The Museum School - History Links

From here you can access older information on school events and activities. Because of space restrictions, the amount of information provided here is limited. To access older archival information, please contact the school directly.

Curio Cafe "Artist Meet and Greet" Thursday, May 29th after presentations.
From 1-3:30 pm refreshments will be available, but people can stop in all day, all month actually, to view the art, grab a sandwhich or coffee and support a local, independent cafe that's been very generous to us! The caffe is located on 5th and Laurel, on the east side of the street. The work on display is based on the theme of natural abstractions, chalk pastels of leaves. Some of the students with work in the show includes Isabella, Lisee, Loren, Hannah, Yago, Ashley, Tania, Samar, Daniel R, Elijah, Briana, Jaia, Frida, Amber, Brianna, Zoe. Congratulations to all our Museum School artists!
6th Grade Art Show and Camp Fundraiser at Curio Cafe (5th and Laurel)
Artist meet and greet - April 17 from 1-7 pm
2505 5th Avenue,(619) 696-8699.
Students, parents, teachers and friends are encouraged to visit the caffe during this time to mingle and enjoy the art. This is an informal, drop-in engagement, with light refreshments. Our show will be up the entire month of April. Curio is donating 100% of the proceeds of any art sold to the Museum School to benefit our 6th Grade Camp Fundraiser. Each 6th grader has at least one piece of art framed and for sale in the caffe.

SDUSD Board approved the Museum School Charter Amendments to go K-6 in Sept 2008, 5-0 Tuesday, March 25th!

Java Mama FUNdraiser-Saturday, March 29th 1:00-4:00pm in La Mesa, only $5 Click to see PDF flyer
San Diego Children's Museum
. On November 30, 2007- Children's Museum Board announced their decision to not house the Museum School in the school space of the new Children's Museum facility. Click here to learn more about this...

Museum School Students Exhibit @ Young Arts 2007
Congratulations to our Museum School students whose artwork was selected for San Diego Museum of Art's Young Art 2007. Willem, Paulina, Frida will have pieces at the Museum of Art in Balboa Park, and Aileen and Basil will have their pieces shown @ the Central Library, Downtown.

MS Walk -Sunday April 29th @ Embarcadero
Many of our staff and student participated in the MSWalk at the Embarcadero on Sunday from 9:00-1:00. The 3 mile walk was exilerating with good company, good exercise, good fun, and for a good cause. Congratulations to our Museum School students and families who raised $ doing yard sales and other good deeds.

Odanlan to Bless Our New Gamelan
Our long awaoited gamelan arrived from Bali. We had an odanlan on March 26th @1:20. The odanlan is a little festival. Students brought fruit to share. We made offering towers and displays. The cooking department made yellow rice. And then we heard our gamelan sing its beautiful song. Click to see more pictures.

Read Across America -Green Eggs & Ham Pajama Party
Friday, March 2nd
Thank you to all the parents who came and spent the day with us. We had so much fun reading all morning in our PJs. The teachers read some really fun stories, and did an encore readers' theater of The Lorax. Muchas gracias for all the food and supplies that were sent in by our parents. We had such a wonderful bruch of green eggs, ham, muffins, fruit, and potatoes! Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss. (Click to see more pictures)

Animation Projects
Click here to check out some of the cool animation projects our students are doing in the computer lab.
Grandpa Worm
Attack of the Kittycats
(Still working on this. Sorry, I don't know why it's not playing.)

Grossology- The Impolite Science of the Human Body
On February 6, 2007 we went to the Ruben Space Fleet Center to see the "Grossology" exhibit. It was a really gross and wonderful presentation of the human body and how we work. Willem said, "My favorite part was the "smells" and the "burp". Tabitha shared,"I really liked the trivia game. Students learned all sorts of interesting facts like, "We fart 14 times a day!" Oooohhhhh grooossss!(click to see more pictures)

Thank you to the folks @ Safe Met for our fun and informative Traffic Rodeo 10/10/06

