In the fall, the Lower School launches the year with a 21 Days of Kindness Challenge. With their families, students complete daily kindness prompts, ultimately becoming more kind and respectful. In fact, this emphasis on being a good community member weaves throughout the entire Lower School curriculum. At every grade level in our Lower School, students consider what it means to participate responsibly and generously in their family, school, neighborhood, city, and even planetary community. Our faculty encourages students to learn about themselves, understand others, and commit to being agents of positive change.
Each grade level adopts a unique focus in community engagement with accompanying field trips and partnerships. For example, our 2nd graders spend the year considering the health of our local watershed, monitoring its flow and removing invasive plants, in partnership with Friends of Sausal Creek. Last year our 1st grade teaching team created a new project-based learning unit on homelessness and our 5th grade team launched the inaugural “Impact Hour,” a civic-minded outgrowth of Genius Hour and the Social Justice Project. All six grades of our Lower School continue to partner with the Alameda County Community Food Bank and BOSS (Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency).
When current, real-world events impact us as a community, Lower School students, guided by their teachers, apply their power of empathy and turn toward action. After the devastating fires in Northern California, for example, students learned about first responders and wrote letters of gratitude, encouragement, and respect.
