PACT is more than a school -- it's also a close-knit community. PACT parents and students gather frequently for informal social events, and also more formally for PACT-wide events organized by our Social Committee and a few other committees. Every year, they organize events for children and parents like our Friday afternoon playdates, excursions to a local pumpkin patch, PACT days at the Jungle, Rock Climbing, Ice Skating, Pajama and Movie Night, potluck dinners, and our annual Festival of Lights, Rocket Day, Star Night, and so on. Here is a quick glance at this kaleidoscope of PACT life.
Rocket Day: A History
Rocket Day History
Rocket Day at PACT started in 2007, when PACT parent Sandy B brought the tradition (along with her youngest child) from Mountain View Parent Nursery school. It was an annual tradition hosted by teacher Tim D, decked out in a white lab coat and hard hat. He taught Sandy how to use the water-rocket launchers from sciencekit.com, and she organized the first PACT Rocket Day in the fall. PACT parents all got an email "shopping list" - two-liter bottle, water bottle, easter egg, paper-towel roll, cereal box. Sandy gathered up lots of extra materials and tape. Soon two large picnic tables were packed with children, assembling their rockets. Sandy showed the parent volunteers how to use the launchers - fill the bottle partway with water, assemble the kit, pump the bicycle pump, and the child pulls the string. In a startling spray of water, the rocket launches. From the moment the first rocket launched, the evening was magic. Families from the neighborhood gathered in the park to watch. Children ran through the field chasing the rockets as they fell, laughing with delight. (Pop-up video link: 2007 Rocket Day)
The next year, Theron T, a new Kindergarten PACT parent, took over running the event. Every PACT parent brings new skills and ideas to the school, and Theron is a classic Silicon Valley innovator. His enthusiasm bubbled over into mini Rocket Day launches, for the Kinder and first grade classes. He also started researching other kinds of kid-friendly rockets - looking for one that avoided the logistics of a water source.
Make Magazine had a new kind of air-pressure rocket launcher - a bicycle pump puts air into a large PVC pipe, and then suddenly releases it through a smaller pipe holding a paper rocket.
A sprinkler valve provides the air release, powered by a nine-volt battery. It launches at a predictable angle and sets up fast, so the launches-per-hour is more than the water rockets. The falling rockets are also lighter, easier to catch for the children chasing them.
The Rocket Club was formed to build launchers, test new designs, and launch rockets for fun. The club experimented with the launcher tube, adding insulation so the rockets could be made from standard paper towel rolls. The bulky wooden platform was replaced with a compact and durable design using short lengths of PVC. The current design is unique to Stevenson PACT school, the result of many clever innovations from our tech-savvy community. By Rocket Day 2011, many more Stevenson PACT families had build launchers. Theron had posted rocket-building instructions on the web, so many students arrived with beautifully engineered and elaborately decorated rockets. Other students built rockets on-site from materials provided and shared by the community.
Some students didn't build a rocket at all - they simply spent the whole evening frolicking in the field, chasing the falling rockets. The rockets launched again and again for more than two hours, with nine launchers firing constantly. Every year we have to enforce a strict ending time, because all the kids want to stay late into the night. This year, even some of the parents wanted to stay late! The last of the launchers to shut down was sending rockets an amazing 250 feet, almost from one soccer goal to the other.
Rocket Day is a great example of Stevenson PACT spirit: a science demonstration that is also innovative, wild fun, fueled by volunteers. The idea came from one family, another family built on it and spread it to the wider community. The social committee arranges the event and gathers recycled materials to make rockets. The fifth-grade parents organized a pizza sale so families could have a picnic dinner at the event. There were parents manning the bike pumps, parents supervising safety, and parents bandaging the grass-stained knees of exuberant rocket-chasers. Stevenson PACT is proud of this wonderful event and everyone who makes it possible.
Book Swap
One PACT parent set up a book swap to take place at school. She sent out an announcement to the school community on our email list, seeded the donation box, and parent participation turned it into a thriving program.
Our Book Swap organizer manages several bins of items for children's books, chapter books, CD's/DVD's and other media, all of which go into free circulation among the teachers, parents, and students at Stevenson PACT. Participants can bring books and take them - sometimes just to read during recess, sometimes for a night, or to keep. The school is made richer by these "new" books shared among the community, traveling from home to home.
Once a month, our Book Swap organizer moves the books to a "Last Month" bin. The books already in that bin are taken to the Mountain View library by another parent volunteer. The rest of the community gets to enjoy "new" books thanks to the efforts of these devoted parents, and all the book swap donors from the Stevenson PACT community.
Trunk or Treat
Since our PACT students live in a variety of Mountain View neighborhoods, it is a school tradition to meet and celebrate Halloween at school, a night or two early. PACT parents decorate their cars - some elaborately, some simply - and share treats with the children of the school. Creative parents have decorated wagons and bicycles too - why should cars have all the fun? The kids enjoy the opportunity to show off their costumes to their schoolmates, and of course getting an extra night of trick-or-treat is also a big draw.
Parents often join in the costume fun too. They have the chance to enjoy some good company, as their children enjoy this safe and carefree event on-campus.
Festival of Lights
The PACT Festival of Lights is a potluck dinner and evening of celebration, featuring performances (music, dance, skits) by the schoolchildren. The entire school gathers to share dinner together. Highlights often include "The Twelve Days of Vacation", ethnic dishes from our worldwide variety of families, and lots of children running (as the sugar buzz from holiday desserts kick in). There are games and activities planned for the students, but sometimes they have the most fun inventing their own games!
PACT Parents: do you have Festival of Lights photos for this page? Contact the webmaster(at stevensonpact.org) to share some of your favorites.
