What is Community? Who Are the People in my Classroom and School? What Makes Them Important in Our Community?

This was a big week for our Kindergarten Crews. They had their first Celebration of Learning on February 20 and presented their final projects about Community to more than 100 proud students, teachers, parents and family members. 

Thirty-five Polaris kindergarteners took the stage and confidently stood before a gymnasium full of members of our community. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder, in a long line that evoked the Tony-Award winning Broadway musical A Chorus Line, each of our littlest learners, with microphone in hand, introduced a person in their community and proclaimed why that person was important. On a screen above flashed images of each child’s original portrait drawing and writing. “Savannah is important because she listens.” “D’Kayla is important because she helps.” “Mrs. Ade is important because she teaches kids to read.” “Mrs. Griffin is important because she teaches math.” Mr. Oliver is important because he teaches us science.” And so on down the line. Each one was a singular sensation.

Polaris kindergarteners have been learning about our community in the classroom and at school since last October. They began by carefully reading The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown. The children used this text as a model and foundation for thinking deeply about people and their roles in our community. As part of their long-term learning expedition, our kindergartners interviewed fellow students and wrote about how individual peers are important to their classroom community. They also learned about the different roles of the people in our school community. After a lot of practice, each kindergartener interviewed a member of the Polaris staff. Afterwards, each student drew a detailed portrait of this person and wrote about how this person is important to our school community.

Kindergarten teachers Ms. Smith and Ms. Walker worked with their students and helped them understand that their first attempt at drawing or writing is just the beginning. The first attempt is never the final product. Teachers and TA’s Ms. Sanchez and Ms. Tolbert worked to help students refine their writing and drawings and learn how practice makes progress. Students also worked with Art teacher Ms. Bosch who showed them step-by-step how to draw a face, what it looks like in different positions, the sizes and shapes of different features on the face.

Parents and teachers beamed with pride at what the children accomplished. Parent Taquilla Johns, said of her daughter: “Today’s community day for Kindergarten was beautiful. Her drawing was so nice. My daughter is so excited about reading.”

Mr. McFarland, father of Savannah said: “I’m so happy to be here and the Kindergarteners did very well. I’m loving it.” Savannah’s big brother added: “I’m very glad to be here. I like the way my sister sang. It’s a real honor. The artwork is very beautiful.” Savannah happily stated: “I had fun doing this.”

Ms. Smith stated: “They did really well. I’m very proud of them. They have been working really hard, and it paid off. They composed themselves on stage pretty professionally for 5 year olds.”

Teaching Assistant Ms. Sanchez shared: “I am very proud of our Kindergartners. They worked so hard to get this accomplished: from drawing their pictures multiple times to writing their sentences. In the end it was a great, great final project. I feel they’re proud. The parents are proud. The teachers are very, very proud.”

After each child made their individual presentations to the community gathered for this inspiring Celebration of Learning, they all sang a song about the importance of friendship in our community. 

What does community and friendship sound like?

Watch our kindergarteners sing with little bird voices in this adorable video: You Can Count On Me

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