Click to see more pictures
Alumni Night- Weds. December 13th, 5:00 Potluck & Discussion
Alumni, 6th graders, and their parents gathered for a wonderful evening of sharing on December 13th, 2006. We ate, and talk, and laughed. Alumni shared about their middle school experiences. We had students from Corea, Roosevelt, Cortez Hill, Albert Einstein, High Tech Middle Media Arts, San Diego Cooperative Charter (SDCCS), Creative & Performing Media Arts, High Tech High Media Arts, High Tech High, High Tech Middle, & Muirlands. It was wonderful to also hear from our alumni students how well prepared they felt they were for middle school. Many students commented that their presentation experiences @ the Museum School really helped and gave them a step up over their peers. The next day our 6th graders reflected that it was quite useful for them to hear about the different schools and what they should expect next in their educational career. Thank you to all who particpated. It was a wonderful evening.

4th Grade Gingerbread House Contest
On Saturday December 9th, four of our fourth graders participated in a gingerbread decorating contest downtown @ NBC plaza. Students had a great time and got to ice skate at the rink afterward. Click here to see more pictures.

Thank you 6 to 6, parents, and staff for making our Halloween so goulishly exciting!
Click to see more pictures from Halloween 2006

Plastivan Visits the Museum School-October 27, 2006

On October 27th, 2006, the Plastivan came to our school and brought some really cool experiments. We made slime, and did a awesome baloon trick. We learned some really neat things about how plastic works, and about different kinds of plastic. Thank you to Fuumi and the Plastivan! (Click to see more pictures and slideshow)

Free Parent Workshop: Tuesday, October 24th 6:00-9:00pm
This informative parent workshop with Tracy Callaway focused on tools and techniques to help our children become healthy, confident, cooperative individuals. Please talk to Krista for more information about the program, "Redirecting Children's Behavior".

Carwash/Yard Sale (click to see pictures)
Sixth graders held a yard sale and car wash in the school parking lot to raise funds for 6th grade camp. Thanks to all our friends, families, and neighbors we raised over $1000.00 for camp!

Student Presentations 3/23/06

Celebrate Reading and Dr. Seuss' Birthday
& Dads and Dudes Day
Gree n Eggs and Ham Pajama Party
Friday, March 3rd Click to see more pictures.
Thank you to all the DADs, DUDES, & MOMs who came to help us celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday. It was such a wonderful day of reading. And the green eggs and ham were delicious!

Our dear friend Dr. Bob Brown passed away on Tuesday-November 29, 2005
Bob Brown was a great friend and inspiration to us all. He touched so many of our lives and made them rich and full of music and wonder. In honor of Bob who brought World Music to our school, the Gamelan has taken a new name. Formally Puspa Warsa will now call themselves "Giri Nata", translation- "Mountain Sage", for the great man who loved his Flower Mountain in Bali, and shared that love of education and music with so many people all around the world.

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Thank you Ricardo and Janet for some great times! We'll miss you. 8/05

VozAlta To Feature Museum School Artists-
Saturday, January 29, 2005

Artist James Watts and his Museum School students will have a professional gallery showing of their art at VozAlta, 1544 Broadway (16th & Broadway, Downtown). The installation is called the "Supershow", and will feature a combination of works by San Diego Artist- James Watts, sculpture by the students from the Museum School, and the El Nido Project-Children of Transitional Living.

Ricardo Castillo & Alexis Zayas-Rosabel teaching
Spanish Language/Afro-Cuban Music

Lupe introduces folklorico to Krista's movement class

Click here to learn more about Rotations

Branan's art class is making masks
Yvonne's Spanish class discuss the works of Frieda and Diego Kent teacher electric guitar

Alumni Night- February 26th, 04 Thursday @ 6:00pm
(click to see more pictures) 6th grade students and their parents, and Museum School alumni and their families were invited back to share information and offer support to those who will be moving on at the end of this year. We had an incredible turn out. It was wonderful to see all our students so grown and doing well. Many thanks to Lauren Van Praag for getting the food and making phone calls. Also, thanks to Ken Marushigi who came that evening to talk to our parents and students about Roosevelt Middle.

In the fall, our advance dance students also had a very special opportunity to work with Casey Lee who came down from Los Angeles every week to teach our third graders and Puspa Warsa Balinese dance. Click here to see more pictures.

