Chrysalis School

You are here: Home / Archives for Alison McNee

Seattle Aquarium, Last Field Trip Of The Year For The SC!

By:

The South Campus went to the Seattle Aquarium today for their final field trip of the school year.
It was a great success.  They started the day in the classroom with one of the Seattle Aquarium’s Biologist for the Hand-on Tidepool Wonders class.  In the class they learned all about marine invertebrates (animals without backbones) and then had a chance to study and touch these amazing living creatures.  The kids had a great time sticking their hands in the icy cold water and touching many cool creature including starfish, sea cucumbers, crabs, and mollusks.  Once the class ended, the kids had a chance to explore the rest rest of the aquarium.  We even were able to see the harbor seals eat their lunch: they were definitely a bit hit with everyone.
Before heading back to the bus, many of the students took a ride on the Seattle Great Wheel, located next door to the aquarium.  It was a memorable day.  A perfect way to end a great year of South Campus field trips!

Just Don’t Fall – Book Review

By:

This is an outstanding book review by one of our 8th graders, Maya.  Get her take on the book and see if it inspires you to read Just Don’t Fall. 

Just Don’t Fall is Josh Sundquist’s memoir of how he lost his leg to childhood cancer at age nine. Despite his disability he set his sights on to becoming paralympic skier, and in later life a motivational speaker. He also speaks about how he overcame the social, emotional, and physical challenges of having only one leg while growing up.

Josh writes the book in first-person, telling us what is happening rather than what did happen.  I like the way the reader experiences a sense of immediacy about his situation while experiencing the story.  As you read, you feel as though you are right there with him during every part of his journey. For example, when Josh is sitting in his parents van in his driveway, they explain to him that he will have to get his leg amputated. He cries, and although he is surrounded with the comfort of his family, he is devastated. (Keep in mind, he is only nine when this occurs.) Leading up to the amputation, Josh has a difficult time accepting the reality that he will lose a leg even at his young age, he deals with the setback with a determined and courageous attitude.

Sundquist, did a wonderful job of depicting his very inspirational memoir on how he elegantly and triumphantly overcame adversity. Josh was able to make the story enjoyable and funny, along with some lighthearted meaningful anecdotes. On the other hand, unfortunately, some of the retellings of events were bit over the top and exaggerated and some events I felt were unnecessary to the story. Sadly, because of this, the ending portion of the book didn’t manage to hold my attention. I deeply enjoyed the beginning of the memoir; his journey through cancer and his discovery for his love of skiing was intriguing and memorable.
I got my hopes up after reading the first part of the book, and was let down at the ending. Despite this imperfection, if anyone is looking for something inspiring and an easy read I would recommend this book to them. Just as a warning, this book would be considered a teen\young adult book.

Shark Dissection!

By:

The Advanced Biology class is currently dissecting dogfish sharks as part of their physiology unit.  They are learning about a system, such as the digestive system, and then cut open the sharks to see what everything really looks like.  By doing the dissection, the students can get a big picture view to see how everything in the body fits together and works together.  What a better way to learn about the digestive system than to actually see it!

 

Mother’s Day Tea

By:

At the South Campus, we wanted to honor our mothers by inviting them in for a Mother’s Day Tea. We had a wonderful turnout of mothers, grandmother, great-grandmothers and even special friends.  Each of the students served their guest tea, juice, scones, cookies and finger sandwiches. The students then had a special song prepared as well as a gift they made for each person.

We always love being able to bring our chrysalis community of parents and students together.

 

Psychology Guest Speaker

By:

At Chrysalis, we love to have guest speakers come in and complement our teaching.  On Monday, April 29th, we welcomed Patty Putnam, from Northwest Family Life Learning and Counseling Center to speak with the group psychology class.  The class is learning about treatment/therapy and it was great to have a working expert come into the classroom to finish the unit.  Primarily, Patty answered questions from students over what life is like as a counselor, discussed when it is a good idea to get counseling, alongside how to decide when someone has found the right fit with a counselor. The students enjoyed having her there. She was very informative and we appreciated her coming in.

