Spring has surely arrived at Willow Wind! The campus looks lush and green. Many of the fruit trees are blossoming, bulbs are sprouting up and the garden looks neat and full of tiny spring plants. We can always use garden help this time of year, so if you feel like getting your hands in the dirt, please contact Debbie and she can direct you to a job.

By the time you receive this newsletter, it will almost be time for our annual May Day Celebration. This is always a wonderful event, and I hope to see you all there. Our final community event of the year, the Passport to Learning, will be coming up at the end of the month. This will be an exciting culmination of our efforts. The 8th graders will be presenting their Portfolios in the barn on that evening. Please make sure you walk through and talk to them about their work. The evening also includes a family picnic, 8th grade recognition and displays of work. We will also get our first look at the new yearbook. Join us for this wonderful evening on our beautiful campus.

It is hard to believe that summer is almost here. Both the fall and spring sessions went by quickly, and here we are again getting ready for next year. I would like to thank everyone who has helped make this year a wonderful experience for children and adults alike.

Notes from the Office

Willow Wind Community Learning Center—May 2016

Newsletter Calendar of Events

April 28– May 4 Express Interest in Fall

Classes

Friday, April 29 May Day Celebration

12:30-2:30pm

May 2-6 June Workshop Arena

Registration

Tuesday, May 10 Parent Council

1:15-2:30pm

Friday, May 20 Pizza Friday

Track Meet at AMS

Monday, May 23 Spring Dance & Music

Show- AHS Theater

Monday, May 30 NO CLASSES—Memorial

Day

Thursday, June 2 Passport to Learning

Celebration

Monday, June 6 Bike A Thon

June 6-10

Parent Partner Conferences

June 6-10 June Workshops

Friday, June 3

Fall 2016 Registration Due

Follow Willow Wind on Facebook! “Like” our page at

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Willow-Wind-Community-Learning-

Center/399419993464732

MAY DAY CELEBRATION

April 29th—12:30-2:30pm

Help us celebrate May Day! Festivities

begin at 12:30pm with students and

families gathering to picnic and make May

crowns. At 1:00pm the May Dance will

begin followed by field day activities,

crafts, face painting, and games. All

Friday afternoon classes will be cancelled

so everyone can participate in the

celebration. Plan to join us for the

wonderful community event. If you are

unable to join us for the afternoon, please

make sure to pick up your child at 2:30 on

that day.

Volunteers are needed for field day

stations, craftbooths, May crowns, and clean up. We also need one or two people to

pick up flower donations from localmerchants. This will count toward

fulfi l l ing your family service

requirements. Please remember to bring

flowers from your yard or garden for May

crowns. Please contact the office to

volunteer at 541-488-2684.

HOW TO EXPRESS INTEREST IN

FALL 2016 COURSES After the Fall 2016 course proposals are

submitted we need you to tell us which of

the proposed courses you would like to see

offered for Fall 2016. This process is

designed to determine what the Willow

Wind community wants. Families can

express interest in proposed classes April 28

-May 4. Proposals will be located in Debbie’s

office. Families express interest by

reviewing the submitted proposals, selecting

TEN classes per student they would like to

see offered, and signing the student or

family name on the back of the course

proposal forms. Without your vote, we don’t

have clear priorities.

PLANNING & REGISTRATION

TIMELINES FALL

Families Express Interest in Proposals:

April 28-May 4

Fall Catalogs Available (we hope):

May 27

Fall 2015 Registrations Due: June 6

JUNE WORKSHOP ARENA

REGISTRATION—May 2nd-6th

Willow Wind will be offering five days of

f u n w o r k s h o p s b e g i n n i n g o n

Monday, June 6 and continuing through

Friday, June 10. This year the first

morning of Workshop Week will be the

Bike-A Thon and all students will spend

the morning with their core teacher.

Homeschooling students are welcome to

join us that morning and can join their age

appropriate core group. This year we will

also have a HALF DAY of instruction on

Friday, June 10. Therefore, morning

workshops will meet Tuesday – Friday and

afternoon workshops will meet Monday –

Thursday.

Descriptions of the workshops are included

in this newsletter. Please remember that

workshops are a required part of our

curriculum for full-time students.

Sign-ups will begin on Monday, May 2 at

8:30am in the Administrative Office/

Resource Room. Registration forms will

not be mailed

IMPORTANT NOTES: Sign-ups are on a

first-come, first-served basis. There will be

no waiting lists for workshops. Students

must meet the age requirement for the

workshops they are requesting.

