Washington’s only Reptile Man will slither into Des Moines on Saturday, Feb. 18, for a show at the Des Moines Activity Center.

The Reptile Man, aka Scott Petersen, has performed for more than 800 schools in the Northwest. Corporations such as Microsoft, Boeing, and Eddie Bauer have found this program to be exciting for all ages. He has been seen on Bill Nye The Science Guy, Evening Magazine, Northwest Afternoon, Town Meeting, Q13 Kids Club, and Watch This.

Scott is fully insured and has teaching credentials. He has a teachers State Patrol Certification on file with the State Superintendent of Public Education. This program will create an interest in the natural sciences and teach students about the importance of all animals in the balance of nature.

The program starts at 10:30 a.m. The Des Moines Activity Center is at 2045 S. 216th St., Des Moines.

Tickets are $3 in advance and $5 at the door, or $10 and $15 for families.

Advance tickets are available through the Des Moines Parks & Recreation Department at 206-870-6527.

For more information on The Reptile Man, visit www.reptileman.com/home.html.

Upcoming shows include:

• Harmonica Pocket Get Loose with Seuss, March 17, also at 10:30 a.m.

For more information on the Des Moines Arts Commission, visit www.desmoinesartscommission.com.

Here are some videos of the Reptile Man in action:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Under Secretary Concannon and Interim Superintendent Alan Spicciati join Madrona students for a school lunch.

USDA Under Secretary Kevin Concannon and Regional Administrator Allen Ng visited Madrona Elementary School on Monday (Feb. 6) to recognize four Highline schools for their efforts to promote good nutrition and active lifestyles among students.

Under Secretary Concannon presented plaques to principals from Madrona, Southern Heights, Beverly Park, and White Center Heights elementary schools, as well as to Highline’s Nutrition Services Director, Chris Neal. Under the guidance of Nutrition Services staff, the four schools achieved silver status in the Healthier US School Challenge, championed by First Lady Michelle Obama.

Silver award schools are in the top one percent in the nation for adhering to healthy standards, according to Under Secretary Concannon. No other schools in Washington achieved the silver designation.

To win the award, the schools provide healthier foods in their school meals; educate students about nutrition; ensure that students get at least 90 minutes of PE per week; and give students opportunities for physical activity.

Madrona, Southern Heights, White Center Heights, and Beverly Park are already using the new healthier school meal standards issued by the USDA last week.

“You are at the head of the pack for adopting the new standards,” said Concannon. “We know that children learn better when they have a regular source of healthy meals. And as we look at some of the challenges facing our country with obesity and preventable illnesses, to the extent that we can instill, support, and reinforce healthier eating we will have healthier adults later in life.”

For more information about the Healthier US School Challenge, go to http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/healthierus/index.html.

USDA Under Secretary Kevin Concannon with Highline Nutrition Services Director Chris Neal.

L-R Megan DeVries (Nutrition Services Manager), Leslie Perry (Beverly Park Interim Principal), Deborah Holcomb (Southern Heights Principal), Dave Darling (White Center Heights Principal), Daniel Yarbrough (Madrona Principal), Chris Neal (Nutrition Services Director), Alan Spicciati (Interim Superintendent)

Click image to print Coupon.

The Tag Zone has moved to a huge new warehouse-sized location at 605 South 223rd Street in Des Moines, just west of the downtown district at 6th and 223rd (map below), and will be holding its Grand Opening celebration beginning at 6 p.m. this Friday night, Jan. 27th!

Open Fridays and Saturdays, this new warehouse-sized arena erupts into a safe, Nerf-filled fun zone for kids of all ages with two battlefields:

• A 2,300 square foot inflatable bunker zone
• A 1,900 s.f. “Army Field”

The Tag Zone was created by Johnny Basco, former U.S. Army 2d Ranger at Ft. Lewis, who says:

“This is my calling – to host a safe, entertaining, affordable and FUN place for your little or big ones to play, and always wanting to come back for more.”

Former Army Ranger Johnny Basco is ready for you.

At The Tag Zone, participants play an assortment of organized games with safety always on the minds of the supervisors, who oversee every game with rules constantly being reinforced.

“We strongly encourage team work in order to play as many games as possible,” Basco adds. “This is also an exciting way to develop tricks and tactics, as well as controlling emotions and stress.”

Cost is just $7 per hour (the same price as last year), and according to Basco one of their more popular functions is to allow for a ‘Parent’s Night Out’:

“Fridays and Saturdays between the hours of 6-10pm we offer you the opportunity to drop your kids off and you have the option to stay or have a few hours to yourselves while we keep them busy playing a wide variety of controlled and refereed games. While they are here we divide teams equally as participants arrive and depart. We make every attempt to keep your kids and possibly their friends together on the same team however on occasion adjustments have to be made in order to keep the teams competitively equal. Score is not kept but the competition level can still be pretty intense. We do not allow participants to argue with each other and definitely towards any of our referees or loss of one game will occur.”

