Imagination Lab School

Yummy yummy in our tummies!

We celebrated our amazing, diverse, and talented team with a lunch from our friends

We soooo appreciate each of our learning guides, their expertise, their unique perspectives, their commitment to each individual, and their lifelong pursuit of learning.

Our entire ILS team appreciates the team . If you need an event catered, be sure to reach out to them for scrumptious goodies!

Check out what's happening at Cubberley this month!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS Exciting things are happening at Cubberley Community Center this month!

Our Annual Spring Market is one-month away!

Join us on April 13 from 11AM - 2PM by the Cubberley Community Center Amphitheatre for a wonderful selection of handcrafted goods from local makers, new and lightly used items (think “great” garage sale finds), and fun activities for the whole family!

The day will feature a live demo from Silicon Valley Karate and a performance by members of the PACO.

BTW… our friends are hosting their Open Studios program the same day (11AM - 5PM)!

Some of our local vendors include

It promises to be a day of fun, creativity, art, conversation, music, and community!

We celebrated the international day of education by hosting this year's Leadership Palo Alto Fellows for a day of conversation around the topic of Education.

Leadership Palo Alto accelerates local leaders from all sectors and backgrounds through a 10 day immersion program over an academic year. LPA Fellows gain an in-depth understanding of the full spectrum of Palo Alto life, including our local and regional economic, social and government challenges, opportunities and trends, while considering Palo Alto’s global influence and relating local challenges to those beyond our community. The program brings world-class experts for each of the program day focus areas to inform and work interactively with the Fellows and expand their knowledge of the topics beyond Palo Alto to the national and global stages.

Today's program included a morning with local educational experts, including our founding head of school. This session highlighted both the challenges and opportunities facing students, families, and educators in the public and private sectors. Mental health, whole child learning, and the future of education were our main themes.

The afternoon included a truly international panel with leaders from Argentina, Japan, and Switzerland joining us remotely. This session centered on the future of education and the role of AI in the K-12 sector and beyond. We wrapped up the day with a hands-on exploration of AI tools and an engaging conversation did highlighted examples of the deliberate and intentional use of technology has the power to accelerate, support, and revolutionize education.

A BIG thank you to our panelist, the LPA fellows, and the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce. Shut out to Ada's café with the delicious lunch!

In a crowded educational landscape, our innovative, future-focused, and relationship-based approach stands out.

We could not do the work we do with children, families, our team, and the broader community without your continued support.

THANK YOU for helping to make the ILS Promise a reality for children from diverse cultures, backgrounds, and economic circumstances.

As you consider how to best support the causes that are important to you, we invite you to join us this and beyond to help us re-imagine and re-shape the future of learning. The link to our Support ILS page is in our bio.

A BIG THANK YOU to all the vendors, volunteers, and guests who joined us for our Fall Market last weekend.

We had a fun time with arts & crafts, listening to some great music by the string quartet, and of course…. Shopping the amazing selection of locally made goods.

Check out our latest blog post: What Children Need Most From Their Adults. Spoiler Alert: It's not the latest gadget.

What children need most from their adults That's me. Suffice it to say, it was a looonng time ago. What do you notice first in this picture? The big wheel? The lack of a helmet? The cobblestone road? The tassels? That great head of hair? What I hope you notice first is that smile. That smile is full of joy, excitement, and exhilaration... p...

Find something special for yourself and your loved ones at our 4th Annual Fall Market, November 4 from 1-4PM. We have partnered with a wide variety of local artisans and makers to offer handcrafted, locally sourced goods for the whole family!

Looking for some great jewelry... you’ll be sure to sparkle here.

In the market for a knitted scarf or hand painted silk t-shirt... we've got you covered.

Hungry for some delicious, handmade chocolates... welcome to flavortown.

Is your space smelling a little funky… we’ve got the scents to set the perfect mood.

All this and much more!

Along with our handmade items, ILS will have a Buy Nothing New section that includes shoes, clothes, toys, books, and more!

Don’t forget to visit our friends at the Cubberley Artist Studio Program who will welcome the public to their studios on the same day! You can meet the Cubberley Artists, tour their working studios, see, make, talk, and collect art! Free prints for the first 200 visitors during Open Studios. Experience the incredible diversity in style from these established artists. This event is free to the public!

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Our friend Seina Wedlick joined us today to share her writing process and to read one of her book “Naming Ceremony”. Seina shared how she integrates culture, personal experience, and family traditions to create interesting characters and a story with a healthy mix of tension and structure. Naming Ceremony invites us to think about what is the story behind a person’s name while celebrating a Nigerian tradition.

After a reading and conversation around the Naming Ceremony, our learners implemented the ideas Seina shared to create their own character.

We will continue to build on Siena’s tips to refine our own stories throughout the year.

Thanks for sharing your magic with us, Seina!

We like cardboard, yes we do

We like cardboard, how about you?

We’ve hosted the Global Cardboard Challenge each of our first five years and today was another great day of creativity, imagination, and play. We had so much fun that we are planning more creativity days throughout the year, so stay tuned we will be announcing dates soon!

