by Renee Owen | May 24, 2012 | Director's Blog, News
Rainbow Mountain Children’s Schoolโs executive director, Renee Owen, has been chosen as one of ten โEducators of Excellenceโ in North Carolina to travel to Ecuador this summer with the Museum of Natural Science.ย The Educators of Excellence Institute programs are designed to give deserving educators an opportunity to learn about the ecology and natural history of other regions. Educators of Excellence Institutes are a learning opportunity for teachers who want to pass on to their students the ability to envision themselves as part of the global web of life.
Reneeโs Ecuadoran adventure will be from June 18 โ 26. She and her fellow educators will spend time at the Heifer Internationalโs alpaca farm in the highlands of Ecuador, learning about Heiferโs innovative program to reduce poverty in the region. The group will have several days in different regions of Ecuador, learning its natural history. One location is the Isla de la Platas, which is home to many of the same wildlife as the Galapagos Islands. In Palmar, on the Southwestern coast of Ecuador, the group will be working in a rural school teaching classes and working with students and teachers. The team of teachers will meet again in Raleigh, in October, to purchase educational materials for the Ecuador school and design lessons for the 2013 โEducators in Excellenceโ team.
Congratulations, Renee, for this honor. We are excited for your adventure. If you would like to follow Reneeโs trip through Ecuador, the group will be posting a daily blog at http://ecuadorinstitute.wordpress.com. Renee is looking forward to sharing lessons and information about Ecuador and Heifer International with families and students at Rainbow Mountain Children’s School both on the blog and when school starts back up in the fall.
by Renee Owen | May 15, 2012 | News
Pop Ferguson has been playing the blues since he was a kid and this week he is sharing his passion with Rainbow fifth and sixth graders. LEAF in Schools and Streets partners with LEAF performers to bring some of their talents to schools all over the Asheville area. Children working directly with artist leads to inspiration and change in a child’s life. It can spark a passion that will last a lifetime.
This same reason is also why every year Rainbow Mountain also brings both performing and visual artist into the school to work with all the children. The month of May has the arts in full swing here and on this Friday, May 18th, we will hold an all day celebration of the arts with our Imagine! event. On this day the classes and parents will tour the visual art galleries set up around campus and then walk down to Calvary Baptist Church to watch the performances.
Not only has the fifth and sixth grade class been learning to play the blues but they have also taken the bus downtown to photograph the city while working with photographer, Mehera Kleiner. Other classes are also having having fun. The third grade class is up to their elbows in newspaper strips as they make bird mask with ornithology enthusiast, Alan Ward. In fact they’re up to their elbows in all things bird. They’ve needle felted little birds, they’ve sculpted birds, and of course they’ve studied birds.
Kindergarten is learning Brazilian samba dance. First grade studied photography and are now in the middle of African dance, Second, Fourth and the Omega program are all rehearsing for their plays. Walking by the classrooms I overheard some strange dialog until I remembered it’s play practice. Whew! I’m hoping to get away from the front desk Friday to see all the acts. It promises to be entertaining.
by Renee Owen | May 10, 2012 | News
Sixth grader Falconer with his very well trained Falcon
The fifth and sixth grade class went medieval. After studying the history and culture of medieval Europe, the students turned their classroom into a medieval castle. Each student had a role to fill and tell about. There was the royal family, the knights, artisans,ย a sheriff, an inventor, a miller, a stable hand, fish monger, falconer, healer, an apothecary, and others.
The parents and other grades rotated from room to room and heard the stories from each student about their medieval persona and on how that role depended on the others in the room. At the end they all sang a nice, catchy ballad about Robin Hood.
The class did a wonderful job transforming the space and relying their knowledge. I think every visitor learned something new that day.
by Renee Owen | Apr 27, 2012 | News
Exotic spices filled the air along with the calls of street merchants. The bustling crowd of proud and curious parents were clamoring about. Was I really in the Rainbow playground or had I found myself transported into the middle of an Indian street bazaar? All around me I saw the blue room preschoolers dressed up in colorful and fancy clothes as they sat at their stalls (mats) along the paved area. Some stalls were shops where the children hawked trinkets like bangles and tie dyed fabric (made by the preschoolers earlier this month). Other stalls I visited were informational stalls where the student told me about yoga or cleaning brass.
India doesn’t seem like the typical subject preschoolers would learn about. So their teacher, Jessica Redford explained. “The kids were very interested in India ever since Molly went.” Molly was the after school preschool teacher with us last year. She left us and Asheville to tour India for six months. While in India she sent her former class a large box full of bangles, little wooden trinkets for counting and beautiful cloths for dress up.
Today the children celebrated all they had learned about India with their bazaar and then a large Indian feast. Their parents supplied the tasty, aromatic meal, and the children supplied their fair share of excitement.
by Renee Owen | Apr 11, 2012 | News
Millions Will Participate in the Annual Turnoff week and 139 kids of those millions will be from Rainbow Mountain. We think it’s always time to PLAY!ย So we choose as our team name; PLAY – Positive, Learning, Active, Youth.
Rainbow Mountain Childrenโs School will join thousands of schools, libraries, and community groups nationwide in a coordinated effort to encourage millions of Americans to turn off televisions, computers, and video games for seven days and turn on the world around them. Screen-Free Week is a chance for children to read, play, think, create, be more physically active, and to spend more time with friends and family.
โScreen-Free Week is a much needed respite from the screen media dominating the lives of so many childrenโ said Renee Jackson, fifth/sixth grade teacher. โNow, more than ever, itโs imperative that we help children discover the joys of life beyond screens.โ
On average, preschool children spend over four and a half hours a day consuming screen media, while older children spend over seven hours a day including multitasking. Excessive screen time is linked to a number of problems for children, including childhood obesity, poor school performance, and problems with attention span.
Screen-Free Week (formerly TV-Turnoff) is coordinated by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, a national advocacy organization devoted to reducing the impact of commercialism on children. Since the Weekโs founding in 1994, it has been celebrated by millions of children and their families worldwide. For more information, visit www.screenfree.org.
by sandra | Mar 26, 2012 | News
The seventh and eighth grade studentsย went down to the corner ofย Stateย Streetย 
and Amboy Road toย cleanย upย the river. They spent the day collecting trash from theย sideย of the road and in the stream.ย Amongst the debris, they found a large piece of a dishwasher, about 20 feet of thick, wire cable,ย a large hose, tires, used signs and many smaller pieces that addedย upย to a lot of trash. It was a rewarding experience that left them with the bittersweet feeling of pride and hope.