PASSPORT TO LEARNING

CELEBRATION

June 2nd—5:00pm—at Willow Wind

Let’s Celebrate! Our final community

event of this year will be an exciting

culmination of our efforts. We will gather

to celebrate the completion of another

year. Bring a picnic dinner, plan to visit

classroom displays and attend the 8th

grade Portfolio Presentations. Our

students moving on to high school will be

honored and you will have a chance to say

good-bye to them as they get ready to

continue their education at the high

school. Yearbooks will be distributed at

this event. Please let the office know if you

are able to help with set up or clean up.

UPPER SCHOOL INQUIRY

PRESENTATIONS

April 26th-28th

All Upper School students are working on

Inquiry Projects. The 7th and 8th graders

will be presenting their projects to a panel

during the week of April 25, 2016. We

want to include some parents on the panel

– this is a fun opportunity to hear about

the wonderful work our students are doing.

If you are interested in joining our panel

(presentations are in the afternoon), please

contact Debbie with your availability.

DISTRICT TRACK MEET FOR 4TH &

5TH GRADE STUDENTS

May 20th—AMS Track

All Willow Wind students in the 4th or 5th

grade are invited to participate in the all

district track meet on May 20. Details will

be provided to all students in this age

group. We also need some parents to come,

cheer the kids on, and provide snacks,

drinks, shade, and support. Please contact

Sue or Robin if you can help!!

YEARBOOK SALES

2015-16 Willow Wind Yearbooks are now

on sale. You can purchase Yearbooks in

the office. Each Yearbook costs $5.00.

FAMILY SERVICE

Please remember that family service hours

need to be completed for fall registration.

Please contact the office for more

information or to check the hours you

currently have on file.

LOST & FOUND

The Lost & Found

h a s r e a c h e d

maximum capacity!

Coats, clothes, hats,

water bot t les ,

books, and many

other abandoned

items from the classrooms and the

playground are piling up.

Take the time to visit the Lost & Found,

located on the back porch, to claim lost or

forgotten items that belong to your child.

Any unclaimed items will be removed and

donated at the end of the term

CAN YOU HELP IN THE WILLOW

WIND GARDEN OVER THE

SUMMER?

The garden is beautiful in the summer and

some families gain family service hours by

helping maintain the garden over the

summer. Families come by and weed,

check water and harvest food. We have

other families who periodically mow the

paths and pull weeds. If you are interested

in helping, please contact Debbie.

WILLOW WIND ANNUAL SPRING CONCERT

MONDAY MAY 23rd

DOORS OPEN: 6:30pm

SHOWTIME: 7:00pm

AHS MOUNTAIN AVE. THEATER

It’s time again for the big spring performance at the Ashland High school theater!

Students from Tap, and Dance classes will perform with

spectacular costumes on the big stage. If you go to one

thing this year, this is the big one! Invite friends and

family and see the creativity, talent and excitement at

Willow Wind. Seating is first-come, first-serve and

tickets are $5.00 at the door. Come and appreciate the

work that our Willow Wind students have put in to

prepare for the big show!

EVE’S SPRING PERFORMANCES!

Theatre Improv – Thursday, May 19th @ 12:45pm – 45 minutes

Play Performance: The Snow White Project (45 minutes)

Thursday, May 26th @ 2:00pm

Thursday, May 26th @ 8:00pm – special evening show!

Thursday, June 2nd @ 2:00pm

Theatre for Youngers (45 minutes)

Tuesday, May 24th @ 10:45am

Skits: Write Them, Act Them! (50 minutes)

Wednesday, May 25th @ 1:00pm

Wednesday, June 1st @ 1:00pm

Teen Improv – Friday, May 27th @ 2:15pm – 45 minutes

All Performances take place in The Barn

Classes welcome!

News from the Classroom Skyrockets, Snapdragons and Shining Stars:

Exploring History in Ashland

This spring the first, second and third graders have been learning about the history of the

Rogue Valley. On April 1st we all headed to downtown Ashland to explore some of that

history. We were lucky to have beautiful weather and started our adventure with a picnic

lunch in Lithia Park. Many parent volunteers joined us and after lunch they gave small groups

of kids guided tours of the downtown area. They explained the history of many of the

buildings and talked about what had changed, and what had not.

The kids were able to find plaques on many of the buildings that told just

how old they are and what businesses were there first. They were also

able to go into some businesses to see evidence of their history. For

example, did you know that Lithia Shoes still has the 5000 pound

manganese safe in their back room from the days when that building was

The Citizen’s Bank of Ashland? Some groups got to walk back and see

it. Also, in the Columbia Hotel, you can still walk up the same staircase

patrons walked up in 1910 and make a call from the oldest working phone

booth in Oregon. One group tried it!

