two-week period for its school-wide recycling contest. Miss Adams’ class won the contest by collecting 2,605 bags. The collected bags will be given to Wal-Mart as part of the Wal-Mart Kids Recycling Challenge. Wal-Mart will award Tesseract $5 for each 60-gallon bag. Right before the holiday break, Tesseract students delivered all of the gifts from the Angels program and food from the canned-food drive that Tesseract families generously donated to families at the Wesley Center.
Week of 01/15/07 Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school - preschool through 8th grade – announced today that Concepción (Conchita) Gaviño Rodriguez, music professor at the Instituto de Enseñanza Secundaria in Madrid, will be an artist-in-residence for a three week unit on the culture and folklore of the Feria in Seville, Spain. More
Tesseract’s January parent workshop featured Dr. Sherry Bush, a pediatric neuropsychologist, who presented Tesseract parents with an easy-to-understand overview of the connection between neuroscience and learning--“Brain Building from Babies to Big Kids--What Neuroscience Tells Us About ‘Learning to Learn.’” Dr. Bush is a former NIH fellow in neuroscience and a former educator who has been featured on Good Morning America.
Week of 01/08/07 Tesseract’s first-grade students collected backpacks and filled them with socks, blankets, markers, toys, food and other special treats for their Kindergarten Pappas Pals. Three Tesseract students delivered the backpacks to the Pappas School. Tesseract’s January parent workshop is January 12 at 8:30 a.m. Dr. Sherry Bush, a pediatric neuropsychologist, will present Tesseract parents with an easy-to-understand overview of the connection between neuroscience and learning--“Brain Building from Babies to Big Kids--What Neuroscience Tells Us About ‘Learning to Learn.’” Dr. Bush is a former NIH fellow in neuroscience and a former educator who has been featured on Good Morning America. Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school - preschool through 8th grade – announced today that its student artwork has been chosen to exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum beginning with an opening night artists’ reception this evening from 5-7 p.m. The Tesseract exhibit titled, “A View Through A Window”- A Taste of the Tesseract Art Program, will be presented in the student gallery located in the administration building through the end of January. More December Weeks of 12/21/06 - 12/28/06 Wrapping up units on ancient Greece and ancient Rome, sixth-graders enjoyed a Greek and Roman festival. All the students wore Greek or Roman costumes and enjoyed Greek and Italian dishes. Week of 12/11/06 Tesseract’s 7th/8th-grade architecture class visited the City of Tempe’s Department of Transportation. The students met with the head architect for the new bus, bike and transit center, and learned all about what the design, planning and building of this project entails including site excavations, water flow, ground and landscaping. Students are studying how architects are creating sustainable buildings, and as result of this visit they are using computer technology to design green buildings of their own. Tesseract’s kindergarten students enjoyed a winter-themed sing-a-long and other fun activities with the residents at Encore Senior Village to celebrate the season and reinforce the school’s service learning initiative. The kindergarteners had previously enjoyed a Halloween gathering there and were delighted to see that the Halloween cards they had made for the residents at Encore were still on display. The Spanish Club is spearheading a school-wide Angels Gift Program and Student Government is collecting canned food for families at the Wesley Center. At the end of the drives, the students will deliver the gifts and food to the Wesley Center. As part of the Tesseract Recycles program, Tesseract is participating in the Wal-Mart Kids Recycling Challenge from 12/01/06 through 12/15/06. For the Challenge, students bring clean, dry, empty plastic shopping and grocery bags of any type and color, except black, to participate in a school-wide contest to see which class can collect the most bags. Following the contest, a collection container will remain at school for continued plastic bag collection. The bags will be collected by Wal-Mart to then recycle and turn into patio furniture. Week of 12/04/06 The Spanish Club has organized a school-wide Angels Gift Project that students and their parents can join with other Tesseract families to adopt a Wesley Center family and donate gifts for the holiday season. More Tesseract’s 7th/8th-grade architecture class visited the City of Tempe’s Department of Transportation. The students met with the head architect for the new bus, bike and transit center, and learned all about what the design, planning and building of this project entails including site excavations, water flow, ground and landscaping. Students are studying how architects are creating sustainable buildings, and as result of this visit they are using computer technology to design green buildings of their own. Tesseract’s kindergarten students enjoyed a winter-themed sing-a-long and other fun activities with the residents at Encore Senior Village to celebrate the season and reinforce the school’s service