Yearbook Photos and Artwork

Deadline is March 28th!

Hello Sacajawea Community –

Social distancing means no cool candid photos of us having fun at Sacajawea!  So this year I would like to showcase the work of our incredibly talented kid artists in the yearbook. 

Along with at home school candid photos I would love to put in your favorite artwork that you have done with Mr. Ryan.  I could also put in short writings such as poems or thank you notes to your teachers and other Sacajawea Staff.  

If your child had their portrait taken by Dorian this year their portrait will be in the yearbook. If not, then please submit a portrait photo for the class page by one of the two options below.

There is a possibility of setting up an outside photo booth for a couple of hours at the school during a distribution day to help get student portraits. Details are still being worked out and will be shared in the school newsletter and on the Sacajawea Facebook page when organized.

There are two ways to submit items for the yearbook:

Option 1:

1.     Please take a picture of the artwork or writing.

2.    In a Google Chrome browser, go to: https://commpe.pictavo.com/ 

3.    Search for Sacajawea or use the code: 93978

4.    Click ‘Create an Account’

5.    Use your email address to make your account (You only need to do this once!)

6.    Click on the blue ‘Upload Images’ bar

7.    Select the image(s) to upload 

8.    Choose which album to upload the image to 

9.    Don’t forget to “Tag” who the artwork/writings are by

 Option 2:

1.     Please take a picture of the artwork or writing (or send a typed copy of the writing)

2.    Email the photo to sacajaweayearbook@gmail.com

3.    Please include who did the artwork/writings in the body of the email

SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS MARCH 28th!!

Unapologetically Black: If One of Us is Not Free, None of Us Are Free

As we come to the close of Black History Month, Sacajawea’s Parent Racial Equity Team is reflecting on how the stories we tell about our history shape the present. Black History Month is both an opportunity to explore the contributions of Black figures from the past, and an invitation to think about how their actions and experiences continue to change and shape our lives today. In this newsletter we are highlighting two towering Black literary figures and storytellers, Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde, as part of our continuing engagement with the Black Lives Matter at School Year of Purpose (previous content is on the Sac PTA website).

This month’s guiding principle asks the question, “How can you share who you are without shame?” The principle of Unapologetically Black affirms that Black Lives Matter, without need for qualification, recognizing that freedom and justice for ourselves is a necessary prerequisite for wanting the same for others.

Two authors who embodied this principle are Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde, who refused to compromise their expressions of the Black experience in order to appeal to White audiences. Their works illuminate universal truths while remaining grounded in specific identities.

Toni Morrison

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Pulitzer Prize, and more, Toni Morrison explored the complexities of the Black experience with a distinctive literary voice, earning enormous critical and commercial success over her long career. Many of her books, including the modern classics Song of Solomon and Beloved, are explorations of how past trauma can reverberate into the present and future, and how the damage inflicted by racism warps our lives in long-lasting ways.

Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde was a “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," whose prolific writings grappled with intersectionality and how our different identities shape how we interact with each other and the world. Lyrical and deliberate, Lorde used poems, essays, speeches, and activism to push for a world that would allow the free expression of the whole self:

"There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle, because we do not lead single-issue lives. 

Our struggles are particular, but we are not alone. 

What we must do is commit ourselves to some future that can include each other and to work toward that future with the particular strengths of our individual identities.”

- Audre Lorde

We encourage you to learn more about these two great authors, and ask how the stories we tell about history and identity shape our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

More resources:

If you have one minute, read The Work You Do, the Person You Are by Toni Morrison

If you have four minutes, watch ‘It Is My World’: Remembering Toni Morrison, Iconic Author of the Black Experience

If you have six minutes, watch this introduction to Audre Lorde from PBS Learning

If you have ten minutes, read this biography of Audre Lorde at Poetry Foundation, then explore some of her poems on the site

Check out some of the all ages books on this list, created by the Seattle Public Library, including:

• The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales and Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales both by Virginia Hamilton

• Meet Danitra Brown by Nikki Grimes

• Women in Black History: Stories of Courage, Faith, and Resilience by Tricia Williams Jackson

• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

• Black Girl Magic: A Poem by Mahogany L. Browne

Use The Essential Toni Morrison guide or 'Her Subject Is America': Teaching Toni Morrison, both from the New York Times, to help you get started on one of her books, or explore her life

Pick up The Selected Works of Audre Lorde for an overview of her writings

Gung Hay Fat Choy!! Happy Lunar New Year!!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Wishing you great happiness and prosperity!

