Gibraltar School News Winter 2024

“It’s

GIBRALTAR

Gibraltar National Honor Society works to give back to different foundations...

by Eric Schroeder, Secondary Math and NHS Advisor

Students

and funds for the World Wildlife Foundation, and recently working at the Lautenbach’s Winter Festival to help out Door County’s Humane Society. Gibraltar’s NHS will participate in the

Gibraltar

by Anna Knapp and Mary Kate McCormack, Ecology

The club participated in a discussion of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book “Braiding Sweetgrass” and a conversation on the Wequiock restoration project with Bear Woman, Stephanie Dodge, as a part of Door County’s Big Read programming.

Currently the club is organizing a drive for used electronics!

Experiential

Big Builds in Tech Education

by Nathan Hatch, Technology

Education Teacher

Two of the larger projects being led by Mr. Hatch in the Tech Ed department are a sculptural monarch butterfly arch for Kendall Park in Baileys Harbor and a cross section of a home. Both of the design/build challenges are intended to be group projects to encourage collaboration among the students.

The butterfly arch will have contributions

by the Advanced Technology and Advanced Metals sections, and the Basic Home Mechanics class will tackle the home cross section build. Both projects start with a prototyping/modelmaking phase followed by construction. The monarch arch will be stainless steel with painted steel butterflies, and the home builds group intends to fully finish both the interior and exterior with basic electric.

Gibraltar Students Explore Sport Careers and Become WIAA Licensed Officials

Any Gibraltar High School student who is interested in a health or sports-related career has the opportunity to take a course called Careers in Health, Exercise, Fitness, and Sports (CHEFS) taught by physical education teacher Mrs. Winker. In this course, students explore a variety of careers through hands-on experiences. This year, these included interviewing professionals in the fields of nutrition/dietetics, sports media, sports marketing, physical therapy, athletic training, and more. Students also took a tour of Lambeau Field, getting to see the media boxes, locker rooms, and behind-the-scenes work that could be a potential career one day. The CHEFS students experienced some athletic event management as well, this

year planning and hosting the Homecoming Bonfire Bolt and a Rise with Phoenix Volleyball Tournament Fundraiser.

To learn more about sports media, Mrs. Winker’s students also worked hand in hand with the Gibraltar Athletic Booster Club to enter teams, rosters, schedules, and hype videos into our new digital scoreboards. To finish the semester, these students learned and studied the WIAA officials booklet and took the licensing exam. All eight of this year’s CHEFS students passed their exam and are now WIAA licensed volleyball officials.

Congrats Abby, Andie, Anna, Braden, Bridget, Lilla, Quincy, and Rubi!

focused on how the Gibraltar School District and CESA 7 work together to implement data-driven programming to support mental health programs and services in the school and community. School board members and school district staff from around the state attended and learned how Gibraltar has been supporting a systemic strategic plan to meet the needs of students and staff.

If you would like to support the Mental Health Team at Gibraltar Area Schools with ideas, resources, and or financial support for student programs and projects, please contact Friends of Gibraltar Coordinator Vinni Chomeau at vinni.chomeau@gibraltar.k12.wi.us.

Imagine – Door Community Auditorium – Passport Programs

Door Community Auditorium (DCA) has been a dedicated educational partner of the Friends of Gibraltar and Gibraltar Area Schools since DCA began in 1991.

DCA Passport Programs are a series of unique cultural and educational experiences, bringing the world to Door County students through performance. Student imagination, understanding of various cultures, empathy, and inspiration expand with each experience at DCA.

Imagine you come to school and your teacher says:

Today class we are going to dance on stage with professional ballerinas to hip hop music and learn the moonwalk. – Hiplet Ballet, an Afro-centric fusion of hiphop and ballet from Chicago, October 2023.

Today class we are going to start our morning with a Celtic invasion, mixing the energy of a rock concert with traditional folklore, dance, and humor, using an arsenal of classic bagpipes and fiddle, driving drum tones, and signature guitar styles to create a sonic blitz with awardwinning step and Highland dancers and world-class humorists. – Tartan Terrors, October 2023.

