New at SWS
SWS General Information | SWS Teachers
- CHCS School Food Information
Food Accommodations
Students with special dietary needs including food intolerances and allergies should submit Students with Special Dietary Needs Form to their school’s nurse. The Dietary Needs Form must be signed by a licensed medical provider, unless the student is requesting an accommodation for lactose intolerance, in which case the signature of a parent or guardian is sufficient.
_________________________________
2011-12 Meal Prices
Elementary (Pre-K-5th grade) Lunch $1.35 Secondary (6-12th grade) Lunch $1.60 Adult Breakfast $3.00 Adult Lunch $4.00 Meal Payment
Students and school staff can pay for meals three ways:
- By bringing cash or check made payable to the D.C. Treasurer to the cafeteria staff before, in between, or after meal periods.*
- By paying with a credit or debit card at mylunchmoney.com**, an online prepayment service.
*As of August 22, 2011 DCPS will no longer be taking cash during meal service
**Parents or guardians will be charged a $1.95 fee per transaction._________________________________
_________________________________
Watkins Salad Bar Menu (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, & Thursdays — all grades)
_________________________________
- Fall Sales Fundraisers: Ecotulips and Greenraising
Please do your part to help meet our goal of $15,000 for our school!
This year we have two terrific programs: Ecotulips offers organic bulbs grown in Virginia; Greenraising offers a range of environmentally-friendly products from wrapping paper to water bottles to jewelry to gifts. Both programs have great products you can be proud to sell to your neighbors, friends and family. Parents should have received a packet home with your child(ren) on Sept. 29. Orders are due by Thursday, October 20.
Questions? E-mail Mandy Bassow at abassow@gmail.com. Thanks and happy selling!
_____________________
ONLINE PURCHASE INFORMATION:
ECOTULIPS
1. Visit www.ecotulips.com and pick out your organic bulbs.2. Go to your Shopping Cart and enter the Coupon Code: “clusterschool“ on the right hand of the screen.3. Proceed to checkout : Double check your order. Under your subtotal you should see: “Coupon clusterschool-$2.95″. If you don’t see it, there is a space to add your code at the bottom right. Then wait for your bulbs to arrive in time for fall planting.GREENRAISING1. Visit www.greenraising.com .2. On the left side of the screen, where it says “My Affiliate”, click on “choose”. For the state, select “Washington DC” and for the affiliate, select “Capitol Hill Cluster School PTA – 2123”.3. Now you’re ready to shop! Choose from the categories on the left, or simply browse. When you’re ready to checkout, you can create a login, or skip the registration and checkout like you would at Amazon or any other online store. Then wait for your order to be delivered directly to your home._____________________
SAMPLE FAMILY & FRIENDS EMAIL FOR ONLINE SALES:
Hello Family and Friends!
I’m hoping you can help me raise some money for my school, the Capitol Hill Cluster School. The Cluster School is a unique D.C. public school that strives to ensure that graduates value the arts, community involvement, diversity, and a healthy lifestyle, and have the critical thinking, writing, problem solving, and interpersonal skills needed to attend the high school of their choice, in preparation for success in college and life. This year we are selling great environmentally-friendly products through two companies, and 40% of all online sales go directly to support the terrific programs at my school!
Ecotulips
Ecotulips are the only American source of organic, pesticide-free tulip bulbs – and they are grown locally in Virginia. You can choose from over 40 varieties of tulip bulbs, along with other organic flower bulbs!! But hurry, this offer only lasts until October 20, 2011! Follow these simple steps:
1. Visit www.ecotulips.com and pick out your organic bulbs.2. Go to your Shopping Cart and enter the Coupon Code: “clusterschool“ on the right hand of the screen.3. Proceed to checkout : Double check your order. Under your subtotal you should see: “Coupon clusterschool-$2.95″. If you don’t see it, there is a space to add your code at the bottom right. Then wait for your bulbs to arrive in time for fall planting.Greenraising was started by the parents of elementary school children who watched how their school’s parents associations struggled each year to raise the funds necessary to provide an excellent education, and who bought their share of cookie dough and magazines to help that happen. At the same time, they noticed that their children were coming home with concerns about the environment, pollution, global warming and living conditions in the world, and were feeling helpless to change things. A little research yielded a host of small things each family could do to help the situation, and a light bulb went off (well, technically a compact fluorescent bulb). Greenraising was created to help solve both problems: raise money for schools and give children an opportunity to learn that their actions can change the world. To shop at Greenraising.com, following these simple steps:
1. Visit www.greenraising.com .2. On the left side of the screen, where it says “My Affiliate”, click on “choose”. For the state, select “Washington DC” and for the affiliate, select “Capitol Hill Cluster School PTA – 2123”.3. Now you’re ready to shop! Choose from the categories on the left, or simply browse. When you’re ready to checkout, you can create a login, or skip the registration and checkout like you would at Amazon or any other online store. Then wait for your order to be delivered directly to your home.Thanks so much for supporting my excellent school!!Sincerely,
[your name]
- DCPS Youth Local Wellness Policy
DCPS Wellness Policy
The DCPS Wellness Policy applies to all schools and includes guidelines for snacks and meals offered and sold at school, nutrition education, and physical activity. DCPS Food Services strives to adhere to all aspects of the Wellness Policy in an effort to maintain and promote student and school wellness. - The Story of Food at Peabody and SWS
With generous support from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, DC Public Libraries, FreshFarm Markets and the Capitol Hill Cluster School PTA, the students and families at Peabody Early Childhood Center and School-Within-School at Peabody will spend the 2010-2011 school year engaging in a variety of hands-on and literacy-based activities on:- food in our families and food traditions;
- gardens, farms and markets as sources of food;
- cooking and eating healthy local or home-grown produce;
- growing healthy bodies.
