One of our favorite traditions at The Phoenix School is Bring Your Parent(s) to School Day! It’s a special opportunity for parents, grandparents, aunts, and other family members to step into the classroom, work alongside their children, and experience a little of what makes learning at Phoenix so unique.
This year, our day was filled with creativity, big ideas, problem-solving, and plenty of collaboration!
Learning Together, Making a Difference
For this year’s activities, each student and their family member chose one of five creative challenges. Each activity encouraged students to think beyond the classroom, explore issues they care about, and consider how they can make a positive difference in the world.
The challenges included:
- Superheroes for a Better World: Students designed a new superhero inspired by one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. They considered what their hero would look like, how they would act, and what special powers they might have to help address a global challenge. Creating stop-motion videos to bring their superheroes to life proved to be one of the most popular activities!
- Stand Up for Something You Care About: Using collage and three-dimensional materials, students created flyers advocating for something important to them. The goal was to inspire others to care about the issue and take action, too.
- Inventing Solutions: Students put on their inventor hats and created three-dimensional prototypes of new inventions designed to solve real-world problems. Their prototypes included moving parts to demonstrate how their ideas might work.
- Stories of Positive Change: Through photographs and words, students created stories highlighting something that has positively changed the world.
- Taking Action in Our Community: Students developed action plans addressing a real-world or local community problem. The goal was to create ideas that the Phoenix community could put into action and continue working on even after Parent Day.
But the creativity didn’t stop with the projects! Once their work was complete, students and their family members presented their projects to the class. It was a wonderful opportunity to practice communication, build confidence, and celebrate everyone’s hard work.
A Phoenix Tradition: Student-Created Lunch!
Another highlight of the day was one of our favorite annual traditions: student-created lunch!
Students broke into teams and designed their own menus for their lunch tables. But the planning was just the beginning. They were responsible for preparing the food, setting their tables, and cleaning up afterward. From choosing what to serve to working together in the kitchen, students took ownership of the entire experience.
The Power of Learning Together
At Phoenix, we believe learning is about more than acquiring knowledge. It’s about asking questions, exploring ideas, working through challenges, sharing our thinking, and discovering ways to contribute to the world around us.
Bring Your Parent(s) to School Day brings all of these things together. It gives families a chance to experience our hands-on, student-centered approach to learning while strengthening the relationships that make our school community so special.
Thank you to all the parents, aunts, and grandparents who joined us this year and helped make the day so memorable. We loved having you in the classroom!
