First Graders Write a Book
With the help of the writers and artists that work at 826 Valencia, 1SPK wrote a story as a class. The story, "The Feathered Cartoonist," was about a little bird named Freddy who goes to school on the highest tree in the world and dreams of drawing cartoons that will be made into books. Students wrote their own endings and everyone went home with a specially made book of their own.

Third Graders Curate Museum
Third graders spent two months researching different Native American culture. Students compared how food, clothing & housing varied throughout different regions. They showcased their knowledge by creating dioramas for a Native American Cultural Museum which was open to the School community.

Fourth Graders Dazzle Audience
Fourth graders put on a performance of Wiley and the Hairy Man. In each scene, lead and chorus roles shifted in order to ensure participation by everyone. Students even developed the musical accompanied for the play. Through rhythm and rhyme, they created the mystery of the swamp, the setting in which Wiley and his sister realize that they have the power within themselves to face whatever fears may haunt them.

Sixth Graders Get a Charge
Sixth grade began a shocking unit on electricity in science. Using a Van Der Graaf Generator, they explored the properties of static electricity, testing the central rule of electric charge, that opposite charges attract and similar charges repel one another. Students experienced this principle first hand as they used the generator to charge balloons, styrofoam, pie tins, and even their own hair!

Seventh Grade Robotic Challenge
Seventh graders investigated forces in motion with an engineering and software programming challenge. The goal was to push eight soda cans out of an oval playing field in the least amount of time. Using Lego programmable bricks, laptops and light sensors, they built robots whose movements were coded to respond to the surrounding light. The challenge winner pushed all eight cans in just over one minute.

Students Walk to School for the Earth
On Earth Day, April 22nd, well over half of the student body honored the day by walking to school. Groups led by SFDS teachers converged on the school from nine different locations throughout the city. The event was simple, fun and easy. Students, faculty & parents got some exercise and used less gasoline!

National Geographic Bee
Hugo K. represented SFDS at the state level of the National Geographic Bee on April 4th. Only 101 out of over 500,000 students qualified for this level. Hugo answered 7 out of 8 questions correctly. He said it was a great experience and he hopes to return next year.

All About Sports
Sports continues to go strong at SFDS. The 5th grade girls basketball are undefeated, the soccer team is about to enter into the semi finals, and first ever girls soccer team tied their first game. Go dolphins!