This year is off to a roaring start! The weather has been beautiful, the children and adults are so excited to be back, and the work is in full swing.

Along with our beginning of the year assessments to check in on where the children have grown and have yet to grow, we are giving fresh lessons and review lessons, and supporting the creative independent projects that the children are generating enthusiastically. Our classroom virtues of compassion and patience have been supporting us through it all.

The first few days of school always begin with our all-elementary community building practice of creating our MCS expectations. This year, the children chose to call this document The Scroll of Justice. There are quite a few excellent guidelines on this child-generated community agreement that is intended to support us all in creating a safe and supportive learning environment. It’s heartwarming to see the children work through this process collaboratively over the course of those few days.

The rest of September has seen us launching into pin maps of Asia and trace maps of Africa, North America, and Oceania. We have also seen castles rise, and volcanoes erupt. There are so very many mazes and comic books being created. Delightfully, our silent reading and read aloud times demonstrate how much love the children have for the written word and story. Many bead chains have been practiced, racks and tubes makes regular appearances, and the multiplication checkerboard is a regular guest on many work rugs. Tiny math fact booklets have also been seen on many work spaces. The enthusiasm for science experiments is rich and deep. Above all, the students have shown up ready for our lessons and everything the year can teach them. We are so happy to be back together and launching a beautiful school year.