Lunar New Year is Tomorrow, Friday, Feb 12th. Students should have received red envelopes to celebrate the day in their February distribution bags.

What is Lunar New Year?
Lunar New Year is the longest and most important festival in the Chinese Lunisolar Calendar and is celebrated in many countries in Asia.

February 12, 2021 is the start of the year 4719! 2021 is the year of the Ox. Lunar New Year festivities begin on the first day of the first lunar month on the Chinese calendar and continue until the 15th of the lunar month, when the moon is full.  

Chinese legend holds that Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on New Year's Day and named a year after each of the twelve animals that came. The animals in the Chinese calendar are the dog, pig/boar, rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep/goat, monkey, and rooster. Also, according to legend, people born in each animal's year have some of that animal's personality traits.

Lunar New Year Traditions
Each day of the fifteen-day celebration has its own traditions, such as visiting in-laws, or staying home to welcome good fortune. Families gather together for meals, especially for a feast on New Year's Eve. At Lunar New Year celebrations people wear red clothes, decorated with poems on red paper. Red symbolizes fire, which according to legend can drive away bad luck. Another tradition includes giving cash in a red envelope, called a "hongbao," to children and single adults. Lunar New Year ends with the lantern festival, celebrated at night with displays and parades of painted lanterns.  

Learn More
Wing Luke 2021 New Years All Year Round Festivities:
https://www.wingluke.org/events/lunar-new-year-2021/ 

Lunar New Year books for kids (more for younger elementary grades):
Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin   
This Next New Year by Janet Wong
A New Year’s Reunion by Li-Qiong Yu

Black Lives Matter at School / Year of Purpose

Continuing with our commitment to the Black Lives Matter at School movement and the Year of Purpose, we turn our attention this month to the principle of Queer Affirming as we lift up an instrumental figure and unsung hero of the Civil Rights movement who often worked behind the scenes: Bayard Rustin.

“If I do not fight bigotry wherever it is, bigotry is therefore strengthened. And to the degree it is strengthened, it will thereby have the power to turn on me.” - Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin was an important civil rights leader and activist who organized some of the most famous and impactful demonstrations in the mid 20th century. An advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he helped to start many Civil Rights organizations and was an influential writer. He often remained in the background in large part because he was a gay man as well as having an early affiliation with the communist political party. With a Quaker background, Rustin was heavily influenced by Quaker principles of social justice and was inspired by the ideas of non-violence taught by Ghandi. He fought for gay rights later in his life.

• 13 years before Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white rider, Rustin was arrested for sitting in the front section of a bus. He was later involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, sparked by Rosa Parks’ actions.

• Rustin was a co-organizer of the Journey of Reconciliation in 1947, the original Freedom Ride to protest racism in interstate travel.

• Rustin organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 to protest racial and economic discrimination. Dr. King gave his “I have a dream” speech at this event.

• Rustin organized the New York City school boycott, protesting segregation in the district and urging integration, attended by 400,000 New Yorkers in 1964.

• He died in 1987 at the age of 75.

 
Learn more:
 
For Students

• Online article: https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Bayard-Rustin/632847

• Short video: https://blacknet.co.uk/community_videos/black-history-for-students-bayard-rustin-mini-biography-educational-cartoon/

• Book: Leaders Like Us: Bayard Rustin by J.P. Miller

 
For Parents, Teachers & Staff

• https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/rustin-bayard-1910-1987/

• https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/rustin-bayard

• https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/bayard-rustin

• https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/15/212338844/bayard-rustin-the-man-who-organized-the-march-on-washington

Heritage Potluck 2020

In the midst of a challenging year, we can still celebrate our school community remotely! Come to the Virtual Harvest Heritage Potluck this Thursday, November 19 from 6:30-7:30 pm, and enjoy fellowship and fun with other Sacajawea families. Join us on Zoom at https://tinyurl.com/SacPotluck2020.

Even though we are not sharing food with each other, we invite you to make a dish that is special to your family to enjoy while we are together. We will also have a few fun virtual activities for kids and adults, plus small group conversations where families can chat, tell stories, and maybe even swap recipes.

Just because we're apart doesn't mean we can't come together. We hope that you will join us this Thursday at 6:30pm! See you at https://tinyurl.com/SacPotluck2020