December 5th Museum School Winter Concert@ 2:30-4:00 pm at OHR congregation Social Hall. It was a wonderful opportunity for all the students to show off what they have learned. Thank you Alex.

Students have music classes on Weds. During the course of the year they will be taking a voice and choir course, an introduction to learning how to play the guitar (Thanks to Gary and Ritsuko Papers who donated funds to provide us with a set of student guitars!), and Indonesian gamelan, and taiko drumming.

Students may may further particpate in the after school music progams. After school programs are availble for a small fee.

Thank you Tami! We will miss you!

Our best wishes for Joe, Will, Tami, and Doug.
Have a great adventure in England! 10/2//03

Empty Bowls Fundraiser-Monday, June 16th, 2003 @5:30-8:00 at Downtown Johnny Browns
Students raised $2000.00 to feed the hungry.

Department are so fun!

Cooking department prepares something scrumptious for Department Presentations 2/06/03.

Check out this page to see some pictures of 6th Grade Camp.
March 24th 2003

Janet taking a nap on the bus. Hee Hee...

Thanks to all the parents and staff we have moved into our new home at 211 Maple Street, while construction begins downtown for the new Children's Museum.

Well, here we are all packed and ready for the next adventure.

December 2002. Moving out from the Schoolhouse on Union Street.
Wow! I can't believe we really did it. Groundbreaking Event!

Kyle is GungFu instructor. Thank you Sifu Dwight Love––of the Chinese Martial Arts Institute, for supporting our program and sending us such good people.

Gungfu in the courtyard

Diego working on his horse stance

Good luck Carl! Carl has moved on to a new project-to work on opening a Museum Middle School next year! That's great news for our students who get another choice and become eligible to graduate right into that program if they would like to continue on with us.

Puspa Warsa and the Museum School were featured in the Balinese Festival for Children, April 7th at the Lyceum Theater in Horton Plaza. Approximately 200 guests attended, helping raise funds to underwrite the Balinese Arts program here at our school. THANK YOU to all the students and parents who contributed their time and efforts, and right in the middle of Spring Break! Here are a few of the several beautiful photos that came out of this event.

Winter Break: Our last day of school before the winter holidays is Thursday, December 20. We will not have school on Friday, December 21. School will be back in session again on Tuesday, January 22. Monday, January 21 is Martin Luther King Day and is a school holiday. We hope you have a wonderful vacation!

Showcase 2001: A great THANK YOU to the organizers, donors, staff, students, families, and everyone else who participated in this event! Photos and more details will be forthcoming, but the result is that this event raised $7500 for our school.

Japanese Music and Dance ~ Ichikawa Chikujo: An evening of Tsugaru Shamisen (3-stringed lute) music and songs played by Japan's last great master. Also featuring her 15 member danc and music troupe playing Shamisen, Shakuhachi (bamboo flute), and Taiko drums. Neurosciences Institute, 10/30/01 @ 8pm. Flyer at the Museum School or Center for World Music.

Sing 'n Speak Spanish Teacher Shirley Yi uses puppets and music to teach Spanish fast. The classes began after school, Wednesday, 10/10 @ 4:15pm. More information is at www.singnspeak.com.

Our First Department Presentations were last Thursday. "Thank you!" to all the parents who were able to come and support their own children's education that day. Here is a page with information and photos from one of the department presentations, Earth Science. We will be adding more information about each department as we go along. (Next department presentation is scheduled for 12/6/01.)

Vietnamese Musicians: Two musicians will perform at the Museum School Monday, 10/29 @ 9:30am or earlier.

Japanese Music and Dance ~ Ichikawa Chikujo: This artist will be performing at the Museum School Tuesday, 10/30. Alex will be telling us more about that soon. Click here for more information about this artist and evening performances with the full troupe.

Museum School 4th Annual Halloween Party Wednesday, 10/31, after lunch (exact time TBD). We need volunteers the day of the party as well as treats. If you would like to volunteer to be a chaperone or provide treats, please call Tami Strouth at 858-560-6234 or dstrouth@hotmail.com. If you have any questions or suggestins for the party, please call Gerri Halling at 760-603-7214 or gerrihalling@yahoo.com.