In the meantime, check out our friends to learn more about the and don’t forget to check out the inspiration for it all

On behalf of our entire community, I’d like to extend a BIG THANK YOU to our friends at The Learner Space, especially to Gabriel Rshaid and the contingent from Argentina 🇦🇷 and Ecuador 🇪🇨. This diverse group of educators, finance and legal folx, and community leaders spent the week exploring the themes of innovation in education and the future of learning throughout the Bay Area. They visited us on Friday morning.

Our day began with an informal coffee with ILS families and after a tour of ILS in action, we continued the conversation with our ILS team. The driving topics of our discussion were school design, relationship building, communicating with various stakeholders, culture and community, and more. Across the globe, the road forward in the education sector has many twists and turns, and we all face challenges along the way. It is always a pleasure to learn with and from others who are looking to have a positive impact in their local educational environments.

We are also very excited to have our first penpal exchange!

If you can imagine it, you can build it!

Join us for an afternoon of creativity, exploration, and fun!

Over 2 million people have participated in the Global Cardboard Challenge worldwide.

People ages 3 to 100+ are invited to bring a cardboard creation from home, create while you are here, and/or help us with our group tower challenge. This is our 5th year hosting at the Cubberley Community Center!

Our event will be held between 10:00AM - 12:00PM at the Cubberley Community Center Amphitheater, right behind the Cubberley Theatre.

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Our friend Kiana Honarmond visited our upper elementary students today to lead an Introduction to 3D Modeling workshop using Tinkercad. After a brief introduction from Kiana, the students were off and running, exploring the basics of 3D modeling by creating a variety of designs, inspired both by some of Kiana’s work and their imagination!

Kiana is an artist in residence at the Cubberley Artist Studio Program Born and raised in Iran, her work addresses issues related to her cultural identity, violation of women's rights in Iran, censorship, surveillance, and the Western perception of her SWANA identity. Derived from her interest in different materials and processes, Kiana’s interdisciplinary practice features the use of digital fabrication tools as well as traditional methods of craft.

You can learn more about Kiana’s work by following and visiting www.kianahonarmand.com

A BIG THANK YOU to Kiana for sharing a bit of her journey and her amazing art with our community!

A core component of the ILS experience is our Community Connection program. Throughout the year we interact with doers, thinkers, creators, artists, makers, and more to foster creativity, critical thinking, and curiosity.

Some of these interactions are one-day workshops or offsite excursions, while others are onsite classes that take place during the school day. This year we kicked off our Arts Wheel with our friends and

There are many ways in which chess and coding reflect our approach to learning across disciplines. Both develop the capacity to “read the room” and to “think before you act” while promoting the growth mindset of “learning from your mistakes”.

Check out our latest blog post!

www.imagination-school.org

We welcomed our friend Kay from back to remind us all of what we can do to take better care of our planet.

Kay shared a lot of great information about the 3Rs, and we had a lively discussion about we can do to have an impact at home, at school, and in our communities.

Change doesn’t happen by 100 people being perfect, it happens with everybody doing a little better each and every day.

Equity, social justice, and sustainability are core values here at ILS. The reality is, to come anywhere close to living these values on a daily basis requires us to to examine issues from multiple sides, to seek understanding, to see and hear people for who they are, to learn from our many mistakes, and ultimately to honor and celebrate the diversity that we all bring to the table.

PRIDE isn’t about one month, one event, or one movement. It’s a call to be better. It’s a call to take meaningful action. It’s a call to stand up for those who continue to be marginalized, attacked, and persecuted.

We see you.

We hear you.

We love you for who YOU are.

Another great day of outdoor learning!

A BIG THANK YOU to our friends

We always learn so much and have an amazing time with you. Sorting through the compost is always fun, and the garden tacos 🌮 are sooooo delicious!

See you next time! 👩🏻‍🌾👩🏻‍🌾🚜

“Education, if it means anything, should not take people away from the land, but instill in them even more respect for it, because educated people are in a position to understand what is being lost. The future of the planet concerns all of us, and all of us should do what we can to protect it. As I told the foresters, and the women, you don't need a diploma to plant a tree.”
—Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and author of Unbowed

Our Spring Market is right around the corner and we are excited to have so many friends joining us at the Spring Market this Saturday (April 15) from 11AM-2PM.

Our friends and good neighbors Avenidas, will offer their selection of knitted goods.

Mariya from Masha Made Magic will be offering face painting, art drawings and printed posters to raise funds for Ukraine humanitarian relief efforts.

Chocobalance will charm you with their original designs and sophisticated flavor combinations. This plant-based organic chocolate is produced and sold in support of Ukraine.

The spring spirit at our Market will be further enhanced by these beautiful handmade floral accessories and souvenirs offered in support of Ukraine war relief effort.

Handmade cloisonne enamel jewelry from the country of Georgia. Every piece is set in silver and is one of a kind.

ChocoLite offers handcrafted organic, vegan, refined sugar-free, gluten-free, soy-free, raw chocolate, truffles and candy. Their products do not use any artificial flavorings, colorings, and preservatives.