learning initiative. The kindergarteners had previously enjoyed a Halloween gathering there and were delighted to see that the Halloween cards they had made for the residents at Encore were still on display. November Week of 11/27/06 Tesseract’s kindergarten students enjoyed a winter-themed sing-a-long and other fun activities with the residents at Encore Senior Village to celebrate the season and reinforce the school’s service learning initiative. The kindergarteners had previously enjoyed a Halloween gathering there and were delighted to see that the Halloween cards they had made for the residents at Encore were still on display. Week of 11/20/06 Terri Scullin, Tesseract School’s music and drama educator, presented a workshop at the National Orff-Schulwerk Music Teaching Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. Her presentation “Celebrate with Music: Special Occasions, Musical Concepts and Orff” was very well-attended and received at both sessions. Terri presented another program at an Orff-level teacher training course this summer and at the beginning of the school year was invited to present at the Greater Paradise Valley Reading Council. Tesseract’s Borders Book Day was a great success – doubling what the proceeds were last year. The day included storytelling, poetry reading by Tesseract middle school students and book signings by authors Barbara Gowan, author of “G is for Grand Canyon: An Arizona Alphabet,” and Nicole Rocheleau, author of “Ollie Ollie in Come Free!” Week of 11/13/06 Middle School Students Build House in Mexico
Week of 11/06/06 Tesseract School announced today that the Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor addressed the student body on Wednesday November, 1 to officially launch their “Kids Who Care” service learning projects. More
In recognition of America Recycles Day, and as part of the Tesseract Recycles program, a representative from the Phoenix Recycling Center spoke to the lower and middle school, educating the students about the positive impact recycling has in the landfills and in our environment. The representative also brought in games and prizes for the students to get them excited about recycling.
This month saw the start of Tesseract’s Parent Workshops. The workshops will be held periodically on Friday mornings throughout the year, and will cover topics of interest such as curriculum, child development and parenting skills. The first workshop was “Strong Home-and-School Connection: Responsive Classroom Approach to Rules and Logical Consequences.”
October
Tesseract School announced the launch of “Kids Who Care,” a school-wide service-learning program. This program will enable Tesseract students to put even more time into helping others - from Iraqi children to homeless children here in the Valley- and in the process, acquire valuable skills themselves. More Tesseract School, announced today that 17 students have chosen to use their fall break as an opportunity to volunteer in Mexico. These students are members of the Tesseract Spanish Club and will travel to Agua Prieta, a town located south of the border from Douglas, AZ, to work with the Rancho Feliz Charitable Foundation. More Barbara Perez, Tesseract School’s visual arts educator, has been recognized for outstanding leadership in the area of arts education by Artsonia, the world’s largest online kids’ art museum. The Leadership Award presented to Barbara Perez honors teachers who go beyond the classroom walls to encourage family and community involvement in the area of technology integration within the school arts program. The Tesseract Parent Association’s Cultural Enrichment Committee sponsored a special performance by Opendance for Tesseract’s students. Tesseract students enjoyed Opendance’s performance of “Dances from around the World,” in which the troupe performed traditional dances from Ireland and a variety of other countries. Some of the students were able to join in on the fun and dance with the performers. Tesseract School’s girls 5/6 Volleyball won the first round of the MVAL Championships Tesseract’s early childhood students visited Mother Nature’s Farm. Week of 10/16/06 Tesseract’s performing arts educator Terri Scullin presented “Bringing Books to Life with Music” for more than 40 area teachers at the Greater Paradise Valley Reading Council. Participants were introduced to hands-on lessons that use music and/or drama to enhance students’ experiences with a variety of literature. The Tesseract Parent Association’s cultural enrichment committee sponsored a special performance by Opendance for Tesseract’s students. Tesseract students enjoyed Opendance’s performance of “Dances from around the World,” in which the troupe performed traditional dances from Ireland and a variety of other countries. Some of the students were able to join in on the fun and dance with the performers. In honor of this special event, Tesseract’s music classes focused on dance-related activities. Opendance is a multi-cultural dance company that performs in established theatrical venues as well as in community settings. The fourth-grade students enjoyed a field trip to the Desert Botanical Gardens where they went on a tour to see all of the plants that are native to Arizona. The trip was planned to compliment the students’ plant research and unit on Arizona.
