Community School

Happy New Year, Community! We hope you had a fun and restful winter break. We were excited to welcome everyone back today and look forward to another great semester! 🎉

Happy Holidays from all of the students and staff at Community School! Here’s a look back at some of our favorite moments leading up to winter break, including performances by the Community Choir and 6th Grade Community Band during our annual gift assembly.

We wish you a season of joy and vitality, and we look forward to connecting more in the New Year! 🎊

Our Family Groups program encourages students to build meaningful connections across grades. Each group includes a student from each grade level (first through sixth) and a teacher, and this year’s theme is “a place where we all belong.”

Here are a few highlights from last week’s gathering. Sixth graders facilitated activities intended to build empathy and awareness around differing abilities. Each gathering reinforces bonds and allows older students to practice their leadership skills!

Calling all Community families! Our fourth graders are requesting donations for SouthSide Early Childhood Center now through December 8. This year we are collecting diapers (sizes 3-6), pull-ups (sizes 4/5T), and unscented baby wipes. Students can drop off items under the trees in our Early Childhood Center and Community Center. We appreciate your contributions!

Here is a look back at “Diary of a 4th Grader.” The play consists of monologues and vignettes and touches on a range of emotions, from a sense of belonging and love of school to struggles with changes in families and friendships. Our drama teacher, Alissa Rowan, wrote and revised the play based on surveys with past and current 4th graders, lunchtime conversations, and consultation/co-writing sessions with several faculty members including our school counselor, Taylor Mata.

The actors handled the subject matter with grace and maturity and formed deeper connections with each other in the process. Way to go, friends! 🎭

Photo credit: Brian Burkhardt

Our fifth graders are building Viking ships in woodshop! Here they are carving out the hull of the ship. In the coming weeks, they'll build out the head and tail, plus add embellishments using various hand tools.

Our first graders just completed their social studies unit on the history of Community School. Over the past three months, they’ve talked with administrators and staff, toured different parts of campus, and learned about key figures and events that have shaped the school since its founding in 1914. Here are a few highlights! 🏫

In the spring, students will explore The Hill and Delmar Loop neighborhoods. Learn more about these units and how they fit within Community's broader curriculum in a feature story published over the summer: https://tinyurl.com/CSfirstgrade

Here's a look back at our 2nd Grade Play, written and directed by Alissa Rowan. As part of their study of India, students performed two folktales that highlight the values of gratitude and kindness. The actors learned from the age-old tradition of storytelling as they focused on embodying their characters physically and vocally and practicing give and take. They also performed a song in celebration of Diwali under the direction of Meriam Dwidar. Great job, friends!

Special thanks to Dr. Sonia Cajigal for her support with costume designs and to Brian Burkhardt for taking photos.

Calling all Community School families! Our annual Book Drive ends this Friday, Nov. 17. If you have any gently-used board books, picture books, or chapter books to contribute, don't delay - donate today!

Our 5th graders are sorting and boxing donations, and they'll be given to students throughout the St. Louis area through Ready Readers and The Little Bit Foundation. We appreciate your support! 📚

We're hosting a Connect with Community event next Tuesday, November 14, at 9:15 a.m. Join us to hear from our Head of School and current students, and then take a tour while classes are in session. Learn more and register today: communityschool.com/events

We look forward to meeting you!

Third graders recently learned how to collect, analyze, and record the macroinvertebrates they found in the pond on campus. Identification of the types of organisms found, coupled with water chemical analysis, will enable students to determine the current health of the pond and allow them to make recommendations to improve it in the future!

Our first graders recently performed "Tales of Flexibility, Awareness, and Feelings," three short plays written and directed by Drama Teacher Alissa Rowan and featuring an original song by Lower Division Music Teacher Meriam Dwidar. Our School Counselor, Taylor Mata, also helped write one of the plays, "A Clear Blue Sky: A Tale of Feelings."

Students did a fantastic job focusing on becoming their characters and letting each other shine. Bravo, friends! 🎭

Photo credit: Brian Burkhardt

Happy Halloween, Community! 🎃👻

Join our team! Community School has an exciting leadership opportunity for a Lower Division Director to begin July 1, 2024. This role will offer the right individual the opportunity to provide a strategic vision, collaborative team leadership, and general oversight for Community’s faculty and students in Nursery-2nd Grade.

The Lower Division Director will report directly to the Head of School and is a member of the Senior Leadership Team. Specific areas of responsibility include student progress; faculty hiring, professional development, and retention; curriculum oversight; and budget.

