Copywriting

Saratoga Independent School’s Intergenerational Garden Project

Saratoga Independent School has begun a new, intergenerational garden project with Empire State College’s Academy for Lifelong Learning (A.L.L.) Between now and October, Saratoga Independent School students and A.L.L. members will work collaboratively to transform an area of the school’s campus into a vibrant community garden. This project is in keeping with the school’s current academic theme, “Relationships, Environment and Change,” and the A.L.L.’s apt theme, “Nourish the Body, Nourish the Mind.”

Saratoga Independent School and A.L.L. forged a strong relationship during last year’s intergenerational poetry project. This year, the shared garden project will allow every child from pre-K through 6​th grade to experience hands-on authentic learning alongside senior adults from the wider community, in a mutually beneficial extension of the school’s multi-age classroom environment.

The project itself involves the planning, building, and tending of several organic flower, herb, and vegetable garden beds (including raised, container, and in-ground beds). The pre-K students will grow sunflowers; the primary students will grow an alphabet-themed flower garden; the intermediate students will grow the herb garden; the oldest students will have primary responsibility for the vegetable garden. A.L.L. members and students will join together in augmenting and caring for the wildlife habitat of birds and butterflies that surrounds the school.

During April and May the focus will be on collaborative activities to develop relationships between students and adult participants, as well as building and preparing the garden beds. There will also be some indoor planting of seeds. After Memorial Day, the outdoor planting will begin. The garden will continue to be tended by summer program participants, Saratoga Independent School students, parent volunteers, and A.L.L. members. The garden will yield a fall harvest in time for the annual school Thanksgiving celebration, and produce will also be donated to a local food pantry. These exciting plans are in keeping with the school’s motto: “We take care of ourselves, each other, our school, and our community.”

The interdisciplinary nature of this project will enable the children to apply and extend many of the concepts they are studying this year. A math task will be set that includes measuring, mapping out, and estimating the cost of the materials for the garden beds. In science class, students will continue to study composting, recycling, and water conservation, as well as research and observe plants and animals. Students will also engage in documenting the garden’s progress through writing and visual art. There is even a link to the social studies curriculum, as the herb garden will reflect Colonial plantings.

The students will have a great opportunity to become stewards of their environment as they experience what it is like to grow food from scratch, share that food with the community, and even learn how to cook some of it. They will form new friendships with their A.L.L. partners, and set the stage for future healthy lifestyles as they see, smell, touch, and taste fresh vegetables straight from the garden.

©Ayshea Wild 2012

Artists and Authors Evening at Saratoga Independent School

On Wednesday May 16th, at 6pm, Saratoga Independent School will hold an Artists and Authors evening to showcase the artwork and written pieces the students have created this year. This celebration is a culmination of the hands-on experiences students have had working with and learning about clay as recipients of an Arts in Education grant titled, “The Art of Ceramics.” In keeping with Saratoga Independent School’s interdisciplinary approach to education, the learning occurred throughout the curriculum. The resulting display will include hand-built clay animals and bowls, wheel-thrown bowls, a visual timeline showing the history of ceramics, and written work reflecting each student’s understanding of the process of creating with clay, and the science of clay firing.

Earlier this year, the students visited the Saratoga Clay Arts Center where local artists and instructors Jill Kovachick, Galen Odell-Smedley, and Jean Fei demonstrated wheel-throwing, glazing, and firing. They also assisted the students with their hand-built clay animals, and showed them how to apply glazes. After some discussion, the students chose to raku-fire their animals, which were created for decorative purposes, and high-fire their bowls which would then become non-porous and therefore functional. The students observed their raku pieces being taken out of the kiln red-hot, placed into cans of hay for twenty minutes, and then immersed in water.

Back at Saratoga Independent School, the teachers provided a historical, social, cultural, and scientific context for the students’ artwork. In art class Ms. Parker taught the students how to make pinch pots and coil pots, discussed the history of ceramics from ancient civilization to the present day, and introduced students to the Japanese Tea Ceremony. In Social Studies, Ms. Sacks informed the students about how the colonists mined and used local clay and about the role of the potter in Colonial times. In science, Ms. Chambers included the physical and chemical changes that take place during clay glazing and firing as part of the students’ study of matter. In math, Ms. Swatling assisted the students in calculating the elapsed time in the kiln, measuring temperature, and measuring the shrinkage of the material. In Language Arts, Ms. Shauna, Ms. Sacks, and Ms. Chambers encouraged the students to implement the writing skills they have been practicing all year to write informational “how-to” pieces about the process of creating with clay using their newly acquired ceramics terminology, as well as descriptive pieces to accompany their artwork, narratives about the visit to the Saratoga Clay Arts Center, and descriptions of the physical and chemical changes clay undergoes in the kiln.

Also on display at the Artists and Authors event will be other examples of work the students completed in art class this year including pastels, paintings, weaving, quilling, silhouettes, and papier mache animals. The children’s written work will be exhibited too, and authors will be reading their original pieces in various genres, including personal narratives, reviews, persuasive essays, literary analyses, and informational booklets.

This project is funded in part by the Arts-in-Education/Local Capacity Building Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by Saratoga Arts.