Barbara Perez, Tesseract School’s art educator, has been recognized for outstanding leadership in the area of arts education by Artsonia, the world’s largest online kids’ art museum. More Week of 10/09/06 The 5/6 and 7/8 girls volleyball teams and the 5/6 and 7/8 boy’s flag football teams won all four games at home last week against Camelback Desert School.
Thursday’s TPA meeting is at 6:00, and will feature a speaker discussing Internet safety for children. This week’s student government (StuGo) sponsored event is a bowling tournament for the fifth and sixth-graders. This week there will be a Peer Mediation training lock-in, where new initiates will be trained on mediation techniques by current peer mediators. September 2006 Week of 09/25/06 Tesseract School announced today that they offer Mandarin classes. The school formed a partnership with the Chinese School of the Chinese Evangelical Free Church (CEFC) which is the first Chinese school to offer Chinese classes in the Valley. More Week of 09/18/06 Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school - preschool through 8th grade- announced that Jim Buizer, executive director, Office of Sustainability Initiatives, Arizona State University, has joined its board. More Tesseract’s middle school students recently enjoyed a two-day retreat (Tiger Camp) at Sky-Y in Prescott. During the retreat students participated in activities designed to develop camaraderie and leadership, such as team challenge, hiking and shelter building. Week of 09/11/06 This summer Tesseract School’s entire faculty underwent a weeklong Responsive Classroom® and Responsive Design training program. The Responsive Classroom approach integrates social and academic learning throughout the school day, building on six components: morning meeting, rules and logical consequences, guided discovery, academic choice, classroom organization and reaching out to parents. Tesseract is the only school in Arizona to have its educators participate in Responsive Classroom training. Tesseract’s entire staff attended a sustainability workshop at ASU’s Decision Theater, facilitating the school’s efforts to continue to integrate sustainability in its curricula. Terri Scullin, Tesseract’s music and drama educator, taught a special session showcasing music and stories from Ireland, and led the class in a composition activity with an Irish blessing poem at ASU’s Orff-Level Teacher Training course. Tesseract School’s 7th and 8th-grade Spanish educator Catharine Steffens presented Celebrating International Children’s Day with a school-wide, student-organized and run Mexican Market at the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) conference in Salamanca, Spain. Over 700 professors and teachers, primarily from Canada and the U.S., attended the conference. Several members of the Tesseract School community attended the Wesley Center’s Rededication Celebration for its Centro de Salud clinic/classroom building Wednesday, August 30. Tesseract School, an August 2006 Week of 08/28/06 -As seen in AZ Asian World Week of 08/14/06 -As seen in Frontdoors Week of 08/07/06 A complete education. Private schools invest in classrooms first. More -As seen in 101 North July 2006 Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school - preschool through 8th grade- announced that all of its educators will undergo a weeklong Responsive Classroom® training program. Tesseract School places an emphasis on the growth and development of its educators so that More June 2006 Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school - preschool through 8th grade- announced that Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D., president of Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management, has joined Tesseract’s Board of Trustees. More May 2006 Week of 05/29/06 Carolyn Nave, a 2006 graduate of Tesseract School, was awarded one of two four-year full merit A pancake breakfast for the graduating class of 2006 was held the morning of graduation, followed by a special all-school assembly with speeches by the 8th-grade class president and student body president,
video “goodbyes and good wishes” from each of the other grades to the eighth grade, recognition for each of the members of the 8th-grade class and then the kindergarteners presented each of the graduating students with a yellow rose. The graduation ceremony was held at the Paradise Valley Country Club at 5:00 p.m., followed by dinner and a dance for the graduates. Week 05/22/06 Douglass J., a sixth-grade student at Tesseract School, scored two goals in the semifinals and got an assist in the finals for the 2006 Arizona State Cup Soccer Championship. Douglass is a member of the Sereno Soccer Club, a Nike Premier sponsored Club that is currently the #1-ranked youth soccer club in Arizona, and the #2-ranked club in the nation. Douglass is on the Sereno ‘94 Boys team that won against the ‘94 Blackhawks. The team will be traveling to Boise, Idaho for 10 days in June to compete in the regionals against the best teams from California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. Tesseract’s art educator, Barbara Perez, has been selected to be a presenter at the Arizona Art Education Association’s (AAEA) conference in November on mainstreaming children with learning disabilities into the art room. Utilizing visual literacy components, she will help teachers experience what it is like to be learning disabled through their own experiences. The Tesseract Bands and Percussion Ensemble will perform a year-end concert on Fine Arts Night, Thursday, May 25 in the Tesseract IMC. These wonderful young musicians will perform folk songs, dances, marches, rock songs, jazz, African drumming songs, movie hits and classical favorites. Video highlights from the spring musical, “Oliver,” will be also be shown this evening, and there will be various art galleries set up throughout the school to showcase the artwork that the students created throughout the year. Week of 5/15/06
