| Sunnyside Environmental | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 45.514655 / -122.628933 |
| Information | |
| Founded | 19941 |
| Locale | Portland, Oregon |
| School district | Portland Public Schools |
| Principal | Amy Kleiner |
| Grades | K-8 |
| Enrollment | 560 |
| Song | Run River Run |
| Website | [1] |
| 1Originally founded as the Environmental Middle School, serving grades 6-8 only. Renamed and expanded to K-8 in 2004. | |
The Sunnyside Environmental School (SES), is a public school in Portland, Oregon, United States. Formerly known as the "Environmental Middle School", Sunnyside is a kindergarten through eighth grade school in the Portland School District with a total enrollment of 560 students: 320 in grades kindergarten through five and 240 in grades six through eight. Although SES does have a neighborhood range, it is primarily made up of students who have transferred to the school from other parts of Portland.
Sunnyside uses a rotating themes system, each year based around rivers (biology), forests (botany), and mountains (geology). Students maintain flower and herb gardens on the school's site, as well as having numerous free range chickens[1]
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SES' kindergarten through fifth grade classes teach an environmentally based curriculum, including mathematics, reading, writing, and humanities. Students attend an hour of physical education weekly and an hour of art and gardening weekly. K-5 students also go on a weekly "science walk" with the science teacher: third graders go Laurelhurst Park to study the ducks in the pond, fourth graders go to Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, and fifth graders go to the Oregon Zoo, where they choose an animal to study.In 3rd Grade, they do a musical.In 4th Grade on, they start having overnights.In 2010, the school made portables for the 5th grade.
For sixth to eighth grade, the school has mixed classes, with each class containing sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Students attend an hour of math (pre-algebra, algebra, and geometry is available for advanced students) and Spanish three times a week. Some students may take an additional hour of math or reading, if needed. Students attend an hour of physical education, art/garden, and science each week. Eighth graders can receive high-school credit for algebra 1-2, as well as one year of high school Spanish credit. Credit can also be received for geometry. Teachers teach a multi-grade, "core" room (also known as homeroom), as well as a math, Spanish, or studio class. The eight classes have about 30 students each, usually equally divided between the three grades.
Middle schoolers also take weekly field studies to "monitor sites" such as Errol Heights, Trion Creek, and Johnson Creek, where they do activities such as dissolved oxygen tests, ph tests, and in some cases, e-coli tests.
Students attend an assembly every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, called "morning meeting". Here, they receive announcements about upcoming events such as field trips (a weekly occurrence at SES) and service opportunities. They sing along to a teacher's guitar. The teachers will tell them if there are any schedule differences and fellow students will tell each other about service projects they are doing or about world news. Near the end of the year, eighth graders are required to give a speech in front of the middle school division at this gathering about something they feel is a core value to them.Eighth graders also go to Catalina Island, in California at the end of the year.
The service requirements change occasionally, but students are asked to complete two school-based service projects, two community-based service projects, and twelve hours of gardening on school property. These service projects are designed to builds ties with the local community and students learn how to reach out and get involved.
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