Looking Back, Growing Forward

Dear Parents,

The middle-schoolers are finishing up a project called Looking Back, Growing Forward. I took the opportunity to work alongside them to remember some of the Fall highlights of 2011.

-The incredible collaboration of parents, teachers, administrators and children this summer
working together to build our school;

-The dynamic and unwavering spirit and teamwork of the CDS faculty during the first three weeks of school; unloading pods, clearing out the MAC, motivating and inspiring one another;

-The long anticipated arrival of the students filling our new space with laughter, love and learning;

-The middle-schoolers' river adventure; boats, beaches, crabs, camping and hands-on science-studying river ecosystems that feed into the Chesapeake Bay;

-Our presentation at our art opening at the Curry School highlighting a month long collaboration project, integrating writing, art and exploration;

-Grandparents/Special Friends Day; our very first Whole School Circle performance at The Jefferson Theater;

-Harvest Festival in our new downtown space -watching our school community from cubbies to middle school build memories together;

-Wednesday adventures on foot to the downtown mall; researching Charlottesville through Artists' eyes, Historians' eyes, Architects' eyes, Entrepreneurs' eyes...;

-Learning about the language and culture of China with the Worldwide Wahoos;

-Our middle school choir taping the "Christmas Idol" at a real Music Recording Studio;

-Studying the Constitution and US History through law cases in Coach Dave's class;

-Trips to local streams and rivers to investigate plant and animal life as a jumpstart to our Classification Celebration. Observing, collecting data, developing hypothesis regarding the health of the water systems;

-Studying the culture, customs and traditions of Puerto Rico in Spanish class - mastering Spanish vocabulary through weekly assessments;

- Challenging ourselves physically through kickboxing classes, walks to Meade Park, whole school soccer games and basketball games with our new hoop;

-Researching primary and secondary documents about the Starvation Period at Jamestown - comparing perspectives of three cultures - visiting Jamestown and Williamsburg;

-Being inspired by Greg Mortenson and researching and developing a whole class service learning project;

-Creating old English caroler costumes for the Winter Whole School Circle - learning to balance economic resources and recycle used items;

-Creating and achieving individual and group reading goals - generating a list of one hundred+ rich and challenging vocabulary words that we integrate into our writing and speech;

-Devouring short stories from authors including: Anne Tyler, Amy Tan, Anne Sexton etc.;

-Understanding the motivation and inspiration behind the paintings of Goya and Hopper;

-Playing and performing in the CDS Wind Ensemble;

-Challenging ourselves through intensive math studies - applying our understanding fractions, decimals, percents by developing games;

-Dreaming of incredible academic experiences to come in 2012!

Thank you for all you do to support our Middle School experience.

Warmly,
Karin