Board of Trustees Chair Katie Murphy: Our Many Celebrations

At Sonoma Country Day School, we take the time to celebrate our teaching and learning in various ways throughout the school year. These special days are not just exciting and fun, they are valuable opportunities to demonstrate the skills and lessons children have learned through their hard work in class. As an independent school, we are purposeful in using our flexibility to coordinate special occasions such as the ones I mention below. They allow our students to use their learning in celebration of a concept as well as enable them to share their leadership and teamwork skills with each other and children in other classes.

At Grandparents and Special Friends Day, students and their grandparent guests meet up after an all-school assembly that highlights students from many grades in individual and group presentations. They attend two classes together and engage in activities designed for each to learn more about the other. We have found that sharing what we learn is an important aspect of any education. That practice is particularly touching as our “young” and "senior" students wrap up the day with a delicious catered hot lunch in the Farrow Gymnasium.

Our first Entrepreneur Fair in December brought out the initiative and competitive drive in our K-8 students. Students designed and produced their products to sell, but also learned about marketing and reaching out to customers.

K, 1, and 8 States of Matter Festival is a cross-grade exploration of the four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Younger students and their buddies rotate through a variety of engaging learning centers together. Science couldn’t be more fun!

At our Chinese New Year celebration, our K-3 chorus displayed amazing showmanship as they welcomed the Monday Assembly audience with costumes and song. All grades wrote about their animals based on the Chinese zodiac in characters, and illustrated them as well. The West Gallery is decorated with student assignments for the occasion, which this year included a large carousel horse signifying the Year of the Horse.

100 Days and counting are the themes of the day while K-2 students spend the morning celebrating and creating. They rotate through stations offering opportunities to make Cheerios necklaces, goody bags, and books, all with the theme of 100. At home, children made their own hats, each displaying 100 of something, and brought them to school. A 100-leg monster took shape, and a string of many more than 100 blocks wound its way from the primary wing hall to the library. Many helping parents made the day very successful.

During the grades 2,3, and 7 Bubble Festival, older students are responsible for their younger buddies' whoops of amazement as they demonstrate blowing giant bubbles and dancing bubbles on dry ice. During the course of the fun, younger students reinforce classroom lessons about the science underlying bubbles and enjoy the wonders of creating something new with each attempt.

Pi Day, which we will observe on Friday, March 14 (3.14 for Pi) allows our student community to examine all things round as well as hone the fine art of memorization as they recite as many numbers of pi as they can.

The student Talent Show is a favorite every year, and it is entirely organized and orchestrated by our Comet Leadership Council. Full student support is given to all brave performers, and the level of talent is always diverse and astonishing. This Friday, March 28 event is not to be missed!

World Cultural Awareness Day offers opportunities for grade-level and mixed-grade learning as older students prepare and share lessons for younger students. Activities may incorporate English, history, service, and social and emotional learning with the goal of creating meaningful investigations of cultural experience.

If art could party, it would during our weeklong Fine Arts Fair. Instead we get to see students enjoying each others' art, older students pointing out their younger buddies' artwork to their friends, and younger students directing their parents to their buddies' art. Music abounds around school during this week, and the final fair day is topped off with a dramatic performance by our eighth grade seniors.

Field Day in June is our final formal buddy activity of the school year. Students and their buddies rotate through fun group activities (including applying sunscreen) on French Field, the Farrow Gymnasium, and outdoor areas of the campus. Yearbook signing also is a highlight.

Graduation! I will write more about graduation in May, but to me this is the greatest exercise of our school. As the culmination of nine years of education, it honors not only our eighth grade seniors and their supportive families, but also the hundreds of students who have graduated from SCDS over the years and the teachers who have shaped their lives.