Today class we are going to celebrate 100 years of Disney music with two singer-storytellers, Kim Nalley and Sasha Dobson, and pianist/music director Sean Mason leading the five-piece house band of The National Jazz Museum in Harlem curated by artistic directors Jon Batiste and Christian McBride. – When You Wish Upon a Star, A Jazz Tribute to 100 Years of Disney, November 2023.

Today class we are going to listen to jazz music, feel the music, and move our paint brushes across the canvas to create works of art inspired by jazz for the Feel the Music art exhibit in DCA’s Link Gallery of Children’s Art. Blues, Roots, & Hoots Festival, November 2023

Today class we are going to experience three people working harmoniously together to bring out the best in one another, creating a magical blend of music with their instruments. The youngest member of this trio–born in Bali, Indonesia–20-year-old pianist, bandleader, and composer Joey Alexander has been performing professionally since 2013. At age 10, he was invited by Wynton Marsalis to perform at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Gala, and at age 11, he released his debut album and netted three Grammy nominations. – Joey Alexander Trio, Blues, Roots, & Hoots Festival, November 2023.

Today class we are going to hear from Anishinaabe about some of their experiences of identity, loss, and revitalization, grounded in a visual landscape created by filmmaker Finn Ryan and a confluence of sounds bringing traditional and powwow music into an expanded musical palette. The ethereal vocals and visceral drumming of Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings (Bad River Ojibwe) and Joe Rainey Sr. (Red Lake Ojibwe) will blend harmoniously into the contemporary soundscape of multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer S. Carey. – Bizhiki, Blues, Roots, & Hoots Festival, November 2023.

Today class, through stunning puppetry, we will get to meet impressive, lifelike, prehistoric creatures including Triceratops, Giraffatitan, Microraptor, Segnosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus Rex that is so huge it takes up the entire stage. - Dinosaur World Live, January 2024.

Today class we are learning about classical music from three amazing professional musicians with a vaudevillian twist, playing Chopin on hoverboards, performing Satie while hanging upside down, and playing Joplin on plastic boomwhacker tubes and tangos where the musicians are

also the dancers. Part chamber music group, part theater company, part modern dance troupe, part circus act. –The Fourth Wall, February 2024.

Today class we are going to learn history by making a cake. We will slice into American history to explore race, culture, and class in a refreshing and fun way with a duo of onstage bakers and Dasha Kelly Hamilton, 2021 Wisconsin Poet Laureate and Milwaukee Artist of the Year, as she digs deep into the past and present. Part history lesson, part social science revelation, “Makin’ Cake” is a short story about America’s sweet tooth and pathway to salvation, leaving room for both dialogue and dessert. – “Makin’ Cake” with Dasha Kelly Hamilton, March 2024. A community performance will be March 1 at 7 p.m. at DCA, join us!

If you are a student at Gibraltar School, you do not have to imagine any of this because these types of learning experiences happen every school year thanks to the Door Community Auditorium, Friends of Gibraltar, Gibraltar Area Schools, business and community sponsors, and volunteers.

In addition to the Passport Program, DCA hosted the three-day Blues, Roots, & Hoots Festival in November 2023. The festival was made possible by a grant from Destination Door County’s new Community Investment Fund Grant Program, a program managed by the Door County Community Foundation.

Gibraltar students participated in the festival by attending Joey Alexander Trio and creating an art exhibit for the festival in The Link Gallery of Children’s Art. Feel the Music showcased the artwork of 116 Gibraltar students. Students in 2nd and 6th grades were asked to draw or paint what they heard or felt when listening to music connected to the series. Seventh graders selected their own songs to portray in images. Gibraltar art teachers Karla Donohue and Laura Meikle, and Friends of Gibraltar Coordinator Vinni Chomeau, organized the project and Chris Opper created a video documenting the process. High school art students—in preparation for a residency with Bizhiki, a multi-media, multi-dimensional production exploring Ojibwe culture through traditional dance and drumming, film and modern compositions— participated in a dream catcher workshop with Coleen Bins of Chief Oshkosh.

Plans are underway for DCA’s 2024 Blues, Roots, & Hoots Festival, October 24-27.