Department Presentations Tomorrow, 10/18: Program starts at 11am and ends with lunch, prepared by the cooking department!

Aloha Joe ~ We will all miss Joe as he is moving on to a position as a social worker with New Directions Family Resource Center. Click here to read a message from Joe.

Congratulations: 2001-01 API Results! The state released the API results (Academic Performance Index) basedon last spring's SAT 9 scores. The Museum School went from 745 (our 99-00 API) to 787. Our growth target, set by state, was 3 points; our actual growth was 42 points!

More Congratulations ~ September Attendance. Thanks to your active participation in your child's education, our September attendance averaged 96%!! That's great, and goes a long way towards both a balanced budget, and the best education for yur child.

Asia Festival in Pomona The Museum School's advanced gamelan group. Puspa Warsa, performed in Pomona this weekend, as a part of the Indonesia presentation! A page with additional photos is here.

The San Diego Children's Museum NEEDS YOUR HELP!!! Let your elected officials know you value this important civic asset. Students were sent home with a flyer listing a number of names and contact information. Send a fax, letter, or email... your voice will make a difference!

A Workshop in Bali, hosted by the Center for World Music. Students should already have received an announcement about a program planned for later this summer. Between July 23 and August 7, students and their families can spend 2 weeks in Bali. For more information, call 619/440-7200 or visit the Center for World Music website. (You can also contact the tour director, Dr. Robert Brown, by email: bobinbali@yahoo.com.)

Field Trip to the Museum of Man is planned for June 19. Students will visit the Egypt exhibit (the subject of the current departments).

6th Grade Grad Night with Star 100.7 at Starfari Wednesday (June 13) is the last day to sign up for tickets! The event is 4-to-10pm this Friday.

Tomorow, THURSDAY, will be Department Presentations Everything begins at 11am, with all students sharing some of their work from the last four weeks. We end up with a light lunch prepared by the (student) food department. Please come to share in this event if you can!

Museum School Recognized on May 15, 2001 Congresswoman Susan A. Davis proclaimed May 15th (yesterday as we write this) to be The Museum School Day! Dignitaries and local news attended, and the advanced Gamelan Class performed out in the park. Congratulations to the students, families, staff, and sponsors for helping to make The Museum School such a special place!

If it's Thursday, It Must Be Nachos Beginning at 12:15pm on Thursdays, the school will be selling nachos. This is a fundraiser and will cost $1.50. Note that Nacho sales from THIS week, May 17, will be donated to Wildlife Assist Volunteers, a non-profit agency coming to speak at the school next week. (For more information on this group, call 858-278-2222.)

American Indian Culture Days are this coming weekend, Saturday and Sunday, May 19-20 from 10am to 6pm. This fun, fascinating Powwow features music, dance, and cultural arts and crafts. This event is in Balboa Park, at the corner of President's Way and Park Boulevard.

Spring Garden Festival, featuring Art in the Garden. This event is at Cuyamaca College in the east part of San Diego, near Rancho San Diego. The event runs this Saturday, May 19, from 9am to 3pm. For more information, you can call 619/660-4262.

Today is National Day of the Teacher Day This week any students have been bringing in flowers, notes, and drawings for their teachers. Tomorrow, Thursday, is an appreciation luncheon for the entire staff (parents are welcome!). As outlined on the blue announcement that went into the students' mailboxes last week, parents should call a room mom if they would like to help (3rd grade: Tami Strouth 858-560-6234, 4th grade: Lisa Smith 858-456-9430, 5th grade: Arleen Tuchscher 619-584-0812, 6th grade: Deborah Neal 619-466-2265).

6th Grade Camp Permission packets are going out to 6th graders TODAY. These need to be returned no later than MONDAY! This is the OCILE program, and a major highlight of San Diego City Schools' program.

Electric Car Challenge is scheduled for next Saturday, May 5. Entry forms and details are available at the school. (They're not really an online operation yet!)

