James River Day School photos are available for JRDS parents on SmugMug.com. We will be updating this frequently as new pictures are taken, so check in from time to time. To see the photos go to http://jrds.smugmug.com/ and enter the password that was sent out to parents. The password is case sensitive. If you need the password, please call or email Ann Parker (434.384.7385 or parker_a@jamesriverdayschool.org).
To safeguard our children, James River commits that: 1) We do not and will not put a child's name with a photo of that child. 2) We will password protect the SmugMug site and only give the address/password of our SmugMug website to JRDS parents and faculty/staff.
We ask that this login information be kept private. Please don't forward the web address and password. If you'd like to share a photo with friends or family members, you do have the option to purchase the photos, which also helps support James River (4x6 standard prints are 49¢ each or 89¢ each for metallic finish).
Each event is listed with the date and time on the first line, and the event name appears on the second line. Click on the blue event name for event details. For a list of important dates in the next school year, please follow this link.
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On Tuesday, May 22, we had some major excitement at James River. Thanks to the efforts of one of our parents, students were treated to a thrilling flyover by Marine LtCol Chris DeFries and his crew in a CH-46E, Sea Knight helicopter (affectionately known by Marines as the Imperial Battle Phrog). (Click read more to see more pictures and read the rest of the article.)
We have a fantastic line-up of camps for this summer. You can sign up for the camps of your choice by completing the Summer Camp Enrollment & Medical Form and sending it in with your check for at least half of the total camp tuition by May 1, 2012. Download the Enrollment & Medical Form. This is a fillable pdf. So, fill it in electronically, print, sign & put with your check for the camps you choose!
The kindergarteners were adorable as they presented Three of a Kind. Various "threes" from nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and childhood stories populated this story. Baby Bear was missing. Mama Bear and Papa Bear looked everywhere to no avail. The three wisemen, the three amigos, the three blind mice, the three musketeers, and many other famous trios stepped up to help the parents fiqure out where their baby might be. Click "Read More" to see more pictures from the play.
On Tuesday, May 22, our eighth graders will present to our school community the results of their Career Shadowing experiences. Every year, our eighth graders spend a day shadowing a professional mentor. They research their mentor's profession. Then they prepare a booth and a speech to present the results of their shadowing and their research. All students in the school visit the booths in the Carrington Field House. The exhibits are open 9-11 a.m. This year, at 11 a.m., a helicopter will land on our playing field - one of our eighth graders shadowed a U.S. Marine, and he is bringing a helicopter to us as a special event! All of our students will be present for the helicopter landing, and parents are welcome to join us.
The boys' lacrosse teams have fought hard the last week as they wrapped up the season. On Wed., May 16th, the teams had a re-match with rival Forest Lacrosse. Earlier in the season the two teams met with frustrating results. The Cardinals dropped two games U13 lost 15-5 and the U15 fell 12-2. However, the Cardinals played a whole new game in a re-match on our home turf. The U13 boys fought hard, falling slightly behind in the second half of the game. Despite a 9-4 loss, the U13 squad showed much improvement on defense and maintaining possession of the ball. The U15 squad took to the field for a challenging game. The U15 team played stellar defense and worked the ball well around the goal to earn a victory 12-9.
The U15 squad ended the season on the road against Fuqua. With a small squad of 13, the Cardinals were facing a team that was out to get revenge for a 12-1 loss at JRDS. The small squad worked hard to stay on the ball, but the defense had a few slips and fell 2-4 by the third quarter. Graham Padgett scored in the last seconds of the third to bring it to 3-4. On tired legs, the Cardinals fought for another goal and earned it on a goal by Ben Sullivan. The fourth quarter ended with a 4-4 tie, bringing on a sudden death overtime. The Cardinals dug deep for the last bit of energy and quickly scored the winning goal 5-4! What a game!
In my excitement over the game yesterday, I did not see who shot the winning goal. See the re-cap below from Coach Padgett:
It was Connor Tatom who scored the winning goal, and he got the ice bucket and the brunt of the pile on at the end of the game. You would have thought those guys won a national championship. They made so many comments about how negative the other coach was to his players (even saying they heard him curse at them). I think this may have motivated them to get the win. They really dug deep. I loved when we huddled before going into the OT period and Connor asked is this "sudden death" and I responded with "I would like to refer to it as sudden victory which means you guys win the face off, maintain possession and score a goal then we'll have sudden victory." I saw all smiles and put the ball in their court. Bond was spent, so we were down a defender and started one down in OT because we did not pick up on it. Gunnar agreed to grab the long pole and entered the field at the same time Connor had the ball and scored before Gunnar even made it to the defensive end. What an exciting finish...SUDDEN VICTORY.
The girls wrap up their season on Sat., May 19th, against Roanoke Valley.
“When are we ever going to use this? What does this have to do with life?”