The Tag Zone's arms cache awaits.

Here’s more from their website about the kinds of games played:

Open Play Sessions at The Tag Zone: Friday and Saturday nights, 6:00-10:00 pm

Squad vs squad
Objective:

• Eliminate opposing squad.

Game:

• Each team begins from its home base. At the signal, the players must find and tag the entire opposing team before being itself eliminated.

Protect the leader
Objective:

• To seek and tag the opposing team’s leader.

Game:

• Each team must protect its leader from getting tagged.
• Volunteer players will attempt to eliminate the opposing team’s leader.

Capture the Flag
Objective:

• To end the game with both team’s flag in its possession, in its home base.

Game:

• Each team begins with their own flag, located at their home base.
• The players must retrieve the opposing team’s flag.

The Prison
Objective:

• The players are to be tagged and placed in the opposing team’s prison.

Game:

• The teams begin in their own home base. When a player is tagged, he must head for the other team’s prison. The prisoner (s) are to be rescued by a teammate so that he (they) may continue the game. The prisoner is rescued from prison when his own teammate hand tags him out. The game is terminated when an entire team is imprisoned.

Look closely and you'll see Johnny's face in the middle of this bunker.

Here’s one more quote from Basco, posted on their Facebook Page (“Like” them here):

“What an amazing journey this has been and one I continue to look forward to. It’s still hard to believe I was doing hair two years ago! This would have never happened had it not been for my wife Anne and Karuna Arts Yoga. I love you Anne, especially for putting up with me during the build out. Thank you to all the kids who have supported The Tag Zone and to the future ones. This is one of the happiest and proudest days of my life. Dreams really do come true guys!”

The Tag Zone
605 South 223rd Street
Des Moines WA 98198

For questions regarding pricing and availability please e-mail thetagzone@gmail.com, text or call 206-719-4632.

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The second semester will begin on Thursday, Jan. 26.

Teachers will have until Monday, Jan. 30 to turn in grades. Report cards will be mailed shortly after that.

“To reduce the number of school days that need to be made up later, there will be no day off for secondary schools between semesters,” their website adds.

Michael Stein-Ross, Burien Councilmembers Lucy Krakowiak and Bob Edgar, and his 6th grade class.

by Michael Stein-Ross

Following the November elections, a number of my sixth grade students at St. Francis of Assisi School wrote to two Burien City Councilmembers – Bob Edgar and Lucy Krakowiak – congratulating them on their wins in the election.

They also related their concerns about how Burien deals with the homeless and poor in the City of Burien.

So this last Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, Mr. Edgar and Ms. Krakowiak visited with Mr. Stein-Ross’s sixth grade students to discuss these topics. Students wanted to know why Burien does not have more homeless shelters, why some of Burien’s vacant storefronts were not being used to shelter people when the weather got really bad and why there were not more community garden spaces to grow food for the poor. Another issue for the students was the availability of medical service to the homeless and poor in Burien.

The class session with the Councilmembers involved a discussion on awareness of who was really homeless, what were some of the reasons for why people become homeless and how each individual student could help the homeless. The St. Francis of Assisi students currently collect food for our local food banks, run a clothing drive and do community service at a number of our local charity sites. Any items that readers of this article want to donate to support these homeless community drives or causes can be dropped off at the school.

Some other community service projects that my students have been involved in include: building a rain garden at the school and stenciling the storm water drains around the school. You may have seen the white marking around drains in Burien’s streets. These markings are to remind people not to put things like soaps, fertilizers, chemicals and oils down them.

The students of St. Francis of Assisi plan to continue to work for the homeless in Burien.

Isn’t that what the concept of citizenship is really about?

A Mexican dinner will be provided, and they’re asking people to please RSVP by Thursday, Jan. 26 – by e-mail at info@plnwa.org, or by phone at (206) 241-7900.

If you’re not familiar with Para Los Niños, here’s some info from their website:

“Para Los Niños is a grassroots community organization founded by members of the community it serves—the growing immigrant, Spanish-speaking population in South King County.”

For more info, check out their website here, or their Facebook Page here.

I spotted the words written with crooked vinyl letters in a giant picture window of a ramshackle house. Those two words that not only caught my attention, but commandeered my thought processes.