Week of 5/8/06 Scott V., a fourth-grade student at Tesseract School, was second runner-up in the City of Scottsdale’s Week of 5/1/06 On Thursday Rural Metro discussed pool safety in a morning meeting presentation to preschool-4th-grade students. As a follow-up to her popular presentation to parents “Adolescent Brain Development," Peggy Stemmler, M.D. spoke to 7th and 8th-grade students about “Brain Development and Choices Teens Make.” April 2007 Week of 4/24/06 Paradise Valley, Arizona –April 24, 2006 - Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school - preschool through 8th grade- announced today that its second annual el Mercado Tesseract, in celebration of International Children’s Day, will be held on April 27th from 1-3 p.m on the Tesseract campus. More
Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school - preschool through 8th grade- announced today it will host an Earthfest Forum on April 21, 2006 from 8:20 until 11:00 a.m. More Week of 04/17/06 “We are Family,” Tesseract School’s spring black tie gala, Tesseract School’s Early Childhood Trike-a-thon is Thursday, April 20. All three early childhood classes will be riding their tricycles- trikes- to help raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. All the children who participate have the option to secure a sponsor/sponsors to help them raise money. In addition to raising money for St. Jude’s, any money raised gives the children opportunities to earn prizes, and then the overall moneys totaled can potentially earn prizes for Tesseract’s Early Childhood Program. Tesseract will celebrate its annual school-wide Mexican Mercado in honor of International Children’s Day on Thursday, April 27, from 1:00-3:00 p.m. All of the Tesseract students have been very busy preparing for the market in their Spanish and art classes. Each student will be given $10.00 in pretend money that can be used to “purchase” food or play games, as well as for the dance booth. In addition to the food and games, folk art items made by the eighth-grade students will be for sale. The folk art items will be sold for real money as part of an economics unit; any profits made will be donated to a children’s charity of the students’ choice. The students have been studying International Children’s Day and the Rights of the Child advocated by the United Nations. Based on these rights, the art classes have made murals which will be on display at the Mercado. Spanish will be the only language used for buying and selling; students will receive a grade on their use of Spanish during the Mercado. Week of 04/10/06 Tesseract School will be hosting a dialogue on Friday, April 14, 2006, at 7 p.m., to explore how Israelis and Palestinians can learn to coexist. The speakers, Jawad Issa, a 22-year-old Palestinian from Gaza, and Michal Brosh, an 18-year-old Israeli from Hertzliya, will offer their unique perspectives on this topic. Jawad and Michal may have different perspectives on the Middle East conflict, but they share the experience of having attended the Seeds of Peace camp in Maine. Founded in 1993, Seeds of Peace, www.seedsofpeace.org, is an international organization dedicated to empowering young leaders from regions of conflict with the leadership skills required to advance reconciliation and coexistence. On Monday, April 10, Peggy Stemmler, MD shared the latest research on teen brains and explained why teens think differently than adults when she presented "Teen Development and Behavior. What Happened to My Little Angel?" She then led an interesting discussion and question and answer session on this subject. Jessie Soto-Tolman, Tesseract's lower school Spanish teacher, co-presented a three- hour workshop Thursday, April 6 at the Arizona Language Association Conference. The workshop, “Using Children’s Literature to Create Thematic Units for Teaching Spanish,” was attended by independent, private and public school teachers. During the session, the participants were involved in two thematic units based on children’s books in Spanish—discussing teaching strategies, and learning how to create language plans to go with the units. Tesseract’s 7th-graders returned from their class trip to Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. While there, they toured the National Archives, Plymouth Village, the Mayflower, the Air and Space Museum and many other historic and cultural places of interest. The students all enjoyed a wonderful, fun learning experience. Students, joined by some faculty and staff members, sang and played musical instruments at morning meetings last week for “Music in our Schools Month.” The students all did a wonderful job performing in front of peers and faculty. Week of 04/03/06 Paradise Valley, Arizona –April 6, 2006- Tesseract School, a non-profit, independent private school - preschool through 8th grade- reported today that twelve students opted to trade Spring Break for charity work in Mexico. More
