Category: Community Partnerships

Calling All Makers for Our 5th Annual SCHOOL MAKER FAIRE March 12th

Last year’s School Maker Faire featured over 75 makers from across the community at The Learning Center Charter School.

The Learning Center Charter School is celebrating making of all kinds at their 5th annual School Maker Faire on Thursday, March 12 from 3:30 – 6:30.

Maker Faire, an official brand and trademark for this worldwide phenomenon, is a celebration of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness. It’s a place to show what you’ve made and to share what you’ve learned with others.  Schools host Maker Faires because they are a perfect combination of part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new. School Maker Faire exhibitors, or “makers,” are primarily students—either as individuals, clubs, classes or groups. And Maker Faire exhibits can be from any discipline — from science to art to gardening to engineering to craft.

Makers within the community are invited to have booths featuring their own unique Maker projects.

Additionally, there will be hands-on activities, demonstrations, and delicious food available for purchase.  Students in 4th-8th grade will be selling spaghetti dinner tickets  to raise funds for their respective class trips.

Ryan Bender, organizer for the School Maker Faire, said “People in our community are inherently curious and creative. Given the space and opportunity to build and create, they do and we invite you to come out to witness the awesome things they make!”

Bender added that having makers from the community sharing and interacting with the young people make the event truly special.

The Learning Center is an official host of the fifth annual School Maker Faire open to the Murphy area and is looking for Makers to join the festivities. The event will be held at the school on Thursday, March 12th, from 3:30 – 6:30 pm. Visit www.naturallygrownkids.org/school-maker-faire to learn more and sign up to be part of this event.

Folk School Wood Carvers Visit 2nd Grade

Woodcarvers from the John C. Campbell Folk School visited Second Grade in December. They demonstrated wood carving, shared finished pieces and answered many questions. The carvers are offering a free wood carving class on Thursdays at 7pm at the Folk School for anyone interested.

TCEC Students Visit Our School

Tri-County Early College High School students came to our school in December to share their human impact project on plastic in the environment. They shared information and quizzed the students using Jeopardy game show style questions.

Tri-County Early College High School (TCEC) is a local choice for high school students. According to their website, what makes TCEC different than a traditional school is:

Tri-County Early College focuses on Project-Based Learning, STEM-focused learning activities, Competency-based Assessment, Experiential hands-on activities, College courses, 21st Century Skills, Tony Wagner’s Survival Skills, College Visitation experiences each year, Trust Levels that require students to take responsibility for their own learning, and a Service Learning component requiring students to achieve 100 hours of volunteer work by the time they graduate from high school.  Student voice and choice is a strong part of our approach so that students can take ownership and feel highly engaged with their work.

The collaboration between our middle school students and the TCEC high school students bridges a gap between the schools and allows our students ample opportunity to learn about the exciting option for their high school years.

Plus many former students are now attending TCEC and everyone likes to catch up with their former class mates!

5th Grade Muddy Sneakers Trip to Hanging Dog Campground

You might recall that our fifth graders spend the year doing field work with Muddy Sneakers.

The Muddy Sneakers program exists to enrich the standard course of study through experiential education in an outdoor setting where students connect with the land, become more active, and gain self-confidence while improving science aptitude.  Muddy Sneakers began as a pilot program in the spring of 2007 with Brevard and Pisgah Forest Elementary Schools in Transylvania County and has grown each year to now serve 36 schools across 12 counties and 13 school districts in the Carolinas.

Students spent the day at Hanging Dog Campground learning about Energy and Heat Transfer.  Students learned about heat transfer, insulators, and conductors, by testing the temperature of a rock in its original setting, then taking the rock and trying some different methods to warm the rock up and then testing the temperature again. 

They also created a habitat out of only natural and native materials to see who could create the warmest environment.  They tested their habitats by inserting a heated bottle of water and checked the temperature before inserting the water and at about 10 minutes after inserting the water.  They also got to sample some pine needle tea as they learned about conduction, convection, and radiation. 

5th Grade Pajama Drive Success

Back in December, fifth grade students headed up a Pajama Drive to support the Pajama Program.  The Pajama Program is an organization that works to provide pajamas to children who live with uncertainty. 

The class partnered with Scholastic Book Club to also provide a book along with a new pair of pajamas.  Students found out about this opportunity through Scholastic Book Club.  Students ran the drive for about a month and collected 43 pairs of pajamas. 

Scenes from ARTrageous 2019

On November 8, 2019, our school hosted our fourth annual art celebration and fundraising event — ARTrageous 2019.

Art was celebrated in all forms from food, dancing, live music, written and spoken word, to gallery art and a live drama performance from our very own TLC GrowZone Players.

The TLC GrowZone Players always steal the show and give audiences a great preview of the spectacular performances you’ll see at our annual Spring Musical. This year’s performance was a spin on a old time radio show called The Thin Man.

Thank you to everyone that came out and supported the arts at TLC!

5th grade students enjoy Muddy Sneakers trip to Fires Creek

Building boats and racing them down the creek was the order of the day on October 29th for fifth grade students at The Learning Center Charter School.  That’s because field educators from Muddy Sneakers took the class on an expedition to Fires Creek to learn about force and motion.

The Muddy Sneakers program exists to enrich the standard course of study through experiential education in an outdoor setting where students connect with the land, become more active, and gain self-confidence while improving science aptitude.  Muddy Sneakers began as a pilot program in the spring of 2007 with Brevard and Pisgah Forest Elementary Schools in Transylvania County and has grown each year to now serve 36 schools across 12 counties and 13 school districts in the Carolinas.

While at Fires Creek, students had to construct a boat and see how fast it could travel in the creek in 11 seconds.  Students made a hypothesis, tested their boats, made adjustments and then tested them again.  They also investigated how a pulley system works by trying to find the best way to get a rope over a tree limb to lift a weighted backpack off the ground.

Fifth grade science teacher at the school, Gina Stafford, said, “The students loved the trip not just because it was fun, but because they were divided into small groups and were really able to focus on what the instructors were teaching. I loved seeing the kids so involved with the activities and enjoying the outdoors. They really did get muddy sneakers!”

Want to know more about our approach to education and the emphasis we put on be outside? Fill out the form below and we’ll contact you!

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