Taking your son or daughter to work? Tomorrow, April 26th, is the national "Take Your Kids to Work" day. If your company supports this program, we urge you to stop by the Museum School in the morning on your way to work, and pick up a special Contract. This Contract includes instructions to help make their trip to your workplace into an enriching fieldtrip. By filling out this Contract, not only will your son or daughter get more out of the experience, but the Museum School gets credit for their attendance that day.

Tuesday through Sunday is "SunDance" The advanced gamelan group will be performing with Asian Story Theater next Tuesday through Sunday. Flyers are in each student's mailbox. More information is online at their website (click the company's name).

Fundraising The Museum School has tickets donated from Asian Story Theater, to a special performance of SunDance next Sunday, March 25 at 2pm. All money raised from the sale of these tickets goes directly to the Museum School. We are selling $12 tickets for $5! If you would like to bring extra family to see this show, please consider inviting them to this special (non-advertised) performance!

Spring Break Eco-Art Project Click on this link for information about this exciting ecology and art experiential spring program! Enrollment forms are by the front door.

SunDance with Asian Story Theater
Asian Story Theater is presenting a new show called "SunDance", based on sun mythology of Japan, Bali, Hawaii, and China. Some students (including the gamelon class) will have the opportunity to audition to perform, and all students and their families will be able to purchase special-price tickets ($5) for the public shows on March 23 and 24. (Daytime tickets March 20-23 are available through Young Audiences of San Diego at 619-232-2818.) More information will be posted soon...

Thursday is Department Presentations The presentations begin at 11am this Tursday, March 15. Please try to attend, as all students will share some of what they have learned over the past weeks.

Friday is Language Arts Presentations, beginning at 1pm. These are presented separately, by grade level.

Monday is "Let's Dance" Museum School students perform in a dance recital at the Eveoke Dance Studio, 2:15 to 3:15pm at 644 Seventh Avenue.

Dr. Seuss Day Last Friday, the students, staff, and some guest performers spent the day reading and being read to by each other. Click on the picture for a page full of fun pictures from this event.

At the Children's Museum:
Honoring Our Elders: Celebrating the Seasoned Ones This event at the Children's Museum is a "craft show and bake sale, with musical performances, storytelling, drama, art, and dance." It's from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, February 17. Special workshops at 11, 1, and 3. Children and adults cost $6, and anyone 65 or older is free.

Children's Museum Paint-A-Thon Our school's host and sponsor, the San Diego Children's Museum, is coordinating a Paint -a-thon for this Saturday and Sunday, from 10am to 4:30pm. The plan is to hand-paint murals on all the new contrcution barricades. Meet at the school's parking lot to participate. For more information you can call 619-233-8792. Also note that the announcement requests that you R.S.V.P. Hope to see you there!

Last Friday night the gamelan class played and I danced at the Children's Museum. It was a reception for student artists and some Mexican people from Tijuana. There were about 15 students from our school performing, plus some of their families watching. We performed for 20 or 30 minutes. There was food and there were juice packs at the reception. It was fun, because I like Balinese music and dancing. (Reported by Andrew Christopher Lundy)

The Museum School band participated in the La Jolla Holiday Parade last Sunday. It took a long time for us to get ready and tune our intruments. Everybody was pretty nervous to be around people they didn't know and playing in front of so many people. When we were about to play everybody started to think they would have trouble remembering their parts, but the teachers came to the rescue.

We made 9 or 10 stops. Everyone clapped and cheered us on. Before we knew it we were finished. We all found our parents and had cookies. We made new friends with the other school band members.

Now we know how it feels to be in front of thousands of people. I get to come here, to the Museum School, for two more years, so I look forward to the parade next year. I hope they add a 7th grade. (Reported by Tanisha Eatmon, who played violin in the parade)

Last week all the fourth graders went to Old Town. The school bus would take and return us at the end of each day. At Old Town we learned about old history that had happend in San Diego, like how San Diego had been named. We also learned that the Whalley House was made out of red kiln-fireed bricks, when all the other houses were made out of adobe bricks. We also walked a 5-mile and a 3-mile hike around the trails around Old Town. My favorite part was at the very end, because we chose someone out of each group to dress up. I got to dress up as a Spanish soldier. Also Mariah and Trevor were chosen by their groups to dress up. Old Town was a very interesting program, and I would recommend it other fourth graders. (Article by Kali Lowe-Brisby)

Monday, November 6, Jigme came to our school. He is from the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. He brought alot of instruments. He played the tiniest flute in the world, then he played a song about a little boy who wanted to go home to his mother on an instrument that kinda looked like a guitar with a dragonhead on the top. He showed us a little string instrument that the little girls in his country play. The little boys play a bigger flute.