As a certified as a Shiatsu and Acupuncture Practitioner, Caroline will be offering an information booth about her practice and short massage therapy demonstrations.

Sensei Keeling and his students are going to do a karate demonstration at 11.30am. This Karate School has been around since 1998!

Palo Alto Soccer Club will provide information on its Youth Development Program and the Palo Alto Soccer Club After School Program.

Today is dedicated to recognize, support, and celebrate the amazing trans people of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, who have had a profound impact on our collective history.

We stand with trans people across the country and the globe. These folx include some of the brightest, boldest, and most creative of us.

We are humbled by their spirit and tenacity.

We are saddened and ashamed of the challenges and prejudices they face to this day.

We are grateful and appreciative for their many gifts and contributions.

Happy Nowruz to all who celebrate!

Nowruz has been celebrated by people of many different faiths for over 3000 years. Nowruz is the first day of the first month, and features in the Iranian and Persian calendars, amongst many others. It signals the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

Nowruz is celebrated by hundreds of millions of diverse communities around the world. Much like the spring holiday of other cultures, Nowruz is an eco-friendly holiday which champions unity, peace and solidarity between generations, growth, and renewal.

A BIG THANK YOU to Leila and her family for sharing this opportunity for reflection and renewal.

It was an honor to be a panelist on the SEL Providers Association’s recent conversation: SEL & Academic Integration.

There is so much good work happening across the country, indeed across the globe, and it is vital to our collective future that we continue these conversations, and that these conversations lead to actionable change in our K-12 schools, colleges, and universities.

SEL speaks to the root of the human experience and we cannot move our students, our schools, or our collective communities forward without a purposeful and deliberate approach to SEL that is aligned with what we know about child development and learning science.

How we greet students, frequent brain breaks, recess before lunch, intention setting at the start of class, teachers as coaches & facilitators, shoutouts and acknowledgements at the end of class, how we pose questions, how we give feedback, how students work with others…. These are small investments in the human experience.

We are excited to welcome children's author Ada Ari back to ILS for an interactive African Storytelling Reimagined session.
The reading includes geography and cultural lessons, African dance, and touch/feel interactions with authentic African artifacts.

Ada is on a mission to promote an awareness of and appreciation for African legacy and culture through children's books. Inspired by her own kids, Ada embarked on this initiative to spread the joy of African storytelling with children all over the world. These stories are historical artifacts that have been lost to centuries of migration from the African continent. Storytelling is a way that African elders share moral lessons with young children, and it is a treat being able to share this bit of our culture to new audiences.

You can learn more about Ada Ari, her collection of books, and some of her other appearances by visiting www.ada-ari.com

Click on the link in our profile to register or visit our website.

Happy International Women’s Day! We stand on the shoulders of giants, and we are deeply appreciative for the strength, wisdom, leadership, and sacrifice that girls and women have shared across the ages to get us to where we are today.

We also recognize that there is important work yet to be done. This is evident in our local and global news, and it comes to the surface in our schools, our workplaces, and our public interactions.

Today and every day we stand with women, we stand for equality, and we stand for justice.

We are very excited to announce that we have partnered with to host their camps at ILS during Spring Break, April 3-7, 2023.

Similar to our own values, Steve and Kate’s understands that when you trust kids, they trust themselves. They try, fail, and learn on their own. They learn to trust their own judgment, and tackle the challenges of an ever changing world with creativity and confidence.

Campers choose minute to minute from a variety of activities including, sewing, stop-motion animation, music, sports & recreation, makers crafts, bread making, and more. They’ll decide what they want to do, and for how long.

Visit their website to register and for more information.

We are excited to partner with Camp Curio to offer four weeks of hands-on, project-based exploration this summer! Each week is focused on a specific STEAM topic. Students develop skills and knowledge through collaborative activities and fun projects.

Visit camp-curio.com to learn more!

Our winter crops are growing and it’s time to turn our attention to prepping our garden spaces for the Spring. We adopted an abandoned area at the community center and are transitioning it into a biodiverse space with some hard work, creativity & love ❤️👩🏻‍🌾🧑🏽‍🌾.

We repurposed some old filing cabinets that we found by the dumpsters and are turning them into raised garden beds. We are removing some invasive plants to create space for a picnic bench, pollinator beds, and some other great additions. Stay tuned for more!

Our hearts are full of sorrow for the people of Turkey and Syria. The magnitude of the earthquake is still unknown as more and more difficult news comes each day.

Our thoughts are full of compassion and hope for all those impacted by this tragedy… the victims, the survivors, the rescue workers.

Our wish is that we each take a moment to stop during our busy lives and consider how might we each help those in crisis by taking action.

As with the war in Ukraine; these are real world challenges that continue far after the news has slipped out of the headlines. Please join us and take action in whatever way you can to support those in need.

We recommend checking out Charity Navigator, Center for Disaster Philanthropy, and Charity Watch. These organizations evaluate how effective various charities are and provide a rating based on trustworthiness and impact. Links accessible through our profile bio.

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