Building Community
Dear Center School Community,
Halloween, a time change, and an election? All within less than a week? Whoever designed this calendar did not have children in their life! Here at the Center School, we have been thinking about how we will hold our students during this tumultuous time since we gathered for our week of professional development back in August. Since August we have collected resources for teaching about community, elections, media literacy, and critical thinking. We’ve pondered important questions like: What are your values, and where do your values end and community needs begin? What are we doing to help kids know their values and know what to do with them?
All fall, classrooms across the school have been working to build community. Together we have made classroom rules and set norms. We have shared feelings and concerns. We have enhanced our spaces, both inside our classrooms and out in our woods spots. We laughed and cried, played and studied. We’ve learned math and science and literature and music and more! We have delighted in each other’s company and we’ve worked things out when we are angry or our feelings are hurt. We have done, and will continue to, do the hard work that builds our community.
At our last staff meeting, the Center School staff identified a need for a unifying experience this coming Wednesday. We will have made it through Halloween and the inevitable sugar crash that followed. We will have changed our clocks and begun adjusting to the early darkness that change brings. It will be the day after the election and many of the adults and kids in our school will be anxiously waiting to hear which course our country will take over the next few years. Many of the members of our community may need a little extra love and attention. So, we will put down our pencils, our books, and our toys, and circle up on the back field to play, to enjoy the sunshine and outdoors, to be together and to have our first ever Center School Field Day.
After a full-school Fun Run, we will break into groups with our buddies and start visiting the stations that have been set up around the field. Stay tuned to next week’s bulletin for Field Day highlights!
With Gratitude,
Amanda Richard
Interim Co-Head of School