What’s Amazing About Mint Canyon Community School?

 The 2015-16 school has already proven to be a year of learning and excitement for our students. We are in the second year of implementing an intensive Response to Instruction (RtI) program for intervention and enrichment in grades Kindergarten through 6th grades.  In addition to having a strong instructional program, we have doubled the student participation in our school’s Student Service Program.
Our RtI program continues to show strong results. Our students are recording significant growth after each teaching cycle. Lessons are focused on essential California Standards based on unit posttests. As grade level teams, we respond with systematic instruction to address the children’s specific areas of need. Technology plays a major role in our RtI program. Resources such as Read Naturally, together with selected apps such as Padlet, Explain Everything, Notebook and Mee Genius are used to reinforce and practice strategic skills. Essential Skills also has the students working on decoding skills, phonemic awareness, comprehension, word analysis, and vocabulary while keeping track of their progress. Analysis of assessments and continued monitoring of students has played an important role in our success.
Through our Student Service Program, Mint Canyon Students can volunteer their time to help by serving as a student leader on our Student Council, be part of “Healthy Voices for Student Choices” on the student Nutrition Advisory Committee (NAC), boost school spirit on the Spirit Squad, learn Library organizational skills as a student library technician, help with student safety as a morning Valet or Chaperone, or explore culinary arts as a student Cafeteria Volunteer. We have enjoyed how our school spirit has soared this year.
Junior Engineering and Technology (JET) continues to transform K, 1st & 2nd graders to engineers through the integration of the New Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Kindergarteners explored being environmental engineers as they built windmills and investigated how to keep our school garden from freezing in the winter and getting too hot in the summer. This session they became physicists and are researching forces and motions to help our custodian find the best path to move the food cart from the cafeteria to the pre-school. Recently two Mint Canyon teachers, Tess Toledo and Olivia Patino, were selected to present the JET program at the California Department of Education Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM) Symposium.
Fine Arts are an important part of learning and Mint Canyon students enjoy being part of chorus, participating in monthly grade level evening performances, taking part in the PTA Reflections Art Program, and of course writing and performing plays throughout the year. Go Roadrunners!
Sulphur Springs Union School District’s Winter Celebrations
Students from the Sulphur Springs Union School District participating in band will be sharing their winter band concert with parents, family, friends and community on:
December 8 at Fair Oaks Ranch Community School at 7 p.m.
December 10 at Pinetree Community School at 7 p.m.
December 15 at Sulphur Springs Community School at 7 p.m.
Students from the Sulphur Springs Union School District participating in chorus will be sharing their winter chorus concert with parents, family, friends and community on:
December 9 at Golden Oak Community School at 7 p.m.
December 14 at Leona Cox Community School at 6:30 p.m.
December 17 at Mitchell Community School at 7 p.m.