These questions surface often in middle school math classrooms, as students seek to understand how concepts such as percent of change, surface area, and proportions will have any use to them outside the math classroom. In order to answer some of these questions, our 7th grade pre-algebra classes tackled a two month long, hands-on project that incorporated all these concepts and more. (Click read more to read the rest of the story and see more photos.)
James River Day School recently celebrated its annual Grandparents' Day. This day is a favorite among students, faculty, staff, parents, and grandparents. Grandparents and grand friends come from all over to spend the morning with the children. Everyone around the school makes a special effort to have everything just right for that morning. Students write tributes and create portraits of their grandparents. Teachers encourage students to think about the meaning of their relationship with their grandparents. Some of the resulting things are just adorable. One class took the time to define what a grandparent is.
A Grandparent is... old the mom or dad of a mom or dad a person in your family a grownup beautiful sweet a grandma or grandpa someone that you love someone who likes children someone with gray hair someone that loves you nice polite someone with an old house your best friend
Our thanks to all the grandparents, parents, and friends who attended on March 23 – you made our day!
The James River Math Club competed for the second year in the Math Counts competition at Liberty University. The Math Counts program is sponsored by the Lynchburg chapter of the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers. Six local schools were competing in the competition this year: Bedford Middle, Dunbar Middle, Forest Middle, Linkhorne Middle, Sandusky Middle, and James River. Each school is allowed one four-member competing team and six individual competing members. Our official team members were Zachry Martin, Isabel Caprise, Josh Barnard, and Carter Cundiff. Our individual competing members were Riley Head, Justin Mitchell, Holly Carrington, Matthew MacCallum, and Benjamin Khoury (John Cook was unable to participate).
Our students were a bit nervous that morning, but well-prepared and ready to go. We were very pleased with the student's results. Our team placed second in the contest. Forest Middle placed first and Linkhorne Middle placed third. Individually, four of our students placed in the top eleven. What a great accomplishment! These students are: Zach Martin (3rd), Josh Barnard (4th), Matthew MacCallum (8th), and Isabel Caprise (11th). Zach Martin is going on to the state math competition.
We are so proud of all our students and are looking forward to next year's competition.
This year is our reaccreditation year. In preparation for the visit of the Virginia Association of Independent Schools (VAIS) accreditation team, teacher Lisa Davenport made this short video presentation. It gives a quick look at the wonderful, happy, teaching/learning place that James River is. Take a look!
We have a very vigorous Parents' Association (PA) and encourage all parents (and even grandparents, aunts, and uncles) to participate. If you'd like to volunteer, please contact Natalie Langley, our Volunteer Coordinator.
Please feel free to contact any of the PA officers or committee chairs listed below with questions or suggestions.
Three cheers for all those JRDS children, parents, grandparents, faculty and staff who love to: sing and draw and strum and dance and paint and jam and photograph and celebrate creativity! To encourage all of the above, and much much more, please consider being a member of our Fine Arts Boosters. Help support the arts at James River. Click here to learn more.
At James River Day School, we value all of the friendships that have been made here throughout the years. We welcome you back to campus for a visit or to support one of our many programs.
Please find the link below for the particular form you need. These are in .pdf format. You will need Adobe Reader to open them. It can be downloaded free of charge at http://get.adobe.com/reader/.
In my general reading about education and schools, I find several technology-related themes that I believe are worth considering. First, today’s young adolescents are immersed in technology and use computers, iPods, and cell phones as easily as their parents and grandparents use watches, televisions, and telephones. Secondly, communication over the Internet or via e-mail and text-messaging is fast, easy and feels anonymous. Ironically, it is much less anonymous or private than face-to-face, real-time telephone, or hard-copy written communication. When we communicate on the Internet, we lose control over that communication the moment we push “send” or “share.” Third, while new technologies make information more available and communication faster, they don’t make people smarter. Read More ...
Need help to properly cite your sources for that next paper? Then go to Son of Citation Machine, http://citationmachine.net/, and choose the MLA format.
Marty Wilmer, our technology teacher, has put together a website, http://protopage.com/jamesriver, of fun and useful educational resources for students, teachers, and parents. Mrs. Wilmer also recommends the following sites.
Double your spending power! There are so many programs where you (and any grandparents, alumni, friends) can automatically help the school! Take a look at what a difference we can make with just a little effort: Read More ...
James River Day School cherishes children and challenges them to become scholars, leaders, and citizens for the 21st century, in a community of academic excellence.
The kindergarteners were adorable as they presented Three of a Kind. Various "threes" from nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and childhood stories populated this story. Baby Bear was missing. Mama Bear and Papa Bear looked everywhere to no avail. The three wisemen, the three amigos, the three blind mice, the three musketeers, and many other famous trios stepped up to help the parents fiqure out where their baby might be. Click "Read More" to see more pictures from the play.