©Ayshea Wild 2012

Saratoga Baby and Toddler Expo at Saratoga Independent School

The second annual Saratoga Baby and Toddler Expo will take place on Saturday, April 6th 2013 from 9am to 3pm. The only event of its kind in the Capital Region, it will bring together a wealth of local services, information, and products especially for parents-to-be and families with young children. The event is free, family-friendly, and will be held on Saratoga Independent School’s scenic campus at 459 Lake Avenue. John Lefner, Director of Operations at Saratoga Independent School, remarked: “We look forward to welcoming Saratoga area families back this year for this one-stop shopping event, and showcasing all the local services and products they need.”

Two organizations will be on site to help families stay safe. The Safe Child ID Card Program will be producing SAFE CHILD cards for parents and guardians of children who are 1 year of age or older from 9am to 2pm, using equipment that contains the latest digital fingerprinting technology and high-resolution photography capabilities. The Wilton EMS Child Car Seat Inspection Station will be on site to check car seat installation, and to reassure parents their seat is not one of the 3 out of every 4 that are installed incorrectly.

The event sponsors are SaratogaMama (editor Colleen Pierre co-chairs the Expo with Paula Tancredi Penman), the private preK–6 Saratoga Independent School, and local humanitarian charity To Love A Child. At the inaugural Saratoga Baby and Toddler Expo, To Love A Child collected donations of gently used baby clothing that was added to a shipment of cribs destined for impoverished Haitian families. Cindy Schmehl, the Executive Director of To Love A Child, commented: “Thank you to everyone who participated last year. We collected over forty cribs, and those families now have cribs to keep their babies safe. All the cribs have made such a difference to families in rural Haiti”.

This year To Love A Child, partnering with Engineers for a Sustainable World, is creating a much-needed daycare program in Haiti that will allow older siblings of preschoolers to go to school while their parents work in the fields. In addition to holding a bake sale and accepting monetary donations at the expo, To Love A Child will be collecting the following items to join a shipment to Haiti in May: soft baby carriers, small tables and chairs, sleeping mats, toddler ride-on toys, and educational toys such as wooden blocks.

Other exhibitors include a pop-up photography studio from iSmile taking family portraits, and the launch of a new line of local, natural, and organic body-care products from Robyn Originals called Baby Birdy. Barefoot Books will be offering children’s books that make a perfect gift for new big brothers and sisters, as well as new parents and grandparents. Britta Hogue of Baby Boot Camp will be available to answer questions about her new Strollga classes, which are a great way for a new mother to exercise with her baby. Your Toy Portrait will display examples of the unique service they offer: a painting of your child’s favorite toy that will last forever.

All attendees will receive a swag bag at the door, as well as a sneak peek inside Saratoga Independent School’s unique Adirondack-style building. Parents and future parents can learn about the diverse array of services available to families in the Saratoga area, whether they are interested in exploring alternative birthing options, doula services, breastfeeding support, nutrition, cloth diapering, and pediatricians for themselves and their babies, or pediatric dentistry, daycare services, and future preschools for their toddlers. There will be educational presentations scheduled throughout the day. Saratoga Independent School’s Director of School, Felice Karlitz, will give a presentation on what to look for in a preschool, and how to find one that will nurture, and offer meaningful activities to, the young child.

The call for vendors is still open; booths are expected to sell out. The list of exhibitors and presenters so far includes: Safe Child ID Card Program, Baby Boot Camp, Barefoot Books, Kindermusik, The Bundle

Store, iSmile, Saratoga Springs Public Library, North Country Academy, It Works!, Bloom and Bee Portrait Studio, Your Toy Portrait, Robyn Originals, Family Life Midwifery, and Wilton EMS Child Car Seat Inspection Station. For more information, please visit ​www.saratogabayexpo.com​.

©Ayshea Wild 2013

​Saratoga Independent School to Host Blood Drive

Supporting the American Red Cross Blood Drive is of vital importance to Paula Tancredi Penman, Wilton resident and mother of Saratoga Independent School student Landon. Landon was born by emergency Caesarean section, with only 10% of his blood supply remaining in his body. His life was saved by an extremely fast delivery, followed by an immediate blood transfusion in the NICU that took 5 hours to complete.

Paula can testify that an urgent need for blood can befall a family when least expected. Landon’s sudden arrival into the world came at the end of a normal, full-term pregnancy. A reduction in movement from the baby led Paula to call her doctor, who asked her to meet him right away and delivered the baby within an hour of Paula’s arrival at the hospital. Landon had transfused 80% of his blood back to his mother, and another 10% to the placenta. He was born as white as a sheet.

What followed for Landon and his parents was a week in the NICU to check that none of Landon’s organs had been damaged by the life-threatening loss of blood he had suffered. He could not be fed by mouth for four days until his digestive system had been checked. He passed every test, including a brain MRI, with flying colors. Miraculously, when he was a month old he was pronounced in good health by a pediatric neurologist.

Today, Landon is a happy 5 Year Old in his second year of pre-K at Saratoga Independent School, who dreams of one day becoming a Star Wars Stormtrooper. He skis, plays soccer, is a fast-runner, and loves coloring and stickers.

For more information about this event please contact Melissa Verga at Saratoga Independent School.

©Ayshea Wild 2012