Our 5th grade Honeybees have been stretching their musical muscles. They worked with the band Elephant Revival learning about singing and songwriting.
Here are our songwriter/singer 5th graders at LEAF in action:
5th Grade Honeybees at LEAF with Elephant Revival
They did a great job with their performance and had a meaningful experience with the sweet spirits of Elephant Revival.
Here’s another look at all the enlightened musicians:
Violins, voices, guitars, and more all amounts to an incredible musical experience.
Elephant Revival had such a blast, they shared an endearing photo on their Facebook page:
Elephant Revival poses with the 5th grade students while they practice.
If you use Facebook, feel free to head on over to share your child’s experience with them while they worked with Elephant Revival.
Something we’re particularly proud of: During the band’s afternoon performance at LEAF, they made several positive references to their experience with the kids and with the school, specifically wishing more schools could be like Rainbow.
(click to view full-screen – you’ll be able to read all the text clearly)
Rainbow Community School recently was recognized for its efforts at environmental sustainability and the innovative ways in which students and staff aim to learn about and take care of our planet.
The NC Green Schools Committee of the Reading, Riding, Retrofit non-profit organization recently recognized Rainbow as a Green School of Excellence. We are the first to receive such an award.
Rainbow was judged according to five categories: Culture/Community, Curriculum Integration, Healthy Schools, Sustainability and Innovation. We scored very high, which allowed us to become the first NC school to achieve the NC Green School of Excellence Award. The other two categories are NC Green School of Quality and NC Green School of Promise.
On May 19th, judges from NC Green Schools will be coming to campus to have a celebration with us at 10 am. Parents are invited to attend.
On behalf of Rainbow, there is a press release on the Mountain Express website, found here:
Our campaign was a HUGE success! We are just shy of our $200,000 goal to acquire the church property next to the school. Thank you to everyone who came to the event. There was music, food, fun, and games.
Our fundraiser yesterday raised $24,000, bringing us to $168,000 towards our $200,000 goal. For all who joined us, we are incredibly happy you came!
We want to extend a special thank you to our musicians, Greg Olson, Bobby Miller & the Virginia Daredevils, Adama Dembele & Friends for all of your musical entertainment. We had so many volunteers who contributed their many hours and talents to the event and we express our deepest gratitude. FUEL Food Truck and Catering, GQC Lebanese Street Food, Wicked Weed Brewing, & Bill Drew provided some delicious food and drink – it was all a success.
Thank you also to our Board of Directors, faculty, & staff – without everyone’s help, this whole event might not have been possible. The future of Rainbow is right now and we’re making it happen!
A special thank you to all the members of the Asheville Community who helped make this day possible.
The fourth graders just finished an archaeology unit and invited the Rainbow Community to come see.
They built a wigwam! We’ll let the photos speak for themselves:
To build the wigwam, the students harvested local grapevine and learned to weave it in and out of the shelter to create the skeleton frame. The Omega students helped the 4th graders complete the project.
Building the wigwam reinforced their Archeology unit because it allowed them to have hands-on experience relatable to the ancient societies archeologists discover.
They also did soap carvings and rock paintings using all-natural materials.
At the end of the unit, and also to celebrate, they taught other classes about Archeology, including the Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 3 classes.
The church property is in the background Bill Sanders / wsanders@citizen-times.com
We’re getting the word out about our wish to expand Rainbow’s campus with the Capital Campaign. If you haven’t heard, we’re having a HUGE fundraiser on Saturday, December 7th called Rainbow Rising!
Our director, Renee Owen, had an interview with Asheville Citizen Times about Rainbow’s goal to acquire the property next to the school.
Some of the highlights included:
About half of Rainbow’s Haywood Road frontage will be converted from a parking lot to a park for residents and visitors to use as a resting spot and place to interact with students through student-installed interactive informational displays.
The expansion will dramatically increase the school’s role as a neighborhood resource, with space for new classes and events to join existing meditation classes, a mother-daughter group, parenting classes and the weekly services of the Church of the Garden.
Indeed, so many exciting things are happening, and the future of Rainbow is bright. The school definitely wants to have a bigger role in the Asheville community and one way to do that is with this expansion.
This opportunity is such an illustration of synchronicity.
Last year at this time, plans were in the works to build on the existing campus and staff and students were already bursting at the seams. Faculty circle is held in various classrooms, other classrooms serve as multipurpose rooms – such as the art room serving as an after-school space and the Spanish classroom doubling as a math classroom.
When Rainbow learned that the adjacent Church of God congregation had plans to move, and the fact that it is next door to the Rainbow campus, the Community knew it had to act. It’s one of those opportunities that was just too good to pass up.