March 2006 Week of 03/27/06 The fourth-grade science fair is Thursday from 10 am- 12 pm. The fourth-graders will be in the IMC displaying their unique inventions and creative posters. Students, parents and faculty will have the opportunity to look at, try and ask questions about all 14 inventions. Awards will be announced later that day. Tesseract’s fifth and sixth-grade students spent a day at Exchange City taking on real-life roles as citizens of their very own mini-town. In conjunction with a an eight-week classroom curriculum, the visit to Exchange City provided students with hands-on experience, giving them the opportunity to put concepts learned in the classroom into a real life simulation. During the eight week curriculum, students engage in economics, government, math, social studies and career education while increasing their passion for learning through real life situations. The 7th and 8th-grade students took the National Spanish Exam (NSE) last Monday through Wednesday. The NSE is an online, standardized assessment tool given voluntarily by over 3,000 teachers throughout the United States to measure the proficiency and achievement of students who are studying Spanish as a second language. At Tesseract, Spanish is part of the core curriculum; 7th and 8th grade students complete the equivalent of Spanish I, the first year of high school Spanish. On Friday, March 17, Tesseract Boys’ Soccer and Girls’ Softball teams competed in the MVAL Playoff Games. Week of 03/13/06 Tesseract Spanish teacher Jessie Tolman was invited to design and present a lesson at the 2006 Southwest Conference on Language Teaching (SWCOLT) in April. SWCOLT is a regional foreign language teachers' organization that hosts an annual conference in partnership with state foreign language teacher associations for Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawai'i, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah.
Russ Johnson with the Phoenix Herpetological Society is visiting Tesseract’s fourth-grade students every Friday for the months of March through May. He has been bringing in reptiles and teaching students the importance of conservation, co-existence, respect and understanding of our native Arizona reptiles, as well as proper interaction with these reptiles when encountered in the wild. March is Music in our Schools Month. As a way of celebrating, Tesseract will be having Music in our Schools Month Morning meeting concerts during the last week of March. These concerts will feature the musical talents of our students, staff and parents.
The preschool concert “Baseball Fever” was last week. The preschoolers did a fantastic job at the all-school dress rehearsal performance as well as for the evening performance for parents. Week of 03/06/06 PARADISE VALLEY, AZ – March 10, 2006 – Famed storyteller and author Joe Hayes visited the children at Tesseract School, entertaining them with a day full of delightful Southwestern tales.
The first-grade Fairy Tale Ball dance-a-thon raised more than $3,100 for Free Arts Arizona. Free Arts Arizona is a nonprofit organization that’s mission is to spark the creative spirit of abused, homeless and at-risk children and their families, to inspire and transform their lives through the power of artistic expression. February 2006 In conjunction with their unit on China, Tesseract students were treated to an hour of Chinese culture with Mei Kuei Chan Cruise, who visited the school. Students learned the Lion Dance, all taking turns to be part of the lion, practiced ribbon dances to Chinese music and tried the Chinese yo-yo - all finding it was much harder to do than it looked. The final experience of the day was learning some Tai –Chi.
Week of 02/20/06 Preschool Mom's Sweetheart Day was on Valentine’s Day. Mom’s spent the morning making beaded necklaces, writing a story, making cards, playing games and passing out Valentine cards with their children; all then enjoyed a special Valentine’s Day lunch. As the children were preparing for the Valentine party, they were read a book titled “Valentine’s Day” and a Jack Prelutsky poem about making a valentine for pets. Due to a tragic, arson-related fire on January 28, the Wesley Center was destroyed. Upon hearing the devastating news of the fire, the Tesseract School’s Parent Association (TPA) got together to sponsor a “Raffle to Rebuild,” to aid the Center. Tickets for the Raffle to Rebuild will be sold at Tesseract School from February 14 through February 22. Tickets are $5 for one or 25 for $100. Checks should be made payable to Wesley Community Center; 100% of the proceeds go to the Wesley Center. Entrants may win a 20” LCD HDTV Television, a Sony PSP with two games or a Video I-Pod. The drawing will be held in the Tesseract IMC at an all school event on February 22 at 2:30 p.m. To purchase a raffle ticket or for more information about Tesseract, please call 480-991-1770.
