I wanted to do something special for Women’s History Month, so I contacted Natalia Ivanova, the brilliant photographic artist behind Les Origines de la Beauté (The Ethnic Origins of Beauty). Acknowledged by UNESCO, the project seeks to “contribute to the harmonization and strengthening of tolerance in inter-ethnic relations through searching for beauty in every people,” with a goal of “building “respect for the particularities of each other [and] encouraging intercultural di

Twenty-five parents and children came to school Saturday morning for our second Family Garden Day, and a very productive morning it was. With each family working in its own area of the Butterfly Garden to comply with COVID guidelines, together they planted 45 plants. And as they learned, there’s more to planting plants than digging a hole and placing a plant in it. First, explains garden teacher Adrienne Wallace, each hole is lined with a chicken-wire “gopher basket” to keep

Our fifth grade last week applied concepts they’ve been learning in math class to create beautiful bouquets for some Concord families especially hard-hit by the pandemic. The flowers were left over from a Sunday event at a Richmond elementary school sponsored by Following Francis, a program that serves children and families in low-income neighborhoods. Fifth grade teacher Terry Johnson, who helped organize the affair, brought leftover flowers bought for the event to school. H

Parent: “Time to turn off the TV.” Child: “No, I want to see the next part.” We often wish for magic solutions for challenges that present ongoing struggles, leaving us and our children feeling bad. These frustrating situations often fall into two categories, problems that occur either because we want children to stop or to start something in the time period we need. The first type occurs when children protest when we ask them to stop any of a number of activities – watching

In a popular Discover Card ad, actors say no in a variety of ways: “C’mon, now, no,” “No way,” “Uh-uh,” “Nyet!” It’s fun to see alternative ways to set a boundary with others since it’s often so difficult to do so comfortably in real life. What do we say when a friend asks us to a social engagement that we don’t want to attend or to do a favor we don’t have time for? Coming up with the right words and the right tone can be a challenge, whether you are three years old or thirt

Our fifth grade class recently created these stunning plaster mold of their own hands as part of a chemistry lesson with Mr. Joseph. Check out his description below: "Alginate is a wonderful substance made from brown algae, and you’ve probably encountered some form of it at the dentist’s office (it’s the goop used to take impressions of your teeth). Getting to play around with different materials is one of the most enjoyable aspects of 5th-grade chemistry, and alginate is alw

Expect new behaviors in spring. The same force that courses through blossoming plants and propels baby animals to explore their surroundings runs through children’s bodies. The new season brings exuberance and even restlessness for something new. Play yards feel suddenly too small. Rules and boundaries are tested. Chasing games abound. Voices are louder. Instead of worrying that children’s personalities have changed, remind yourself that it’s spring – a time of new growth. Th

Third grade teachers Scott Rose and Wendee Lipnick’s day unfolds like a well-choreographed dance, with Scott teaching in Room 12 and Wendee from home. Alternating subjects throughout the day, Scott teaches math and science and Wendee teaches reading and writing. Because they teach the class’s 12 on-campus and six distance learners at the same time, the whole third grade is learning together as a unit, something that isn’t possible in other rooms. Scott has a son who’s in our

Learning the lessons of ownership takes time and patience, and there are opportunities for new learning on this subject even into adulthood. In one of our preschool classes, some students have been exploring the idea of ownership by taking classroom items home in their pockets. It’s interesting that these young students sense that their actions aren’t something to be proud of because they don’t want to admit they’ve taken them. What a chance for adults to teach children impor

Children’s book author and illustrator Michael Slack will be our guest at the second edition of the Meher Schools Authors Lecture Series. This will be an afternoon event so children can join too. Michael has a daughter in our fourth grade class. Michael will read his new books and talk about how he created them, then he’ll lead a drawing activity for “children” of all ages. Michael’s presentation will be Saturday, February 6, beginning at 2 p.m. “Tickets” are $5 per household

“I couldn’t find the words” is a phrase we often use when our ability to speak falls short of what we want to express. Watching the inauguration, I was touched that three major participants, Joe Biden, the new president, Amanda Gorman, the first American youth poet laureate, and Brayden Harrington, a thirteen-year-old who read a passage from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, have all grown up with speech impediments. I wondered how their parents and teachers had helped the

During a normal school year, our fifth grade hosts regular music assemblies for second-through-fifth graders who want to share their talents with others. Since in-person gatherings are out of the question for now, they’ll be hosting them online, starting this Saturday, from 11 till about 11:30 a.m. After the students’ performances, there will be a singalong with Paul (“Mr. Z”) Zwicker, who taught here many years ago and has been returning ever since to play guitar and sing wi

“I CAN TELL THAT MY TWO-YEAR-OLD has the ability to focus because of the expression he gets on his face when he listens to music.” This is one mother’s way of introducing her child on a preschool application. How important it is in our modern age for parents to observe their child’s ability to concentrate and to note what activities absorb them, like losing themselves in music. It is noticing moments when children focus in one-pointed ways that allows us to increase their abi

To you, it’s moss. To your kindergartner through fifth grader, it’s a bryophyte – or it will be by the end of the week. Bryophytes are this week’s topic in Adrienne Wallace’s garden classes. In a normal year, Adrienne works with each class in person once a week for 30–45 minutes, and much of the work they do involves hands-on learning in either the Seven Circles or Butterfly garden. But because she, like other teachers, can’t move from classroom to classroom now, she teaches

On a noisy day when the teachers in my older daughter’s second grade classroom needed everyone’s attention, they made this request. “Raise your hand if you’ll promise not to talk for the next half hour.” Immediately, the students raised a silent hand, but not my daughter. Her response: “I won’t make a promise because I don’t know if I can actually keep it. I might talk.” Hearing this story from the teachers, I had a beginning glimpse of one of my daughter’s unique strengths –

More than 200,000 Bay Area residents may have heard about our first grade’s holiday toy and outerwear drive for the White Pony Express General Store. The project was featured on San Francisco news radio station KCBS. A White Pony Express volunteer informed the station about the drive, and they sent reporter Carrie Hodousek on December 22 to interview Room 10 teacher Laura White and two of her students, who came to school that day just for the interview. Laura explained, “The