By Dr. Ellen Miller-Brown, Interim Head of School
For those of us who are still in school as adults (also known as educators), just the shifting of the light and ripening of the vegetables in gardens gets us energized for a new school year. The Compositive Primary faculty spent the week before school in day-long classes learning about Reggio Play, Multi-age Grouping, CPR/First Aid, and Culturally Linguistic, and Diverse Instructional practices as well as using previous assessment information to plan for the students about to arrive. One of the positive aspects of Compositive Primary is the ongoing appreciation for and understanding of individual student strengths and needs. Through our developing Personal Learning Portfolio, we are able to create evolving student goals, means of monitoring progress on those goals, and revising our approach to ensure even greater success.
Cognition
Compositive Primary’s curriculum and instruction are built upon the foundation of the Whole Child domains of Cognition, Character, Health and Well-Being, and Community Engagement. Every day we support our students’ intellectual functions, including problem solving and critical thinking. Literacy and numeracy are addressed as skills and processes that allow students to engage fully in all the other domains. Artistic and musical, linguistic, and visual-spatial capacities are addressed throughout students’ intentional exploration in their quarterly passion Inquiry Arc Celebration of Learning projects.
Character
Character is explicitly reflected upon throughout the school day at Compositive. Character here is seen in two ways: moral character and performance character. Students’ moral character, that which provides the foundation for personal relationships and ethical behavior, and their performance character, those qualities that are necessary for individuals to achieve at their potential such as curiosity, creativity, self-control, and motivation are not addressed through a “program” but rather child-centered activities, reflective of the students’ assets and needs. The first Inquiry Arc will be centered around Character.
Literacy lesson
Our combined 1st & 2nd grade begin their day with a literacy lesson
Morning Journaling
Our combined Preschool and Kindergarten class writes or draws in their journals each morning to start the day.
Health and Well-Being
Health and Well-Being are infused throughout students’ days through healthy behaviors and life skills. Crafting and maintaining healthy relationships, engaging in physical activities and monitoring physical health, avoiding risky behaviors and attending to their mental health are all concepts explored by Compositive students. Self-care, responsibility, accountability for one’s actions, and financial literacy are all a part of the life skill curriculum embedded in a student’s experience.
Community Engagement
Finally, Community Engagement, an opportunity to utilize all of the capacities the students have developed–the ability to Reflect and Learn, Recognize and Act, Care and Connect, and Engage and Serve–is demonstrated in a variety of activities as students embrace their abilities to lead, be a team member, and cooperate toward common goals.
Sand Creek Park
3rd graders visited Sand Creek Park throughout the school year to learn from the Sand Creek Greenway education team about local animal species and plants.
We hope as family and friends of the Compositive students, you will interact with them, ask them questions, foster their competence and confidence in the domains through the capacities and marvel at their unique growth. We look forward to hearing of the magic of their learning from you. We will share our school stories; we hope you will share the “home stories” as our students explore, expand, engage. Thank you for allowing us to nurture their minds, hearts, and bodies as students of Compositive Primary.
