Sail Biking!

Kids come up with neat things when they mess around in the metal shop. Ed says these guys (plus a friend who is not in the picture) put this contraption together from spares wheels, a front fork and an old milk crate.

What's Pajama Day without a hike in the desert?

More than half of us wore our pajamas on Pajama Day but I didn't get a picture of anyone reading. (It's billed as a day to snuggle down with a good book.) Heather says in this picture they were just walking back from the new tree house they built themselves. She had been reading The Lorax with a bunch of kids in pajamas.

Look what Martha's doing with the boys' bathroom!

Martha Martin has been creating amazing mosaics in the boys' and girls' bathroom. Here's how the boys' bathroom looks right now:


Here's a close up so you can see some of the details:


In case you can't tell from the photos, these are all tiny cut out, hand glazed, tiles. Here's a more detailed photo:



Take a look at the August 2, 2008, post to see the girls' bathroom when it was a work in progress. Fantastic!

Teddy Bear Picnic

The primary students had a teddy bear picnic at Children Memorial Park last week. It was a gorgeous day for reading bear books and playing frisbee. Mary Jane, Libby, Mary Vega, Alex's mom, and all the bears went too. Anna and Mary Lou met them for lunch.

Chris' homeroom had cleaned the park the day before, so it was pristine when they got there, but Mary Jane said they were careful that it was clean when they left, too.

Adventures In Physics

Anna persuaded five of the physics students (Griffin, Andrew, Ethan, Mark W, and Jamie) to meet her at school at 6 am so they could see the Go Fast jet pack pilot in flight. Luckily, she brought bagels and cream cheese too, because the promised 6:45 flight didn't happen until 8:45. Anna says the flight lasted about five seconds and was the loudest thing any of them had ever heard. Griffin wrote that they learned about "the principles of pressure, sound, and lift; the principles of sponsorship and advertising . . . and the principle of heat loss, as it was very cold."

Alumni News: Eleanor Davis

Eleanor's book Stinky was just named a Geisel Honor Book by the American Library Association at its annual convention last week.

The winner of the Newbery Award always gets the most attention, but the ALA makes awards in other categories, like the Caldecott for illustrated books and the Geisel, named for Dr. Seuss, which recognizes the most distinguished books for beginning readers. In addition to the winner, there were four honor books.

Eleanor started drawing comics early on at Kino. As a junior high student doing writing with Jack, she wrote a series called The Caped Sucker, inspired by the fact that a half-unwrapped tootsie roll pop looks like it is wearing a cape -- and is easy to draw, too. For her senior project (she graduated in 2001 after 11 years at Kino), she produced a comic book every month.

Stinky is Eleanor's first commercially published book. She was approached about writing and drawing it when she was still in college at Savannah College of Art and Design, where she was majoring in sequential art and illustration. It is one of a series of books in comic book format published by Toon Books for young readers .

There's an interview with Eleanor here.