Our Guiding Principles In Action
Engagement | Our Soon-To-Be New Playground
Students engaged in play is at the heart of our current Outdoor Learning Initiative with plans to install a new grades 3-8 playground in the coming months. Substantial research underlies our belief that more time outdoors improves children’s physical and mental health, as well as their social and emotional skills. Free, unstructured, self-directed play has inherent value to pre-adolescents’ development, particularly in highly functioning neurocognitive systems. In short, children and early teens benefit from being outdoors, with regular opportunities for learning and play, and such activities are essential to a country day approach to learning. We are 80% of the way to our $750,000 goal, and our faculty is eager to implement a curriculum that uses our entire campus as a laboratory for academics and play. Huge thanks to our community for their engagement in this project as donors and as volunteers. The site preparation and tree planting alone saved us $80,000. Dr. Weaver shared a fun TED video at the State of the School address for grandparents and special friends, which you can view here. Steven Johnson is a popular science writer, TV show host, TED speaker, and author of nine books including Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation and How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Changed the World. He recently released a TED short film on how play is the mother of invention rather than necessity. He says, “You’ll find the future wherever people are having the most fun.”
Integrity | On-Campus Leadership Training/Lifeschool’s Go Adventure
Last week, our upper school outdoor education partner organization, Lifeschool’s Go Adventure, held an on-campus team and relationship building and leadership training session for grades 3-8 students. Divided by grades, 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8, students met for the first of three sessions planned for the school year. We reached out to Lifeschool’s Go Adventure as a partner for this new program after students commented on how many opportunities for relationship building and leadership occur during overnight outdoor field trips. We hoped we might be able to create similar opportunities for students on campus, and even expand the opportunities to younger students, in an on-campus setting.
Relationship | NaNoWriMo: Novelist Partnerships
The National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenges authors of all ages to write a novel during the month of November and for the last several years, our seventh grade authors have answered the call, writing in every English class held during November. As he has since seventh graders got involved with NaNoWriMo, writer, producer, and director Matt Nix ‘85 helped launch the seventh grade effort with a Q & A via Skype discussing writing strategies for novels. Also, for the first time, first and third grade students collaborated as writing teams to produce NaNoWriMo novels of their own. The writing buddies developed their ideas together, which first and third graders were careful to record in their NaNovWriMo journals.
Creativity | When Academics Meet Art
Art teacher Jan LeHecka and science teacher Kristen Sorensen took advantage of a great collaboration opportunity during the 8th grade cell unit this fall. Students observed plant and human cells under microscopes and created scale model drawings in order to understand the relative size of organelles. They then enlarged and artistically interpreted their scientific drawings in art class using watercolors. Each student also wrote a reflection on the project, which you can read by clicking here (and see photos of their artwork!)
Humanities teacher Nikki Thomas and art teacher Wendy Gahagan also worked together with their 6th grade students. First, students researched an animal of their choice and wrote an ode to that animal. Then, students created a drawing of their animal, which they transferred onto a copper sheet by tracing over the drawing to make an impression and then further embossed the copper sheet on both sides using metalworking tools to create a relief. Students had the option to paint their copper reliefs to add additional contrast and detail. Click here to view a gallery of these beautiful works of art and the accompanying odes!Community | What a Zucchini! What a Harvest Fair! What a Community!
Thank you SLUGS, CDP, Tina Poles, and our wonderful community for yet another memorable Harvest Fair. While the annual fair has long been an SCDS community gathering offering fun Fall outdoor activities, it also has become an opportunity for our community to give back to the greater Sonoma County community. Proceeds from the event, along with donations left in Redwood Empire Food Bank (REFB) buckets scattered around the garden, came to an amazing donation of $2,923.60. An REFB representative accepted the donation at a November Assembly, noting that the amount would provide 5,846 meals to our community members in need.
Sonoma Country Day School
We are…
The premier, fully accredited, independent TK-8 college preparatory school in Sonoma County. Located in northern Santa Rosa and proud home of The Jackson Theater, SCDS offers a challenging academic program rich in fine and performing arts, music, world languages, and social and emotional learning. For more than thirty years SCDS has been the school that brings learning to life.