The Spanish Club, Jovenes sin barreras, has started a fund to sponsor a child, Jason, from Ecuador. This will help to assist in creating a brighter future for him and his family. The Club will also create a relationship with Jason through picture and letter exchanges for the next several years.
The Cultural Enrichment committee has arranged for Joe Hayes, a Dads, uncles, grandfathers - and even Moms - were here to celebrate the
2nd annual Cowboy Cookout. The children created classroom centerpieces to revolve around the cowboy theme and were Week of 01/30/06 As part of their studies of rain forest animals and habitats, Tesseract School’s fourth-graders visited the Phoenix Zoo. While there, the students visited the Forest of Uco- the Zoo’s South American rain forest exhibit- where they did a behavioral animal study, talked about how scientists study animals in the wild and discussed the need to preserve our natural resources.
A docent from the Phoenix Art Museum visited Tesseract’s fifth-graders and presented a slide show focusing on pieces of art from the different dynasties of ancient China. The show supplemented research the students had been doing in class, through art. During the question and answer session, the docent was impressed by the questions the students asked and all that they had learned about in class. While there, the docent also passed around objects, like silk worm cocoons, silk, calligraphy examples, a name chop and ink well and more, for the students to see and experience first hand. Tesseract School’s Performing Arts Fundraiser – “A Winter Wonderland: Seasons of Life” will take place at ASU’s Kerr Cultural Center January 28, 2006 at 6:30 p.m. This benefit concert for the Tesseract Performing Arts Fund is the perfect way for families to enjoy an evening of entertainment and support a worthy cause. Tickets can be purchased at the Kerr Cultural Center, or by calling Scott Kastel at 480.367.6639 x206. Jan. 5, 2006 Tesseract Hannah T.performed a solo for the Arizona Flute Society Young Artist Debut Competition in November and received a certificate of outstanding achievement with an honorable mention for her performance. More
December 2005 Mexican/Kickapoo painter and sculptor Hector Ruiz, a featured artist at the Heard Museum, visited the 6th, 7th and 8th grade Spanish classes at Tesseract Scho December 8, 2005 - Local author Karen Fenneman visited the lower-school classes and read her book Chipmunk Tales, |
e out of five in a qualifying tournament.
reschool through eighth grade, with its inaugural ninth-grade
class scheduled for fall 2008-announced today that 
Week of 09/10/07
lower prints, original prints, monoprints and string prints, made by early childhood through fourth-grade students. The pieces will be auctioned at a Spring 2008 fundraiser. 
The fourth-graders fielded questions from parents, students, faculty and staff about their chosen reptiles’ habitats, enemies, diets and unique characteristics. It was a great opportunity for the students to share their knowledge, and for people to get to see a wide variety of snakes, lizards, turtles and more up close.
Tesseract School 7th and 8th-grade educator 
The second-graders wrapped up their unit on archaeology and started their unit on the Hohokam people with a visit this week to the 
independent, non-profit private school in Paradise Valley for preschool through 8th-grade students, has developed a community service partnership over the past few years with Wesley Center. Upon hearing the devastating news that the Center was destroyed by an arson-related fire in January 2006, the Tesseract School Parents’ Association (TPA) sponsored a “Raffle to Rebuild,” where 100% of the proceeds went to aid the Center. 
scholarships to Verde Valley High School, a boarding school in Sedona for grades 9-12.
EnviroKids Fest '06 poster contest. Students were to select recycling, renewable energy, wildlife habitat or water conservation, and then make a poster to represent the chosen theme. Scott’s poster represented renewable energy. 
entertained by the “Singing Cowgirl.” The children ate, danced and shared in the cowboy fun with their family members!
ol. Hector grew up in a border state, and was continuously exposed to the bicultural issues that Mexican immigrants experience. Hector discussed his experiences living in a border state , and presented and discussed some of his artwork with the students.