On the last day of school, the Primary Music/Spanish class performed the cumbia to El Monstro de la Leguna (Monster of the Lagoon). They showcased their dancing as well as their knowledge of Spanish words for body parts. Here's a video of their performance:

After the Primary performance, our Rock Band performed outside. This was Caden's final performance in Rock Band as a graduating senior. They played Peter Gunn, Paint it Black, Home Sweet Home, and Bad Moon Rising. Here's a video of Home Sweet Home, featuring Quinn on guitar/keyboard, Reese on vocals, Caden on bass guitar, and Scott, their music teacher, on guitar: 

Here's a video of their final song, Bad Mood Rising, featuring Reese on vocals, Caden on drums, and Quinn and Scott on guitar: 

We love seeing all the performances--it was a perfect way to end the year. Next year, Scott will be back teaching music, so if this inspired you, think about signing up for lessons next year! 

This year, we have five high schoolers graduating from Kino! They are pictured above (from left to right): Mia Redman, Graham Turner, Sofia Wittman, Caden Wilfong, and Jayden McGinnis.  On Wednesday, they all presented their Senior Projects to the community.  Senior Projects are a year-long investigation of an area of personal interest.  Seniors come up with a project plan and spending the year working with an advisor to complete it. 

Mia spent the year writing A Book about Autism that discussed her personal experience and interviewed students with autism. Mia's goal was to educate the community about the different presentations of autism, and a copy of her book will be available in the Kino library. Mia joined Kino as a freshman, and she'll be attending Project Focus at the University of Arizona next year. 

Graham completed a portfolio of original pixel art. For his presentation, he animated the artwork and paired it with music he composed. Graham has been at Kino since sixth grade, and next year he plans to attend the University of Arizona to pursue a career in pixel art. 

Sofia fused her love of a video game called Twisted Wonderland with characters from The Nightmare Before Christmas to write a short story, titled "The Risk of a Gambler." She also digitally illustrated the main characters of the story. Sofia joined Kino her sophomore year, and she'll be attending Pima Community College next year. She's interested in continuing writing and studying historical fashion. 

Caden completed 6 chapters of a novel for his final project.  During his presentation, he briefly summarized the book, read an excerpt of the prologue, and had signed copies for the community available afterwards. His novel was inspired by gothic horror novels and biblical fiction. Caden has been at Kino since fifth grade, and he'll be attending Pima Community College next year. After completing his prerequisites at Pima, Caden plans to attend a four-year university to study law. 

To showcase his love for the animals, Jayden spent the year expanding the donkey pen. He had to dig trenches for the fence and holes for the posts, which is no easy task in the desert. The expansion doubled the space for the donkeys and sheep, who were excited to explore their new pen! Jayden joined Kino as a freshman. In the future, he hopes to continue to work outdoors with animals, and plans to volunteer at Kino this summer.

During Project Week, a group of junior high and mid-level students began a mural, which they finished this week! This was a student-led project, from start to finish. They sketched, designed, and executed the entire project completely on their own. Click through the slideshow to see their progress and the finished product. The mural looks incredible--stop by the school and sea it!

We also had our very first overnight field trip since COVID this week! Charlie and Cezanne took a group of students to camp at Lake Patagonia from Wednesday-Friday. They got to spend their days fishing, kayaking, and swimming. They camped in tents and made all their meals with a fire pit (including walking tacos). We're so excited about having overnight field trips again--this is hopefully the first of many! 

This year, the parent of a Kino alumni and former Kino teacher, Christina Paige, has been volunteering to come and have tea with all the students. This Friday, she hosted a tea hour with the junior high and high schoolers. She prepared a spread that included earl grey and rose tea and a variety of biscuits. While they ate, she read from Norse and Japanese mythology books. It was a lovely and scrumptious afternoon. Pinkies up!