Transcribing Student Stories
Throughout the Nursery School, teachers transcribe student stories, verbal descriptions of created art, or events that have happened in and outside of the classroom.
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Student Leadership
From Nursery to Grade 8, students engage in activities that help them say what they believe, or are wondering about, and act with confidence. At St. Patrick’s, we ask students, beginning with our youngest, to bring their voices into their work and being each and every day. We encourage them to think beyond the school walls, and we strive to have them recognize that they have a voice, a place at the table, a place in this community, and a role to play in the larger world.
Nursery School: Nursery and PK
Engaging Dramatic Play
Students engage in social play, requiring them to showcase their expressive and receptive language skills to sustain the narrative. A handful of dramatic play themes include kitchen story, post office, veterinarian office, spaceships, and baby-centered play.
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Enjoying Morning Meetings
Beginning in PK, students share in the classroom, giving the whole group abundant opportunities to express their ideas and thoughts about topics related to the current unit of study, stories that might have been interesting to them, or aspects of their life beyond the classroom.
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Lower School: Kindergarten-Grade 5
Advocating for Monarch Butterflies
After learning about the Monarch butterfly in an interdisciplinary unit, students write letters and create promotional material encouraging their peers and teachers to help save this endangered butterfly.
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Authoring How-To and All-About Books
Kindergartners write about topics in which they deem themselves experts and continue to write about them throughout the year.
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Taking the Lead in Chapel
Preparing with their teachers and the Day School Chaplain, students speak in Chapel once a year, beginning in Grade 5 and continuing into the Middle School years.
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Leading Town Hall Meetings
Taking turns as homeroom groups, Grade 3 students lead the rest of their Lower School peers in a series of Town Hall Meetings, across the year, that are focused on a variety of topics important to social-emotional and character development.
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Middle School: Grades 6-8
Playing in a Chapel Band
Several of our musicians have formed two bands that play at our weekly Chapels. On bass, guitar, violin, keyboard, and drums, many of our students spend their free time in the music room, experimenting with new instruments or honing their skills.
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Writing Social Justice Policy
To close the Grade 8 year, students pick human rights issues of importance and imagine new policies that could address them. These Capstone Projects represent the culmination of years of work toward academic excellence and greater human understanding.
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Seeking Environmental Sustainability
The Middle School Environmental Sustainability Council brings student leaders and adults together to create and implement initiatives. Primary initiatives this year include reducing food waste and finding healthier food choices.
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Writing Poetry and Prose and Sharing Visual Art
All students in Grades 6 to 8 have the opportunity to contribute to The Clover, our Middle School student literary magazine.
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Engaging Community Conversations
Initiated by our Student Leadership Council, these conversations center on topics of interest to students. This year, topics include the environment, government, racism, gun policy, LBGTQ, community policing, and immigration. Over a series of meetings, each group becomes experts on their topic and then shares what they have learned.
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Challenging Themselves with Shakespeare
Grade 6 students memorize lines and wrestle with complex and unfamiliar language and questions of ethics, as they master their parts in three William Shakespeare plays.
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