Thank you, Passport Program sponsors: Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant and Butik, Peninsula Pulse, Matt and Karla Sagorac, Carrington Pub, Dörr Hotel, Wisconsin Public Radio, Willow & Chris Alexander, Grasse’s Grill, Red Putter Mini-Golf, Rinkleff Family, and Wood Rabbit Acupuncture. The Dasha Kelly Hamilton visit is made possible with support from Ephraim Historical Foundation, Write On Door County, and the Women’s Fund Endowment of the Door County Community Foundation and with support from The Cassidy Family Fund, The Margaret “Mickey” Quinlan Fund, The Jane & John Stevenson Family Fund, and The Orlaine & Michael Gabert Fund.

Be a part of something wonderful for students and the community: become a member of the Auditorium Society or a sponsor for the Passport Program (dcauditorium.org) and a member of the Friends of Gibraltar (friendsofgibraltar.org).

Chill Zones and STRIDE

by Brooke Petrie, K-6 School Counselor

This fall the STRIDE program through United Way has generously donated a “Mental Wellness Kit” for every K-5 student in Door County to take home! A chill zone is a comfortable place where someone can go to use strategies in the mental wellness kits to calm down strong emotions. Each classroom in Gibraltar Elementary has a chill zone and the Secondary school has a chill zone in the Secondary Office. Chill Zones are not used for discipline such as a “time out” place. Instead, a chill zone is used as an emotionally restorative place to go when someone notices uncomfortable feelings escalating and they need a short break. Children are encouraged to take the lead in creating their chill zone by selecting the location, decorations, and tools to be used in it. A chill zone doesn’t just have to be for kids they are also great when adults need a break!

STRIDE is a community program that partners with all Door County Schools and some mental health therapists. STRIDE partnerships allow the partnering therapist organizations to set up an off-site therapy office in our school building for a set hour of numbers per week to meet with specific, identified students for therapy. All students who are identified to receive mental health therapy through our STRIDE program must have barriers to accessing mental health therapy outside of school and only approved STRIDE

therapist appointments can be scheduled during the school day at school. Currently, our STRIDE therapists’ appointments are full and there is a waitlist. STRIDE mental health counselors are not employed by Gibraltar, they are simply provided a space in our building.

STRIDE also funds many opportunities in the community related to mental health awareness and education such as community movies, expert mental health panels, teen virtual events, virtual art club, art therapy summer groups and more. In addition, STRIDE creative is a program within STRIDE that offers many resources related to mental wellness with the mission of “Empowering our community members through education and resources so that they can feel healthier, more connected, and purposeful.” An opportunity through STRIDE Creative that many of our families with 5th- 8th graders have taken advantage of the virtual art club.

We are so thankful for this program and we know we have many incredible donors in our community who make this program possible. THANK YOU! If you are interested in learning more about funding this program, please reach out to Cami Peggar with United Way at 920-421-2177 or cami@unitedwaydc.com.

Thank you, Midsummer’s Music, Griffon String Quartet, and Sonora Strings youth group from Suzuki Strings of Madison for performing for Gibraltar students in grades 2-5 and for the excellent string instrument workshop experience for students in grade 5! It was a wonderful morning!

Colleen Tillis Claims UW-Whitewater Capstone Award

Colleen Tillis, Gibraltar School District School Psychologist and recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s school psychology program, has earned the 2023 Outstanding Capstone Award from the university’s School of Graduate Studies.

Tillis’ project, titled “Improving Students’ Visual, Spatial, and Math Reasoning Skills in the Early Childhood Classroom with Weekly Teacher Video Training,” shows how 10 weeks of brief training of early childhood teachers on nine key math topics may improve their students’ visual, spatial, and math reasoning skills.

“I am honored and thrilled,” Tillis said. “I will be grateful forever for Dr. Christine Neddenriep’s counsel and the rigorous, caring school psychologist program at UW-Whitewater. The work was hard, but warm, supportive classmates and professors made the work manageable.”

As part of UW-Whitewater’s school psychology program, Tillis earned a MSE in school psychology in 2021 and an Education Specialist Degree (Ed.S.) last May. She is credentialed as a Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP).

As a child, Tillis was a student with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) this motivated her to become a school psychologist.

“I feel UW-Whitewater trained me well for my work as the first onstaff school psychologist hired at Gibraltar,” Tillis said. “I love it here. The school climate and the staff, students, and families here are what school psychologists dream of.”