Jigme showed us what they wear in Bhutan. The men and boys wear a robe, with sleeves they fold certain ways to show if they are a normal man or a king. They wear boots with different colors on them that mean different things about what they do in their country. The women and girls wear a blanket wrapped around their bodies like a dress. They can wear any shoes they choose.

At the end Jigme put a clown mask up to his face and danced and sang in his own language in funny ways.

On Monday, a retired engineer named Bevan Johnston came to our school to demonstrate some electric model cars. First, he had a little race with two cars that he made. The cars are hooked onto a string, not running free. They only crash if they get off the string, because then they can go squirrly.

Kids can buy a kit to build their own car for $6. They can also enter a contest in May for the fastest car, the most creative car, the most futuristic car, and the best copy of a real car. The only thing you get in the kit is the wheels, the gears, the battery box, the axles, and the motor. You have to make the base yourself, where you put the wheels. You make all the extra stuff yourself, and you can use plastic or anything. You have to cover the electric base. There are no other limits in the requirements.

The man who makes the kits also builds model tanks that run by remote control. He brought one to the school. It could turn really sharp, and also the gun turret turned. It took him a really long time to make the tank. HeÕs a retired engineer. A little more information...

Air & Sea Parade: Friday (10/28/00) the school walked over to the Embarcadero to watch the Air & Sea Parade, presented by the armed forces. Ships and aircraft sailed through San Diego Harbor, which was a spectacular exhibit (even though the foggy weather prevented the demonstration of an actual landing on an aircraft carrier).

Clay Arts classes are running now, right next door at the Children's Museum. Sign-up forms went into the student's mailboxes several weeks ago. If you are interested in the program, you can contact the Children's Museum directly, or stop by the school to pick up a registration form. Note that the class fee is $17 (member rate), plus $10 for materials for each of the 3-session classes, held Thursday afternoons from 4:00-5:00 pm (after our minimum day). The second session runs 11/30, 12/7, and 12/14. The kids in the first session are having a lot of fun!

We took a trip to Chicano Park in Barrio Logan on May 4th, 2000 to look at the the murals. Check out Angelina's article and some pictures that we took.

Thanks to Jon Glasoe and MTS who arrange free trolley passes for us. Also, special thanks to Maria Dybbro who made arrangements for Cathy Espitio to give us a tour and tell us about the history of Chicano Park.

Our school was very fortunate to have I Nyoman Sumandi and Ni Putu Sutiati, some visiting artist from Bali come work with us. They presented an Indonesion shadow puppet play of the Ramayana on January 28th. They also worked with our students, along with Dr. Bob Brown from the Center for World Music, "Pak Alex," and "Ibu Kaori", and taught us about Balinese music and dance from January till the end of March!

PAWS(Peaceful Actions With Solutions) Program: During May 2000 we were fortunate to have Terry Matsuoka from the YMCA working with our students on developing skills for conflict resolutions and making good choices. Our fourth graders will be carrying those ideas further by working with Branan from the Museum to design a mural on this theme. We'll be keeping you posted on our progress.

Christmas Carol at the San Diego Repertory Theatre. Students took a fieldtrip on Weds., December 8th, 1999 to the Lyceum Theater at Horton Plaza.

History

Thank you 6 to 6, parents, and staff for making our Halloween so goulishly exciting! Click to see more pictures from Halloween 2006

Plastivan Visits the Museum School-October 27, 2006

Thank you 6 to 6, parents, and staff for making our Halloween so goulishly exciting!
Click to see more pictures from Halloween 2006