The Importance of a Theatre Education

By:

The Importance of a Theatre Education

I am so excited and honored to be back at Chrysalis as a staff member after graduating from this amazing school ten years ago. I fell in love with theatre when I was here and I knew I wanted to pursue the arts in college. I remember asking my Drama teacher before I graduated if she thought that pursuing a career in theatre would sentence me to be a ‘starving artist’ for the rest of my life, and I will never forget the encouraging words she gave to me.  She explained how a theatre education relates to all areas of life and can be beneficial in any career path.  It instills confidence and stretches our boundaries.  It teaches teamwork, collaboration and accountability. It builds friendships…often lifelong ones.  Nothing brings people closer than going through a difficult situation together, and each production brings with it its own difficulties. To learn to persevere through those difficulties and compromise with others are skills that can be applied to future education, jobs and relationships. Pursuing a theatre education is one of the best decisions I have made in my life and I am thrilled to be here to support Karen, Jennifer, Margaret and all of these amazing kids in keeping theatre an imperative part of Chrysalis.

-Jenna Schmidt-Porter

Museum of History and Industry, South Campus Field Trip

By:

The South Campus Friday Field Trip Class visited the Museum of History and Industry on April 19.  Our adventure started at the museum with the Cracking the Code Tour. The students were put into groups and given an ancient artifact. They then had the task of figuring out what is was, what time period it was from,  and what it was used for. Once we had all the information, the kids gave group presentations to share what they had learned.
Next, we were off to explore the gallery with an interactive iPad Scavenger Hunt.  We started with early civilization in the Pacific Northwest,  went though the gold rush era, railroads, wartime…and up to the present.  We saw a lot of artifacts from the Seattle World’s Fair and other famous artifacts from Seattle. It was a great walking history lesson of the State of Washington.  The field trip enjoyed by all.

Transcription and Translation: Like Building a Banana Split

By:

Most people know about DNA.  DNA contains all of your genetic information, like an instruction manual for your body.  However, like any manual, it doesn’t do any good unless you can read it and understand it.  That’s where transcription and translation come in. Transcription makes a copy of the DNA in the form of mRNA, which carries the message of the DNA out into the cell.  Translation reads the message and uses the information to make whichever proteins the body happens to need.
In the advanced biology lab, they used making banana splits as an analogy for this process.  If students did transcription and translation properly, then they had directions for making a banana split.  The banana split represented the protein that gets made at the end of translation.  Everyone had a slightly different banana split to represent the different DNA sequences in their bodies.  Who says science can’t be fun :)?

Hungry For Literature

By:

English Curriculum Night

Students, parents and teachers were “Hungry for Literature” Thursday, March 14th, at Chrysalis!  The North Campus theater was transformed into a community space of student poetry, short stories, microfiction, research papers, posters and book reviews. There were dramatic readings on stage while other students dressed up as characters from their favorite novels. Another delicious element of the evening was student concocted cuisine inspired by the books and plays they studied during the year. Some of these inspired dishes included Hobbit bread (served by our very own ‘Hobbits’), Our Town apple butter, Lion, Witch and Wardrobe Turkish Delight, British cucumber sandwiches, tea cakes and muffins, and the wildly popular Hitchhiker’s Guide Gargle Blaster Punch with mesmerizing flashing light ice cubes! Together, our community shared another successful night of literature, unique prose, and creativity that exemplify what makes Chrysalis so magical.

Chrysalis Student is a Finalist in a Worldwide Photo Contest!

By:

Nick Lewis, 11th grade, photography student is a finalist in the Photographer’s Forum magazine’s 33rd annual College and High School Photography Contest, Sponsored by Nikon, USA. Over 16,700 photographs were submitted worldwide. Photographers fourth through first place will be published in the May/Summer issue of the magazine and will be inducted into Nikon’s Emerging Photographers Hall of Fame.  The grand prize winner will receive over $8,000 in cash grants as well as be awarded equipment.  To view all entries visit, www.pfmagazine.com.  Good luck Nick!

IMG_0262

This is the photo he entered into the contest!

 

 

 

 

Our Campuses

Chrysalis High School and Middle School
15900 Woodinville-Redmond Rd NE
Woodinville, WA p: (425) 481-2228

Chrysalis Elementary Campus
17005 140th Ave NE
Woodinville, WA p: (425) 481-2228

CONTACT US TODAY