Tillis’ practicum site was the School District of Milton, a longtime collaborative partner of UW- Whitewater’s school psychology program that has continued Tillis’ project through the district’s 4K Math Initiative. The study found that a greater percentage of four-year-olds showed secure understanding on six out of nine math topics, including sorting objects, pattern recognition, one-to-one correspondence, rote counting, interpreting creations, and naming numbers.

Tillis collaborated with principal Jennifer Cramer and teachers Katie Kletzien and Rebecca Smerud on the 4K Math Initiative. She also worked with school psychologists Brenda Wolfe and Katherine Grady, a UW-

Whitewater graduate, during her time as a practicum student in the district.

“All school psychologists are trained to make systemic changes to improve schools, but I feel fortunate to be given the opportunity to make an impact early in my career,” Tillis said.

Prior to UW-Whitewater, Tillis graduated summa cum laude from Beloit College with a bachelor’s in psychology and education and youth studies. She completed an honors thesis at Beloit on screening for visual spatial challenges in high school geometry class.

UW-Whitewater’s School of Graduate Studies provides numerous opportunities to grow student expertise, expand career options, and increase lifetime earning potential at an affordable cost. Opportunities include master’s programs, graduate certificates, and a doctoral degree program.

Gibraltar Schools 4K Public 4K Programming Is Growing!

by Lauren Bremer, Elementary School Principal

The Gibraltar School Board unanimously approved the addition of a public 4K classroom at The Ridges Sanctuary for the 2024-2025 school year on Monday, December 11th, 2023. This partnership will expand Gibraltar’s offerings for free, public 4K and will present an opportunity for our community to participate in unique, outdoor, nature-based learning. The Ridges’ Dragonfly Nature Preschool 4K Program will join the already established community collaborative Gibraltar 4K sites at Gibraltar Elementary and the Northern Door Children’s Center.

Dragonfly Nature Preschool is designed to provide a high-quality early childhood experience that meets young children’s developmental needs while initiating them into a lifelong, meaningful relationship with the natural world. The curriculum is nature-based, play-based, and childcentered.

In a nature-based preschool program, nature is at the heart of the curriculum. The child development goals are the same at The Ridges as at Gibraltar Elementary and Northern Door Children’s Center, and the Ridges 4K site will achieve these goals through nature-based experiences. The curriculum will align with the National Association for the Education of Young Children and Wisconsin Models of Early Learning Standards as well as feature best practices in environmental education (as outlined by the North American Association of Environmental Education, Natural Start Alliance).

Environmental Educator Sheryl Honig from The Ridges Sanctuary notes, “We find nature to be very hands-on, real, sensory-rich, and therefore perfect for inspiring young children’s engagement and play. This kind of play supports collaboration, language development, natural knowledge, balance and strength, problem-solving, creativity, risk-taking and resiliency, independence, and contentment. We are outside in almost all weather for the vast majority of every morning. We play outside, we hike outside, we have circle time outside, we eat snack outside, we do art outside.”

Families interested in learning more about Gibraltar School’s 4K Community Collaboration can enroll on Gibraltar’s website. Enrollment

closes on March 7, 2024. Any child who will be four years old by September 1, 2024, and lives in the Gibraltar Area School District, is eligible to enroll. There will be a limited number of spots available for open enrollment for interested families who live outside the district. Once enrolled, parents should plan to make an appointment for their child to attend Early Childhood Day and 4K Screening on March 8 at Gibraltar Schools.

About Gibraltar Area School District: Gibraltar School District serves the communities of Gills Rock, Ellison Bay, Sister Bay, Ephraim, Fish Creek, Egg Harbor, and Baileys Harbor, all of which reflect a tradition of support for academics, activities, athletics, arts, and cultural achievement. Governed by its own Board of Education, the district serves approximately 536 students 4K-12th grade. Gibraltar Schools, in partnership with family and community, will ensure excellence in educating every child to become a responsible citizen who is service-minded and empathetic and can contribute to our interconnected world.

