Open House

The week before school starts students and their families are invited to an open house at the Lower School from 10 to noon to meet and greet their teachers, see the classrooms, and tour the school.

Back-to-School Night

In September parents are invited to come to school for an evening to learn about their children's curriculum. Parents will visit classroom spaces, meet teachers, and hear teacher presentation about what to expect from their child's upcoming school year.

Birthdays

Community Meetings

On Fridays from 2:20 to 3:00 p.m. all children and faculty attend the community meeting in the library. Singing, storytelling, skits/plays, curricular presentations, and more are shared with the entire Lower School community at this time.

Students celebrate the changing of the season.

Harvest Festival

Held in late October or early November, Harvest Festival is an opportunity to recognize the value in coming together as a community in a joyful way. There will be a bonfire and music, wonderful drums, tinkling chimes, and children’s voices rising in poetry and song. It is a celebration of autumn, the changing of the seasons, the harvest, and sharing the bounty with others. The Lower School has a food drive and delivers what they gather to the Oregon Food Bank.

Revels

This is a performance presented by the entire Lower School in which each child dances, sings, and plays an instrument. The performance is scheduled close to winter vacation. All parents and immediate family members are invited to this event in the Cabell Center.

Experiential Days

Held the week before spring break, Experiential Days lasts for four days. This is a wonderful opportunity for children to work in mixed age groups and spend time with other adults in our community to focus for four full days on a particular area of learning such as different international cultures, drama, photography, sewing, detective work, rock climbing, and much more.

Students learn how to rock clmib during Experiential Days.

Portfolio Nights

Portfolio nights are held at each grade level towards the end of the school year. Students show their parents samples of their work and learning from throughout the school year as part of their evaluation process.

Campus Day

Campus Day is held in April, on or near Earth Day. Work crews under faculty direction make various improvements around the campus such as picking up litter, spreading bark chips in the Fir Grove, washing buses, or planting flowers and trees.

Students clean the compost bins on Campus Day.

Spring Festival

Students, families, and faculty are invited to the Spring Festival on a Sunday afternoon in May. Children perform songs and dances, eat special foods, and play games.

Pet Show

Students share their pets for a brief campus visit. Every dog, cat, gerbil, bird, and frog gets an award.

Lunch Bunches

The Lower School counselor meets with groups of children for lunch. All are invited. Topics include Lego building (and discussions about power), dealing with changes (such as divorce), and student-initiated clubs such as “The Environmental Friends.”

First Grade Buddies

Seniors are partnered with first graders in the fall and enjoy a trip to the Pumpkin Patch, attend the assembly prior to winter vacation together, and make a trip to the zoo in the spring. This is a well anticipated and savored relationship across divisions.

Seniors and their first grade buddies carve pumpkins in the Fir Grove.

Yearbook

Parent volunteers work with teachers and students to put together a Lower School yearbook each spring, featuring class photos, student poetry, and artwork.

Field Day

Students participate in athletic events for an afternoon during the last week of school.

Service Learning

Each class is involved in a service learning project over the course of the school year. Projects include adopting grandparents in a retirement home, food drives, gleaning orchards to collect fruit for the Oregon Food Bank, and cleaning parks.

A student gleans corn at a local farm to donate to the Oregon Food Bank.