Peabody and SWS students will…
- spend time in our children’s gardens planting, weeding, observing and harvesting a variety of vegetables and herbs, and composting food wastes;
- help prepare delicious and healthy recipes in the classroom following a “Produce of the Month” plan for the year;
- tell their stories of food through music, storytelling, movement, and art;
- enjoy reading a variety of books on the food theme in their class libraries;
- visit local farms, gardens and markets and use digital technology to video-conference with school children around the world growing food.
Peabody and SWS families will be…
- welcomed to school with a Story of Food kick-off family potluck in August;
- invited to two Family Education & Cooking Nights in November and January;
- special guests at two fall Cluster School Days at the H Street NE FreshFarm Market;
- listening to songs written and performed by their students on a Story of Food CD recorded and produced at school.
We look forward to working together to create a new chapter in your family’s Story of Food this year!
- Stop in and visit our gardens
Students at the Capitol Hill Cluster School are as likely to find their classrooms outdoors as inside. Our extensive gardens are living classrooms that support lessons on art, science, math, literacy, and geography. Stop by and visit our gardens at each campus: play, explore, relax, and learn.
Peabody Early Childhood Center
The gardens at Peabody were developed nearly fifteen years ago. There are sixteen distinct areas wrapping around three sides of the school building and edging the playground. The gardens include a diverse array of plants, including many native trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers that promote biodiversity and attract pollinators such as insects, butterflies, and birds. Students use them for everything from art projects to science lessons.The newest, the Louise Chapman Children’s Garden, was dedicated in Spring 2010 in honor of retiring teacher Louise Chapman’s enduring passion for gardening with children. This “Edible Schoolyard” area features thirteen raised vegetable beds, allowing each classroom to design, plant, maintain, and harvest its own garden. An additional nine boxes near the playground were just completed in August. This Playground Garden is being used with the school’s new garden-based literacy curriculum, “The Story of Food: Growing Healthy Readers,” which features hands-on gardening projects, field trips to local farms, a focus on nutrition and healthy eating, basic ecology education, and classroom cooking experiences for students.
Watkins Elementary School
The Watkins Living Classroom is a labor of love begun over twenty years ago by parent Molly Dannenmaier, who had the vision and energy to transform what had once been a neglected, weed-choked space into what is now a thriving garden program. Work in this space is continued today by Master Gardener and former Cluster parent Barbara Percival. In one of the most active school garden programs in the city, Watkins students grow healthy food in the Edible Schoolyard (modeled after Alice Waters’ original “teaching garden” in Berkeley, California) which they later cook and eat.They also engage in hands-on learning about the impact plants, and people, can have on the Chesapeake Bay and Anacostia Watersheds in the Wetland Garden, and observe how seasonal and other climate changes affect plants in the Gardens of the Seasons. Finally, students study the way that plants, animals, and insects depend upon each other for food, shelter, and reproduction in the Wildlife Garden and can let their imaginations run wild in the Dinosaur Garden, playing among plants that haven’t changed in (literally) eons!
Stuart-Hobson Middle School
Stuart-Hobson’s garden program is the Cluster School’s newest, but it is no less ambitious than those at Watkins and Peabody. In 2006, Stuart-Hobson students won a garden design from local non-profit DC Appleseed for their submissions in an idea competition entitled Solving DC’s Problems. The nationally-known naturalist landscape design firm of Oehme, van Sweden and Associates developed a plan for a Native Plant Garden that could become a habitat for native birds and insects, and also memorialize beloved sixth-grade science teacher Nancy Cunningham, who died in 2002.Phase One of the garden was completed last year and now hosts monarch butterflies. Phase Two, to be called the Bird Walk, will incorporate a student-made fused-glass birdbath, bird feeders and houses, and a patio and bench, all nestled among native plantings. Phase Three, a Water-Permeable Path coming from the school’s entrance will follow as funding becomes available. The tile mosaic overlooking the garden was created by students as a part of an arts integration project.
In addition, a sloping concrete wall was replaced by a Terraced Garden helping prevent storm water overflow, a major cause of pollution in the Anacostia River, and teaching students about the ways to better manage storm water in urban areas.
Our Partners
The Capitol Hill Cluster School garden program has been made possible by the tireless efforts of parents and former parents, teachers, students, community members, and volunteers from numerous organizations, as well as contributions of time, money and expertise from groups including the Capitol Hill Community Foundation, Casey Trees, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Concern Inc., the DC Cooperative Extension Service Master Gardener Program, Environmental Concern, Frager’s Hardware, FRESHFARM Markets, Greater DC Cares, Hands on DC, Lands & Waters, Living Classrooms of the National Capital Region, and the National Wildlife Foundation. The Cluster School owes them an enormous debt of gratitude for making the gardens grow and helping the students grow their understanding of the natural world.