About Northern Door Children’s Center: For 30 years and counting, NDCC has served the families of northern Door County. There is a specific, carefully designed educational program for every age. Northern Door Children’s Center (NDCC) was established in 1986 as a parent cooperative. NDCC originally was housed in the Old Sister Bay School House. Thanks to the financial support of the community, and the generosity of one specific donor, Judith Blazer, the beautiful, state-of-the-art facility opened in 1999. Licensed to serve 112 children from ages six weeks to 11 years, NDCC operates yearround and has a full-time teaching and administrative staff.

4K Screening and Registration for the 2024-2025 Academic Year

Early Childhood Screening for Developmental Milestones ages 2 5-5 not currently enrolled in a program in accordance with Child-Find Vision/Hearing

About The Ridges Sanctuary: The Ridges Sanctuary is a 1,600-acre private, non-profit nature preserve located in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin.

Secondary Art News

by Laura Meikle and Emily Salm, Secondary Art Teachers

The 8th graders have been ART ROCK STARS lately by putting on a Mardi Gras carnival for the K, 1st, and 2nd graders! We learned a lot about Mardi Gras lore and history, and then set out to convert the art room into a carnival full of handmade games, decorations, and dress up pieces that you would typically see at Mardi Gras such as masks, crowns, and crazy hats. Every day since February 1st, classes from kindergarten-2nd grade have been invited to our Mardi Gras room to play games and get their faces painted by the 8th graders! Students designed and made buttons for each student to receive along with their beads.

The experience has been very rewarding for the students, especially because the feedback from the elementary students has been so positive and happy! Now, students in 6th and 7th grade art are asking when they get to put on a carnival. Art students started the second semester with one, two, and three-point perspectives, a technique for creating the illusion of depth and space (three dimensions) on a flat surface. Ceramics and Sculpture classes started in the second semester, and students have already completed forms using pinch and slab construction (hand-building techniques).

It is listed as a National Natural Landmark, Important Bird Area, and Wisconsin State Natural Area. Founded in 1937, the Ridges was protected as Wisconsin’s first land trust to protect and preserve the sensitive habitat found in Baileys Harbor. Today, the Ridges continues to serve Baileys Harbor through its mission of Education, Research, and Land Preservation.

Kid’s Create at Peninsula School of Art

Gibraltar students in grade 3 loved creating and constructing with light and shadow in mind! They even got to build electrical circuits to illuminate their artwork! It was so creative, educational, innovative, and fun!

This year’s Peninsula School of Art Kids Create program bridges art and science as students learn about the physics of light and how contemporary artists are making use of it. During a free field trip to Peninsula School of Art, students explored how light travels in a straight line until it encounters an object,

how the colors we see are actually certain wavelengths of light reflecting off a surface that absorbs other wavelengths, and how LEDs convert electricity to light. The resulting artwork will be exhibited in the Guenzel Gallery in Kids Create: Art and Light.

Thank you to the volunteers from PSA, Friends of Gibraltar, and Gibraltar Elementary School, and the teachers, for making these experiences possible. Thank you, Peninsula School of Art for hosting Gibraltar students in grade 3 at the Kids Create program!

Third graders in Mrs. Mackenzie’s class created beanstalks to help practice their measurement and graphing skills! First, they drew beanstalks with leaves of varying sizes. Then they measured each leaf to the nearest quarter inch. Last, they graphed the sizes of their leaves onto a bar graphs and made comparisons with the class!

Friends of Gibraltar Annual Membership 2024-2025

FOG Membership/Sponsorship:

___ Family: $30

___ Business: $50

___ Sponsorship: __________

Sponsor FOG programs:

Name: __________________________________________

Email: __________________________________________

Address: ________________________________________

Phone: _________________________________________

____ Sponsor outdoor education with the Forest Day program for any amount $_____.

____ Sponsor art education: performing, visual and literary arts for any amount $_____.

Please send to checks to:

Vinni Chomeau, Friends of Gibraltar, Gibraltar Schools, 3942 State Highway 42, Fish Creek, WI, 54212

Thank you for your support!

Friends of Gibraltar: (920) 868-3284 Ext. 205 vinni.chomeau@gibraltar.k12.wi.us

Become a member/sponsor of the Friends of Gibraltar (FOG), a non-profit organization that has provided Gibraltar students with unique educational opportunities by working collaboratively with Gibraltar Schools and the community since 1982!