Displayed proudly in a house that had seen better days, decorated haphazardly for the season, they invoked the magic of hope. The house and those who lived within its walls seemed to challenge the status quo while demonstrating that what they already had was, at least on some level; working for them. It was humble. The driveway was half gravel, half weeds. Cars were parked askew, and with no particular order. The paint was weathered in some spots, bare in others, and the lawn (such as it was) was dead. The entire viewable property announced a lack of regular maintenance, and an absence of a Homeowners Association (Bless them!) But in the midst of all the imperfection was unmistakable celebration.

The festooned twinkly lights were uneven and dangling precariously in a couple of spots, as if the lightest breeze could take them all out. The Christmas tree was prominent, and enthusiastically adorned with tinsel. Lots of tinsel. Tinsel that would at any other time, be sufficient to use as reflective markings for the third runway at SeaTac Airport. The visual assault was unmistakable. These folks were ready for Christmas, and they were not afraid. They were prepared to ask for and receive abundance, and in the meantime  stayed steadfastly grounded in the reality of their surroundings. They inspired me. Their words triggered an unexpected mental analysis. For the rest of the day and well into the night I pondered the implication of that brief missive: Wish Big. What was my wish? Should I even be wishing for myself? How big is “Big?” Are we talking monetarily, or otherworldly? I have already been blessed with more than I deserve: a home, a healthy loving family, a job that I love, supportive friends…the list goes on. Sure, this year has had its share of ups and downs, but whose hasn’t? Where do I get off wishing for anything? But if I dared to, how ‘Big’ would I wish…?

• World Peace. Hmm besides being cliché, it’s terribly unrealistic. If I could wish for and achieve peace on any level, it would be for my teenagers. Siblings still living together are fighting factions under parental governance. Yet, there is seldom an agreeable treaty, and almost never any honoring of a cease-fire.  I need to get it local before I can go Global. Wishing for it anyway.

• A Cure. Whether cancer, AIDS, or (insert another disease or disorder here); I wish that we as humans did not have suffering. That ought to just be a  given. No pain, no agony, no hurt. With the exception of gas and hangovers; because both serve as reminders for us not to overindulge. Wishing for it anyway.

• Love. I am very fortunate to have found it with the person whom I share my life, and also with so many friends and family. It is a reassurance to me when I feel sadness or self doubt. No matter what sucky thing may happen, I know…I know…that I am loved. Not everyone experiences this. Wishing for it anyway.

As for anything else…I’ll keep an open mind…right alongside an open spot on my Big Wish List.

As for everyone else I wish you a wealth of Wishing Big!!

On Saturday, Dec. 3rd, Burien’s Seahurst Elementary School’s Math Club won several awards at the 2011 Federal Way Middle School Math Contest, hosted by the Thomas Jefferson High School Math Team.

Over 150 elementary and middle-school mathematicians from more than 10 area schools met at Thomas Jefferson High School for the competition.

After all the questions were answered and graded, Seahurst students received several awards:

• Frank Evans placed 7th among 5th-graders on the Ciphering Test, while on th e Individual Test he placed 5th in the 5th-grade division
• Ashleigh Bell came in 7th-place.
• Joemir Nocom (a 4th-grader!) came in 8th place.
• The team of Anita Chung, Michelle Lopez, Frank Evans, and Joemir Nocom placed 8th in the 5th- & 6th-grade division.

The Seahurst Math Club plans to attend many more contests in the Spring, including the Mt. Rainier Math Invitational, three ‘Math Is Cool’ regional grade-level contests, and the All-City Math Bonanza. The Seahurst Math Club will also host their Elementary Math Bonanza again next Spring – a fun, short, inexpensive contest designed to encourage Highline schools to start their own math clubs.

The Math Contest featured a Ciphering Test, consisting of 10 rounds in which individuals had four minutes to work on four problems. With a single test for grades 5-8, older students were challenged to answer all four problems in the time limit, while younger students hoped to answer one or two problems in each round. After the Ciphering Test, there was an Individual Test with forty multiple-choice problems to be solved in fifty minutes, then a Team Test on which teams of four students worked to solve twenty multiple-choice problems in thirty minutes. On each test, the top ten students in each grade 5-8 or teams in the 5th/6th or 7th/8th divisions were recognized.

If you are a parent, community member,or local business interested in helping the Seahurst Math Club in any way, please contact Tom Clymer, the Seahurst Math Club adviser, at clymer@natassessment.com.

The 2011 Toys for Tots Collection is now taking place at the Normandy Park Towne Center through December 14th, where new unwrapped toys can be dropped off daily from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.

New owner Tom O’Keefe graciously donated the space in the Towne Center for the use by the US Marines.

Towne Center is located at 19900 1st Avenue South in Normandy Park.

Contact at the donation site is US Marine Christopher Mahoney at 206-304-3043.