Caden (3rd grade) said, “I really liked when we got to go in and see the safe in Lithia Park

Shoes and learn what all the buildings used to be 100 years ago.” Mackenzie (3rd grade) said,

“I liked seeing the old safe in the shoe store and seeing how big it is and thinking about what

it used to be used for and all the old writing on it.” Sophia (3rd grade) said, “I thought it was

neat that where the ice cream shop is (Zoey’s) used to be one big building. It was an opera

house!” Natalie (2nd grade) said, “ It was fun because we got to ride the bus and see lots of

places that were old. I learned that it took more bricks to build the block of Zoey’s (the

opera house) than to build the Ashland Springs Hotel.”

It was a fun afternoon and a great way to connect to the history around us!

News from the Classroom

Prodigy: Job-Shadowing Hello Willow Wind Community!

We, the 8th grade class of 2016, are looking for adults willing to share their everyday career experiences. Each one of us will be job-shadowing someone for 5-10 hours (not necessarily all at once) to learn about life in the real world.

Some of the jobs we’re interested in are:

Journalist, firefighter, biologist, pilot, math teacher, actor, architect, politician, landscaper, school counselor, massage therapist, doctor, physical therapist, nurse, artist, baker, lawyer, forensic pathologist, restaurateur, farmer, interior designer, musician, ad designer, rancher, global aid worker, dentist/orthodontist, shoemaker, dancer, construction worker, skydiving instructor.

If you do one of these jobs and are willing to mentor one of us, let us know. We don’t all know what we want to do, so if you have another job (not on the list) that you think might be interesting, feel free to get in touch as well.

Please let us know by Friday, May 6th. Email Claire at cbloom@claireandmatt.com, or leave a message with Dannette in the office.

Thank you for considering our request,

Sincerely,

the 8th grade class

News from the Community Association

Willow Wind Bike-A-Thon 2016

Are you ready to ride??

Please mark your calendars for:

Monday, June 6, 2016

8:30 am-11:45 am

It’s the final fundraiser of the year, so let’s bike for our school! Join us for a fun morning of BIKING, bike decorating, bike safety and lots of school & community spirit. Students, with their bikes (or any wheeled, NON-motorized item like scooters) and helmets, will be dropped off the morning of June 6th. Prior to the Bike-a-Thon, kids will get family & friends to sponsor their ride with a one-time flat donation to Willow Wind. Parents are encouraged to stay at the event, cheer and volunteer and get in those final volunteer hours. We’re going to need parent helpers to keep the kids safe on the course, time our heats and run the snack booth. All students will bike with their core class grade group for 30 minutes on a route through the Willow Wind paved parking areas. The course will be closed to cars. For younger or less experienced riders, training wheels are fine and a goal of fewer minutes is fine too. Look for pledge sheets and information packets to be sent home with your student soon. Get sponsors, ride with your class, complete your 30 minute heat, have FUN and support your school - you are amazing! Look forward to seeing you there! Any questions? Contact: Rebecca Mercado elirebecca@aol.com

Mark Your Calendars! Important Spring Dates

April 29 MAY DAY 12:30-2:30pm

April 28– May 4 Express Interest in Fall Classes

May 2-6 June Workshop Arena Registration

May 10 Parent Council—1:15 – 2:30pm

May 20 Pizza Friday

May 20 Track Meet– AMS Track

May 23 Spring Dance & Music Show

-Doors Open: 6:30pm, Showtime: 7:00pm

May 30 NO CLASSES – Memorial Day

June 2 Passport to Learning Celebration—5:00pm

June 6 Bike A Thon—8:30-11:45am

June 6-10 Parent Partner Conferences

June 6-10 June Workshops

June 3 Fall 2016 Registration Due

1497 E. Main Street

Ashland, OR 97520

Phone: 541-488-2684

Fax: 541-488-2687

Find Willow Wind on the Web at:

www.ashland.k12.or.us/wiillowwind

Don’t forget to “Perk Up” on the first Friday of

each month at participating local coffee shops!

10% of all purchases made on Perk Up Fridays

will be donated to the Ashland Schools

Foundation to support school projects!

LAST SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDER OF THE YEAR DUE: MAY 3, 2016

Now it’s easier than ever to find the perfect books for your child—shop the NEW online Book Clubs website. Choose from a much wider selection of books than in the printed flyers. Plus, you can send your orders directly online and use your credit or debit card to pay. Best of all, Willow Wind earns a FREE book for the classroom libraries every time a parent places an order! 1) SIGN UP at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. On the parent page, click the “Register” button on the “First Time Here?” section. Register for your own use name and password. When prompted, enter the one-time class activation code LL8ZZ. 2) SELECT the books you’d like to order. 3) SEND your order online by May 3rd and your books will be delivered directly to the school. ...Of course, you can still order using the forms from the printed flyers (attached). When using the flyers to order, please submit your completed order form and payment by cash/check to the Office by May 3rd. Please contact the office with any questions at 541-488-2684.