joy of learning | creativity | curiosity  |  self-empowerment
REGISTER FOR THE AMAZING 2016-2017 SCHOOL YEAR
Registration is now open for the 2016/2017 school year. If your child currently attends the Yadkin Valley Community School, you will be receiving a letter-of-intent form to secure your spot in the fun next year. Any new families interested in our school should visit our website and submit an application. Applications will be reviewed in the order in which they are received. We will have a limited number of spaces so everyone is encouraged to submit their applications as soon as possible. 
WHO DOESN'T LOVE SCIENCE?
All kids (at least most of them) love science. What’s not to love? They get to touch things, grow things, dissect things, and make things change. Cool, right? This has been a large part of our curriculum from day one, but since returning from winter break, there seems to be a new excitement in the air around science. Here are some of the things we are doing:


Science Olympiad: This spring, we will be competing in the Science Olympiad. This is sure to be a great experience for the kids. Every year, the North Carolina Science Olympiad hosts tournaments on university, community college, and public school campuses across the state. These tournaments are rigorous academic interscholastic competitions that consist of a series of different hands-on, interactive, challenging and inquiry-based events that are well balanced between the various disciplines of biology, earth science, environmental science, chemistry, physics, engineering and technology. Our kids went a little nuts with excitement when Mr. D told them we would be entering. 


Super Scientific Circus: We will be traveling to The Walker Center to see the Super Scientific Circus. These performers show that science can be fun and funny. They use circus and magic skills, as well as props like boomerangs, bubbles, beach balls and bull whips to introduce principles of friction, inertia, centripetal force, aerodynamics, sonic booms, air pressure and ultraviolet light.


Classroom Science Experiments: Throughout the year, the students have done science experiments as a group. Now, the weather is colder and we are spending a little more time inside. So we have compiled materials to do individual science experiments.

THE ROLE OF MINDFULNESS
Recall your days in elementary school. Mindfulness was probably not a part of the curriculum. At the Yadkin Valley Community School, this practice is incorporated into our daily lives. Research shows that mindfulness education in schools increases optimism and happiness in classrooms, decreases bullying and aggression, increases compassion and empathy for others and helps students resolve conflicts. One study also shows that children who did mindfulness exercises had 15% better math scores than their peers. We have found that it is helping our students concentrate and focus. With all of these benefits in mind, we decided that this would be an important part of our curriculum.

Mindfulness practices can take many forms. So what does this look like here at YVCS? We go to yoga twice a month where Kelly at Yoga on Main leads us in mindfulness exercises. Each day after lunch, Mr. D leads the children in exercises (for about 5 minutes) that include mindful breathing and guided imagery among others. By just taking a few minutes a day to focus on quieting their minds and bodies, the students will become aware of their emotions and their responses. This helps them to calm themselves as they work throughout the day. As we walk to our enrichment outings (such as yoga, dance or the library) we walk the last stretch “mindfully”. That simply means that we walk quietly, noticing the environment and how our feet feel as we walk. This actually makes a big difference. Before we started our mindful walking, the children were pretty excited when we reached our destination (seemingly unable to control their voices and movements). Now, the students are able to enter the building calmly, ready to get started with the activity.
 
Learn more about mindfulness:
Mindful Schools
What is mindfulness and why should you try it?
WELCOME, JULIE!
 
Hi! My name is Julie Neumark. I am a senior at Elkin High School and I am a tennis player, a dancer/assistant teacher at Dance with Mitzi studio, and an employee at Main Street Learning Place in downtown Elkin. I am blessed to have grown up in Elkin, though I am originally from Budapest, Hungary. I'm passionate about all forms of art, nature and environmental protection, service work, and children! I am VERY excited to be an intern at Yadkin Valley Community School for a whole semester! This experience will help me tremendously because I hope to become an educator who can inspire, teach, motivate, and love all children equally and abundantly.
THANK YOU!
We are so grateful to our donors!
We are also very excited to collaborate with our generous partners:

Yadkin Valley Community School  •  240 Standard Street  •  Elkin, NC 28621

http://www.yadkinvalleyschool.org

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