View the job description and application details here: communityschool.com/about/careers

Our Nursery-First Grade students have had a spooktacular time this week during story time sessions. Here are friends in the Early Childhood Center listening to "Ghosts in the House!" by Kazuno Kohara. Madame Gardet and Ms. Mowczko took turns reading the book in French and English and frequently paused to practice French vocabulary with each group. 👻

Community School's Open House is coming up on Saturday, November 4! 📚

Stop by at 9 a.m. to hear from teachers and administrators, ask questions about the admissions process, and tour our beautiful 18-acre campus. We look forward to meeting you!

Learn more and register today: communityschool.com/events

JK families had a blast at our recent Dino Dig event! Parents buried the dinosaur bones (handmade by their kiddos!), and our young paleontologists enjoyed digging them up and working together to reassemble the complete fossils. It was a dino-mite end to the week.

Join us in congratulating Karen Birdsong as she celebrates 45 years at Community School! Ms. Birdsong is a beloved member of our kitchen staff and is known for her kindness and humor in addition to her delicious cooking.

Students and staff honored Ms. Birdsong today by making cards and posters, singing songs, and sharing memories at lunch. We also enjoyed seeing photos of Ms. Birdsong and some of her family members who've worked at Community. We are all incredibly grateful for her time and care! 🎉

Here's a look back at Many Moons Ago, two original plays presented by Senior Kindergarten. SK East performed "The Search for the Greatest Power," and SK West performed "The Race for the Zodiac," both written and directed by Drama Teacher Alissa Rowan. The actors demonstrated focus and flexibility, and they let each other shine. They also presented an original song by Lower Division Music Teacher Meriam Dwidar. We are so proud of them!

Thank you to all of the SK parents who supported this year's productions as consultants and costume designers. Also, hats off to our 6th grade volunteers who did makeup and assisted the actors. 🎭

Photo Credit: Brian Burkhardt + Geoff Story

Thank you to parent Chao Gu for teaching 4 North about the Mid-Autumn Festival this morning! The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture and commemorates the end of the autumn harvest. Celebrations include mooncake making, lantern and fireworks displays, and meals with families and friends. Students enjoyed learning about the festival and making lanterns to take home! 🎉

Students are enjoying a variety of Mini Classes this fall! We've spotted musicians, builders, artists, scientists, chefs, and more. Thank you to our instructors for providing such a wide range of offerings!

Thank you to Town&Style for featuring Community's hands-on approach to robotics and engineering in this month’s cover story! The article includes insights from Head of School Bob Cooke and science teachers Kathy Lepsky and Trisha Stanley.

Read the article, and view photos of Kathy and Trisha as they work with sixth and second graders! 🤖

townandstyle.com/steam-powered-community-school/

Story: Stephanie Wallace
Photos: Colin Miller, Strauss Peyton Photography

The 6th Grade Camping Trip is one of our favorite traditions! This year, students enjoyed a range of activities, including nature walks, stream studies, kayaking, and art projects. They learned practical skills like how to set up a tent and build a fire, and they had free time to explore, reflect, and bond with each other in this beautiful setting. Here are a few highlights!

Calling all Community alumni! We invite you to join us for breakfast and conversation on Saturday, October 7. Following breakfast, we will offer guided tours of our state-of-the-art Broughton STEAM Center.

Learn more and RSVP by September 30: tinyurl.com/CSAlumniBreakfast

We look forward to seeing you!

Our third graders have been busy learning about how insulators work. Through experimentation, they discovered that insulators trap air that buffers the temperature change between two mediums. They measured temperature change using different insulators and then designed solar ovens with the insulator of their choice. Testing their solar ovens was exciting and delicious! 🍫

What an amazing week! We are excited to announce another year of 100% participation in our annual Pledge Week campaign! Thank you to our families, Board of Trustees, administration, and faculty for making a gift or pledge to the Annual Fund. We are grateful for your support and commitment to advancing our mission! 🎉

Our Senior Kindergartners are enjoying their first semester in woodshop! Students chose either a keychain or a candlestick holder as a project and are now using a half round file as a shaping tool. The project will take months to complete, and our young woodworkers will develop patience, creativity, and problem-solving skills as their designs take shape!

Our sixth graders designed artwork for Community School's 71st Annual Book Show yesterday while enjoying views from our treehouse classroom. We look forward to seeing their work on display when families and friends gather to shop on September 19 and 20! 🎨📚

We are still looking for parent volunteers to join in the fun and sign up for shifts during the event. Stay tuned for more information via email!

Our Nursery and JK students have settled in and are enjoying center time this week! They can choose from a variety of activities that introduce and reinforce academic concepts like identifying numbers and letters and making patterns. Centers will also help students develop social skills as they take turns and get to know new friends.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the Goldy Day Pancake Breakfast on Saturday! We enjoyed catching up and celebrating the start of the school year together. Special thanks to all our parent and alumni volunteers who helped organize, set up, and cover shifts during the event! 🎉

Photo credit: Colleen Smyth, C.Smyth Photography